Choose academic or technical route at 16 – radical government plans reveal

The post-16 vocational qualification system is set for a radical overhaul to replace 20,000 courses with “15 high-quality routes”, according to a government report to be published later today.

And each of the 15 routes, first reported exclusively by FE Week in May, will controversially only be available by a single awarding organisation.

The first ‘pathfinder’ routes will be taught from September 2019 and will be two-year college based programmes suitable from the age of 16, as well as those 19+, with close alignment to the new apprenticeship standards.

All 15 routes will be rolled-out for teaching by September 2022 and four of the 15 routes will be “primarily delivered through apprenticeships.”

The Skills Minister Nick Boles says in the ‘Post-16 Skills Plan‘, published at 10:30 this morning, that “we accept and will implement all of the Sainsbury panel’s proposals, unequivocally where that it is possible within current budget constraints.”

Lord Sainsbury’s ‘Report of the Independent Panel on Technical Education’, also published today, recommends each route has a ‘common core’ which will include English, maths and digital skills as well as a “specialisation towards a skilled occupation or set of occupations.”

Many within the FE sector will feel a sense of déjà vu. The Labour government’s 14-19 Diplomas, were announced in a white paper in 2005, launched in 2008 and scrapped within a few years. There were 14 lines of learning consisting of qualifications comprising the components “principal learning, generic learning and additional and specialist learning.”

However, this latest attempt will be different says Mr Boles, who blames past attempts at reform for failing “because they lacked real commitment, with governments changing plans before they could have real impact.”

This latest plan states the government ambition is for 16 year-olds to be “presented with two choices: the academic or the technical option” in the form of these 15 routes covering “college-based and employment based (apprenticeship) education”.

A binary “choice” between academic and technical is likely to raise fears of creating a two tier education system, although bridging courses for those over the age of 18 are promised.

The plans include:

– A controversial move to have just one awarding organisation for each of the 15 routes. The report says the government will “put in place only one approved tech level qualification…we intend to grant exclusive licences for the development of these tech levels following a competitive process.”

– An expansion and renaming of the Institute for Apprenticeships, due to be launched in April 2017. New legislation will be needed for it to become the “only body responsible for technical education” and it will be called the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

– Every 16 to 18-year-old on a college based technical education programme will be “entitled” to a “quality work placement”

– Colleges and other training providers could be permitted to deliver traineeships for up to a year (a doubling of the current six month maximum) as part of a ‘transition year’ for 16 to 18-year-olds progressing onto one of the 15 routes

The 15 routes listed within the Skills Plan are as follows:

– Agriculture, Environmental and Animal Care

– Business and Administrative

– Catering and Hospitality

– Childcare and Education

– Construction

– Creative and Design

– Digital

– Engineering and Manufacturing

– Hair and Beauty

– Health and Science

– Legal, Finance and Accounting

– Protective Services*

– Sales, Marketing and Procurement*

– Social Care*

– Transport and Logistics*

* primarily delivered through apprenticeships.

Post-16 Skills Plan Timeline

– April 2017 : the Institute for Apprenticeships begins operating

– April 2018 : the Institute for Apprenticeships becomes Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

– October 2018 : Procurement begins for new technical qualifications

– February 2019 : Technical qualifications approved for ‘pathfinder’ routes

– September 2019: First teaching of ‘pathfinder’ routes

– September 2020 – September 2022 – Phased teaching of other routes

Streamlining technical education routes for highly-skilled workforce

If we are to compete in today’s global economy against low-wage countries such as China, industry needs to have a highly-skilled technician workforce. Many other areas of our national life, whether it is hospitals, the armed services, or agriculture, today also depend on highly-skilled technicians if they are to operate efficiently.

But the simple truth is that today we do not have the highly-skilled technician workforce that we need. International comparisons suggest the UK performs relatively well when it comes to graduate-level and higher skills. But at the sub-degree, skilled technician level our performance is appalling. By 2020, the UK is predicted to rank just 28th of 33 OECD countries in terms of developing these intermediate-level skills.

But we do not need international comparisons to throw into sharp relief the problems we are facing: our own employer surveys consistently paint a bleak picture. A survey last year by the CBI and Pearson found 47 per cent of construction employers and 37 per cent of manufacturing employers reporting current difficulties in recruiting technicians. Across all sectors, 46 per cent of employers reported suffering or expecting soon to suffer a shortage of technicians.

That we find now ourselves in this position is as unsurprising as it is depressing. It is over a hundred years since the first report was produced which highlighted the failures of technical education in the UK, the Samuelson Royal Commission on Technical Instruction which reported in 1882-4, and since the 1940s there have been very many attempts to reform the system. In the last 35 years alone there have been 28 major Acts relating to vocational and further education and skills training in the UK.

Young people will only work hard to get a qualification, and value it highly when they get it, if employers when recruiting give priority to individuals who possess it.

These have all been unsuccessful because they tinkered with technical education instead of learning from what works in other countries, and then embedding an easy-to-navigate system that everyone understands but which is flexible enough to respond to a changing economy. As a result of these past failures, at the same time that UK productivity is suffering due to a serious shortage of technicians, over 400,000 16-24 year olds are unemployed. It is hard to believe that none of these young people have the ability and motivation to train as technicians if only given good opportunities to do so.

Last year the UK government asked me to chair a panel of experts to look at how and why our competitors seem to be doing things better than us and how technical education in England could be put on par with the best in the world. Our findings were clear: successful education systems elsewhere in the world have, as a central feature, a well-understood national system of qualifications that works in the labour market.

Young people will only work hard to get a qualification, and value it highly when they get it, if employers when recruiting give priority to individuals who possess it.

It is only this labour market currency that gives technical courses the prestige they possess in high-performing countries such as Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore and others. Any talk of governments being able to endow technical education with prestige – or parity of esteem with academic options – without first ensuring its genuine currency with employers is nonsense.

To achieve such market currency for technical qualifications, employer engagement in course design cannot simply be an afterthought.

Instead, while it is the role of government to design the overall national system, it must be experts from industry who determine the knowledge, skills, and methods of assessment, for each qualification.

Equally, high-quality work placements must be part of every technical qualification, as they are in other countries, with the government contributing to the cost of these placements for young people in recognition of the critical role they play in developing transferable skills which employers value.

In industries like engineering, construction, healthcare and finance, the most-skilled nations have clearly defined occupational routes that set out clear technical education standards, resulting in recognised national qualifications. Germany has six main routes for dual apprenticeships with around 320 national training standards.

The Netherlands has a total of eight technical routes but is aiming to reduce the number of technical programmes to approximately 170 main qualifications. In comparison, England has no specific routes and a ridiculous 22,140 certificates offered by 160 different awarding organisations. For example, someone aiming for a future career in plumbing has 33 qualifications to choose from – a bewildering prospect for employers and candidates alike.

Taking all of this evidence into consideration, the panel I chaired is recommending that a new set of 15 technical education routes is introduced in England.

This clear organising framework will cover all technician-level occupations where there is a substantial requirement for technical knowledge and practical skills. It will streamline the system substantially, and allow individuals and employers to see how college-based courses sit alongside apprenticeships as equally valid pathways to skilled employment. Most crucially however, it will give this country – for the first time – a national system of technical qualifications that works in the marketplace because it delivers the knowledge and skills employers need.

The proposals that we have made are essential if we are to compete effectively in world markets, and operate our public services efficiently. They are also important because they will provide many opportunities for our young people to gain the skills which will enable them to get better paid and more secure jobs. Our report is not only about industrial efficiency but also social mobility. And, finally, our proposals, I believe, provide an opportunity to reverse a hundred-year failure of our educational system, a prize surely worth fighting to achieve.

We welcome vision of excellence

We have never had a system which gives everyone a clear choice of an excellent academic or technical education. Lord Sainsbury sets out a vision of high aspiration and technical excellence for our country, which I welcome.

His review explicitly rejects a model where vocational education is a route of second-choice, the aim of which is to provide purposeful activity for those who will not succeed academically. Instead it envisages a technical education route of choice which is rigorous, relevant and demanding, with a clear line of sight to the occupational areas needed in our society and economy.

The Sainsbury review is realistic in its assessment of the challenges facing our country. It is serious about setting a reform timescale that can be delivered. And it is unambiguous that our FE and Training system is the solution, not the problem. The government’s skills plan is commitment to these important objectives.

The key understanding must be that academic and technical education are different in purpose.

Technical education is highly relevant preparation for work. We need to promote technical education as that, and stop pretending it is something else.

Young people’s perspectives can change with each birthday so we need to build their confidence to think about what they want at each stage of their development.

When both academic and technical education are equally committed to rigor and excellence, then they will be seen as different approaches to different ends, rather than- as they too often are – a stream for the successful and a stream for lower achievers.

Grouping technical education into broad pathways based on occupational areas is a good idea.  It was a good idea the last time government had it, and the time before that.

However, the power of the idea must be converted into reality in two key ways.

First, we must create the standards and content by asking employers and educationalists to work hand in hand, with neither expertise excluded from the room. Co-creation and the two-way street at the heart of technical education.

And second, we must implement on a human timescale, that allows the complex worlds of industry and education to find optimum solutions and partnerships that can be honed and refined, not ripped up and dumped if they do not produce instant nirvana. A stable, self-improving system.

We need to start discussions with young people about their interests and aptitudes long before they need formal careers advice.

Vocational education is not ‘what next?’ but ‘what do I want to do?’

Young people’s perspectives can change with each birthday so we need to build their confidence to think about what they want at each stage of their development.

It may annoy adult policy makers but a 16 year old not knowing what they want to do is very human and understandable. Indeed it is probably a sign of a very mature attitude to the world of work.  That is why movement between academic and technical routes needs to be accepted and supported.

Achieving the Sainsbury vision will require an excellently skilled and highly qualified teaching workforce of ‘dual professionals’.

The ETF will work with other key partners to help ensure Government’s investment in this vision translates into excellent sustained outcomes on the ground. We are not starting from scratch – our Teach Too and Two Way Street programmes have already broken new ground in technical education practice.

Visit our new exhibition site at http://tvet.excellencegateway.org.uk to see how the future is already arriving.

Finally, as data improves and can be better linked to work, there will be challenges for education and training.

We will find many courses at many universities simply do not make economic sense for the individual. This will also expose those further education routes that do not deliver.

Our sector will need to step up and provide excellent alternatives in the face of economic accountability.

Highlights from day one of FE Week’s Festival of Skills

We’ve put together a selection of photos from day one of FE Week’s Festival of Skills at Capel Manor College’s glorious 74-acre site in North London.

The continuing professional development event for FE and skills is hosted by Summerhouse Events and in partnership with City and Guilds, the Education and Training Foundation, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Join us tomorrow for day two!

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Top students and tutors celebrated at Lion Awards

Outstanding FE and skills achievers have been honoured at FE Week’s Festival of Skills for this year’s City & Guilds Lion Awards.

The stunning grounds of Capel Manor College, in North London, was the setting for the ceremony this evening (June 7), hosted by BBC breakfast and Celebrity MasterChef presenter Louise Minchin, to recognise the efforts of the very best of the sector’s students and tutors.

Dubbed as the “Oscars of skills education”, the Lion Awards was the culmination of the annual City & Guilds Medals for Excellence programme.

Kirstie Donnelly, managing director at City & Guilds, said this year’s nominees and winners demonstrated a “wealth of talent” in FE and skills who made her “incredibly proud” of their achievements and dedication.

More than 200 nominations were submitted across the five categories of Tutor of the Year, Outstanding Achiever of the Year, Apprentice of the Year, FE Learner of the Year and Employee Learner of the Year.

Michael Felse from the Professional Skills Academy, Salford, took home the award for tutor of the year.

A City & Guilds spokesperson said Mr Felse helped more than 200 health trainers achieve their qualifications, who meet the needs of more than 1,000 clients in communities every year.

He was also awarded an Honorary Membership of City & Guilds for “outstanding work” that involved collaboration with health and cabinet ministers.

Outstanding Achiever of the Year was picked up by Gary Doyle, a student at Newry & Kilkeel Institute of FE, Northern Ireland.

Since starting a level two diploma in plumbing course in 2011, Gary has gone on to represent the UK at the WorldSkills in Sao Paulo Brazil last year, where he won a gold medal.

Next up to be honoured was India Ratcliffe, the Apprentice of the Year from North Lancs Training Group (NLTG), Accrington.

The spokesperson from City & Guilds said that since taking a level three NVQ diploma in upholstery and soft furnishings, India has achieved an “extremely high” level of skill to meet not only modern techniques but also to specialise in traditional techniques that are “rare in today’s upholstery trade”.

FE Learner of the Year went to Daniel Kearney of Kerry ETB Training Centre, Republic of Ireland.

Daniel had spent 20 years working in menswear before being made redundant and enrolling on a diploma in media techniques (radio) in 2014.

He has since produced his first independent documentary in collaboration with RTE Radio 1, for which he was given a rating of 4.2 out of 5 by the broadcaster’s rating system.

And lastly, Alexander Fu Lam Chan from Professional Skills Academy, Salford, was awarded Employee Learner of the Year.

Alex enrolled onto an NVQ level three gym instructors and personal trainer’s course after university and achieved subsequent qualifications in life coaching and diet and nutrition.

The City & Guilds spokesperson said that Alex not only achieved his certificate, but helped the awarding organisation to identify a new “thematic community of potential candidates” for the level three qualification.

Pic: Lion Awards winners 2016

Nicky Morgan confirms Spielman choice for Ofsted chief inspector

Education secretary Nicky Morgan has confirmed she will press ahead with plans to appoint Amanda Spielman as chief inspector of Ofsted.

Ms Morgan announced her intentions in a scathing letter to education select committee chair Neil Carmichael, published this afternoon. It follows the committee recommending Ms Spielman is rejected for the role, saying she “lacked passion” and did not have relevant experience in children’s services.

But Ms Morgan reiterated that Ms Spielman was the best candidate, adding she was “surprised and disappointed” by the committee’s report.

She said members’ views on the desirable qualities and skills wanted from the next chief inspector were “different in very significant areas from the advertised person specification (which the committee received before the role was advertised)”.

Ms Morgan said the committee had “misunderstood the reality of the HMCI’s role” and said their report was “factually wrong” by suggesting Ofsted is “accountable for failures in child protection”.

“Amanda was completely right to say that this responsibility rests with ‘those who are actually directly responsible for the children day to day in social care’, whilst also recognising the enormous responsibility of inspecting child protection and other children’s services. This is an important error in the report.”

She said she was “concerned the committee appears to have been looking for a narrow and stereotypical representation of leadership, vision and motivation”, adding: “I am not seeking what one committee member described as a ‘crusader’ during the hearing”.

“That is what I am looking for in the next chief inspector: someone with a relentless determination to raise standards, but also a rigorous and clear-sighted leader for Ofsted, who will lead the organisation and its inspectors to form reliable, credible and well-evidenced judgements about the quality of education and care young people receive.”

She added: “I am sure that Amanda will generate fewer headlines than her predecessor, but I also know that she will not shy away from challenging Government, nor offering frank assessments of the performance of our educational institutions. I have absolutely no doubt that under her watch Ofsted will play a central – and highly effective – role in supporting and driving improvement in childcare, schools, children’s services and adult learning.”

The announcement follows a rally of support for Ms Spielman from education leaders including schools commissioner Sir David Carter and Ofsted national director of education Sean Harford.

FE Week’s sister paper FE Week also learned Nicky Morgan’s aides had launched a campaign last night to rally supporters of Spielman, urging key stakeholders to sign a letter showing their support.

One in three colleges to disappear – predicts FE Commissioner

The number of FE colleges could drop by a third once the post-16 area review process has completed, the FE Commissioner Sir David Collins has said.

Sir David’s “best bet” for the size of the sector was based on his estimate of up to 80 mergers, he told delegates at the Area Review Summit at FE Week’s Festival of Skills today.

The FE Commissioner, who has been leading the review process, also revealed that all the areas in wave one and many in wave two had reached the recommendation stage.

“In general terms, what’s emerging is certainly quite a number of mergers,” he said.

In terms of numbers, he said: “I would start somewhere in the regions of 50 mergers upwards, possibly 70 or 80, on the basis of what’s happening at the moment.”

When pressed later to put a figure on the size of the sector once the reviews had completed, he said: “We’re at 243 colleges now. My best bet is that we’ll come down to 170.”

The government first unveiled plans for the area reviews in July 2015, with the first areas announced in September.

Sir David said that ten reviews – all of those in wave one and a number of those in wave two – had so far been “completely signed off” by the areas involved.

He added: “We’re not behind, and we’ll complete very happily by March 2017”.

Wave one had taken “a bit longer than we would have hoped” in part because it had included “the most complicated cases – the ones where it was clear there was going to be a bit of an issue”.

The FE Commissioner reported on the outcomes from “half a dozen or so” of the reviews that have so far completed, including Birmingham and Solihull, Tees Valley, and Sussex.

These were intended to “give reassurance that we’re talking about locally driven not top-down demanded” outcomes, Sir David said.

To illustrate this he gave a number of examples of outcomes that were different from what he would have liked to see – such as in Tees Valley.

He said he would have liked all four colleges involved to have come together “for a Tees Valley total solution” rather than the two separate mergers involving two colleges each that were proposed.

“That’s a really good example of the fact that the government or the FE Commissioner is not pushing a particular solution,” he said.

“What we’re trying to get is a picture that actually works and fits.”

Sir David confirmed that the long-delayed Manchester review had definitely completed, although its recommendations were not included in his presentation.

As previously reported by FE Week, the Manchester review had been subject to deep tensions between the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the colleges involved, with the Skills Minister Nick Boles recently echoing calls from the review chair, Theresa Grant, for the colleges to be more ambitious.

The FE Commissioner acknowledged the delay, and said that it was because combined authority was “very ambitious” and “they saw this as a real opportunity to make sure that the skills coming out of the colleges were linked to the Manchester priorities”.

But he added: “Clearly the combined authority had to adjust a little bit to what was and wasn’t on the table.”

The solutions that had finally emerged from the review “are very good solutions”, Sir David said, “although longer term there may be more that’s happening”.

Exclusive: Successor to Network for Black and Asian Professionals launching tomorrow at Festival of Skills

A successor group to the defunct Network for Black and Asian Professionals (NBAP) will be launched tomorrow at the FE Week Festival of Skills.

The new organisation will be called The BAME Principals Group.

It will comprise serving principals and chief executives of FE institutions and chaired by Jat Sharma, who is an Association of Colleges board member and principal of Walsall College.

Leading roles will also be played by Andy Forbes and Anthony Bravo, principals of the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London and Basingstoke College of Technology.

They intend to fill the gap left by NBAP— which Rajinder Mann, who has helped facilitate the new organisation’s launch, ran until it was forced to fold late last year.

It will be launched tomorrow, on what will be the opening day of the Festival of Skills at Capel Manor College, North London.

Ms Mann (pictured above) told FE Week ahead of this: “I am pleased to see that the legacy of the NBAP will be carried forward.”

She added: “The importance of the race equality agenda has become highly relevant in the light of Brexit and we need a positive focus bringing together all the communities we serve in FE.”

Wolverhampton-based NBAP was set up in 1998 to address under-representation of black staff in FE, particularly in teaching, management and senior positions.

But FE Week exclusively revealed in November that it was closing “due to lack of funding”, as a result of “the current political environment and the austerity cuts in the public sector”.

In a letter to members at the time, Ms Mann wrote: “It is with deep sadness and regret that I am writing to inform you that the NBAP board has reluctantly resolved to close.”

“Despite numerous attempts to mitigate closure by cutting our staff and costs to the bone we can no longer sustain the organisation.”

The closure of the network came just six months after Ms Mann urged college leaders to make the promotion of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) principals a “priority”, as their numbers had fallen nearly 30 per cent in three years.

The Festival of Skills will be a two day CPD event for professionals working in the FE and skills sector.

It will bring together the best of FE’s forward thinking advocates, policy makers and educators, providing a space for sharing new ideas and debating the key topics impacting on the sector.

Gove eliminated from Conservative party leadership contest

Former education secretary Michael Gove has been eliminated from the Conservative leadership race today.

Mr Gove, backed by skills minister Nick Boles who also ran his leadership campaign, has been knocked out of the contest to become the next Tory leader after persuading just 46 MPs to support his bid.

That leaves home secretary Theresa May, who secured 199 votes, and Andrea Leadsom, who won 84, to battle for the top job.

It is now down to Conservative party members to vote for who they want to become the next leader.

Mr Gove’s bid was supported by Mr Boles, as well as education secretary Nicky Morgan and schools minister Nick Gibb.

Mr Gibb tweeted that he is “very sorry” Mr Gove will not be the next prime minister, adding: “Having worked for him I know he would have been a great and reforming PM.”

He has now backed Ms May and praised her “judgment, experience and character to unite the party and give leadership to our country”.

Ms Morgan also later tweeted she is “disappointed” with the result, but said Ms May is now the “one clear choice to be the country’s PM”.

Ms May is a known supporter of grammar schools and her leadership campaign is being headed by Nick Timothy, who has taken an unpaid sabbatical from his role as director of New Schools Network.

Ms Leadsom, the south Northamptonshire MP, is a former city minister and banker, who campaigned for the UK to leave the EU.