Application guidance for up to £100k consultancy grants that will support the implementation of area review recommendations has been published — a month after FE Week exclusively revealed they would be made available to colleges.

The memo, which went online this morning, also revealed that colleges could receive more than one grant, as it would be available for “each significant change resulting from an area review”.

It explained that such a change might include a “significant curriculum rationalisation, establishment of “a shared services arrangement”, or “the establishment of a joint venture” such as a merger.

Publication of the guidance comes after FE Week exclusively revealed on March 6 that the government would be providing cash to help colleges implement area review recommendations.

The online document, which includes a link to an application form, said: “The minister for skills [Nick Boles] announced that he had agreed grants of up to £100,000 to support each significant change resulting from an area review.

“This was in recognition of the challenges associated with implementing recommendations effectively.”

It added: “The EFA and SFA will identify options which may be in scope as a significant change, and the amounts that may be claimed for them.

“This will be done during the latter stages of the area review process and will be subject to later consideration of formal applications.”

Colleges can only make one application “in relation to each significant change arising from an area review,” the document explained.

And it stressed that requests for this funding should be made within two months of the date of final area review steering group meetings.

However, later applications will be considered in “exceptional circumstances”.

The memo said a successful application for up to £100,000 funding could be for the closure of a college, a merger of more than two institutions or of two institutions with a combined turnover of more than £25m, or the establishment of a multi-academy trust of two or more colleges.

A grant of up to £50,000 could also be provided for a single sixth form college conversion to a 16 to 19 academy, or merger of two institutions with a combined turnover of less than £25m, it added.

The smaller grant could also be given out where there is “a significant rationalisation or other significant change at a college or colleges “where this change is reasonably expected to have significant upfront costs”.

The online document stressed that only colleges will be able to make applications for the funding.

But it added “a college may apply on behalf of itself and / or on behalf of any other organisation which will incur eligible costs relating to the agreed relevant significant change”.

“Where a college applies on behalf of any other organisation, it will be accountable for its own compliance with the funding conditions and that of the other organisation,” it said.

It added funding could only be spent on funding “relevant skills” including project management, legal, finance, commercial, estates and “turnaround”, while relevant services also include “due diligence” and asset or liability valuation.

Colleges must provide evidence of spending on such “eligible costs” to the Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency “within 30 days of the final amount of the grant funding being spent, or at the latest within 30 days of the first anniversary of the final steering group”, the document said.

The grant would become repayable, through a future reduction in funding, if for example the funding is not spent on eligible costs, match0-fuunded with a required “25/75 per cent split”.

A college in Cornwall has become the first to be rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted since the introduction of the Common Inspection Framework (CIF) in September.

The education watchdog’s report on Truro and Penwith College (TPC), published today, was full of praise for the college, rating it grade one ‘outstanding’ overall.

Ofsted returned the highest possible rating for six headline fields, including leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, outcomes for learners, and 16 to 19 study programmes.

It was the first outstanding Ofsted report for a college since the new CIF was launched seven months ago.

Inspectors found that “governors, leaders and managers work relentlessly to ensure that learners experience outstanding teaching, learning and assessment”.

“Learners enjoy great success because of the ethos of aspiration and achievement that pervades the college,” the report continued.

This comes just a few days after FE Week published a full breakdown of all general FE college inspections since the CIF was launched in Edition 169.

It showed that of the 51 published inspections since September, 39 (76 per cent) were full, with three colleges losing their grade one and none of the remaining 48 gaining a grade one.

From the full inspections, there were 15 grade two, 15 grade three and nine grade four overall results.

The report on Truro and Penwith also said that its “curriculum is broad and accessible”.

Courses on offer at the college, which has an Education Funding Agency allocation of £23.4m and a Skills Funding Agency allocation of £4.6m for 2015/16, met “local and regional needs well and prepared learners exceptionally well for employment or higher level study”, inspectors found.

The vast majority – over 5,100 – of TPC’s learners are on 16 to 18 study programmes, the report said.

Teaching for these learners was “often inspirational”, and “learners enjoy their lessons”.

Safeguarding arrangements at the college were said to be “effective”, with the result that “learners are safe and feel safe”.

Support for learners with high needs was “very well planned and highly effective”, the report added.

Provision for adult learners and apprenticeships were the only areas where inspectors found improvements could be made — although both were rated as ‘good’.

TPC principal David Walrond told FE Week he was “delighted” with the “remarkable” report.

One of the keys to the college’s success was a “really close focus on teaching and learning”, Mr Walrond said.

“Although we’re very strong financially and we are a very successful business, we understand the limits of the business metaphor.

“All of us are very operationally engaged in management – and that includes senior management. Nobody is allowed to lock themselves in a room doing strategy,” he told FE Week.

The college had used a “very detailed, very robust and very challenging” self-assessment process to maintain high standards, Mr Walrond said.

“If you go a long time without inspection, a good college will actually say, we’ve got to impose this discipline ourselves. We’ve got to make the rigour of an Ofsted inspection part of our practice and our process as well,” he added.

This was the first time the college, which has 6,500 learners, had been inspected since it was formed from the merger of Truro College and Penwith College in 2008.

Truro College was last inspected in November 2006, when it received an outstanding grade across the board.

Penwith College was branded inadequate in November 2006, but a subsequent inspection in January 2008 found it had improved to ‘satisfactory’.

The 157 Group has proposed that single colleges should take a lead for level three and above training for key industries across London.

It called for the establishment of a series of “technology institutes” delivering “levels three, four and five skills to leverage the full capacity of London”, in a report unveiled this morning ahead of next month’s mayoral election.

The document, called Skills for Work, Skills for London, said this model would apply to “critical growth sectors” such as construction including housebuilding, digital, the creative industries and financial services.

It said employers “benefit from this model as it gives them one point of contact and one offer.”

“Beyond the entry level skills, we believe there has to be a London‑wide offer,” the report added. “London faces its biggest skills challenge at levels three and above.”

“A 32‑borough or subregional solution will not work. It needs a London‑wide solution led by the mayor,” it added.

The document explained that under the proposed model, the Boris Johnson’s successor should also “set a framework and outcomes” and “have accountability” for levels three to five.

“The 157 Group London colleges are ready to work with the next London mayor to create this new approach,” it said.

The report added: “In partnership, key stakeholders should agree a hub‑and‑spoke model for the London technology institutes, establishing a main centre for a specific skill and then satellite centres across London.”

It explained these “would offer core curriculum as well as specialist skills taught only at specific centres”.

“For learners this approach leverages the full capability of London and means they would not have to move institutions or travel long distances to study in a sector, they could remain at their satellite institution,” it added.

“The economies of scale would mean each student having better facilities and resources than if their college were working alone attempting to deliver all the capacity needs of the sector in their part of London.”

FE Week asked 157 Group if it had identified which colleges should become technology institutes and how it would respond to criticism that this model would limit choice.

A spokesperson said: : “This is a point of view document suggesting a model that we believe would be most effective for creating the best provision for the skills needed in London.

“A main point we are making is that this type of sector institute should be collaborative across many institutions, a hub and spoke model with many colleges and providers across London specialising in aspects of the overarching sector provision.

“Giving named examples at this stage would be limiting the idea.”

She added: “This idea does not limit choice for the learner, it enriches provision. As the document specifies, this model works for colleges as it is agile and cost-effective and it is beneficial for learners as it leverages the full capability London providers have to offer.”

More than 1,800 college sporting stars will travel to Tyne and Wear this weekend to compete in the 38^th AoC National Championships.

Students, who qualified for the championships through regional tournaments that took place in the autumn term, will compete in 15 different sports across Newcastle, Sunderland and Gateshead venues.

The golf tournament will kick off the whole weekend from 8.30am on Friday, followed by the opening ceremony that night, which will be hosted by Great British gymnast Craig Heap.

It will feature speeches from England international footballer, Jill Scott, and Great British long jumper Chris Tomlinson.

Throughout the following three days, students will compete in badminton, cricket, football, hockey, rugby, squash, tennis, volleyball, basketball, cross country, netball, swimming, table tennis, and trampolining.

As well as competing in their chosen sport, students will battle for points for their region.

The region whose teams and individuals accumulate the most points will win the prestigious Wilkinson Sword trophy.

Last year’s competition, which was held at Bath University with just under 1,800 students, saw the South West claim the trophy, with the South East in second place and West Midlands third.

The winners of this year’s event will be awarded at the closing ceremony on Sunday afternoon.

The championships are being hosted in partnership with The Tyne & Wear Consortium, which includes Tyne & Wear Sport, Northumbria University, Newcastle Gateshead Initiative and Nirvana Europe.

AoC sport managing director Marcus Kingwell said: “We are really excited that this year’s National Championships are almost upon us.

“A lot of work has gone into the planning and preparation for the event in partnership with Tyne and Wear Sport, and we are certain the 2016 Championships will be the biggest and best showcase of college sport to date.

“The venues which will host the different sports look fantastic and will provide the students with excellent facilities befitting of the occasion.

“We also anticipate the championships to be the perfect platform to reinforce our new strategy ‘Fit for College, Fit for Work, Fit for Life’, which outlines our ambition to get every student active.”

Northumbria University’s director of sport, Colin Stromsoy said: “We are delighted to be hosting the AoC Sport National Championships this year.

“The event is an exciting opportunity for us to bring some of the country’s most talented young athletes to the university and to showcase our sporting facilities and services.

“Sport Central is a fantastic venue for the opening ceremony, which will kick-start an exciting weekend of competition across all of our university sport facilities.”

FE Week is the media partner for the AoC National Championships and will be covering the event over the three days. See edition 171 for the full results.

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has said it will improve its tool for viewing qualification achievement rates (QAR) following complaints from providers — but is unable to say when.

The twice-delayed QARs were finally made available on April 5 via new interactive dashboards on the SFA’s online hub.

However, the dashboards did not include the facility to view national averages for individual qualifications – information that has been available in previous years, before the introduction of the interactive dashboards.

A number of providers took to the SFA’s FE Connect forums in the days following the QAR publication to vent their frustration at the missing information.

“As the dashboard does not have the detail that we require it will mean that MIS staff across the country will have to do a piece of work to bring their own figures and the national averages together at the qual/framework level – this is what providers and Ofsted will want to see,” said Paul Taylor, systems and MI manager at Skills Solutions.

“I did not expect that we would have to do this and therefore this is very frustrating,” he continued.

Another provider with the username anixon wrote: “I’m not happy that not only can I not get national rates at learning aim level, there also doesn’t seem to be a way to get national rates by level for the various qualification types – eg. Diploma Level 3.”

“Not only that, but I’m yet to see a way to get overall rates for retention or pass rate, just the various drill downs,” they continued.

Another user, nicolah, said: “Would still like to get the dashboard to behave so that I can see some national levels separately for English and Maths and not just lumped together.”

When asked by FE Week if the missing information would be made available, a spokesperson for the SFA said: “Since the interactive dashboards were published we have had some very constructive feedback.

“In responding to that feedback we are developing an additional interactive dashboard that will give providers national rates at aim and framework level for comparison.”

However, the spokesperson said they were “unable to give a timeframe at present” for when this additional dashboard would be available.

In addition to comments about the missing functionality, providers have also been expressing their general dislike of the new interactive dashboards.

“I must say I was also very unimpressed with the whole thing,” anixon also wrote on FE Connect.

“Overall it seems to be a case of lots of style and little of substance. Looks to me like a step backwards and not at all what I was expecting, especially given the 3 month delay,” they concluded.

Another frustrated user MartinL stated on the forum that “it looks like a very expensive step backwards”.

Another provider, who only called himself Neil, commented on FE Week’s article earlier this month about the QAR.

He said: “You cannot download the data tables in PDF form and when you try to in Excel of pivot tables they are full of errors in the presentation that make them unusable.

“All in all a thoroughly disappointing experience that has prioritised graphical imaging over actual useable data.”

When asked by FE Week to respond to the criticism, the SFA said: “The new interactive dashboards were developed and designed in consultation with the sector and Ofsted which meant we could incorporate suggestions made by providers.”

Although national rates not yet included for individual qualifications, they are there for type and level. Commenting on this, the spokesperson said: “National rates are available in the dashboards and they can be filtered in any of the charts to give a more detailed view at qualification type, age band or level.”

A leading expert in learning difficulties and disabilities has branded the FE sector a “postcode lottery” for young people with high needs, after an Ofsted report found the provision they receive “was often not of a high enough standard”.

In an expert piece for FE Week, Kathryn Rudd (pictured), principal of National Star College and chair of the Association of National Specialist Colleges (Natspec), criticised the distinct lack of choice for students with special needs and disabilities, highlighted in the recent Ofsted report: ‘Moving forward? How well the further education and skills sector is preparing young people with high needs for adult life.’

The report, which was published on March 22, focused on young people aged between 16 and 25 with high levels of need. In 2014/15, there were over 22,000 young people in England in this bracket with allocated places at FE and skills providers.

It found that learners with high needs often receive different levels of support depending on the effectiveness of commissioning arrangements from the local authority in which they live.

The report also found that schools and local authorities often recommended an FE and skills provider that would be easy to access, rather than considering what was in the individual learner’s interests.

Ofsted visited 17 providers between January and March 2015, analysed inspection reports covering the period September 2014 to March 2015, collected the views of over 1,600 young people and talked to more than 60 of them in focus group meetings.

The report found that “only three providers stood out for their high quality of provision”, while eight “did not have adequate strategies, experience or expertise to ensure that they were able to support their learners with profound and multiple learning difficulties or disabilities”.

A lack of appropriate resources was also a problem.

The report says: “Five providers did not have the specialist resources, including staff with the necessary experience and expertise, required to support learners with high needs.”

The assessment and recording of learners’ progress and achievements was identified as “the weakest aspect of the provision seen for learners with high needs”, while careers guidance was also said to be “generally weak” and learners’ progress in English and mathematics was “often too slow”.

Clare Howard, chief executive officer of Natspec, said the report is “consistent with what Natspec has been advocating for some time”.

“Local authorities need to provide more detailed information on the full range of choices available, and should focus on the individual needs of learners,” she said.

She also commented on the issue of variation in practice across local authorities. “Natspec member colleges … have to work with many different approaches and often inexperienced staff. These create delays and uncertainty for young people and their families.”

In response to the findings of the report, a spokesperson for the Department for Education said:

“We want every student to receive the best education or training, including those with the highest needs, so they can reach their full potential. That is why we are providing support for both the FE and skills sector and local authorities to deliver our reforms to the SEND [special educational needs and disabilities] system, through measures including SEND advisers and workshops for providers and councils.

“We have also made £5m available to councils to promote supported internships, employer engagement and work placements for young people with SEND to help their transition into work.

“We welcome this report and we recognise the need to have robust data to allow us to track and monitor the impact of this provision, which is why we have accepted Ofsted’s recommendation to produce national data on learners’ sustained destinations.”

The amount of money the apprenticeship levy is expected to raise has already fallen by £100m for each year up to 2020/21, FE Week can reveal.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted in November that the levy would raise £2.8bn in 2017/18, £2.9bn in 2018/19 and £3bn in 2019/20.

The latest OBR figures (pictured), published last month, showed that the figures for each year had been revised down by £100m.

Levy funding is raised from a tax on PAYE and the reduction directly relates to the OBR’s revised figures on earnings g rowth. A Treasury spokesperson confirmed that the OBR’s latest projections reflected the OBR’s revised earnings and employment forecasts.

The £3bn levy pot in 2019/20 was to be split with £2.5bn going to apprenticeships in England, while the remaining £500m would go to the devolved nations.

Despite the subsequent projected £100m reduction, the Treasury said the £2.5bn apprenticeship pot for England would remain unchanged.

On the question of whether this meant the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland pot would be reduced to £400m, the Treasury spokesperson said they would be given “their fair share of the levy” and that discussions were still ongoing.

The apprenticeship levy, first announced by the government in July, is due to be introduced in April 2017 and set at 0.5 per cent of an employer’s paybill. Only businesses with a paybill of more than £3m – about 2 per cent of employers – will actually pay the levy.

The money raised by the apprenticeship levy will be ring-fenced, so it can only be spent on training apprentices. All levy-paying companies will receive a 10 per cent top up on their monthly levy contributions, the government announced in the budget last month.

Companies will access their levy money via a digital account, through which they will be able to choose their apprenticeships and training providers, and pay for training and assessment.

Nadhim Zahawi, co-chair of the Apprenticeship Delivery Board, said at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference in March that only levy-paying companies would have access to the Digital Apprenticeship System when it launches in April 2017.

Sue Husband, director of apprenticeships and delivery service at the Skills Funding Agency, also confirmed at the conference that non-levy paying companies would still have access to government funding for apprenticeships.

Better understanding is needed of why young people choose oversubscribed career paths, a new report states.

The study, ‘Routes into Work … it’s Alright for Some’, published by The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), Pearson, with research from the Learning and Work Institute, is intended to explain why youth unemployment has remained stubbornly high as the economy recovers.

A key issue identified was the mismatch between young people’s career ambitions and number of jobs available in particular sectors.

“There is a need for better understanding of whether too many young people apparently prepare themselves for work in popular sectors where the odds against finding work are high because they lack labour market information, or whether they have accurate information but ignore it,” the report said.

“At present, too many young people still find themselves drifting, dropping out and making the wrong learning or job choices.”

The report cited research carried out in 2013 by the Education and Employers Taskforce, which found one in five teenagers surveyed wanted to work in culture, media and sport, fields which account for just 2.4 per cent of opportunities.

“This type of mismatch between ambition and likely opportunity does not bode well for smooth school to work transitions,” it said.

The call for research into young people’s knowledge of the labour market was one of 12 recommendations put forward in the report.

Other recommendations included greater promotion of apprenticeships as pathways to work, with the report highlighting the important role work-based learning plays in helping young people not in education, employment, or training find jobs.

The document highlighted research by the National Foundation for Educational Research in 2010, which found the quality of information about post-16 options was a “limiting factor for a significant minority” of those finishing year 11.

Improving the quality of this information was the focus for a number of recommendations in the report, including ensuring school pupils and their parents are aware of all post-16 options, and developing a range of actions to take against schools that don’t provide this information.

The report also recommended that performance of the new Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) should be monitored “so that successes can be built on and any signs of lack of reach or impact can be detected and addressed,” the report said.

It comes after the CEC announced 33 projects that will receive money from its Careers and Enterprise Fund (CEF), which it says is designed to “increase the number of encounters young people have with employers while in education”.

The pot is worth a total of £9.5m, including £5m from the CEF and match funding.

About 75 per cent of the cash has gone to projects in areas of England identified by the CEC as careers advice ‘cold spots’, which are most in need of careers and enterprise support.

Only one of the beneficiaries is a college – Bridge to Work, run by Loughborough College – while a further six beneficiaries work directly with colleges, a CEC spokesperson said.