Ofsted watch: Another UTC hit with poor grade

A university technical college in Middlesex received a grade three in its first ever Ofsted inspection, spelling even more problems for the 14 to 19 institutions, in a week that saw a sixth form college rated ‘outstanding’.

Inspectors cited “historically low attendance” at Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC as well as “poor” student attitudes towards being at the UTC, in an inspection report published March 22.

The report said parents and pupils reported to inspectors that they feel “let down by promises made by this UTC not being fulfilled”.

It added: “A legacy of challenges, including in staff recruitment and financial constraints, has been a significant challenge to overcome.”

Heathrow UTC has just 205 students on roll, with a capacity of 600.

The ‘requires improvement’ outcome adds to troubles for the UTC model.

FE Week revealed earlier this month that less than half of the university technical colleges visited by Ofsted have received ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ grades.

The education watchdog has now visited a total of 21 UTCs, but only nine of these, or 42 per cent, were judged to be good enough for higher grades.

St John Rigby RC Sixth Form College in Wigan on the other hand received an ‘outstanding’ grade from Ofsted, in an inspection report published March 21.

The previously grade two 1,300-learner SFC’s principal and leadership team have “worked relentlessly to ensure transformational change since the last inspection”, inspectors said.

They added: “Excellent teaching results in a high proportion of students making exceptional progress from their starting points. Consequently, most students achieve, and often exceed, their aspirational target grades.”

The damning Ofsted report that caused the downfall of huge apprenticeship training provider First4Skills was also published this week.

The Liverpool-based provider went bust earlier this month, affecting around 200 staff and around 6,500 learners, after the Skills Funding Agency pulled its contract following a grade four rating from the education watchdog.

Inspectors blasted leaders at the provider 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.

Meanwhile another private provider, System Group Limited who delivers training nationally, went up from a grade three to a grade two.

The 2,100-learner provider was graded ‘good’ across the board, with inspectors highlighting the provider’s apprenticeship delivery.

“All apprentices benefit from the very regular contact, one-to-one coaching and support they receive from their trainer/assessors,” inspectors said. “Apprentices and learners have extremely good knowledge of safe working practices which they apply correctly.”

Vision West Nottinghamshire College kept its grade two in a report published March 21.

Inspectors said senior leaders have put the college “at the heart of the local community, enabling it to raise aspirations and support the area’s cultural and economic regeneration.”

But they added too few learners on classroom-based programmes achieve their qualifications in English and mathematics or “improve their skills sufficiently”.

Tameside College kept its grade three in a report published March 21.

To improve inspectors said the colleges needs to “increase significantly the proportion of apprentices who achieve their apprenticeship and who complete within the planned timescale”.

Epping Forest College had its first monitoring visit since being rated ‘inadequate’ on January 6.

Ofsted said the college was making good progress since the grade four.

Two short inspection reports were also published this week.

South West Regional Assessment Centre Limited, an employer provider, was found to continue as ‘good’ since a grade two in June 2013.

Staffordshire County Council also continues to be ‘good’ since a grade two November 2012.

 

GFE Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Tameside College 14/02/2017 21/03/2017 3 3
Vision West Nottinghamshire College 07/02/2017 21/03/2017 2 2
Epping Forest College 26/01/2017 17/03/2017 M M

 

Sixth Form Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
St John Rigby RC Sixth Form College 14/02/2017 21/03/2017 1 2

 

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
System Group Limited 20/02/2017 24/03/2017 2 3
FIRST4SKILLS Limited 07/02/2017 20/03/2017 4 3

 

Other (including UTCs) Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC 21/02/2017 22/03/2017 3 –

 

Short inspections (remains grade 2) Inspected Published
South West Regional Assessment Centre Ltd 23/02/2017 20/03/2017
Staffordshire County Council 27/02/2017 20/03/2017

Gordon Marsden lays out Labour’s FE policy objectives

Labour would establish an official pre-apprenticeship programme, and support apprenticeships for care leavers, veterans and people with disabilities, according to the shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden.

During his speech at the Annual Apprenticeships Conference, Mr Marsden made clear his support for technical education, and hit out at “the lack of adequate resources” the government is putting into the new Institute for Apprenticeships.

In all, he made new five policy objectives from the state, committing his party to:

 

1.Targets to increase apprenticeships for people with disabilities, care leavers and for veterans.

 

2. A system of traineeships to work as “an official pre-apprenticeship programme”.

 

3. “Specific support” to cover apprentices’ travel costs, which he said currently run to an average of £24 a week – a quarter of their earnings if they’re on the minimum wage.

 

4. Devolving apprenticeship funding to local combined authorities or metro mayor regions provided they have a strategy to achieve it

 

5. Incentives for large employers to “overtrain apprentices to fill skills gaps in the supply chain and the wider sector”, perhaps including subsidising the administrative costs of that training.

 
He said that the Local Government Authority is afraid the levy would cost them up to £207 million every year, and wants the money it will raise to pool it locally so councils can “create apprenticeships to fill local skills gaps and meet local employers’ needed”.

Mr Marsden also talked about the impending threat posed by Brexit to technical workers, pointing to a skills shortage in the construction industry, which he says is at risk of losing 200,000 jobs.

“We need not only to scale up areas of traditional apprenticeships in manufacturing and industry, but also grasp the potential for great expansion, including for high-quality apprenticeships in the service sector,” he said.

“There are growing demands in social care, leisure, and visitor services, as well as digital and creative industries, and we must do everything we can to meet these. Increased automation is changing the world of work and jobs. That is why the service sector will be so crucial.”

He also took a moment to pay tribute from the stage to the victims of the attack in London on Wednesday in which four people died. He only made the decision to travel to Birmingham at the last minute, and extended apologies from his ministerial counterpart Robert Halfon, whom he said had been disappointed not to come.

Apprenticeship providers warned not to sacrifice quality

The “new apprenticeship system is the eBay of education” and “will drive down quality”,  the boss of the Association of Employment and Learning providers told delegates at FE Week’s third Annual Apprenticeships Conference.

There were further strong words from the Department for Education’s director of apprenticeships David Hill, who told providers not to “do a deal at a price you can’t deliver quality for”, setting the tone for a conference at which no punches were pulled.

FE Week’s third AAC kicked off on March 22, with a warm welcome from the BBC’s Kirsty Wark to a packed exhibition hall at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham.

Ms Wark, host for the full three days of the conference, set the scene for delegates and looked back on the first ever FE Week ACC in 2015, which she also presented.

FE Week editor Nick Linford followed her onto the stage to walk the audience through the results of a pre-conference questionnaire, designed to gauge delegates’ feelings about the government’s reforms just over a month before the long-awaited launch of the apprenticeship levy.

It’s up to you to work together to ensure high quality is maintained

Mr Linford raised the issue of quality – which would become a particular theme of the conference – showing the audience the slide pictured.
Delegates were most concerned that the quality of apprenticeships would suffer in the government’s effort to increase quantity.

The results revealed that major concerns about apprenticeship quality persist in the sector, with 87 per cent saying they were very or a little concerned at last year’s conference, and 86 per cent saying the same before the event this year.

“It’s up to you to work together to ensure high quality is maintained,” Mr Linford advised the delegates.

Next up was the DfE’s Mr Hill, who updated everyone on the apprenticeship reforms, which he labeled “the most significant change in the funding of FE in a generation”.

He thanked the sector for its work in boosting both the number of apprenticeships and their successful outcomes.

“This is a period of great change for apprenticeships,” he said.

“We have an absolutely pressing need to improve technical skills in this country to contribute to productivity and competitiveness, and improving skills is right at the heart of the government’s emerging industrial strategy.”

Importantly, during questions after his speech, Mr Hill was asked about the risk of employers driving down the price of apprenticeships in the new system. He told providers not to “do a deal at a price you can’t deliver quality for”.

“By 2020, spending on apprenticeships in England will have doubled compared to what was spent in 2010/11,” he said.

“That is a huge opportunity to raise both the number and the quality of apprenticeships.”

He also attempted to reassure delegates in the audience on a common point of concern for many, saying that the delayed results of the non-levied allocations for small and medium-sized employers are “imminent” rather than “civil-service imminent”.

“I am absolutely sure we will make those allocations well before the first of May,” he said.

In discussing the new register of approved training providers, launched last week, he acknowledged that dozens of eligible colleges had unexpectedly not made the cut, but declined to answer a question from the host on whether keeping them off was a mistake.

He also said that the RoATP would bring more “quality and rigour” to the apprenticeships market.

Mr Hill also highlighted the need to “widen participation”, adding that the government would be publishing further guidance “for employers who are keen to create a more diverse and inclusive apprenticeship programme”.

 

Editor Asks: Amanda Spielman, chief inspector, Ofsted

With ‘inadequate’ verdicts fatally undermining many FE providers, the stakes have never been higher on Ofsted inspections.

The new boss, Amanda Spielman, admits this places huge pressure on her inspectors, and didn’t rule out reintroducing a capacity-to-improve caveat for certain providers.

The new register of apprenticeship training providers has brought the dire consequences of a grade four verdict from Ofsted into sharp focus.

The Skills Funding Agency has a long-established policy of cancelling contracts with independent training providers that are rated ‘inadequate’ overall, and in many cases it effectively forces them to  close.

A new rule that bars any provider with a grade four rating for apprenticeships provision from being listed on the RoATP has further heightened anxieties around inspections.

We are absolutely confident that we have inspectors with relevant experience and expertise

FE Week understands that Ofsted is looking at whether these fears could be eased with the reintroduction of a distinction between grade fours with “capacity to improve” and terminal cases.

Ms Spielman didn’t rule the idea out, and told me that she is “looking at how our judgements work in the context of the consequences”.

Reflecting on the pressures, she added: “There is no question it puts very considerable responsibility on inspectors to know such high consequences hang on their judgements.”

She also conceded that “it puts a lot of pressure on the system” for the government to be using Ofsted’s judgements in this way.

She insisted she understands the fine lines, which are often due to the nature of human judgements, between a grade three and a four.

“At the end of the day, it is about that irreducible level of imprecision that must always be associated with any human decision,” she confessed.

“Our inspection judgements are designed in ways that constrain and minimise that as far as we can, but you always have that incredibly difficult grey area around any dividing line, and a lead inspector has to make a judgement,” she said.

And where one finds “something that is really close to a borderline, there may be places where a competent inspector might absolutely properly come one side or the other of a dividing line, and neither would be wrong”.

 

Inspection capacity concerns
 
There are currently 793 apprenticeship providers in scope for inspection, but RoATP is already nearly doubling that, with 1,473 organisations given the green light from May. That number is furthermore likely to rise to over 2,000 as more applications are invited.

I asked Ms Spielman what her gut feeling was on the impact all the extra providers would have on Ofsted.

She was bullish in reply: “I’ve said I’m going to do evidence, not gut feel. It’s clear there are a lot of would-be new entrants, a lot of people with very limited experience, and potentially quite a lot of fragmentation.

“What that will actually translate into in terms of gets contracts and actually starts providing apprenticeships isn’t entirely clear. I suspect a lot of those registrations will be optimistic things that may never translate into actual learners on the ground.”

After I speculated that the inspectorate must be pushing back very hard for more resources, Paul Joyce, its deputy director for FE and skills, interjected, saying: “The negotiations we have with DfE are very much along the lines that you say, so clearly I am worried about the number of providers that we may have to inspect”.

Ms Spielman agreed.

Many apprenticeship providers have meanwhile complained to me about inspectors who have lacked sufficient empathy or experience to form sound judgements, but she insisted she was “absolutely confident that we have inspectors with relevant experience and expertise”.

Pressed over whether Ofsted is the right organisation to assess an employer-led apprenticeship system, she said: “I don’t think we’ve got any pushes about shifting responsibilities.”

 
Higher-level apprenticeships
 
Mr Joyce exclusively revealed to FE Week in December that talks had begun between Ofsted and the government over extending the inspectorate’s remit to cover degree apprenticeships.

These are currently only inspected by the Quality Assurance Agency, which oversees all university-level provision, and he told me that the DfE would soon be producing an accountability statement for apprenticeships “that will clearly define who does what and where”.

 
Challenges with post-merger inspections
 
Increasing numbers of colleges are merging following the area reviews. These resulting goliaths are often based miles apart, and offer a bewildering variety of provision, prompting the obvious question of how Ofsted arrives at an overall judgement for such a complicated beast.

“The most useful way of reporting on a large, diversified, multi-site college is not necessarily the same as a smaller one,” insisted Ms Spielman.

Mr Joyce tackled the matter of adding variety to inspection timescales, and varying the numbers of inspectors involved – for example when dealing with institutions that go from tiny ITPs to huge merged bodies like NCG.

“It does vary between size,” he said. “We have different sizes, moving from a team of four inspectors to a team of perhaps 13.”

His boss interjected, saying it was too early to say whether wider reform was needed, but she conceded that “we are doing a piece of strategy work looking across all our remits”.

He also pointed out that plans to introduce “campus level” inspections, which would involve different reports for separate local college campuses that exist within a large merger, are under “active” consideration with the DfE.

Broker fees are back again

The government needs to look carefully at the NHS’ plans to hit providers with brokerage fees.

No-one is suggesting the health service is breaking the Skills Funding Agency’s rules, but we must prevent money meant for frontline training from going astray.

The issue of brokerage is one that I’ve followed closely since my investigation a year ago exposed brokers were charging up to five per cent of every deal they made to match subcontractors with primes.

The SFA deserved full credit for announcing in February that public funds would not be used to pay such fees through its final apprenticeship funding rules.

But it’s alarming to discover that the nation’s largest and most treasured public body is indulging in another form of brokerage to recoup the cost of seeking providers.

It also seems that the decision by these NHS bodies to create their own “frameworks”, which will effectively limit access for contracts to providers they deem fit for purpose, casts further doubt on the robustness of the government’s own new register of apprenticeship training providers.

Exclusive: Non-levy allocations no longer ruled out for unsuccessful colleges

Non-levy allocations will no longer be ruled out for the dozens of colleges that weren’t listed on the new register of apprenticeship training providers at the first attempt following political pressure, FE Week has learned.

However, there should be no behind-closed doors special treatment offered to colleges that would work against the private sector, the AELP boss Mark Dawe has warned.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon revealed, during parliamentary education questions, that providers who did not make it onto RoATP would be able to reapply from today – with it subsequently emerging applications need to be in by April 7.

This prompted FE Week to ask DfE if providers who didn’t get on RoATP first time round, had missed their chance to get an SFA allocation for non-levied employers.

The DfE has now indicated a softening of its previous position, with a spokesperson responding today that it’s something the department “will decide on once the new system becomes established”.

It comes as news of the results of up to £440 million of non-levy allocations (funding for apprentices with employers who do not pay the levy) for those that are on RoATP continues to be delayed.

The results of the tendering process should have been published on March 14, according to the Skills Funding Agency’s own timetable. FE Week reported on the delay to the allocations on that date – after it was confirmed on the government’s Bravo e-tendering portal.

The DfE’s director of apprenticeships David Hill then tried to reassure delegates at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeships Conference in Birmingham, that the delayed results were “imminent” but not “civil-service imminent”.

FE Week understands the Association of Colleges has been lobbying the SFA to find additional non-levy allocation funding – on top of the £440 million – for those colleges that will get on the RoATP at the second time of trying.

Otherwise, the AoC has suggested holding back some of the £440 million for providers successful in the second round as a “contingency”.

David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said: “Ideally SFA would have had time to get the register right and then to confirm tender decisions for small company training.

“However, they had to run the two processes at the same time so AoC has suggested that they process the latest register applications quickly while making sure there is funding available for the highly quality training that the excluded colleges offer.”

His counterpart at AELP, Mr Dawe, insisted that it would be wrong if any special dispensation were given to colleges that missed out on RoATP first time round.

He said: “If there is a private deal done with the colleges that didn’t get on the register first time that is unacceptable. Every provider type needs to be treated fairly. The same approach should be applied to everyone.”

FE Week also asked the DfE what date providers would be able to start apprenticeships from, if they are successful in the RoATP re-application process.

While the DfE spokesperson said he had been unable to pin down a precise date for this, he added “those who are successful in the RoATP process when it reopens, can start in May”.

The questions reflected anxiety among the sector, with Chris Hayden, employer engagement manager for apprenticeship and workforce development in life sciences with South and City College, tweeting: “Great to see applications available again, but, will we have decision before May? Our clients want to know!!”

The new April 7 deadline for the new round of RoATP applications, means the new window is less than three weeks.

This is shorter than that for the first round of applications that opened on October 24 and closed on November 25.

The SFA warned on November 25, just hours before the register deadline, that some providers were failing to follow instructions and were applying via more than one route.

As then reported by FE Week, the Skills Funding Agency published the new RoATP last Tuesday.

Only those providers on the list will be able to deliver apprenticeships from May.

The absence of a number of major providers of apprenticeships, including at least 21 colleges with a combined current allocation of £44 million, caused shock and disbelief across the sector.

 

Delegates flood to Birmingham for FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeships Conference

FE Week’s third Annual Apprenticeships Conference was off to a flying start this morning, after a warm welcome from the BBC’s Kirsty Wark to a packed exhibition hall at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham.

Ms Wark (pictured above), who will host for the full three days, set the scene for delegates and looked back on the first ever FE Week ACC in 2015, which she also presented.

FE Week editor Nick Linford (pictured left) followed her onto the stage to walk the audience through a pre-conference questionnaire, designed to test the mood on the government’s reforms just over a month before the long-awaited launch of the apprenticeship levy.

The responses suggested more policy optimism amongst delegates than 12 months ago, but concerns about the impact the reforms on small and medium-sized employers, and the overall quality of provision remained very high.

“It’s up to you to work together to ensure high quality is maintained,” Mr Linford advised the delegates.

Next up was the Department for Education’s director of apprenticeships David Hill (pictured right), who gave an update on the apprenticeship reforms, which he labeled “the most significant change in the funding of FE in a generation”.

He began by outlining the four key aims of the apprenticeships programme, which were “to create more apprenticeships”, “to meet the skills needs of employers”, “to create progression for apprentices”, and “to widen participation”.

Importantly, during questions after his speech, Mr Hill told providers not to “do a deal at a price you can’t deliver quality for”.

He also attempted to reassure delegates in the audience on a common point of concern for many, saying that the delayed results of the non-levied allocations for small and medium-sized employers are “imminent” rather than “civil-service imminent”.

In discussing the new register of approved training providers, launched last week, he acknowledged that dozens of eligible colleges had unexpectedly not made the cut, but declined to answer a question from the host on whether keeping them off was a mistake.

Do not do a deal at a price you can’t deliver quality for

He also said that the RoATP would bring more “quality and rigour” to the apprenticeships market.

Look out for more coverage on the FE Week website and make sure to follow the events on Twitter, using the hashtag #FEWeekAAC2017.

‘Mandatory training’ for untested apprenticeship providers on register

New providers with little or no track record will have to undergo “mandatory training” before they can deliver apprenticeships, the Skills Funding Agency has said.

The plans are part of a “new approach to thematic auditing and other risk based assessments and behavioural monitoring” announced by the agency’s director of funding and programmes Keith Smith at the Annual Apprenticeships Conference.

The approach, which aims to give both the SFA and employers “confidence” in the new system, could see providers lose their place on the register if they don’t pass muster.

Providers will have to be listed on the new register of apprenticeship training providers in order to deliver new apprenticeship starts from May.

The SFA’s proclamation follows an FE Week investigation which found a number of companies which had never delivered apprenticeships before were on new register, which was published earlier in March.

“Any new provider will be required to attend mandatory training,” said Mr Smith. “That’s going to happen before any apprenticeship activity starts.” This training would cover “the important points around what it takes to be in this new system”, he said.

The new providers would all then “be case-loaded with an account manager in the agency” for “one-to-one sessions”.

He continued: “Then I expect, no later than three to six months in, that potentially when they start delivering is when we will then start to take that snapshot. “It’s going to be a potentially a pass or fail judgement.”

In “the most serious of cases”, for instance if new providers are “taking too long to get up to speed”, he insisted the SFA “will take action immediately”.

“Now depending on what we see, and what we find from that first formal assessment will determine whether we do follow ups, will determine whether actually everything’s fantastic, and they can then default to our normal compliance regime for other types of providers,” he continued.

He insisted he is “really ambitious to make sure we don’t have too long a lag before we identify where things potentially are going wrong”, stressing: “It’s important that we have confidence, that employers have confidence, that where new entrants are coming to the market they are getting up to speed as quickly as possible.”

Delegates should “expect to hear something more from us on this quite soon”, he added, involving “quite a rigorous process, which potentially in the worst cases is going to lead to these new providers being removed from the register”.

The application process is due to take place four times every year, and sector figures expect this number will rise quickly, perhaps to well over 2,000.

“It is a huge challenge and we are only at the start of the conversations because there is nothing yet to inspect,” Ms Spielman has previously said. “This is about setting up He concluded: “And as I’ve also said many many times, our ambitions don’t stop there.

“We have a lot of work planned to try to look at how we continue to raise the bar and to continue to stretch the system to deliver those high standards. We do that for one reason – the apprentice deserves it.”

#SaveOurAdultEducation: Senior peer tries to protect future learners over loan debts

A senior peer who has thrown his support behind FE Week’s campaign to #SaveOurAdultEducation, has tabled an amendment to protect future learners from being left with huge loan debt but no qualifications.

The proposed amendment, tabled by Liberal Democrat House of Lords education spokesperson Lord Storey, is for the Technical and Further Education Bill being debated currently and next week.

It would require FE providers to maintain contingency funds, to protect students incase they fold.

It states that any “which charge fees to students for tuition, must set up a contingency fund”, which “must contain sufficient funds to reimburse students, where an FE body closes, for the proportion of the fee charged for the remaining period of tuition”.

It adds: “The FE body must not use the contingency fund for purposes other than those outlined in subsection.”

Lord Storey told FE Week today he was originally inspired to pursue this issue, after being contacted by two distressed John Frank Training students.

FE Week reported in January that the Skills Funding Agency was investigating the demise of this London-based provider, which had a satellite office in Preston, after it went into liquidation in November.

The collapse meant up to 500 students, who had taken out advanced learner loans to train with them, were left with hefty debts for advanced learner loans they took out to fund JFT studies. The government is still refusing to write these off.

We subsequently reported that dozens more learners were left in a similar position after Hampshire-based Edudo Ltd and Darlington-based Focus Training & Development Ltd folded.

FE Week is calling for the loans to be written off, where blameless adult learners have been left unable to complete their courses if their training provider goes bust, though our #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign launched last month in parliament.

Lord Storey said: “I definitely support your campaign. There’s a moral imperative to put as much pressure on the government as we possibly can, to get the FE loans money written off for students left in debt from companies such as John Frank Training.

“I’ve lodged questions asking the government to update us on what is happening with this, and hopefully my amendment will help to protect future students.”

He added: “This started when a couple of students got in touch with me from a provider that went bust [John Frank Training]. They were worried about the fact that they had lost their loans money.

“It’s an issue I’ve since been pursuing ever since.”

The peer tabled a parliamentary question on March 13 asking the government “what assessment they have made of JFT which left no assets, despite recording a profit of £1.3 million in the first half of 2016?”.

Another question lodged on the same day, also as yet unanswered, asked: “In the light of JFT going into liquidation on November 30, 2016, what support is being given to students to recoup their loans.”

When asked by FE Week what it is doing to help blameless learners left in debt, a Department for Education spokesperson would only say: “Our priority remains supporting the learners affected by John Franks, Edudo Ltd and Focus Training & Development Ltd to complete their learning with minimal disruption.

“We are currently working hard to match up these learners with suitable courses offered by different providers.”

Former JFT learner Asim Shaheen, 49, who was unable to complete a hospitality and catering course funded with a loan for over £8,000 that he thinks should now be written-off, said today: “It’s really good news that the House of Lords is now looking seriously at our case.

“The government needs to put a serious action plan in place and any pressure that can be put on them is hugely appreciated.”

The other #SaveOurAdultEducation demands are for the government to consult on a proper adult education strategy, one that does not disappear under the political weight of apprenticeships and devolution, and widesprread introduction of FE maintenance grant loans for adult learners.