The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has confirmed that publication of the next round of nationwide qualification achievement rates will be delayed by around two months, FE Week can reveal.

The final Qualification Success Rates (QSR) figures for 2013/14 were published in January this year.

But a note sent to providers by the SFA’s central delivery service on December 11 said that the equivalent reports for 2014/15, illustrating what are now called Qualification Achievement Rates (QAR), will be published “towards the end of March 2016”.

Jerry White, deputy principal of City College Norwich, was frustrated by both delay and short notice of the announcement.

He told FE Week today: “What is so frustrating is that the sector has been planning for the normal cycle of publication, with the provisional data expected next week, so a week’s notice of a two month delay seems incredibly late in the day.

“It is especially annoying as the actual changes to the business rules for 2014/15 success (achievement) rates are relatively minor compared to the previous year, so there seems little reason for any technical problems to have occurred.”

The SFA note explained that “while this [publication of the report] is later than in previous years, the changes that have been made to collection and storage of this data will make future reporting quicker and more efficient and cost effective,” it added.

“We do recognise that this could affect some of your planned business processes.

“However it is important that we allow time for thorough testing and quality assurance to be carried out, particularly as this data will be published and used by external stakeholders. The timing of the publication of National Achievement Rate Tables (NART) will be unaffected.”

The full NART will still be in April 2016, the same month that National Success Rate tables were published this year, as reported in FE Week.

It also said that Ofsted had been kept “fully briefed and they have confirmed to us that they will use a combination of provider’s own data and the ILR data they receive from the SFA until the provisional QAR are available”.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Our judgements depend on what inspectors see when they go into FE and skills providers, as well as data. We are satisfied the SFA’s arrangements will allow us to have as up-to-date and accurate records as possible.”

Stephen Hewitt(pictured right), strategic funding, enrolments and examinations manager at Morley College, said: “If this means a little bit of short-term pain this year, through the delay, to allow a better system to be implemented for the long-term, then that should be okay.

He added: “In the past, the QSR report was published as a series of PDFs, but we understand that the QAR data is going to be presented on a database accessible through the Hub.

“It will make it easier for providers and, for example, local enterprise partnerships and Oftsed to check out the revised data.”

An SFA spokesperson said: “The new reporting system we are introducing for 2014/15 QAR’s will use interactive dashboards accessed via the Hub.

“It will give providers and stakeholders more information than we were able to publish in the PDF reports that were distributed through the provider gateway.”

Weymouth College has jumped from an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating to ‘good’ following intervention from the FE Commissioner.

The latest Ofsted report on the college was published this morning (December 15), with inspectors rating it ‘good’ across-the-board.

It represented a significant improvement on the ‘requires improvement’ rating handed out by the inspectorate in June 2013, and the subsequent ‘inadequate’ rating in February 2015.

It also comes after FE Commissioner Dr David Collins raised concern about the college’s finances and leadership and launched a Structure and Prospects Appraisal (SPA) in March 2014 for the provider, which was deemed inadequate for financial health by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

Dr Collins went on to work on improvements at the college with new interim principal Nigel Evans who took over the leadership after Weymouth’s previous principal, Liz Myles, was suspended in November 2014 and then resigned in February 2015.

And the latest Ofsted report stated that “since the previous inspection governors and leaders have taken decisive action to remedy the financial position of the college”, with governors working to “carefully scrutinise the financial and academic performance of the college”.

It said management at Weymouth was now good and managers were developing “strong links with employers and partner organisations”.

The curriculum was deemed “cost-effective” and effectively meeting the needs of learners, employers and the local community.

The report found that learners at the college were well-behaved, received good support form staff and are making good or better progress, with “a high proportion” completing their main vocational or academic courses successfully.

Careers advice and guidance were considered “very effective in enabling learners to make the right choices and move on to further learning, training or employment”, the report added.

Points for improvement raised by the report included insufficient numbers of 16-18 learners achieving qualifications in English and maths.

A need to boost standards in a minority of subject areas was also identified, including beauty therapy, business and administration.

Mr Evans said Dr Collins’ visit had been very significant in making this progress, adding that he felt the commissioner’s team were “rooting for” the college to succeed.

He added that Dr Collins “made his position very clear to us about what we should do next, which was about savings. He was adamant that the government wouldn’t give us any more money — at least we became clear on what we had to do”.

Mr Evans said that a lack of financial expertise, particularly among the previous senior leadership team, had led to significant problems such as running an apprenticeship programme that had not been costed out.

But Dr Collins, he added, brought in Andrew Tyley, who is now part of the FE Commissioner’s team, as an interim vice-principal for finance and business planning to advise the college.

The college also carried out its own series of internal mid-term reviews in each subject-sector area, as part of an ongoing process of self-assessment.

Unviable class sizes were addressed by converting poorly recruiting level one provision into a “communal” offering of taster courses, Mr Evans said.

He told FE Week: “We’ve all moved the college into a different place.

“In October, we came out of the SPA because we had a break-even budget, we’d hit our student number targets, and then we had a week ago we had the letter from the secretary of state taking us out of administered status.”

The college, which currently has around 2,600 learners, was told by an FE Commissioner adviser in October that Dr Collins was “ready to take a step back from his oversight role”.

After a revisit in July, Dr Collins commented that he was “delighted with the progress that the college has made under its new leadership and management”.

 

 

The second wave of invitations to tender for long-awaited European Social Fund (ESF) cash — this time totalling £16.2m — were published today (December 14).

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and ESF announced today that the four local enterprise partnership areas involved were Swindon and Wiltshire, Greater Manchester, West of England, and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, with the total value of contracts totalling £16.2m.

 

Local Enterprise Partnership	Invitation to tender reference	Number of contracts	Total amount of ESF	Link to tender documents
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	29907	One	£1.1m	Click here
Greater Manchester	29913	One	£12m	Click here
Swindon and Wiltshire	29912	One	£1.4m	Click here
West of England	29909	One	£1.7m	Click here

 

An accompanying SFA and ESF document stated that invitations to tender would close on January 25, leaving just 27 working days excluding weekends and public holidays.

And then, after tenders have been awarded on March 30, winning bidders will have only 11 working days before delivery commences from April 14.

 

Task	Deadline
Publication of ITT	December 14, 2015
ITT closes	January 25, 2016
Notification of tender results	March 30, 2016
Day 1 mandatory standstill period	March 31, 2016
Day 10 mandatory standstill period	April 11, 2016
Contracts issued from	April 12, 2016
Delivery commences from	April 14, 2016

 

It means the same amount of time is being made available as for the first round of invitations to tender for ESF cash issued on December 7 — which were for five Lep areas and almost £15m of ESF cash — although the closing for those was January 18.

Tendering for further ESF contracts is expected to open “at regular intervals between January and May 2016,” said a Skills Funding Agency (SFA) spokesperson.

“We won’t know how many contracts there will be until after the procurement exercise is completed at the end of May 2016,” she said.

The second wave of contracts will be worth £1.4m for the Swindon and Wiltshire area, £12m for Greater Manchester, £1.7m for West of England, and £1.1m for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.

It comes after FE Week reported on December 11 that Paul Warner, director of employment and skills at the AELP, feared the drawn-out nature of the tendering process could encourage sub-standards bids.

He said that providers who were unaware of future tenders could win a contract only to find delivering it might hamper their ability to deliver ESF provision put to market at a later date.

Such a situation might, he suggested, put ESF contract-winning providers off going for further contracts despite having the necessary expertise because, for example, staff were located in a different region.

“With each specification likely to be launched gradually over a number of weeks, providers may find it difficult to allocate resources sensibly, which may lead to some having to choose which specifications to bid for on the basis of available resources, rather than delivery expertise,” said Mr Warner.

It follows a summer in which ESF-funded providers were forced to lay-off staff amid delays in issuing new ESF contracts, as the government sought to iron out regional devolution issues with Leps.

It was exclusively revealed by FE Week on Friday (December 4) that the Lep areas the invitations to tender would go to included Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, and Solent (covering the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton).

The other Leps involved were Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership, Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership, and Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership.

It followed another FE Week exclusively on November 10, which revealed how the SFA was planning to run a “sequence of procurement” for handing out £650m of delayed ESF cash, which must be finished by the end of September next year at the very latest to allow a minimum delivery period of 18 months.

The delivery period, up to March 2018, was determined with ministers unable to say that the SFA would oversee anything other than apprenticeships beyond then.

None of the Leps involved in the second wave of applications were available to comment ahead of publication.

What a year it has been for FE and skills. Over the past 12 months we’ve had a General Election and seen the announcement of a 3m apprenticeships starts target by 2020, among plenty of other goings on. But with Christmas being a time to spend with loved ones and to enjoy festivities, some familiar sector faces explain what they’d like to see under the FE Christmas tree.  And whatever the New Year may hold for the sector, the team here at FE Week wish you all a very merry Christmas.

 

Jeremy Benson 

Ofqual executive director for vocational qualifications

Students and employers expect vocational qualifications to support the development of the skills needed for a productive economy and a healthy society. Ofqual’s approach reflects these expectations: we have introduced a simplified qualifications framework, and we check systematically that awarding organisations meet our requirements and award valid qualifications. FE faces some serious challenges, but there is no excuse for poor qualifications, so we make no apology for the requirements we set. We will talk in the New Year about the findings of our recent work. But first, there is Christmas to enjoy. I wish all FE Week readers a peaceful break.

 

 

 

Martin Doel

Chief executive of the Association of Colleges

This year has been extremely busy for the FE sector as a whole. Colleges have shown their worth, over the past year, as the bedrock on which our skills system rests and in providing routes to success to a wide range of students. As we end the year the financial situation following the spending review is better than we may have anticipated. While the year ahead will be far from easy, I’m sure that, as ever, colleges will rise to the challenges ahead. I wish all college staff and FE sector colleagues a merry and relaxing Christmas — it’s certainly been well-earned.

 

 

 

 

Dr Mary Bousted

General secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL)

During 2016, ATL would like the government to recognise the unique value of FE in providing vocational education and training, which benefits learners and ensures employers can recruit a skilled workforce and contribute to the country’s economic growth. The government should ensure the sector can prosper through proper funding and a professionalised workforce, and it should suspend the constant reform which has resulted in considerable turbulence during the previous five years. It must also acknowledge the FE sector, rather than employers, has the skills, knowledge and years of experience of delivering apprenticeships, so colleges should be central to apprenticeship reforms.

 

 

 

David Hughes

Chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education

We have a very exciting year ahead, as we formally become the Learning and Work Institute next month. Our focus will be firmly placed on achieving five critical priorities – building local capacity for more opportunities for lifelong learning, growth in apprenticeships which start young people on rewarding careers, supporting more people into good jobs on the road to full employment, developing new ways to help adults achieve basic skills in maths, English, Esol and digital, and opening up new pathways for people to learn and earn.

 

 

 

 

Neil Carmichael

House of Commons Education Select Committee chair

Christmas is a time of preparation, expectation and celebration. The FE sector should be celebrating its many achievements this year — not least the work of many colleges in ensuring students attain maths and English GCSEs. There is much to prepare for in 2016 as the sector moves centre stage in the delivery of the government’s skills agenda and apprenticeships and I expect the best colleges will rise to these challenges. But, most importantly, ahead of this, I hope all FE Week readers enjoy a well-earned restful Christmas with friends and family.

 

 

 

 

Sally Hunt

General secretary, University and College Union

After years of damaging budget cuts, top of the Christmas wish list is stable funding for FE. As colleges undertake area reviews, we hope that the views of the dedicated FE workforce and learners will be taken into account. We would also like to see the new apprenticeship levy extended to cover other types of work-based learning, as we fear that many good courses will be unnecessarily lost because of the focus on apprenticeships. Finally, we hope the government will review its decision to cut back on Esol provision, which seems frankly nonsensical at a time of refugee crisis in Europe.

 

 

 

 

Sally Dicketts

Chair of the Women’s Leadership Network and chief executive of Activate Learning

For me the last year has been characterised by connectedness. Within the Women’s Leadership Network our members have shared expertise and approaches to leadership that have benefited teaching and learning in their institutions. This sense of pulling together has also been seen across the sector, which was able to make its voice heard in the build up to the autumn statement. This resulted in less dramatic cuts than we had anticipated. My hope for the year ahead is that colleges can overcome fears of competition to continue to work together to deliver the very best experiences and outcomes for learners.

 

 

 

Sue Husband

Director of the National Apprenticeship Service

Merry Christmas to everyone and thank you for your support over the last year. My New Year’s resolution is to make sure the National Apprenticeship Service continues to play its part, across the whole sector, as we work together to support more people and businesses to access the great opportunities that apprenticeships offer. During 2016 and beyond we will work with you to prepare employers to invest their apprenticeship levy wisely, for their business and for their apprentices, as one apprentice and one employer at a time we work towards 3m apprenticeship starts that we can all be proud of.

 

 

 

David Igoe Chief executive

Sixth Form Colleges’ Association

Christmas came early for sixth form colleges with the Chancellor’s autumn statement announcing he would protect the rate for the life of the Parliament and open the door to academy status and the VAT rebate. The New Year will reveal just how many colleges take that opportunity and just what that means for a sector which increasingly sees its future working alongside schools and being part of the wider post-16 education landscape. The imminent festive season will be a time to reflect on all this and make resolutions to go forward in a positive frame of mind and seize the new opportunities that are unfolding. At the heart of Christmas is a new birth and a new hope. There is a message here which chimes directly with what we should be all about — ensuring that young people are at the heart of all we do. It’s their future that matters. Structures and sectors are just the means to that end and we have a duty to try to get it right.

 

 

Gordon Marsden

Shadow Skills Minister

I’m hoping first of all that hard-pressed FE providers, staff and students get some break over Christmas from the avalanche of concerns over area reviews, loan changes, Esol and adult skills cuts that the government has bombarded them with this year. I hope 2016 will be a better year for real progress on joined up thinking allowing the sector to think about organic growth and change, especially on the apprenticeship front, without being faced by impossible deadlines or so-called goodie bags which turn out, Scroogelike, to be largely empty.

 

 

 

 

Paul Joyce

Ofsted deputy director for FE and skills

I will remember 2015 as a busy year, both for the sector and for Ofsted. I was delighted to be appointed to head up the FE and skills remit and continue to enjoy working with such committed people in the sector to raise standards. The sector continues to improve despite the significant challenges faced and this is indeed commendable. I hope everyone enjoys a break over the festive period. The New Year looks certain to be busy and I hope it brings continued improvement in the sector so more learners experience good and outstanding provision.

 

 

 

 

Dr Sue Pember

Holex director of policy and external relations

The Ofsted annual report applauded the success of ACL Community Learning Partnership pilots and how opportunities they provide are well matched to community needs. Holex members want to replicate that work nationally in 2016. Stability is essential. If we move to block grants and outcome agreements, we need to know that will last for at least 10 years. We can then concentrate on ensuring productivity and individual prosperity. Adult education and learning has a big role to play. We need an adult education service covering everything from improving basic skills, career change opportunities, engagement in education and personal well being.

 

 

 

Peter Lauener

Chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency

Christmas is a time for a bit of rest and reflection, as well as the all important Strictly Come Dancing final, so I hope everyone enjoys a break (and my money is on Jay for the glitter ball trophy). Everyone who is part of FE should feel proud of their role in helping 2,613,700 people this year take the next step in education or an apprenticeship. My own highlight of the year was seeing the fantastic success of Team UK in the World Skills competition. It shows we have a world class system when we are at our best, as well as fantastic young people. 2016 will bring plenty of new challenges — area reviews, planning for the levy, devolution. But FE has a much better spending review settlement than we all feared so here’s to a great 2016.

 

 

 

Stewart Segal

Chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers

This has been a challenging year although we have had some very positive messages about the importance of work-based training and particularly traineeships and apprenticeships. As a result there should be opportunities for all providers to expand their provision in these priority areas although there is still a lot of detail we need to understand. It will no doubt be challenging along the way but if government listens and keeps the programmes simple, we can ensure that high quality providers can make the long-term plans they need to succeed. We wish everyone a successful 2016.

 

 

 

 

Shakira Martin

National Union of Students vice president for FE

Merry Christmas to all FE students and those working in sector. For this Christmas, I would like to see the government taking the time to understand FE during the entire area review process, ensuring that students get the best deal to access education, quality teaching and learning. I also want to see learner voice at the heart of all changes made. I would like money to be invested back into Esol provision, and see that money generated from the apprentice levy is used to increase all apprentices wage to at least the national minimum wage. My students and the sector never fail to amaze me, no matter what changes are thrown at us. For this reason I ask the government to invest in FE to give many more students a chance to change their life, to break the cycle of deprivation and give the teachers the pay they deserve.

 

 

 

Iain Wright MP

Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee

My Christmas cheer for FE would be a recognition that it is needed and as an important driver of social mobility, upskilling and economic growth in local areas. A period of stability and certainty would also be welcome. The challenges to come in the New Year are ongoing area-based reviews, further financial challenges, more clarity about the apprenticeship levy and how quality assessment impacts upon FE provision of higher education. This is why the select committee’s look into the future of FE, as well as the joint inquiry between the BIS and Education committees on careers guidance, are timely, and I hope that readers of FE Week engage with us as we look at evidence.

 

 

 

David Russell

Chief executive, Education and Training Foundation

In all the talk about colleges and others needing to be business-like, the first principle of good business is being forgotten. First have a good product or service. We will only navigate the challenges of area reviews and financial pressures if we remember that the sector exists to provide excellent teaching and learning. In trying times, a central emphasis on professionalism, standards, and sharing effective practice will be more needed than ever. The FE and training sector delivers enormous benefit to individuals and the broader economy, but the sector must invest in its staff, its leaders and its governors.

 

 

 

Stephen Wright

Chief executive, Federation of Awarding Bodies

Our hope is that 2016 brings some stability to a sector that has suffered from perpetual revolution in recent years. We are looking forward to the effective implementation of the proposals announced in the recent CSR without backtracking. Replacing uncertainty with the clarity we need to deliver the excellent vocational skills and knowledge essential to the success of employers, learners and the economy as a whole.

 

 

 

 

Dr Neil Bentley

Chief executive, Find a Future 

For 2016, I want to see our WorldSkills UK competitors — past and present — get the recognition they deserve for their success. Speaking with competitors at this year’s Skills Show confirmed the important role skills competitions play in developing character and key employability skills. And by using knowledge gained from competing nationally and internationally, we know we are working to benchmarks that will equip more young people with the right skills to help UK businesses better compete globally. So let’s pull together to get more colleges and independent learning providers working with more employers to embed competitions into the mainstream of skills and apprenticeships.

 

 

 

Sir Geoff Hall

General secretary of the Principals’ Professional Council

When our children were young The Severn Valley Railway began their Santa Specials. The intoxicating aroma of mulled wine and roasting chestnuts greeted us as we arrived at Santa’s grotto and there our children first met the man himself resplendent in white beard and red suit. Their look of wonderment stays with you for ever.The magical journey started at Kidderminster formerly the heart of carpet manufacturing latterly the centre of FE carpet bagging. Surely the area review for Worcestershire and the Marches has to include colleges with campuses in Kidderminster? Perhaps “The Kidderminster Question” will become FE’s Lothian Question”. After 18 years Devo-max might be providing an answer.

 

 

 

Nick Boles 

Skills Minister 

The Christmas period and the well-deserved rest it hopefully brings, is a good time to reflect on what has been a busy and successful year for FE. Whether it was the launch of the apprenticeships, smashing the target to create 2m apprenticeships or of course the excellent result achieved by our Team UK Champions in Sao Paulo — 2015 was a stellar year. The year has also seen significant developments for the sector, with the launch of the levy and the positive outcome of the spending review. Thank you to all the dedicated and talented people working in FE. Have a very merry Christmas, and roll on 2016.

 

The removal of rules allowing only providers rated outstanding or good by Ofsted to get lead contracts for traineeships from next academic year has received a mixed response from the sector.

Grade three (‘requires improvement’) and non-inspected providers can also deliver the programme, but only as subcontractors.

However, the government revealed on Monday (December 7), in its 2020 vision document, that the restriction would to be lifted.

“Now traineeships are fully established and getting excellent results for young people, from 2016/17 we will place them on a par with other provision by removing this requirement,” it said.

The government will be hoping the move, long called for by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), will allow for an improvement on last academic year’s 19,400 starts.

But concern has been raised that it could undermine quality of traineeships designed to help 16 to 24-year-olds secure an apprenticeship or employment through, for example, improving their English and maths skills and work experience.

Angela Middleton (pictured above), chief executive and founder of London and Kent-based provider MiddletonMurray group, which runs traineeships through good-overall Ofsted rated subsidiary Astute Minds Ltd, told FE Week: “I don’t believe it is the right way forward.

“There are a lot of grade one and two providers who would like to receive [more traineeships] funding. I would like to see them given priority.”

When asked by FE Week if it planned to allow inadequate-rated and uninspected providers to deliver traineeships as lead contractors, an Skills Funding Agency (SFA) spokesperson said: “As with other FE provision, an approved SFA provider without an Ofsted grade will be able to deliver traineeships.”

She added: “If a traineeship provider was assessed as inadequate by Ofsted then the same intervention policy would apply as with all other Skills Funding Agency funded provision.”

An AELP spokesperson said: “It’s very unlikely you’ll see inadequate providers offering traineeships because in the case of independent learning providers, a grade four [inadequate] inspection by default results in the SFA withdrawing the contract for everything.”

He added the change “should make a major difference in expanding the number of [traineeships] places”.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Association of Colleges said: “More flexibility to allow a greater number of colleges to offer traineeships is something we’ve been encouraging the government to look into. It is very gratifying they have listened.”

The government has scrapped plans to stop funding apprenticeship frameworks after 2017/18.

The cut-off, that would ensure providers were only delivering new Trailblazer standards come 2018/19, was first announced in October 2013, but speculation has been mounting in recent months as to whether ministers were looking to step back from the date.

Fuelling such speculation has been frustration in the sector at the supply of new standards, while there has also been a low take-up for those already available. But it was revealed in the government’s 2020 vision document (pictured), published on December 7, that the 2017/18 end of frameworks has now been dropped.

According to the document, the government’s “aim was for all new apprenticeship starts to be on standards from 2017/18” instead of existing apprenticeship frameworks.

But, it added: “We think the recent announcement of the apprenticeship levy warrants giving employers longer to consider which occupations they will require apprenticeships for.

“To allow for this, we envisage a migration from apprenticeship frameworks to standards over the course of the Parliament, with as much of this to take place by 2017/18 as possible.

“We will stagger the withdrawal of public funding for new starts on framework apprenticeships as employers take on apprentices on the new standards, and give reasonable prior notice to training providers of this so they can review their training offer.”

A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) spokesperson declined to comment on how long a “reasonable prior notice” was and whether the same minimum notice would apply for all frameworks.

He simply said BIS was “currently developing the approach and will provide details in due course”.

The government was forced to defend progress with the implementation of Trailblazers in June, after FE Week reported that official figures indicated there had been just 300 starts on the new programmes in nine months.

Another FE Week report on August 6 revealed frustration was growing among Trailblazer apprenticeship designers, with many of the new standards still awaiting government approval for delivery almost a year after they were published.

Just 68 standards had been published by BIS as ready for delivery as of Thursday.

Yet the government said in August that more than 350 standards had either been delivered or were being developed.

Shadow Skills Minister Gordon Marsden said: “What is clear from BIS being forced to slow down the transfer to Trailblazer apprenticeships is it comes from their substantial failures to sign off proposals submitted by the employer-led consortia in a timely fashion.

“It underlines the way BIS staffing and budget cuts by government have undermined the department’s capacity to deliver changes.

Over-confidence on timelines and undercapacity to act on them is a potentially toxic combination.”

An Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) spokesperson said: “A positive outcome from AELP’s representations is the announced transition from the old apprenticeship frameworks to the new standards.

“Giving employers and providers adequate notice and staggering the funding changeover will help smooth the introduction of the reforms.”

The BIS spokesperson declined to comment on Mr Marsden’s comments.