The proportion of 25+ apprenticeships has gone back up to levels last seen before the failed 24+ apprentice loans system, provisional figures out today have revealed.

The figures, published in the Statistical First Release (SFR), suggest a full-year growth in apprenticeship numbers across all age groups — but the biggest growth was among those aged 25 or above.

In 2014/15, the number of apprenticeship starts was provisionally put at 492,700 [click here and view table 20.1]. Of these, 210,100 were aged 25 or above — a rise of 33.2 per cent, or 52,400, from the same figures last year [click here and view table 18.1].

And further comparing provisional figures, the 25+ age group made up 42.6 per cent of all apprenticeship starts last year, versus 36.5 per cent (157,700) in 2013/14, and 44.9 (222,200) the previous year.

Final figures for 2013/14 showed that 36.7 per cent (161,600) of all apprenticeship starts were in the 25+ group, which was was lower than in previous years — 45.1 per cent (230,300) in 2012/13 and 44 per cent (229,300) in 2011/12. Final figures for 20145/15 are due out next month.

The troubled, and ultimately scrapped, 24+ advanced learning loans for apprenticeships are widely acknowledged to have been responsible for the 2013/14 fall.

In quarter four 2014/15, the 25+ age group was provisionally behind 50.9 per cent (55,900) of all starts, up from 49.1 per cent (58,000) in 2013/14.

Meanwhile, quarter four starts across the ages were down 1.5 per cent on the same period last year to 109,900 (from 118,100).

However, the overall number of apprenticeship starts in 2014/15 rose provisionally by 13.9 per cent, from 432,400 in the same figures last year to 492,700 this year, which halts the decline of the previous two years.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said the government was committed to “making sure apprenticeships deliver for individuals, businesses and the economy”.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has yet to comment on the rise in 25+ apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships will this week come under the spotlight in a House of Lords debate focussing on the quality and accessibility of the programme.

Lady Prosser (pictured above), former deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union and ex-president of the Trades Union Congress, is to open a debate on Thursday (October 15) looking at the importance of apprenticeships to the UK labour market.

The Labour life peer said she was worried about the number of apprenticeships falling and that “diminishing funding for the FE sector is also a real concern, and the mismatch of skills to future jobs needs to be addressed”.

Other speakers were expected to include Liberal Democrat business, innovation and skills spokesperson in the upper house, Lord Stoneham of Droxford, former Ofsted chair Lady Morgan (pictured below right) and Lady Sharp (pictured below left).

The debate follows concern that, in its drive to create 3m apprenticeship starts by 2020, the government was in danger of sacrificing quality for quantity.

As reported recently by FE Week, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) consultation on the proposed apprenticeship levy, which closed October 2, raised the possibility of allowing employers to use providers that are not subject to an approval system or even Ofsted inspections.

And although Skills Minister Nick Boles has outlined his view that employers’ apprenticeship levy money could only be spent on Skills Funding Agency-registered providers, and that Ofsted would have a continued role in inspecting these providers, his shadow, Gordon Marsden, also expressed concern about the fall in apprenticeship success rates, from 74.3 per cent in 2011/12 to 68.4 per cent in 2013/14.

But the Enterprise Bill, which had its second reading in the House of Lords on Monday, includes a number of measures that are intended to boost apprenticeships.

Measures include a target for apprenticeships in public sector bodies, and a measure to protect the term ‘apprenticeship’ from misuse, making it an offence for a provider to offer an apprenticeship that doesn’t meet certain strict rules – such as a 12-month minimum duration.

However, as reported by FE Week, employers who run their own in-house apprenticeship schemes would be exempt from this legislation and could run ‘apprenticeships’ in less than a year, ignoring rules that apply to the statutory scheme.

Details of the apprenticeship levy, which was first announced as part of the summer budget, are expected to be set out in the government’s Spending Review, due November 25.

“I strongly believe that apprenticeships, in providing specialised and career-relevant training, offer a unique and immensely valuable way to get people’s careers off the ground,” said Lady Prosser.

“But it’s vital that the apprenticeship ‘brand’ is taken seriously and is a fully supported strand of a wider employment strategy, and we are not there yet in this country.”

The debate, which Lady Prosser described as a “great opportunity to explore the issue of apprenticeships, their availability and quality, and how we can ensure they continue to play a pivotal role in the labour market of the UK”, is due to start at 11.30am.

Further contributors to the debate were expected to include Lord Bhattacharyya, professor of manufacturing, director and chair at Warwick Manufacturing Group, Warwick University; Lady Garden of Frognal, former manager at City & Guilds of London Institute; Lord Mawson, social entrepreneur, and director of Andrew Mawson Partnerships; Lady Wall of New Barnet, chair of Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Lord Aberdare is also due to take part, along with Lord Addington, the Bishop of Derby, Lord Haskel, Lord Haughey, Lady Humphreys, Lord Lisvane, Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, Lord Snape, Lady Warwick of Undercliffe, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, and Lord Young of Norwood Green.

The Earl of Courtown is expected to respond on behalf of the government.

A House of Lords library note has been produced for the debate (click here to download), which will be broadcast live on www.parliamentlive.tv and covered by FE Week on Twitter.

Concerns the FE sector is heading for “financial meltdown” are set to be investigated by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The committee will next week “challenge government” as it picks up on the findings of the National Audit Office (NAO), which in July reported that the financial health of the FE college sector had been in decline with 110 colleges recording an operating deficit in 2013/14, up from 52 in 2010/11.

The NAO report, entitled Overseeing financial sustainability in the FE sector, further said that in the same period, the number of colleges assessed by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) to have ‘inadequate’ financial health rose from 12 (5 per cent of colleges) to 29 (12 per cent).

The SFA, it said in the NAO report, had been too slow to spot problems with colleges’ finances because of failures to check the “realism” of their “over-optimistic” forecasts, and that the SFA’s formal interventions, once it finds a college’s financial health is ‘inadequate’, “has often lacked sufficient impact”.

The findings drew a stark warning from PAC committee chair Meg Hillier, who said at the time: “I do not believe it is any exaggeration to say the future sustainability of the FE sector is at risk of financial meltdown.”

And her committee will be looking further into the issues raised by the NAO report with its own inquiry, taking evidence from a number of high-ranking sector figures (see gallery below) including Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) permanent secretary Martin Donnelly, Department for Education permanent secretary Chris Wormald and SFA and Education Funding Agency chief executive Peter Lauener.

A PAC spokesperson said: “This inquiry will challenge government on whether it is taking responsibility for protecting the taxpayers’ money invested in the sector; examine whether the balance between ‘prevention’ and ‘intervention’ is correct when responding to financial sustainability issues; and obtain assurances that government has robust plans in place for creating a sustainable college infrastructure for the future.”

They added: “The SFA anticipates that the number of colleges it assesses as having inadequate financial health will continue to grow. On current trends, it could be around 70 colleges by the end of 2015/16.

“The financial support that the SFA offers to struggling colleges has increased significantly since 2010, but most has not yet been repaid. The outstanding balance, including new advances, stood at £45m by February 2015, relating to 13 colleges.”

The PAC’s first evidence session takes place on Monday, October 19, at 4pm. In addition to those already listed, committee members will hear evidence from Sarah Wright, principal of Central Sussex College, Stuart Laverick, principal of Heart of Worcestershire College, and Ian Ashman, principal of Hackney Community College.

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Main image, top: PA

Further Education Commissioner Dr David Collins will be stepping back from involvement at previously troubled Barnfield College and Weymouth College, FE Week has learned.

Barnfield, in Luton, received a letter last month from Skills Minister Nick Boles confirming Dr Collins’ role at the college was over.

It followed a visit in July from his adviser that concluded the college had addressed all of Dr Collins’ recommendations.

The adviser’s report, seen by FE Week, praises the college for progress in “reviewing staff and removing those who are not willing to change the way they work” and notes that a new leadership team is in place “with a clear vision of where they want the outcomes to be”.

Tim Eyton-Jones (above left), principal of Barnfield, said: “This is a major milestone in the college’s recent history and marks a positive transformation and direction we will be continuing.”

Dr Collins’ recommendations to Barnfield, which has more than 7,250 learners, were intended to address areas of concern identified during his two visits to the college, in January and the same time last year.

He saw weaknesses in governance and management, financial regulation and quality improvement measures.

His recommendations included a management structure review, cutting staff costs, and ensuring the governing body had greater scrutiny of curriculum, standards and finance.

Dr Collins’ first visit to Barnfield College was triggered by the college being assessed as inadequate for financial control by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

The second followed an Ofsted inspection in November, which rated the college as inadequate in all areas with no key strengths.

The letter to the college from Mr Boles states that: “While the college remains inadequate for Ofsted inspection and in formal intervention until it has fully complied with conditions in the Financial Health Notice of Concern, the FE Commissioner is satisfied that his engagement in the current process is complete and intervention monitoring will pass to the SFA.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Skills and Innovation (BIS) confirmed the FE Commissioner-led Structure and Prospects Appraisal (SPA) at Weymouth was concluding after it met financial and enrolment targets set by the SPA.

Weymouth, which has almost 4,000 learners, was told by an FE Commissioner adviser this month that Dr Collins was “ready to take a step back from his oversight role” following indication that its break-even budget plan for 2015/16 was on track, according to a college spokesperson.

Nigel Evans (above right), interim principal at Weymouth, said: “The FE Commissioner and his team helped us identify and implement a sound financial plan, which should allow us to continue to serve the needs of students, parents, employers and the wider community right across Dorset.”

Dr Collins started the SPA at Weymouth following his visit in March last year, after the college had been assessed as inadequate for financial control by the SFA.

In his report, Dr Collins said: “The college’s financial difficulties arise partly from ambitious plans to grow its 16-18 provision after several years of decline in learner numbers.

“Unfortunately, the college did not ensure it had the necessary finances to fund all developments in advance.”

An Ofsted inspection in January resulted in an inadequate overall rating, despite good ratings for learner outcomes and teaching, learning and assessment, due to principal Liz Myles’ handling of college finances. She resigned in February having been suspended late last year.

A monitoring visit by Ofsted in July found “significant” and also “reasonable” improvement” in all areas it looked at again.

Two official apprenticeship vacancy websites are still running five months after one of them was said to be closing down.

A spokesperson for the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) told FE Week in March that the old National Apprenticeship Service vacancy matching website would be taken down in May, once the new ‘Find an apprenticeship’ service was fully operational.

There had been concerns that with both running at the same time there could be confusion over whether both were official. Despite this, both sites are still live and both are still listing new apprenticeship vacancies.

And an SFA spokesperson said she could not give a date for when the old site would be shutting down.

On the day FE Week checked the sites, the old one listed 14,373 adverts and the new one listed 14,306.

A notice on the home page of the old site tells users that the site is no longer accepting new registrations or applications, and directs users to the new site to apply for an apprenticeship. When users click on any of the adverts on the old site, they are taken through to the new site.

FE Week has previously reported on the potential for confusion arising from having two apprenticeship vacancy websites running simultaneously.

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, said: “In order to deliver high quality apprenticeships to everyone, we need to offer applicants clear and accessible routes into apprenticeships, therefore it is disappointing if this issue is creating confusion.”

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said: “The sooner we move to one single site the better.

A spokesperson for the SFA said the old website “remains available as some users still have live applications — some vacancies can have a long lead time and therefore learners still need to access these applications”.

The spokesperson could not give a date for when the old site would be closed, and said it would be when they know no one is still using it.