The first students to join the RAC’s new patrol academy met joint chair of the apprenticeship delivery board, David Meller, as part of this year’s National Apprenticeship Week celebrations.
The six recruits, who began the two year apprenticeship programme in September, study one day a week at Barking & Dagenham College, combined with on-the-job training.
David Meller, who met and spoke with the apprentices at the college last Friday, said: “An apprenticeship can literally take you anywhere, as this excellent new programme proves.”
The apprentices, who are all aged 18 to 23, are based in the Greater London area.
An RAC spokesperson said the automotive services company has its sights set on extending the academy.
Yvonne Kelly, chief operating officer at Barking & Dagenham College added: “This area of east London is synonymous with
the automotive industry, so it seems fitting that the college is helping these young apprentices develop the high level
technical skills they need for a successful career with such a trusted UK motoring organisation.”
Pic: From left: David Meller with RAC apprentices – Adil Ubbin, aged 18, Sam Abbott, 18, Taylor Spicer, 19, Jo Gillam, 18, and Brandon Wagstaff, 19
Struggling Totton College has announced Derek Headrige as its new campus principal.
Mr Headrige is currently group academy dean at BMW and will start in his new role on April 18.
He takes over at a time of turmoil at the college which is consulting on a restructuring plan that it is thought could lead to dozens of job losses.
Social justice charity Nacro, which uses skills and training to reduce crime and re-offending in English and Welsh communities, merged with Totton College in December after concerns were raised about the college’s financial situation.
Totton College was branded inadequate by Ofsted in June last year.
Speaking about his appointment, Mr Headrige said: “I am delighted to be joining Totton College. Its renewed focus on the extensive opportunities that quality vocational education brings to students, business and the local area are ground breaking.
“I am absolutely committed to supporting staff and students to drive this mission forward and make sure that Totton College is the destination of choice for students, local people and business, now and into the future.”
Having started his early career in the army, Mr Headrige moved to education because of his “passionate belief in supporting young people to aspire, grow and reach their potential”.
He is formerly the head of faculty for automative engineering and building services at Highbury FE College in Portsmouth.
Meanwhile, the current deputy principal at West Thames College, Tracy Aust, will step up to replace Marjorie Semple at the healm when she retires at the end of March.
Ms Aust will move into the role from April 1 when Ms Semple says goodbye to the London college that she has been in charge of for the last eight years.
Ms Semple has worked in the FE sector for almost 40 years. She arrived at West Thames College in 2001 as assistant principal for learning and became principal in 2008.
A spokesperson for the college said that as deputy principal, Ms Aust is currently responsible for the curriculum and for delivering “high quality education to the many different communities, served by the college”.
Ms Aust said: “We need to constantly adapt to ensure that we are giving local people the skills they need to compete in the local labour market.”
And Chris Scott has stepped down from his post as principal of Telford College of Arts and Technology (TCAT).
He said the decision had been prompted by the “massive changes” in the FE sector — and in his own role — since he took the job nearly two years ago.
Mr Scott has been with TCAT for 20 years, having previously served as deputy principal, and finance director.
He said: “It has been a privilege to work for Telford College, but the unprecedented cuts in finance to the FE sector, and the transformation this has forced us to undergo, has changed the principal’s job almost beyond recognition.
“I have talked the situation through with the board of governors, and we have agreed that the skill set which will be needed to take Telford College forward is not a skill set which I possess.”
A college spokesperson told FE Week that Jo Lomax had been appointed as interim principal.
Ms Lomax has worked with FE and skills solutions specialist FEA since 2007. She has 38 years’ experience in FE and previously worked at Dearne Valley College as deputy principal.
It was also announced last week that Skills Funding Agency (SFA) director Keith Smith had moved to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to take a lead role in levy implementation.
Mr Smith will be on secondment to BIS for the next year, from his SFA post overseeing funding and programmes, while working as director of levy implementation until it goes live next April.
The road to WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 is well underway with the UK’s best taking part in training and development programmes in their chosen disciplines. Reporter Billy Camden went along to a session last week to see how the competition has kicked off.
WorldSkills fever was hot in the dusty air at Chichester College’s Pulborough Campus last week as 14 carpentry, joinery and cabinet making champion hopefuls completed a training week.
Waters and Acland apprentice Angus Bruce-Gardner, aged 21, creating a small desk for his cabinet making task during the training week
Competitors in each of the three disciplines got through to this stage of the process by doing “exceptionally” well at the national finals at the Skills Show.
The students, who travelled from as far as Northern Ireland, arrived in Pulborough on Tuesday night and spent the next three days taking part in training and completing challenging tasks set by each disciplines own expert.
Joinery competitor Connor Wilmot, aged 18, an apprentice from West Suffolk College, said: “This week has been completely different to the national finals. It has been a lot more intense.
“The experts have been awesome, they’ve been showing us new ways of doing things, things that I never thought of doing before.”
Throughout the week, all participants took part in core skills training to improve their quality, and then completed an assessment based task.
Cabinet makers made a small desk to precision, carpenters used their geometric skills to create part of a roof, and joinery competitors made a highly technical window frame.
Carpentry hopeful Shane Everett, 20, an apprentice with R G Carter Building in Norfolk, said he was “surprised” at how much he could learn in the three days he was there.
He added: “This is such a big opportunity and to represent the UK would be brilliant and at the end of the day go for a gold medal, that’s what we’re after.”
All are hoping to secure a place on TeamUK which will eventually send them to compete in WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017.
Held every two years, the WorldSkills competition welcomes around 1,000 people, aged 18 to 25, from all over the globe to compete for medals in more than 60 different skills areas.
Chichester College is famous for the success of its cabinet making competitors. The college has entered a representative to compete in the discipline since 2009.
Reporter Billy Camden talks with Nick Herbert MP for Arundel and South Downs about WorldSkills
And since the introduction of lecturer Christian Notley, in 2013, the college has produced two gold medallists in the skill area.
Mr Notley was on-hand throughout the development week to offer his winning experience to this year’s hopefuls.
He said: “These early stages are critical, you have to set the tone for the whole training and set the standards, which is actually above industry.”
On the Friday, the competitors were also joined by Nick Herbert MP for Arundel and South Downs, for his first taste of the competition.
Mr Herbert said he was “incredibly impressed” with the set-up and added: “I think it is terrific to see these British skills in action and to know that we are competing successfully with the world’s best and that my constituency is playing a role in that.”
The training and development programmes started in February for all fields and run through until the end of March.
Squad UK is then whittled down from five per skill to three in April.
The next stop for a selection of competitors will then be EuroSkills Gothenburg 2016 in December, before continuing training all the way up to WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017.
Last year, the UK team took home three gold, four silver, and two bronze medals from WorldSkills in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which gave TeamUK 46 points in total to place it seventh in the overall medals table — up three places on WorldSkills Leipzig two years ago.
Main pic: WorldSkills competitors in carpentry, joinery and cabinet making get stuck in with their training week tasks at Chichester College’s Pulborough Campus
If you were the funding agency responsible for apprenticeships and looking to take on your own recruits, which college or training provider would you choose?
FE Week wanted to find out, so asked the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and it turned out they didn’t pick just one or two. In fact, for their 26 apprentices (13 recruited and 13 existing staff) they chose three colleges and ten training providers. Sharing a little information about each of the SFA’s own providers, during National Apprenticeship Week, seemed too good an opportunity to miss.
Before the Annual Apprenticeship Conference (AAC), FE Week asked delegates for their views on the government’s apprenticeship reforms.
More than 210 representatives from colleges, independent training providers, local authorities, employer providers, awarding organisations and others responded to the survey, which asked for their views on issues such as quality, the impact of the levy and how it might apply to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
These showed a surprising lack of consensus on some of the key areas of the apprenticeship reforms, particularly around the introduction of the levy, reflecting the levels of uncertainty in the sector over the potential impact of the reforms.
Only about 50 per cent thought that funding apprenticeships though a large employer levy was a good idea, despite the fact that it is estimated that it will bring in around £2.5bn to the sector.
Survey respondents were also evenly divided in their views on the impact of the levy on the quality of apprenticeships, which again indicated the many unanswered questions that people have about it. Nearly 60 per cent of respondents said they thought the levy would make those companies that pay it care more quality, as it would be their money they were spending.
In terms of the impact on employers’ spending on training, a little over half — 56 per cent — of respondents also believed that employers would simply switch over their existing training budget and use the levy money instead.
However, there was much more consensus among survey respondents in other areas of the reforms, although this agreement also reflected the high levels of uncertainty surrounding them.
Concern about the quality of apprenticeships was high, with almost 90 per cent saying they thought it would suffer in the rush to meet the government’s 3m target.
A similar proportion — 86 per cent — of respondents expressed concern over the funding of apprenticeship provision for SMEs, who won’t pay the levy. Given that this is one of the key details of the levy system yet to be worked out — and that the vast majority of apprenticeships are currently in SMEs — such high levels of concern are to be expected.
AAC VOX POPS — Opportunity or threat? How do feel about the apprenticeship reforms?
Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has defended his controversial views about education for 16 to 19-year-olds, but denied that he is biased against the FE sector.
He made the remarks following his speech on Thursday, the second day of FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference at the Birmingham International Convention Centre.
“It’s not a bias, it’s criticism of what we see — and have seen for a number of years,” Sir Michael said when he was asked about his “publicly stated personal bias” against FE.
“You can’t tell me that the statistics on study programmes are good. In most colleges that we see, a very small proportion of youngsters are on apprenticeship programmes — you can’t tell me that’s good. No it isn’t good.”
The Ofsted chief inspector attacked the FE sector during an evidence session for the Education Select Committee on March 2, describing it as “in a mess — that’s why the government is reviewing it”.
Sir Michael Wilshaw
“My view is that 16 to 19 should be done in school,” he told the committee, chaired by Neil Carmichael.
Sir Michael acknowledged the “controversy” his remarks had caused, but stood by them.
“The point I was trying to make is that when you look at the figures, it’s pretty dire,” he said.
“Those youngsters who don’t do well at the benchmark GCSEs at 16, in English and maths, two years later it’s just as bad.”
Mark Dawe, the incoming chief executive of the Association for Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), questioned Sir Michael’s lack of bias.
“When he talks there does still seem to be an FE bias,” Mr Dawe told FE Week.
“When you look at the evidence there is some really good provision and he should base his comments on the evidence and I don’t think he is fulfilling the chief inspector’s role by his personal views being aired,” he said.
The Ofsted boss, who will be retiring at the end of the year, acknowledged that that the new apprenticeship reforms, which could see the education watchdog having to inspect 4,000 training providers, “will present a challenge to Ofsted”.
During his speech Sir Michael criticised “colleges and other providers” for “not delivering high enough numbers of apprenticeships overall, and certainly not in the right areas”.
“Taking some local examples, two of the biggest colleges in this region have less than 10 per cent of their student population on apprenticeship courses. And these in colleges of nearly 30,000 students,” he said.
He also contrasted the quality of different types of apprenticeship provision.
“Most high-quality apprenticeships are found in industries that have long-established traditions of using them: the motor industry, construction and engineering.
“They are few in number and are largely delivered by long-standing industries and providers.
“On the other hand, the ever-increasing numbers of apprenticeships in the care and retail sectors are not consistently reaching the same high standards,” he said.
When he was asked whether this difference in apprenticeship quality related to how much the people delivering them were paid, Sir Michael said: “Those are internal problems for every provider”.
“It’s up to the leaders of those institutions to ensure that salary levels and professional development programmes are equitable across the different areas of curriculum,” he continued.
Sir Michael also criticised the quality of apprenticeships in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), calling most of them “poor quality”.
“That’s what’s got to improve, and the only way to get apprenticeships to improve is if employers take ownership of quality, working with high quality training providers,” Sir Michael said.
“Most of our employers are SMEs — you know that. And yet they’re badly supported, and I have to say, badly led, by local employers,” he added.
It’s great news that the Skills Funding Agency has finally committed to funding in-year 16 to 18 apprenticeships.
We managed to break this story online before it was announced by the agency, and featured it in the paper’s budget coverage.
It’s an encouraging development after last week’s editorial called for more investment in apprenticeships the government is so keen to promote.
Backing training for this age group is all the more sensible considering the legal necessity for young people to continue their studies post-16.
I found delegates at AAC were relieved on the one hand — but also angry about unnecessary uncertainty prior to the announcement.
It provided limited clarity over the direction apprenticeships are taking.
But that paled into insignificance compared to the widespread frustration expressed over lack of explanation by the government on how the reform programme, particularly the levy, will be implemented.
We are now hearing that employers are being put off investing in apprenticeships because of this, which is a worry.
Businesses crave certainty before committing large sums of cash and they aren’t getting it right now.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned government plans for a 10 per cent top-up to monthly levy contributions will only benefit a small minority of employers.
The top-up plans were unveiled in a budget report published by the Treasury after George Osborne finished his speech to MPs on March 16.
It will mean, for example, if an employer pays a £2,000 levy, then its levy pot will be £2,200.
The CBI director for employment and skills, Neil Carberry told FE Week: “Extra investment for apprenticeships will only help the small minority for firms who will be able to spend their whole levy.”
He added: “Businesses remain concerned that only a year away from the introduction of the levy, there is little clarity about how the system will work beyond the fact it will make taking on apprentices more expensive.
“As a result many businesses are in the difficult position of having to reduce overall training or apprenticeship numbers to pay their levy.”
Stewart Segal, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, was also cautious.
He said: “We will need to understand how exactly the top-up will work and in particular how it will work for those only paying a small levy.”
The budget report stated: “From April 2017, employers will receive a 10 per cent top-up to their monthly levy contributions in England and this will be available for them to spend on apprenticeship training through their digital account.
“The government will set out further details on the operating model in April and draft funding rates will be published in June.”
The new measure comes in addition to the £15,000 allowance previously announced for levy payers, which means it will only apply to large employers.
However, Skills Minister Nick Boles has reassured smaller employers some levy cash will be recycled for them.
The Treasury said in its budget report that the levy “will be set at a rate of 0.5 per cent of an employer’s paybill and will be paid through PAYE”.
“Each employer will receive an allowance of £15,000 to offset against their levy payment,” it said.
“The government will apply a 10 per cent top-up to monthly funds entering apprenticeship levy payers’ digital accounts in England from April 2017.”
It comes after FE Week revealed on the morning of the budget that extra money is likely to be made available for 16 to 18 apprenticeships.
The Skills Funding Agency subsequently announced that it would fully fund all “high quality” 16 to 18 apprenticeships from August 2015 to March 2016.
It said: “We will fully fund all high quality 16 to 18 apprenticeship and SFA-funded 16 to 18 traineeship delivery from August 2015 to March 2016.
Mr Segal said: “We’re pleased the SFA has addressed some of the growth cases for apprenticeships and traineeships put forward by providers, but this late notification will inevitably mean that some provision will be affected.”
This year’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference (AAC), held at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre from March 16 to 18, featured an action packed agenda. FE Week went to press onsite at the end of the second day, so what follows is a roundup of the first two days’ highlights.
David Hill, the most senior civil servant working on the apprenticeship reforms, kicked off the event. He gave an overview of the reform programme, in his first speech since being appointed Director of Apprenticeships at the Department for Education and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in October.
Keith Smith, whose new role as head of the levy implementation team at BIS was announced last week, later gave more detail on how the new levy-funded system would work through the Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS).
The DAS, which should be fully operational by January next year, will “change how you do business”, Mr Smith said, with providers contracting directly with employers and no longer able to rely on the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) to give them certainty over the budget.
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During a panel debate at the end of the day, Stewart Segal, outgoing chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), expressed concern over complexity of the new system, and warned of the potential for getting things “badly wrong”.
Earlier in the day, Graham Hasting-Evans, managing director at NOCN, had also criticised the government for the slow pace of the reforms, saying that he was “disappointed” at the lack of progress.
Speaking on the Thursday morning, Sir Michael Wilshaw, chief inspector of Ofsted, challenged providers to develop high quality apprenticeships. During a Q&A session after his speech, for which he was joined by Paul Joyce, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills, Sir Michael defended his controversial views on the FE sector, saying that “when you look at the figures, it’s pretty dire”.
Shakira Martin, vice president for further education at the National Union of Students, exhorted the government to include the apprentices in its reforms, calling for the apprentice voice to be “integrated” into the Institute for Apprenticeships.
Shadow Skills Minister Gordon Marsden praised the government’s commitment to apprenticeships, but challenged it to deliver quality as well as quantity, saying that “we owe it” to apprentices.
For more on the action, look out for our AAC supplement next week.
