Skills Minister Nick Boles (pictured) has accepted there are no immediate solutions to “difficulties” that the apprenticeship levy will pose for charities.

Charity Finance Group (CFG) representatives warned Mr Boles during a recent meeting the levy would incentivise charities to employ apprentices in place of volunteers, which risked “perversely reducing productivity”, according to CFG minutes.

They also called on the government to allow volunteer training to be funded by the levy, which is due to be implemented from April 2017.

Mr Boles “accepted that there were difficulties around volunteering but could not immediately offer a solution to this challenge”, according to the minutes.

The Skills Minister’s comment came after the CFG’s call, last December, for the government to include charity representation on the new Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA).

The issue of volunteers is “an example of the unique business model that charities operate under”, said Anjelica Finnegan, CFG’s senior policy and public affairs officer.

“It is difficult to shoe-horn charities into policies at this late stage,” she continued.

Charity representation on the IfA would ensure “the issue of how volunteers fit into this policy are heard at the top”, Ms Finnegan said, “rather than being an afterthought”.

While the CFG was pleased Mr Boles met with the group, “we did feel that the minister didn’t fully appreciate the extent of the challenges many charities are facing at the moment,” Ms Finnegan said.

Other issues raised at the meeting included the lack of a sector skills council to oversee skills and training for charities, and the expectation that charities should be spending as much of their income as possible on their charitable activities, not paying for training.

Mr Boles “accepted that there is a lack of skills capacity in the sector”, according to the minutes, and expressed interest in a proposal for seed funding to invest in “sector-wide skills development infrastructure”.

Such infrastructure was necessary, Ms Finnegan said, as “without oversight of skills charities are not only left in the dark in terms of identifying need, but it also restricts providers’ ability to respond to skills gaps and develop relevant training courses on which charities can spend the levy”.

The unresolved difficulties for the charity sector are the latest of a number of potential issues to arise with the levy plans.

Other unanswered questions include how smaller, non-levy paying businesses will access funding for apprenticeships once the levy has been launched.

It is also unclear what will happen to existing levies, such as the one run by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).

FE Week reported on March 11 that Skills Funding Agency director Keith Smith had moved temporarily to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to lead efforts to iron out such issues, as director of levy implementation.

When asked to comment on Mr Boles’ CFG meeting and the minutes to their discussions, a BIS spokesperson said: “We need to make sure the levy is right for all employers.

“This is why we are engaging with as many employers as possible to understand how the levy will work for their organisation and giving them the opportunity to work with us on the implementation design.”

The Association of Colleges (AoC) has announced Ian Ashman, principal of Hackney Community College, as its President-elect.

Mr Ashman will take over from current president John Widdowson on August 1.

Having begun his career in FE in 1993, Mr Ashman has held a range of college posts across London, and has been a principal for over 13 years.

He has been chair of the AoC London region since 2010 and is also a member of the London Enterprise Panel – Skills and Employment Working Group, leading initiatives, such as the training of the Gamesmaker volunteers for the London 2012 Games.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Ashman said: “I want to help the AoC continue to make the strongest case for the sector during a period of change.

“We need to ensure that colleges have a powerful voice in the coming year, particularly given area reviews, delegation of skills funding and financial pressures, alongside the transition to a new chief executive.

“I am looking forward to travelling around the country to visit colleges whilst working closely with the AoC team, to influence decision makers, to secure the best outcomes for our students, communities and colleges.”

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said he welcomed Mr Ashman’s appointment, which will be for a year.

“I know he will be a great asset to AoC and our member colleges at a time of change across the further education sector.

“During this period, our work with government will continue to be of great importance as it looks to drive the development of technical and professional routes to employment in which colleges will play a significant role, just as they do in providing academic education in many areas.”

Mr Widdowson said: “Ian has many years of experience in running colleges and I know he will work tirelessly on behalf of colleges and their students.

“I have enjoyed the experience of being president and I will be leaving the role in more than capable hands.”

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has criticised the body established to police the reformed apprenticeship system as having a “disappointingly narrow” set of duties and responsibilities.

Pippa Morgan (pictured), head of education and skills at the CBI, raised the concerns during a webinar for members on the apprenticeship levy on Wednesday (April 13).

She said the initial remit of the Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA), the employer-led body which will set standards and maintain high quality, was inadequate.

Ms Morgan expressed concern that this could render the body, which will be fully operational in time for the levy launch in April 2017, a mere “standards factory — rubber-stamping the [apprenticeship] standards”.

Speaking during the webinar, Ms Morgan said: “In terms of the remit that the Institute has, we pushed for a very strong business voice.

“Its initial set of duties and responsibilities are disappointingly narrow in terms of being very focused on the standards and the assessment element of apprenticeships.”

She added: “We have actually had some wins in terms of shaping the remit and pushing it to better reflect the needs of businesses and the needs of the apprenticeship system to reflect what skills needs are in the economy — rather than just operate as a standards factory — rubber-stamping the standards, which is currently being done.”

She added the CBI would continue to lobby and challenge the Institute as its fulltime team continues to be assembled over the coming year.

To date, the only public appointment to the IfA has been Rachel Sandby-Thomas to ‘shadow chief executive’, as reported in FE Week in March. An Enterprise Bill factsheet, published on February 26, said the powers of the IfA would cover “quality and approval functions in relation to apprenticeship standards and assessment plans”.

It added the body would have “wider quality assurance functions, including making arrangements for assessing the quality of the end point assessment for each apprenticeship”; and “responsibility to advise government of funding allocations per each apprenticeship standard”.

Neil Carberry, director of employment and skills at the CBI, who also participated in the CBI webinar, raised the suggestion that the levy could end up being a disincentive for employers to take on more apprentices.

He said that “the cost is very significant and the ability to recover that is questionable for most businesses”, adding it was “gallows humour” among his team that “every sector thinks it is subsidising every other sector”.

“The challenge there is that the levy as currently designed is actually an incentive to do fewer apprenticeships not more apprenticeships, because it increases the cost per apprentice,” he added.

Mr Carberry added there was “lots of support” among employers for more flexibility around how the levy money could be spent.

Responding to the issues raised in the webinar, a spokesperson for BIS said: “At the heart of our apprenticeship reforms, lies the principle that employers must be in the driving seat.

“They are best placed to ensure our young people get the right skills and experience. That’s why we are creating the independent Institute for Apprenticeships that will be led by employers.”

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has published geographic funding data for the first time — ahead of devolution of the adult education budget.

It is based on learners’ postcodes and relates to non-apprenticeship adult skills budget (ASB) delivery in the 2014 to 2015 funding year.

The data sets out the proportion of provision that each provider delivers within both their home local authority and region.

The SFA’s weekly online Update bulletin said this afternoon: “We are publishing this data to support you in discussion with local government authorities in future adult education budget commissioning discussions.

“This will help establish a shared understanding of the current pattern of delivery,” a spokesperson added. “It will be particularly important if you work in areas that have a skills devolution agreement or a skills incentive pilot.”

The spokesperson said its allocations methodology would change in future years “to support the devolution of funding to local areas”.

But she added: “The publication of this [geographic funding] data does not presuppose what that methodology will look like or how funding will be distributed.

“Further information will be issued on this in due course.”

Providers were advised to contact their central delivery service adviser for more information.

For more analysis see the next edition of FE Week.