The Ofsted annual report criticised Traineeships for a lack of success with helping young people progress to apprenticeships or employment. But Angela Middleton explains why she still thinks they have a lot to offer, so long as they are delivered by the right providers.

Ofsted chief inspector Michael Wilshaw has recently identified a problem with traineeships in the annual report on schools published last week, saying that “in too many of the FE and skills providers visited… traineeships appeared to have little success in fulfilling their primary role of being a stepping-stone to an apprenticeship or other sustained employment”.

I believe the issue is perhaps not with traineeships as an entity, but rather the way in which some providers deliver them.

It goes without saying that in order to deliver high quality effective traineeships, the government must use high quality and proven providers.

It’s recently been revealed that grade three and four providers will from 2016/17 be able to deliver traineeships, something which I don’t believe is the right way forward.

More funding should be given to specialist providers who meet the requirements — there are a lot of grade one and two providers who would like to receive the funding.

I would like to see them given priority in order to ensure the high quality of training needed.

I appreciate that sometimes the delivery is not as specialised as it needs to be, which is why traineeships in their current form are best implemented by a specialist training provider.

In my organisation, we pride ourselves on the quality of the training we provide and the results we enjoy, so while I understand Mr Wilshaw’s general position, I can’t whole-heartedly agree with it.

For me, the key to our success with traineeships is our determination to place as many young people as we can into meaningful employment and we work very hard to achieve this.

Traineeships are vital because there is often a lack of meaningful careers advice in schools

Since Feb 2011 we have operated a 12-week programme (originally unfunded) where we teach 16 to 18 year olds, who have never had a job, the 12 steps of recruitment.

In this way, they learn what employers are seeking and why and how to adapt their behaviour and to bring out their innate skills.

It has gradually transitioned into what is now termed a ‘traineeship’. Within this, we include maths, English, ICT, niche employer targeting, and personal branding and commercialisation, but the core objective of this period remains unchanged.

I would agree that the primary aim of traineeships should be to prepare young people for apprenticeships or sustained employment.

A traineeship is simply another version of a pre-apprenticeship, a form of training that’s been implemented for a number of years, and one which I feel is an essential component in helping to get a young person to a stage where they’re work ready and can excel at interview stage.

It’s also crucial in getting them to the point where they are in the right mind-set to keep the job once they have secured it and succeed in their chosen career.

An apprenticeship is not right for everyone, and there shouldn’t be a hard and fast rule that means every young person has to go on to an apprenticeship.

However, when traineeships are delivered properly, they do have an excellent conversion rate — to go back to my earlier point, we just need to ensure that they are delivered by high quality providers.

In terms of placing young people into jobs, my company has a 96.9 per cent conversion rate.

I see traineeships, and by extension apprenticeships, as the start of a longer journey.

In fact, we have just implemented a programme which takes young people from school leaver to graduate in five years.

We call it ‘Zero to Degree’ and I see the future of apprenticeships as being very much along these lines.

Another point I’d like to make is that traineeships are vital because there is often a lack of meaningful careers advice in schools.

Also, the narrow range of very ‘traditional’ careers young people express an interest in when we first see them is alarming. More in-depth and focused careers advice is needed, which is why a traineeship with a specialist, experienced provider is a necessity for many.

Two visits from FE Commissioner Dr David Collins triggered first by financial problems and secondly by an Ofsted inadequate rating was the scene into which Tim Eyton-Jones stepped in February. Dr Collins has since drawn a line under his involvement and inspectors have also seen improvements. Mr Eyton-Jones spells out what’s been happening at Barnfield.

Barnfield College has history. A few years ago it was a highly respected college with an excellent reputation and an outstanding Ofsted report. It was a college that inspired other colleges — a college with fantastic industry links and a college whose students had won national awards year-after-year. I could go on.

So what went wrong? The senior managers and governors lost sight of the college’s primary business. Instead of concentrating on putting the student first and ensuring their success, they concentrated on building an empire — the Barnfield Federation — which included a whole host of other providers. They took their eye off the ball and the quality of teaching and learning at the college plummeted.

If the college was going to make any progress, we had to start from scratch and take tough decisions

In November 2014, Barnfield College received the worst Ofsted report in the whole country. Every key area observed was deemed ‘inadequate’ and inspectors struggled to find a single positive thing to say about the college. To top it all, the college was accused of financial mismanagement — a scandal that hit the national media.

I remember my first day as principal of Barnfield College very clearly — it was February 1, 2015. I stood and watched the students as they arrived at the front entrance. Their behaviour was appalling and the atmosphere was intimidating. I asked the (then) curriculum managers for information about the quality of teaching and learning in their respective areas, but their replies were vague and about everything and anything else.

If the college was going to make any progress, we had to start from scratch and take tough decisions. Links with Barnfield Federation were severed so we could focus on our core business. A new board and chair had already been appointed which left me free to focus on the college. Together with the new chair and board, I wrote a new three-year Development Plan entitled Reclaiming Excellence, which set out our values and vision for the future.

Our students are now at the heart of everything we do. We want them to be successful on their course so they progress on to a relevant destination, but we also want them to develop as individuals so they become respected and valued members of the community. To enable them to achieve this, our priority is for them to experience excellent teaching and learning and an active enrichment programme in an outstanding learning environment. We have set ourselves high targets for their performance. Giving students a voice has also been key — they now have their say in everything we do, from staff recruitment to the governance of the college. It’s their college after all.

We’ve achieved a lot in 10 months. We now have a fantastic staff team, as over one third of the staff have changed, mostly managers, but there’s still a lot more to do. Following the financial problems of last year, we are proud to have received an ‘outstanding’ for our financial plans from the Skills Funding Agency — something not many colleges can boast about today. We are still under close scrutiny, which is to be expected, but we are pleased to announce that the college is now showing improvements in all areas, with exceptional improvements in apprenticeships for both quality and numbers. It is now fast developing into one of the biggest and most successful areas of the college.

When I was welcoming the students at 9am this morning, my thoughts went back to February 1 and it’s quite remarkable how much has changed in such a short space of time. If you asked any of our students, they’d tell you that they are proud of their college now. I know I certainly am. In three years’ time I really believe that Barnfield College will be the talk of the sector once again, but for all the right reasons.