Around 70 per cent of sixth-form colleges have registered an interest in converting to an academy with four already launching formal consultations, FE Week has learned.

The figure was provided by the Sixth-Form Colleges’ Association, which said around 65 of the country’s 93 SFCs were exploring converting to an academy as “plan A or B” following recommendations in their area reviews.

Priestley College (pictured), in Warrington, is the latest to announce formal proposals for academy conversion, following bids by Hereford sixth form college, Rochdale sixth form college, and New College Pontefract.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the SFCA, said the plans will move sixth form colleges “from the margins to the mainstream”.

“It is a way of positioning sixth-form colleges to drive up standards in schools, to bring their business expertise,” he added.

The move follows former chancellor George Osborne’s announcement last year that becoming an academy would allow a sixth-form college to avoid paying VAT.

Guidance published by the Department for Education in February said that academisation would only be available to SFCs as part of the area review process.

SFCs have the option to convert either as a standalone academy, or as a multi-academy trust – either by joining an existing MAT or setting up a new one.

Priestley college hopes to launch The Challenge academy trust from next April, and currently has two secondaries and one primary signed up. It is also in talks with a further three secondaries and two primaries.

Principal Matthew Grant told FE Week: “Money is tight and we don’t think it is going to get any easier, therefore we want to work together with other schools to make efficiencies, share resources and expertise.”

Colleges currently pay an average of £317,000 per year in VAT; conversion would save Priestley college about £250,000 a year.

But Mr Grant said the move was “mainly about improving education across Warrington”.

Rochdale sixth form college is proposing to set up Altus Education Partnership from next February.

The multi-academy trust would provide “high quality educational support, improvement and governance to schools within the area local to Rochdale,” according to a public consultation published on the college’s website.

New College Pontefract is set to become part of the New Collaborative Learning Trust, which will include New College Doncaster and New College Bradford when they open in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Pauline Hagen, principal of New College Pontefract, said ensuring that all three institutions shared the same “legal rights and benefits” was a “tremendously important part of our plans for raising the quality of post-16 education across the region”.

Meanwhile, Hereford sixth form college is planning on becoming a single academy trust.

A consultation on its website said there would be “no change” in the character or ethos of the college and it would keep its name.

“As a single academy trust we would establish formal links with local 11 to 16 schools to develop shared approaches to quality assurance, shared staffing, professional development and resources,” the consultation said.

“The ability to reclaim VAT payments will provide additional funding of between £200,000 to £300,000 annually, which will be used to improve provision for students.”

The first conversion could be as soon as January, with applications for both Hereford and New College Pontefract being reviewed by the Department for Education and their relevant regional schools commissioner.

A former top skills civil servant has turned on “diabolical” government planners, after exclusive FE Week analysis showed there are no approved awarding organisations for over 40 per cent of learner starts on new apprenticeship standards.

Number crunching of government data published this month showed this applies to 1,790 (42 per cent) out of the total number or starts (4,240) so far on the employer-developed programmes.

The revelation provoked scathing criticism from Dr Sue Pember, who stood down as the civil service head of further education and skills investment in February 2013, with the government also admitting there’s a problem.

It’s a serious issue because apprentices on the standards, which will gradually replace old frameworks, will have to pass end-point assessments for the first time.

They must be carried out by organisations that have been cleared for the task by the government, on the Skills Funding Agencies register of apprentice assessment organisations.

But as well as the startling figure for learners, our analysis also highlighted 33 standards with at least one start but no-one assigned to run their crucial tests.

Dr Pember said: “It is diabolical to let an apprentice start a programme, without explaining not only what the end test will contain, but where it will be, what shape it will take and who will be the organisation to oversee and manage the process.”

The Department for Education admitted on Thursday (October 13) that it is struggling to recruit enough of these assessment organisations.

“We know there is more work to be done to ensure we have the range and breadth of high quality assessment organisations we need,” the spokesman said.

“That is why we are working with the Skills Funding Agency to raise awareness of the register and encourage more assessment organisations to sign up.”

He added the level of demand for a standard was “one of the factors that will be taken into account when it comes up for review”.

“On top of this, we now require all groups of employers bidding to develop a standard to commit themselves to using it,” the spokesperson added.

The government has so far fully-approved 147 standards.

However, the October Statistical First Release reveals only 56 standards attracted one or more apprenticeship start by July, despite over 100 being available at the time. And of the 56 standards, a massive 59 per cent (the 33 highlighted above) still has no approved assessment organisation.

The government’s struggle to get to grips with the problem is being further exasperated because some of the assessment organisations are only allowed to operate in limited parts of the country.

Training 2000 Ltd and Leicester College are, for example, limited to the North West and West Midlands respectively.

FE Week has also got confirmation that at least two approved assessment organisations for the most popular standard, the level two property maintenance operative – which had attracted 650 learner starts by July – are not yet ready to deliver assessments (see boxout).

Dr Pember, who is currently director of policy for adult learning provider membership body Holex, joined the then-Department for Education and Skills in 2000 as director of adult basic skills strategy, before rapidly rising through the civil service ranks to the role of head of further education and skills investment by 2007.

She worked under ten FE and skills ministers and eight secretaries of state before leaving the civil service six years later.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) annual conference in June saw her previously speaking out on the issue of assessment.

She told delegates at the time: “I think it’s really morally wrong to start an apprentice on a programme when you don’t know how they are going to be tested at the end.

“You wouldn’t start somebody on the equivalent of an A-level without knowing the assessment at the end.”

Top skills mandarins have given the clearest public indication yet that they will reverse huge apprenticeship funding cuts exposed by FE Week for disadvantaged 16 to 18 year-olds, during a bruising encounter with the Public Accounts Committee.

The cuts were raised in this afternoon’s evidence session by Bridget Phillipson, MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, with committee chair Meg Hillier (pictured above) subsequently welcoming the response from top skills civil servants during an exclusive interview.

It comes after FE Week revealed yesterday that the Skills Funding Agency is understood to have gone some way to address the framework rate cuts in their final plans, due for publication later this month.

Ms Phillipson asked about the impact of proposed reforms that would see funding for 16- to 18-year-olds in some of England’s poorest areas cut by up to 50 per cent for starts from May 2017, as highlighted by FE Week research and our subsequent #SaveOurApprenticeships campaign.

Jonathan Slater, permanent secretary to the Department for Education, said in response that getting the funding rate correct for young people from deprived areas “is one of the most active debates we’ve been working through” and that “we’re doing our best to get that right”.

He added this issue was “a very strong point that’s been made during the consultation phase and how we get that right is one of the most active debates we’ve been working through”.

Ms Hillier told FE Week afterwards she was pleased that it “looks like the civil servants will be looking at funding for 16- to 18-year-old apprenticeships again”.

She continued: “They need to do that otherwise there will be areas of the country that will lose out on the benefits of apprenticeships.”

She warned that her committee would hold the officials to account to “make sure the money for apprenticeships is spent wisely”.

Ms Hillier added her committee would hold the officials to account in the coming months to “make sure the money for apprenticeships is spent wisely”.

Earlier in the session Mr Slater was questioned on contingency planning for the apprenticeship reforms, after last month’s National Audit Office report highlighted this as an area that needed urgent attention.

Mr Slater said it had been “a good challenge from the NAO, and the team have been cracking on putting each of those into place.

He commented: “I’ve seen some very detailed contingency plans submitted since then.”

The mandarin added he had been told by the chief executive of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, the body that oversees delivery of major projects across government, that they were “on track” for contingency planning.

Other witness at the hearing included Sir Martin Donnelly, who is now permanent secretary for the Department of International Trade, but headed-up the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills until June this year.

David Hill, director of apprenticeships at the Department for Education, and Peter Lauener, chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency, also gave evidence.

Mr Lauener told MPs: “We consulted on the funding system for post-April 2017. It’s been a very lively consultation, lots of comments. We’re looking hard at the comments that have come back in and ministers will be considering the way ahead shortly and we expect to publish soon.” 

A long-running dispute over redundancies between Hull College and the University and College Union took another twist this week, after planned staff strike action was postponed following “positive talks”.

UCU members at the college were set to walk-out on Thursday (October 13) over planned job losses.

But the union announced the day before that it had suspended the industrial action until next week (October 20).

Regional official, Julie Kelley, explained this was because there was now a chance of agreement being reached without striking.

The decision was taken “following positive talks,” she said. “Industrial action is always a last resort and we remain optimistic that this dispute can be resolved without the need for action.”

A Hull College spokesperson said: “The group can confirm that no strike action will take place [this week] and all campuses will be fully open as usual.

“This follows positive discussions with the UCU and staff to secure the required savings through a voluntary process negating any need for compulsory redundancies for academic teaching staff.”

The row follows the college’s announcement that it would make around 70 redundancies and close its three nurseries before the end of the year, to address a £2.6 million deficit.

Since 2011, the college has seen 385 job losses through redundancy, according to the UCU, who said the latest proposals “made a mockery” of what they claimed was a college promise not to cut more jobs following the last round of redundancies.

The college spokesperson said last week that it was “currently in consultation with trade unions and staff regarding a proposed redundancy programme.

“The group is also in the process of recruiting up to 45 new jobs as part of our highly successful HCUK Training commercial arm as we significantly grow our apprenticeship and commissioned work to employers.

“All of these new roles and jobs are being offered as redeployment opportunities for staff which will significantly mitigate job losses.”

A previous strike in May, over pay and a controversial new lesson observation system, ended in a payrise for staff and an end to the no-notice observations.

Former shadow attorney general and MP for Kingston upon Hull, Karl Turner, renewed his war of words with the college bosses last week over the planned job losses.

He told FE Week the college cutbacks would “hit students the hardest”.

The MP, who was unavailable to comment after the strike was postponed, joined college workers on the picket line five months ago, supporting the dispute over pay and the lesson observation system.

He ended up calling for an investigation into the college’s chief executive Gary Warke, after he was allegedly sent a “threatening and derogatory” letter.

The MP uploaded a copy of the letter to his blog, in which Mr Warke allegedly wrote to “express my sincere disappointment that you chose to address striking UCU members without the courtesy of informing me”, adding: “We find your actions, two days before local elections, highly inappropriate and disrespectful to the Hull College Group.”

Speaking ahead of the strike ballot in September, Mr Turner told FE Week that “redundancies have become a yearly exercise at Hull College, which will not help staff morale”.

He said: “It is deplorable that many staff found out about redundancies during the summer holidays, reducing their ability to organise effectively, and have an input in the consultation period.”