Education secretary Justine Greening will today plead with businesses to help develop and deliver T-Levels, as part of an overhaul of vocational education from aged 16.
Speaking to business leaders at the British Chambers of Commerce Education summit in London, Ms Greening is expected to tell the audience: “I want to create an army of skilled young people for British business. But I need your help. Government can’t do it alone.
“Because that’s what we need, never more than now. A skills revolution for Brexit Britain. That’s the real strategy on migration.
“Great companies need great people. And my department has a mission to give our young people the very best start – to become those great people.”
In March, the Treasury announced a £500m annual investment in T-Levels, to increase teaching time for 16 to 18-year-olds by a third and include up to three months of work-placements.
However, as FE Week reported at the time, T-Levels won’t start to be taught until at least September 2019 and won’t be fully-rolled out until 2022.
So the £500m annual investment will begin in 2022 and prior to that it is being phased in, with the first installment of £65m coming in April 2018, more than a year before any of the new courses are taught.
This should not be seen as additional or new funding, something the Department for Education accept, as it was first announced in the Budget in March (image below).
The DfE has today said that of the £65 million, £50 million will be “spent on high quality work placements” with the remaining £15 million used to “contribute to improvements in further education”.
But when FE Week asked for detail on how this £65m would all be spent, or who would receive the funding, the DfE were unable to say.
The DfE is desperate for help from firms to not only develop the content for the T-Levels within up to 15 vocational routes, but to also deliver the “substantial work-placements” from between one and three months (140 and 460 hours).
A key issue will be how to persuade thousands of businesses around England to offer the work-placements, something which is likely to require financial incentives.
Sufficient availability of local work-placements and travel costs could also be a major barrier for policy makers to overcome.
The DfE has already begun research into work-placements, with projects delivered by the Learning and Work Institute (see here) and The Challenge (see here).
In addition, Ms Greening will announce the current FE commissioner – Richard Atkins – will take on responsibility for sixth form colleges as well as general FE colleges.
The government first announced plans for the institutes in July 2015, then again in its post-16 skills plan in July 2016, and then announced the £170 million capital fund in January of this year.
Since then only a leaked document has provided clues, followed by a mention in the Conservative manifesto but in a move that confused many in the sector, it referred to the work of universities.
However, in response to a written parliamentary question from Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner this week, Skills Minister Anne Milton said: “As part of our Industrial Strategy, we will launch a call for proposals to establish new Institutes of Technology later this year. The number of new institutions we approve will depend on the quality and number of bids we receive.”
Former skills minister, Robert Halfon, is to stand for election to chair the House of Commons Select Committee for education, FE Week can reveal.
Mr Halfon was reelected in May to his constituency of Harlow, but returned to the backbenches in a reshuffle after just under a year as minister for apprenticeships and skills.
The role of chair of the Education Committee is only open to Conservative MPs and others thought to be canvasing support in order to run for election include Tim Loughton, Dan Poulter and Stephen McPartland.
Final nomination are due in tomorrow with the election likely to be concluded on 12 July.
Hear from Mr Halfon on why he is standing for election in the next edition of FE Week.
Hundreds of learners on loans-funded courses are facing an uncertain future after their training provider received the lowest Ofsted rating.
Health and Fitness Education Ltd, in Lancashire, received an ‘inadequate’ across the board in a report published June 27.
It delivers training in health and fitness through government-funded advanced learner loans, and had around 225 learners taking courses at level three and four at the time of its inspection last month.
The rules are fairly clear: where a private provider under contract with the Education and Skills Funding Agency is rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, the government usually terminates their contract with a three-month notice period.
But the Department for Education confirmed to FE Week that while it was aware of HFE’s report, it hadn’t made a definite decision as to whether it would withdraw funding, and would provide an update shortly.
Lee Cain, the managing director of HFE, remained upbeat – saying the advanced learner loan provision only represented a “small portion of our turnover” and the company was in “great financial shape”.
HFE recorded £499,409 shareholders’ funds in 2016, according to the company’s most up-to-date accounts with Companies House.
“As such we will not be going bust or cutting any jobs, irrespective of what action the ESFA decides to take,” Mr Cain told FE Week.
“I can’t speculate on what will happen in the future, but even if the ESFA did withdraw the funding, we’ve made a commitment to these students and we will support them until the end of their qualification.”
We’ve made a commitment to these students and we will support them until the end of their qualification
HFE’s contract amounted to £248,538 for advanced learner loans in March this year.
In previous occasions in similar circumstances, for example with the Darlington-based provider Focus Training & Development Ltd, the withdrawal of government contracts has caused providers to go bust.
Students on advance learner loans courses are then left with hefty loans debt but no qualifications to show for it as their training cannot be completed.
The HFE case follows an FE Week campaign to help students left with huge loan debts and no qualifications when their providers go bust.
We have been demanding government action on the issue since January, as part of #SaveOurAdultEducation, when we discovered cases like this for hundreds of learners at John Frank Training, Edudo Ltd and Focus Training & Development Ltd.
In April, after months of sustained pressure, the government said it would defer repayments for learners in such circumstances for one year – a partial victory in our drive for loans justice.
However, we are still campaigning on behalf of the learners for their debt to be entirely written off.
In HFE’s case, the provider has pledged to continue to deliver the training for its affected loans learners, until their qualifications are achieved, even if the government funding is pulled.
The DfE said that in circumstances where funding is pulled, it is the department’s priority to help affected learners as soon as possible.
In this week’s damning Ofsted report, inspectors said almost half of learners at HFE “do not achieve their qualifications” and of those learners who are successful, “too few” achieve their qualifications within the planned timescales.
Directors are also “not sufficiently knowledgeable” about the requirements of delivering public-funded qualifications, according to the watchdog.
Mr Cain said he was “naturally disappointed” with the outcome of the inspection and there have been some “key lessons learned” from the process.
“It was our first Ofsted inspection and this is the first time we’ve held a direct contract,” he admitted.
Two Trip Adviser-style tools for rating providers during inspections which cost Ofsted just over £90,000 to develop receive responses from just two per cent of learners on average, FE Week analysis reveals.
Learner View was launched in 2012 and cost £65,000 to create. It was designed to draw together the opinions of students about their courses to help steer provider ratings.
But FE Week has uncovered a shockingly low completion rate.
Of the 10 most recent inspections for colleges (as at June 29), less than two per cent of learners on average completed it. And for four of those 10, the completion rate was under one per cent.
Ofsted also launched Employer View in 2014. This tool cost around £26,000 to develop but this time, as the name suggests, its aim was to collate views from employers about the college they work with.
But its take-up has been just as abysmal as the learner survey.
Half of the 10 most recent college inspections had less than five employer respondents.
David Corke, director of education and skills policy for the Association of Colleges, said the surveys could be “abandoned” as a result of the poor response.
“AoC is working with Ofsted to look at this, including whether these surveys can be abandoned in favour of colleges own surveys, as they provide a much more representative sample compared to any satisfaction survey,” he said.
The Ofsted handbook makes it clear that the colleges should be sharing the surveys to both Learner View and Employer View to gain as high a completion rate as possible.
“During the initial telephone call, the lead inspector will ensure that the provider alerts all learners, employers, parents and carers about the inspection and that they may give their views by means of Learner View, Employer View and the parent/carer questionnaire,” the handbook says.
But at Telford College of Arts and Technology, for example, just 78 of its 19,500 learners used the tool – 0.4 per cent of its student population.
The highest completion rate for the learner survey was found at Carshalton College, where 97 (five per cent) of its 1,798 students took the survey.
The highest response for Employer View of the 10 most recent inspections was found at Telford College, where 32 employers filled out the survey.
But at Grimsby Institute Group, only one employer used the tool, while just two employers used it at Carshalton and St Helens College.
A spokesperson for the watchdog didn’t directly say whether Ofsted planned to continue using the tools, but did admit that the response rates to
Learner View and Employer View “have not yet reached the levels we had hoped for”.
She told FE Week that the watchdog has worked with organisations such as the National Union of Students and the Confederation of British Industry to promote the surveys, “for instance through Twitter and at their conferences and events”.
However, she said the inspectorate had “recently been reviewing how we can increase engagement with the sites”, adding that it “would be grateful if
FE Week could help us promote them, in the interests of learners and employers”.
Both surveys have outlived Ofsted’s FE and skills data dashboard, which closed last year just two years after it was launched.
The dashboard was designed to help governors and members of the public keep a check on the performance of providers.
New skills minister Anne Milton left many delegates quietly impressed – when she committed in her first major speech to the sector, at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ annual conference, to listen to feedback and concentrate on fixing problems rather than creating new ones. Here’s what she said in full:
“I’m delighted to be here today, and I’m very grateful – thanks for inviting me. I’m about 10 days into the job, I think. It’s fabulous to have an opportunity to hear from you how things are going. It’s, as I say, one of my first appearances as a minister in the Department for Education, and it’s been an interesting few weeks.
“I thought I would say a little bit about myself, so that you have some idea of what my approach might be towards this role.
“I was educated at grammar school, in Sussex, and am old enough to remember the raising of the school leaving age. I don’t think I did particularly well at school. I had excellent teachers but I was a somewhat reluctant learner. I think enjoyed the social side of school a little bit too much.
“But anyway, I went into nurse training. My father told me I would always get a job as a nurse, which he was indeed right about. And at that time, student nurses were in the workforce in the NHS. We had four week periods in school and over a three-year training you probably had about six of those. So although I wasn’t aware of it at the time, I was an apprentice.
“I’ll leave out the next few years and the story of why I ended up in politics is a long one – for another time, maybe. But I worked in the NHS for 25 years. I have four children, aged between 20 and 32. Three went to university, my youngest is still at university. And interestingly, probably the brightest of my four children decided not to go to university, sorted herself out at apprenticeship and has done very well through that route.
“I know I’m with a group of people who are passionate about skills and delivering high quality education, and I’ve long been a champion of apprenticeships and vocational training – not just in my constituency, where there are some very good examples, but more generally.
“During the general election, we had a hustings at the university, Surrey University, which is in my patch, and when I pointed out to an audience of academics and university students that we’re always talking about 50 per cent that go to university but rarely give as much attention to the 50 per cent that don’t, it didn’t necessarily go down terribly well. But it is genuinely what I believe.
We need to work together, it’s absolutely critical that we work together.
“I’m going through a form of introduction to the apprenticeship system and I’m starting to learn what all of this means. It’s one of the major themes of this year’s conference. In our manifesto we restated our promise to deliver 3 million high quality apprenticeships by 2020.
“For me, the word high quality is particularly important. And it’s a good time to reflect on some of the changes that have been made to English apprenticeships to help make this happen and the the impact that they’re having.
“We need to work together, it’s absolutely critical that we work together. So I’m keen to listen to your views and I will take some questions, but actually more importantly for me as a new minister it’s important for me to hear about your experiences as well.
“I also want to set out some of the next steps we’ll be taking on the reforms – particularly to help shape the future apprenticeship provider market.
“I know that there has been some uncertainty in recent months, including around the pause in the recent procurement for provision to those employers who do not pay the apprenticeship levy, and that for many of you this has been a bruising period.
“Government can be very frustrating at times, for me as well as for you, actually – trust me!
“But I’m here to listen and to learn, and I hope also to offer some clarity about the way forward.
“But first maybe some reflections on the apprenticeship reforms so far.
“A huge amount has been achieved in a short space of time. We launched the levy in April and introduced the new funding system in May.
“The apprenticeship service set up to support funding reforms has been successfully rolled out and is now up and running, and I understand many providers have offered valuable help in designing and testing the service. I feel that that is very important – provider input is critical.
“We introduced a new register of apprenticeship training providers, and over 2,000 providers have successfully applied – meaning employers have a genuine choice of high quality training provision for their apprentices.
“We’ve now started working on the details of the further enhancements of the service, including how levy paying employers can transfer up to 10 per cent of their funds to other employers, and how we ultimately move all employers on to the apprenticeship service so they are in control of the training they buy.
“The Institute for Apprenticeships is now up and running, already working with employers to get these high quality new apprenticeships developed and approved.
“And from next year it will also be responsible for technical education, giving young people a clear route to technical and professional jobs and careers, with the right training and experience to back that up. It is important that for young people those routes are quite clear.
“I hope you’ll be pleased – and do tell me if you’re not – to hear that today we’ve published the guidance setting out in more detail what the requirements for apprenticeship to have 20 per cent off the job training means in practice, as part of a broader programme of work to improve the quality of apprenticeships.
“I would like to thank AELP for working with us on this and putting forward some great examples of best practice from your members.
“There’s no doubt about just how much has already been achieved. It feel as if we’ve laid a solid foundation for the future but the question we continue to face is how to cement this, ensuring the stability and critically confidence in the market during this great period of change.
“As I mentioned earlier, I hope it will be helpful for me to say a little bit more about how we are taking the funding reforms forward so you can understand what this means for you. I want to set out a clear timeline for what happens between now and the point at which all employers are fully moved onto the apprenticeship system.
“You will know that we recently paused the procurement competition as it was substantially oversubscribed.
“To be completely honest, we were not confident that it could deliver the diverse market we were looking for whilst giving the sector as a whole enough stability in the short term, so we extended the contracts until September and in the mean time we have been working hard to agree a revised approach.
“And remember, this approach is just for the transitional period until all employers are on the apprenticeship service.
“I understand that while this decision to pause was broadly welcomed, it has also caused considerable uncertainty, both to some existing providers who argued that demand is exceeding available funding and for new providers who have not yet been able to enter the non-levy market.
“So as the next steps, we will be taking on the funding arrangements for non-levy paying employers. I will set out to give you all certainty, and I hope that will help you plan.
“I will be responding within the next week to providers who have made business cases to adjust the amount of funding they were awarded in the contract extensions.
“Where credible evidence has been presented, and I understand there is credible evidence, we will look to adjust the allocations.
“We will be contacting individual providers next week to let them know the outcome of this.
“Secondly, I can also confirm that we plan to bring forward the first performance management point from August to July, so that we can review current delivery and consider whether additional funding can be made available where there is clear evidence of unmet need from demand from employers.
“The Education and Skills Funding Agency will give you more details on the timing of this shortly.
“I hesitate to use the words ‘I have been given’ but I do hope that this news will be welcomed by many.
“Thirdly, I want to let you know how we are taking forward the procurement.
“In light of the unprecedented demand for the non-levy apprenticeship contracts we have looked again at whether the current procurement can give the diverse market we are looking for, while giving the sector, as a whole, enough stability as we move to a fully employer-led system.
“We have concluded that it does not, therefore we will be launching a new procurement at the end of July and cancelling the current procurement.
“We intend that the new procurement contracts will cover the period from January 2018 to April 2019, the date by which we aim to bring all employers onto the apprenticeship service.
“While the new procurement is open we will not be reopening the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers for new applications.
“We have already opened the register twice for applications so far, and think that this has given providers a good opportunity to apply and show us the quality of their provision, whilst also delivering a sufficient number of providers to bid for the invitation to tender.
“More details on the procurement process and deadlines will be finalised and online shortly before the procurement is formally launched.
“I hope these moves will give you all more certainty, in the approach we are taking to apprenticeships and wider adult education funding in the months ahead.
“Nothing is perfect, but from what I’ve heard there has been some excellent work done to put in place the apprenticeship reforms.
“No change is easy, I know well, that well-intentioned ministers and officials often step into the bear trap of unintended consequences and if there are any I’m sure you will let me know.
“However, it is now up to me and to you along with our officials to work together to make sure that we give people the very best training opportunities and a real choice for employers and apprentices themselves.”
Subsequent panel discussion:
Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers: I think that is very positive news, thank you minister.
Mark Dawe, AELP chief executive
It’s a real reflection of where we are at, which is good to see, an understanding of what’s going on and we’re all behind three million high-quality apprenticeships – 75 per cent of apprenticeships are delivered by independent training providers, and 82 per cent of them are good or better by Ofsted’s standards, so that’s really good.
I heard ‘work together’ over and over and that’s in a way all we want, we want to be able to feed in explain our concerns and at least have an understanding even if we don’t always agree so that’s really good.
The 20 per cent off-the-job – 200 of our members fed into the survey of what is good off-the-job, and again it will be good to see that, I think that’s just come our publicly so that’s great to see.
With procurement – we are where we are, we didn’t like it but I think what you have announced is the best way forward given where we are.
I’m sure there are plenty of people in the room who will be groaning because they’ve got to go through the exercise again, but given where we were it’s worth doing and I think all we would ask it to make sure it reflects the current capacity and quality of those who are currently delivering, and that’s where the stability will come in during this period of enormous change.
To hear that all employers will then get onto the apprenticeship service again that’s fantastic – a clear understanding of the contract period and then everyone will be on the service and I think that’s really good news.
But just to reiterate, the work together, that’s what we’re all very keen to do during this period, thank you very much.
Anne Milton: Just to reflect on two things. The 20 per cent off-the-job training is absolutely critical. We don’t just want 3 million apprenticeships, we want high-quality apprenticeships. And for the reputation of their brand it’s got to have that 20 per cent.
I know when I was given the speech – which I’ve altered quite substantially – I was aware that we are where we are and there would be anger and frustration that we are where we are, but we need to make sure that we don’t get to a similar place again, so it’s really important and frustrating though it is let’s get through this process and make sure that we get it right.
It is working together, it is absolutely working together. I was previously a minister in the department of health and for a minister.
You have officials in one ear and you have the sector – whatever sector it is – in the the other, and it’s really important that I hear what you feel. And it makes sure the officials are really, really dedicated to making sure it is reflected in the work that they do.
Paul Offord, deputy editor, FE Week: Mark said last week at the Festival of Skills that members are concerned that apprenticeship starts in May fell to around a quarter of what they were before the reforms kicked in – how much of a concern is that to you and can we start turning that around? Are you going to listen and turn that around?
Anne Milton: I am certainly going to listen and I’m going to take notice of what I hear, which I think is the important bit.
You’re right, there has been a fall and I would like to see that changed quite dramatically and quite quickly.
Government – irrespective of under whose political banner they sit – is often too sluggish. My feeling, ten days into the job, is that officials are determined, absolutely determined, and I am somebody who has absolutely no patience at all. I want everything done yesterday and I will only forgive not doing it yesterday if it’s in an attempt to get it right.
Chris Jefferey, non-executive director, Skills Group: Very often when minister and civil servants talk about high quality that you’ve emphasised, what they really are talking about is high level. And everybody in this room know that young people particularly need a level two and a level three to start their apprenticeship journey and their career. Can we be assured that when you use those words high quality that you are talking about every level?
Anne Milton: It’s a really important point, and for me this is a personal view. It’s not about high level, it’s about high quality. It’s why I got into trouble at my university hustings, to be honest. There are young people who will do quite well, and they will achieve high levels. What’s really critical is that we address what is sometimes a hard-to-reach group. And they need more help and more assistance because they are hard to reach – and for a variety of reasons haven’t had such a good start. So for me it is about quality, it’s not about high level.
Paul Eeles, chair, Federation of Awarding Bodies: It’s good to hear you talk about high quality, and everybody in this room would support that. Before you arrived, we heard comments around end point assessment, and there’s some real significant and challenges in EPA and quality of an apprenticeship is wrapped up in that, and I think we have – as two membership organisations representing key parts of the sector – have some real challenging concerns around EPA and we’d be really interested in working with you and understanding your thoughts on that.
Anne Milton: Yes, thank you Paul. And I think of all of it that is one of the most challenging things – end point assessment. It’s got to be good and it’s got to have a consistency about it, so that there’s an assurance around it. So yes, and as I say, I think of all the things I have heard about since coming to this role that’s probably the most difficult but I am with you 100 per cent.
Mark Dawe: I think the levels point is really important. The social mobility is so important. We’ve heard, as I mentioned earlier, the Secretary of State talking about the importance of social mobility and her journey. We’ve heard what you talked about, and your journey.
Our main concern, around the non-levy world, was that it was actually going to damage social mobility if we didn’t do something about it, so it’s really welcome what you said and I hope we can continue to have that conversation, almost monthly to make sure that we are getting things back on track to support those small providers and employers that do that in the locality.
My intention is not to come in with any new bright ideas, my intention is to make it work, so for me this is a job of delivery
Anne Milton: And yes, because they do that in the locality, it can work. That’s the point. And social mobility is a word you often hear – it’s become a little bit of a slogan. It’s got to mean something. It’s got to be real. We’ve got to actually see people moving through the social structure and actually achieving, and to do that – this is a group of young people that’s often hard to reach. It’s really important that we dig in and reach them. And although it’s obvious isn’t it – hard to reach groups are hard to reach, that’s why they’re called hard to reach, but I think we sometimes forget that. And it’s very easy to go after the low hanging fruit and the easy ones, and the hard-to-reach groups are the harder ones – they are. But we absolutely have got to have a focus on that. You need to pick people who can reach them, and smaller employers.
Reeta Chakrabarti, conference host: We’ve got a question at the back. How long have you got? About five minutes?
Anne Milton: How long do you want me?
Alex Ford, chief executive, CT Skills: You are about our third minister in 12 months and we have new ministers coming in with these new reforms, new ideas, but we end up feeling like we’re not especially important in the grand hierarchy of things.
We’ve seen in the general election how passionate people are about health, education, welfare – and that’s what we do as a sector, but we also give you productivity.
What I want to ask you is what you are you going to do to raise our profile within the Department for Education, where we are seen as second class to colleges, to universities, and what you are going to do to raise our profile with government in general to make sure the government is really really focused on making sure that we can deliver high quality apprenticeships and have got the freedom and stability to do that?
Anne Milton: It is frustrating and it’s actually been quite unusual over the last seven years to have so many changes of ministers and for that I can only apologise, because certainly my intention is not to come in with any new bright ideas, my intention is to make it work, so for me this is a job of delivery.
You mentioned health, education and welfare. It’s quite interesting, I was talking with a public health minister – as I say I spent all of my working life before going into politics in the NHS – and there is good evidence out there that suggests that you won’t need the public health interventions because better educated people have better health, so education is arguably at the core of it all.
You must contact me, if you feel you that are being excluded or left behind or not given enough priority then let me know.
I hope what I’ve said today will assure you that your profile will remain high, certainly as far as I’m concerned, within the department.
I can only give you that reassurance, you will have to judge me in six months time and also knock at my door and say you’re not giving me a high enough profile in the work that we’re doing, so that’s an invitation to you.
Laura-Jane Rawlings, chief executive, Youth Employment UK: Will the careers strategy be a priority?
Anne Milton: Absolutely. I was at school a very long time ago and careers wasn’t good thing, and I think it still isn’t that good. The opportunities that are out there are given to students in a very biased way in my view, because the schools want high GCSE grades, they want A-level grades, their parents want children to get high GCSE grades and A-level grades and go to university, and often that is the only option that is put forward.
You’re absolutely right that young people need to have a table on which they pick the right route for them. You will have to drive against the stream, because as I say, parents will want their children to go to university and it’s not always the right thought, and for children possibly who wouldn’t have even thought of university it’s a mixed, confusing world that they live in, without any clear routes where they can find out all the information that they need. So it is absolutely a priority for me, because in a way it leads everything else.
A week of extreme contrasts for FE saw the second college in two weeks scoop an ‘outstanding’ rating, while an independent learning provider was branded ‘inadequate’ in its first ever Ofsted visit.
Grimsby Institute Group* earned its grade-one report after it asked for its scheduled short inspection to be upgraded into a full one.
The college, which had 10,000 learners over the previous full contract year, received top grades in all headline fields except apprenticeships, which were considered to be ‘good’. Check out FE Week’s full analysis of its success here.
Meanwhile, Lancashire-based independent learning provider Health and Fitness Education was hit with a damning ‘inadequate’ grade across the board.
Health and Fitness Education is based in Chorley, but has training venues in Manchester, Warrington, Doncaster, York, Nottingham, Walsall, Birmingham, Dudley, Durham, Cardiff and London.
It provides training in health and fitness through government-funded advanced learner loans and had around 225 learners at the time of the inspection, mostly studying at level three with some at level four.
The scathing report from the government’s education watchdog deemed the provider inadequate in leadership and management; adult learning programmes; teaching, learning and assessment; personal development; behaviour and welfare; and outcomes for learners.
Ofsted found “almost half of learners” were not achieving their qualifications, and leaders were “too slow to recognise and respond to the poor progress”.
Arrangements for governance, self-assessment and quality improvement, and observing and improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment were all described as “weak”.
Tutors did not “gather sufficient information on learners’ starting points” and were failing to effectively “record and monitor learners’ progress”.
Ofsted also said learners were not receiving “thorough and impartial advice and guidance” about career plans or future learning and were “unaware of the risks associated with radicalisation and extremism”.
The only strength of the provider was that learners were developing “the knowledge and practical skills they need to work in the health and fitness industry”.
Nine targets for improvement were given, with the first being to “increase significantly the proportion of learners who achieve their qualifications and ensure that they do so within the planned timescales”.
The Isle of Wight College also had a somewhat disappointing outcome form Ofsted this week, as it fell from ‘outstanding’ down to ‘good’.
The Newport-based college, which is the main FE provider on the island, was still rated ‘outstanding’ for its delivery of adult learning programme ad provision for learners with high needs, but was ‘good’ in all other categories.
The report did acknowledge that “the number of young people leaving school with a grade A* to C in GCSE maths and English is significantly below the national average”, meaning “many students attending the college arrive with very low grades”.
The college also works with “a number of home-educated young people”, to give them access to courses and help them to study further.
To bounce back to a grade one, Ofsted recommended the Isle of Wight College works to “increase the proportion of 16- to 18-year-old students who achieve their maths and English qualifications or improve their GCSE grade”, ensuring “teachers promote the benefits” of these courses to students, and “improve attendance in lessons”.
The quality of “targets set by staff for students” also needed boosting, by ensuring “assessors set targets to support apprentices in improving their written skills” and “teachers set and review clear and precise targets for all students” to develop “their wider skills”.
Contrastingly, Telford College of Arts and Technology managed to drag itself out of an ‘inadequate’ rating and back to ‘requires improvement’ this week.
Its provision for learners with high needs was found to be ‘good’ and teachers were praised for promoting safeguarding and British values well.
Leaders and managers were also said to have “responded quickly to ensure that governors and staff receive timely and accurate information about the attendance and achievement of students, enabling them to secure improvements”.
Points for improving further included setting “detailed and precise” targets for students and apprentices and making sure “teachers and assessors pay close attention to promoting high standards in spelling, punctuation and grammar and the skillful use of numeracy”.
Finally, Loughborough College hung on to its ‘good’ grade in a full inspection this week, while Newbury College, Bolton Sixth Form College and East Sussex County Council Adult Education and Family Learning all remained ‘good’ in short inspections.
FE and schools rubbed shoulders at this year’s festivals of education and skills – wouldn’t it be interesting to get them talking more, asks Graham Taylor
It was great to see education and skills – schools and FE – combined in one festival this year, at the splendid location of Wellington College. The Festival of Skills ran alongside the Festival of Education, separated by nothing more than some hay bales and an iced coffee stand. Pimm’s on the lawn, anyone?!
It was great to meet primary, secondary and FE teachers to share thoughts, and there were many ideas, themes and challenges in common that would merit further integration at next year’s festival. I will explore some ideas below, but first, some of the highlights from this year.
Comedian Hugh Dennis, who opened the festival to an overflowing tent, was a knockout. His parents were teachers and his work on TV show ‘Outnumbered’ and some canny research threw up some great education and political gags. And like all the best jokes, there were truths that lay beneath. Indeed, three of them even turned up on ‘Mock the Week’ that evening!
Like all the best jokes, there were truths that lay beneath
Sadly I missed the Amanda Spielman interview and the fiery panel on student behaviour that both caused such a fuss. I used to make both days when it ran on Saturdays and Sundays – it was the best value CPD I’ve come across – but some of us have other things to do on weekends.
On the skills side, while there was lots of stuff on apprenticeships, I was still left with more questions than answers, as the system remains in a state of undress. May 2017 starts are “way down” – not a surprise when many levy payers aren’t ready for them and haven’t even tendered for the work.
As for the non-levy-paying market, the very late abandonment of the register of apprenticeship training providers process and the tiny funding allocations seem to have left the sector dazed and confused.
And there’s still uncertainly over standards and end-point assessments in some areas. Because of this, apprenticeships remain a difficult sell, despite the (almost) 100 per cent subsidy compared with 50 per cent for most other adult qualifications, or the loan option for level three and above.
These qualifications could well be crowded out if employers and learners go down the free apprenticeship route and levy-paying employers relabel their existing training to claw back some of the tax. I’m not sure how it adds to productivity – and I don’t think much of the sector is either.
In short, while much is specific to the FE sector, the prospect of more dialogue with schools is definitely an attractive one. So what might that look like?
Themes that spring to mind include panel debates on the challenges of providing useful careers advice, or whether schools fail adequately to inform pupils about FE pathways. This would be a fiery one, especially for those schools with their own sixth forms that won’t let us in to speak to their students about post-16 progression.
I’m sure there are other themes on which FE folk would love to work with schools and vice versa. How about panels where schools could grill FE people about the best vocational options for different types of pupil, sessions on how levy-paying MATs and LAs can deliver high-quality apprenticeships, cooperation on GCSEs – especially English and Maths and how we can help each other to improve outcomes?
And there’s so much to share that is relevant across the years and settings, on curriculum development, transition, motivating learners, behavioural strategies, or nudge techniques.
And finally: Mother Theresa’s hung parliament. Grammar schools are now off the agenda. Is there a better chance of maintaining learner funds? Will schools get their usual preferential treatment? Note the funding reductions for schools proposed in the Tory manifesto – seven per cent real-terms cuts over five years – were tiny compared to how FE has been decimated.
So at next year’s Festival, as Mrs Merton would say: Let’s have a heated debate and get schools and colleges working together. We have much to learn from each other.
Graham Taylor is principal and chief executive of New College Swindon
Demand for health and care apprenticeships is set to soar, yet providers seem unprepared to grasp these business opportunities, says Sally Garbett
The 2013 Cavendish Review identified significant weaknesses in induction training for 1.3 million healthcare workers delivering the bulk of hands-on care. This led to the introduction of the Care Certificate, which now forms a crucial first stage of the trailblazer health apprenticeships.
Demand for these apprenticeships is set to increase significantly, given that 23 per cent of all new jobs (that’s almost 320,000) are expected to be in health or adult care by 2022 – according to the City and Guilds Great Expectations report. But are providers ready to meet this demand?
The new health standards have been available for implementation since February 2017 and although the funding allocations to colleges and providers were lower than expected, money started thumping into levy accounts in May. So why are several of the colleges I have spoken with lately not going to be ready to deliver these health apprenticeships until September?
We need providers who can deliver what we need in the way we need it
Is it possible that problems in provider understanding might be delaying implementation of these standards?
The health apprenticeship standards are central to the new Health Education England career pathway from health care assistant to registered nurse (see the HEE report ‘Raising the bar: Shape of Caring’) and will include new nursing associate and registered nurse apprenticeships by September 2017.
The healthcare apprenticeships at levels two, three and five are part of this career pathway and the future healthcare workforce depends in part on their availability.
The apprenticeship must be delivered in the way we need, not the way the college or provider prefers. This requires a partnership with us, with the employer delivering some of the teaching and assessment and being paid for that as a subcontractor.
But provider understanding is patchy: in recent weeks in my work across England I have spoken with a provider who told me that the level three senior healthcare support worker apprenticeship took 15 months – but the standard suggests 18 to 24. I met with a college that suggested part-time apprenticeships were not allowed; another who insisted the employer could not choose the qualification they wanted in the level two healthcare support worker standard, which they can, as none is specified. One provider made no mention of the Care Certificate, a key component of the health apprenticeships.
As the vocational programmes manager for St Christopher’s Hospice, a levy-paying employer-provider, apprenticeship delivery partnerships are of paramount importance.
The primary function of St Christopher’s Hospice is of course to provide skilled, compassionate end-of-life care but we, like many other hospices, also deliver education and as charitable organisations we have a heightened responsibility to use our levy wisely. To do so, we need providers that are able to work with us.
We need providers who can deliver what we need in the way we need it. We need providers who are flexible and able to work with us to develop meaningful delivery models that include off and near-the-job learning.
We need quality approaches that cover the entire apprenticeship standard, not just the qualification within it, so that those who achieve the apprenticeship can carry out the job role it was developed to support.
St Christopher’s has an established relationship with our local college; we co-deliver apprenticeships. Our clinical staff are dual professionals – healthcare professionals with teaching and assessment qualifications, so there is no problem with due diligence or contractual arrangements.
The partnership is not without challenge but we work together to resolve problems. If our college can do this, so can many more.
Let’s start a dialogue to open channels of communication and work better together. Our future nursing workforce may depend on it.
A pair of Buddhist monks paid a visit to the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London to teach students about their religion.
Venerable Konwewe Ariyarathana and Venerable Ragama Sugathananda spoke for an hour to an audience of 70 staff and students about the Theravada Buddhist tradition, which is marked by its strict adherence to the original teachings expounded by the Buddha.
During their talk, the pair covered the history of Buddhism, their lifestyles, the robes they wear and how they serve and support their communities.
The visit came about after the college’s director, Marcia Summers, met Mr Sugathananda – who is the chief incumbent of a Sri Lankan charity run by Buddhists – on a charity trip to Sri Lanka in 2014.
“They gave a captivating and informative talk on Buddhism that gave a real insight into the religion, which sparked a lot of interest among their audience,” she said.
“It was great to see so many learners from different backgrounds and college courses attend the enrichment activity, which promoted tolerance and peace in currently challenging times.”
Following the talk, the college is now planning a visit to a Theravada temple in Chiswick, the London Buddhist Vihara, following an invitation from Mr Ariyarathana.
