Tour of South Devon College
To visit South Devon College is to wish that you could go there yourself. It has a wow factor that extends far beyond the entrance hall and the stunning atrium. There is an atmosphere of warmth and engagement in every room; small wonder that Ofsted awarded it ‘outstanding’ in every category.
I spent an afternoon with the Principal, Stephen Criddle, to hear what politicians should be delivering to help exceptional places like South Devon College.
As with all schools, the main issues are around unnecessarily bureaucratic funding arrangements and the difficulty schools and colleges face in trying to make long term plans. The situation is only set to get more complicated once the Learning Skills Council is replaced by the Young Peoples’ Learning Agency, the Skills Funding Agency and the National Apprenticeship Agency. A single funding body would be much simpler to deal with and greater fairness is needed in the allocation of funding for students from Devon, which is below that for many other areas of the UK.
Capital funding has been another difficult issue; two years down the line and £1.5 million spent developing Phase 2 to expand facilities at South Devon College, only to find that the grants have been axed and the college left to pick up the bill. Not one of the promised capital grants came to colleges in the South West.
Other items on the wish list for South Devon College would be improved learner choice, with better access to impartial advice for year 11 pupils before they make decisions about their future education. There is real concern at the numbers of pupils who become disillusioned with conventional A-level courses and drop out of education altogether. South Devon seeks to re engage young people not in education or employment using a range of strategies. The college has been looking at the barriers to taking up education and sees tackling transport as a crucial issue. Whilst some students may be eligible for free travel, this is often restricted to a single supplier, which may not allow students to travel at the most convenient time. The cost of bus travel is a great barrier to learning for many and perhaps it is time to look at sharing subsidies more fairly between pensioners and students. Safe cycling routes around the Bay might also encourage many to use a bike to commute to college.
So the take home messages for me were to try to push for simplified and fairer funding, improved access to transport and transport links and increased learner choice. Capital grants that deliver what they promise and a VAT exemption would be the icing on the cake.
