Latest news from FE Week

FE Week held a lively debate on the future and purpose of traineeships at the Palace of Westminster last week — featuring high profile panellists from across the sector.

The event took place on Tuesday (June 7) and speakers included shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe, OCR’s head of policy for FE and funding Gemma Gathercole, and Jean Duprez, the director at Duprez Consulting.

It was chaired by FE Week editor Nick Linford.

Traineeships were launched three years ago, as part of the government’s drive to help low-skilled young adults onto apprenticeships. Their main aim is to steer people away from long-term unemployment, through guiding them onto other training or even straight into a job.

The debate, which came hot on the heels of an FE Week front-page story exposing low progression rates from traineeships to apprenticeships, showed there are still many questions to be resolved around this provision.

Mr Marsden, who also hosted the event, said: “One of my criticisms of the government is that having introduced this good [traineeships] concept … they have effectively frittered three years away by failing to promote, failing to explain and failing to target traineeships.

“Even now, they are still, it appears, unsure of the direction that they want to take.”

He continued: “I’m still not convinced today there is a unity of thought between the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills about what the trade-off is between getting young people into some sort of job, any sort of job, as opposed to saying ‘there are things we could do to get them more skills’.”

There were 19,400 traineeship starts in 2014/15, an increase of 86.3 per cent on the previous academic year, when concern was raised about the disappointingly low level of interest in the courses.

But a Skills Funding Agency (SFA) response to our Freedom of Information request showed that just 450 (nine per cent) of 5,200 traineeship completions for 19- to 24-year-olds started an apprenticeship in the same year.

Overall progression to apprenticeships for all ages stood at just 22 per cent, with the rest moving on to jobs, further full-time education or other training.

It raised questions over the confused purpose of traineeships and provoked Richard Atkins, the former Association of Colleges (AoC) president, who called last year for traineeships to be converted into specific pre-apprenticeship programmes, to demand a review.

But, Mr Dawe said during the debate: “It isn’t a pre-apprenticeship programme.

“[Traineeships are] part of it, but it’s about getting these individuals active again and through to further learning, or it’s just getting them into employment and engaging them.”

Ms Gathercole highlighted the results of a traineeship pilot three years ago from OCR, which sponsored the debate.

It showed that the majority of trainees moved back into FE after their courses were completed.

She said: “We have an education and training system that is in flux at every position, whether it’s GCSEs, A-levels, vocational qualifications, or apprenticeships.

“I think potentially this traineeship programme is a victim of those other things.”

Ms Duprez highlighted a lack of clarity, claiming that at the start of the traineeship programme she had arranged to speak with skills minister Nick Boles, but that “he backed out”.

She said: “The progression of any learning, any education, should be the pathway to work; it’s our duty.”

The debate drew a range of questions from the audience, including one from Catherine West, the MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, who raised concerns about the collapse of a scheme in the construction industry in her constituency.

John Hyde, of Hit Training, also reflected on his firm’s negative experiences of delivering traineeships, which he said did not appeal to young people, in part because they are not paid.

The event was the second of its kind delivered by FE Week in parliament, with the previous session on May 3 focusing on apprenticeships.

Full details of the latest debate will be covered in FE Week’s traineeships supplement, sponsored by OCR, which is due for publication later this month.

Colleges have again been warned to be vigilant after fraudsters posing as principals have been foiled in a string of attempted scams to hit the sector.

Harlow College first raised the alarm about bogus emails requesting money transfers, but FE Week understands that at least three more colleges — Walsall, Exeter, and Harrow — have received similar communications, with some reporting the incidents to local police.

Deanne Morgan, director of financial services at Harlow College, told FE Week that the scammers had sent several emails, purporting to be from principal Karen Spencer, requesting urgent payment.

But despite looking “very realistic”, staff identified them as fake and thwarted the fraudsters.

One email sent to Ms Morgan read: “Hi Deanne, hope your day is going on fine. I need you to make a same day UK payment for me.

“Kindly email me the required details you will need to send out the payment. I will appreciate a swift email response. Kind regards, Karen Spencer.”

Ms Morgan immediately queried the request with her principal through a different address, and it was quickly confirmed as a scam.

She has since sent an email to other colleagues in the FE sector warning them to be wary of this type of con.

She wrote: “Recently I have received several emails seeming to be from my principal which are scams.

“They obviously do their homework and know who the principal is and head of finance person is (and spell my name correctly — which is very rare), with very realistic imitation email addresses.

“One email was from the ‘principal’ requesting an urgent payment. So be aware that these kind of scams are circulating.”

FE Week reported on a similar incident last year when another fraudster, posing this time as the principal of Westminster Kingsway College, was stopped after requesting an urgent payment of their own.

Again, the request appeared to be genuine, but staff noticed the reply didn’t match the principal’s email address and checked with the boss himself.

And just last week FE Week reported of other “sophisticated” scams that have been targeted at colleges.

The Mary Ward Adult Education Centre nearly fell victim to a con involving fake faxes, before the college’s bank contacted them to question a suspicious payment.

A fraudster had sent a fax requesting a £4,437 clearing house automated payment system (CHAPS) payment after researching the college’s personal bank details, which are in the public domain.

Luckily the college stopped the payment after its bank queried the request with them.

The Education Funding Agency also sent out an alert on May 26, warning customers of an attempted scam impersonating Portakabin Ltd, which makes portable buildings often used by schools and colleges.

Portakabin said it had been able to flag up the attempt internally and report it to the bank being used by the fraudster.

Also last year, some colleges were targeted in a bailiff scam involving a series of phone calls with con artists.

Staff from at least eight colleges, including the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London and City of Southampton College, were subjected to the rip-off attempt.

The fraudsters employed the same tactics on each occasion, centring their bogus story on Northampton County Court, to which a non-existent debt running into thousands of pounds was meant to be owed.

At the time of going to press, it was understood no college had fallen for the scams. FE Week has passed details of the incidents to Action Fraud.

A decision to ban a Christian union from holding prayer and Bible study meetings at an unnamed FE college is “clearly ludicrous” – according to the prime minister himself.

A charity called Festive, which supports Christians in FE colleges, has complained that religious students at a college it declined to name were barred from celebrating their faith using the government’s anti-terrorist Prevent framework.

The issue was picked up in prime minister’s questions on Wednesday (June 8).

Fiona Bruce, the Conservative MP for Congleton, stood up in the House of Commons and told David Cameron that “a Christian union being banned from holding prayer and bible study meetings, purportedly on the grounds of Prevent” was “never the purpose of a strategy intended to address terrorism and extremism”.

Mr Cameron agreed that the action taken by the anonymous college was “clearly ludicrous”.

He said: “People do need to exercise some common sense in making these judgments, because it is quite clear that that is not what was intended.”

Smita Jamdar, a partner at legal firm Shakespeare Martineau, told FE Week that the PM had been unwise to pass judgement.

She said: “Based on Prevent, you cannot draw a line in the sand and say ‘no Christian group is ever going to fall foul of this’.

“For him to say ‘it’s clearly ludicrous’ perhaps just says more about his subconscious biases than it does about a measured and thoughtful response to the guidance his government has issued.”

She added that though the Prevent strategy was widely interpreted as relating mostly to Islamic radicalisation, it also addressed other types of extremism.

The focus of Prevent, she said, was on promoting British values, with extremism defined as anything that might compromise factors such as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, or a mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.

However, she added, further and higher education institutions also had an inherent duty to ensure free speech.

She said: “They have to balance it. Just because a view is extreme, that shouldn’t automatically mean it’s banned. They must look at it closely and say ‘do we feel that this is going to lead to people being drawn into terrorism?’”

The government released Prevent guidance specifically aimed at FE a year ago, which stated: “There is an important role for FE institutions … in helping prevent people being drawn into terrorism, which includes not just violent extremism but also non-violent extremism.”

The actions of the college, originally reported on by The Times on June 5, allegedly followed a similar incident in which a Christian union at a sixth form college was recently told it could no longer use the premises and had to meet at a nearby coffee shop instead.

Selina Stewart, the lead Prevent associate for the Education and Training Foundation, told FE Week: “Neither the Prevent duty guidance document nor the Ofsted guidance stops colleges from having religious societies which serve any religious faith.

“As with any activity within a college, the institution must be satisfied that any society complies with all provider policies and procedures and participants in any society are safeguarded effectively.”

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills declined to comment further.

The apprenticeship levy should not be limited to large employers, according to the senior government vocational education adviser who first proposed it.

Professor Alison Wolf (pictured), who made the case for an employer levy to fund apprenticeship training in a report published days before the government first unveiled the charge, told MPs that the change seemed to have been made “the night before”

She told the subcommittee on education, skills and the economy on Wednesday (June 8) that it was “very odd” that the levy, which is due to be introduced in April 2017, will only be paid by employers with a payroll of at least £3m.

Professor Wolf said: “One of the mysteries to me remains why – well, I can imagine why politically – we created another problem for ourselves by saying there is only going to be limited number of employers who are involved in this, and there’s going to have to be a completely separate system for small businesses.”

The professor, who is also part of Lord Sainsbury’s panel looking into technical and professional education reforms, continued: “Nobody in government has given me an explanation, and why would they?

“I suspect it was one of these things that was decided the night before.”

She said she had “asked people”, and nobody had “given me a good explanation of this or a coherent post-hoc rationalisation of how that will actually work”.

Professor Wolf stressed that she found this worrying.

“If you’re going to have a proper apprenticeship system, and one that’s attractive to young people, you’ve got to get small and medium employers involved,” she said.

In response, a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said: “The levy will put apprenticeship funding on a sustainable footing and improve the technical and professional skills of the workforce.

“Small employers who do not pay the levy will still have access to government funding to deliver apprenticeships.”

The spokesperson added that BIS was still consulting on the issue.

She said: “BIS has met with 400 employers to discuss the design of the digital apprenticeship service, and over 2,000 employers have responded to our surveys about the service design.”

Later in the same session, Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, accused the government of “very much making policy on the hoof”, rather than rolling the levy out “in a considered, properly pacey way”.

The inquiry, chaired by the MPs Neil Carmichael and Iain Wright, aimed to probe the merits of government reforms amid the drive to increase take-up.

Alison Fuller, professor of vocational education and work at the University College London Institute of Education, also told the panel that uncertainties over the Institute for Apprenticeship were causing concern for employers.

She said: “We’re not sure what the functions are going to be, and it’s all very uncertain.

“I know that employers are concerned about this.”

Professor Wolf was also asked about the delay to the publication of Lord Sainsbury’s report, on which FE Week has previously reported.

She said: “Help! What am I allowed to say? It seems to have been caught up in the grid at Number 10. It might be the referendum. It’s finished, it’s submitted. I don’t know how you guys get hold of it.”

Students who started courses at City of Bristol College as long as five years ago have still not been awarded their qualifications due to “misplaced” work.

Two former students from City of Bristol College have lodged formal complaints against the college over the last two years, which have still not been resolved, and still face having to redo lost coursework.

The pair claim to have submitted all the assignments required for the college’s animal management courses by 2013, up to two years after starting.

But they never got their qualifications because it transpired the college had lost some of their work.

A spokesperson admitted: “We acknowledge that a part of students’ original work was misplaced in 2011 and regret that the students have not yet been able to achieve the qualification despite additional support which the college has offered to the students.

“Unfortunately, tutors who delivered the course in 2011 are no longer employed by the college and therefore the college is unable to comment further on this matter.”

However, she admitted the former students would have to redo work on the lost assignments to gain a pass.

She also told FE Week that they had “been given an overview of the work left to submit, with a substantial amount already completed”, and that the college “will continue to work with students to ensure they successfully complete their programme”.

The spokesperson added: “It is the expectation of the awarding body that the accreditation to the qualification is through the individual completing their own assignment work.”

It is understood that the students started a seven-week animal management course in 2011, which was offered by the college for the first time.

It was extended to a full academic year, after course-planners realised extra time would be needed to complete the syllabus — and some of the students were then invited to carry on studying for a second year, FE Week understands.

The college said the eventual qualification from City & Guilds would have been NPTC level three animal management.

One of the students, Avril Horton, told FE Week: “They lost our completed assignments. It was more than one or two; I’ve basically been told to redo more than half the stuff.

“They told us after the seven weeks that they wouldn’t have time to complete it at first, so they invited us to carry on which
we did.

“In the end a few of us, me included, were invited back to do it over two years, and it later emerged that some of the work had been lost completely. It was really, really poor.”

A City & Guilds spokesperson said: “We sympathise with the students affected by this issue.

“We will be working closely with the City of Bristol College to undertake all external moderation and quality assurance activities as swiftly as possible to the highest standard so that there is minimal further delay to learners being awarded their much deserved certificates.”

Mark Dawe (pictured) may only be weeks into his new job, but he is already breaking the mould.

The former college principal and awarding organisation chief has become the first boss of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) to openly criticise the scale of subcontracting.

Mr Dawe spoke out after AELP claimed that 93 per cent (130,850 of 140,010) of the subcontracted starts made in 2014/15 were delivered by independent training providers (ITPs).

The association published the analysis using Skills Funding Agency (SFA) data, obtained through its freedom of information request.

Mr Dawe conceded that subcontracting was a “complex issue” and often takes place “for good reasons”.

But he was keen to highlight that “the sheer growth of it over the last 10 years has also happened for reasons that are harder to justify”.

“We know ministers are concerned and we think they know what needs to be done,” he added.

“The new levy system will still require funding allocations within a finite programme budget, and it is important much more of those allocations go to providers who can directly deliver apprenticeships.”

This is the first time AELP has come out firmly against the volume of subcontracting, and the move will be viewed as a major change in direction under Mr Dawe, who took over from Stewart Segal as chief executive in March.

His remarks follow a string of negative headlines generated recently by the controversial practice.

We reported last month that around 300 non-compliant colleges and training providers had been threatened with subcontracting bans after failing to follow disclosure rules.

The SFA also announced in April that it was reviewing the use of brokers in fixing short-term tactical subcontracting deals – after an FE Week investigation found they were raking in up to five per cent commission fees on seven figure contracts.

We know ministers are concerned and we think they know what needs to be done

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) demanded an end to ‘tactical’ subcontracting in their 2015/16 grant letter to the SFA.

And the National Audit Office confirmed in February it was investigating management fees – after it emerged that lead contractors were withholding up to 40 per cent of government funding allocations.

The SFA’s director Keith Smith, who is currently on secondment to the BIS, overseeing levy implementation before it goes live next April, warned delegates to plan for a future without subcontracting at the Association of Colleges conference last November.

This was because levy reforms will mean colleges no longer have a funding allocation for apprenticeships. Instead, employers will be able to approach subcontractors to work directly with them, potentially leaving colleges in the cold.

The AELP’s freedom of information response analysis also indicated that 40 per cent (62,240 of 157,290) of all apprenticeship starts contracted through FE colleges were actually delivered by ITPs as subcontractors.

And 76 per cent (378,170 of 499,900) of all apprenticeship starts in 2014/15 were shown to be delivered by ITPs.

Teresa Frith, senior skills policy manager for the Association of Colleges, was shown the figures but still insisted that “subcontracting has benefits for both colleges and independent training providers because it minimises the amount of bureaucracy created by the funding system”.

FE Week asked the SFA why it was still allowing up to £1bn a year of subcontracting to take place per year, in view of AELP’s findings.

A spokesperson said: “Our funding rules state that lead providers should only use subcontractors who they determine are of a high quality and low risk.”

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Editorial: I agree with Mark

The new chief executive at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), Mark Dawe, is keen to portray his members as the apprenticeship ‘experts’ that colleges go to for help.

The scale of college subcontracting should come as no surprise to the Skills Minister and readers of FE Week, which has regularly reported on the issue since our first edition
in 2011.

However, what is as welcome as it is surprising, is Mr Dawe’s decision to criticise the continued growth in subcontracting.

Readers of my previous editorials on subcontracting will be familiar with my concern over top-slicing arrangements.

But what’s surprising is that the membership body for so many of the subcontractors has criticised the growth in their use.

Many subcontractors I speak to are happiest out of the spotlight of a direct Skills Funding Agency (SFA) contract.

It’s an important intervention, although with increasingly diminished resources at the SFA it seems unlikely they will rush to issue new direct contracts.

It also leaves the Association of Colleges exposed and alone in failing to face up to the truth.

There continues to be too much subcontracting, and the SFA should step in to reverse the trend.

Will the apprenticeship levy be a subcontracting game-changer alone?

That, like so much of the levy plans, remains unclear, untested and uncertain.

Nick Linford

Two senior appointments have been announced for the Institute for Apprenticeships — a day after Association of Employment and Learning Providers boss Mark Dawe complained to MPs about lack of leadership at the new policing body.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) revealed this morning that former Barclays chief executive Anthony Jenkins had been appointed as shadow chair.

It was also announced that former managing director for Trade at UK Trade & Investment Nicola Bolton had been installed as shadow chief operating officer.

This comes after Mr Dawe spoke out yesterday, during a House of Commons sub-committee hearing on education skills and the economy, complaining: “Every time there’s a difficult question [about apprenticeships], we’re told the institute will resolve it – and they haven’t got a board, or a management team or staff yet, as far as I can tell.”

FE Week also reported on May 27 that Rachel Sandby-Thomas was leaving her role as shadow chief executive of the institute — just two months after it announced she had been appointed.

She had been the only appointment to date at the body — which is due to launch in April 2017 and will help police employers as apprenticeship reforms take effect.

A BIS spokesperson said Mr Jenkins would “take up his new role today (June 9) 2016. With the shadow chair in place, the remaining board members of the institute will be appointed through a public appointments process by the end of 2016”.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said he “brings more than three decades of experience from the heart of business to the role and will help shape the institute so it meets the needs of employers”.

He added: “We’re putting employers in control when it comes to apprenticeships because it’s employers who know the skills, training and experience their future workforce needs to succeed.”

Mr Jenkins said: “Apprenticeships are something I care passionately about. I am delighted to be taking on this role and working closely with different sectors which will be important in helping to create opportunities for millions of our citizens and providing great talent for business.”

Mr Jenkins began his banking career as a graduate trainee at Barclays in 1983.

He worked at the bank until 1989, when he joined Citigroup and after stints in the US and the UK at Citigroup, he returned to Barclays to fill a series of senior management roles in retail and corporate banking. He was chief executive from 2012 to 2015.

Ms Bolton, who was not available for comment ahead of publication but started in her new post earlier this month, was chief operating officer for IBM’s sales business for the media, energy, telecoms and utility sectors across Europe, Middle East and Africa before taking on her role of government industry executive director in 2003.