The prime minister is like a “drunk in a china shop”, according to one motor industry chief, because she claims she does not “recognise” potential cuts of up to 50 per cent to apprenticeship funding.
Responding to Theresa May’s comments, which were made during a grilling at Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, Steve Nash, the chief executive of the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), accused her of being unaware of the damage she was doing to apprenticeships.
Ms May told the Labour MP Richard Burden that “I simply don’t recognise the situation [he had] set out in relation to apprenticeships” after he quoted Mr Nash, who previously described the situation as a “car crash”.
FE Week first revealed contentious cuts of between 30 and 50 per cent in apprenticeship cash for 16- to 18-year-olds in August – a scenario that has sent shockwaves through the further education sector, especially as cuts seem set to fall across some of the most deprived areas of the country.
I simply don’t recognise the situation he’s set out in relation to apprenticeships – Theresa May
In his question to the prime minister, he first asked her to congratulate engineering firm ADI Group for its scheme to boost the interest of 14- to 16-year-olds in engineering, before saying: “Her words of congratulation would mean rather more if they were not accompanied by cuts of between 30 and 50 per cent in apprenticeships funding, a programme which the institution of the motoring industry has described as ‘a car crash’.”
Rattled, Ms May replied: “I, of course, am happy to commend the company that he has referred to, and of course the West Midlands are an important driver in terms of engineering skills in this country, but I simply don’t recognise the situation he’s set out in relation to apprenticeships.
“We’ve seen two million apprenticeships created over the last six years, we’re committed as a government to ensuring more apprenticeships are being created – that’s giving young people opportunities, like the young people I met when I went to Jaguar Land Rover, to learn a skill, to get into a job, to get into the workplace and to get on where their talents will take them.”
According to Mr Nash, her answer was “typical of this administration”.
“They are either deliberately misunderstanding or, like a drunk man in a china shop, they are unaware they’re about to break everything,” he said.
The controversy arose when new funding rates for apprenticeships, which are due to kick in from May 1 next year, were unveiled by the Skills Funding Agency in August.
Analysis by FE Week demonstrated that funding for 16- to 18-year-olds would be slashed by between 30 and 50 per cent, especially in deprived areas.
A large number of the courses currently used by the motor industry, filling around 13,000 apprentice spaces each year, will be subject to significant cuts – a fact which concerns the IMI.
The news has “sparked fears” within the retail motor sector that it will suffer a trainee drought when the cuts are put in place next year, which it says will worsen “an already critical skills shortage across the country”.
“Employers around the country will struggle to get training places for their apprentices under this system,” said Mr Nash at the time. “It begs the question: how this can possibly support the government’s aim to create more apprenticeships?”
The prime minister’s comments followed another grilling, for the education secretary Justine Greening, who was quizzed by MPs about the cuts during an evidence session of the Commons education select committee the same morning.
Asked if she shared the “very serious concerns” about the cuts, particularly in relation to social mobility, she said she would “look really carefully” at the responses to the ongoing consultation.
Star names unveiled for this year’s Association of Colleges annual conference and exhibition include broadcaster Steph McGovern, comedian Ruby Wax (pictured), and apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon.
The annual event will take place from November 15 to 17 at the ICC Birmingham.
FE Week readers will be familiar with conference chair Steph McGovern — not just because she’s a regular on BBC breakfast, but also through her reporting on WorldSkills 2015 from Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Mr Halfon’s first address to delegates, since he was handed the ministerial brief in July, is scheduled for lunchtime on the Thursday (November 17).
Comedian, author and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax OBE will deliver a keynote speech on the previous morning.
This will be the first conference under David Hughes, who took over this month as AoC chief executive from Martin Doel.
Jon Culshaw will also be in attendance at the event. Image credit: Ian West/PA Wire
He revealed, during our exclusive Editor Asks interview last week, plans to share the results of an organisational review to members.
“The last proper review of the AoC was eight or nine years ago and a lot has changed since then.
“The first part is informally asking the members to say what they think. Then to use the annual conference [in November] to formalise it a bit more to come up with some proposals.”
The AoC Charitable Trust Beacon, student of the year, and student photographer of the year award ceremonies will take place on the Wednesday evening (November 16), with impressionist and television star Jon Culshaw entertaining dinner guests.
An AoC spokesperson added: “The Wednesday evening is now a Celebration Fiesta. This is a street party and awards evening combined.
“The Mall will become an AoC-only location where you can choose from a selection of delicious street foods and watch an array of amazing performances by talented college students.”
Reflecting on the wider conference, she added: “The ‘Colleges mean business’ theme threads through the whole programme. We have a range of sessions focusing on success, learning, students, leadership, skills, and opportunities.”
FE Week is the premier media partner for the conference and exhibition, so look out for more reports on what to expect in the coming weeks.
The revelation that there will be contracts proves once and for all that the levy is just another tax, and how employers spend government funding they get in return will have to be carefully regulated.
This is of course entirely understandable, as clear rules supported by a robust audit regime will be required to prevent fraud.
Providers already in receipt of apprenticeship funding understand this, but private sector employers who are naturally wary of signing new government contracts may not be so compliant.
This unwelcome surprise for employers needn’t affect the timetable for next April’s levy launch.
But it will strengthen calls for a delay to the ‘negotiated’ way in which the cash will be spent from 1 May.
Liz Rees knows all about grammar schools — she attended three — but, unlike some prominent politicians, the experience has not made the Unionlearn director a fan of government plans to expand them.
“I just don’t get it,” she says. “They belong to the past, when about five per cent of kids went to university and many left school at 15.
“It seems like misplaced nostalgia, like the campaign some newspaper ran to bring back blue passports!
Selective education obviously did her life prospects no harm, but Rees speaks passionately about the negative impact Prime Minister Theresa May’s new push for more grammars across the country could have on those that don’t make the grade.
“Grammar schools will do nothing for social mobility — and of course, no one is nostalgic for secondary moderns, which are the inevitable consequence of this policy.”
Rees attended three convent grammars between the ages of 11 and 18 because her family moved around a lot. But far from having the destabilising effect one might expect, Rees says that not staying in the same place made her “very independent” and “good at making friends”.
These qualities translated directly into the workplace, by all appearances. Rees’ first job on graduating from university was at Essex County Newspapers, as a telesales worker, where she immediately got stuck in.
At the time, she says, the print union, the National Graphical Association (NGA), didn’t have any organisation within newspapers, just in the print business.
“They were running a bit of a campaign to get union recognition. We were paid so much more poorly than the printers, so I got involved in all of that,” Rees says.
Liz Rees with the first Director of Unionlearn in 1994
“We got an agreement – one of the early agreements in a non-traditional area – and the south-east Anglia branch of the NGA offered me a job.”
Getting an agreement from the employer to engage with them about pay was an exciting turning – point for Rees.
She says; “You feel like you’re on the right side, like you’re doing good work for good people who need a bit of a hand.”
This paved the way for her to become a union official, despite it not being her initial plan. But, she says: “I did love it, I’ve loved it ever since.”
She secured her next job with the Civil Service Union (now PCS) in London, moving from Colchester to Shepherd’s Bush with her then – boyfriend – now husband – at the age of 27.
Working with PCS led her to focus on the issue of privatisation, under the first Margaret Thatcher administration.
“When privatisation came in it was all about cutting people’s pay and their terms and conditions.
“In cleaning in the civil service for example, cleaners had reasonable pay and pensions and good terms and conditions – that was all swept away with privatisation.
“You were reduced to making the kind of deals which involved them ‘not being as bad as they would have been if you hadn’t been there’.”
John Sheldon, general secretary of PCS and her boss at the time, inspired her to stretch herself. Sheldon, she says, was a believer in promoting women – “a real feminist in his way”. They still keep in touch now, taking trips to the Chilterns to spot red kites, which she adores.
Rees took on the leadership of Unionlearn in November last year, after the retirement of former director Tom Wilson.
The post built on her experience from her previous role as head of TUC Education, where she managed course and curriculum development, accreditation, tutor training and building and maintaining partnerships with FE colleges. “I’m a committed educator,” she says, “but I come at it from a trade union perspective.”
She recalls a highlight from her time in the position as “getting the wonderful Courtney Pine, the world-class jazz musician, to play at an event to launch some work we did to help reps tackle racism”.
When privatisation came in it was all about cutting people’s pay
“To have the absolute best in the world play for an invited audience and weave between the tables riffing on text from the workbook which we had projected into the walls was totally unforgettable.
“I just asked him and he said yes! That was a valuable life lesson.”
Rees says that the importance of Unionlearn is its ability to reach people who have had no offer of training. “12 per cent of our learners have no qualifications at all, and 11 per cent have English as a second language,” she explains.
Supporting these individuals into learning is Rees’ priority.
She adds: “The high quality apprenticeships – the BAE systems or Rolls Royce – will go to the best candidates, and they tend to be the ones who have already had some advantages.
“People who haven’t had that will miss out and unions have got a key role in making a difference to them.”
Rees was preparing for a big anniversary when we met – and not just the end of her first successful year leading Unionlearn.
She was readying herself for an early rise on Saturday morning to head down to Brighton, where 80 of her family and friends will be waiting to help her celebrate 40 years together with husband Nigel, whom she married when she was still working for PCS.
She is clearly excited, and as we get talking, colleagues pop in to wish her well for the festivities.
To top it off, behind the desk in her office – which is decorated with photographs of both Nigel and their daughter Athena – is a big bunch of flowers and cards from friends who can’t make it to the party.
Family is clearly important to Rees. Born in Musselburgh in Scotland to teacher parents, she grew very close to her two younger sisters Madeleine and Louise.
My grandmother encouraged them all to get their education
The fact that her family moved around a lot brought them together, she says. “You’re thrown back upon each other quite a lot, and as you’re growing up you do a lot of things together and share a lot of special times.”
She is also proud to tell me the story of her grandparents on her father’s side, who brought up six children on a docker’s wage in Cardiff and managed to send them all to university. “They had their degrees framed, going up the staircase,” she remembers.
“They had a real sense that education is the key to transforming your life.”
“It certainly was the case in that family. My grandfather worked hard to keep everybody clothed and fed, and my grandmother encouraged them all to get their education.”
She adds that this seems like a dream compared to accessing higher education today: “To be able to bring up six kids to go to university on a docker’s wage? I don’t think that could happen, especially with the tuition fees and all the added costs.”
Rees looks back fondly to her own time studying English at Keele University.
“I wanted to go there because it was a four-year course with a foundation year,” she says.
“Those were the days when four years, three years, you did what you really wanted to do and what you loved.”
Rees says she would happily “do all that again”, and envies her daughter Athena, who is currently studying English and History at the University of Sheffield.
Athena, now 20, is another family member who has been an important influence and inspiration to her.
“She totally changed everything,” says Rees. “You’re busier but your priorities sort themselves out quickly. Your child becomes the number – one thing.”
After school, Athena decided to take a year out and travel to China, where she secured herself an internship on an English – language newspaper in Shanghai.
Rees comments: “It was really amazing to see your kid on the other side of the world, doing this stuff. I saw her byline and was just so chuffed.”
Quite a different entry into the world of newspapers from her mother’s, but – with her formidable family history – one that may well lead to great things, one can’t help musing.
That’s easy for me. It’s ‘The Leopard’ by Giuseppe di Lampedusa. I’m a big re-reader and I read this every couple of years. I first read it in my 20s and then I saw the Visconti film and went back and read it again. It’s a wonderful, wonderful book.
What do you do to relax?
The theatre. I’m good at getting cheap tickets. Living in London you can see the best of theatre. That’s got stronger and stronger over the years, I suppose as you get a bit more cash as well you can think, well I’ll pay £50 for a ticket.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I can remember wanting to be a private eye. I saw myself in the coat and the hat a la Humphrey Bogart. I can remember that. I don’t have any other strong memories.
Who do you most admire, living or dead?
Pussy Riot. A feminist punk collective – what’s not to like. They are like lionesses those girls. They are brave and fight the system and I really admire them.
Dr Sue answers your questions. This week, she addresses Progress 8, college performance and grammar schools.
Question One: Progress 8
I went to a link meeting last week with school governors and head teachers, and they all seemed to be obsessed with their Progress 8 mark. I didn’t like to ask what it is, but then thought, if I don’t know then others might not know either. So, what is ‘Progress 8’ and why is it important?
Answer: These days I am a school governor and I know what you mean. At our last meeting we spent as much time on Progress 8 as we did on GCSE results. Progress 8 aims to capture the progress pupils make from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school. It is a type of value-added measure, which means that pupils’ results are compared to the actual achievements of other pupils with the same prior attainment.
Trying to explain Progress 8 to parents is a nightmare
It is designed to encourage schools to offer a broad and balanced curriculum with a focus on an academic core at Key tage 4 and reward schools for the teaching of all their pupils, measuring performance across eight qualifications. Every increase in every grade a pupil achieves will attract additional points in the performance tables.
It looks like a good measure and does seem fairer than just looking at how many got an A*, for example. However, it is not shared with the pupil. The school only gets an aggregate score and the score isn’t that user – friendly. For example, if a school progresses pupils as predicted and they reach their assessed potential, that works out as just a “0”. Trying to explain it to parents is a nightmare.
Question Two: College Performance
I am pulling my hair out and don’t think I can go to another governing body where we get a mound of papers, tons of data with no interpretation, and we are told that performance is improving when it really is not. How can I break into this and start to have some meaningful conversations?
Answer: The best way in is to raise it with the clerk and the chair and say: “There must be a better way of doing this.”
In previous replies I have written about establishing a balanced scorecard where you drill down into the data as you need it. There are lots of good models around which your clerk or principal can seek out and bring back to the board.
As governers you need to feel secure that you are being told the truth
However, what makes your question different to previous ones is that you are being told that performance is improving when you clearly think it is not. You need to act now and ask for a data review – don’t leave it. As governors you need to feel secure that you are being told the truth and if you have just one doubt then you should get to the bottom of it.
It is your role as a governor to challenge, but you should not have to be a detective. If you are not happy then try to get the board to agree to getting in some expert external advice.
Question Three: Grammar Schools
What will grammar schools do to our enrolment?
Although we have had the green paper this week we don’t really know what the final grammar school policy is going to be and what sorts of tests are going to apply before they can be set up. If it goes ahead I hope the response to the consultation is robust and something sensible comes out of it. I am expecting the tests that are in the green paper to be extended, and to include criteria such as:
• Is the area well served already? • Is there really a demand for selective education at 11? • What will it do to the other local schools and will it create a situation where good secondary schools have to close because lack of numbers?
I also want all the schools in the area to be looked at, including UTCs and free schools. It’s time for them to be reviewed anyway and this would be a reason.
Is there really a demand for selective education at 11?
But what about your enrolment, I hear? Well, there is only a finite number of pupils to go around and it depends where you position your college. My experience of being in Kent was: “Yes the grammar schools took the high achievers” an “Yes it annoyed me a lot!”
However, with the right sort of partnership and an exciting curriculum offer, most of the students in the other secondary schools looked towards the college for their post-16 programme. If you can offer a broad curriculum and provide a mix that the grammar schools can’t match, you could find that the bright, savvy or ambitious secondary modern pupils migrate naturally to you at 16.
With the sector reeling from proposed rate – cuts to 16-18 apprenticeships, the government needs to heed the findings of the consultation, says Mark Dawe.
All the signals under Theresa May’s new administration are that the government is sticking with its three million manifesto target for apprenticeships and, that it is determined the levy will start next April. AELP is comfortable with this position although we are aware that other organisations are not.
At one time, our view was that the 3 million target was achievable without the levy or any of the proposed reforms to the apprenticeship programme at all. After all, 2.7 million starts happened in the last parliament so – providing the SFA was prepared to fund our members’ growth requests – it would not have been a tall order to deliver an extra 300,000.
The situation has changed though, with the government saying that the programme will soon be funded entirely by the levy. This means we can’t afford any delay on the levy’s start if the target is going to be reached by 2020.
The other change under Mrs May is the new emphasis on the social mobility agenda. AELP and others, including new skills minister Robert Halfon, have always argued that apprenticeships can play a major role in advancing this. It came as a big surprise, therefore, when we opened the latest apprenticeship consultation documents on August 12 to find that a large cohort of 16 – 18-year-olds potentially faced a block on their career prospects because of a proposed set of totally unviable funding rates for many of their apprenticeship choices. Almost equally alarming was that the picture for 19 – 23-year-olds didn’t look much better.
Messages from training providers immediately poured into my inbox, which prompted AELP to commission an expert analysis of the proposed rate – changes. It was very clear that we are not just talking about private providers’ margins or charitable providers’ surpluses taking a hit. Having crunched the numbers, we were looking at the real possibility of providers and their employers withdrawing from 16-18 apprenticeships altogether.
Independent analysis from FE Week supported our conclusions by identifying rate – cuts in many key sectors, of around 30 per cent to over 50 per cent. These are in sectors where, unless a generous work – permit scheme is in place, employers will need to replace EU migrants with home-developed talent once Brexit has taken place.
Government really needs to reconsider its proposals
The issue is made worse by the government encouraging employers to negotiate with providers on the price of delivering the training. As AELP said in its consultation response, we are already seeing employers asking providers to pay them to have access to their levy. Not only is this wrong, but the whole practice of negotiating on funding will have a negative impact on quality, so it’s good that FE Week has picked up on this aspect of the reforms in its campaign.
To be fair, the government has conducted a proper consultation and given the weight of feedback, and employer and provider agreement on the key issues, we expect that the evidence will be reflected in changes to the proposals and a manageable transition. AELP is now heavily engaged in discussions with officials and the DfE’s permanent secretary has been among those to visit our members in London, where the proposed removal of the inner-city funding and disadvantage uplifts would be devastating for the programme.
The funding rates will hopefully be sorted soon but two major concerns remain. Firstly, why are 16-18 apprenticeships the only part of DfE 16-18 provision not to be fully state-funded? It is simply discriminatory, especially when young people are being encouraged by ministers to choose apprenticeships as a high-quality alternative to traditional academic learning.
The other big worry is whether all of the levy proceeds will be used by the levy payers themselves, leaving little or no funding for non – levy paying employers who currently account for at least half of the apprenticeships on offer. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that with levy funding eventually reaching £2.5 billion, the programme will be one billion pounds larger than now. The social mobility agenda will be ill-served if swathes of the country are left with little apprenticeship provision because large employers are located elsewhere and the funding rates make provision unviable. The government really needs to reconsider its proposals.
Mark Dawe is CEO of the association of employment and learning providers
Five students from Epping Forest College are flying high after securing jobs with the aviation services company Swissport at Stansted Airport.
The students, who studied tourism and aviation courses at the college, passed their two-week induction at the company with flying colours, and are now settling into their new roles as Passenger Service Agents.
Flynn Edwards, Lauren Finch, Sarah Kearney, Yathusheni Yasotharan and Georgina Stuchfield with trainer Hannah Lee (pictured) have all been commended on their positive attitudes by their new employer and have made both their tutors and the college proud.
The students had the opportunity throughout their course to visit countries such as Dubai and Rome, and also undertook several industry visits, including one to Swissport to equip them with the relevant skills and knowledge required by employers.
Simone Butler, the tourism and aviation lecturer at the college, said: “I’m so proud of what my students have achieved. After a successful assessment day with Swissport and then an interview they were offered permanent full-time work.
“I hope to one day be checked in by one of my students at Stansted!”
Saboohi Famili, the principal of the college, said: “Swissport is a prestigious employer and this is a testimony to the hard work of our staff and of course, our students.”
Staff and students of Foxholes Restaurant at Runshaw College are celebrating after making it to the final of the AA College Restaurant of the Year 2016 awards.
The awards drew applicants from across the UK, with the college making it to the final three alongside Birmingham University and Milton Keynes College – where they will now compete for the culinary title.
Applicants to the awards underwent an intensive process including cocktail-making and matching wine to food, in order to make it to the final three.
Now in its 30th year of operation, Foxholes restaurant provides a place for catering and hospitality students to develop their skills under the scrutiny of the paying public.
The restaurant is no stranger to accolades, being one of few college restaurants to hold industry awards from the Hospitality Guild, Gold Accreditation, and the AA Rosette for highly commended cuisine.
Jennifer Cruickshanks, head of school, hospitality, tourism and foundation skills, who has been teaching at the college for 22 years, said: “To be recognised in the final three gives us that reassurance that even though we have been teaching for a long time, we’re not lost teaching.
“Having the award would be the icing on the cake.”
The overall winner will be announced on 26th September at the AA Awards Ceremony.
Picture: All the catering students at Runshaw College
A Cambridge Regional College student has won two medals at the just-finished Paralympic Games in Rio, after making it onto Team GB.
19-year-old Louis Rolfe (pictured), a sports studies student at the college, won gold in the team sprint alongside Jody Cundy and Jon-Allan Butterworth, a discipline in which the trio also won gold and broke a world record in the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships earlier this year.
He also took home a bronze medal in the individual pursuit on the track, and managed to come seventh in a time-trial on the road.
Louis, who has cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus after being born 10 weeks premature, said before jetting off to Brazil that his selection for the Games had been “a dream come true”.
“I am over the moon to have made the final team for the Paralympic Games in Rio. It’s been a dream of mine to get selected for a Games and I’m just so chuffed to be going.”
After working hard over the past three and a half years, Louis says the support from the staff at CRC has been “brilliant”.
“They provide a fantastic opportunity for me to carry on with my education but follow my cycling dream too.”
Louis was inspired to try competitive track cycling after watching the London Games in 2012, and will compete alongside some of the biggest names in Paralympic sport during his time in Rio.
