Employers including the private healthcare giant Bupa have been criticised for not employing anyone on apprenticeships they developed, after FE Week found three dental standards which have had no learners in 18 months.
Analysis of latest government data shows that three apprenticeship standards – dental laboratory assistant, dental practice manager, and dental technician – were approved for delivery in March 2015.
They were designed and developed by 22 employers, including the dental wing of Bupa.
A spokesperson confirmed to FE Week that no apprentice had so far been taken on.
“We haven’t taken on any as yet, as we don’t have any relevant vacancies,” she said.
“However we will certainly look into the opportunity of taking on dental practice manager apprentices in the future.”
Asked what Bupa’s reasons could have been for designing but not using the standards, she replied: “We took part because we wanted to help shape the programme, and share our expertise.”
We haven’t taken on any as yet, as we don’t have any relevant vacancies
Dr Susan Pember, the former top skills civil servant and director at community learning services membership body Holex, criticised the employers who had developed the standards but hadn’t taken a lead with recruitment.
“It is a shame that the employers did not follow through,” she told FE Week. “The trailblazers were funded by the public purse and that money would have better spent on supporting students.”
She said that the situation demonstrated the need for the Institute for Apprenticeships to have “robust” systems in place to “stop this happening in the future”.
Mark Dawe, the boss of AELP, said it was “really good that FE Week are highlighting” the issue and pledged to make more providers aware that the standards exist.
Another provider involved with developing the standards, Integrated Dental Holdings, claimed its business focus had changed over the last 18 months on creating its own dental nurse apprenticeship scheme.
As such, it claimed it had been forced to neglect the standards identified by FE Week.
Similarly, Oasis Dental Care said that even though it had contributed to the dental practice manager standard, they hadn’t taken on any apprentices because their focus has since been on the delivery of its own “practice manager academy”.
We continue to work with employers to increase take up of apprenticeships
Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said it was still “committed to providing the best training opportunities for the next generation of dental professionals”.
“In November 2016, the trust applied to join the register of apprenticeship training providers as an employer provider, so that we can continue to employ and train apprentices at King’s,” said a spokesperson.
The Department for Education has changed the rules to require commitment from employers on Trailblazer groups that they will use the standard with their employers.
A spokesperson said: “We now require all groups of employers bidding to develop a standard to commit themselves to using it.”
Government guidance also states: “We expect each trailblazer employer to commit individually to taking on a particular number of starts, and once a trailblazer has standards ready for delivery, we will expect you to work with other employers and stakeholders to promote their use.”
The DfE would not directly state its views on the lack of trailblazer employer recruitment of apprentices on the standards.
“We continue to work with employers to increase take up of apprenticeships,” was all the spokesperson would say.
Your weekly guide to who’s new, and who’s leaving.
Lizann Lowson has been appointed assistant principal for further education at City of Bristol College.
She joins from her previous role as head of young people at Hull College Group, where she lead the further education curriculum for 14 to 19-year-olds.
She brings a total of 13 years’ experience in FE to the role and speaking of her appointment, said: “I am pleased to have joined the college at such an exciting time and look forward to supporting my team to ensure student progress and progression remains a key priority.
“I am excited about working with colleagues and getting to know the teachers and employers who support our students to achieve their aspirations.”
Paul Graham has been appointed director of business and curriculum at Northern Skills Group, the apprenticeship and training arm of Middlesborough College.
Northern Skills Group work with over 1,000 businesses across the North East and Yorkshire, delivering training programmes and assisting with apprentice recruitment.
Formerly the director of business and education at the Yorkshire-based college, Mr Graham’s new role will involve building relationships with businesses across the north of England, and consulting about opportunities available through the apprenticeship levy.
Speaking of the levy, he said: “There are so many permutations of apprenticeships, including disciplines and how they’re structured. We want businesses to know the options available to them. It’s my job to listen to their needs and establish solutions that will ultimately help them grow.”
There have been two new appointments to the top-level management team at the Shropshire-based Telford college of Arts and Technology (TCAT).
Ian Clinton has been appointed interim principal at the college.
Mr Clinton, who has an OBE for services to further education, previously served as an interim principal at colleges in Stockport and Stafford. He will guide TCAT towards its merger with the neighbouring New College Telford.
In the role he says he has plans to regain the college’s reputation as “a good, strong and people-centred organisation, dedicated to meeting the needs of individuals and our employer partners”.
“We have a forward-looking and dynamic new board, our campus is modern and well equipped, and I have colleagues in both lecturing and support roles who are committed to ensuring that every student, employer and partner organisation receives the very best we can offer,” he said.
Paul Hinkins has been appointed chairman of the TCAT board.
He first joined the board in 2013, and will take up the role alongside his current position as chairman of the Marches Growth Hub’s Telford business board, which offers hot-desk facilities, meeting rooms for hire and space for business advisors to hold face-to-face meetings.
Mr Hinkins says he is “delighted to have taken over the college chairmanship at such an exciting time”, adding “We have the opportunity to make sure that our offer exceeds the needs of our students, parents and businesses.”
If you want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college, training provider or awarding organisation please let us know by emailing news@feweek.co.uk
The new apprenticeship programme was designed to put employers in the driving seat, but the contract the SFA will make them sign places them in a risky situation, says Smita Jamdar.
As the jedi master Yoda once observed, “always two there are, no more and no less: a master and an apprentice”.
If only life were that simple.
The new apprenticeship arrangements have spawned a series of contracts: SFA/provider, provider/employer, employer/apprentice (contract of employment), employer/provider/apprentice (commitment statement), provider/subcontractor, and provider/apprenticeship assessment organisation.
The latest to be revealed, a little over two months before the apprenticeship programme starts, is the contract between the SFA and the employer.
It’s therefore a good moment to reflect on where employers now find themselves. The programme is the conclusion of several years of policy initiative designed to put employers in the driving seat on skills.
How far removed we’ve become from master Yoda’s simple vision
This has resulted in government taking money from them through a levy, returning it to them with complicated strings attached, and then threatening to claw it back if they happen to get tangled up in the rules.
As someone on Twitter archly but accurately noted, employers may be in the driving seat but if they get it wrong, they are going to pay for the car twice.
The new contract contains a range of provisions in which such suspension or clawback of funds might occur. Some, such as fraud, financial irregularity or insolvency, are obvious and unarguable. Others are likely to be more challenging for employers.
For example, funds may be withheld or suspended if an employee or agent has acted dishonestly or negligently or has taken action that the SFA reasonably concludes brings its name or reputation into disrepute. These are broad provisions, and create potentially onerous obligations for employers to access what they may see as their own money.
Similarly, breach of the apprenticeship funding guidance constitutes grounds to recover, from the employer, funding paid to a training provider in breach of those rules.
The funding rules are complex and thus the potential for breaching them, especially within the contractual matrix set out above, is not insignificant.
The SFA contract seeks to reassure employers that it will act “reasonably and proportionately” in seeking to recover the sums, but there is scope for disagreement as to when those thresholds are crossed.
A number of the complaints we have made to the SFA on behalf of colleges, for example, have been based on what we considered to be unreasonable or disproportionate conduct on the part of the SFA.
Employers may be in the driving seat but if they get it wrong, they are going to pay for the car twice
Some of the provisions of the contract may be difficult for employers to navigate confidently without legal advice. For example, the state aid provision refers to complicated de minimis provisions, supposedly clarified in the funding rules. The funding rules however simply refer to the state aid regulations.
State aid lawyers are amongst the cleverest and most detail-focused in the profession for a good reason: it’s a dauntingly complex area, and therefore not one that many employers will have much experience of.
Similarly, the contract brings employers within the scope of the SFA’s freedom of information obligations, meaning employers could see their confidential information made publicly accessible.
The contract also contains provisions from the “bloomin’ cheek” school of contract drafting. That employers, who are after all being forced to offer apprenticeships or lose their levy contributions, should be forced to guarantee that they have all necessary resources and expertise to deliver them is at best irksome and at worst onerous, as is the broad warranty that the employer has complied with “all relevant legislation and all applicable codes of practice” and will notify the SFA of any departures.
Material breaches are grounds for termination of the agreement and the end of funding.
The SFA/employer contract creates risks not just for employers, though, but for all of those other contracting parties, whose own rights to payment or employment could be jeopardised if an employer gets it wrong. How far removed we have become from master Yoda’s simple vision of only the two: master and apprentice.
Smita Jamdar is partner and head of education at SGH Martineau LLP
UTCs perform a valuable function – don’t write off the whole enterprise based on misleading statistical comparisons with schools, says Nick Crew.
The success of University Technical Colleges has been called into question lately, with several closing down, and even Michael Gove, who introduced them, weighing in to label them a failure. Yet UTCs perform a vital function in providing high quality technical education for 14- to 19-year-olds, backed by employers, to meet regional skills shortages.
Our experience in Sheffield – the only city outside of London currently to have two UTCs – demonstrates they are capable of making a valuable contribution to the educational landscape. UTC Sheffield City Centre, which is has a ‘good’ grade from Ofsted, specialises in advanced engineering and manufacturing, and creative and digital pathways. UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park campus opened in 2016, specialising in computing, health sciences and sport science.
Recruiting students at the age of 14 is challenging and compounded by resistance from some parts of the education system to providing parents and young people with impartial careers guidance. As of this month, however, local authorities are legally required to write to the parents of every 13-year-old informing them that their choices can include a UTC.
We know students’ progress accelerates once they join us
This is a positive move. UTCs attract a diverse range of students of all abilities who love to learn by doing. And contrary to what Mr Gove seemed to suggest in his recent piece for the Times, it is not a necessary feature of UTCs that students underperform academically.
Our own results show that students at UTCs can outperform those at schools. In August, 79 per cent of our Year 11 students gained GCSE grades A*–C in maths; in English it was 66 per cent, and 73 per cent in the two sciences. In technical subjects, Year 11 students achieved a 97 per cent pass rate in their creative and digital and engineering qualifications.
With any new and innovative project, some casualties will occur as it matures. But to discard the entire UTC project before successful institutions have the chance to prove themselves would be a colossal waste of the resources already invested in them.
All UTC Sheffield leavers in 2016 progressed to a positive destination, with 45 per cent going to university, including Russell Group institutions, when the national average for schools is 38 per cent, and 28 per cent going on to apprenticeships, compared with a seven per cent national average for schools.
And in November, our engineering students ranked joint fifth in the medal table in WorldSkills UK after competing against colleges, employers and universities.
UTCs are complex educational settings and the most successful ones are embraced by regional stakeholders, have an employer- and university-embedded curriculum, and leaders who understand how to build good schools.
They need a regional focus at the planning stage, supported by employers, councils, universities, FE colleges and partnerships such as teaching school alliances.
The strong relationships we have with our sponsors the Sheffield College, Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, as well as Sheffield City Council, underpin our success. Around 50 employers also back us.
UTCs have far less time to influence students’ progress scores
UTCs have a different remit to traditional schools, yet the government’s new performance measures compare the two. Some of the technical and creative subjects that UTCs have developed with complex employer-embedded projects don’t even receive scores in the Progress 8 measure.
Compounding this is the fact that UTCs have far less time to influence students’ progress scores, which are measured over five years starting at the end of primary school.
Young people can only join a UTC at the age of 14 yet their education for the three years prior to joining us counts in their final score.
We know that students’ progress accelerates once they join us. Progress 8 therefore isn’t an effective measure of the performance of a 14-19 technically focused school. UTCs are working with the Department for Education to take action here.
The country needs high quality skill-focused technical learning pipelines – UTCs along with further education colleges and universities can provide this, when working together with employers. The payback to the treasury and employers will come from the reduction in the costs of training to employers, when students leave UTCs, and the increased salaries paid to contribute to the UK tax system.
For too long, the education system has focused on academic qualifications at the expense of the essential skills desired by employers.
The post-16 skills plan heralds a major change to work experience in the current system.
The government wants college-based technical education programmes to include an entitlement to a one- to three-month “quality work placement” with an employer in an industry relevant to the learner’s study.
Yet as revealed by the Department for Education’s recent consultation, commissioned by the Learning and Work Institute, we still don’t know “what effective practice in work placements looks like”, or “how current work experience may be increased in scale”.
Neither does Ofsted, it would seem, as it is yet to publish any objective measures for judging the quality of work placements, despite its stated aim to focus on them more.
This presents some considerable challenges for colleges. Take our most recent inspection.
Most learners aren’t sure what they want to do
All 16- to 19-year-old students are funded for an individual study programme, which, according to government guidance, should contain “high-quality work experience or work preparation” and can include volunteering or community activities organised by or on behalf of the institution.
In our case, 85 per cent of our students already have part-time paid jobs. Ofsted was dismissive, however, saying learners should be gaining work experience relevant to their core aim. But what is the core aim for a student taking three different A-levels or a range of subjects, sometimes at different levels? Surely transferable skills count in a modern economy?
There is an important question here: why do the government and Ofsted assume that unpaid work experience is more valuable and/or relevant than paid part-time work?
Before the study programme began, I posed a question to a DfE representative at a DfE/EFA roadshow to launch the study programme, in front of an audience of college representatives, asking: “Does unpaid work experience trump paid part-time work?’
The dismissive response revealed a stereotype that assumed young people were likely to be “stacking shelves in Tesco” – suggesting the DfE doesn’t value employment per se as a learning experience.
A paid job focuses the mind and helps youngsters gain employability: a work ethic, punctuality, customer service, team working and essential English and maths. The fact that work may not be “in context” to study doesn’t really matter; they are gaining skills for a range of career options, in a changing world.
Ofsted simply doesn’t know how to measure the impact of work experience
Of course, if a young chef wants to be a chef and nothing else, we’ll help them find a relevant job. In some areas, such as early years, part of the programme will be working in a nursery setting.
But the vast majority of learners aren’t sure what they want to do and many would rather be earning money to buy that new smartphone or save for university than ‘volunteering’ for a work placement. Incidentally, this is the main reason for the low take-up of traineeships: they’re unpaid.
FE Week’s Nick Linford recently asked Paul Joyce, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills, about how inspectors would track work experience in 2017.
Joyce said: “Work experience as part of study programmes is something that inspectors do clearly look at. It’s a very difficult thing to give categorical answers to.”
When asked how Ofsted will highlight ‘inadequate’ work experience, he continued: “Inspectors will certainly look at work experience and work-related learning and in some cases that is having a detrimental impact where that is not being done as well as it could be to contribute to a learner’s overall programme.” This is not clear at all.
The truth is that Ofsted simply doesn’t know how to measure the impact of work experience, and nor can we. Colleges’ spend on planning and assessing work placements varies enormously and, bluntly, we can’t currently tell if the money improves learner experience, outcomes or job prospects.
Ofsted needs to review how it assesses the impact and effectiveness of work experience and the EFA must work out the funded hours that can be ascribed to planning it.
In short, the government’s view that work should be directly related to study between the ages of 16 and 18 is odd. Job skills change over a working life. We need to train young learners with this in mind, not send them down limited pathways that might hamper their career options.
Graham Taylor is principal and chief executive at New College Swindon
As entries open for this year’s Festival of Learning awards, we hear from the winner of the 2016 Patron’s Award, Emily Hicks, on how she came to be nominated.
As a primary carer for her bipolar mum since the age of 11, and struggling with confidence-sapping dyslexia, Emily Hicks was not set fair for an easy path through her education.
But while she feels her secondary school essentially saw her as an also-ran, her experience of York College would be totally different.
Since she left school at 16 with just three GCSEs, the 27-year-old has since managed to gain a degree and a job in her dream career.
“Everything’s been worthwhile,” she says, yet “if you’d asked me when I was 16 about university, I probably would’ve just laughed. It was never an option.”
Emily was in the final year of Hob Moor Primary School in York when her mum Sue’s bipolar disorder became so severe that she needed extra help at home.
With her parents separated – although a step-dad, Andy, later came on the scene – and just one younger sister, Beth, it fell to Emily to shoulder much of the responsibility of looking after her mum.
It was a lot for a “frustrated, upset little girl” to take on at such a young age
It was a lot for a “frustrated, upset little girl” to take on at such a young age, especially as she didn’t understand what bipolar was.
Because of the variable way in which bipolar disorder presents – oscillating between highs and lows – the support Emily needed to give her mum also varied.
During the lows, Emily could find herself giving “emotional support, prompts, reminders of things she needed to do” along with more practical help such as shopping and cooking meals.
At other times, Emily would have to cope with her mum “not sleeping, causing disturbance at night because she was putting music on”. Inevitably the stress spilled over into her behaviour at school.
She became disruptive in lessons, “not listening, not being very well-behaved; being very tired” and failing to hand in homework or perform well academically.
Emily with her gran Margaret
On top of this, Emily had been diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of seven, which affected her ability to read and write.
When it came to her GCSEs, her secondary, Lowfield School, put her in for only three subjects – because, she says, the school didn’t want her to bring down its overall results.
She says: “Looking back now as an adult, I think it’s shocking, but back then they just didn’t put me in for it, because they knew I was going to fail.”
With her schoolwork taking up only two and a half days a week, she spent the rest of her time on a work placement at a local childcare centre.
The experience led Emily to want a career in childcare, and after her GCSEs, she moved on to York College to take level one and two qualifications in her chosen subject.
The college was more supportive of her situation than her school, although she still struggled at times. One incident springs to mind, in which stress and lack of sleep led her to overreact to a rude comment from a classmate.
“I flipped,” Emily says. “I flung a chair, and really went quite mad. I got into serious trouble for that.”
Despite the seriousness of the incident, she was allowed to stay on at the college, on the condition that she attend counselling once a week.
After finishing at college, Emily’s next step was a level three childcare apprenticeship, working at a local children’s nursery.
But a desire to earn more and to push herself further led her to return to York College in 2010, for an access diploma in social care and guidance.
While studying full-time for the diploma, Emily was still taking care of her mum – yet she also managed to find time to volunteer at York Carers’ Centre.
At university, Emily was forced to confront some of the confidence issues relating to her dyslexia that she’d struggled with all her life
She helped run sessions for young carers at the centre, which she describes as “a glorified youth club” for young people to get together for support and to have fun.
Her decision to volunteer at the carers’ centre was the result of a placement during her diploma, although she herself had received support when she was younger.
“They gave a lot to me when I was a child, so I felt like I needed to give something back,” she says.
Then in 2011, she was accepted to a degree course in social work at Manchester Metropolitan University – a moment she describes as “one of highlights of my life”.
That she was able to go to university was due in no small part to her step-dad Andy, who gave up his job to take care of Sue.
While at university she received one-to-one support for her dyslexia – one hour every week, which helped her make progress in areas she struggled with.
Her support worker “went back to the basics of what really should’ve happened at school” – such as learning how to use commas and full-stops.
It was also during her time at university that Emily was forced to confront some of the confidence issues relating to her dyslexia that she’d struggled with all her life.
During her work placement, for example, she was asked to send text messages on behalf of the carers’ centre.
“I was worried I wasn’t going to spell it right and I was really, really nervous – I felt physically sick. But I did it,” she says.
With step dad Andy before he passed away in October 2016
So when the replies started to come back and “nothing seemed wrong”, it boosted her confidence.
While completing her studies in Manchester, her mum’s health took a turn for the worse – which forced her to commute from York in her final year, rather than live near the university.
Her determination, commitment and desire to learn helped her through what she describes as “a nightmare” final year, and in 2014 she achieved her goal of graduating with a 2.1.
It was around the time Emily started university that she first made contact with NIACE, the Learning and Work Institute’s predecessor organisation, after one of her tutors on the diploma course at York College nominated her for a Festival of Learning award.
Although she didn’t win on that occasion, it began a relationship with the institute that she says has “built my confidence up so much”.
As well as enabling her to speak about her experiences in front of politicians – and even Princess Anne, the LWI’s royal patron – she also received valuable career support, such as checking job applications before she sends them.
“A stupid spelling mistake just makes you look lazy, if they don’t know you’re dyslexic,” she says.
It was thanks to this help that, in April 2016, she was able to secure her current job as activities coordinator at the York Carers’ Centre.
And in September she was recognised by the Festival of Learning.
The recipient of the Patron’s Award – given each year to someone who has made a particularly special commitment to learning – is chosen by Princess Anne from a shortlist of award nominees.
Receiving the award was “the best thing that’s ever happened to me”, Emily says.
“It shows me that the tears, and the confusion and the upset – everything’s been worthwhile. I’ve proved a point to myself.”
It’s a personal thing
What music do you like to listen to?
Music would definitely be Coldplay. I absolutely love them. My favourite song is Yellow, but I love them all. I went to see Coldplay last year, at Wembley stadium, and it was fantastic.
Emily and mum Sue
Who do you most admire, living or dead, and why?
I think it’s probably my mum. Even though she’s gone through a lot, she still gets up and smiles. She’s not really had the best life, but she still gets on with it. The main reason I’m so passionate about everything is because of my mum.
Who do you turn to in times of crisis?
My sister, or my best friend Danielle. She gives me advice on absolutely everything – although I probably use both of them just as much. It could be minimal things from, I don’t know what to wear tonight or should I dye my hair? Or it could be massive things like, I’m really feeling quite stressed at work and I’m upset and what should I do about it. And if I’m upset about mum, just having a chat about that.
What are your three most treasured possessions and why?
My car – not that it’s a decent one, it just gets me from A to B and it gives me independence. My hair straighteners. And a photo of my granddad and my step dad Andy, as they’ve both passed away.
Is life a comedy or tragedy?
Comedy. Because if you think it’s a tragedy then…I think you have to laugh at even the most awful things. I think with my life it would be hard if I did think it was a tragedy, I would just be seriously down. You’ve just got to make light of a bad situation.
What are the Festival of Learning Awards?
(L-R) Sister Beth, step-dad Andy, mum Sue, gran Margaret and Emily
The Festival of Learning Awards, run by the Learning and Work Institute, are designed to showcase the wide-ranging impact that learning has on individuals, families, communities and employers.
They form a central part of the Festival of Learning, formerly known as Adult Learners’ Week, which aims to celebrate and engage more adults in learning.
Nominations can be in one of four categories: individual, tutor, employer, and project/provision.
The judges are looking for individuals who’ve transformed their lives through learning, tutors whose dedication and passion has helped their adult learners change their lives for the better, employers that have used learning to develop the skills of their workforce, and projects that have had a positive impact on communities.
Award winners are chosen from across the nominated categories and include Young Adult Learner, Learning for Work, Social Impact, Outstanding Individual, Patron’s and President’s awards.
The deadline for submitting nominations to the 2017 awards is March 31, with the winners presented with their awards at a ceremony in London in September.
Learners should not be left to pay for a ladder they cannot climb.
The government needs to take responsibility for the fact that hundreds of adults, through no fault of their own, are being left with debts for cancelled courses.
The honourable thing for ministers would be to acknowledge and fix the financial assurance failings on the part of the Skills Funding Agency, and to write off the debt.
There is a precedent here, given advanced learning loans are written off for Access to HE learners who go on to graduate from university.
Clearly if the SFA can help the learner find an alternative provider then that may be a suitable solution.
But learners we’ve spoken to say the help has been patchy, and there are clearly circumstances when an alternative provider is impractical.
That’s why as part of our #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign we will call on the government to end this type of learner debt.
So if Robert Halfon is serious about his ‘ladder of opportunity’ he must make sure people are not stranded at the bottom paying for it.
Read about the experiences of learners left in the lurch by training provider John Frank Training here.
Employers in the retail, hospitality and travel sectors are actively preparing to exploit a loophole that will allow them to grade their own apprentices, FE Week can exclusively reveal.
Our findings have caused concerns that the independence of end-point assessments is being seriously compromised.
The rules, which will be upheld by the new Institute for Apprenticeships from April, normally dictate that assessments must be carried out by an independent assessor to ensure impartiality.
But an exception was granted to these three sectors in 2015 by the former skills minister Nick Boles, which FE Week understands happened against the will of civil servants.
The Department for Education told FE Week that despite the exception employers would still need to register with the Skills Funding Agency as apprenticeship assessment organisations.
However organisations are investigating a potential loophole that might save them from even applying to become an AAO.
Innovate Awarding, a registered AAO in the retail and hospitality sectors, confirmed to FE Week that it was exploring this model, “with customers where we can ensure there is no conflict of interest and the independence of the assessor can be evidenced”.
“Effectively, we would be contracting with the individual, with the employer’s consent, to carry out this work,” it added. “This will only be considered, of course, where the external quality assurer allows this flexibility.”
Speaking during a webinar earlier this month, the IfA’s shadow chief executive Peter Lauener [pictured above] appeared to be unaware of the loophole.
Asked about employers using their own staff to carry out end-point assessments, he said: “I think you can see some circumstances where there’s such niche provision that there were comparatively few experts”, adding: “I don’t think I’ve seen any arrangements like that so far”.
The AELP boss Mark Dawe, an assessment expert and former boss at OCR, urged the IfA to treat all sectors the same.
“The IfA needs to be crystal clear as to what a conflict between the employer, provider, AAO and their respective staff [looks like], and what safeguards are expected. Whatever that approach, it should be applied in the same way to everyone involved.
“In this case the AAO has the responsibility to demonstrate its independence as well as the employee’s, being free from any undue employer influence”, he said.
According to the DfE, ministerial exception was granted to the three sectors following requests from the industry, and came after careful consideration.
People 1st, the body chosen by employers to manage the external quality assurance confirmed that to date no employers in these sectors have registered as an AAO.
Instead, companies are understood to be looking at arrangements that would see members of an employer’s staff taken on by the AAO on a consultancy basis, as described by Innovate Awarding.
The AAO is then responsible for training that member of staff, ensuring the independence of the end-point assessment and quality assurance, but not the actual delivery.
One major employer understood to be exploring this arrangement is McDonalds, which was involved in the development of the retail standards.
However, a spokesperson for the fast food giant said end-point assessment of its apprentices would be carried out by Innovate Awarding, rather than its own staff.
She said: “Our independent end-point assessors are independent to the training programme we deliver and also external to the business.”
A spokesperson for Ofqual said that those AAOs which it also assures externally must do “everything possible to ensure that no one with a personal interest is assessing an apprentice”.
The Department for Education has admitted to a “loophole” in the Skills Funding Agency qualification achievement rate calculation, which until now “artificially” boosted the rate for around 10 per cent of providers.
In some cases, providers benefited by more than 20 QAR percentage points.
Figures published on February 16 in the updated January Statistical First Release (SFR) show the 2014/15 achievement rate as 71.1 per cent before closing the loop-holes, which falls 4.7 percentage points to 67 percent once recalculated. The fall was most prominent for 25+ Level three apprentices, resulting in a 7.6 percentage point fall.
The QAR is an important performance measure, as it is used by Ofsted and the SFA can stop providers delivering courses that fall below thresholds, called ‘Minimum Standards’.
On page 17 in the SFR document, the DfE describes one of three loopholes it has now closed as “inappropriate use of the planned break exclusion rule”, and admitted “some providers reported nearly all withdrawals as planned breaks and therefore received a significantly higher QAR”.
The loopholes relate to how the SFA compares learner records in several annual data returns from providers. Where learners disappear or do not have a completion status, they will now be included in the calculation and counted as a ‘fail’.
According to the DfE document, the SFA analysis “identified that approximately 10 per cent of apprenticeship providers were receiving an artificially high QAR rate for apprenticeships because of how they were using three loopholes in the methodology”.
Some gained “a significant advantage of more than 20 per cent in their overall QAR”, while other providers “were able to avoid falling below the minimum standard threshold which was 55 per cent at the time”.
The minimum standard threshold for apprenticeships rose for performance in 2015/16 to 62 per cent, which is now above higher level apprenticeship average of 58.6 per cent.
Steve Hewitt, MIS and funding consultant for FE Associates, said: “That’s what happens when you change methodologies. But I think in general it’s a good thing because, if there were organisations that were playing the game to exclude these learners, if there were organisations who were trying to fiddle their data, this is a loophole that has now been closed and that’s good because we all want data to be as accurate as it can be.”
The overall achievement rate for apprenticeships in 2015/16 now stands at 67 per cent, meaning just two out of three starts counting towards the governments 3m target are successfully completing the course.
The DfE document said the “impact is less pronounced” on non-apprenticeship provision.
