Latest news from FE Week | FE Week

Learndirect tops list of European Social Fund contracts with provision worth almost £50 million

Learndirect has come out on top in the race to win European Social Fund contracts, securing 26 deals worth almost £49.5 million, FE Week analysis has shown.

Calderdale College was the second biggest winner, with 13 contracts worth just over £35 million, followed by Serco with 15 contracts valued at £31.6 million.

Overall, 85 organisations won 285 ESF contracts with a total value of just over £446 million, according to statistics released today by the Skills Funding Agency on gov.uk.

Independent training providers scooped a large majority of the contracts, securing 200 out of 285, which made up a total of £305.6 million, or 68 per cent, of the available funding.

This was split between 45 ITPs, who together constituted 53 per cent of all the bodies that won contracts.

After ITPs, FE Week analysis revealed 29 colleges held a quarter (70) of the ESF contracts, valued at just over £127 million.

Local authorities took a significantly smaller amount from the pot, with eight LAs securing just ten contracts (four per cent of the total number), valued at £9.1 million.

The remaining one per cent of the money, £4.5 million, went to other bodies including higher education institutions.

Following Learndirect, Calderdale College and Serco in the top five in terms of total contract size were ESG (Skills), with £24.1 million across 16 contracts, and Seetec Business Technology Centre with ten contracts worth £21.9 million.

The largest single contract went to Economic Solutions Limited in Greater Manchester, with a contract worth £11.5 million for “active inclusion”.

Next was PriceWaterhouse Coopers with a £10.6 million contract in the Sheffield City Region for “enhancing equal access to lifelong learning, upgrading the skills and competences of the workforce and increasing the labour market relevance of education and training systems”.

Then Calderdale College in the Black Country lep came in third with a contract valued at just under £10 million for the same purposes as PwC.

Learndirect, which has previously made FE Week headlines over the size of its subcontracting management fees, secured a £7.5 million contract under the Lancashire lep, while Advanced Personnel Management Group (UK) was granted £6.5 million in the Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire lep for “sustainable integration of young people not in employment, education or training in the labour market”.

On December 7, 2015, the first areas involved in the initial round of invitations to tender for 2014 to 2020 ESF contracts were announced.

The invitations were long awaited, as the previous 2007 to 2013 ESF contracts had closed on July 31, with none going out to tender through the SFA in between.

Then on December 14, 2015, the second wave of invitations to tender for ESF cash was published, totalling £16.2 million. The third round of invitations came out on January 2017.

In this round, one contract was been tendered for each of the first five leps, while a total of 28 were issued for London, worth around £30.2 million.

The other five lep area contracts were collectively worth £7.9 million, making the third round of invitations worth more than £38 million in total.

FE Commissioner intervention report exposes financial turmoil at Hull College Group

A new FE Commissioner intervention report has exposed the grave financial problems facing Hull College Group.

Commissioner Richard Atkins’ (pictured) team was sent in to carry out their assessment, after the Skills Funding Agency issued it with a notice of concern in November last year.

The report, however, only emerged on gov.uk this evening.

It comes after FE Week reported a week ago that the Department for Education was remaining tight-lipped about the cause of the apparent hold on reports, as none had been published since October.

The report on Hull explained that the notice was issued because the college had been rated inadequate by the agency for financial health (based on its 2016 to 2018 financial plan) and as a result of the college’s request for exceptional financial support.

It warned that the senior leadership team had not succeeded in addressing key issues facing the college, including steady decline in financial performance and loss of market share.

There was said to be concern at all levels of the organisation that it “lacks strategic vision and strong, resolute leadership and that this is frustrating and demotivating for staff”.

The section on the college’s financial position warned that “its operating performance, as measured by ‘surplus/deficit after interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation costs’ has amounted to a cumulative deficit of around £10 million over the past four years, and a further deficit in excess of £1 million is forecast for the current year.

“The college has not achieved its budgeted income for any of the last three years.”

It concluded that a “substantial amount of work needs to be done” to secure a sustained financial recovery.

Commenting on the relationship with the board, it said: “Governors do not appear to have been advised on a timely basis, that falling student numbers have not simply caused by adverse demographic trends, but are also the result of loss of market share.”

Concern was also expressed about slow reaction to the many problems faced by the college.

“There is criticism from the corporation and staff that ‘bad news’ is not reported to the corporation with sufficient speed or candour, thus slowing down the ability to take the rigorous actions required to ensure sustainable financial recovery,” the report said.

It also raised concern about staff costs.

“Despite a number of years of staff cuts, on the SFA’s definition, the college’s staff costs are high, at around 78 per cent of income for 2015/16 and a forecast 72 per cent for 2016/17 (as a comparator, the area review benchmark is 60 to 65 per cent),” the report said.

“This level of cost is unaffordable.”

There has been a long-running dispute between the college and the University and College Union, as the college has tried to force through redundancies.

UCU members at the college had been set to walk out on October 13 over planned job losses.

But the union announced the day before that it had suspended the industrial action after “positive talks”.

This followed the college’s announcement that it would make around 70 redundancies and close its three nurseries before the end of the year, to address a £2.6 million deficit.

Since 2011, the college has seen more than 380 job losses through redundancy, according to the UCU.

FE Week reported last week that a stop appeared to have been put on publication of FE commissioner intervention reports.

The previous intervention report, into City of Liverpool College, had been published in October, although the document itself was dated August 2016.

FE Week believes that up to 18 colleges should have been subject to intervention by the FE commissioner and his team since then.

But when we asked about the missing reports, the Department for Education was unable to give any reason for the hold-up, and would only say at the time that these would be available in due course.

Third of employers paying levy in April don’t know it exists yet, according to new report

A third of employers who will have to pay the new apprenticeship levy from April are not even aware it exists, a worrying new survey report has shown.

City & Guilds has today published the results of a poll with 500 senior decision makers on their knowledge of the imminent apprenticeship reforms, carried out last November and December, but alarmingly the responses indicated that 33 per cent of those who will have to pay the new charge knew nothing about it.

And out of those that were aware of the levy, only a third felt “fully informed” about how the resulting employer-led system will work.

FE Week has in recent days also spoken now to the Confederation of British Industry, Federation of Small Businesses , and Institute of Directors, who all expressed grave misgivings about inadequate government communication with employers.

Neil Carberry, CBI director for people and skills policy, said: “Many CBI members have expressed serious concern about the lack of information they have received from the government about the implementation of the Apprenticeship Levy.

“Since the levy was announced in July 2015, it’s taken the government 18 months of 21 available to design and prepare the policy, giving firms a very short window to understand and deliver the new changes.

“Even at this late stage, businesses are still waiting for clarity on crucial details, including the Digital Apprenticeship Service and apprenticeship standards.”

The skills lead at the CBI, which has raised repeated concern about the levy, said it is now “more urgent than ever” that the government “clearly communicates how businesses execute the new scheme and treat the first two years as a transition period to deliver a genuinely employer-led system”.

The Federation of Small Businesses also warned of a “lack of awareness among our members where the levy is concerned”.

The Institute of Directors added that confusion among employers over how the new system will work is “a worry” and it is “vital” the government uses the short time it has left to better explain how it will operate before the launch in April.

Seamus Nevin, head of employment and skills policy at the Institute of Directors, told FE Week: “Unfortunately, the manner in which the system has been designed and implemented has left many employers struggling to understand how it will work and what they have to do.”

The City & Guilds survey, which was carried out between November 18 and December 5 last year, also found that only 31 per cent of the business leaders intend to increase the number of apprentices that they recruit because of the levy, despite this being part of the government’s campaign to ensure 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020.

Additionally, a number of employers will be cutting their overall current training budget to pay the apprenticeship levy, with 15 per cent of respondents cutting other recruitment schemes to pay for it.

Kirstie Donnelly, managing director of City & Guilds, said: “The lack of awareness about the new apprenticeship system among our respondents is a cause for concern and shows that we still have a hill to climb in convincing people about the benefits apprentices can bring to business.

“With just two months to go until the levy begins, it’s vital that everyone in the skills sector and government gets out there and communicates with these less enlightened businesses to help them see the huge potential benefits apprenticeships can bring.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Employers are at the heart of our apprenticeship reforms and have been working with us since 2013 to create the apprenticeship standards and ensure they are high quality and deliver the skills that they need.

“We have also published a detailed levy guide for employers and an online calculator that enables them to understand how much levy they will pay and how they could use their digital funds to pay for training in future.”

The levy, first announced by the government in July, is set at 0.5 per cent of an employer’s paybill.

As outlined in the new guidance, all employers will receive a £15,000 allowance to offset against the levy. This means only businesses with a paybill of more than £3m will pay.

The money raised will be ring-fenced, so it can only be spent on training apprentices and all levy-paying companies will receive a 10 per cent top up on monthly levy contributions.

Breaking: Online apprenticeship service registration opens

The online system that employers will use to manage apprenticeship funds is now open for registration to all levy-paying companies.

A link to the new apprenticeship service was added to the government’s guidance on apprenticeship funding earlier today, ahead of the launch of the apprenticeship levy in April.

All employers who have to pay the new charge from May, with an annual pay bill of at least £3 million, must register for the new system.

It will allow them to manage the financial side of their apprenticeship system, estimate their spend and recruit apprentices through their training provider.

Today’s launch comes after FE Week reported last week that the system, which had previously been known as the ‘digital apprenticeship service’, had been renamed the apprenticeship service.

According to an email from the Department for Education, the new name was a “clear favourite with employers”.

Robert Halfon, apprenticeships and skills minister, said: “Our funding reforms are essential to ensuring that this country works to build a highly skilled workforce for the future.

“Nobody understands the skills employers need better than the employers themselves and that is why we are placing them in the driving seat, to ensure they get the talent they need to grow.

“I have tried the new service myself and am impressed with how easy to use it is. All you need to do is set up an account, so I encourage employers to do it now so they can be ready for the levy coming later in this year.”

Sue Husband, director of the National Apprenticeship Service said: “The apprenticeship levy will come into effect in April 2017 to put apprenticeship funding on a sustainable footing and fund growth in the apprenticeship programme.

“Employers have told us that they want to be in control of their apprenticeship programme and funding. They want to manage it quickly and easily, so we have designed the apprenticeship service to do just that.

“It’s really quick to set up an account, and employers that have already registered during our testing phase have told us how easy they found it.”

In order to set up their account, employers will need to have details of their Government Gateway login details for the PAYE schemes they want to include in the account, as well as details of all organisations that will be making an agreement with a training provider for apprenticeship training.

Employers will also need to work out how much apprenticeship levy they are due to pay, and report this to HMRC for the funds to be credited to their accounts.

The levy, first announced by the government in July, is set at 0.5 per cent of an employer’s paybill.

As outlined in the new guidance, all employers will receive a £15,000 allowance to offset against the levy.

This means only businesses with a paybill of more than £3m will pay.

Ofsted watch: No overall-improvement recognised in tough week for FE

A major adult and community learning provider has fallen to ‘inadequate’, in a week of reports on FE and skills providers that either returned the same or a lesser overall grade.

Essex County Council was found to have serious problems with the teaching of English and maths, as well as having insufficient safeguarding arrangements in a report published Monday (February 6) but based on an inspection carried out in December.

The 12,000-learner provider had been rated as ‘requires improvement’ following its previous inspection in 2014 – down from an earlier outstanding grade in 2009.

The inadequate-overall report noted that council leaders had “taken the decision to end the provider’s provision of 16 to 19 study programmes” as a result of poor performance.

A report on inspectors’ first monitoring visit to The Wiltshire Council following its inadequate rating in December was also published this week.

It noted that the council has decided to end its apprenticeship provision from March, but had not yet developed a strategic plan for its adult learning programmes.

Meanwhile, SEEVIC College been awarded a grade three for the third inspection in a row, in a report published Thursday (February 9) and based on a December visit.

Leaders at the 3,200-learner general FE college were criticised for having “not tackled effectively the most significant areas for improvement identified at the previous two inspections”.

Inspectors found that achievement rates on “too many courses” had declined, and that “too few” apprentices or learners from disadvantaged backgrounds achieved their qualifications.

But the report also noted that a “very high” proportion of learners achieved grade A* to C in GCSE English.

The only independent learning provider inspection report to have been published this week resulted in a one grade drop.

Stockport-based XTP International Limited was given grade threes across the board in a report published Thursday (February 9) but based on an inspection carried out in January.

It found that “the quality of the provision has declined” since the previous inspection in early 2014, as leaders had not “tackled the weaknesses identified” during that visit quickly enough.

Low achievement rates were among the issues highlighted, along with a lack of “sufficiently high-quality training that develops apprentices’ skills and knowledge”.

No inspection reports for sixth form colleges, employer providers or other FE and skills providers were published this week.

GFE Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
SEEVIC	06/12/2016	09/02/2017	3	3

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
XTP International Limited	10/01/2017	09/02/2017	3	2

Adult and Community Learning	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Essex County Council	06/12/2016	06/02/2017	4	3
The Wiltshire Council	12/01/2017	06/02/2017	Monitoring visit

New legal apprenticeships contract between SFA and employers unveiled

The controversial new legal agreement, that employers will have to sign with the Skills Funding Agency to run new apprenticeships, has been unveiled.

FE Week exclusively revealed last September that businesses would for the first time have to sign strict contracts with the SFA – rather than just with providers, as the sector had expected.

The ‘sensitive’ document has now been published on gov.uk.

The key paragraph states: “The SFA reserves the right to recover from the employer any funding paid to a training provider from the employer’s digital account, where the payment of funding or any arrangement between the employer and the training provider does not comply with the funding rules.

“The SFA will act reasonably and proportionately in exercising its discretion to recover any sum from the Employer under this clause.”

This will come into affect with the launch of the new apprenticeship levy, when larger employers made to pay will take responsibility for deciding how they should spend resulting funds stored in their digital account.

Having read the new contract, Association of Employment and Learning Providers boss Mark Dawe said: “While the overarching principles of the levy and delivering apprenticeships are relatively straightforward, the contractual relationship between the SFA, employer, provider and learner is significant.

“This guidance makes clear that the funding is government money with government requirements.

“We are working with AELP member providers to support them in understanding the key elements and also helping our members support and explain to the employers that they are delivering training to.

“As we have previously said, the separate contract between the employer and the provider is equally important and we have already invested in making sure all parties understand their obligations.”

The need for the new contract with the SFA and the employer only came to light when FE Week asked about about an unrelated matter – whether providers paying to access employer levy pots would break bribery laws, an issue which had been worrying the AELP.

In the SFA’s response, they let slip that there would be “agreements between the SFA and the employer” – a condition that has never previously been mentioned publicly.

The SFA spokesperson said: “In the contractual arrangements between the SFA and the employer this practice will be prohibited. This will be mirrored in agreements between the SFA and providers.”

These contracts came as a shock to many involved with FE and skills, given that the government’s message up until then had been that the only financial relationship for employers would be with the provider.

Pippa Morgan, head of group at the CBI, told FE Week at the time: “We are concerned this is only coming to light now… as company procurement process are complex and time consuming to change.

“The outcome of all this needs to be something that enables firms to buy the training they need, while avoiding gaming of the system.”

The levy, first announced by the government in July, is set at 0.5 per cent of an employer’s paybill.

As outlined in the new guidance, all employers will receive a £15,000 allowance to offset against the levy.

This means only businesses with a paybill of more than £3m will pay.

The money raised will be ring-fenced, so it can only be spent on training apprentices and all levy-paying companies will receive a 10 per cent top up on monthly levy contributions.

Gove admits the UTCs experiment has failed

The key ministerial architect of the government’s fast-unravelling policy on university technical colleges has admitted the experiment has failed.

Michael Gove, who launched UTCs in his former role as education secretary from May 2010 to July 2014, acknowledged in an article for The Times that “the evidence has accumulated and the verdict is clear” on the 14-to-19 technical institutions.

The revelation, in the same week that Greater Manchester UTC became the seventh to announce closure since they first launched in 2010, comes after a string of FE Week stories exposing low student numbers, financial difficulties and low standards at UTCs.

Mr Gove conceded: “UTCs were the biggest institutional innovation in vocational education made by David Cameron’s government.

“Technical schools that recruited students at 14 and educated them until 19, each was meant to have a specialism, such as engineering… and a mission to inspire students who didn’t want to follow an academic path.

But he said: “Twice as many UTCs are inadequate as outstanding, according to Ofsted. UTC pupils have lower GCSE scores, make less progress academically and acquire fewer qualifications than their contemporaries in comprehensives.”

He admitted that student recruitment was a major problem for them, and “other schools have seen them as destinations for underperforming children”.

As reported by FE Week on Tuesday, low student numbers have forced Greater Manchester UTC to announce that it will shut its doors at the end of the academic year.

That news came just two months after Daventry UTC announced that it too would close at the end of August, having failed to attract enough students to make it financially viable.

Daventry had previously hit the headlines in May after becoming the first standalone UTC to be issued with a financial notice to improve from the Education Funding Agency – a fact which prompted questions from an angry parent of a pupil at the UTC about when the decision to close was made.

Cambridge UTC was served with an inadequate Ofsted rating in November, with pupil behaviour and poor leadership among the issues highlighted.

In October it was announced that Royal Greenwich UTC would be converted into a secondary school from September – again due to low student numbers – at a cost of more than £13m to Greenwich council.

That news came hot on the heels of Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC becoming the third of the technical institutions to be issued with an EFA financial notice to improve due to apparent lack of financial control.

And in September it was revealed that another UTC, developed in partnership with Burton and South Derbyshire College, was scrapped before it even opened its doors – despite the government having already spent £8m on it.

Ofsted’s former chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw raised eyebrows in July when the previous backer of UTCs warned they needed to make “radical improvement” if the model was to survive.

Lancashire UTC became the fifth to announce closure in May, again due to low student numbers.

In the same month Buckinghamshire UTC became the second – after Daventry – to be hit with a financial notice to improve from the EFA, again due to an apparent loss of financial control.

Central Bedfordshire UTC announced in March that it would shut up shop at the end of the summer, after a lack of “sufficient pupils” left it financially unviable.

That closure came despite Mr Gove asking neighbouring Bedford College to step in and help out following the UTC’s inadequate Ofsted rating in June 2014.

An FE Week investigation in February last year revealed that the 15 UTCs to have been opened between September 2010 and 2013 were collectively running at just 50 per cent of their capacity.

Six of the 15 saw student numbers fall for 2015/16, while just one was running at or above capacity.

A combination of factors, including financial problems, low student numbers and an Ofsted inspection blow, led Black Country UTC to announce in April 2015 that it would close at the end of the summer.

This followed on from a commitment in the Conservative Party manifesto, in April 2015 ahead of the general election, to put a UTC “within reach of every city”.

Here is a full rundown of FE Week reports no UTC closures and their struggles with recrtuitment, Ofsted and financial issues:

February 7, 2017 – Greater Manchester UTC became the seventh to announce closure.

January 30, 2017 – An angry parent of a student “devastated” by the news that Daventry UTC would close in the summer spoke exclusively to FE week about the negative impact it was having on her. He also demanded to know why the school took on new learners even though it allegedly knew it was in trouble.

December 7, 2016 – Daventry UTC trustees announced it was to close in August 2017.

November 28, 2016 – UTC Cambridge was hit with an ‘inadequate’ grade by the education watchdog Ofsted.

October 7, 2016 – We revealed that more than 10 per cent of UTCs are now expected to close, just six years since they were first introduced. It came as FE Week reported that Royal Greenwich UTC would become Greenwich Trust School from September 2017, just two years after it opened as a 14-to-19 institute.

September 30, 2016 – A financial notice to improve has been issued to The Heathrow Aviation Engineering University Technical College by the Education Funding Agency, due to an “apparent loss of financial control”.

September 7, 2016 – A UTC developed in partnership with Burton and South Derbyshire College will never open, despite the government spending more than £8m setting it up, the Department of Education (DfE) has confirmed. Approval for the Burton and South Derbyshire UTC was withdrawn “following low pupil recruitment numbers”.

July 21, 2016 – Ofsted’s former chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw slammed UTCs and told them that they need to make “radical improvement” if the model is to survive. Sir Michael, who had been a champion of the controversial 14 to 19 vocational institutions during his tenure as the education watchdog’s boss, spoke out at the Baker Dearing Conference in London.

May 13, 2016 – The first ever standalone UTC to be hit with a financial improvement notice to be hit with a notice had to draw up a recovery plan and explain how it will increase student numbers, FE Week revealed. The notice to Daventry UTC was sent to trust chair Professor Nick Petford on April 14, but officially published by the EFA on May 6.

May 6, 2016 – UTC Lancashire said in a statement on May 3 it would close for good at the end of this term — just three years after it opened — due to difficulties in enrolling enough students “to secure future financial viability”.

March 10, 2016 – A struggling UTC which had already been rescued by a neighbouring FE college is to close this summer, bosses revealed. Leaders at Central Bedfordshire UTC admitted they had not been able to attract “sufficient pupils” to the 14 to 19 vocational institution to provide a “financially viable experience”.

February 8, 2016 – A special FE Week investigation fund that 40 per cent of UTCs which opened between 2010 and 2013, saw student numbers fall for 2015/16

April 20, 2015 – College sector leaders called for a review of the drive for more UTCs after one of the very first to open announced it was closing — on the same day the Prime Minister visited a UTC to promise one “within reach of every city”. Black Country UTC announced it would be closing its doors on August 31 after a “disappointing” Ofsted inspection and low student numbers.

April 14, 2015 – Governors of the University of Wolverhampton and Walsall College-sponsored UTC, which opened in 2011, announced their decision to close the school on August 31.

April 14, 2015 – The Conservatives announced plans in their general election manifesto to put a UTC “within reach of every city” and increase the use of destination data about FE courses if they form a government again in May.

July 11, 2014 – Hackney UTC announced it was to close.

Digital Apprenticeship Service to be renamed prior to launch

The Digital Apprenticeship Service (or DAS) is due for launch later this month, but will be renamed the ‘apprenticeship service’, FE Week can reveal.

In an email to employer groups, seen by FE Week, the Department for Education said: “The name of the new service through which employers will plan, manage and pay for their apprenticeships has been confirmed as the apprenticeship service.

“This service includes online tools such as Find apprenticeship training as well as a helpdesk and other supporting processes.

“Commonly known as the ‘digital apprenticeship service’ or ‘DAS’ during its development, the delivery team has been testing both ‘digital apprenticeship service’ and ‘apprenticeship service’ with employers during the private beta phase.

“The latter was a clear favourite with employers, coming top in both the testing and the survey.”

An SFA ‘business update‘ said this week: “We have invited some levy-paying employers to register their account on the service over coming weeks.

“We will work with these employers to continue testing and improving the service, before we invite all levy-paying employers to register by the end of February 2017.”

IfA to charge assessment organisations for quality assurance

The Institute for Apprenticeships will charge apprenticeship assessment organisations for external quality assurance of new standards – despite Ofqual keeping the service free.

Speaking during a webinar on Monday (January 6), Peter Lauener, shadow chief executive of the IfA, said that it was acceptable for the Institute to charge for the service because “the principle of a regulator charging bodies in the industry for regulation is not uncommon at all”.

Currently, when employer Trailblazer groups submit their assessment plans for new apprenticeship standards, they must choose one external quality assurance organisation out of four options: Ofqual; the Quality Assurance Agency, which generally deals with higher education qualifications; a professional or sector body, which the Trailblazer group can create themselves if desired; or the Institute for Apprenticeships itself (see slide below).

Mr Lauener confirmed that if the Institute was chosen by employers to provide this service it would charge, but “any end point assessment the Institute provides itself would be provision of last resort”.

“I think we’re much more likely to seek to find someone to do that through procurement than we are to do it ourselves, because we need to be providing the quality,” he said.

FE Week understands the IfA will start procurement for external quality assurance services this month.

Mr Lauener added: “We’ve not got the resource to do the quality assurance role directly.

“It’s open to charge for the service – we want to hear views on this.”

Feedback on quality assurance and other functions of the IfA can be submitted via the Department for Education consultation on the draft operational plan for the IfA, which closes on February 27.

In contrast to the IfA’s approach to external quality assurance, a spokesperson for Ofqual, the government’s qualifications watchdog, told FE Week: “We don’t charge and do not intend to introduce charges for our external quality assurance role.”

So far Ofqual is the only organisation among the four options for external quality assurance to confirm that it definitely will not charge for this service.

FE Week spoke to People 1st, an employment and learning consultancy organisation which will manage external quality assurance for apprenticeship end point assessment in the retail, hospitality and travel industries.

In delivering this responsibility it will be accountable to employer boards for each of the three industries.

A spokesperson for People 1st said: “The retail, hospitality and travel industries have elected to use an employer process for external quality assurance of apprenticeship end point assessment.

“The cost of external quality assurance is currently being finalised, but we have advised organisations that are on, or aspiring to be on, the Register of Apprenticeship Assessment Organisations, that we do not envisage the price exceeding £40 per apprentice at end point assessment.”

Stephen Wright, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, told FE Week the challenges of running “an effective and efficient external quality assurance system” are often “underestimated”.

“We are hearing reports that some of these “employer groups” are controlled by other groups who see external quality assurance as a revenue stream and an opportunity to position themselves as a gatekeeper to the system,” he warned.

“This creates perverse results with over engineered audits, exaggerated fees and preferred providers.”

He added: “Ofqual are certainly not perfect, however they are 100 per cent focused on regulating high stakes assessment, have been doing the job for seven years with an annual budget of between £16 and £20 million per year.

“What resources, systems and experienced staff do employer groups and professional bodies possess? My concern is that these groups will “give it a go” and fail, bringing the whole apprenticeship system into disrepute.”

Mr Lauener, who is also chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency, also said during the webinar that he had not ruled out the SFA charging for certificating standards in future.

The webinar was hosted by Nick Linford and outlined the key features from the IfA strategic and operational plans.

It was sponsored by the FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conference.