Unison: First4Skills collapse ‘could have broken the law’

The UK’s strict redundancy laws may have been breached when one of the largest apprenticeship providers in England unexpectedly called in the administrators last week, according to a major union.

First4Skills, which received £15 million every year to run apprenticeships, told around 200 ‘shocked’ staff on Friday, March 3 that it was closing down.

Now Unison has come forward to say that the company might have acted unlawfully by hiding the degree of problems it was experiencing from its staff.

“The closure of First4Skills will cause uncertainty for staff and apprentices as jobs are lost and learners are moved to new training providers,” said Jon Richards, the union’s head of education.

“It’s now clear there will be redundancies. Unison believes redundancy laws may have been breached because the company failed to share the extent of the company’s woes with the workforce.”

First4Skills specialised in retail apprenticeships and operated from offices in Liverpool, Birmingham and Kilmarnock. It employed around 200 staff and supported approximately 4,500 apprentices around the UK. Discussions broke out on social networking site LinkedIn after its collapse, as other employers offered opportunities to former First4Skills staff, and sector members gave their condolences.

Judith Jackson, who was a strategic account manager at First4Skills, mentioned how little staff knew about the provider’s struggles before it was forced to call in the administrators.

She wrote: “It’s really shocking when staff and clients learn more via LinkedIn than from the [senior leadership team]. Amazing staff in parts, and fantastic clients with levy plans hopefully all which can still be fulfilled.”

The firm’s apprenticeships and skills senior leader Phil Hedley also posted a message, saying: “First4Skills (the largest retail apprenticeship provider) went into administration today after many years in the WBL sector.

“I am very touched by the reaction I’ve received, and it reinforces my belief that work-based learning is such a different environment to the other operators in FE, and this surely should be recognised by the governing bodies.”

First4Skills was rated ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted in May 2015, and FE Week understands that the provider was inspected again in early February, this time receiving the worst possible ‘inadequate’ grade.

According to the latest Ofsted report, First4Skills was acquired by City of Liverpool College and a private training provider called 3AAA in September 2012, but became wholly owned by City of Liverpool from November 2014.

In City of Liverpool’s financial statements for 2015/16, First4Skills is described as a 60-per-cent-owned subsidiary of the college, after a 40 per cent interest was sold to an external training provider for £500,000 in July 2016.

FE Week understands that this external provider is Sysco Business Skills Academy Limited, where Ian Smith, a director of First4Skills, has held another a directorship since 2006.

We asked Mr Smith to comment on the situation, and to explain what would happen now to learners and staff.

However, he said: “Sysco will not be making any comment at this time.”

We also asked City of Liverpool College for a comment but were twice directed to the administrators, RSM UK.

A spokesperson for RSM UK gave us the following statement: “Lindsey Cooper and Chris Ratten of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP were appointed Joint Administrators of First4Skills Limited on March 3, 2017.

“The decision to appoint administrators was made by the directors of First4Skills Limited due to the withdrawal of its key contract with the SFA.

“The move impacted the financial stability of the business, which called into question the company’s ability to continue to trade.”

Ms Cooper said: “We are working with the SFA and Skills Development Scotland and our professional advisors to assist in the process of transferring the learners to new training providers, whilst maximising the returns to creditors.”

Main image:  First4Skills head office at Princes Dock, Liverpool Waters

Breaking: SFA unveils ‘mystery shopper’ scheme to test how ready providers are for apprenticeship reforms

The Skills Funding Agency has launched a new “mystery shopper” scheme to find out how prepared providers are for the new apprenticeship reforms.

The announcement was made in the online SFA Update just uploaded onto gov.uk.

It said: “To help us understand how prepared providers are for the new apprenticeship reforms, we are carrying out a ‘mystery shopper’ exercise to test aspects of apprenticeship readiness. This will enable us to identify any further support the sector may need to be ready to meet employer demand for apprenticeships.

“Please contact your provider manager if you have any queries.”

Major apprenticeship reforms are due to come into force following next week’s launch of the new apprenticeship levy, and employers are being given far more influence over the design of apprenticeship programmes and funding for them.

The government will be keen to see how prepared providers are for the changes.

Fresh doubts have also been raised over how ready the government is for the reforms.

It comes after FE Week revealed that a key meeting that the SFA was supposed to hold today, to reach final decisions on which providers will be allocated a non-levy employer funding allocation and how much they will receive, had been cancelled with no alternative date scheduled.

This was supposed to have followed publication of the results of the latest round of applications to the new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers, which has also not been published.

FE Week employed our own in-house mystery shopper back in November, to test out the government’s directory of apprenticeship training providers, which had been launched the previous month.

Called ‘Find Apprenticeship Training’ and described as the one-stop shop for any employer, large or small, which finds themselves wanting to take on apprentices, it was found to be relatively easy to use. 

We have asked the Department for Education if the mystery shoppers working on this new scheme will be in-house or hired from outside, and await the response. 

 

Enter more female apprentices for skills competitions – it’s worth it!

Women have a raw deal when it comes to apprenticeships, but here are some steps we can all take to improve the situation, says Neil Bentley

I was struck by a recent report from the Young Women’s Trust highlighting just how grave the situation is for women looking to take up an apprenticeship.

The report found that female apprentices were, on average, £2,000 a year worse off than male apprentices. It also confirmed that in the engineering sector, women make up a lower proportion of apprentices than a decade ago. For every female engineering apprentice there are 25 male apprentices. It’s a similar story in other industries.

Shocking statistics, yes, but unfortunately not surprising.

Throughout my career I have devoted considerable time seeking to improve workplace diversity and I have learned that one of the key challenges in making a difference is “being the change you want to see” – the need to use your own leadership position to help drive change. So, when I took up the role of CEO at WorldSkills UK 18 months ago one of the first things I did was ask our partners who organise skills competitions to come up with plans for addressing diversity.

It was clear to me that the composition of the UK teams going in to international competitions did not reflect the diversity of young people I could see training in our colleges and workplaces. This is why we have begun to make changes to the way WorldSkills UK operates.

At the national finals of the skills competitions at the 2016 Skills Show, we saw just what can be achieved through a concentrated approach. Semta, one of our competition partners which has been campaigning tirelessly to increase the number of female engineers, saw a hundred per cent increase in the number of female competitors. Most importantly, the majority of female entrants won medals, showing that this drive is not some sort of token gesture.

Together we can challenge stereotypes

The leadership from Semta on this is a brilliant start – but we need to do more. That is why ahead of the launch of the 2017 national cycle of competitions, which will ultimately lead to WorldSkills Kazan in 2019, every one of our organising partners has been required to submit a diversity action plan, as a key part of their planning for this year’s competition, to show how they are making the activity as inclusive as possible.

We are also profiling our outstanding role models to show young people, their parents and teachers just what they can achieve. Rebecca Wilson, Bronze medallist in Car Painting at WorldSkills 2015, is now a Skills Champion sharing her experiences of being world-class female car painter. She often recalls how when they called out her name it was brilliant not only for her but because there was another female who won a medal in car painting. In such a male dominated profession, this sent out a global message that women can be successful in any industry.

That is also why we have recently become a formal supporter, along with over 40 other WorldSkills International Members, of the HeForShe Campaign. Launched by UN Women, the HeForShe global campaign aims to engage men and boys as advocates to help achieve gender equality.

The campaign has done incredible work to date in making men realise that they can be important allies in the drive for change. That is why this International Woman’s Day, I am asking you all – and particularly male leaders – to make a stand and enter more female apprentices and students into the WorldSkills UK Competitions, especially where they are in traditionally male-dominated sectors.

We certainly have a lot more to do on tackling gender segregation in skills competitions and making them as inclusive as possible for all young people. But we can’t do it alone, which is why I am asking for your support. Together we can challenge stereotypes and help more and more young people achieve their career dreams in whichever profession they choose.

Enter your apprentices and students into the WorldSkills UK Competitions at www.worldskillsuk.org by 7 April.

 

Dr Neil Bentley is the chief executive of WorldSkills

Is it ethical to apply the apprenticeship levy to charities?

The levy will force charities to create new apprenticeships or lose the money to private business, which raises ethical issues, says Steve Woolcock

This year’s national apprenticeship week will be the last before the apprenticeship levy kicks in on 1 April. As the day draws nearer, many large organisations have been preparing to deal with the challenges it presents.

Barnardo’s will be affected in several ways. As the largest children’s charity in the UK, which last year helped 248,000 children and young people through almost 1000 services, we fall into the minority group in this sector as an employer with an annual salary payroll value of more than £3 million.

This means we will have to contribute 0.5% of the value of our annual salary payroll as our levy payment. To obtain full benefit from the levy, an organisation the size of Barnardo’s would need to create many more apprenticeship roles than we already provide (our current estimate is around 200), or face the prospect of losing this money – money which has been generously donated to support vulnerable young people and families.

Whilst we do not object to the levy in principle and indeed believe apprenticeships are an excellent way for young people to gain new skills, the mechanics of it will leave some charities out of pocket and detract from funds intended for the very people these charities exist to help.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations estimates it will affect 1200 charities at a cost in excess of £70 million.

Only 10% of any unused funds can be reallocated to other charities, potentially resulting in hundreds of thousands of pounds not being used to help people who, for the most part, have already had a difficult start in life.

Donations are specifically to support our work with vulnerable children

Unused sums from large employer levy accounts may be used to fund the cost of apprenticeship training for the remaining 98% of employers who because of payroll size will not pay the levy.

One major reason why this raises concern within the charity sector is because we are funded by donations given specifically to support the work that we do with vulnerable children and families – not to fund apprenticeships in commercial organisations.

The other ethical dilemma is whether it is right to be taking surplus levy money from charities that they could be using to support vulnerable young people and ensuring they have a better future. Given the Government’s commitment to ensure all children and young people have the opportunity to ‘reach their full potential’, taking money from charities that help them seems a little short-sighted.

Despite these concerns, Barnardo’s has been working towards maximising the opportunities that the levy does create for our staff and those we support. Barnardo’s Employment Training and Skills (ETS) received a grade 2 ‘Good’ rating as a provider at its last Ofsted inspection, and our overall Apprenticeship success rate in 2015-16 was 77% with some programmes achieving 93%.

We are launching an internal Barnardo’s Apprenticeship Academy as part of our Employment Training and Skills department which will support the development of existing staff and young people joining the organisation.

Barnardo’s does not believe that ‘one size fits all’, which is why we have a wide range of services to help every child and young person reach their full potential.

As we review our HR needs for the coming years, we are looking at creating new apprenticeship roles which would be made available to the most vulnerable young people in our society.

We will be focussing on upskilling existing staff in areas such as leadership and management which will further enhance our ability to support the young people that use our services.

Barnardo’s is also sharing its knowledge with other Third Sector levy paying organisations by managing their levy pot and delivering apprenticeships for them.

Our ETS services can and do support employers by finding the right young people for their vacancies and preparing them for the recruitment process and the apprenticeship. We continue to support them and the employer throughout the apprenticeship.

Barnardo’s is committed to becoming a learning organisation so it can continue to improve the outcomes for the most vulnerable young people in society. The apprenticeship levy will contribute towards this goal by increasing the number of young people we can bring into the organisation and whose life chances we can improve.

So, whilst there are considerable financial and ethical challenges to the levy, Barnardo’s has found a way forwards to maximise the benefits, as we continue to “Believe in Children”.

 

Steve Woolcock is Head of Employment Training and Skills at Barnardo’s

Budget 2017: Sector hails Hammond’s ‘breakthrough budget’ for skills

Today’s spring budget has been hailed as a “breakthrough budget for skills” as chancellor Philip Hammond confirmed major extra investment for technical education.

The measures for FE and skills announced today – but revealed by FE Week on Sunday – include an additional £500 million a year for 16- to 19-year-old technical students and the introduction of maintenance loans for higher level qualifications.

“Investing in skills and education is the key to inclusive growth – to an economy that works for everyone,” Mr Hammond said.

The news has been welcomed across the sector.

CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn

Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director general, said: “This is a breakthrough budget for skills”.

“There has never been a more important time for the UK to sit at the global top table of technical education for young people,” she said.

Chris Jones, City and Guilds Group chief executive, said: “It’s good to see training and technical education front and centre of today’s budget.”

The extra cash for 16- to 19-year-olds was “a step in the right direction”, he said.

“For too long, the FE sector has suffered from a lack of investment or focus – even though improving the UK’s skills base has to be a top priority if we want to improve the UK’s productivity and competitiveness,” he added.

Mark Dawe, AELP chief executive, also welcomed Mr Hammond’s “recognition of the importance of skills for young people in today’s budget, the measures to boost technical education and his statement that the government’s 3 million apprenticeships target remains a key plank of its skills policy”.

David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said he “delighted” at the additional investment announced today.

He said: “The chancellor is right to highlight the need to improve productivity, address regional inequalities and help adults re-train and learn new skills,” he said.

“Post-Brexit Britain will need more self-sufficiency in developing skills and people will need the confidence, support and opportunities to adapt and change over 50+ year careers,” Mr Hughes added.

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary ASCL

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We fully support the planned investment in technical education and proposals to increase its provision for 16-19 year olds, but the government also needs to ensure that overall funding levels are sufficient in both pre-16 and post-16 education.”

Tina Hallett, government and public sector leader at audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: “It was absolutely vital that this budget laid the foundations for a much needed boost to the UK’s productivity.

“By investing in the pillars of good growth such as skills and infrastructure the Chancellor has set a clear direction for a post-Brexit world.”

Meanwhile, Peter Sellen, chief economist at the Education Policy Institute, described the additional £500m and introduction of maintenance loans as “highly welcome and timely”.

Lord Sainsbury, who last year chaired a panel of experts which made recommendations to Ministers for measures to transform technical education in England, said: “I am delighted that the government has made this vitally important investment in our young people

Levy confusion: Final SFA apprenticeship allocation meeting cancelled

A key meeting that the Skills Funding Agency was supposed to hold today, to reach final decisions on which providers will be allocated a non-levy employer funding allocation, has been cancelled.

FE Week has also learned that no date has been set, for when this will be rescheduled.

The Skills Funding Agency was due to hold the meeting, where amounts that providers will receive supposed to be agreed, following publication of the results of the applications to the new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers .

This has also not been published.

SFA staff had briefed stakeholder that they would share decisions made today on March 14, but the process now appears to have stalled.

News of the cancellation comes shortly before the apprenticeship levy is due to go live next month.

It also follows a distinct lack of interest shown by providers, in competing for SFA contracts to deliver training to small and medium sized businesses from May.

FE Week reported in November that a quarter of apprenticeship providers had declined this opportunity, through the first round of applications for the RoATP.

When asked why today’s meeting had been cancelled, and if this meant the process had effectively ground to a halt, a DfE spokesperson would only say this morning: “The RoATP application instruction document states that results will be communicated to providers in early March 2017. That remains the case.”

She added the SFA was still “finalising” the results for the apprenticeship allocations to non-levy employers. These would also be communicated to providers in early March, she claimed.

Initial applications to join the RoATP, which providers have to be on if they want to deliver apprenticeship starts from May 1, closed on November 25.

FE Week analysis showed a week later that 1,753 providers applied to the register, to be able to deliver training directly or as a sub-contractor to large, levy-paying employers.

Of these, just 1,310 – or 75 per cent – also applied to deliver training to smaller, non-levy paying employers.

This meant that 25 per cent of providers turned down the opportunity to receive an allocation to deliver apprenticeships to companies that won’t be subject to the levy.

The SFA then announced on February 8 that it “will reopen the register for new applicants and/or those who were unsuccessful in their initial application.

“The re-opening will be soon after the first planned publication, probably in March,” a spokesperson added.

FE Week asked the department that evening if this was a panic measure to bring in more providers, and if the results of this second window would now be published before May 1.

The DfE took two weeks to respond, eventually saying on February 22 that this wasn’t a sign of panic.

But the question over when the results of the second process will be published remained unanswered.

BREAKING: FE champion Shakira Martin standing for NUS president

The top job at the National Union of Students is in the sights of Shakira Martin, currently vice president for FE, who has confirmed she is running for president in the April 2017 elections.

Ms Martin made the announcement at noon today (March 7) on her Facebook and Twitter accounts with a short video (see below). 

She said: “It is now more than ever that we need to build a strong, fighting union that is campaigning to win for students.

“The government is slashing our education left right and centre, and you need a strong national union to fight on your behalf … We need to put NUS back in your hands.”

Ms Martin said she would bring “vibrancy, fire, energy”and innovation to the role if she wins.

She has been a forceful spokesperson for FE since her election as NUS VP for FE in April 2015, when she replaced Joe Vinson in the job.

In April 2016 she was uncontested for re-elections to the post, winning with 152 votes compared to only 11 votes to re-open the nominations.

Toni Pearce

If she scoops the role of president, she will be the second ever VP for FE to be elected as the leader of the students’ union, after Toni Pearce , who was VP or FE from 2011 to 2013, made the jump into power in July 2013.

Ms Martin, 28, who has two young daughters, would also be the second NUS leader to have attended an FE college instead of studying at university.

She studied a range of courses at Lewisham College from 2005, including a level five diploma in education and teaching, and held the roles of college’s student union president, women’s officer and student liaisons officer.

She has also studied at Bromley College and Morley College in the past.

In 2016, Ms Martin championed a new campaign to force the government to recognise the impact that post-16 area reviews were having on learners.

The #FEunplugged campaign was officially launched in January 2016, with the aim of raising “the profile of area reviews and making sure the student voice is not ignored during the process”.

Later in the year she also began work with former business secretary Sir Vince Cable, on a research project into how major reforms coming for the sector should be tailored for learners entitled ‘Students Shaping FE’, the findings of which will be published in a report by autumn 2017.

Speaking about the project in November last year, Ms Martin said: “The fact that there is not going to be, as it stands, a student voice on the apprenticeship policing body, the Institute for Apprenticeships is a disgrace. That’s the sort of thing we need to address.

“It will be a pleasure working on this ambitious project together.”

Subsequently in December 2016, apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halon confirmed that the IfA board would be advised by an apprentice panel, though the appointment of an apprentice to the board itself is yet to be achieved.

Ms Martin said at the time: “This is a victory for the apprentices and learners who called for better representation in the IfA.”

However, she added: “We still believe that, ultimately, the only way to be serious about learner voice and apprentice representation is to give them two full seats on the board itself.”

The 2017 NUS elections will take place at the union’s national conference in Brighton on April 25-27, 2017.

Malia Bouattia

Current president Malia Boutattia was elected president on April 20 last year. Previously the NUS’ black students’ officer, Ms Bouattia won in stage one of the count – by 372 votes to 328 for previous national president Megan Dunn.

She is the first black and minority ethnic woman to hold the role, but previously sparked some controversy because of an article she co-authored in 2011, in which she said the University of Birmingham was “something of a Zionist outpost in British higher education”.

An open letter was reportedly sent to Ms Bouattia shortly before her election from protesters and heads of student Jewish societies asking: “Why do you see a large Jewish society as a problem?”

Ms Bouattia reportedly responded to the letter by saying that she was “deeply concerned” that her views had been misconstrued, and highlighting her dedication to “liberation, equality and inclusion”.

Watch Ms Martin’s announcement in full here:

National Apprenticeship Week 2017: More than 10,000 back world record attempt through giant careers advice assembly

More than 10,000 young people joined-in for a giant careers advice assembly, through a world record attempt for National Apprenticeship Week 2017.

Schools, young people, parents, and employers from across the country tuned in to the event, called ‘The Big Assembly’,  from 8.45am to 9.15am this morning.

Robert Halfon

It was introduced by apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon, and featured special films of and by apprentices, as well as questions and answers with experts.

The aim was to get more than 5,000 log-ins and to set a new Guinness World Records title in the process.

They didn’t quite manage to get that many, ending with 1,809 log-ins from 200 seperate‎ schools and colleges, but more than doubled their target for the number of young people who actually watched it – topping 10,000.

Helen Richardson, managing director of Work Pays and producer of the Big Assembly, said: “It was so impressive in terms of the number of schools, in particular, who took the time to rearrange their timetables so that their students could watch the Big Assembly.

“We didn’t quite manage to break the world record, because that relied on logins, and you could have hundreds of children watching one login.

“But we more than doubled our target for the number of young people who actually watched, which is great news with spreading the word about the huge benefits of apprenticeships and vocational training.”

She added: “Everything that happened today was delivered by apprentices, from the filming of it, to Liam Jackson, a level three business admin apprentices who hosted the whole thing, so I would like to thank them all.

“We also gave out careers-experience related prizes to 11 schools involved – including a day as acting chief executive for Nottinghamshire City Council, and a day with Boots UK learning all about how products are developed and launched.”  

The East and West Midlands Apprenticeship Ambassador Network, Workpays, and GetMyFirstJob organised the record attempt, with support from The National Apprenticeship Service, and D2N2, and Leicester and Leicestershire local enterprise partnerships.

It was also backed by a wide variety of employers including East Midlands Chamber, Toyota, Highways England, Nottingham City Homes, the BBC, Derry Building Services, Derby Homes, Busy Bees, Young Professionals,  EMH Group, Futures Housing Group, Uniper,  as well as Boots UK, and Nottingham City Council. 

Caption for main pic above: Liam Jackson, level three apprentice and Big Assembly presenter, Charlotte Potter, from Highways England, Helen Richardson, Big Assembly producer, and 

Prue Day, from Get My First Job

 

Here are some tweets about it:

 

 

Making sense of the plans for T-Levels

As reported in FE Week yesterday, the Budget on Wednesday will announce new money for technical education to fund what some national newspapers have called ‘T-Level’. The government said it was “the most ambitious post-16 education reforms since the introduction of A-levels 70 years ago.”

Is the introduction of T-Levels a new announcement?

No. The Government first announced in November 2015 that they had big plans for reforming Post-16 skills training, starting with a review by a panel led by Lord Sainsbury.

In May 2016 FE Week exclusively reported that there would be an academic and vocational divide at 16, with 15 new technical education routes.

Then, in July the government officially responded to the Sainsbury review and confirmed the plans for 15 routes in a Post-16 Skills Plan.

Read more: What are T-Levels?

In July the government said there was no new money to fund the courses in these 15 routes, so what is new is a commitment to increase teaching hours from 600 to 900 with additional investment of £500m by September 2022.

See DfE slide below for more detail

What is the timescale for the introduction of T-Level?

– April 2018 : the Institute for Apprenticeships (launching next month) becomes Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education
– October 2018 : Procurement begins for new technical qualifications (single awarding bodies)
– February 2019 : Technical qualifications approved for ‘pathfinder’ routes
– September 2019: First teaching of ‘pathfinder’ routes
– September 2020 – September 2022 – Phased teaching of other routes

See DfE slide below for more detail

Will there only be 15 T-Levels?

No. There are 15 routes but multiple occupations within them and four of the routes are to be delivered “primarily through apprenticeships”. For example, the journalism occupation sits in the same route as upholstery (see DfE slide below). Also read this from FE Week.

Is the T-Level a qualification?

Yes. As explained in the DfE slide below, qualifications will be developed to cover “core content” and a single organisation or consortium will be granted an exclusive licence to develop and certificate them.