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Two new super-colleges set to be created in north-west

Two new super-colleges are set to be created in the north-west through mergers involving six colleges and one university.

Consultation opened this week on the first phase of a proposed new Cheshire-wide college, which will be formed by a link-up between four Cheshire and Warrington colleges.

Meanwhile a massive new university and college group, which will serve 40,000 learners, has been given the green light in Bolton and Bury after merger plans were formally approved by the two colleges involved.

Both mergers have come about due to post-16 education and training area reviews, and follow a prediction in July from the FE Commissioner Sir David Collins that the total number of colleges would fall by a third once the area review process was complete.

West Cheshire College and South Cheshire College will partner up in January to create the Cheshire College, subject to the outcome of the consultation which closes 1 October.

According to the current proposals, they will be joined by Mid Cheshire College in August 2017, and Warrington Collegiate
in January 2018.

This multiple merger is one of the outcomes of the Cheshire and Warrington area review, part of the second wave of reviews, which had its first steering group meeting on January 29.

West Cheshire College, which had almost 16,800 learners in 2014/15, was rated ‘inadequate’ overall following its most recent Ofsted inspection last September, while 6,600-learner South Cheshire College’s last full inspection in May 2012 resulted in a rating of ‘good’.

“The merger will create a stronger organisation delivering high quality outcomes for learners and employers and provide a strong delivery partner for LEP priorities for the region,” said Dame Pat Bacon, South Cheshire College’s corporation chair.

Christine Russell, chair of West Cheshire College’s governors, said: “We have a very clear vision of what we want to achieve with the merger.”

In a separate development, the governing bodies for Bury College and Bolton College have confirmed that plans have been approved for the two colleges to merge with the University of Bolton in July.

The three bodies will make up a new super-group, which will also include University Technical College Bolton.

A spokesperson for the University of Bolton said the new group would have 2,300 staff and more than 40,000 students.

Bury College principal Charlie Deane has been appointed chief executive of the new group and will oversee the merger.

But a spokesperson for Bury College told FE Week that no date had been set for when the merger will take place.

This merger was one of just two to come out of the Greater Manchester area review, which was one of the first reviews to start in September 2015.

The plans provoked anger from two unions – the University and College Union and Unison – which warned that this was more of a “takeover” than a merger.

The University of Bolton’s president and vice-chancellor Professor George Holmes said: “I am delighted with the progress we have made, and this is in no small measure due to the remarkable contribution of the chairs of the governing bodies and the principals of the colleges.

“They have shown vision and determination to develop something which is first class for the learner.”

The past, present and future of the Association of Colleges

As the Association of Colleges welcomes a new chief executive in its 20th year, FE Week takes a look at the past, present and future of the organisation.

The AoC in a not-for-profit company founded in 1996 to act as the collective voice for colleges, and, as of this August, has 308 members – or 95 per cent of the eligible general FE, sixth form, tertiary and land-based colleges.

It employs 129 staff, and its latest annual accounts for the year ending March 2016 show a group turnover of £16.3m, down from £19.1m the previous year.

One of its key functions is speak up the issues affecting the sector on behalf of its members, and mediate with the government and decision makers.

This is done in a number of ways, including responding to government consultations, briefing MPs and managing the all-party parliamentary group for FE and lifelong education.

It also provides a range of support services for members, including advice and information on funding, governance, communications, and health and safety.

The AoC annual conference is held every November, and is one of the biggest events on the FE calendar. It presents an opportunity for members, and the wider FE sector, to network, learn, develop, influence and share information.

As well as its core membership organisation, the AoC has a number of subsidiary companies.

These include AoC Create, the organisation’s commercial arm, which provides paid-for services including consultancy, training, interim management, recruitment, conferences and events.

AoC Sport was meanwhile formed in 2014 through a merger between British Colleges Sport, English Colleges FA, and the AoC sport policy team, with a focus on promoting, delivering and supporting college sport and physical activity.

As its outgoing boss Martin Doel move to his new role as professor of FE and skills for the Further Education Trust for Leadership, he shared with FE Week his thoughts on the state of the sector after eight years at the helm.

The AoC is also one of three founding members of the Education and Training Foundation.

How easy is it to become a registered training provider?

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) was scheduled to open a new, ‘tougher’ Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RATP) to applicants this month, following a period of consultation and feedback.

However, as with other elements of the apprenticeship-reform programme, this process has been delayed – indeed, the consultation only closed last week on September 5.

While the government may be dragging its heels over the delivery of the new register, many providers and employers are eager to find out how it will eventually operate and, crucially, how it will interact with the current, ‘basic’ Register of Training Organisations (ROTO).

FE Week decided to investigate just how easy it is for a training provider to gain access to ROTO – pretty easy, as it turns out.

We found that, of the private companies that made it onto the register in the previous round, nine were incorporated less than six months before the application window closed.

In fact, two of these companies were only six days old when the ROTO application process closed on May 31, and another was just 12 days old.

As might be expected of such young organisations, of the nine we selected, five have not yet got as far as setting up a website, while two have no working contact details available at all.

One company had a website available when FE Week’s investigation began, but it appears to have shut it down since we started making enquiries.

See the table below to find out what motivated them to join the register in the first place:

College principal set to retire after record 33 years at the helm

The longest-serving FE college principal in the country will finally retire next year, after more than 33 years in post.

Dr Steve Dowbiggin (pictured) joined Capel Manor College in 1982 as vice-principal and became head two years later, in 1984.

This comfortably makes him the UK’s most senior principal — and his commitment was recognised in 2007 when he received an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list for services to FE.

Dr Dowbiggin told FE Week that he had “honestly loved every minute” of working at the land-based college in Enfield, comparing it to “conducting an orchestra where they are all brilliant at playing”.

“If I’ve ever dropped the baton for a few beats they’ve just gone on playing, it’s like being in charge of an absolute powerhouse,” he said. “It’s been great fun.”

He described his final introductory speech to this year’s crop of full-time students as “emotional”, saying that “the group was huge compared to when I first came here – I felt a bit like Mr Chips”.

Before he joined Capel Manor, Dr Dowbiggin was head of department at Hadlow College of Agriculture in Kent from 1977 until 1982, and also worked as a lecturer at Houghall College Durham.

A graduate of Wye College, his career has included conducting academic research into pollution biochemistry, working as a farm manager, and even a stint in broadcasting with the BBC.

Dr Dowbiggin is a fellow of the Institute of Horticulture and a member of the City and Guilds Institute of London and sits on the Royal Horticultural Society’s Education Committee.

He described the FE sector as “hardworking, innovative and dedicated”, despite experiencing “some pretty challenging times in the last 35 years”.

“What I’ve enjoyed most has been the fact that whatever government has done in terms of policy funding or changes, the core of people in FE have just got on with it for the students,” he said.

He even confessed to a fondness for some of the politicians who have influenced his work, such as former skills minister John Hayes, and Tim Eggar, who was MP for Enfield North between 1979 and 1997.

What I’ve enjoyed most has been the fact that whatever government has done in terms of policy funding or changes, the core of people in FE have just got on with it for the students

“What you have to do all the time is just keep getting politicians to come to colleges, meet young people, and see the good we’re doing,” he said.

The Capel estate was first established in the late 13th century, but it was in 1968 that the manor’s rundown gardens and outbuildings were first leased out by Enfield council to train just 12 craftsmen gardeners.

The college now specialises in land-based studies, and has 30 acres of gardens open to the public. In July, FE Week held the first ever Festival of Skills in its beautiful grounds.

The college was rated ‘good’ in its latest Ofsted report, from March 2013. At the time it had 683 full-time and 1834 part-time learners.

Looking to the future, Dr Dowbiggin confessed that “part of me doesn’t want to give it up,” but said he thought it was the right time to pass on the baton.

“I wanted to hand the college over when it was doing really well, to give whoever gets the job a running start,” he said.

Dr Dowbiggin added that he would “love to stay in the industry”, and will be looking for “the next challenge”.

The advertisement for his replacement will go out in November.

New test to transform study programme learners’ employability skills (advertorial)

A new baseline test is being launched by REED NCFE to transform how providers can boost their study programme learners’ employability skills.

Baseline Employability Skills Test (BESTest), developed in conjunction with the University of Leeds, measures key skills and personal qualities.

The idea is to help providers identify their learners’ strengths and weaknesses, and develop individually tailored personal learning plans to help improve their employment prospects.

And in trials with 1,000 learners, BESTest was shown to transform their self-awareness and motivation to learn.

Tom Millar, REED NCFE’s managing director, said: “By taking the time and effort to ensure that your learners understand the importance of the key employability skills, the only feedback you will have from employers will be along the lines of ‘Have you got any more learners like that?’ and ‘Can I take on one of your learners as an apprentice?’”

Each learner that takes the test receives an overall score indicating their work readiness.

They are also given a set of ten underlying scores that relate to the usual employability skills indicators.

Four of these relate to specific employability skills – CV, job search, interview technique and workplace behaviour.

A further six cover key personal qualities that can add to a learner’s employment prospects – motivation, professionalism, resilience, organisation, sociability and initiative.

Trials have shown BESTest to be an invaluable tool for providers, helping them to improve their employability skills provision – especially for the work preparation element of study programmes.

A REED NCFE spokesperson said: “It will become an invaluable asset to colleges seeking to differentiate and improve their employability skills provision and, in addition, it will provide reliable and objective evidence of distance travelled.”

Not only does it give reliable and objective evidence of the distance travelled by learners, he added, it can also help with curriculum planning and help provider to rate how their employment skills provision compares with others.

And BESTest can enable learners to show that they have the skills, attitudes and mindsets that employers look for when recruiting, while also giving providers the tools to measure and monitor their learners’ development.

The spokesperson added: “We passionately believe in helping learners and in the advantage you can give learners by enabling them to demonstrate that they possess the skills, attitudes and mindsets employers base their recruitment decisions on, while at the same time providing you with the tools to measure and monitor their development.”

During 2016-17 REED NCFE will be offering a free trial of BESTest assessments for use with study programme learners.

Any additional licenses in 2016-17 cost £2 per learner, inclusive of VAT.

You can download a pre-recorded webinar in which Mr Millar demonstrates the test, the results that the learner sees, the results that the College see and how to use it to:

design individualised learning plans based on each person’s strengths and weaknesses;
accurately track and evidence distance travelled; provide further evidence of achievement;
inform curriculum planning; and
benchmark scores both across your entire College cohort and nationally.

Decision on FE maintenance loans put off until November despite strong support

The government has stalled on making a decision about providing maintenance loans for higher level learners studying technical education in FE, despite strong support for introducing the new funding.

In publishing the outcome of a consultation on the issue today, the Department for Education (DfE) concluded that it would “take time to consider the responses”, and scheduled a full statement of its plans for November.

The DfE said: “We are going to take time to consider the responses to the consultation in light of the report by Lord Sainsbury, which has implications for higher level technical learning and how it should be delivered in the future.

“We will need to consider the value for money case and fiscal position before taking any decision on the case for FE maintenance loans.

“We expect to make a statement in the autumn.”

The consultation, which was launched by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills on March 24 and closed on June 16, 2016, aimed to test whether support for the introduction of maintenance loans in FE was on a par with the level of support available in Higher Education.

It also looked at whether this support should only be made available to 19+ learners studying level 4-6 technical courses at specialist providers, and whether part-time learners should be supported as well.

The DfE’s concluded from the responses that “respondents felt that the introduction of a loans package would help achieve the objective of increasing the numbers learners undertaking technical and professional learning in key sectors that are important to the economy”.

The consultation outcome report said: “When taking the written responses and the strength of feeling in the focus groups, the majority believed that this offer should be made on the basis of the qualification studied rather than the institution where the learning took place.

“Respondents felt that focussing on National Colleges and Institutes of technology would be too narrow and would not deliver significant numbers of new learners.”

It also found that a small majority of respondents thought that the maintenance loans offer should be “flatrate rather than means-tested”.

The feedback suggested this would be “easier to understand and administer, though it was also thought means-testing would give more parity with HE”.

There were just 33 responses to the consultation and two focus groups were held to gather views from providers and interested bodies.

Nearly three quarters of respondents also thought that maintenance loans in FE should be available to part-time learners.

However, “very few respondents” were able to provide data predicting levels of take up of maintenance loans or evidence of the impact that introducing this kind of support might have on learner numbers.

Counter-fraud measures underway for apprenticeship funding programme

Counter-fraud measures are to be set up for the apprenticeship funding programme, the government has insisted, amid warnings from the National Audit Office that not enough care is being taken to prevent a repeat of the Individual Learning Accounts fiasco.

Worried about a repeat of the multimillion-pound fraud 15 years ago, the NAO has found that the Department for Education (DfE) still has no contingency plan if levy and funding reforms do not work out as planned.

The DfE has now defended itself against the accusations, with a spokesperson telling FE Week: “We are working closely with colleagues from across government to implement counter-fraud measures for the new funding system.”

The failure of the Individual Learning Accounts scheme – which was scrapped in 2001 after abuse by unscrupulous providers led to a reported £67m fraud – was blamed on poor planning and risk management by the government.

But a damning report from the NAO published on 6 September has raised concerns that lessons have not been learned, raising the risk of “market abuse” as it warned that the DfE had not done enough to identify how providers, employers and assessment bodies might react to the apprenticeship reforms.

“DfE now needs to expand its work on behavioural risks,” it said, “and also ensure it learns lessons from previous initiatives which have not turned out as planned, such as Individual Learning Accounts.”

The report found that although a delivery team had been set up to “consider the risks of fraud and gaming”, it is “too early to say what impact this group will have”.

The NAO also urged the government to develop contingency plans for key parts of the reforms – particularly the introduction of the levy.

As previously reported by FE Week, the government has so far been silent on the matter of contingency planning if levy systems don’t work out as planned.

The NAO found that the “DfE believes that, in general, initiatives are progressing sufficiently well that no contingency plans will need to be drawn up before October 2016”.

Mark Dawe, chief executive of Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “The NAO is right to highlight that further progress is needed to manage the risks involved in the reform programme, because if we don’t get the transition process right, there’s a real danger that quality of apprenticeships will be adversely affected.”

Skills minister dismisses calls to delay apprenticeship levy launch

The new skills minister has dismissed widespread calls to delay the apprenticeship levy launch, even after 10 major professional bodies called on him to rethink.

Robert Halfon (pictured) dismissed the findings of an FE Week investigation, claiming any hold-up past next April’s launch date would delay “millions of opportunities for both business and people”.

Yet none of the 10 organisations that responded to FE Week’s call for views supported pressing ahead with the current super-tight timescale for rollout of the levy and associated funding reforms.

Views came from a broad spectrum of employers in key sectors, which run apprenticeships from horticulture, manufacturing and engineering, tech, oil and gas, and youth work, to water, tourism, construction, beauty, motor, and accountancy.

Tim Thomas, the director of skills and employment policy at the manufacturing and engineering body EEF, said the plan “lacks flexibility”, while the boss of the Institute of the Motor Industry, Steve Nash, complained that guidance had so far been “sporadic and untimely”.

Other concerns over unresolved issues included new funding bands which were described as “uneconomical”, particularly for 16- to 18-year-olds, the impact of Brexit, and the way the system will work across different countries within the United Kingdom.

The National Audit Office brought up significant worries about poor government management of apprenticeship reforms, and called on the DfE to “expand its work on behavioural risks implementation”, in a new report published on Tuesday (September 6).

The NAO blasted the government’s lack of contingency planning for funding reform, including the introduction of the levy, if things do not work out as planned.

FE Week asked the DfE if it had any contingency plan that included potential for a delay. The department declined to answer directly, instead providing a statement Mr Halfon.

“The apprenticeship levy is a game-changer,” he wrote. “It will create a ladder of opportunities for millions of people and give businesses the skills they need now and for the future. The levy allows us to invest more than ever in apprenticeships. Delaying the apprenticeship levy would mean delaying millions of opportunities for both business and people.”

He added: “While it is true some businesses want us to delay – there are many who want the levy to go ahead. Organisations such as the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Association of Education and Learning Providers (AELP) have been vocal in their support.

“We have been working closely with employers of all sizes to determine how the levy will work for them and will continue to do so. We will listen to what they have to say to ensure the levy will work best for them.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of AELP, told FE Week that he supports pressing ahead with the launch of the levy, but wants to delay other apprenticeship reforms.

“We can’t afford to wait longer because the levy is even more vital following the Brexit vote and the need to develop our own skills base, with the likely ending of the free movement of labour,” he said.

“However there are other aspects of the apprenticeship reforms such as the standards, the provider register and this autumn’s non-levy payers’ procurement exercise, where the transitional risks are very high, and where a pause for further deliberation would be welcome.”

Petra Wilton, director of strategy at CMI, which specialises in management and leadership development across the public and private sector, confirmed that she supported the current levy timetable.

“In the uncertainty of post-Brexit, it has become very clear that the UK needs to invest far more in skills to boost its productivity and international competitiveness. Now more than ever, businesses need more certainty around the levy, as opposed to further delays.”

FE Week asked a range of professional sector employment bodies if the apprenticeship levy should be delayed:

Save our apprenticeships campaign

Click here to download the campaign event briefing.

Our first ever official campaign will oppose damaging cuts to apprenticeship funding exposed by FE Week over the summer.

Exclusive research that we published last month showed proposed funding changes could mean rates being cut by up to 50 per cent for the most deprived 16 to 18-year-olds.

It provoked a huge national backlash.

Damning letters were sent by more than 50 Labour MPs led by David Lammy and shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden to new apprenticehips and skills minister Robert Halfon.

The issue was also raised in parliament and has been taken up by national papers the Guardian, Independent and Mirror.

We agree the debilitating affect that this would have on the life chances of young people in poorer areas across the country is simply unacceptable.

It is why FE Week has decided to cast aside our usual impartiality and call for common sense and decency to prevail.

We’re confident this paper’s investigative reporting and editorials have influenced government policy in the past.

For example, there’s little doubt our first ever edition’s expose of 12-week call centre apprenticeships – published five years ago – and subsequent stories on disgraceful “hothousing” were driving factors behind the decision to increase minimum duration from 12 weeks to 12 months.

But this is FE Week’s first ever official campaign, which hopefully reflects the hard-won maturity of the title.

These planned cuts appear to be the result of rushed policy making surrounding next April’s levy launch, and it feels right to appeal for a change of heart to a new minister who has been rightly praised for his own campaigning to promote apprenticeships and cut fuel duty.

So come on Mr Halfon, show us that prime minister Theresa May’s promise on taking office to ‘help anybody, whatever your background’ wasn’t empty jargon. Save Our Apprenticehips!!

FE WEEK CAMPAIGN LAUNCH EVENT

FE Week will be holding a campaign launch event in the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday.

It will be hosted in Committee Room number nine by our editor Nick Linford and shadow skills Minister Gordon Marsden, with David Lammy and many other MPs in attandance.

The idea is to give sector leaders in the audience from colleges, training providers and third sector organisation, as well as small and large employers involved in apprenticeships, who subscribe to FE Week, the opportunity to talk to politicians about the impact of the proposed apprenticeship funding rate cuts and how we can all work together to pressure the government into changing its plans.

Here’s how we covered the story online over the summer:

August 19, Funding rates cut by up to 50 per cent for the most deprived 16-18 apprentices

Proposed funding for 16 to 18 year-old apprentices will result in current rates to colleges and training providers being cut by around 30 per cent, rising to over half for those apprentices living in the most deprived areas of central London, FE Week can exclusively reveal.

Astonishingly, this compares with the funding for many learners aged 24 and over going up, particularly those living in affluent areas outside the South East and working for large employers.

The analysis for some of the most popular apprenticeship frameworks was conducted by FE Week.

It is based on new proposed new ‘upper limit’ funding levels and a £1000 16 to 18 incentive paid to the provider, for apprenticeship framework starts from 1 May 2017 published by the Skills Funding Agency.

Aug 23, Former minister asks PM why she is ‘shafting’ future of young people with apprenticeship reforms

The former minister for HE has slammed the Prime Minister for “shafting” the future of working class kids in his constituency, after seeing FE Week research into proposed apprenticeship funding cuts.

David Lammy said the impact of potential funding cuts for 16 to 18 year-old apprentices would be “devastating” for young people in deprived areas like his own area of Tottenham, where unemployment rates are already almost double the national average.

He said: “I have one question for the government in response to these cuts: why are you shafting working class kids?”

Mr Lammy added the cuts would “hugely undermine” the government’s target to create 3m apprenticeships by 2020, and “entirely contradict” Theresa May’s promise to boost social mobility.

September 2, Concern over FE Week funding cuts findings raised by shadow minister

Serious concerns about funding cuts for 16-18 year old apprentices have been raised by shadow skills minster Gordon Marsden, in a letter to apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon based on FE Week research.

He referred directly to our analysis, published last month, which showed that proposed funding for apprentices from that age group would lead to current rates to providers being cut by around 30 per cent, rising to over half for those living in most deprived areas of central London.

The letter warned that the proposals “offer a damaging lack of support for young apprentices”.

Mr Marsden added that he was “extremely concerned at the potential adverse effects for social mobility stemming from the proposed new apprenticeship funding methods”.

September 4, MPs use FE Week analysis to demand funding cuts reversal

More than 50 Labour MPs have urged skills minister Robert Halfon to reverse apprenticeships funding cuts exposed by FE Week.

The group led by David Lammy, former minister for higher education and MP for Tottenham, have all signed a letter to apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon describing the potential cuts as “devastating” for apprentices in deprived areas.

This follows publication of FE Week research last month, which exclusively revealed that proposed funding changes could mean a fall of around 30 per cent in funding to providers for 16 to 18 year-old apprentices, and over 50 per cent for those in the poorest areas of central London.

It called on Mr Halfon “in the strongest terms to think again and reverse them”.

September 6, Greening challenged over apprenticeship funding cuts

The first day back from parliamentary recess saw education secretary Justine Greening challenged over widespread apprenticeship funding cuts uncovered by FE Week.

Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden lodged a series of written parliamentary questions yesterday, following up on FE Week research which revealed proposed funding reforms would mean around 30 per cent cuts for 16 to 18 year-old apprentices, rising to over 50 per cent for those in the poorest areas of central London.

Mr Marsden asked if Ms Greening would “discuss with the treasury the potential to fully fund apprenticeships for 16-18 year olds from savings accrued as a result of the introduction of the apprenticeship levy”.

This echoed comments by FE Week editor Nick Linford on September 4, when he wrote: “The Treasury will make a £1.5bn annual saving by switching the total source of apprenticeship funding to an employer levy. Perhaps half of this could be used to improve social mobility by fully-funding 16 to 18-year-old apprentices?”

See Nick Linford’s expert piece on why Halfon should ask the Treasury to hand back the savings…