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Ofqual opens malpractice investigation following apprentice complaint

Allegations of malpractice lodged by a former apprentice of Highbury College are being investigated by Ofqual, an FE Week investigation has revealed.

The qualifications watchdog confirmed it is looking into complaints lodged by 35-year-old Maxwell Hyde – who started as a boatbuilding apprentice at the college in

Portsmouth in September 2011, and who went on to work there as a workshop instructor from January 2013 until May 2014.

He completed his apprenticeship, but claims that during the process he was granted qualifications for courses that he did not take.

The SFA has previously opted to “partially uphold” another of Mr Hyde’s complaints against the college – in which he alleged his apprentice progress reports were falsified – in a report released in October 2015.

An Ofqual spokesperson told FE Week that it is currently “reviewing the actions carried out by the awarding organisations” involved – VTCT, Laser Awards and NCFE – but that it won’t be investigating the college.

Mr Hyde submitted a freedom of information request to the Skills Funding Agency in February, which indicated funding had been paid out for courses he claimed to have no knowledge of, for example on preventing contact dermatitis and substance misuse awareness.

Funding had been paid out for courses he claimed to have no knowledge of, for example on preventing contact dermatitis and substance misuse awareness

“Sadly it seems to me that students are seen as little more than cash cows, and provided the correct boxes are ticked and funding is obtained, no one cares how this is achieved,” he told FE Week.

NCFE revealed it had conducted its own investigation into the complaints in June – which concluded the certificates Mr Hyde felt he should not have been awarded had been built into other parts of his apprenticeship.

It said: “Qualifications awarded to Mr Hyde by NCFE were completed as additionality qualifications which were delivered during Highbury College’s induction programme.”

Laser Awards and VTCT also confirmed that they have been carrying out investigations into the claims.

A VTCT spokesperson denied any wrongdoing, adding that Highbury College “followed appropriate assessment and quality assurance procedures”.

Mr Hyde alleges that Highbury College had wrongly indicated that the progress reports had been completed with his input, despite the fact that in some cases he was allegedly out of the country.

The SFA report said: “There is no suggestion the college has committed any kind of fraud, but not ensuring the learner is demonstrably involved in his own reviews was bad practice on behalf of the college.

“We note that the college has committed to improving its processes.”

Mr Hyde told FE Week that he had taken up his concerns with Stella Mbubaegbu, the principal of Highbury College, who told him that her managers “had acted properly”.

A Highbury College spokesperson said: “The allegations raised with the SFA by Mr Hyde were in the first instance investigated by the college in line with college procedures.

“All the SFA recommendations have been considered by the college and changes arising from those recommendations implemented.”

She added: “Mr Hyde has reported the college to a number of awarding bodies and on each occasion, where requested, a report including the scope and outcome of the internal investigation was submitted by the college in response to each enquiry.

“On all occasions the awarding bodies have been satisfied with the way the college handled the complaint and the outcomes of the investigation.”

Lead DfE civil servant debunks Skills Plan ‘myth’

The government’s controversial plans to replace over 20,000 technical courses with 15 routes won’t lead to just 15 qualifications, a top civil servant has insisted.

Warwick Sharp, the deputy director 16-19 strategy at the Department for Education, said it was a “myth” that the streamlining – which many in the sector worry is too drastic – would result in limited outcomes.

The plans, announced in the Post-16 Skills Plan in July and building on the recommendations of Sainsbury Review into technical education, will see the first routes being taught from September 2019.

They will be two-year, college-based programmes closely aligned to new apprenticeship standards.

The full 15 routes are due to be rolled out for teaching by September 2022, with four of the 15 “primarily delivered through apprenticeships.”

There has been considerable confusion in the sector over this significant simplification, with many worried that it would lead to just 15 qualifications

There has been considerable confusion in the sector over this significant simplification, with many worried that it would lead to just 15 qualifications – which would leave many in the range of subjects as awkward bedfellows.

The ‘Creative and Design’ route, for example, includes training as an audio-visual technician, a journalist or a furniture maker. The ‘Engineering and Manufacturing’ route meanwhile links the roles of aircraft fitter, printer and energy plant operative.

However Mr Sharp attempted to ease sector worries during a speech at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ autumn conference on November 1.

“There is myth out there that there are 15 qualifications because there are 15 routes,” he said, adding: “I think it will look different across each route.”

He suggested that the routes could branch, using ‘Legal, Finance and Accounting’ as an example.

“I’m not saying it will happen – but we could see three clear branches there; something like engineering or manufacturing is probably much more diverse.”

He went on: “I can’t say how many qualifications there will be, but there will definitely be multiple qualifications per route, according to how much sense it makes to either bump those occupations together, or have a qualification per occupation.

“We just don’t know yet.”

FE Week put Mr Sharp’s comments to the DfE, asking why this “myth” has been allowed to spread, whether the DfE was responsible for the idea, and what the reality will be for the routes and qualifications.

However, the department’s spokesperson insisted that there were no further comments to make at this stage.

Nevertheless, a letter from apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon, written in October and sent to all chairs and principals of colleges and chief executives of independent training providers, raised the suggestion directly.

He wrote that the Post-16 Skills Plan “replaces the current system of thousands of competing qualifications with 15 high-quality routes encompassing college-based and apprenticeships”.

A release from the DfE for Business, Innovation and Skills on July 8 also said: “Thousands of ineffective courses that short-change employers and young people will be replaced with 15 straightforward routes into technical employment creating a more skilled workforce fit for modern Britain.

“Currently young people considering a technical education must choose between more than 20,000 courses provided by 160 different organisations with no clear indicator of which course will give them the best chance of landing a job.

“The skills plan proposes a new system where students who have finished their GCSEs will be able to choose from up to 15 routes providing a clear path to skilled employment.”

AELP voxpops: Is the fact that there’s no guaranteed funding for non-levy payers a big concern? Will the apprenticeship levy ultimately shut out the SMEs?

The government must go much further with reforms

The Technical and Further Education Bill is a good start, but it needs to address structural problems that will hold us back in world trade, says Shane Chowen.

In the wake of the vote to leave the EU, the economic aftershocks are beginning to be felt. Economists still forecast a rise in unemployment – albeit not to the scale predicted immediately after the referendum – and the consequences of a weak currency are starting to have an impact, with retailers and energy companies set to increase prices.

But looking at other changes to our economy, it seems the government has not dropped the ball. Self-employment is now at its highest rate ever, helped by the rise in what has been dubbed the ‘gig economy’, where companies enlist self-employed individuals for work that is often low-paid and insecure, but very flexible.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce, and a former adviser to Tony Blair, has been asked by Theresa May to look into what these emerging employment models mean for employee rights and employer responsibilities. One of the six key themes of Taylor’s inquiry is to look at progression and training, and to recommend ways to ‘facilitate and encourage professional development’. After all, self-employed people can’t ‘apprentice’ themselves.

Self-employed people can’t ‘apprentice’ themselves

The sector must engage in this important review.

The Technical and Further Education Bill, introduced by the government on October 27, is the ideal opportunity for the government to go further in granting the regulatory freedoms necessary to respond to our changing economy. The bill provides the legislative backing for the new Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to provide technical training pathways within defined occupational groups.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s what the Sainsbury Review recommended. However, the bill doesn’t say there should be 15 routes, as Sainsbury suggested. Instead, it charges the secretary of state with responsibility to determine occupational groups, and then it will be up to the new Institute to decide which occupations fall into each group. Interestingly, there is a clause in the bill that would ensure any occupation that doesn’t fit neatly into a pre-determined group, would still have to be lumped in anyway. So I for one would not put money on 15 being the magic number.

The new Institute will have a powerful role in technical education as well as apprenticeships. It will be empowered by law to set standards and approve, own copyright for, and license technical qualifications related to those occupations.

People with learning difficulties and disabilities, and people from BME backgrounds have been famously underrepresented in apprenticeships

I would love to see a more explicit requirement to work with learners. The bill requires it to share information with Ofqual, Ofsted and the new Office for Students, but these are hardly organisations with outstanding track records of learner engagement. Lessons should be learned from the trailblazer process and learners should be systematically embedded in the development and approval of standards and assessment plans for apprenticeships and technical education.

The Department for Education’s own evidence suggests that their reforms will benefit groups of learners. For example, its impact assessment says those with learning difficulties and disabilities will benefit from the transition year proposed in the Post-16 Skills Plan. Learners from black and ethnic minority (BME) groups will benefit from the new college insolvency regime introduced by the bill, because a higher proportion of BME learners go to college relative to the general population.

Yet the bill does not even touch on glaring access issues currently plaguing the apprenticeships system. People with learning difficulties and disabilities, and people from BME backgrounds have been famously underrepresented in apprenticeships for a number of years. There should be amendments to the bill that enshrine the developed recommendations of the Maynard Review on apprenticeship accessibility.

At the very least, the bill should legislate for the new Institute to have a defined role in widening access to apprenticeships and technical education, similar to the Office for Students’ role in widening participation in universities.

The bill is a good start, but could do much more to set the sector up for a modern economy and address serious structural problems that will hold us back as we trade with the rest of the world.

Shane Chowen is head of policy and public affairs at the Learning and Work Institute, and a governor at Westminster Kingsway College.

How to create inclusive learning spaces

To successfully create inclusive spaces for those with learning difficulties, the entire organisation needs to be brought on-board, says Karen Roberts.

While dyslexia is estimated to affect around 10 per cent of the general population (four per cent severely), the figure is estimated at around one third in young offender institutions.

If colleges and FE institutions are not dyslexia-friendly, it may well be that learners and staff are not reaching their full potential and many maybe struggling to articulate their needs.

In September, HMYOI Werrington became the first secure establishment ever to receive the dyslexia-friendly quality kite mark from the British Dyslexia Association. Here are three elements that we at Novus, working alongside them, found to be essential:

Support for the leadership team

The demands of the award were stringent, assessing areas such as leadership and management, communication, training, partnerships and educational provision.

For Werrington the whole process took almost two years, from initial self-assessment on the standards, through development of an action plan, to building up a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate that we had met the standard, ready for a verification visit.

We had full support from senior management, both in the YOI and at Novus – this ensured that staff were enabled to attend the training and given time to develop the initiative in their area of the prison.

A full-organisation project

A critical factor in the success of this project was how we approached the process – as a whole establishment, not just an education department.

Young people in this environment are influenced by many touchpoints in the prison regime, and there was a danger that the impact of the project could be significantly diluted once the young people went back to other parts of the prison, if the project was contained within the education department.

Fortunately, the governor at Werrington provided his full support in ensuring the establishment took an inclusive and proactive approach. Dyslexia-friendly training was embedded into the prison induction programme for all new staff, as well as training of existing colleagues.

One thing that surprised us was the number of staff who identified themselves as needing support as a result of the training

We asked for volunteer dyslexia champions across all parts of the establishment, including the kitchen, residential wings and chaplaincy, for example – supported by their line managers and allocated time to attend training with our regional SENCo.

Once the champions started to understand the challenges faced by young people with dyslexia, and the impact this had on their daily lives, they began to identify innovative ways in which they could support them in the prison.

Their enthusiasm was infectious – coloured acetate overlays appeared everywhere, notices such as the daily menu were replaced with newly printed versions on cream-coloured paper with sans serif fonts size 14 or larger, and dyslexia-friendly support packs were provided to all wings and every department throughout the establishment.

Full training led by the governor and the education staff ensured everyone had an understanding of dyslexia and knew where to go for support.

One thing that surprised us was the number of staff who identified themselves as needing support as a result of the training – it became an initiative to support staff, as well as young people.

One member of staff in his 60s, who had not been diagnosed previously, took home a coloured overlay and returned the next day excited about the new world that had opened up to him overnight,when he had managed to read a chapter of a book.

The HMYOI Werrington and Novus team with representatives from the British Dyslexia Association

A committed project lead

We had an enthusiastic, inspirational and determined regional SENCo who was able to gain support for the project from a wide range of colleagues. The project lead needs to have a real commitment to this area of work as well as the ability to motivate others to get involved.

A dyslexia-friendly environment boosts individuals’ confidence and supports the creation of an inclusive environment, in which all can thrive and fulfil their potential.

The buzz from hearing one young offender saying he doesn’t need help with reading his letter from home today, “because I’ve got my coloured filter now”, makes the whole project worthwhile.

Karen Roberts is director of youth justice at training provider Novus.

Kensington and Chelsea College principal resigns with immediate effect

The principal of Kensington and Chelsea College has resigned with immediate effect, FE Week can reveal.

Staff at the college were informed of Mark Brickley’s departure on Monday (October 31), after his resignation was accepted by the corporation the previous Friday (October 28).

A spokesperson for the college would only say that Mr Brickley had stepped down for “personal reasons”. She declined to go into any more detail.

Bill Blythe, previously interim vice principal finance and resources at the college, has been appointed interim principal.

Mr Brickley took over at Kensington and Chelsea in September 2013, before he was interviewed for an FE Week profile piece three months later, having previously been vice principal at Guildford College for nine years.

The 3,350-learner college received a ‘requires improvement’ rating following its most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2015, having received the same grade at two previous inspections in 2013 and 2012.

It is currently involved in the central London area review of post-16 education and training, which is expected to complete later in November.

He was unavailable for comment this week, but told previously spoke to FE Week about his passion for the sector.

“I believe FE changes lives, I really do, and that’s what I’m always striving to do in this job [at Kensington and Chelsea College],” he said. “I’ve got this thing called the ‘toothbrush test’. It’s just me, as a human being, looking in the mirror twice a day, brushing saying ‘you’ve done a good job, you’ve worked hard today and fundamentally you’re a decent human being.’

Mr Brickley added: “You only get one crack at this life, and if you can say that honestly, every day, you’ve done well.”

Race on to approve assessors in time for apprentices finishing in March

Fresh concerns have been raised about endpoint tests on apprenticeships, after an FE Week investigation found learners who will finish in March on a new standard without any officially approved awarding organisation.

Global insurance company Aon has confirmed this to be the case for the first wave of students taking its level three insurance practitioner standard without any AO to run final tests.

FE Week recently revealed that more than 40 per cent of learner starts on standards approved by the government had no official AO.

The news provoked a furious reaction throughout the sector, with former top FE civil servant Dr Sue Pember describing the lack of consideration towards learners as “diabolical”.

There is still no officially approved AO listed by the government to run end point tests for the level three insurance practitioner standard – although City & Guilds said this week it and the Chartered Insurance Institute had been cleared to develop this.

When asked if it was concerned about the short notice, which will leave learners little time to prepare for the test, an Aon spokesperson said: “As with much in the apprenticeship space we’re trailblazing, so sometimes ‘just in time’ is the only option we have.”

This attitude reflected the relaxed approach taken by Skills Funding Agency boss Peter Lauener (pictured above), who told delegates at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers autumn conference that while it was “not ideal” to have no approved awarding organisations for learner starts on so many standards, the situation is “manageable”.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon said this week that he was “pretty sure” no apprentices would get to the end of their course without an end-point assessment organisation in place, during a sub-committee on education, skills and the economy hearing on November 2.

And last week, he told the FE Week editor there was “plenty of time to sort it out”.

However, Terry Fennell, group operations director at the Food and Drink Training and Education Council and deputy chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, was more concerned.

“A part of any good assessment approach is that the apprentices won’t face any nasty surprises at the end testing stage,” he told FE Week.

“There is a danger here that while AOs will no doubt have the resources to produce an effective assessment at short notice, candidates may not have sufficient time to adequately prepare and be ready to undertake the end tests.”

Dr Pember added: “Although it is called an end test, the method and content has an impact on the success of the whole programme.

“We do not treat our A-level students in this way. A-levels have also gone through a major reform programme in the same timescale as the change to apprenticeship standards but, although the process was probably difficult for awarding bodies, it did safeguard the students’ interests.

“Where an A-level couldn’t be approved in time for the start of the academic year, the old one stands until the new one is approved by Ofqual.

“For A-levels, assessment material must be submitted at the start of the approvals process and no approval is given without them. If that process is right for A-level students and their teachers, then we must ensure apprentices and their trainers have the same level of support.”

A Department for Education spokesperson would only confirm that “level three and four insurance standards have been approved and the assessment plans are included in the list of standards we publish as part of the register overview”.

She conceded however that no awarding organisation had been officially confirmed yet for these, but insisted an announcement would be made on it soon.

Big win over small schools

I would like to congratulate the Association of Colleges on its important win for the sector.

It flexed its muscles through demanding a judicial review, and the DfE was right to respond by dropping plans to fund what would have been another undersized and unneeded sixth form.

Our discovery that a further Loxford Trust sixth form cleared by the government is potentially operating with under 20 students, raises further serious questions over judgement and scant regard for its own guidelines.

Justine Greening should now review all recent decisions to approve small sixth forms.

They’re poor value for taxpayers’ money and have been flooding an already overcrowded post-16 market for too long.

It would be wrong of the DfE to continue forcing through a decline in the number of established and valued colleges, while dubious school sixth forms are allowed to proliferate.

On a closing note, while David Hughes is being rightly lauded for seeing the legal challenge through, we should also credit his predecessor Martin Doel for preparing the way.

Area Reviews: rebuild for resilience

Right time to reflect on sweeping changes

Download the supplement here

It’s been just over a year since the reviews launched, aiming to move towards “fewer, often larger, more resilient and efficient providers”.

Since that time, I’ve been following the process with great interest – from the first reports of lengthy delays during wave one, to the FE commissioner Sir David Collins’ promise to MPs this month that all reviews were on track to finish on time by next March.

Now that many of the earlier reviews have reached the implementation phase – and the government has at last published its long-awaited implementation guidance – this is a good moment to focus on the work ahead for colleges.

Pages four and five give you an essential overview of the key points of the new guidance – which includes the due diligence framework, as well as key facts about the restructuring facility, and sixth form college academisation guidance.

Many colleges will emerge from the review process wanting to merge with one another, so on page six, lawyer and FE expert Glynne Stanfield outlines the different options for closer working.

On page seven we hear from Theresa Grant, who chaired the Greater Manchester review on behalf of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

She writes about how the combined authority’s analysis of the area’s future employment trends helped shape the outcomes of that review.

Sir David Collins has chaired 14 of the reviews, which have seen him travel the length and breadth of the country – so he’ll probably be looking forward to a break when he retires later this month.

We meet his successor, Richard Atkins CBE, and his supporting team on pages 10 and 11.

And turn to pages 12 and 13 for a college governor’s views of the reviews, as Beej Kaczmarczyk writes about his experience as a governor at a college involved in the first wave of the reviews.

Joining with another college is obviously a potentially traumatic experience, and on page 14 the former Bath College principal Matt Atkinson, now FEA’s managing director, writes about how to successfully navigate the experience.

And on page 15 merger expert Chris Mantel looks at how to plan a successful merger.

Small school scandal deepens as academy trust found running sixth form with fewer than 20 pupils

A multi-academy trust might be running a new sixth form with fewer than 20 students, FE Week has learned, just days after the DfE reversed a decision to let it open another one over fears it wouldn’t be able to make up numbers.

Loxford Trust has refused to reveal exactly how many students attend the sixth form attached to Tabor Academy in Braintree in Essex, after two separate sources claimed it was running far under either its capacity or the 200-pupil minimum specified in the Department for Education’s own guidelines.

The Trust also sponsors Abbs Cross academy and arts college in Hornchurch, Essex, and had been due to open a new sixth form there until the government was forced to climb down under the threat of a judicial review led by the Association of Colleges on Tuesday.

The DfE backed out on the morning of the hearing, reversing its decision and admitting that the trust had not “adequately conducted” a consultation with the local authority.

Significantly, the judicial review alleged that Tim Coulson (pictured), the regional schools commissioner for East England and North East London, had flouted government rules when approving the request from Loxford.

Regional schools commissioners work with the national schools commissioner Sir David Carter to take action in underperforming schools, and to decide on applications which can make significant changes to academies and free schools – such as opening new sixth forms.

The decision to approve the sixth forms at both Abbs Cross and Tabor was made by Mr Coulson at a meeting of the East England and North East London headteacher board on May 12.

In addition to the 200-pupil minimum, the DfE’s rules also state that applications for new sixth forms should normally come from academies rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

Abbs Cross had been rated ‘inadequate’ following its last full inspection in June 2015, losing its previous ‘good’ rating, while Tabor Academy also received an ‘inadequate’ rating at its most recent full inspection, published in January 2015.

A jubilant David Hughes, AoC’s chief executive, now wants full details of all new sixth form proposals to be put “on the public record”.

“Lots of our members think it is very unfair when a school sixth form gets set up on their doorstep,” he told FE Week, “and where the business case isn’t clear or the consultation is not perhaps as thorough as it might be, the transparency of the decision making isn’t clear.”

The DfE has also agreed to pay a “substantial contribution to a figure in excess of £50,000” to the AoC towards legal costs incurred for the review, he added.

A DfE spokesperson would not comment on the costs and said further information about the review would be published in due course, while Mr Hughes told FE Week that he had written to Sir David to set out what AoC believes the review should look at.

It’s unclear exactly how many pupils attend Tabor’s sixth form, which opened in September, while neither it nor Loxford Trust responded to repeated requests asking for clarification on the sources’ claims, that fewer than 20 students attend.

A DfE spokesperson told FE Week that the decision to approve Tabor Academy’s sixth form “was taken following advice from the Education Funding Agency and the headteacher board, taking into account a consultation in which 81 per cent of respondents were in favour of the proposal.

“It is expected that the sixth form will have 200 pupils from 2017-18,” they added, a figure which seems hard to achieve if the 20-student rumours are true.

A spokesperson for Colchester Institute, which also has a campus in Braintree, told FE Week that it had responded to the consultation on Tabor’s new sixth form a few years ago, “expressing serious concerns about the need and viability of further post-16 provision in the area”.

“Colchester Institute’s concerns were noted but the decision was made,” the spokesperson said.

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What the AoC chief executive David Hughes told FE Week

On the cost of the legal action: The DfE has agreed to pay a “substantial contribution to a figure in excess of £50,000.”

On fairness between way schools and colleges are treated: “We have just been through area reviews and colleges are having to put down three and five year financial plans that are properly rigorous and robust, why wouldn’t you expect that of a new school sixth form proposal?

“Why wouldn’t you allow that to be published? It should be on the public record so we have asked for that.”

“Lots of our members think it is very unfair when a school sixth form gets set up on their doorstep, and where the business case isn’t clear or the consultation is not perhaps as thorough as it might be, that the transparency of the decision making isn’t clear.”

On the Regional Schools Commissioners: “They need some clear rules and guidance to work to and we don’t think the current guidance offers that.

“The guidance is not written in a way that helps set out clearly what is expected. It is not about individuals. It is about the system.”

On the risk that forcing the DfE to review the policy might result in them weakening it, such as by taking out the 200 minimum student requirement: “That is an interesting question and I hadn’t thought of that.

“I don’t think so. I think there is a realisation that small school sixth forms are difficult financially.

“We have asked the DfE to analyse the evidence that shows small school sixth forms have poorer quality generally and I think they know that.

“I think the way the case has gone and their actions and discussions we have had suggest that is low risk, but it is a political process.

“I’ve just been with Justine Greening and the sort of education system she wants is high quality. Small school sixth forms find high quality very difficult and I think they know that.”

On the Tabor school sixth form: “We are aware of that [issue].

“I don’t want to comment on an individual position because there are probably many other cases like this.”

On what next: “I’m writing to Sir David Carter today, a letter that sets out in a bit more detail of what we think the review needs to look at and what the issues are.

“We have asked for and will ask the DfE to engage us, which they have promised to do, but also engage some of our members in that process.

“Ideally they will do it in an open and transparent way, that is what I think they should do and that is what we will be pushing for, including a timetable and publication.”