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GCSEs vs functional skills: which English and maths resits should your students take?

When only one per cent of E-grade students pass their maths GCSE on resit, why are they not sitting functional skills instead? Bill Watkin describes an alternative, win-win scenario.

Every 16-year-old who has not achieved a C-grade or higher in their GCSE maths or English by the end of Year 11 must now continue in Year 12 to work towards passing a level two qualification (GCSE or equivalent), if they are to meet the DfE’s condition for funding.

Those who achieved a D-grade at 16 have no choice: it is the GCSE that they must resit. But those who achieved anything between E and U can either resit the GCSE, or study an alternative: the functional skills courses. So there appears to be a perverse incentive at play: is it better to get an E than a D at GCSE?

In the GCSE resits, most students, having failed to achieve a C after five years in school, were, perhaps unsurprisingly, still unable to make the grade after just over two terms of post-16 study. Only 18 per cent of those with a D in maths in 2014 went on to pass their resit in 2015; only one per cent of those with an E managed to do the same.

READ MORE: What is Core Maths and why is funding it so important?

But E-grade students can take the alternative functional skills, so why do some colleges still enter them for the GCSE? Why would an E-grade student, with just a one per cent chance of passing, resit the GCSE rather than the alternative?

Dr Becky Allen at Datalab suggests that functional skills might not be on offer, or that the GCSE might be perceived by teachers or students as a better route to eventual success.

So which are the right English and maths resits for students with an E or lower in their GCSE?

Too often, students are asked to resit the GCSE even though it is not necessarily best suited to their aptitudes, interests, other studies and workplace aspirations.

An applicant who has functional skills will be in a better place than one who has neither functional skills nor GCSE

Some argue that the GCSE qualification is more rigorous, more demanding and therefore more valuable and respected by employers; to enter students into a supposedly lesser alternative would be to do them a disservice because their future prospects will be less bright if they do not have a GCSE.

Others say that functional skills courses, following recent reforms, are now more difficult than they used to be, less accessible to lower-ability learners, more academic in nature and perhaps less of a viable alternative. And then there are those in the other camp, who point out that functional skills are more relevant in the context of preparing for technical and trade-related destinations and give students a better chance of reaching the required standard.

And what of employers? How do employers view a functional skills qualification compared with a GCSE? Well, inevitably, a GCSE will give a job applicant an edge. On the other hand – and this may be the crucial point here – an applicant who has functional skills will be in a better place than one who has neither functional skills nor GCSE.

And if the reformed, more difficult 2017 GCSEs are to be increasingly out of reach, and if the GCSE course-content is less relevant to the job than the applied literacy and numeracy that some employers will require for parts of their workforce, maybe this could lead to a win-win situation, where employers recognise the value of functional skills and applicants are better equipped.

Functional skills might be more suited to some students’ aptitudes; they also count towards the new level two English and maths measure in post-16 performance tables. To top it off, they offer a better route to a pass for E-U students. But in some colleges, GCSE is still the currency of choice.

Despite all this, it is reassuring to know that the government’s analysis of 2014/15 shadow measures shows that sixth form colleges get better results, notably than schools and academies, in English and maths resits. Early data returns this summer appear to bear this out, which is certainly something to celebrate.

Bill Watkin is Chief Executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association

New leash of life for animal-lover Hollie

Twenty-year-old Hollie Thornton is finally on the path to realising her veterinary dreams, despite numerous setbacks.

The aspiring veterinary physiotherapist had feared her chosen career path would no longer be an option after she was diagnosed with severe hypersensitivity to animal hair and fur, which doctors warned could be a serious danger to her health.

Despite not making the grades to study veterinary science, the dedicated animal lover took a human physio course, which then introduced her to the alternative option of pet physiotherapy.

After studying a two-year BTEC course in applied science, and starting work experience at a local vet, Hollie was hit with the news about her allergy following a blood test.

Hollie said: “I was devastated. I’d worked so hard and now I thought I was going to fail at the last hurdle and lose the chance of my dream career.”

However, after speaking with her GP, Hollie realised there were ways to work around her condition and still pursue a career with animals.

“I discovered that as long as I was sensible, wore latex gloves when dealing with any animals, and took my medication as and when I needed it, I should still be able to pursue my dream.”

Hollie will start her BSc (Hons) course at Warwickshire Agricultural College in September.

Pictured: Hollie with her pet Jackawawa Gus

Is this the new dawn for apprenticeships?

While apprenticeship expansion is very welcome, let’s hope it’s not derailed by some of the disastrous aspects of the reforms, says John Hyde.

Future generations will look back at this moment to realise that apprenticeships for the 21st century have finally arrived. The extension of apprenticeships to all skills and managerial levels – encompassing all manufacturing, service and commercial enterprises, plus the public sector and all the professions – constitutes a recognition (finally) that over 80 per cent of what we learn in our lifetimes is acquired at the workplace, and that apprenticeships are the best way to quantify this.

The reforms instigated by Doug Richards and Matt Hancock brought a few advantages, namely the introduction of higher apprenticeships, graduate apprenticeships and professional apprenticeships in banking, law, accountancy; and in the public sector, planned apprenticeships in teaching and nursing.

We are moving towards apprenticeships being available at every level and in every sector, profession and public service; funded directly by employers through the levy or co-investment, with the cost removed from general taxation. As apprenticeships become a more viable option – and a financially attractive alternative to sixth form, FE college or university – the government will make substantial savings from general taxation by simultaneously reducing funding to these institutions, as potential students opt for apprenticeships instead.

Let us hope, however, that the welcome expansion of apprenticeships to graduates, the professions and the public sector is not derailed by the disastrous delivery and end-assessment ‘reforms’ that were recommended by Richards and Hancock and so clumsily implemented by government.

Employer resistance is beginning to surface over apprenticeships that have bizarre end-point assessment criteria or do not include a qualification in the standards, as the new standards are introduced.

The uncontrolled development of end-point assessments is concerning employers. At one extreme, a small garage owner will have to lose their apprentice for four days away from work to attend an assessment centre, causing substantial disruption to an SME. Conversely, other sectors have much shorter assessments, with perhaps a 90-minute online knowledge test, one brief site-observation and a 40-minute discussion from the external assessor. Even this means two more days away from work than the highly regulated, continuous assessment currently in place.

Uncontrolled development of end-point assessments is concerning employers

Employers are questioning how such an insignificant amount of time from a stranger (sorry, ‘external independent assessor’) can produce a valid judgement, let alone distinguish between a pass and a distinction.

Now that parliament is sitting, let’s hope some of the anomalies that came from the much-delayed SFA announcements on the levy, rates and co-investment will be corrected.

For example, the SFA, in attempting to persuade training providers to adopt the new standards by restricting any growth cases, is in fact penalising any employer who adopts the new standards early – by demanding a one-third contribution now, when from April it will be just 10 per cent for non-levy payers. This provides no incentive to move now to the new standards, especially as the third rate will continue for the duration of the apprenticeship and cannot be reduced to 10 per cent from April or set off against any levy payment.

The abolition of the area uplift will also decimate the apprenticeship provision currently available in London, when providers realise they cannot afford to operate in the capital with these substantially reduced rates. So much for the new prime minister’s ‘social mobility’ agenda. This seems just another example of policies being driven by the limitations of the HMRC/DAS software and not by what is best for the national skills and mobility agenda.

John Hyde is chairman of HIT Training, a hospitality training provider operating across England.

Two new super-colleges set to be created in north-west

Two new super-colleges are set to be created in the north-west through mergers involving six colleges and one university.

Consultation opened this week on the first phase of a proposed new Cheshire-wide college, which will be formed by a link-up between four Cheshire and Warrington colleges.

Meanwhile a massive new university and college group, which will serve 40,000 learners, has been given the green light in Bolton and Bury after merger plans were formally approved by the two colleges involved.

Both mergers have come about due to post-16 education and training area reviews, and follow a prediction in July from the FE Commissioner Sir David Collins that the total number of colleges would fall by a third once the area review process was complete.

West Cheshire College and South Cheshire College will partner up in January to create the Cheshire College, subject to the outcome of the consultation which closes 1 October.

According to the current proposals, they will be joined by Mid Cheshire College in August 2017, and Warrington Collegiate
in January 2018.

This multiple merger is one of the outcomes of the Cheshire and Warrington area review, part of the second wave of reviews, which had its first steering group meeting on January 29.

West Cheshire College, which had almost 16,800 learners in 2014/15, was rated ‘inadequate’ overall following its most recent Ofsted inspection last September, while 6,600-learner South Cheshire College’s last full inspection in May 2012 resulted in a rating of ‘good’.

“The merger will create a stronger organisation delivering high quality outcomes for learners and employers and provide a strong delivery partner for LEP priorities for the region,” said Dame Pat Bacon, South Cheshire College’s corporation chair.

Christine Russell, chair of West Cheshire College’s governors, said: “We have a very clear vision of what we want to achieve with the merger.”

In a separate development, the governing bodies for Bury College and Bolton College have confirmed that plans have been approved for the two colleges to merge with the University of Bolton in July.

The three bodies will make up a new super-group, which will also include University Technical College Bolton.

A spokesperson for the University of Bolton said the new group would have 2,300 staff and more than 40,000 students.

Bury College principal Charlie Deane has been appointed chief executive of the new group and will oversee the merger.

But a spokesperson for Bury College told FE Week that no date had been set for when the merger will take place.

This merger was one of just two to come out of the Greater Manchester area review, which was one of the first reviews to start in September 2015.

The plans provoked anger from two unions – the University and College Union and Unison – which warned that this was more of a “takeover” than a merger.

The University of Bolton’s president and vice-chancellor Professor George Holmes said: “I am delighted with the progress we have made, and this is in no small measure due to the remarkable contribution of the chairs of the governing bodies and the principals of the colleges.

“They have shown vision and determination to develop something which is first class for the learner.”

The past, present and future of the Association of Colleges

As the Association of Colleges welcomes a new chief executive in its 20th year, FE Week takes a look at the past, present and future of the organisation.

The AoC in a not-for-profit company founded in 1996 to act as the collective voice for colleges, and, as of this August, has 308 members – or 95 per cent of the eligible general FE, sixth form, tertiary and land-based colleges.

It employs 129 staff, and its latest annual accounts for the year ending March 2016 show a group turnover of £16.3m, down from £19.1m the previous year.

One of its key functions is speak up the issues affecting the sector on behalf of its members, and mediate with the government and decision makers.

This is done in a number of ways, including responding to government consultations, briefing MPs and managing the all-party parliamentary group for FE and lifelong education.

It also provides a range of support services for members, including advice and information on funding, governance, communications, and health and safety.

The AoC annual conference is held every November, and is one of the biggest events on the FE calendar. It presents an opportunity for members, and the wider FE sector, to network, learn, develop, influence and share information.

As well as its core membership organisation, the AoC has a number of subsidiary companies.

These include AoC Create, the organisation’s commercial arm, which provides paid-for services including consultancy, training, interim management, recruitment, conferences and events.

AoC Sport was meanwhile formed in 2014 through a merger between British Colleges Sport, English Colleges FA, and the AoC sport policy team, with a focus on promoting, delivering and supporting college sport and physical activity.

As its outgoing boss Martin Doel move to his new role as professor of FE and skills for the Further Education Trust for Leadership, he shared with FE Week his thoughts on the state of the sector after eight years at the helm.

The AoC is also one of three founding members of the Education and Training Foundation.

How easy is it to become a registered training provider?

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) was scheduled to open a new, ‘tougher’ Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RATP) to applicants this month, following a period of consultation and feedback.

However, as with other elements of the apprenticeship-reform programme, this process has been delayed – indeed, the consultation only closed last week on September 5.

While the government may be dragging its heels over the delivery of the new register, many providers and employers are eager to find out how it will eventually operate and, crucially, how it will interact with the current, ‘basic’ Register of Training Organisations (ROTO).

FE Week decided to investigate just how easy it is for a training provider to gain access to ROTO – pretty easy, as it turns out.

We found that, of the private companies that made it onto the register in the previous round, nine were incorporated less than six months before the application window closed.

In fact, two of these companies were only six days old when the ROTO application process closed on May 31, and another was just 12 days old.

As might be expected of such young organisations, of the nine we selected, five have not yet got as far as setting up a website, while two have no working contact details available at all.

One company had a website available when FE Week’s investigation began, but it appears to have shut it down since we started making enquiries.

See the table below to find out what motivated them to join the register in the first place:

College principal set to retire after record 33 years at the helm

The longest-serving FE college principal in the country will finally retire next year, after more than 33 years in post.

Dr Steve Dowbiggin (pictured) joined Capel Manor College in 1982 as vice-principal and became head two years later, in 1984.

This comfortably makes him the UK’s most senior principal — and his commitment was recognised in 2007 when he received an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list for services to FE.

Dr Dowbiggin told FE Week that he had “honestly loved every minute” of working at the land-based college in Enfield, comparing it to “conducting an orchestra where they are all brilliant at playing”.

“If I’ve ever dropped the baton for a few beats they’ve just gone on playing, it’s like being in charge of an absolute powerhouse,” he said. “It’s been great fun.”

He described his final introductory speech to this year’s crop of full-time students as “emotional”, saying that “the group was huge compared to when I first came here – I felt a bit like Mr Chips”.

Before he joined Capel Manor, Dr Dowbiggin was head of department at Hadlow College of Agriculture in Kent from 1977 until 1982, and also worked as a lecturer at Houghall College Durham.

A graduate of Wye College, his career has included conducting academic research into pollution biochemistry, working as a farm manager, and even a stint in broadcasting with the BBC.

Dr Dowbiggin is a fellow of the Institute of Horticulture and a member of the City and Guilds Institute of London and sits on the Royal Horticultural Society’s Education Committee.

He described the FE sector as “hardworking, innovative and dedicated”, despite experiencing “some pretty challenging times in the last 35 years”.

“What I’ve enjoyed most has been the fact that whatever government has done in terms of policy funding or changes, the core of people in FE have just got on with it for the students,” he said.

He even confessed to a fondness for some of the politicians who have influenced his work, such as former skills minister John Hayes, and Tim Eggar, who was MP for Enfield North between 1979 and 1997.

What I’ve enjoyed most has been the fact that whatever government has done in terms of policy funding or changes, the core of people in FE have just got on with it for the students

“What you have to do all the time is just keep getting politicians to come to colleges, meet young people, and see the good we’re doing,” he said.

The Capel estate was first established in the late 13th century, but it was in 1968 that the manor’s rundown gardens and outbuildings were first leased out by Enfield council to train just 12 craftsmen gardeners.

The college now specialises in land-based studies, and has 30 acres of gardens open to the public. In July, FE Week held the first ever Festival of Skills in its beautiful grounds.

The college was rated ‘good’ in its latest Ofsted report, from March 2013. At the time it had 683 full-time and 1834 part-time learners.

Looking to the future, Dr Dowbiggin confessed that “part of me doesn’t want to give it up,” but said he thought it was the right time to pass on the baton.

“I wanted to hand the college over when it was doing really well, to give whoever gets the job a running start,” he said.

Dr Dowbiggin added that he would “love to stay in the industry”, and will be looking for “the next challenge”.

The advertisement for his replacement will go out in November.

New test to transform study programme learners’ employability skills (advertorial)

A new baseline test is being launched by REED NCFE to transform how providers can boost their study programme learners’ employability skills.

Baseline Employability Skills Test (BESTest), developed in conjunction with the University of Leeds, measures key skills and personal qualities.

The idea is to help providers identify their learners’ strengths and weaknesses, and develop individually tailored personal learning plans to help improve their employment prospects.

And in trials with 1,000 learners, BESTest was shown to transform their self-awareness and motivation to learn.

Tom Millar, REED NCFE’s managing director, said: “By taking the time and effort to ensure that your learners understand the importance of the key employability skills, the only feedback you will have from employers will be along the lines of ‘Have you got any more learners like that?’ and ‘Can I take on one of your learners as an apprentice?’”

Each learner that takes the test receives an overall score indicating their work readiness.

They are also given a set of ten underlying scores that relate to the usual employability skills indicators.

Four of these relate to specific employability skills – CV, job search, interview technique and workplace behaviour.

A further six cover key personal qualities that can add to a learner’s employment prospects – motivation, professionalism, resilience, organisation, sociability and initiative.

Trials have shown BESTest to be an invaluable tool for providers, helping them to improve their employability skills provision – especially for the work preparation element of study programmes.

A REED NCFE spokesperson said: “It will become an invaluable asset to colleges seeking to differentiate and improve their employability skills provision and, in addition, it will provide reliable and objective evidence of distance travelled.”

Not only does it give reliable and objective evidence of the distance travelled by learners, he added, it can also help with curriculum planning and help provider to rate how their employment skills provision compares with others.

And BESTest can enable learners to show that they have the skills, attitudes and mindsets that employers look for when recruiting, while also giving providers the tools to measure and monitor their learners’ development.

The spokesperson added: “We passionately believe in helping learners and in the advantage you can give learners by enabling them to demonstrate that they possess the skills, attitudes and mindsets employers base their recruitment decisions on, while at the same time providing you with the tools to measure and monitor their development.”

During 2016-17 REED NCFE will be offering a free trial of BESTest assessments for use with study programme learners.

Any additional licenses in 2016-17 cost £2 per learner, inclusive of VAT.

You can download a pre-recorded webinar in which Mr Millar demonstrates the test, the results that the learner sees, the results that the College see and how to use it to:

design individualised learning plans based on each person’s strengths and weaknesses;
accurately track and evidence distance travelled; provide further evidence of achievement;
inform curriculum planning; and
benchmark scores both across your entire College cohort and nationally.

Decision on FE maintenance loans put off until November despite strong support

The government has stalled on making a decision about providing maintenance loans for higher level learners studying technical education in FE, despite strong support for introducing the new funding.

In publishing the outcome of a consultation on the issue today, the Department for Education (DfE) concluded that it would “take time to consider the responses”, and scheduled a full statement of its plans for November.

The DfE said: “We are going to take time to consider the responses to the consultation in light of the report by Lord Sainsbury, which has implications for higher level technical learning and how it should be delivered in the future.

“We will need to consider the value for money case and fiscal position before taking any decision on the case for FE maintenance loans.

“We expect to make a statement in the autumn.”

The consultation, which was launched by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills on March 24 and closed on June 16, 2016, aimed to test whether support for the introduction of maintenance loans in FE was on a par with the level of support available in Higher Education.

It also looked at whether this support should only be made available to 19+ learners studying level 4-6 technical courses at specialist providers, and whether part-time learners should be supported as well.

The DfE’s concluded from the responses that “respondents felt that the introduction of a loans package would help achieve the objective of increasing the numbers learners undertaking technical and professional learning in key sectors that are important to the economy”.

The consultation outcome report said: “When taking the written responses and the strength of feeling in the focus groups, the majority believed that this offer should be made on the basis of the qualification studied rather than the institution where the learning took place.

“Respondents felt that focussing on National Colleges and Institutes of technology would be too narrow and would not deliver significant numbers of new learners.”

It also found that a small majority of respondents thought that the maintenance loans offer should be “flatrate rather than means-tested”.

The feedback suggested this would be “easier to understand and administer, though it was also thought means-testing would give more parity with HE”.

There were just 33 responses to the consultation and two focus groups were held to gather views from providers and interested bodies.

Nearly three quarters of respondents also thought that maintenance loans in FE should be available to part-time learners.

However, “very few respondents” were able to provide data predicting levels of take up of maintenance loans or evidence of the impact that introducing this kind of support might have on learner numbers.