UCAS scoring plan for apprenticeships draws criticism

Plans to integrate apprenticeships into the university admissions points system are a “missed opportunity”, university groups have said.

Under the proposals people with level 3 apprenticeships are awarded up to 112 points in the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) applications system from September.

Points would be calculated based on the duration of an apprenticeship set out by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE).

But in its response to the consultation, which closed on June 20, the University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) said the plans were “well-meaning” but had “pitfalls”.

And the University Alliance, which represents 16 professional and technical universities, called the proposals “an unforced error”.

Both bodies prefer the model used in Scotland which applies credit values to apprenticeships.

UVAC’s formal response to the proposed UCAS points system, shared with FE Week, suggests a system that gives one credit for 10 hours of teaching. It argued UCAS should build an apprenticeship’s credit number into the standards development process.

UVAC, which represents around 90 universities, HE institutions and awarding bodies, added: “Sadly the proposal, while well-meaning, is a missed opportunity to align apprenticeships with the rest of higher education provision that the sector will regret.”

The University Alliance agreed, and said following the Scottish model would take longer but provide a “better and more sustainable system”.

Other sector bodies such as Universities UK, the Russell Group and MillionPlus did not submit views to the UCAS consultation.

The Association of Colleges told FE Week it submitted supportive comments in the consultation but said apprentices could be demotivated from achieving merits or distinctions if those ratings were not recognised in the points system.

Both UVAC and the University Alliance also raised concerns that grade bands such as merits or distinctions would not be recognised in the proposed UCAS system.

UCAS said the omission was necessary to “ensure fairness” across all four nations in the UK.

But the University Alliance said: “Applying a credit value (a means of quantifying and recognising learning whenever and wherever it is achieved) to all apprenticeships would provide a much more accurate and fairer basis for assigning UCAS tariff points and go some way towards negating the inherent disadvantages of using pass/fail grades in the UCAS tariff.

“We should be striving to reach the same situation in Scotland – where there is a credit value as well as a credit level attached to apprenticeships – in England, Wales and Northern Ireland too.

“This would require a concerted and joined-up effort across the three nations, but there are existing frameworks to build on and opportunities that could be exploited.”

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), which represents hundreds of apprenticeship training providers, said it supported the proposals.

Lindsay Conroy, head of apprenticeships at UCAS, said: “In response to sector calls to allocate UCAS tariff points to level 3 apprenticeships, we developed a model in line with existing tariff methodology and following input from over 60 organisations across the education and skills sector, including universities, apprenticeship providers, employers, schools and colleges.

“We recently invited public engagement on our proposal and received over 200 responses, which we are now reviewing. We will share this feedback with the sector, along with next steps, in due course.”

Writing in FE Week in May, Conroy said UCAS recognised the proposals were not a “silver bullet” but she hoped they would make pathways between apprenticeships and higher education “more visible”.

Who is Bridget Phillipson? 8 facts about the new education secretary

Bridget Phillipson has been appointed as education secretary in Sir Keir Starmer’s first Labour cabinet.

The move was widely expected – the MP for Houghton and Sunderland South has been her party’s education lead since 2021.

Here’s what we know about her

She was born in Gateshead in 1983. At 40, she is one of the youngest people to have held the role, but not the youngest. Ruth Kelly was 36 when she was appointed in 2004. Michelle Donelan was 38 when she was appointed – for just 35 hours – during the political crisis in 2022.

Phillipson has been an MP since 2010. She was elected to represent Houghton and Sunderland South. She is the first MP representing a north east constituency to be education secretary since Edward Short, who served under Harold Wilson in the late 1960s.

She was appointed as shadow education secretary in November 2021, replacing Kate Green. Before that she served as shadow chief secretary to the treasury. She had previously served on the back benches for the first decade of her Parliamentary career.

Phillipson was comprehensively educated. This is fairly unusual for education secretaries throughout the history of the role, although it has become more common in recent years. Justine Greening was the first education secretary to be fully educated in the state comprehensive system when she was appointed in 2016.

She is Oxbridge-educated. Phillipson read modern history at Hertford College, Oxford, graduating in 2005. Attending an Oxbridge university is also not unusual among education secretaries. Damian Hinds, Nicky Morgan and Ed Balls are among the other postholders from the past 20 years to have attended Oxford or Cambridge.

Politics is in her blood. Phillipson has spoken about how she attended Labour meetings as a child with her mother, Claire, a party official. After graduation, she went on to work in local government and then for the charity Wearside Women in Need, which her mother founded.

Election 2024: ‘The British people have chosen change’ – Phillipson

Phillipson has spoken about how her own experience in education shaped her vision for the sector. She wrote in the Guardian earlier this year that “the brilliant state education I received set me up for life and led the shy, quiet girl with the long plaits in the corner of the classroom to where I am today”.

The new education secretary made childcare, rather than schools policy, an early priority while she was in opposition. But she has also spoken of the need to address serious issues in schools, such as crumbling school buildings and the SEND crisis.

Pay protected for NHS staff starting apprenticeships

NHS staff who become apprentices with the employer will not suffer a pay cut under a deal struck with trade unions.

The policy, which came into force on July 1, means existing staff no longer risk a “detriment” to their wages if they begin an apprenticeship with any NHS employer.

The move comes four years after formal negotiations on pay and employment terms for apprentices between unions and NHS trusts stalled.

Apprenticeships are key to the NHS’ long-term workforce plan, published last year, which aims to increase the number of clinical staff it trains through the schemes from 7 per cent to 22 per cent by 2031/32.

A breakthrough came after the pay deal between the government and trade unions that ended NHS-wide strikes earlier this year.

UNISON head of health Helga Pile said: “Previously, existing NHS staff wanting to progress their careers through apprenticeships were put off, or forced to drop out, because some employers expected them to take a cut in pay.

“Now this will no longer be the case, more staff will be able to take up these opportunities.

“Unions will now push the government and employers to go further and agree national pay rates for those starting out as apprentices.

“This would boost the numbers choosing to come into the NHS over other currently better-paid apprenticeship options.”

Prior to the deal, local health trusts could decide what pay rates to set for staff who became apprentices.

However, FE Week understands NHS England does not collect data on how many staff took a pay cut after becoming apprentices.

A summary of earlier talks on the issue, published in 2021, revealed they hit an “impasse” because England’s health trust representative body NHS Employers was concerned about costs.

Employers had argued “high demand” for apprenticeships that resulted in good future career prospects meant lower pay should not be a “barrier” to recruitment but trade unions insisted pay “should not drop” for current employees.

The dispute was referred to the NHS staff council which issued guidance to trusts that staff pay would only be protected if they were “required” to become an apprentice. Pay for staff who voluntarily chose an apprenticeship was “a matter for local agreement”.

The Department for Health and Social Care declined to comment when asked whether it knew how many staff were impacted.

A spokesperson for NHS Employers also declined to comment, citing pre-election restrictions.

NHS England confirmed this month’s policy change was made as part of the pay deal earlier this year.

Call for WorldSkills winner cash prizes

Cash prizes should be considered for winners of WorldSkills awards to bring the UK into line with other countries, industry bosses have said.

An FE Week investigation has uncovered how some countries give money to medallists, including India which has paid up to £7,500, while Chinese and South Korean champions are rewarded with exemption from military service.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Ben Rowland called for the government to “play its part” in honouring competitors with tangible rewards.

He said: “This would raise the profile of WorldSkills and celebrate the achievements of our successful entrants.”

WorldSkills is a global biennial event that involves thousands of young people up to age 25 competing in skills competitions from cabinet making and mechatronics to cooking and landscape gardening. The next competition will be held in the French city of Lyon in September.

Haydn Jakes, who was awarded an MBE a year after winning a WorldSkills gold medal for aircraft maintenance in 2019, admitted returning home felt “somewhat anticlimactic” after being named the world’s best in his field.

He told FE Week: “The level that we are competing at is recognised, and yet very few people outside of my family, friends and employer at the time fully realised the scale of my achievement.”

In previous years Team UK has received good luck messages from education ministers and the prime minister. The team has also been invited to Parliament and Downing Street for send-off and welcome-back receptions.

Asian countries reward big

But in India, which ranked fourth at the WorldSkills 2022 special edition, medal winners and their training managers get cash prizes.

The country’s two silver medallists were awarded 800,000 rupees (£7,500) each and their trainers received 300,000 rupees (£2,800).

Meanwhile, the Malaysian government has agreed to award 40,000 ringgit (£6,700) to its competitors who win gold in Lyon, while 20,000 ringgit will be given for a silver medal and 10,000 ringgit for bronze.

Singaporean education ministers presented their 2023 national final winners with cash prizes of up to 3,000 Singaporean dollars (£1,750) while winning teams were awarded up to 4,500 dollars (£2,600).

In Japan, FE Week discovered a medallist was awarded one million yen (nearly £5,000) by their employer. Japanese winners generally don’t receive government money but are given a certificate and medal from the prime minister.

FE Week understands South Korean and Chinese medallists are granted exemption from compulsory military service if they win gold.

South Korean medallists also get to swerve qualification exams and receive an unspecified monetary reward. And competitors receive annual financial benefits from the “grant programme for continued employment” if they stay in the same field.

In Europe cash awards are less common.

French medal winners are in a similar position to their counterparts here and receive a message of thanks from their country’s president.

However, in the French national finals some regions awarded between 100 and 200 euros to winners.

Germany does not hand out standardised prizes to winners but champions are celebrated with a post-competition event and a personal invitation to the Federal Chancellery.

Cash prizes not ‘main motivation’

Haydn Jakes, WorldSkills Kazan 2019

UK winner Jakes said financial incentives could be attractive but wouldn’t be the “main motivation” for competitors.

Rewards would require funding but WorldSkills UK, the group that organises competitors, has suffered an 8 per cent drop in its government grants in the past five years to £7.6 million in 2023.

A source close to the government told FE Week that finding a budget “however small” needed someone high up at the DfE to “make the effort”.

They added Downing Street officials were “genuinely keen on skills” but “even if Number 10 suggested it, it would pretty much die unless someone in DfE was proactive”.

The source said they “couldn’t see why anything would change post-election”, and added “DfE is basically a schools place”.

Team UK is due to take 31 competitors to the 47th WorldSkills event in Lyon from September 10 to 15.

WorldSkills UK chief executive Ben Blackledge said: “We want to use WorldSkills Lyon and Team UK to show everyone in the UK why they should be excited about the opportunities technical education brings and give every apprentice and student who studies for a vocational qualification the prestige they deserve.”

The DfE declined to comment.

FE Week is the official media partner for WorldSkills UK and Team UK.

Labour’s in-tray for FE and skills

Stopping a ‘bonfire of the BTECs’ and boosting FE teacher pay must be top priorities for the new government’s first 100 days in office, sector leaders said.

On the eve of the election FE Week asked key bodies representing the sector what should top the ministerial in-tray.

Also high on their list was delivering Labour’s proposed apprenticeship levy reforms, establishment of Skills England, and an English and maths resits rethink.

Here are the five top immediate asks from the sector in detail:

Pause and review level 3 cuts

As it stands, 318 qualifications, including popular BTECs, will lose funding from the Department for Education next July as part of level 3 reforms.

Tory ministers believed this would “simplify” and “streamline” qualification choices, steering learners towards A Levels and T Levels.

Labour pledged to “pause and review” the reforms, although this was not mentioned in its full manifesto.

The Sixth Form College Association said the new government must pause the reforms and push the defunding date to August 2027 while it carries out a “streamlined and refocused” review of level 3 qualifications.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) told FE Week defunding BTECs, which are “tried and tested”, would cause more young people to quit education.

Leaders also want Labour to quickly outline whether it plans to implement or bin the Conservatives’ idea of an Advanced British Standard, which is proposed as a baccalaureate to replace A Levels and T Levels. 

Funding rates and the teacher pay gap

Unsurprisingly, the sector wants more funding. Cash is wanted to address real-terms cuts in funding since 2010, a shortage of FE teachers, growing numbers of post-16 students, special needs demands and inflation pressures.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates the next government must find £400 million to sustain 16-to-18 education funding at current levels.

It forecasts funding would remain 9 per cent lower in real terms than in 2010 if per-student rates were maintained.

The Association of Colleges (AoC), which delayed its pay recommendation for college teachers until after the election, said the recruitment and retention crisis in FE was driven by a “£9,000 pay gap” between college and school teachers.

It added: “For colleges to deliver on the government’s ambition for skills and the economy, extra funding must be provided to support better pay, to close those gaps and to attract industry experts and trainee teachers into further education.”

The ASCL agreed, warning that colleges were setting “deficit budgets and planning further cuts” due to unsustainable cost demands.

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said Labour must treat the teacher pay gap as a day-one priority to “show it cares about further education”.

Apprenticeship levy expansion: When and how?

Questions remain over Labour’s pledge to reform the apprenticeship levy as the “growth and skills levy”.

The rebrand, announced by the party’s skills commission in 2022, would mean flexibility for businesses to spend up to 50 per cent on non-apprenticeship training – but details are absent.

The Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) told FE Week any changes Labour made should ensure the interests of all learners and employers are “protected”.

HOLEX said Labour should “rebalance” which age groups are able to access the levy.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), whose members deliver the majority of apprenticeship training, is most concerned about what the government does with some of the collected funds.

It said Labour should “commit to all levy receipts going to the apprenticeship budget from April 1, 2025”. FE Week previously revealed the levy is set to generate £800 million more than the last government allocated for spending on apprenticeships.

Establish Skills England

Another key Labour pledge is to set up Skills England, a body that will “bring together” businesses, training providers and unions with regional and national government.

It would oversee development of a strategy to create a “highly trained” national workforce that meets the economy’s needs.

AELP said the new government must publish a timetable for its establishment that includes time for “consultation on its purpose and structure”.

FAB said all four UK nations need a “long-term, future-ready” skills plan.

Sector bodies also want Labour to quickly appoint a Skills England leader.

And HOLEX wants the government to give the new minister for skills a “government-wide role” that extends beyond the Department for Education.

English and maths

In February, the Department for Education announced plans to introduce additional conditions attached to English and maths funding, including mandating minimum hours for those forced to resit the qualifications and removing a 5 per cent tolerance.

The AoC called for the reforms to be immediately withdrawn ahead of a full review of the resits policy.

The AELP said the new government should also remove functional skills qualifications as an exit requirement from apprenticeships.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 468

Elaine Lilley

Chair of Trustees, Edge Foundation

Start date: May 2024

Previous Job: Chief Executive, Lincolnshire and Rutland EBP

Interesting fact: In her 50th year, Elaine had the opportunity to backpack in Thailand. She discovered the importance of Rough Guides, learned poker from students, and found out how to protect a beach hut during storms when snakes wash down the mountain. Essential life skills!

David Higham

Managing Director, SFJ Awards

Start date: July 2024

Previous Job: Head of Growth and Innovation, Nottingham College

Interesting fact: David is passionate about things with two wheels, so if he’s not out mountain biking in the peak district, he can be found working on his vintage motorcycle that was produced in the year he was born (though he’s not keen on being labelled vintage himself!)

Election 2024: Education winners and losers

Two former education secretaries and two former skills ministers were booted out of parliament in yesterday’s general election.

The Liberal Democrats defeated Gillian Keegan in her Chichester constituency by 12,146 votes, overturning a 21,000 majority.

Michelle Donelan, who famously served less than two days as education secretary, was also ousted by the Lib Dems.

Luke Hall and Andrea Jenkyns both served brief stints in the skills minister post under various prime ministers in the last few years.

Jenkyns, best known for raising her middle finger at protesters outside Downing Street on the day she was appointed at DfE, was defeated by Labour in her Leeds South West and Morley constituency.

Hall, who was only made skills minister in March this year, was defeated by the Liberal Democrats in his Thornbury and Yate constituency, overturning a 12,369 majority.

Labour’s Bridget Phillipson was the first MP to be elected last night. She does not officially become the education secretary until appointed by the prime minister, expected later today.

At the declaration in her Houghton and Sunderland South constituency, Phillipson said a Labour government would be “determined to build a better Britain where background is no barrier, no matter who your parents are or where you were born.”

Shadow skills minister Seema Malhotra and Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson were both re-elected.

Conservative Peter Aldous, who championed the sector as chair of the all party parliamentary group (APPG) for further education and lifelong learning, lost to Labour.

And Jonathan Gullis, co-chair of the APPG on apprenticeships, lost to Labour in Stoke-on-Trent North.

Starmer promises to ‘repair our public services’ after historic election win

Keir Starmer will enter Downing Street later today where he is expected to appoint his first cabinet as prime minister.

The Labour Party won a landslide victory in yesterday’s general election with 412 seats in total and a 174 seat majority.

Speaking this morning, Sir Keir Starmer said: “We did it. Change begins now. A changed Labour party, ready to serve our country, ready to restore Britain to the service of working people.”

Rishi Sunak conceded defeat in the early hours. At his constituency election count, Sunak said: “The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight.. and I take responsibility for the loss.”

Among those losing their seats was former education secretary Gillian Keegan who came second to the Liberal Democrats in her Chichester constituency. (see page 7).

The Conservatives now cross the floor to the opposition benches with significantly reduced numbers. The Lib Dems however bolstered their seats on the opposition benches having ousted Keegan, skills minister Luke Hall and SEND minister David Johnston. 

Bridget Phillipson is widely expected to be confirmed as secretary of state for education later today, but it is not yet clear who will emerge as her junior ministers.

With Phillipson at the helm of the Department for Education, junior appointments are expected over the weekend.

It was also unclear whether Seema Malhotra, who had shadowed the skills brief since September, would take the role in government.

Malhotra was re-elected in the safe Labour constituency of Feltham and Heston overnight. But, unlike Phillipson, Malhotra has not been visibly campaigning on Labour’s FE and skills policies.

Speaking at a rally this morning, Starmer said: “We did it. Change begins now. A changed Labour party, ready to serve our country, ready to restore Britain to the service of working people.”

He vowed to “return politics to public service” and “show it can be a force for good”.

“We have the chance to repair our public services because we changed the party… I don’t promise you it will be easy. Changing a country is not like flicking a switch, its hard work, patient work, determined work.

“And we will have to get moving immediately. But even when the going gets tough, and it will, remember tonight and always what this is all about.”

He talked of the “comfort” his parents took from believing that “Britain would always be better for their children… a hope that working class families like mine could build their families around.

“It is a hope that might not burn brightly at the moment, but we have earned the mandate to relight the fire. That is the purpose of this party and of this government.

“Today we start the next chapter. A mission of national renewal to start to rebuild our country.”

State school cabinet

Analysis by social mobility charity the Sutton Trust found 84 per cent of Labour’s current shadow team attended a state comprehensive school, while 6 per cent went to a grammar school. Just one in 10 were privately educated.

Although Starmer may shuffle some of his top team following his election victory, the proportion of state-educated ministers suggests a sea-change from previous Conservative and even Labour administrations.

FE Week found three cabinet ministers who were educated at an FE college.

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, got a level 2 in social care and took courses in counselling and British Sign Language at Stockton College.

Yvette Cooper, vying to become home secretary today, did her A Levels at Alton College.

And business secretary Jonathan Raynolds studied at City of Sunderland College.

While shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth studied at Bury College, he lost his Leicester South seat to an independent last night.

New MPs will arrive in Westminster on Tuesday where they will elect a speaker and begin to be sworn in.

Newly appointed ministers will begin preparations for the King’s Speech which will take place the following week on Wednesday, July 17.

Legislation announced in the King’s Speech could include a bill to replace the current apprenticeship levy with a skills and growth levy.

Skills England, a new “cross-government taskforce”, will decide what non-apprenticeship qualifications employers can spend their levy funds on.

New ministers will face questions in parliament for the first time on Tuesday, July 23, and Starmer’s first PMQs as prime minister will happen a day later.

The incoming Labour government has been pressed to make quick decisions on level 3 qualification reforms, with college leaders demanding an urgent pause on removal of funding for swathes of qualifications. Colleges also want clarity on the future of T Levels and the Advanced British Standard.

FE Week understands officials are already being mobilised from the Department for Education’s existing arms-length bodies to staff Skills England from as early as next week.

Skills England will also be responsible for helping the new government reduce reliance on foreign workers in key sectors such as construction, health and social care.

And it will be the gatekeeper for a ‘technical excellence colleges’ bidding round in the future.

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak will formally resign at Buckingham Palace later today. Conventionally, leaders of political parties that lose their election campaigns stand down shortly afterwards. Whoever takes over will need to rapidly form a shadow cabinet to replace the likes of Keegan.

Attention will quickly turn to Rachel Reeves’ first Budget and spending review as Britain’s first women chancellor.

Labour was accused of participating in “a conspiracy of silence” during the election campaign over billions of pounds of cuts to unprotected public services including further education. 

The Institute for Fiscal Studies highlighted further education as a sector vulnerable to cuts alongside courts, prisons and local government.

Election 2024: Education secretary Gillian Keegan loses her seat

Education secretary Gillian Keegan has lost her seat in Parliament.

The Liberal Democrats defeated the Conservative politician in Chichester with 25,540 votes to Keegan’s 13,368.

Keegan said it was “not the outcome we wanted, but clearly, the people have spoken across the country and here in Chichester”. 

It comes amid a disastrous night for the Tories, who the exit poll predicts will win just 131 seats, while Labour is predicted to take 410 in a landslide.

Keegan has served as education secretary since October 2022, when she was appointed to the role by prime minister Rishi Sunak. She was the tenth Conservative to hold the role since 2010, and the sixth since the last election in 2019.

Before that Keegan held the apprenticeships and skills brief as a junior minister at the Department for Education from February 2020 to September 2021.

She is among several senior Conservatives who have lost their seats, including House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, justice secretary Alex Chalk and defence secretary Grant Shapps.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.