Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden has accused the government of wasting three years that should have been better spent promoting and targeting traineeships.

He told AELP conference delegates on Monday (June 27) that the original concept for traineeships when they were launched three years ago – that of improving job prospects for young people who have slipped through the education and training net – was a good one.

But he felt they should have been targeted more carefully at preparing learners for good quality apprenticeships.

Mr Marsden said: “I was a very strong supporter of traineeships when they were originally introduced by the government.

“It was the right concept, but ministers have frittered away three years failing to promote it, failing to explain it, and failing to target. Even now they are unsure of the direction they want to go with them.

“Are they entry points to the world of work – sometimes any sort of work handed down by Job Centre Plus – or are they stepping stones for achieving apprenticeships?”

The criticism follows calls for a review over the purpose of traineeships after FE Week revealed shockingly low progression levels to apprenticeships.

The government repeatedly refused to answer questions about how many young people had progressed from traineeships to apprenticeships — so FE Week obtained the figure through a Freedom of Information request to the Skills Funding Agency.

The figures showed that just 450 (nine per cent) of 5,200 completions for 19- to 24-year-olds in 2014/15 started an apprenticeship.

The figure was slightly higher for under 19s — with 2,280 (31 per cent) of 7,400 completions progressing — but it still meant that overall progression to apprenticeships stood at just 22 per cent. Publicly available statistics provide only overall “positive” progression numbers to a job, apprenticeship, further full-time education or other training.

Mr Marsden told conference delegates he understood providers’ wider concerns about traineeships.

“You want to be able to use the funding to do something useful for those young people,” he said.

“But it is true that the government utilises traineeships as a key point of entry to get far more young people competitive as a starting point for high quality apprenticeships.

“The lack of promotion or a clear strategy is in my view hindering that progress.

“They must be progressive. If they are not, we are in danger of having some of the issues seen in the 1980s, where a generation of young people felt like hamsters never quite getting to the top of the wheel.”

He called for a “joined up situation, which takes me onto careers advice in schools”.

“I regard the complete inadequacy of careers advice over the last three to six years in schools to be one of the government’s biggest failings,” he added.

When asked last month to respond to concerns about low progression to apprenticeships, a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesperson said: “We will continue to expand traineeships to create opportunities up and down the country so we can help as many young people as possible to get on.”

Ofsted has been accused of favouring traineeships that concentrate on classroom-based maths and English provision rather than getting young people out into the work place.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ (AELP) chair Martin Dunford (pictured right) spoke out on the issue during the conference’s opening question and answer session on Monday (June 27).

It came after the organisation’s chief executive Mark Dawe (pictured below) claimed in FE Week two weeks ago that providers were being given “required to improve” gradings by Ofsted “based solely on English and maths outcomes, as Ofsted is not willing to accept destination data as robust evidence”.

It provoked a strongly-worded letter to the paper from Paul Joyce, deputy director for FE and skills at Ofsted, denying that ratings of the subjects had an “overriding influence” on overall inspections.

Mr Dunford returned to this at the conference.

He said: “The extreme example [for traineeships inspections] would be, if you keep everyone in the classroom, everyone does maths and English, and never sees an employer.

“With the way Ofsted is judging at the moment, they would probably get a higher grade than somebody who has got a lot of young people in work for the first time, or re-entry to the labour market if they are in their early 20s.”

Mr Dawe, who took part in the same question and answer session, added AELP had been in encouraging talks with the government and Ofsted on this issue.

He said: “We have had some really positive meetings – getting understanding of why this is important.

“It [maths and English] is important, but if it is the only thing you are judged on that isn’t so good. I think we have that understanding now. If you get that right it [traineeships] will start to fly.”

Conference chair Jan Murray (pictured right) challenged the pair. She said, “playing devil’s advocate”, they could be accused of sidestepping the issue.

Ms Murray added: “Young people need English and maths to get on in life, so how would you suggest they develop those skills?”

Mr Dawe replied: “Every young person going on to that programme should be assessed up-front for English and maths, and assessment should be carried out at the end.

“But if a traineeship is, say a 10-week programme, it may not be long enough to get a qualification. If a job offer comes along, we can’t say ‘sorry you can’t take the job because you haven’t finished your English and maths’ – that is not what we want to say.”

He added functional skills were crucially important for helping the learners to develop their numeracy and literacy.

He said: “I get it that with some students with a marginal C or D at GCSE, it’s worth trying again to see if they can get that qualification.

“But for many who have really struggled with the subjects, you need to take a different approach and that is where functional skills are so successful.”

Membership boost to over 800

The AELP has passed 800 members for the first time, and picked up dozens of colleges in the process.
Mr Dunford told conference delegates in his opening speech that the organisation had never been more in demand.
It now has 804 members, including over 40 colleges.
The latest college to join was Burton and South Derbyshire College, which quit the Association of Colleges, as revealed by FE Week last September.
A spokesperson said: “We’re delighted that Mark Dawe has taken the helm at AELP at this critical time and look forward to engaging with the association on these and other important issues for the sector in the coming year.”
Former chief executive of awarding organisation OCR, Mr Dawe, was appointed as the new AELP boss in March.

All “credible cases” from the latest round of growth requests for apprenticeships and traineeships have been funded, the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) announced today.

This is the result of the agency’s recent “targeted growth exercise”, which also included increases in providers’ 2016-17 allocations “where there is evidence of increased performance”.

It comes after the SFA announced on May 11 that growth requests were being offered for the delivery of any of the new apprenticeship standards.

A statement uploaded onto gov.uk at the time said the offer would apply to standards — not existing apprenticeship frameworks — but did not specify which ones.

But when asked by FE Week if this meant providers needing more funding could lodge growth requests for “any of the new standards”, an SFA spokesperson said: “Yes, on standards, we have not been specific on sector areas”.

“Requests are subject to affordability and our normal credibility checks,” she added. So far 112 new standards have been approved by the government for delivery.

The SFA announced the result of this process today.

A spokesperson said: “We have funded all credible growth cases to grow delivery in these priority areas ahead of the start of the funding year.

“Alongside this exercise, we have also reviewed the baseline data used in calculating 2016 to 2017 apprenticeship and traineeship allocations, reflecting provider earnings for 12 months up to March 2016.

“Where there is evidence of increased performance, we have increased providers’ 2016 to 2017 allocations accordingly.

“All increases will be included in 2016 to 2017 contract variations which we will be issuing shortly.”

The targeted growth request – which included traineeships as well as apprenticeships – also covered delivery at higher and /or degree level, food, farming and agritech, and those that are science, and technology, engineering and maths (STEM)-based.

Earlier this year providers branded “ridiculous” the overdue news that many of their 16 to 18 apprenticeship and traineeship growth requests had not been funded in full by the SFA.

The agency announced in early February that it had awarded an additional £25m to colleges and training providers to deliver 16 to 18 apprenticeships — but there was no extra cash for 16 to 18 traineeships.

The announcement, which should have been made on January 8, was in response to growth requests submitted by providers to help fund apprenticeships and traineeships in 2015/16.

It came just a week after FE Week exclusively revealed that the delay in confirming the growth requests was due to an over-spend by the Department for Education.

The SFA was unable to say how much funding had been allocated ahead of publication.

The shadow education secretary Pat Glass has announced her intention to stand down from Parliament at the next election – having served less than two days in her new role.

Glass, an MP appointed by Jeremy Corbyn to succeed Lucy Powell yesterday morning, has written to the Labour Party to give notice she will not be a candidate “whenever the next general election takes place”.

Speculation is rife that a snap election could be called in the autumn in response to political turmoil following the EU referendum result.

Glass, a former council education advisor, said she had found the last six months as an MP and as shadow Europe minister – during which she received death threats – “very, very difficult” and described the referendum as “incredibly divisive”.

“It divided families and communities and I have found it bruising in many respects,” Glass said. “It has had an impact on both me and my family as I am sure it has had on many others.”

Glass said it had been a “privilege and an honour” to work with her local party, but said that she wanted to give officials as much time as possible to select a new candidate “given that the election could come as soon as October 2016”.

The announcement is likely to exacerbate concerns about Labour’s ability to hold the government to account on behalf of schools, which are already rife following the resignation of a further four members of the shadow education team.

A former civil servant at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), has challenged the head of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and Education Funding Agency (EFA) – saying it is “morally wrong” to start an apprentice on a course without knowing what the end-point assessment will be.

Dr Susan Pember, who worked as a senior civil servant at BIS for 12 years – including six years focused on FE funding, spoke out against Peter Lauener, chief executive of the SFA and EFA, over the lack of clarity around end-point assessment for apprenticeships.

Dr Pember said: “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.”

She added that she felt the new infrastructure being developed by BIS and the SFA, with a new set of providers that only offer end-testing, is “open to fraud” and “misuse”.

The comments came in a debate at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) annual conference on June 28, and Dr Pember’s remark elicited a round of applause from the audience of delegates.

In response to a subsequent audience question on how to avoid providers teaching for these end-tests, Mr Lauener described end-assessment as “the servant of the process, not the master”.

This was then disputed by Mark Dawe, chief executive of AELP, who said: “You can say that but it never happens.

“The end-point assessment drives behaviour and you will get teaching to the test.”

He added: “The whole thing around end-point assessment … I just think is a nightmare.

“I have heard it in so many corners now that it is a car crash that is going to happen.”

The government’s director of levy implementation has sought to reassure AELP delegates over the new register of apprenticeship providers, telling them it will be open to providers that are “best placed” to deliver.

But Keith Smith, who heads up the levy implementation team at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, was unable to give any detail about what the criteria for the new register will be, despite being pressed for it by FE Week’s editor Nick Linford.

It comes after Mr Smith told delegates at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference (AAC) in March that the government would be consulting on a new set of criteria for providers who want to deliver apprenticeships.

He told delegates at today’s conference that providers who currently subcontract would “absolutely” be able to access the new register, in response to a question from the audience.

“It’s central to what we need,” he said.

“For me it’s about who’s best placed to do the right programme.

“If that’s employers who want to take control, great. If it’s new providers coming onto the market, great. If it’s the current stock of providers that want to offer their good quality offer, great. All of those things are great.

“Everyone can come forward equally, level playing field, and let the employer choose,” he continued.

But when asked by FE Week’s editor Nick Linford about the consultation promised in March, Mr Smith was unable to provide any detail.

Alongside the existing “old stuff” around due diligence, capacity and capability, Mr Smith said the register would include “some new stuff around quality”.

He added: “That’s particularly the bit we want to make sure we’ve got absolutely right”.

The consultation – which Mr Smith said was “imminent” – would help the government to “build this around the best that you do”.

He continued: “What we want to do is find is find a simple, fair way to test everybody about the sorts of things you know is what should happen in a good performing or high performing college or training provider.

“We won’t make any decisions on the detail or the substance of it until we’ve engaged on that conversation with you.”

In March, Mr Smith told AAC delegates that he would “no longer be the middle man” and employers would be able to contract directly with training providers once the levy is introduced in April 2017.

He said the new register of training providers was needed because “what employers are telling us really clearly is, we need to know bits of information about the providers … we actually want to get some confidence that these providers are going to deliver a certain set of services to us”.

At the time, Mr Smith promised the consultation on the register would be taking place “over the end of spring, early summer time”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has appointed former shadow education minister Pat Glass as shadow education secretary following the resignation of Lucy Powell.

Ms Glass, MP for North West Durham, is one of a number of new appointments following  the continuing mass resignations of Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet yesterday and today.

It comes after Thursday’s referendum vote, which saw the UK vote to leave the European Union leading to the resignation of prime minister David Cameron.

Ms Glass, aged 59, was elected to parliament in May 2010, following a career working in local education authorities. She is an expert on special educational needs and has advised the government and councils across Yorkshire and the Humber.

Her special interest is in education, and she was a member of the education select committee from July 2010 until March 2015.

In September 2015, she was appointed shadow education minister with responsibility for childcare by Mr Corbyn following his election as Labour leader, at the same time that Ms Powell was appointed shadow education secretary.

Ms Glass was promoted to shadow Europe minister following Mr Corbyn’s reshuffle on January 5.

Ms Powell was among 12 shadow cabinet members to resign on Sunday citing concerns about Mr Corbyn’s leadership. A further five shadow ministers have so far reportedly stepped down this morning.

In her resignation letter to Mr Corbyn, Ms Powell reportedly wrote: “Given the big challenges faced by our country and our party over the coming months, and the possibility of an imminent general election, I do not have the confidence that you can bring the party together, lead us to a general election and be an effective opposition.”

Skills Minister Nick Boles has admitted that a string of key apprenticeship reform announcements will be further delayed following Brexit.

The government was due to provide further funding information for apprenticeship reforms by the end of this month, with the long-awaited Sainsbury review report setting out new technical professional education (TPE) routes into work, and a subsequent skills white paper, also expected imminently.

But Mr Boles told the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) conference today there would be a “little delay” following the British public’s decision to leave the European Union – although they can be expected before the summer recess.

He said: “We should all continue to assume and work on the assumption that the apprenticeship levy is coming in, in the way planned as planned.

However, he added: “We had planned to be published further detailed information about the pricing of specific apprenticeship standards in the next few days. I’m sure you will understand that is now going to be a little delayed, but only a little we still expect to get that information out well before the summer break.”

It comes after FE Week reported on June 20 that the government was looking at slashing the amount smaller firms will have to pay towards the cost of apprenticeships training after the levy launch next April.

Employers of all sizes currently have to pay a third of training costs with the Skills Funding Agency agrees to covering the rest, under the pilot for new apprenticeships.

That means a £1 employer cash contribution returns £2 funding – up to a cap – for the relevant standard.

But FE Week has learned the government is looking at a making a much bigger contribution after April 2017 for employers not using their apprenticeship levy pot — either because their wage bill is too small to pay into it, or because it has run out.

For every £1 invested by such employers, we understand that the SFA will paying up to £9, according to plans set to be announced later this month.

Mr Boles also mentioned the Sainsbury Review later in his speech.

“We will also be going ahead soon – I cannot give you a particular date, but again before the summer recess – with the publication of the Sainsbury review.

“We will be going ahead with publication of that and the government skills plan and that too will not change in any important respect as a result of recent events.”

The detail promised this month and now delayed was:

> provisional funding bands, which will set the maximum amount of funding which is available for each apprenticeship from April 2017
> the provisional level of the government support that will be available towards the cost of apprenticeship training if you aren’t a levy paying employer, from April 2017
> the provisional level of the extra payment you can get for hiring 16 to 18 year old apprentices, from April 2017
> the provisional amount that will be paid for English and maths training for apprentices who need it, from April 2017
> eligibility rules that set who you are able to spend apprenticeship funding on and where
> more information on who can provide apprenticeship training and how you can set up your organisation to deliver apprenticeship training