MPs are to vote on controversial plans

Lib Dem ministers have said the party will approach the vote in a disciplined manner.

MPs are to vote on controversial plans to raise tuition fees in England on 9 December, ministers have confirmed.

The vote will be a critical test for the coalition, which has faced mass protests over its plan to nearly double fees to £6,000 and allow charges of up to £9,000 for some courses.

The Lib Dems have come under heavy pressure after pledging before the election not to support any fee rise.

Ministers insist the proposals are fairer than the current system.

But student leaders say the proposals - which followed the independent Browne review of student finance - will deter people from poorer backgrounds from applying to university.

The National Union of Students have said they will hold a "day of action" on Wednesday 8 December, on the eve of the Commons vote.

The deputy prime minister and Lib Dem party leader Nick Clegg has been speaking to all his MPs to try and forge an agreed position on what the party will do when the issue comes before Parliament.

Voting intentions

The Lib Dems' coalition agreement with the Conservatives allows their MPs to abstain in votes on tuition fees, reflecting the party's longstanding opposition to the charges - currently capped at £3,290.

However, a number of Lib Dem MPs - including party president Tim Farron and former leader Sir Menzies Campbell - have indicated they intend to vote against.

Business Secretary Vince Cable, who drew up the reform package, has said his "strong inclination" is to vote for the proposals.

However he has hinted he might abstain if that is what his party agrees - a position described as "outrageous" by Labour.

Student leaders have accused the Lib Dems of betraying their pre-election pledge not to raise fees and the party has been the focus of anger at protests across the country in recent weeks.

But Mr Clegg and Mr Cable have defended the proposals - which will see no upfront payments and graduates starting to repay the cost of their degrees when they earn £21,000.

They say low-earning students will contribute less than under the system the coalition inherited.

The BBC's Political Correspondent Carole Walker said Thursday's vote would be limited to whether to approve the £9,000 fee ceiling for 2012-3 and other matters would be considered in the new year - when ministers are expected to publish a white paper on the future of universities.

The Conservatives largely support the rise in fees, which they argue is needed to ensure British universities remain competitive.

However Labour has accused the government of curtailing public funding for most degree courses and passing the financial burden onto students.

Leader Ed Miliband's plan for an alternative graduate tax - where graduates would pay a percentage of their income towards the cost of their university education - has yet to win the backing of key figures such as shadow chancellor Alan Johnson. http://www.cvjobstore.com/

Education News: McDonald's to launch their own Degree

The degree for managers marks McDonald's latest move into education for its staff.

McDonald's is introducing its own degree course in business management for its restaurant bosses in the UK.

The foundation degree, which will be accredited by Manchester Metropolitan University, marks the fast-food company's latest move into education.

McDonald's apprenticeship scheme, launched 18 months ago, has been given a "good" rating by Ofsted.

Senior vice-president David Fairhurst says it challenges "snobbish" misconceptions about McDonald's staff.

"The old 'McJob' label is lazy and snobbish," he says.

The two-year foundation degree in managing business operations is a demonstration of how seriously the company takes the training of its staff, says Mr Fairhurst.

The degree is a customised version of Manchester Metropolitan University's management development programme.

It will mean that McDonald's employees will be able to get a nationally recognised qualification without leaving their jobs, he says.

It will be taught by a combination of classroom study, e-learning and training in the workplace.

"People no longer want to choose between jobs and education. They should not be parallel universes," says Mr Fairhurst.

Instead, he says there should be a model that is more like a "revolving door" - in which people can train and work at the same time.

Mr Fairhurst says the restaurant company, with 85,000 staff in the UK, wants to be a "pioneer" in educating employees.

McDonald's is set to publish a company education prospectus, which it believes is the first of its kind.

Two years ago, McDonald's was given awarding body status, allowing it to develop and award its own qualifications.

The restaurant company is also set to reveal that Ofsted will give a "good" rating to its apprenticeship programme, launched 18 months ago.

This can provide apprenticeships for 10,000 staff per year.

Such external approval is important in giving "credibility" to such in-house training, he says.

Mr Fairhurst says this isn't a philanthropic gesture, as improved skills in the workforce lead to better sales.

And he argues that the broader economy needs to provide a way for workers to keep developing skills and qualifications, particularly for those who might not have succeeded at school.

This will be a degree for managers - but McDonald's says that 90% of its restaurant managers began as crew.

The plan was backed by Richard Lambert, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), who said it was a "great illustration of how business can play its part in helping to deliver high quality vocational training".

This is the latest example of companies developing their own qualifications.

The department store Harrods set up a degree course for its staff, in conjunction with Anglia Ruskin University.

Microsoft has its own qualifications which were awarded to about 17,500 people in the UK last year.

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New education and training jobs posted

The CV and Job Store launched this week and already has seen significant interest from the education and training industry; both employers and jobseekers.  Over 5000 employers and industry jobseekers were targeted in the first few days and over the past 48 hours in excess of 100 jobseekers have registered.  New jobs are being posted daily, with a further 1000 employers being targeted next week. http://www.cvjobstore.com/

Few 'Big Society' groups in Work Programme

No councils and only five civil society organisations have been included in the Department for Work & Pensions list of 35 organisations who will be invited to bid for multi-million pound contracts through government’s flagship single Work Programme.
The DWP named the 35 preferred providers appointed to a new framework for the Work Programme, which is set to replace all the current welfare-to-work schemes. The organisations will be invited to tender for Work Programme contracts, operating over England’s nine regions as well as Scotland and Wales, to deliver jobs schemes from next summer, the DWP said.
The successful organisations include mainly large private sector providers, such as A4e, Serco, Seetec, Working Links and Reed in Partnership. But despite prime minister David Cameron’s promise that the Work Programme would provide a “Big Society solution” to worklessness, only five of the successful organisations - or 14% - are charities, voluntary groups or social enterprises.
These are environmental social enterprise BTCV, which has been chosen as a preferred bidder in the South West, the North West, Yorkshire & Humber and Wales; environmental regeneration charity Groundwork, which was chosen as a preferred bidder in the South West & Wales but failed in five other regions; the disability charity Rehab Group, which was successful in the South West and Wales but failed in bids for nine other regions; the disability charity the Shaw Trust, which was chosen as a preferred bidder in Wales but failed in seven other bids; and social enterprise the Wise Group, which was successful in it two bids for the North East and Scotland.
At the end of last month the department said that 91 organisations had submitted bids to be prime contractors in the new Work Programme.These included bids from Greenwich LBC, Dorset CC and Dudley MBC - all of which failed - meaning no councils are among the preferred bidders. Dudley, which had been selected as a prime provider in the delivery of the previous government’s Flexible New Deal, which the Work Programme will replace, could now be shut out of the delivery of welfare-to-work programmes in its area.
DWP has said the Work Programme contracts would likely be between £10-50m per year and up to seven years in length.
The low level of civil society involvement and the complete shut out of local authorities from the Work Programme comes just a week after decentralisation minister Greg Clark’s key policy advisor launched a stinging rebuke of DWP’s welfare reforms. Writing in the Guardian newspaper, Francis Davis, a fellow at the Young Foundation, said the Work Programme contracts were “so large that they in effect shut out the charitable and civic sectors from this part of the war on need and public sector reform”.
He said: “Extreme centralisation and transferring a public monopoly of work provision to private one will only stifle the most energetic at the outset, and in the process shrink the ‘big society’”.
Employment minister Chris Grayling said: “The Work Programme will be the biggest back to work scheme this country has seen, and will finally put an end to the one size fits all, Whitehall knows best approach.
“Those organisations from across the private and voluntary sectors that are on the framework being announced today will be given the freedom to use their skills and experience to do what actually works to help people off benefits and into jobs. And we’ll pay them by results – they must help people into long term sustained employment to get the full payment.”
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/erss-preferred-suppliers.pdf

Welcome to the Blog of CV Job Store.com

We are very pleased to announce not only the launch of our new recruitment service for the Education, Training and Teaching professions - CV Job Store.com, but also this new Blog.

We will keep this Blog updated with news items and information that is important to the Teaching, Further Education and Training industry sectors.