English colleges who set up new learner ventures in Saudi Arabia as part of multi-million pound deals could be facing “bankruptcy” as the projects prove less popular than expected, it has been claimed.

Education Investor has reported that Saudi’s Colleges of Excellence programme, which attracted the likes of Lincoln College, Moulton College and Activate Learning among others, is struggling to get the number of learners it had expected.

The report said Pearson, which was contracted to run three colleges, dropped out of the programme in June and is understood to be in a legal dispute with CoE.

Dr Ian Baird, former chief executive of the Pearson and Hertvec (Hertfordshire Vocational Education Consortium) CoE initiative, was quoted as saying: “The CoE project was deemed to be a massive change to how technical and vocational education is delivered in the Kingdom, but the initial excitement for providers has waned.

“The size and complexity of this project could actually cause British state-funded colleges to go bankrupt, as they incur costs without getting paid for the resources they are providing.”

In April last year, then-Skills Minister Matthew Hancock announced that UK education providers had won four new contracts worth £850m to set up 12 technical and vocational training colleges in Saudi.

At the time, 16 British operators had been hired to run 37 Saudi institutions and the project was said to be worth £1bn to the UK economy.

UK Trade and Industry (UKTI) Education was responsible for bringing together consortia to bid for what it described as “high value contracts”.

Although the projects were thought to be providing new revenue streams for an increasingly cash-strapped domestic college sector, such ventures have not been without their critics. Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw, for instance, once urged colleges to focus on “Deptford not Delhi,” as previously reported by FE Week.

However, according to Education Investor, representatives of several operators have now spoken out to say highlight the lack of student demand that has left some running “virtually empty colleges”.

Other providers whose involvement was highlighted on the gov.uk website included Lincoln College; the Oxford Partnership, a consortium comprising Activate Learning, GEMS Education Solutions and Moulton College; Hertvec, a consortium led by Hertford Regional College and including North Hertfordshire College and the University of Hertfordshire; and FESA, another consortium of UK colleges and training providers.

Education Investor reported that Hertvec, for example, won a £225m five-year deal to run three colleges in 2014, but added that its “numbers are understood to be well below target”.

All college groups, apart from NHC which declined to comment, the UKTI and CoE were contacted by FE Week for comment but were yet to respond at the time of going to press.

Main image: Al Aflaj colleges’ governor Zaid Al Hussein and Paul Batterbury, dean of Lincoln Aflaj College at Lincoln College International, Lincoln College Group, at colleges’ opening ceremony in October last year

 

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has given more details of its plans to extend FE loans, as announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget.

He said loans would be made available to level three and four learners aged 19 to 23, and to level five and six learners aged 19 and above.

“The extension of loans, which we plan to implement from the 2016/17 academic year, does not affect the duty on the Secretary of State to ensure that learning for a first full qualification at level three should be free for 19 to 23-year-olds,” a BIS spokesperson told FE Week.

A spokesperson for the Student Loans Company (SLC) said implementation of the FE loans expansion was “progressing well”.

“SLC is confident that application and payment systems will be in place for those starting courses next September,” they said.

The spokesperson was unable to confirm when the system would be open for applications.

A spokesperson for the Association of Colleges said: “It is important that these loans are properly administered to provide additional support for students.”

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “We need to understand the details of how the loan facility will be extended to the new groups.”

Prime Minister David Cameron is tomorrow expected to unveil plans for 2.3 per cent of staff in large public sector bodies to be apprentices.

It is thought the move will see apprentice numbers boosted by 200,000 as the government chases its 3m starts election manifesto target for this Parliament.

Measures to achieve the public sector numbers will be laid out in a policy package entitled English Apprenticeships – Our 2020 vision.

Around three quarters of apprenticeships are in the private sector, with the rest coming mainly (16 per cent) from the public sector while around a tenth are in the voluntary sector.

Mr Cameron is due say: “In our manifesto, we made specific commitments – we said we’d reach 3m more apprenticeships.

“I can tell you, in the three months after the election alone, we delivered 115,000 more – in industries from law to fashion design, aerospace and more.

“And today, we’re going even further, with our apprenticeship 2020 vision. We will make every part of the public sector – from Whitehall to local government, the NHS to the police, ensure that apprentices form at least 2.3 per cent of their workforce.

“And our 2020 plan will also help an age group that has, so far, missed out: young adults. Just 6 per cent of 16 to 18-year-olds take an apprenticeship at the moment.

“But with the public sector and the private sector fully on board, we want to increase that, helping us to make sure every school-leaver goes into an apprenticeship, work or university – and gets the skills they need.”

The principal of a Midland college behind two studio schools struggling with low pupil numbers has told of her regret at having to shut them down.

Midland Academies Trust, which is sponsored by North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, is set to shut Midland Studio Colleges in Hinckley and Nuneaton next summer with just 157 pupils out of a combined capacity of 600 making them economically unviable.

Marion Plant OBE, college principal and trust chief executive (pictured above), told FE Week: “The first thing to say is that is it hugely sad and personally am deeply regretful that, what was a very innovative project and development, hasn’t worked.

“What I am proud of is the huge amount of success that has come out of both studio schools, because a lot of the young people have progressed to apprenticeships and gone on to working with local companies.”

The Hinckley school opened just three years ago and the Nuneaton branch followed a year later.

But trust board chair Tim Render said “lower than forecast” pupil numbers meant the trust was unable to achieve a “high standard” of education.

The trust has started the process of finding places for pupils from the losing studio schools at its other four schools — The Nuneaton Academy, Hartshill School, The George Eliot School and The William Bradford Academy.

Ms Plant was adamant there would be no further school closures, that the decision would not affect the college, and said: “It is just two small schools which, for different reasons, have under-recruited and are not viable in the longer term.”

She added: “It’s about us having put everything into trying to address the situation around student recruitment, including investing heavily in a very professional marketing and recruitment campaign.”

The year 11 and 13 pupils can stay at the closing studio schools until the end of the academic year and the year 10 and 12 students will be given the option to continue their studies at either The George Eliot School, or The William Bradford Academy from January 2016.

Ms Plant said the schools had been appreciated by employers who saw them as connecting education and work.

She said: “While I am expressing regret — and I am deeply regretful that the students’, parents, and carers are so upset at the decision — I think what we have learned on a positive sense is the studio school model of learning is a really effective model.”

High Street giant Next slashed £2.5m off its wage bill by employing hundreds of low-earning apprentices, according to a hard-hitting Channel Four programme exclusively previewed to FE Week.

Apprenticeships come under scrutiny in Dispatches tomorrow night as investigators look at the wages and quality of training delivered by high-profile companies.

The programme, entitled Low Pay Britain, focuses on retail giant and employer provider Next, which was given nearly £1.8m of public funds last year for training 30 hours a-week apprentices.

The programme claims that, with the apprentice minimum wage of £3.30 an-hour lower than that of normal workers at £6.70 an-hour for those aged over 21, “if all of Next’s 800 apprentices had been paid the full rate for the 30-hour week they were working, it would have cost Next almost £2.5m pounds extra in wages this year.”

Investigators heard from a number of former learners at Next — which has been given Skills Funding Agency (SFA) permission to take on new learners despite an Ofsted grade four result this year — who saw full-time fellow workers paid more even though they did the same shopfloor work and got little or no training.

They also hear how former learners felt let down at seeing more apprentices taken on after they’d finished their own programmes only to be offered contracts of just 15 hours a-week.

“I know the management did all they could and they wanted me to stay there, but it was the company saying: ‘We’d prefer to churn out another apprentice’. So I felt I had to turn it down on a moral point and also a financial point,” former Next apprentice Alex Harding tells presenter Seyi Rhodes.

The firm claims it provides specialised training so apprentices are set up for a career in retail and, following severe Ofsted criticism, has implemented a “vigorous programme of improvements”.

Mr Harding told the Channel Four show when he joined Next as an apprentice in 2013 he was paid £2.65 an-hour, the apprenticeship minimum wage at that time.

Channel 4 investigators were told learners would go on to earn around £2 an-hour more. And while the programme questions the fairness in paying apprentices less than colleagues, it also looks at the quality of training for learners.

Mr Harding told the programme: “There was very little one-on-one training. It was just such a small store which wasn’t suited to having this kind of position where you’re meant to be training someone when actually, you need everyone working at the same time because the number of staff is so small.”

Similar criticism, that Next apprentices were given little or no time to learn, came from Becky Markham.

“The training was just on the shop floor, so it wasn’t like I was on my own doing my work,” she said.

“I was still there helping customers when really I should have been learning and studying. Well, I never really had a chance to write in my book, basically, thinking about it, because I always had to really be there for the customers.”

She added: “They [supervisors] were just basically throwing out warnings, if you don’t do it, we’ll give you a disciplinary, we do need you to be on the shop floor.

“They were just making sure they hit their targets. They weren’t focusing on what I needed. To me, it didn’t feel like an apprenticeship at all, it just felt like a job.”

The programme comes just months after Ofsted inspectors found the Next’s level two retail and call centre apprenticeships to be inadequate.

Their report read: “Too many apprentices withdraw from their learning — the support provided for them is inadequate and does not ensure that they remain on their apprenticeship to complete their qualification.”

The result saw the SFA issue Next with a Notice of Concern and suspend it from taking on new apprentices.

But, according to figures obtained by Dispatches, the firm has been handed more than £200,000 since the inspection in July after it was given permission to take on learners again.

Next said after its inspection that it “completely accepts the report’s findings and recommendations”, adding: “We have commenced a vigorous programme of improvements and aim to make significant progress within the next six months.”

A spokesperson for the firm told Dispatches the apprenticeship management team has been “re-organised and strengthened” and rates of pay have been increased so 67 per cent of apprentices now earn above the national minimum.

The improvements were recognised in a monitoring inspection report published by Ofsted in October.

An SFA spokesperson said: “Since receiving the notice, Next has put in significant work to develop and strengthen their programme and received a positive Ofsted monitoring report.

“Although the notice remains in place and continues to be monitored until concerns have been successfully addressed, given significant improvements made by Next, the SFA has given it permission to take on a maximum of 50 new learners.

“These learners will be funded through Next’s existing contract allocation and we will monitor and review this delivery on a monthly basis.”

Next did not respond to a request for further comment for FE Week yesterday (Saturday).

Dispatches Low Pay Britain airs at 8pm tomorrow (Monday).

Picture: Dispatches reporter Seyi Rhodes outside a Next store

Ofsted inspectors who uncovered “degrading treatment, racist comments and care from staff under the influence of illegal drugs” at a youth prison have reported an improvement.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), as previously reported on feweek.co.uk, pledged “urgent action” in light of Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre’s May inspection report.

And the actions appeared to have set the G4S-managed centre, near Rugby, on the path to improvement with a team made up of four Ofsted inspectors, two from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons and one from the Care Quality Commission, reporting it now required improvement. It was previously labelled inadequate.

Inspectors said inmates at the centre, which houses young people aged 12 to 18 who have been given a custodial sentence or are on remand, “have not experienced the level of harm or degrading treatment identified at the last inspection”.

They found “senior managers have taken consistently prompt robust action to deal with staff and protect young people, which is an improvement”.

The inspection report, published on December 2, added: “Education provision is judged to be good overall but would benefit from the recommendations of the previous inspection being fully implemented alongside new recommendations to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.”

It was announced in October that MTC Novo would be taking over from G4S in managing the centre for five years from May next year.

Paul Cook (pictured above), managing director for G4S children’s services, said: “I am encouraged that inspectors now report that the team has responded effectively to the findings of the last inspection and that the centre has improved.

“We set out to return the centre to the high standards we have delivered over our previous 16 years and it is heartening that inspectors report many examples of staff putting themselves at risk to prevent harm to young people and that over 95 per cent of trainees say that staff treat them with respect.”

Lin Hinnigan (pictured above), Youth Justice Board chief executive, said “We are pleased that progress has been made at Rainsbrook STC since Ofsted’s last inspection and that the improvements reported are in line with findings from our own monitoring activity.

“We will continue to monitor and ensure robust action is taken to address any staff conduct issues.

“The YJB will work closely with G4S to see it makes the improvements required in line with the standards we set. We expect continuous improvements to take place throughout the transition to MTC Novo taking over the running of Rainsbrook STC from May.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “It is encouraging to see progress is being made at Rainsbrook and that, crucially, the majority of young people reported feeling safe. Clearly there is more work to be done and we will continue to closely monitor the situation.”

Trade union Unison will ballot FE workers in England in the New Year, in the latest development of an ongoing row over pay.

The ballot is in response to a zero per cent pay offer for 2015/16 made by the national employers’ organisation, the Association of Colleges (AoC), in the summer.

Unison represents 25,000 workers in FE colleges in England and it says around 80 per cent of these are likely to be covered by the ballot. The workers involved include technicians, managers, library, catering, cleaning, security and other support staff.

Unison has already carried out a consultative ballot of members on the pay freeze, the results of which were announced in October. A total of 95 per cent of those voting in the ballot rejected the offer and twice as many colleges participated as last year.

The union then wrote to the AoC, and the colleges it negotiates for, with the result and a warning that unless the offer was improved the union would be “in dispute” with them.

Next year’s ballot will cover all those colleges that are members of the AoC and have not made an improved local offer.

Dave Prentis, Unison general secretary, said: “Following years of pay restraint, this non-offer by FE employers is insulting and is driving workers to take their anger to the picket lines.

“Another year of pay restraint will do nothing to help recruit, retain and motivate staff in the sector. Many will have no choice but look for jobs that pay better.

“There is still time for employers to come back to the negotiating table and come up with a fair pay offer that rewards staff for the hard work they do.”

In response to the announcement of the ballot, Marc Whitworth, director of employment services and policy at the AoC, said: “The pay recommendation made by the AoC reflects the feedback we have had from colleges about the stringent financial circumstances in the sector.

“Although not unexpected it is nevertheless disappointing that Unison will ballot for action in the New Year. There is a willingness from the employers’ side to continue to engage with our union colleagues to protect the prospects of FE, its skilled workforce and the students it serves.”

Unison says it will continue to work with other FE unions to seek to achieve an improved offer from the AoC.

The University and College Union (UCU) has also responded to the proposed pay freeze, with 207 colleges affected by strike action organised by the UCU on November 10.

A UCU spokesperson told FE Week that a decision was yet to be made over whether they should take further action, saying: “Following the strike last month, our FE members are due to meet on Friday, December 11, to decide on next steps.”

The UCU strike was called after talks over the AoC’s proposal for a pay freeze in 2015/16 failed to reach agreement. At the time, an AoC spokesperson told FE Week: “We haven’t got any plans to reopen negotiations.”

The UCU strike was announced in October, after a ballot of members on the pay freeze proposal resulted in 74 per cent of those who voted (4,184) backing industrial action.

 

Providers have been warned that government funding to help long-term unemployed people back into work was likely to be dramatically cut by 2020, FE Week can reveal.

The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) director for contracted employment provision Matt Thurstan last month sent a letter, seen by FE Week, to providers advising on what will happen after current Work Programme contracts end in April 2017.

The scheme, launched in June 2011, involves private, public and voluntary organisations helping to find jobs for people who have normally been unemployed for at least 12 months, although shorter-term unemployed people can also be referred by local Job Centres.

Total funding to providers through the payment-by-results scheme was around £2,001m up to June — which worked out at just over £500m a-year.

But Mr Thurstan said in the letter that the department now recognised “the number of those requiring this support is reducing” — so “core funding” could be cut to just £130m-a-year by 2020/21 for a replacement scheme expected to be launched from May 2017.

“Our new provision will support long-term unemployed claimants reaching the 24-month point in their claim, as well as targeted referrals of claimants with health and disabilities issues,” he added.

Funding cut for back-to-work support The DWP currently has contracts with 15 providers for 18 regions across the country.

The only FE college group contractor is NCG, which currently covers Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country.

The DWP terminated NCG’s contract for the North East Yorkshire and the Humber last March, replacing it with Devon-based Maximus.

The DWP told FE Week at the time that this was because it was the “lowest performing [contract] assessed against a range of measures”.

No-one from NCG was available to comment, but Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) chief executive Kirsty McHugh (pictured above), which represents employment support providers, said: “The programme has done fantastically at moving the long term unemployed into work, but it’s no surprise that the new contracts from April 2017 will focus far more strongly on jobseekers with disabilities and health conditions.

“Our understanding is that the funding mentioned in the letter is the minimum available for the new work and health programme.”

A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “The number of people who have been out of work for over a year has fallen by a quarter in the last 12 months, so providers had anticipated that a replacement programme would be on a smaller scale.”

A spokesperson for the DWP said: “Our welfare reforms and the Work Programme have helped thousands of these individuals return to work. We now have two million more people in work, and employment at a record high.

“We want to build on this success and provide further support to those with health conditions and disabilities. That is why we are increasing funding by around 15 per cent, and creating a new ‘Work and Health Programme’ to help them to return to, and remain in, work.”