Big Listen: Ofsted must enforce ‘humane accountability’, say leaders

An end to one-word judgements and the need for more specialist inspectors with “credibility” are some of the top issues raised by sector bodies during Ofsted’s ‘Big Listen’ exercise.

The wide-ranging consultation exercise, launched in response to the coroner’s report on the death of Ruth Perry, closes at midnight after almost three months.

Ofsted chief inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver said in his first keynote speech in post “every voice will be heard” in the Big Listen and “nothing is off the table.”

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has strongly urged Ofsted to completely remove graded judgements, which it called “the single biggest reform that would alleviate anxiety” in the education system.

Others, including the Association of Colleges (AoC) and the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) both shared concerns about the “high-stakes approach” behind the one-word.

Damaging consequences

Aside from reputational damage, concerning consequences include entering formal intervention, losing out on capital funding or access to initiatives with foreign students.

The SFCA said: “Tweaks can and should be made to ensure that a system focused on accountability is as humane and fair as possible, but a peer review system would be one in which grades are either not given or matter less – both cannot coexist in the format of the current inspection framework.”

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) called for a “wider range” of inspection grades, suggesting the re-introduction of a judgement that recognises whether providers have the “capacity to improve”.

They pointed out that unlike other educational institutions, there is “no second chance” for private providers who receive a grade four outcome, who often see the Department for Education “terminate their funding agreement”.

The Fellowship of Inspection Nominees (FIN) agreed with AELP, telling Ofsted that keeping single-word judgements is “not a huge issue”.

FIN, which represents a range of providers, colleges and universities that are inspected by Ofsted and receive public education funding, said a different word to ‘inadequate’ is “most definitely needed”.

On the well-being of staff at providers following Ruth Perry’s death, FIN said its members have reported “more consideration” from inspectors.

Inspectors’ credibility questioned

But the AoC said the quality, knowledge and “credibility” of some inspectors is a concern for many colleges due to their “complex diversity” of learners.

It said: “Too often, new inspectors appear to not have the confidence to make a judgement, rigidly applying the framework/handbook and lacking flexibility and applying common sense.”

FIN – which based its submissions to Ofsted on discussions and surveys with over 1,000 responses – said it regularly hears that too many inspectors “lack experience” in sectors such as apprenticeships.

One member providing hairdressing apprenticeships reported that an experienced inspector with a college background repeatedly asked questions about maths, English and Prevent during a lesson about the ‘balayage’ hair highlighting technique.

Natspec, which represents organisations that provide further education for students with learning difficulties, said inspectors do not always have a “sufficient understanding” of all learners.

But attempts to help the watchdog “address a gap in expertise” have been “slow”.

Examples the membership body cited included rejecting a proposal to produce a video resource for understanding people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.

Other key themes in the sector bodies’ feedback included a desire for more consistency in inspections and questions over whether the same education inspection framework should apply to every type of provider.

FIN told Ofsted the framework should be “streamlined to reflect different types of provision.

It shared the view of other membership bodies such as AELP, that only funded provision should be graded by Ofsted.

They said: “Reform should follow the principle that if it’s paid for, it should be graded; if it is not in the contract and therefore not funded, don’t grade.”

The Big Listen consultation survey closes at 11.59pm on May 31 and found be found on the Ofsted website.

‘Outstanding’ for Dyson’s axed degree apprenticeships

Dyson’s degree apprenticeship programme has been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, months after the company announced it will drop the programme and replace it with an employer-sponsored Masters degree due to the “onerous administrative burden”.

The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, located in the company’s Wiltshire headquarters, teaches about 120 apprentice employees who are studying product design and development engineering.

Following an inspection in April, the education watchdog heaped praise on the institute for its “highly effective” curriculum that is “exciting, ambitious, coherently planned and sequenced well”.

They rated the institute as ‘outstanding’ in all areas including quality of education, leadership and apprenticeships.

The rating comes as the employer provider celebrates being awarded full degree-awarding powers by the Office for Students and moves away from the “onerous” regulation of degree apprenticeships.

From September this year, the institute will drop the degree apprenticeship and instead offer an engineering master’s to its recruits.

In plans announced in November last year, Dyson said the “heavy (and costly) administrative burden” of the degree apprenticeship means it will “forego” all of its apprenticeship levy funding. It instead “plans to invest at least £250,000” in each of its successor employer-sponsored degree students over their four-year course.

‘Rapid and sustained progress’

However, the institute’s students will continue to live on the Dyson’s Wiltshire research and development campus and follow the same weekly routine as apprentices.

Apprentices – who start on a wage of £22,000 per year – “successfully develop” their skills through the four-year course and make “exceptional progress” in applying their knowledge in their work at the company.

They are taught in “high-quality and well-structured” sessions by knowledgeable lecturers in “excellent facilities and world-class workshops”.

Inspectors said: “Apprentices make rapid and sustained progress from their starting points.

“They develop the skills they need to be highly successful engineers and engineering leaders of the future.”

During their time as apprentices, they transition from “safe, known work to ambiguous problem solving”.

All the apprentices are Dyson employees and study the level 6 product design and development degree apprenticeship.

For two days a week they take part in lectures, laboratory work, tutorials and self-study. They spend the remaining three days on “live projects” in the workplace.

Around one-fifth of the 121 apprentices in the first three years of the programme were 18 years old and a third were female, according to the report.

Apprentices told inspectors they are “proud” to be part of the programme, which builds their confidence and resilience as they learn.

They also benefit from a summer programme that bridges the gap between each academic year and work with different teams during their eight-week work placement in year three.

The institute is also overseen by a council of non-executive directors who “recognise rightly the importance” of drawing a line between apprenticeship provision and the employer.

Director Beverly Gibbs said the institute is “thrilled” about the Ofsted grade and new degree awarding powers.

She added: “These achievements are testament to our dedicated and talented team, to a thriving and engaged student community, and to a vast network of committed executives, line managers, technical mentors and wide-ranging support teams at Dyson.”

UCU staff to walk out of national congress tomorrow

Day two of the University and College Union’s flagship annual congress will not go ahead tomorrow due to a walkout by its own staff.

For the first time in the union’s 18-year history, nearly 200 UCU workers, represented by the Unite union, will go on strike after an Acas meeting last Friday failed to reach an agreement over concerns of workplace racism, workplace stress and breaching collective agreements.

Further and higher education policy motions, which set UCU policy for the year, were scheduled for debate at the national congress in Bournemouth tomorrow but will now not go ahead.

FE motions included strategies for campaigns on teacher pay, workload, adult education funding, gender inequality and the new prison education contracts.

In a pre-recorded speech to congress delegates, her first since being re-elected for a second five-year term, general secretary Jo Grady said the ongoing dispute was “very regrettable”.

“We have some challenges and the ongoing dispute with the staff union Unite is very regrettable. I want to ensure every member and all of our staff that we are doing everything possible to get to a better place and reach a settlement.”

UCU told delegates this morning it was “incredibly sorry” that its congress, which will resume and conclude on Friday, would be disrupted and was working on reaching a settlement with Unite.

No events scheduled tomorrow will take place, including an FE sector conference, fringe meetings and an evening conference dinner.

Instead, UCU employees will protest outside the Bournemouth International Centre, where congress is taking place and hold a strike rally inside the nearby Bournemouth Marriott Highcliff Hotel.

Unite’s UCU branch is hosting a “Not the Congress Dinner Disco”, an alternate evening conference dinner for members and UCU delegates.

In early May, nearly three-quarters of the union’s 182 members of Unite voted earlier this week to strike over UCU’s allegedly “shameful” handling of workplace racism and a breach of collective agreements.

“How can they effectively support Black members when they themselves are not being supported?”

A UCU spokesperson said: “UCU met with Unite representatives on Friday 24 May at Acas and again on Wednesday 29 May in Bournemouth. Although a number of proposals were put forward by UCU management during these meetings in response to the issues of dispute, unfortunately no agreement was reached.

“We are ready and willing to continue talks, including further talks at Acas, to find an agreed way forward on the issues at the heart of this dispute. We remain fully committed to finding solutions and working to create the best possible working environment for our staff.”

Unite said it was not opposed to UCU rescheduling the FE and HE conferences once the dispute was settled.

A spokesperson said: “This strike action is a message to our employer that we want real change within UCU. Unite members are deeply disappointed in our employer’s response so far and are angry that our concerns still aren’t being heard. So today we say enough is enough. 

“We are resolute in our demands for an anti-racist workplace, for UCU as an employer to honour its collective agreements with us and, for an independent investigation into how the organisation is run. We are determined to bring about the change that UCU staff and UCU members so desperately deserve.”

Unite UCU members picketing outside Bournemouth International Centre on May 30. Credit – UCU Ulster

‘Breakdown in industrial relations’

In an email sent out to delegates this morning, seen by FE Week, UCU detailed a response to each issue that Unite members were balloted on.

The union told delegates in an open letter that it was “100 per cent committed” to resolving the dispute and acknowledged that “there has undoubtedly been a breakdown in industrial relations, that cannot be argued”.

“We know that it is upsetting to attend congress in these circumstances, and this is why we are writing directly to you to outline exactly what has happened in UCU,” the email said, signed by the UCU management team.

UCU bosses said they “firmly reject” the claims made by the Black members group in March over the alleged “disproportionate use” of disciplinary procedures with Black staff.

“The policies we have in place at UCU are robust and crucially, developed and agreed with Unite. We do not use them disproportionately,” they said.

UCU added that the details of the independent review into concerns of racism will be confirmed shortly.

Juliana Ojinnaka, a lecturer at Sheffield College and member of the Black members standing committee said the independent review is “a lot of rhetoric”.

“We’ve heard it all, we’ve worn the t shirt and so on, what we want is action,” she told FE Week on strike day.

“We want Jo Grady to put her money where her mouth is. She signed up for TUC anti racism taskforce. She went through the training, but the reality is that she’s not actually rolled it out within her organisation.”

She added that Black UCU members are more likely to be off sick from “day-to-day racism” in their workplace and union.

“In the workplace, day-to-day racism is going on. [Black staff] are the ones most likely to be observed, most likely to have something written against their name,” she said.

“They’re the ones who are going to be brought in at the last minute to cover classes and so on without adequate preparation. And so you’re facing this in your workplace, but also you’re facing it in your union. When you’re off ill you’re not sure whether you’re off because of the workplace stress or the union stress.

“It’s the same thing that’s happening with the members in Unite. So how can they effectively support Black members when they themselves are not being supported?”

Another accusation brought by Unite was over the formation of a separate union by senior leaders, which breached their recognition agreement with UCU as the sole recognised staff union.

UCU admitted “in hindsight” that it should have formally communicated with Unite over recognising another union branch formed by a “significant minority of our own staff”.

“A significant number of UCU staff chose to leave the Unite branch,” the email reads. “Those staff joined the GMB and requested recognition for staff at their grade, indicating that they would not be rejoining Unite.

“The choice for us therefore as an employer was to recognise their new union, as requested, whilst maintaining every process and agreement in place with the Unite branch, or to ignore a significant minority of our own staff. We could not do that.”

Unite members were also balloted to strike over their employer’s “failure to follow the UCU procedure for organisational change”. 

UCU has yet to settle disputes with Unite on a hybrid working policy and a gender identity policy.

Conservatives pledge 100,000 apprenticeship boost

The Conservatives have pledged 100,000 more apprenticeships by 2029 if they win the general election. 

The policy, estimated to cost £885 million by 2029/30, would see apprenticeship starts rise to around 440,000 by the end of the next parliament, paid for by shutting down “underperforming” university courses.

Rishi Sunak

This comes as the Conservatives once again take aim at “rip-off degrees” in a new pledge that would see the Office for Students empowered by new laws to close university courses it deems offer poor value to students and taxpayers. 

Prime minister Rishi Sunak said: “Thanks to our plan, apprenticeships are much higher quality than they were under Labour. And now we will create 100,000 more, by putting an end to rip-off degrees and offering our young people the employment opportunities and financial security they need to thrive.”

Apprenticeship starts, particularly for young people, nosedived since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017. There were 122,750 apprentices aged under 19 in 2016/17, the year before the levy was introduced, and just 77,720 in 2022/23.

For apprentices of all ages, there were just short of 500,000 apprenticeships starts in the year before the levy was introduced, but 337,000 in 2022/23.

Continuing trends

The party have set their numbers assuming the same completion rates and trends on the distribution of apprentices across levels as in 2021/22. In that year the completion rate was just 54.8 per cent, meaning nearly half dropped out. This is despite the Conservative government setting an achievement rate target of 67 per cent. 

It also assumes continuing dominance of more expensive, higher-level and degree apprenticeships predominantly going to older workers.

The Conservatives said their 100,000 apprentices pledge would be backed by new funding and strengthening flex-job apprenticeships in the creative sector.  

This follows the prime minister’s announcement in March that the government would fully fund starts for apprentices aged under 22 in small businesses, eliminating the 5 per cent training fee firms were required to pay. The move boosted the apprenticeships budget from £2.669 billion to £2.729 billion for this year and would deliver an extra 20,000 apprenticeships, the government claimed.

Ben Rowland, chief executive at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, which represents apprenticeship training companies, welcomed the extra funding but said employers had to step up.

“Whichever party finds itself in government there will need to be a commitment to encouraging more employers offering apprenticeship opportunities. After all, if individual employers don’t step up, we will be failing the 900,000 young people not in employment, education or training,” Rowland said.

This is not the first time the Conservatives have claimed to boost apprenticeships at the expense of university degrees. 

Last summer, the Department for Education launched a funding review of over 100 apprenticeships as part of the government’s campaign at that time to “crackdown on rip-off university degrees.”

The Conservatives are now pledging “bold action to replace these degrees with apprenticeships” which they claim will “boost young people’s life chances and stop the taxpayer rip-off.”

Just last week, CIPD became the latest employer body to point out that recent apprenticeship reforms have “clearly favoured those aged 25 and above.”

However, Conservative ministers have consistently rejected suggestions from sector and employer bodies to reform the apprenticeship levy to reverse the decline in young people, lower level and small business apprenticeships.

Further education colleges, which trained 17 per cent of apprentices last year, are among those calling for levy reforms.

Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, welcomed the Conservatives’ 100,000 target but added: “Urgent reform of the apprenticeship levy, ensuring that at least half of the levy should be spent on apprenticeships for new job starters and entry level jobs, would lead to more young people across the country completing an apprenticeship.”

Savings from ‘underperforming’ degrees

Alongside efforts to increase apprenticeship starts, a returned Conservative government would empower the Office for Students with new laws to close down university courses with high dropout rates, poor progression to graduate jobs and poor graduate “earnings potential”.

“Improving education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet for boosting life chances. So it’s not fair that some university courses are ripping young people off,” Sunak said. 

Closing so-called “underperforming” courses would save £910 million, the party claimed, based on 13 per cent of the student cohort.

This has been estimated on the basis of £1.1 billion being saved from the above-average taxpayer offset of year 1 student loans in “poorer quality” courses and then an assumption that 50 per cent of the cohort whose courses have closed going to an apprenticeship, 25 per cent to employment and 25 per cent choosing a different degree.

Gravatt said it was “hard to see” how savings from shut down degree courses would transfer to apprenticeships.

“There is no cap on higher education, so if you shut down some courses which government deems to be low quality, students may simply take a different degree-level course,” he said.

‘Laughable’ says Labour

Bridget Phillipson

Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said: “It is laughable that the Tories, who have presided over a halving of apprenticeships for young people, are now announcing this. 

“Why on earth should parents and young people believe they’ll create training opportunities now, after 14 years of failing to deliver opportunities for young people and the skills needed to grow our economy?”

Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, Munira Wilson said: “The Conservative party has broken the apprenticeship system and this announcement does nothing to address the major issues the sector faces.

“The shockingly low pay for those on apprenticeships will remain, doing nothing to encourage more people to take apprenticeships up or tackle soaring drop out rates.

Cornwall College out of intervention after eight years

The government has withdrawn its financial intervention at The Cornwall College Group (TCCG) after eight years.

Withdrawal of the financial notice to improve (FTNI) was confirmed by the Department for Education on Friday.

However, while the college has welcomed the news, its most recent financial health rating remains ‘requires improvement’ as it grappled with a deficit of £2.3 million last year.

A spokesperson for TCCG said it is “delighted” with the outcome, which comes after five years of “transformative leadership” under John Evans, who plans to stand down in July.

They added: “The Cornwall College Group is now in a strong position, having under John’s tenure secured Ofsted ‘good’, [teaching excellence framework] silver, a multimillion-pound campus redevelopment in St Austell and establishing ourselves as the top performing [general further education] college for education and training in Cornwall. 

“It’s therefore a great time to transition to the new principal and chief executive Rob Bosworth, who will steer the next phase of growth and achievement for the group.”

A decade of financial challenges

TCCG has been in financial trouble for about a decade – beginning with a turbulent period that included the rapid restructure of multiple campuses into a single college group, shrinking funding and learner numbers.

When the Further Education Commissioner first issued the FTNI in 2016, the college group had recorded large operating deficits for two years running.

Its then principal and chief executive Amarjit Basi resigned the same year, amid the the reality of the college group’s acute financial problems and criticism from the University and College Union (UCU) for his £229,000 salary package.

It received an ‘inadequate’ financial health rating after defaulting on loans which the Commissioner said had been taken out at high, fixed interest rates.

The group turned a corner in 2019 after a £30 million government bailout and the appointment of Evans.

In a bid to balance its books, the group sold its 35-year-old Saltash campus – affecting about 500 students – in 2020.

Group’s financial health still ‘requires improvement’

The Commissioner confirmed the withdrawal of the FNTI on May 24 .

Unlike when such notices are issued, they did not publish a letter or report detailing why it is no longer concerned about the group.

According to its most recent accounts, for the year ending in July 2023, TCCG had about 12,000 learners – about half of whom were adults.

It operates across seven campuses in Devon and Cornwall, under five “core brands” include Bicton and Duchy land-based colleges, Falmouth Marine School as well as general, engineering and business focused campuses.

It had a turnover of £55 million, had assets of £39 million and “no long-term debt”.

However, the group’s self-assessed financial health rating remained ‘requires improvement’ and it recorded a net deficit of £2.3 million due to “lower than budgeted” learner enrolments and “extraordinarily high levels of inflation”.

The consolidated loss for the year would have been higher without more than £1 million in pension adjustments and a staff “restructuring exercise”.

For about a month, TCCG held the longest-running open financial notice after City of Wolverhampton College’s notice was withdrawn in late April after 12 years.

Moulton College, which has been on notice for seven years, is now the commissioner’s longest-running financial concern.

Election will delay college pay rise recommendation, AoC confirms

College leaders must wait until the next government is formed before getting a pay rise recommendation for their staff from the Association of Colleges (AoC), it has been confirmed.

Last week, before the general election was called, the AoC told further education unions it would not recommend a staff pay rise to colleges until the government responded to the recommendations of the School Teachers Review Body (STRB).

Gillian Keegan

It’s now been confirmed by the education secretary the government will not publish its response to the STRB on school teacher pay before the general election on July 4. 

The AoC has confirmed it will therefore delay making its pay recommendation. 

In a letter to school unions, seen by sister publication Schools Week, Gillian Keegan said “all government decisions, including a response to the [School Teachers’ Review Body’s] recommendations, will need to be carefully considered in light of the sensitivity of the pre-election period.”

“The government will publish its response in due course, but will not be able to do so during the pre-election period.”

Talks between the AoC and five further education staff unions for the 2024/25 began last week before the general election was called.

A ‘very early decision’ for next government

Now the election has been announced for July 4, the AoC has confirmed it will continue to hold out before making its recommendation.

David Hughes

The AoC is pinning its hopes on the next government stumping up enough additional funding for colleges that will prevent the “completely unjustifiable” pay gap between schools and colleges from getting any wider. 

David Hughes, AoC chief executive said: “The pay gap of around £9,000 between school teachers and college lecturers is completely unjustifiable and needs to be closed as soon as possible, so the delay in setting school teacher pay in turn means AoC will delay making a formal offer in response to the college unions’ claim this year.

“We want to give the education secretary after the election the chance to make a very early decision on school and college pay at the same time, to ensure at the very least that the pay gap does not widen.”

The National Joint Forum of unions, comprised of Unite, UCU, Unison, GMB and the National Education Union demanded a 10 per cent or £3,000 pay rise for FE staff next year. The unions’ pay claim also called for a £30,000 minimum starting salary for college lecturers, matching schools. 

The University and College Union, which is mired in industrial unrest among its own staff, is also pushing for binding national pay agreements, as there are for schools and sixth forms. 

Government won’t be ‘let off the hook’

Daniel Kebede

Leaving the STRB response to the next government, potentially putting Labour on a collision course with unions on day one, was branded a “shameful abdication of duty” by Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union. 

“The STRB process should have been concluded by now, as per the terms set by Keegan following last year’s [pay] dispute. School leaders absolutely need to know what pay award to budget for. Teachers deserve to know what pay to expect in September.”

A college pay deal wasn’t reached last year until September and came following a two-year deal worth £470 million for colleges through their 16-19 education allocations, which Keegan insisted was for staff pay. This meant the AoC could recommend a 6.5 per cent pay award for colleges, matching the STRB recommendation for schools. 

“One of our five general election asks is for the pay gap to close over the next few years and for a starting salary of at least £35,000 to be in place for college lecturers. Making a pay offer now would let the government off the hook in putting right the unfair pay position in colleges,” Hughes said.

Senior leader apprentices ‘lacked resilience’ at ‘inadequate’ provider

A training company has been graded ‘inadequate’ after Ofsted inspectors found its senior leader apprentices lacked “resilience” to complete the course alongside the demands of their jobs.  

Hertfordshire-based London Examinations Board Limited received ‘inadequate’ for its apprenticeships, quality of education, leadership and management and overall effectiveness in a report it deemed “very inaccurate” published yesterday. 

Inspectors visiting the provider, which trained 73 apprentices at the time of the February inspection, said apprentices didn’t have access to enough planned training and “learn most of the intended curriculum on their own.”

Ofsted’s claims that learners don’t have enough access to tutors were disputed by the provider, but complaints were not upheld.

Just over half (42) of the provider’s apprentices were on the level 7 senior leader apprenticeship, which attracts up to £14,000 in funding per apprentice. The rest were on the level 4 and 5 children, young people and families standards. 

“Too many” apprentices miss lessons and drop out of the course early, the watchdog said. The inspection report points to “too few” apprentices developing “resilience to manage the challenges of studying while managing their workplace pressures.”

London Examination Board chief executive, Kevin Johns-Putra, said he felt inspectors treated his provider “like a school or college, doing sixth form or A-levels,” pointing out his senior leader apprentices “run big organisations” so can’t always attend lessons. 

But inspectors said, “Too few apprentices develop strategies and, therefore, the resilience to manage the challenges of studying while managing their workplace pressures.”  As a result, “too many apprentices leave the course within the first year of study and do not complete their final assessments” according to Ofsted. 

Controversial MBAs

Achievement rates at London Examinations Board were “hindered” because apprentices dropped out once they had achieved the MBA qualification but before the required end-point assessment, the provider claimed.

The MBA was dropped from the two-year senior leader apprenticeship for new starts from March 2021 following concern employers were using apprenticeship levy funds to subsidise Master’s degrees for their managers. 

The average achievement rate for senior leader apprenticeships in 2022/23 was 56.3 per cent, slightly higher than the national average for all apprenticeships of 54.3 per cent, but 11 percentage points lower than the government’s 67 per cent target. 

Completion volumes at London Examinations Board were too small to be published in the government’s national achievement rate tables.

The provider said “more than 67 per cent” of its apprentices achieved the MBA qualification in time but “many” refused to then go through the end-point assessment. 

The Education and Skills Funding Agency can terminate a training provider’s contract following an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted judgment. London Examinations Board said it had not been notified of a contract termination at the time of going to press.

Senior leader apprentices at London Examination Board can choose to “top-up” their senior leader apprenticeship to an MBA with University of Gloucestershire or University of South Wales “for a small additional fee.”

‘Very inaccurate’ report

Johns-Putra said he exhausted Ofsted’s complaints process to challenge the report and decided against pursuing legal action due to costs. 

In a statement to FE Week, he said he was “extremely disappointed” with the inspection outcome: 

“There were over 20 inaccurate statements and comments that we raised from the draft report, none of these factual inaccuracies were accepted by Ofsted.

“Ofsted did not recognise that our achievement rates were seriously hindered by the old Master’s degree senior leader standard where achievement of a Master’s degree was compulsory before apprentices could undertake end-point assessment.

“While we recognise that we have areas for improvement, there have been many positive areas we have implemented effectively but these were not reflected in what we feel is a very inaccurate report”.

Johns-Putra claimed Ofsted’s criticism that tutors do not provide apprentices with enough “well-planned training or support” was inaccurate because they have access to tutors “at any time.”

Inspection reports continue to be published during the pre-election period. 

Ofsted was approached for comment. 

Reviewing post-16 qualifications is a start – but it’s not enough

Introduced in 2020, T Levels are vocational qualifications aimed at 16- to 19-year-olds, which provide hands-on experience via industry placements alongside class-based learning for topics such as agriculture, manufacturing and engineering.

Badged with benefits for both students and employers, such as industry insight, real-life learning, early access to a talent pipeline, improved innovation and increased productivity, you would think – and hope – that they’d be in high demand. However, figures have shown uptake and completion of courses has been slow.

Last week saw the government announce a post-16 qualification review update and the introduction of new technical qualifications, including a new engineering qualification – but is it enough?

Parent choice

Technical education is key to ensuring students get exposure to the right skills and qualifications in preparation for them joining the workforce. It’s also an important step in raising awareness that university is not necessarily the best route for all students aspiring to become engineers.

Hands-on vocational courses such as apprenticeships, degree apprenticeships as well as post GCSE T Levels are just as strong qualifications when entering the engineering workforce.

We need to make sure they receive the same respect and prestige as academic routes and are presented as a worthwhile option leading to good jobs when young people make crucial decisions about their futures.

The vocational route holds no lesser value than other traditional academic routes and should be considered as equal. We need schools, parents and businesses to collectively push this message to encourage uptake.

Employer demand

While progress on vocational learning has been made, our latest International Green Skills Survey (2023) revealed a different story.

Near two-thirds (63 per cent) of engineering employers stated that the UK education system does not prepare graduates well for industry – falling substantially behind other nations.

To combat this, nearly half of UK employers suggest more industry placement years and over one-third think more industry-targeted projects will better prepare graduates.

Therefore, more needs to be done to address the current issues in the T Level curriculum and bridge the gap between industry and providers.

More work is also needed to ensure T Level education across the UK is equitable regardless of location. As raised in Ofsted’s thematic review last July, they have varied levels of success across the UK and the quality of industry placements varies considerably across providers.

This is partly due to the location of providers and a lack of overall strategy to engage industry with the skills and education agenda. As referenced by the education committee’s report The future of post-16 qualification “regional variations in economic activity are limiting factors in students’ access to T Level courses and placements, as many industries, such as engineering or media and creative arts, are concentrated in larger cities”.

This remains a real issue and has not been addressed in this latest announcement. It risks undermining the government’s levelling up agenda. Again, this links back to raising the profile of T Levels and the benefits that they can have on regional skill demands in local areas.

Too little too late

The current government skills education starts too late and more needs to be done to introduce skills and particularly engineering education at an earlier stage.

The IET’s Engineering Kids’ Futures report calls for much-needed curriculum reform and to introduce engineering at primary level. Teaching children vital skills in engineering from an early age allows students to understand the real-world applications of subjects like science, maths, and design & technology.

This valuable context is often missing in the current curriculum which is content-heavy and allows very little time for in-depth learning or investigation into topics.

We know more needs to be done to empower more young people to think about what a possible career in engineering and technology could be. Without this there will be no way to future-proof the next generation of engineers and technologists and the UK’s skills gap will continue.

The model that could make CPD greater than it is

In 2022, Milton Keynes College Group won a government contract to run a professional development programme for post-16 English and maths teachers and called it the Greater Than Network.

It was a new model of continuing professional development (CPD), so a few months were spent setting up and recruiting a network lead. They then built up a membership of colleges across four different regions, delivered some well-received CPD including a sold-out face-to-face conference, and hit their engagement targets.

Sadly, the network closed this February, but the model has great potential and should be considered as a way to run a professional development programme in future.

My colleague at Sheffield Hallam, Sarah Boodt and I were commissioned to conduct the evaluation of the Greater Than Network. We worked on it from March 2023 until the programme closed. (In fact, I was a governor at Milton Keynes College Group from 2016 to 2023, so I was involved in the evaluation from the bidding stage.)

The Greater Than Network was one of a series of programmes commissioned by the Department for Education and intended to provide CPD to teachers and leaders of post-16 GCSE English and maths resits.

The funding was due to run from autumn 2022 until March 2025, but DfE took the decision to end the contract in February 2024 and the network closed when funding ceased.

The Greater Than Network was a different kind of CPD. It was neither a content-heavy traditional programme nor a fully informal teacher-led network. It was designed to create a space where English and maths GCSE resit and functional skills teachers and managers felt they belonged.

The intention was that some of the CPD would be driven by Milton Keynes College Group, that the network lead would encourage staff across the network to share, and that an individual at each college responsible for the link to the network (typically a manager) would encourage their staff to engage, either by sharing their good practice or asking for support from others.

All the indicators we accessed showed that the programme was working effectively

The network would facilitate the development of communities of practice and would be sufficiently flexible to adapt to new information, while also having a structured programme of CPD. The intention was a regular learning and discussion forum with some in-person events.

All the indicators we were able to access (mostly feedback surveys and some interviews with college, but also some session observations), showed that the programme was working effectively.

There were some regular attendees, teachers and managers were beginning to plan their college contributions, and the only full-day conference was sold out. It achieved its first-year targets around numbers of participating colleges (32 against a target of 30) and engaged individuals (690 against a target of 500).

The intended model had to shift to accommodate changing priorities. More CPD than had originally been planned was directly delivered by staff at Milton Keynes College Group. The stipend that had been intended to be shared equally among members of the network to make participation as easy as possible had instead become claimable only against specific receipts and expenses.

In addition, a planned autumn conference was cancelled at short notice, and there was a perception that there was too great a focus on digital which is unsurprisingly integral to the Milton Keynes College Group way, given it is the home of the Microsoft-backed South Central Institute of Technology.

Although the programme took time to get going, it is our feeling as evaluators that it showed promise. It was an interesting contribution to the range of CPD currently available to FE staff, one which aimed to empower teachers and managers in member colleges to present their own good practice, experiments and challenges in a supportive environment.

It was certainly an innovative addition to the FE CPD landscape, and a successful one. Future CPD programme developers and commissioners should consider developing the model further.

More information can be found in the evaluation report here