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CHELSEA COMPLETES FA PREMIERSHIP LINE UP An interesting new Government programme that uses sport to improve young people’s literacy, numeracy and computer skills is celebrating its 5th anniversary with the news that Premier League club Chelsea is one of the latest football clubs to join the programme. Chelsea’s decision to join the Playing for Success scheme means that every FA Premiership football club is now involved in helping to raise standards among pupils by holding lessons in their sports grounds to stimulate youngsters’ interest to learn. Research shows that participation in Playing for Success can fast-track primary pupils’ numeric skills by up to 17 months on their starting level, and secondary pupils’ by two years. Reading comprehension can also be increased by up to eight months and gains made by underachieving pupils brings their attainment much closer to the level expected for their age group. Education and Skills Secretary Charles Clarke has announced that recently-promoted Plymouth Argyle and Chelsea have signed up to the initiative, taking the total number of clubs involved up to 103. This means that the Government is way ahead of its target of getting 100 clubs involved in the initiative by 2006. A number of sports stars including Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger have supported the initiative. After five years, Playing for Success has enlisted 103 sports clubs from a range of sports including football, rugby and cricket, and helped more than 100,000 pupils do better at school. Playing for Success centres are based in or near sports grounds. Pupils make practical use of learning there, for example by measuring the pitch or calculating the capacity of the stadium. Their activities include answering questions based on the sport, interviewing players, and writing features for a club’s matchday programme. Speaking at a reception in the House of Commons to celebrate the scheme, Mr Clarke said “I am delighted that every FA Premier League club is now part of Playing for Success, which is going from strength to strength and making a real impact on children’s education. Sport is a great way to engage pupils in lessons, and Playing for Success has proved to be extremely popular with pupils, schools and sports clubs.” The IEE, UK power networking companies, the universities of Strathclyde, UMIST and Southampton and Energy & Utility Skills have formed the Power Academy in response to the growing shortage of qualified power engineers in the UK. The Academy aims to attract more students to power engineering courses with an attractive mix of financial incentives, technical training and business education. The Academy will promote the opportunities to be gained from a career in the power industry. The Electricity Industry Review estimates that, since privatisation in 1989/90, the number of people employed in the industry has decreased by 62 per cent. In 2003, there were just 50 applicants for power engineering degree courses in the UK, only one quarter of what the industry requires annually. Compounding the problem is the need for qualified power engineers to design and maintain the smaller, localised generation sources, which is part of the Government’s renewable energy policy. Why is there a shortage?The shortage of power engineers within the industry is attributed to a combination of factors: · Overall reduction of personnel since privatisation; · Low level of recruitment over the same period; · Increasing numbers of engineers retiring over the next 5-10 years; · Greater need due to changing network requirements. Privatisation of the electricity industry in 1989 resulted in an inevitable loss of skilled engineering personnel as companies slimmed down in line with their new commercial focus. Redundancies and low recruitment over a sustained period have resulted in power engineering courses at degree level becoming less attractive to potential students than other options. RetirementMany power engineers who joined the industry in the 1960s and 1970s are due to retire over the next 5-10 years. The IEE estimates that this could be as high as 25% of the industry’s engineers, representing a large proportion of the industry’s existing management and technical positions. Network ChangesGovernment policy is increasingly focused on distributed generation and adopting renewable sources of energy such as hydro-electricity, wind power and the use of CHP (combined heat and power) projects. Distributed generation is fundamentally changing the nature of Britain’s electricity network creating new and different challenges for the network businesses. Now there is a growing need for engineers with greater technical understanding of the interaction between individual plants and the increasingly sophisticated system. There is also the challenge of managing an increased investment programme to upgrade ageing assets. In its first year, the Power Academy will recruit around 40 undergraduates, rising up to 60 students in a year’s time, who will be sponsored throughout their course by the Power Academy, which is funded by the distribution companies. Benefits will include tuition fees being paid, a £2000 bursary, £250 to spend on course materials, vacation training, IEE student membership and a summer school in core business issues designed to enhance student’s career prospects. Students will also be offered industrial placement and vacation experience. The launch of AFAQ UK is on 16 June at the HMS Belfast which is berthed on the River Thames near London Bridge Station. It is not too late to come, although final numbers must be confirmed before Friday 11th June. Click here for the programme. Contact Tyla Davis on 020 7922 1630 or tyla.davis@afaq-eta.com if you are interested in attending.
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