Skills Commission demands cross-departmental minister for lifelong learning

A group of key FE figures has called for a cross-departmental minister for a lifelong learning, through a new report by the Skills Commission.

It’s one of a number of recommendations made by the commission, co-chaired by former chair of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service Dame Ruth Silver, in its new report ‘Spotlight on…lifelong learning for an ageing workforce’ published this week.

Dame Ruth Silver

The report looks at how training for older workers can be incentivised, and how older people can be supported to remain working, and comes amid a growing government focus on lifelong learning.

The creation of a “joint minister for lifelong learning between the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education” would improve co-ordination and make it possible to “properly assess the impact of retraining or upskilling on the duration of a working life”.

It comes after FE Week launched its #SaveOurAdultEducation in February, which called for the government to consult on a properly co-ordinated adult education strategy.

“Older workers are affected by barriers and issues that cut across multiple government departments,” the new report said.

“If government is to encourage apprenticeships and training schemes for unemployed people who would benefit from them, departments must be more collaborative and integrative.”

The last minister to have lifelong learning within his job title was thought to be John Hayes, who was minister for FE, skills and lifelong learning from 2010 to 2012.

But current skills and apprenticeships minister Robert Halfon told FE Week in January that lifelong learning was firmly back on the government’s agenda.

The government’s industrial strategy green paper, published in January, committed to exploring “ambitious new approaches to encouraging lifelong learning”.

The DWP’s Fuller Working Lives strategy, published in February, also encouraged more older people – even those approaching traditional retirement age – to consider doing an apprenticeship to boost their employment prospects.

This year’s spring budget, unveiled by chancellor Philip Hammond on March 8, included £40 million for lifelong learning pilots “to test different approaches to help people to retrain and upskill throughout their working lives”.

Sue Pember, director of policy and external relations at Holex, said the Skills Commission’s report was “timely and important” and “should be tied into the industrial strategy”.

“As a country we need to ensure all our workforce, whatever their age, is appropriately trained and supported,” she said.

Sue Pember, HOLEX

Ms Pember described the “all age” apprenticeship programme as a “fantastic development” but added: “there are many in the workforce who will not be able to take advantage of it and it is for those we need to establish new exciting and motivating opportunities”.

The Skills Commission is made up of parliamentarians from both Houses, college principals and representatives from other sector bodies and awarding organisation. 

The report is based on the findings of an inquiry chaired by Peter Mayhew-Smith, chair of Kingston and Carshalton College.

He said: “Older workers constitute the single largest pool of untapped potential in Britain. With the challenges that lie ahead, it is crucial we build on their wealth of skills, experience and collective wisdom.” 

Other recommendations in the new report are aimed at incentivising both employers and learning providers to train more older workers.

Given the lack of financial incentives to employers to take on older apprentices – compared with younger apprentices – the report called for the Institute for Apprenticeships to work with the DWP to “consider areas and demographics where additional support to employers would encourage them to hire older apprentices”.

In addition, it said: “The Skills Funding Agency should review the costs to learning providers of supporting older workers to retrain and stay in employment” and give extra support “where appropriate”.

Another recommendation related to the lifelong learning pilots announced in the budget, and lifelong learning learning accounts.

It said the DfE and DWP should “work together to oversee pilots by Jobcentre Plus, the National Citizen’s Service and others to look into the feasibility of learning accounts and their effectiveness in directing workers towards in-demand roles”.

There was a “need to incentivise both individuals and the government to co-invest in learning, and make access to funds more straightforward,” it said.

Personal learning accounts, proposed by the Learning and Work Institute in 2016 as a “revamped but distinct version of Individual Learning Accounts” – with money saved by individual learners topped up with a “help to learn bonus” – offered the benefit of “aligning skills provision to local labour market demands”.

Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield and co-chair of the Skills Commission, said: “This report highlights the training gaps which badly need reforming for our lifelong learners.

“We can be more productive as a country and fill skills gaps if we invest in lifelong learning and returning to work support, and by making upskilling the norm at work.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “As set out in the government’s Industrial Strategy, we are committed to a skills system that drives productivity, improves social mobility and makes a success of Brexit, and the Budget provided up to £40 million to deliver that commitment.

“‎This will include considering ambitious new approaches to lifelong learning, including changes to proposals on costs, outreach and better information on availability of opportunities. There is more funding than ever before to support adult learning, up to £3.4bn by 2020‎.”

HEFCE to regulate degree apprenticeships

Degree apprenticeships will be regulated by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and not by Ofsted.

The news was revealed by the Department for Education this morning, as part of its apprenticeships accountability statement.

It comes after FE Week reported in December that Ofsted had been seeking to extend its remit to cover higher-level apprenticeships.

“HEFCE will regulate the quality of degree apprenticeships (level 6 and 7),” today’s statement said.

Meanwhile, Ofsted “will inspect the quality of apprenticeship training provision from level 2 to level 5”.

But where this overlaps – where there are “apprenticeship providers at level 4 and/or 5 where the apprenticeship standard contains a prescribed HE qualification” – the statement said “HEFCE and Ofsted will reach a judgement, informed by joint working”.

FE Week reported in December that Ofsted had been in talks with the government, as well as HEFCE and the Quality Assurance Agency which oversees all university-level provision, about giving the education watchdog a key new role.

During an exclusive webinar, Paul Joyce, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills, told FE Week’s editor Nick Linford that:  “Where I would see the gap being [for Ofsted to fill] is the apprenticeship part of the degree, so not the degree qualification delivered in a university, that we won’t be looking at.

“We do need to ensure that the other part of the apprenticeships provision, ie what happens in the employer, is looked at and that it’s quality assured. So not the degree qualification, but the wraparound apprenticeship.”

He added: “I’m certainly of the view that regardless of its level, an apprenticeship is an apprenticeship. To me, it makes perfect sense that we have one inspection regime for an apprenticeship and that inspection regime should be Ofsted across the piece.”

Today’s news prompted AELP boss Mark Dawe to reiterate his organisation’s calls for a “single inspection framework” for all apprenticeships.

“Ofsted already has the expertise and experience to be the principal arbiter of whether a provider deserves a delivery contract on quality grounds for all level apprenticeships,” he said.

Mr Dawe said that HEFCE and QAA had an “important role” to play in “continuing to approve and oversee apprenticeships where a degree qualification is embedded”, but insisted that the education watchdog “should still have the overarching responsibility to ensure both consistency and transparency”.

Today’s statement, which outlines each of the bodies involved in apprenticeships and their accountabilities, comes on the first working day of the new Institute for Apprenticeships and three days before the apprenticeship levy kicks in.

Robert Halfon, apprenticeships and skills minister, said: “I am delighted that today marks the first working day of the Institute for Apprenticeships.

“This is a key part of the jigsaw that will ensure employers get the skills their workforce needs.

“With the apprenticeship levy coming into force later this week, we are truly working together with business to invest in home-grown skills and ensuring people of all ages and all backgrounds get their foot on the ladder of opportunity.”

Sixth UTC hit with Ofsted inadequate grade

Pupils were “sold a dream” and had their “confidence and aspirations knocked” by a university technical college that has been slammed by Ofsted.

Bolton UTC received the lowest possible grade in all areas by the education watchdog in a damning report from the education watchdog, based on an inspection at the end of February.

The verdict, which has been published by Bolton UTC but not yet by Ofsted, makes it the sixth such institution to have been handed a grade four out of just 23 published inspection reports.

Pupils in years 11 and 13 – who started at the 14 to 19 institution when it opened in September 2015 – told inspectors they had been “’sold a dream’ and that they are now very disappointed with the reality”.

It said: “They say they were promised high-quality education but teaching was very poor and they made little progress.”

“Pupils have been on courses that were not appropriate for them” and consequently “the confidence and aspirations of pupils have been knocked”, the report said.

A “growing tension” throughout the UTC’s first year between the former principal, who resigned in December, and the chief executive “had a detrimental impact on the leadership of the college”.

“Staff morale is low because they lack trust in the effectiveness of the most senior leaders,” the report said.

Governors were also slammed for presiding over a “failing college”, and for failing to hold the chief executive to account in the UTC’s first year.

A vice-principal, Liam McDaid, was appointed in June 2016 and had been acting as interim headteacher since the departure of the principal, the report said.

It noted that “in the very short time he has been in post, the vice-principal has been very effective in improving teaching and pupils’ level of achievement”.

But it found that “college improvement has not been fast enough” as senior leaders “have too little time to fulfil their responsibilities”.

Safeguarding was also found to be “ineffective”.

Leaders were also criticised for giving “too little thought of the needs and abilities” of its first intake of learners.

“Many pupils were placed on unsuitable A-level courses” without the “prior understanding that would have enabled them to cope”, the report said.

Pupils in the school’s first year made “inadequate progress” because the “management and organisation of teaching, and teaching itself were inadequate”.

While pupils were making “better progress” this year “it is not good enough to mitigate the considerable weaknesses of the previous year”, the report said.

Students on 16 to 19 study programmes “underachieve in both academic and vocational courses”, and “very few” took part in “high quality external work placements”, it said.

Bill Webster, Bolton UTC’s chair of governors, said: “We fully accept the findings of the inspection and are taking significant steps to deal with the highlighted issues as quickly as possible.”

These included the appointment of two new governors to strengthen the board.

“UTC Bolton is working closely with the Regional Schools Commissioner, Department for Education, Baker Dearing Educational Trust and the University of Bolton, and they remain highly supportive,” he added.

Mr McDaid said Liam McDaid, Acting Principal at the UTC Bolton, said the UTC had taken “swift action” to address the safeguarding issue highlighted.

“The wellbeing and safety of our students is our highest priority,” he said.

“I am committed to working with governors, staff, students and parents to ensure that the UTC Bolton delivers the first class education that it has been designed for,” he added.

A spokesperson for the UTC said that its proposals to take on pupils from year 7, which FE Week reported on in October, were not being taking forward following consultation.

Charles Parker, chief executive of the Baker Dearing Trust, an organisation established to develop and promote the concept of UTCs, described Bolton’s Ofsted rating as “disappointing”.

“The issues highlighted in the report are important and need to be addressed rapidly,” he added.

FE Week reported in March that just nine out of the 20 UTCs to have been inspected to date had been rated good or outstanding – while six had been rated as ‘requires improvement’ and five had been graded ‘inadequate’.

Since then both Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC and Lincoln UTC have been graded as requires improvement.

Along with the Bolton verdict, this means that the proportion of the institutions rated good or outstanding has dropped to just 39 per cent.

Ofsted watch: ‘Requires improvement’ for K College successor

A provider that took on much of the former K College provision, following its demise, has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ – in a mixed week for the FE and skills sector.

Inspectors praised leaders at West Kent and Ashford College for being “determined in tackling the inadequacies that prevailed in the previous inspection”, in a report published March 31 and based on an inspection at the end of February that still identified much room for improvement.

It took on approximately four fifths of former K College provision in 2014, following the demise of that provider. Its previous inspection report dates from that incarnation (K College).

K College, which was formed through a merger between South Kent College and West Kent College in 2010, fell apart in 2014 after racking up huge debts. It was also rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in November 2013.

Leaders “have introduced a culture of high aspirations and accountability, and improved performance management, which has started to raise the quality of teaching, learning and assessment” but were warned that “these improvements have not yet improved the overall quality sufficiently”.

Lincoln UTC received a grade three in a report published March 27, following its first inspection in February.

But while the 14 to 19 institution was rated as ‘requires improvement’ overall, its sixth form was found to be ‘good’.

Inspectors noted: “Good teaching and strong support from their teachers mean that students achieve well and successfully move on to the next stage of their life.”

As previously reported by FE Week, loans-only provider The Beauty Academy received an inadequate rating following its first inspection in February, in a report published March 30.

Directors at the Cambridge-based provider were found to “have insufficient understanding of the requirements of delivering government-funded learning provision.”

Canterbury College and New College Stamford both went up a grade from requires improvement to good, in reports published this week.

“Highly capable” leaders at Canterbury College “directed by an inspirational principal” were found by inspectors to “have had a rapid and significantly positive impact”, in a report published March 28 and based on an inspection on February 28.

But while there had been “significant improvements to the overall quality of provision” not all areas were “reliably good”, with adult learning provision singled out as requiring improvement.

Staff at New College Stamford had been “imbued” with “a sense of optimism and purpose” leading to “rapid improvements in all provision types” thanks to the “culture of high expectation” established by senior leaders, inspectors found.

Their report, published March 27 and based on an inspection at the end of February, noted that “most learners and apprentices successfully achieve their qualifications” but that the “quality of A-level programmes is not yet good enough”.

Norwich City College retained its grade two in a report published March 31 following a full inspection carried out in early February.

While the “majority of learners” made “good progress”, provision for learners with high needs was found to be outstanding, with the result that a “very high proportion excel, and complete and achieve their qualifications”.

Retaining a grade two this week following full inspections were Long Road Sixth Form College and independent training provider Sutton and District Training Limited.

Inspectors found that teaching, learning assessment in “the large majority of subject” was to a “good standard” at Long Road SFC, in a report published March 31 but based on an inspection carried out in late January.

But while “almost all students progress on to a positive destination”, the proportion of learners on AS or A-level maths who were successful was found to be “too low”.

“Passionate” senior leaders at Sutton and District Training Limited were praised for their “tireless” work in “supporting young people to achieve their aspirations”, in a report published March 27 and based on an inspection carried out in February.

The proportion of learners achieving their qualifications was found to be “higher than in similar providers” but progress on GCSE English and maths was found to be “slow”.

Only one FE and skills provider saw their grade go down this week – London-based Capital Engineering Group Holdings Ltd, which went down from two to three in a report published March 24 but based on an inspection in early January.

Leaders were criticised for not managing subcontractors “effectively to ensure that a consistently high standard of learning is being provided”.

While “too few” adult learners achieved their qualifications on time, “a high proportion” of apprentices did so.

Six short inspections were published this week, with Myerscough College, TRN (Train) Limited, Poultec Training Limited, Devon County Council Adult and Community Learning and Coventry City Council all retaining their grade two ratings.

And a report into a monitoring visit to Cambridge UTC, published March 29, found that it was moving towards being taken out of special measures.

General FE colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
West Kent and Ashford College 28/02/17 31/03/17 3 4
Norwich City College 07/02/17 31/03/17 2 2
Canterbury College 28/02/17 28/03/17 2 3
New College Stamford 28/02/17 27/03/17 2 3
         
Sixth form colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Long Road Sixth Form College 24/01/17 31/03/17 2 2
         
Independent training providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
The Beauty Academy 27/02/17 30/03/17 4 n/a
Capital Engineering Group Holdings Ltd 10/01/17 24/03/17 3 2
Sutton and District Training Limited 21/02/17 27/03/17 2 2
         
Other (including UTC) Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Lincoln UTC 21/02/17 27/03/17 3 n/a
Cambridge UTC 02/03/17 29/03/17 M M

 

Short inspections Inspected Published
Myerscough College 01/03/17 30/03/17
TRN (Train) Limited 21/02/17 31/03/17
Poultec Training Limited 17/01/17 29/03/17
Devon County Council Adult and Community Learning 28/02/17 30/03/17
Coventry City Council 08/03/17 30/03/17

 

 

Apprentices to receive welcome card to be used with an off-the-job training calculator

Did we catch you out?

This year’s FE Week April Fool was just believable enough for some, especially as Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, got in on the act. Check it out below if you missed it first time round…. 

In an effort to monitor the controversial minimum off-the-job training requirement, providers will be required to supply apprentices with welcome cards and a reader with a 20 per cent button.

Instead of clocking into work, apprentices will be expected to insert their card, sent with the ministerial welcome letter, and hit the red ‘training’ button when they clock-off work.

FE Week understands that all the off-the-job training time figures will be made available to view via a live dashboard, at both the Department for Education and Ofsted. 

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, has tried the technology (pictured) and was impressed.

“Providers have been criticised in the past for a tick-box approach to training, so replacing a box with a button makes a lot of sense” he told FE Week.

“Also, with so many new apprenticeship providers, the ability to track training time centrally could even solve Ofsted’s concern over resourcing so many inspections.“

The Skills Funding Agency funding rules state that every apprentice must “spend at least 20 per cent of their time on off-the-job training”, so the data will also be used to identify noncompliance. 

FE Week understands the card and reader will cost around £8 per apprentice, which the SFA will charge the provider along with the cost of the certificates. 

And the new Institute for Apprenticeships, which launches today, will run award ceremonies around the country to celebrate those apprentices and employers with the highest training time percentage.

A final design for the apprentice welcome card, which it is understood will feature a picture of a ladder, was due to be unveiled on 14 March. However, a Department for Education spokesperson would only confirm that the big reveal will be “in due course”.

Skills Minister Robert Halfon meets the two Ofsted inspectors that will work in shifts to monitor the live training time

Acting Ofsted spokesperson, Flora Pilo, told FE Week: “We welcome any attempt to measure the number of hours apprentices spend receiving vital off-the-job training.

“As an organisation, we firmly support calculators and are currently exploring methods of building calculators into our hybrid robo-inspectors.”

Team UK selection for WorldSkills Abu Dhabi underway

Around 70 of the country’s top skilled young people are this week taking part in a five-day competition that will decide if they make it into the team representing the UK at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi.

The squad of apprentices and learners travelled to Manchester for WorldSkills UK’s team selection event, where competitors in 32 different skills are vying for a final place at the global competition, dubbed the ‘Olympics of skills’.

Being held across five venues– Stockport College, The Manchester College, Trafford College, Coleg Cambria, and Training 2000 – experts in each of the disciplines will decide which one of their competitors will fly to Abu Dhabi and compete against competitors from over 50 nations.

The hopefuls are completing four days’ worth of tasks which simulate those they’ll face in Abu Dhabi. On day five they’ll learn whether they’ve made it in to Team UK.

Landscape gardeners, for example, are working to the same brief that was used at WorldSkills Sao Paulo – where former competitor Matthew Beesley won silver.

For the host providers, the team selection event gives them the chance to promote their apprenticeships delivery while giving their students an insight into the high skill levels they can reach.

Lesley Davies, Trafford College principal, a host college for the selection event, urged the government to “continue to invest” in the “unmeasurable advantages” that being part of WorldSkills UK brings, amid funding pressures for the organisation.

She said: “The students who are the competitors see their aspirations rise up and begin to believe that they can develop these high level skills by being part of these competitions.

Lesley Davies

“It is also great for our other students to see. They think ‘well if they can do it then I can do it to’, so the competitors become role models for our other learners.

“Our staff also benefit. We’ve got great chefs, for example, but when they see world class chefs participating and judging here, they like to shadow them and learn from them themselves.”

She added: “There’s no doubt that with Brexit I am sure WorldSkills UK is facing financial questions about where the funding is coming from and I would urge government to see this as part of apprenticeship development and continue to invest.”

And for any principals who have not yet signed up to the competition Ms Davies urged them to get involved.

“The advantages of these competitions are so good and I encourage every principal to get involved as soon as possible.

“For us it genuinely ups our students aspirations, self worth, resilience and confidence. The benefits far outweigh any disadvantages on the difficulty in logistic you might face.”

Mike Potter, the interim principal at Stockport College, also spoke to FE Week about hosting the team selection event. He said: “As part of our apprenticeship provision we believe the key to inspiring our apprentices is by getting them involved in the work they believe in, engaging them first-hand in the opportunities that an apprenticeship can lead to.”

This week’s event follows an assessment weekend in Loughborough last month where experts, team leaders and the bosses of WorldSkills UK headed to carefully consider who in each skill is worthy of a place in Team UK.

Competitors are feeling the pressure but are all determined and focused on making it to Abu Dhabi.

Ethan Davies, aged 21, who competes in CNC Milling, said: “It would be awesome to make it to the WorldSkills. I’ve spent the past three weeks before this week training solidly, I haven’t been home much and I have just been training, but it would be absolutely amazing and I would love it.”

Team UK for WorldSkills Abu Dhabi will be announced on April 21.

The 44th WorldSkills will be held in the Adnec (Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre) — a venue that has hosted both the Emirates skills competition and the Gulf Cooperation Council regional skills competition.

The event will take place from October 14 to 19.

FE Week are proud to be the official media partner for WorldSkills UK and Team UK. FE Week will bring you all the latest developments in the lead up to WorldSkills 2017 and will be onsite in Abu Dhabi to bring rolling coverage of Team UK’s progress.

Main pic: Hugo Johnson competing in jewellery making

First inadequate Ofsted rating for loans-only provider

The first inadequate-overall Ofsted rating has been handed out to a loans-only provider, which complained it had been unaware it was subject to inspection, causing its Skills Funding Agency contract to be pulled.

The Beauty Academy was handed the lowest possible rating overall and in three headline fields in a report published today (March 30), based on an inspection carried out at the end of February.

The verdict has led to the Skills Funding Agency pulling the Cambridge-based provider’s funding – which totalled almost £1.6 million for advanced learner loans in 2016/17.

But a spokesperson for the provider told FE Week it will “see through” all 262 learners affected until the end of their studies.

The report noted that The Beauty Academy’s directors had “only very recently become aware of some of the significant improvements that are needed to improve the quality of the provision”.

But it said: “They have insufficient understanding of the requirements of delivering government-funded learning provision.”

Terry Hadley, one of the provider’s two directors, accepted the findings of the report.

But he hit out at both the SFA and Ofsted, saying he had not been told of a key rule change which meant he would be subject to inspection.

He said this rule had been introduced in September “because there was a lot of abuse of the advanced learner loans facility” and meant that loans-only providers came under Ofsted’s remit “when for three years they hadn’t been”.

A summary of changes to the FE and skills handbook, published by Ofsted in August, included “clarification that the scope of Ofsted inspection includes loans-only funded providers”.

Mr Hadley said he was “very, very unhappy” that neither the SFA nor Ofsted had told him of the rule change, and that he only found out in January when he was invited to an Ofsted webinar for new providers.

“We know there’s a big difference between what Ofsted expects and what the awarding bodies expect,” he said.

“So we started to bridge that gap but within four weeks we get an inspection,” he said.

Inspectors for the education watchdog found that leaders at The Beauty Academy were “too slow to implement effective quality improvement arrangements”.

As a result outcomes for learners were “inadequate”.

“Too few learners” made “sufficient progress”, “achieve their qualifications” or “progress into further training or employment”, the report noted.

“Too many” learners on flexible ‘long’ courses – which made up the “large majority” of the provider’s learners – “drop out of learning”, inspectors found.

In 2015/16 just “a quarter of learners achieved their qualifications and only one tenth did so in the expected timescales”, the report said.

But it did note that “learners on recently introduced ‘short’ courses make good progress and most achieve their qualification”.

Safeguarding at the provider was “ineffective and weak”, and “leaders have not fulfilled their obligations under the ‘Prevent’ duty”.

Mr Hadley confirmed that the SFA had pulled The Beauty Academy’s contract, and the provider had been taken off the Register of Training Organisations.

Loan funding accounted for about 50 per cent of their learners, Mr Hadley said, and the provider would be able to continue without it.

“The existing learners will finish their studies in July, and we’ll see all of them through,” he said.

The SFA was unable to comment ahead of publication, but an Ofsted spokesperson told FE Week: “In September 2016 we published our Further Education and Skills handbook, which made clear that loans-only funded providers would be subject to Ofsted inspection. 

“As part of our stakeholder engagement programme, in January this year we wrote to the Beauty Academy’s CEO, inviting him to an official webinar to clarify what to expect from an Ofsted inspection.”

The Skills Show 2017 dates announced

The country’s biggest skills and careers event is back and is confirmed to take place from November 16 to 18 later this year. 

WorldSkills UK made the announcement about the return of The Skills Show on its website today. 

NEC Birmingham will again host the event which will see around 70,000 visitors get the chance to engage with employers such as BAE Systems. 

They will also be able to take part in around 100 hands-on activities, including furniture design, electrical installation, car bodywork, nail art, and media make-up among others. 

The finals of the national skills competitions will as ever be at the heart of the show. 

They will run across the three days and are expected to involve over 500 apprentices and learners taking part in around 50 different skill areas ranging from stonemasonry to floristry. 

Top-scoring competitors will be recognised at an awards ceremony, hoping their efforts get them talent-spotted as a potential competitor at WorldSkills 2019 in Kazan, Russia. 

There will also be a range of inclusive skill competitions for students with physical and learning difficulties. 

Last year saw a total of 33 competitors taking part in carpentry, catering, ICT, health and social care, and media competitions. 

WorlSkills UK chief executive Neil Bentley (left) with apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon at The Skills Show 2016

The Skills Show 2016 attracted over 70,000 visitors, including Robert Halfon, who became the first skills minister in three years to attend the show. 

He said the show is the “future of our country” that will help bridge a growing skills gap with world-class apprenticeships. 

Speaking at last year’s event, Mr Halfon said: “It is incredible. This is one of the most important days in the skills calendar. 

“There is the best of Britain in this room. 

“We’ve got hundreds of companies here, the public sector, skills competitors and people demonstrating skills. This is the best of the UK – this is the future of our country right here.”

Minister slams ‘financial crisis’ college’s oversight of doomed First4Skills

A college facing “financial crisis”, which posted a 2015/16 group deficit of over £15 million, has come in for fierce ministerial criticism for poor oversight of doomed apprenticeship provider First4Skills.

The Liverpool-based company went bust earlier this month, affecting around 200 staff and around 6,500 learners, after the Skills Funding Agency pulled its contract.

That was prompted by a grade four rating from Ofsted, following an inspection carried out in February, on First4Skills which was 60 per cent owned by City of Liverpool College.

The college was recently revisited by the FE Commissioner’s team, and the findings’ warning of “financial crisis” and the £15,349 million deficit, have now been published – along with a letter reflecting on them from apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon.

In this, he said:  “Of particular concern is the college’s oversight of its majority owned independent training provider – First4Skills, where achievement rates have been below national minimum standards, and Ofsted have judged the provision ‘Inadequate’.

“This has led to the SFA taking the decision to withdraw funding from First4Skills and to seek alternative providers to support the apprentices.”

Reflecting more widely on the college’s finances, he said: “The college was re-referred for FE Commissioner intervention because of failures of financial management.

“Last year the college’s budget outturn was £8 million worse than planned, and it required £2 million exceptional funding from the SFA to continue operations.

“I understand that you accept that this represented a failure of financial controls, and that new systems have been put in place, as well as new senior financial staff. The £2 million loan has also been repaid. This is encouraging, but the college’s finances remain vulnerable.”

The college, which has five main campuses – all located in the Liverpool City Council Local Authority area – had an initial FE Commissioner intervention in December 2013 following an inadequate Ofsted inspection and an SFA  assessment of 2012/13 financial health as ‘inadequate’.

It exited this in November 2014, following an improved Ofsted judgement (‘requires improvement’) in April 2014, and improved financial performance (‘satisfactory’) in 2013/14.

But it was referred back for another FE Commissioner intervention after the college informed the SFA last January that it needed £2 million exceptional financial support to cover working capital requirements, prompting a further notice of concern in February.

Stocktake assessments were carried out by the FE Commissioner and two advisers in November 2016 and February 2017.

The latest FE Commissioner report summary said of this: “During the November stocktake the team were concerned about some of the college board’s responses to the 2015/16 financial crisis.”

It pointed out: “The group’s annual audited accounts for 2015/16 show a total deficit for the year of £15,349 million. The college budgeted for a group breakeven position before taxation.”

Ofsted inspectors blasted leaders at First4Skills, in the recent damning Ofsted report, for failing to “tackle the significant weaknesses identified at the previous inspection”, with the result that “outcomes for learners and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment have declined further and are now inadequate”.

“Strategic priorities focus disproportionately on maximising the company’s income at the expense of providing high standards of education and training for learners,” it said.

Trainers’ targets “focus on recruiting more learners and increasing their caseload, and not on the aspects of training and assessment that they need to improve,” it continued.

City of Liverpool College decline to comment on the minister’s letter or FE Commissioner’s findings.