Latest news from FE Week

Investing in skills: a Keynesian approach for the 21st century

Neil Carmichael told our sister paper FE Week that before he lost his seat in Parliament, his next plan for the Education Select Committee was going to be “a big piece of work on training and skills”. Here he outlines his vision

When the United Kingdom leaves the European Union in 2019 the economy will require a significant overhaul to even come close to delivering our current standards of living. Indeed, a key test of the success of Brexit will be the impact it has on family and personal income.

This will be no small task when the UK’s relative economic success over the last 20 years has been shared by too few.

To her credit, the prime minister appears to get that a more interventionist approach may be necessary, and her government has already recognised this, in part, by formulating a new industrial strategy. It is rightly ambitious, and has encouraging parallels with the active economic management pursued by Edward Heath’s government as it prepared the economy for the opportunities that lay ahead as members of the European Economic Community.

Mr Heath’s endeavours were rooted not only in consensus politics but also in the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, at a time before monetarism was in vogue and when concerns about economic productivity were as paramount as the need for the economy to compete in export markets.

The modern economy will require greater investment in teachers

Keynes was an all-encompassing thinker who encouraged governments to invest in public areas in order to stimulate economic activity. This was often manifest in huge infrastructure projects, a theme that has seen a welcome return in the industrial strategy.

If we take Keynes as our guide, we must, of course, take into account the new economic circumstances we face. The education select committee recently visited South Korea and Finland, and its experiences provide a revealing insight into what might lie ahead for the UK economy as we leave the EU.

Both Finnish and South Korean economies were in dire straits at around the same time. Finland emerged from the Second World War shattered and adrift, while South Korea was created after another gruelling conflict saw the partition of Korea during the early 50s.

Both countries were unable to rely on natural resources or raw materials to rebuild their economies. But they came to the same conclusion: maximise the potential of their people. Their fledgling governments had an unerring focus and commitment to investing in education and training as a way to drive economic growth and raise living standards.

Today, the success of this strategy endeavour is obvious to all as they have built innovative, productive and resilient economies. While both countries have encountered occasional economic bumps, their ability to respond effectively remains impressive and is an example many other nations would dearly love to emulate.

Returning to Brexit, one of the reasons Leave won the referendum was because of salient concerns over immigration and, in particular, the sense that jobs were going to foreigners rather than locals. There are, of course, record levels of employment in the UK but there was a truth to this charge – mainly due to a skills shortage that necessitated foreign labour to keep British businesses competitive.

The newly coined ‘just-about-managing’ designation illustrates this conundrum, as such people may often lack the skills to advance into higher-paid jobs.

To make the best of Brexit and, indeed, to address some of the primary factors in the Leave vote, the government should be considering a game-changing approach to education. Investment in the Keynesian way should be uplifted, alongside major structural reforms to ensure UK workers have the skills we need to push our economy forward. This could be a new brand of Keynesian economics fit for the decades ahead.

Our economy will benefit in multiple ways. Equipping our people with the skills and know-how to be successful in the modern economy will require greater investment in teachers and trainers – following in the footsteps of Finland and South Korea – and ensuring they are granted higher status.

The challenges are not new; governments and policymakers have grappled with them for some time. But more than ever we now have an obligation not to add a learning deficit to those in our country who feel they are already suffering from an economic one.

Neil Carmichael is a former MP, and chair of the education select committee

Salon hosts gentleman’s-only day to raise awareness of male cancers

Hairdressing students have raised awareness of male cancers by hosting a gentleman’s-only fundraising day at their college salon.

The group from Leicestershire’s Brooksby Melton College offered barbering services ranging from beard and moustache trimming to haircuts and scalp treatments.

For each treatment, the level three hairdressers asked for a minimum donation of £1.50, which will go to Orchid, a leading UK charity that funds pioneering research into testicular, prostate and penile cancers.

To date, the charity has awarded over £16 million in research grants.

Alongside treatments, clients were also provided with cake and refreshments, with everyone who made a booking in advance entered into a prize raffle.

By the end of the day, the team managed to raise over £100, exceeding their fundraising target.

Emma Balch, a hairdressing lecturer at the college, said: “Our aim was to raise between £50 and £100 on the day for the charity.

“The event also ties together well with their qualification, as they are required to organise a promotional event for one of their assessments.”

Main photo: The college salon

Government banning major levy provider will send a strong message to the sector

The ESFA should be applauded for taking swift and tough action against Talent Training.

I expect this story and the associated concerns will be a hot topic at the upcoming AELP conference, but to be clear there can be no grey areas over how levy money should be spent.

It must all be used for training and assessment of the apprentice it’s linked to, and any attempts to hive off cash through employer inducements has to be cracked down on.

The National Audit Office has already warned it is worried the reformed apprenticeship system is wide open to abuse.

Our investigation, which I’m extremely proud of, exposed one such attempt at foul play – involving a major independent provider that previously had a good relationship with the government.

Let’s hope that lessons are learned through the internal investigation Talent is now carrying out.

The government and the sector as a whole must be on our guard. The new apprenticeships system, which has benefitted from a huge amount of welcome publicity and support from ministers, will be fatally undermined if the NAO finds widespread malpractice in the coming months.

Second consecutive grade four Ofsted for previously ‘outstanding’ college

A former ‘outstanding’ college has been hit with a second consecutive ‘inadequate’ rating from Ofsted in just 15 months.

Mid-Cheshire College was slammed by the education watchdog in a report published last March, which plummeted the college from the highest to the lowest overall grade.

It followed a respite period of eight years from the inspectorate after being rated ‘outstanding’ in 2008.

But a new report published this morning has again lambasted the college’s performance.

Grade fours were given in five of the seven headline fields Ofsted judge.

Inspectors criticised governors and senior leaders who have “failed to improve areas identified as weak at the previous inspection”.

“Since the previous inspection the senior leadership team has frequently changed and very recently another new senior team has been appointed. High staff turnover and sickness have negatively affected students’ outcomes, which remain low and are below that of similar providers.”

Richard Hollywood stepped down as the college’s principal in June last year following the grade four.

Nichola Newton is described in the latest report as acting principal.

The report also took note of the college’s “very weak” financial situation.

A financial notice of concern was delivered by the government last year, after the FE Commissioner said the college planning a merger with Warrington Collegiate was “now in a weak position” and it should “now seek a merger with a strong partner while there is time to do so” to survive.

But its proposed new partner, Warrington Collegiate, isn’t in a particularly strong position itself after it also received a financial notice of concern and received a ‘requires improvement’ judgement last February.

Today’s report on the 2,600-learner Mid-Cheshire College added that the quality of teaching, learning and assessment remains “inadequate”, and the quality of the apprenticeship provision “has declined”.

“Teachers’ expectations of what students and apprentices can achieve are still too low in too many subjects,” inspectors said.

“Too few students meet or exceed their minimum target grades. This is particularly the case for full-time level three students aged 16 to 19, where around half are not expected to achieve their minimum target grade this year.”

The proportion of adults who achieve their qualifications has also declined since the previous inspection, Ofsted said, while the number of students and apprentices in the current year who have left their course without achieving their qualification is “too high”.

However, Ofsted did say that the college’s students and apprentices “develop their self-confidence well”, as well as the vocational skills they need for work.

Students and apprentices were also said to “behave well and are respectful” to each other and their teachers.

Ms Newton said the college was “absolutely determined to win back the confidence” of the local community.

“We acknowledge the findings of the Ofsted inspection and, whilst there are a number of aspects that need to improve, we are pleased that they have indicated that, ‘students and apprentices develop their self-confidence well’ and that ‘students and apprentices develop industry standard skills and knowledge that prepare them well for work’.”

She went on to tell FE Week: “Mid Cheshire College is set to merge with Warrington Collegiate in August 2017. In this endeavour, we have appointed a new leadership team, many of whom have been working at Warrington Collegiate and have an outstanding track record of improving teaching and learning and learner outcomes.

“Their experience and skills are already being used to good effect as they work with colleagues at Mid Cheshire College to maximise learner outcomes this year.”

Festival of Skills: Apprenticeship starts ‘a quarter’ of what they were before May

Members of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers have reported apprenticeship starts in May falling to around a quarter of what they were before the reforms kicked-in, according to the organisation’s boss.

Mark Dawe gave eager listeners the latest on apprenticeships in a session at 2pm on the first day of the Festival of Skills. His speech included the warning over falling starts.

He said AELP doesn’t “know the official figures yet, but it would appear there has been a dramatic fall in the number of starts in apprenticeships”, because of the changes to funding in the apprenticeship reforms.

Some providers have said their apprenticeship starts have dropped to zero, he added, though certain sectors, such as digital, had continued to progress well.

Meanwhile, levy-paying employers were said to be taking their time to get off the ground, with many dipping their toes in the water through running pilot schemes.

Mr Dawe said this problem was being driven by concerns that small and medium sized employers were being pushed out of apprenticeship delivery, due to the introduction of the levy in April.

“We’re seeing in the non-levy world, a number of pressures coming in,” he said.

“Sectors are saying they are not going to contribute to 10 per cent employer funding, we’re seeing funding being squeezed by the government at the moment so training providers aren’t able to deliver as much as they used to and that’s putting on downward pressure.”

Festival of Skills: Start assessing as apprentices begin, providers told

Providers need to assess new apprentices’ skills as soon as they begin training in order to establish a baseline for measuring progress, the education watchdog has said.

Chris Jones [pictured above], Ofsted’s specialist adviser for apprenticeships, explained that the lack of qualifications within new apprenticeship standards has led to an “unintended consequence”: trainers will miss out on information vital for tracking apprentices’ development.

Speaking at FE Week’s Festival of Skills on June 22, Mr Jones said: “If an apprentice is not doing a whole set of units as they go through an apprenticeship then all those measures that we have in frameworks disappear.

“In a progress review with an apprentice, we can’t say ‘make sure next time I come you’ve finished unit 35’ – it isn’t going to work anymore.”

In a couple of years, he suggested, there might not be any be reliable national data to work with for apprenticeship standards.

The percentage of apprenticeships standards without qualifications is expected to rise.

In March, FE Week reported that more than a third of the apprenticeship standards the government had deemed ready for delivery involved no funded qualifications other than a final assessment.

While the standards had end-point assessments in place, they do not provide the apprentices with the chance to accumulate qualifications as they move through their training – as was the case with the previous apprenticeship frameworks, he said.

In light of this, he advised providers in the audience to properly assess students’ skills from the very beginning, so they would have a baseline against which to measure their progress.

Mr Jones added that this needed to go beyond just measuring English and maths, to give a clear indication of how capable the apprentice was in a range of areas relevant to the occupation before they began their course.

“It has to be much more about those starting points – it is vital that providers assess the knowledge and skills that apprentices bring with them,” he argued.

“Too often, currently, the only assessments that are recorded for an apprentice as they start their apprenticeship are their English and maths skills.

“Without qualifications to show a measurement of achievement in skills, what else are we going to use to measure that?”

Establishing a definite baseline would mean “then we all together can make a judgement about how far they’ve progressed from their starting points”.

Mr Jones also said that, for Ofsted inspectors, the importance of learners’ progress was “weighted equally” with actually achieving qualifications.

He spoke twice at the first day of FE Week’s Festival of Skills, part of the Telegraph Festival of Education held in the beautiful setting of Wellington College, founded in 1859 in Crowthorne, Berkshire.

The event was attended by over 3,000 delegates on Thursday June 22 and Friday June 23.

Day one of the festival was introduced by the actor and comedian Hugh Dennis and also included a lively City and Guilds panel quiz debate, chaired by managing director Kirstie Donnelly, who was incidentally celebrating her 50th birthday at the event.

Other sessions were led by Ben Blackledge, the director of education and skills competitions for WorldSkills UK, who spoke on ‘Going for Gold in Apprenticeships’, and FE Week’s very own Nick Linford, who gave his best tips on finding efficiencies in 16-to-19 study programme funding.

Throughout the busy day, delegates were treated to live music, delicious food, including ice cream to match the stunning weather, and a wide range of engaging stands where they were able to meet the festival’s exhibitors.

FE Week would like to thank everyone who attended or who took part and helped to make the occasion such a success.

Government urged to do more to rescue struggling UTCs

Far more needs to be done by the government to support its struggling University Technical Colleges programme, a new report by the National Foundation for Educational Research has warned.

The document named ‘Behind the Headlines’ analysed the UTC programme so far, acknowledging that “the introduction of UTCs has been very challenging”.

It identified six areas for improvement that would “help [UTCs] establish themselves and thrive”, and tackle ongoing issues such as under recruitment.

This comes with the UTC project is widely accepted as being under the cosh: seven have either closed or announced their intention to do so, suffering from the requirement to recruit at 14.

The new report’s authors, Kelly Kettlewell, Daniele Bernardinelli, Jude Hillary and Claudia Sumner, warned the government that unless UTCs get more support to overcome their “inherent challenges”, they will “continue to struggle and be vulnerable to closure”.

They concluded that without changes, this could “damage the credibility of the technical / vocational sector” over time.

“If the government is not prepared to provide this support, it might be best for it to reconsider the rationale and purpose of UTCs,” the report said.

The first of NFER’s recommendations proposed the government should “independently assess students attending UTCs at the point of entry” to ensure their progress can be accurately monitored from the start.

However, the report did not suggest the pool of students UTCs draw from is drastically different to mainstream schools in their area.

For example, the proportion of year 10 students at UTCs who are eligible for free school meals “broadly reflects” the proportion of the same group of students within the UTCs’ local authorities.

Differences include the fact that UTCs’ year 10 intake has been on average than “more than 70 per cent male” – though the gender balance was fond to be “improving slightly”.

The absence rates of future UTC pupils were also found to be higher than their peers, suggesting “many UTC students may have faced some challenges in terms of engagement in school”.

But overall, “successive year 10 cohorts in UTCs have broadly similar average prior attainment to students in other mainstream secondary schools,” suggesting UTCs are generally not taking on cohorts that are more disadvantaged or less able.

Other proposed changes in the report focused on adapting aspect of the current system to fit UTCs better – despite their relatively recent entrance into the education landscape.

The NFER report suggested that headline accountability measures should be examined to check how well they “fit with the curriculum and purpose of UTCs”, with an open mind to “how the existing measures might be adapted or complemented with additional measures”.

UTCs should then have performance carefully monitored with “more appropriate performance measures”.

Non-accredited technical and vocational qualifications on offer in UTCs should also be identified, it said, and guidance provided about suitable accredited alternatives – if necessary, developed from scratch with awarding bodies.

Further reviews should take place to identify any “other disincentives in the system” which may be “hindering UTCs from recruiting pupils”, the report found, with appropriate action subsequently taken to “ensure there is a level playing field”.

Finally, the report suggested “research into higher attaining UTCs to identify why they are more successful”, with the aim of looking at how they can be “further supported” and their good practice passed on to new UTCs.

FE Week asked the Department for Education if it would comment on any of the NFER recommendations for improving the UTC programme.

A spokesperson said: said: “The best UTCs provide excellent technical education equipping young people with high-level technical skills to meet the needs of the UK economy.

“We want to build on that good work by strengthening the programme through partnerships with successful secondary schools, multi-academy trusts and raising awareness of UTCs among parents and pupils.”

A spokesperson for the Baker Dearing Trust, the body that runs UTCs, said the report’s findings are “encouraging” and show that the UTC model “is now starting to work, despite a number of barriers, some of which are reflected in the NFER analysis”.

She added: “The Department for Education is already considering many of the recommendations set out in the report. We look forward to working with them on the programme of reform of technical education as announced in the Queen’s speech.”

An FE Week investigation in April found that learner numbers had dropped this year at two-third of the UTCs that opened in 2014 or before.

As reported by FE Week in March, 11 out of the 20 UTCs inspected so far by Ofsted had been rated as ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’. Since then one more has been awarded a grade four, and three more have been given grade threes – while one bounced back from a grade four to a grade two.

£10 million refund claims expected from colleges as HMRC accepts euro VAT ruling

Colleges will be exempt from VAT on important training supplies following a landmark European Court of Justice ruling – with refund claims expected to amount to £10 million – FE Week can reveal.

A long-running dispute with Brockenhurst College and the taxman, centred on whether supplies for the college’s training restaurant was exempt from VAT, is still awaiting final resolution through the UK courts.

But Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs Service today confirmed to FE Week that it had already accepted the consequences of a European court judgement, delivered last month on the case, that these “may be regarded as supplies ‘closely related’ to the principal supply of education”.

The judgement added they should “accordingly be exempt from VAT”.

A legal expert has now told FE Week that this will set a costly precedent for the government, as HMRC confirmed colleges can now start applying for refunds.

The Times newspaper had published a report on the court case, which prompted FE Week to ask HMRC today if all colleges would be exempt from paying VAT for similar facilities, like hair and beauty salons, in the future.

A spokesperson said in response: “The [EU] court found that Brockenhurst’s supplies of catering and theatre performances were not made to earn income, so were not in competition with other providers.”

“This is why they were exempt from VAT. HMRC will apply the guidance of the court to that case and to any other case in the same circumstances.”

The HMRC also confirmed that colleges are able to apply for refunds if they feel that they provide services in the same circumstances as Brockenhurst. These claims will be capped at four years and may be subject to verification, the HMRC said.

Noel Tyler, director of VATangles, the VAT consultancy which advised Brockenhurst College, said he expected the refunds to reach up to £10 million.

“Colleges will absolutely be able to apply for refunds,” he said. “They will be able to go back four years and recover such claims.

“I would say anything up to £10 million will be claimed. Anything from £20,000 to £250,000 for individual colleges [could be claimed].”

Mr Tyler added: “This is extremely good news for the sector.

“It is indicative that HMRC policy with regards to a lot of things in FE is wrong and needs to be amended.”

Limor Feingold, vice principal and director of finance at Brockenhurst College, said he was “delighted” by the ruling.

But he added: “Questions remain with regard to the interpretation of competition and the VAT status of specific students.

“As these questions will still have to be answered by the UK courts, the college is not yet counting its chickens in terms of VAT refunds from HMRC.”

In the European Court of Justice’s summary of the case proceedings, the judges also wrote that the ruling would apply “provided that those services are essential to the students’ education and that their basic purpose is not to obtain additional income for that establishment, by carrying out transactions which are in direct competition with those of commercial enterprises liable for VAT”.

The court agreed with the arguments made on behalf of the college, that VAT was not due on the income generated from areas such as the training restaurants or hair and beauty salons, where members of the public pay for services supplied by students as part of their courses.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “VAT is a complex issue and a big cost for Colleges. It is helpful that HMRC have confirmed they will refund claims to colleges in a similar position to Brockenhurst, but some colleges may struggle to prove that their catering outlets are not competing with local commercial cafes and restaurants. The long term issue is to secure a post-Brexit VAT system which reduces the number of anomalies and allows college funding to be spent where it should be – on students and learning.”

‘Maximum disruption’ criticism of strike picket line planned for enrolment day

Striking union members have been criticised for trying to cause “maximum disruption to the community”, by taking the unusual step of holding their industrial action on a college’s weekend enrolment day.

The University and College Union announced today that strikes will take place at the Willesden and Wembley campuses of the College of North West London, on Wednesday (June 28) and Saturday (July 1), in a row over the sacking of their colleague.

The union openly admitted that the aim of the latter strike will be to “disrupt an enrolment day for students looking to start courses in September” – with potential learners and their parents likely to come into contact with picketing staff.

It provoked a college spokesperson into saying: “It is disappointing that UCU has chosen to target key dates in the college’s calendar for this action, particularly on the Saturday which appears to have been chosen in order to cause maximum disruption to the community.

“We will be doing everything possible to minimise disruption to learners on Wednesday and will proceed as planned with our enrolment day on Saturday.”

FE Week invited the union to respond to this criticism.

Una O’Brien said that while any walk-out is a last resort, “effective strike action is supposed to cause disruption”.

“The college would be best off focussing its efforts on resolving the dispute, rather than sniping about the action union members feel they have been forced into,” she said.

UCU members have already walked out twice in support of mathematics teacher Indro Sen, who the union said was suspended in October 2016 while representing a former colleague at an employment tribunal.

A union spokesperson said: “The college says that Sen did not have time off to attend the hearing and that representing his co-worker amounted to gross misconduct. UCU feels that the college is using this as an opportunity to sack Mr Sen for his trade union activities.”

The college firmly denied this allegation.

“Mr Sen was not dismissed for representing a colleague at a tribunal, but for gross misconduct following a disciplinary investigation and hearing in line with established procedures, which included an appeal,” the spokesperson added.

“The college rejects any suggestion that Mr Sen’s dismissal was the result of anything other than the disciplinary matter mentioned above.”