Apprenticeships and students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have traditionally made uncomfortable bedfellows — but improving the situation has been made a key priority for post-16 education and training area reviews.

Skill Minister Nick Boles’ updated guidance, released earlier this month, called for “sufficient access to high quality and relevant education and training for all, including … adults and learners with both with high needs and those with moderate and low levels of SEND.”

Ofsted’s ‘Apprenticeships, developing skills for future prosperity’ report also raised the issue of a lack of provision for special needs students in October 2015.

It said: “The number of disabled apprentices and those with special educational needs was particularly low” and “too few young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, become apprentices.”

And the same complaint was raised in May 2012 by Peter Little OBE, whose report ‘Creating an inclusive apprenticeship offer’ highlighted a need to tackle a decline in participation of apprentices with a learning difficulty or disability.

The percentage of apprenticeship programme starts that went to special needs students declined steadily between 2007/08 and the time of Mr Little’s report in 2011/12, from 11.5 per cent of the total starts to only 7.7 per cent, according to government data.

The actual number of starts moved up from 25,880 in 2007/08 to 40,130 starts in 2011/12, and 42,850 in 2012/13, but dropped off in 2013/14 to 38,170.

Then in 2014/15, there were 44,090 apprenticeship special needs starts — but this made up just 8.8 per cent of total starts for the year.

With calls to boost this provision now taking centre stage in the reform agenda, FE Week went in search of examples of good practice, to see how they are making apprenticeships work for people with special needs and what advice could be offered to others.

An employer’s view — Buckinghamshire Care

Launched in 2013, Buckinghamshire Care has worked hard to challenge stereotypes around the jobs that people with disabilities can do.

The success of the company, which specialises in adult social care services, was recognised in this year’s National Apprenticeship Awards ceremony, when it won Newcomer SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] of the year for 2015.

Buckinghamshire Care’s apprenticeship programme was established to employ individuals usually excluded from the employment market, including those with learning disabilities, autism and mental health issues.

It aims to provide vocational voluntary placements to help apprentices develop skills, prepare for the work place, and build their confidence and self-esteem.

Buckinghamshire Care uses a variety of different settings to do this, including a café, a working farm, a garden centre and a maintenance service, so individuals can find a setting that suits them.

The apprentices are integrated into the team at Buckinghamshire Care, attending the same meetings as other staff, who are specifically trained to support individuals with behaviours that may challenge mainstream employers.

Once they have completed their course, apprentices are guaranteed six months paid employment and three months specialist support to find ongoing employment through a local authority-funded service called Back2Base, which offers links to well-known companies.

Support is also provided for CV writing, interview skills, and managing government benefits.

Commenting on the programme, a spokesperson for Buckinghamshire Care said: “We have seen a cultural shift within our workforce relating to how they receive individuals who may be considered ‘difficult to work with’”.

Martin Farrow, managing director of Buckinghamshire Care, added: “This is a first for our organisation and from this learning we are developing our own training academy — over 20 marginalised people are now on paid contracts within Buckinghamshire Care.”

Telling the apprentices’ story — Grantham College

recent project at Grantham College aimed to advance equality for students with learning difficulties or disabilities in the workplace.

Focusing on challenging employer perceptions, the college worked with local and regional partners such as Jobcentre Plus and the local council to identify examples of apprentices who were succeeding on their programmes but who had faced significant personal challenges.

A designated project team engaged with the apprentices’ employers to look at what they were doing to support the individuals and what kind of positive adjustments had been made to include them.

Four case studies were then included in an employer brochure called ‘Advancing Equality in the Workplace’, to showcase examples of inclusive recruitment practices, and the brochure is now used by the college business team in their employer engagement.

It stressed colleges and training providers were equipped to deal with special needs, and reminded employers they could turn to them for help in identifying an apprentice’s support needs or offering recommendations to ensure success.

Tamara, a student in her early 20s on an intermediate (level two) business administration apprenticeship, featured in the brochure.

She struggled with moderate dyslexia, which had gone undiagnosed while she was at school, and her poor academic performance was associated with the death of her mother when she was just 12 years old.

Grantham College highlighted that understanding instructions could be tough for Tamara and written directions would be helpful in enabling her to retain information.

She then began a business administration apprenticeship with a micro-business dealing with beauty products, but unfortunately the business was closed down.

Her NVQ assessor invited her to a forum with local employers, and with support and encouragement she was able to give a short presentation to attendees.

This led to her being offered the opportunity to continue her apprenticeship at the Grimsby Institute, where she received guidance and support with literacy helping her to thrive in her new role.

Commenting on her experience, Tamara said: “We might look like damaged goods but with a bit of help we can be fixed. I’ve been really lucky.”

A provider’s approach — Vision West Nottinghamshire College

Vision West Nottinghamshire College applies its approach to supporting learning difficulties or disabilities across the board — including for staff.

Both learners and staff take part in an initial assessment designed to recognise where an individual has areas that require additional support.

The college also uses a computer program called Quickscan, which identifies dyslexic tendencies, and staff and learners complete free writing exercises to check spelling, punctuation and grammar.

This information is then used to set long and short term targets.

Staff members who are identified as ‘champions’ are placed in a team for additional learning support for learners with educational needs, including apprentices.

Once learning difficulties or disabilities have been identified, the college works closely with employers to ensure learners get the right level of support they require.

This includes an additional mentor where an apprentice with special educational needs requires enhanced assistance to what is provided by a line manager.

Faye Boucher, head of employer engagement, said: “The challenge for these apprentices can often be around the production of work for their employer, making sure that it meets the high
standards expected.

“Then it’s about making sure that we make adjustments for that learner to help them succeed.

“It might be that they need extra time, additional resources, further support for their functional skills exams or understanding that social skills and communications can be a challenge.”

She said the college has built a traineeship model focusing on preparing learners for the world of work, and this could be a helpful option for certain students.

However, she added: “It’s about making sure that it is individual to the learner and remembering that one size doesn’t fit all.”

LATEST: Nescot accepts former £360k a year principal was unfairly dismissed

An FE principal and chief executive officer (CEO) has been paid a salary of over £330k for 2014/15 — more than doubling her wage for the previous year.

Sunaina Mann, principal and CEO of the North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) Group, received £331,000 for the academic year 2014/15, according to data made available by the Skills Finding Agency (SFA) on March 10.

This was an increase of 120 per cent on her salary of £150k for 2013/14.

It comes in the third year of Nescot’s involvement in the Saudi Arabian Colleges of Excellence programme. In September 2013, Nescot set up a female college in Jeddah as part of the scheme, which promotes technical and vocational education in the region.

A spokesperson for Nescot said: “Sunaina Mann is the principal and CEO of the Nescot Group, which includes Nescot and the Jeddah College of Excellence.”

The spokesperson also said that Ms Mann’s complete salary in 2014/5 was £363,000.

When asked to comment on the salary increase, the spokesperson said there was no further comment.

The figures come at a time when unions representing FE workers are engaged in an ongoing row over pay, in response to the Association of Colleges offer of a zero per cent pay rise for 2015/16.

In February, around 200 colleges were hit with joint strike action, as members of the University College Union and Unison walked out and joined picket lines as part of the pay dispute.

According to the SFA data, six other FE providers also paid their principals or CEOs a salary of £200k or above in the last academic year.

The second highest salary went to the principal and CEO of Birmingham Metropolitan College, at £298k, though this was a decrease of ten per cent on the salary payments for the role in 2013/14.

The second highest salary increase was at North Hertfordshire College (NHC), where the principal’s salary was £203k for 2014/15, compared to £162k for 2013/14 – a 25 per rise.

An NHC spokesperson said: “We appointed a new chief executive in March 2015.  In making that appointment we offered a package that enabled us to attract candidates with the vision and expertise required to steer the institution toward a vibrant, sustainable, future.

“The salary in the SFA summary of college’s accounts reflects that package and the fact that we employed both our current and previous chief executives for an overlapping period.”

Dame Asha Khemka’s salary as principal and CEO of Vision West Nottinghamshire College was the third highest for the last academic year, at £245k, a seven per cent increase on her salary of £229k for 2013/14.

This was followed by the Newcastle College Group (NCG), where chief executive Joe Docherty received £227k for 2014/15 — a small increase of one per cent on the previous year.

A spokesperson for NCG said: “The salary figures quoted by the SFA are for the chief executive of NCG, Joe Docherty and not the Principal of Newcastle College.

“NCG is not a single further education college, but one of the UK’s largest education and training organisations with a turnover of £178m in the year 14/15 from a variety of public sector bodies and commercial income.

“The chief executive heads a large, complex organisation with more than 3,000 employees in four colleges and two training organisations which work across the UK at more than 70 locations.

“This is not a traditional FE college principal’s role, and comparable organisations in the private sector which we often compete against for many of our contracts, would pay considerably more.”

Salford City College came next with a figure of £212k for 2014/15, but a spokesperson from the college informed FE Week that these figures reflect the fact that, for part of 2015, the college had two principals in post to “facilitate a hand-over period”. She added: “Neither principal received a salary exceeding £200k.”

Finally, Stockport College and Cornwall College Group (TCCG) came in at £201k and £200k respectively for 2014/15. This was an increase of 15 per cent on 2013/14 for Stockport and nine per cent for TCCG.

A Stockport College spokesperson said: “The total cost indicated is in respect of an interim principal who was engaged on a short term basis which was extended while the College Corporation engaged in the process of finding a permanent principal.  This is not reflective of the current salary of the new principal.”

A spokesperson for TCCG said that the principal had “not received a pay rise”, because the SFA figures for 2013/14 only represents 11 months of being in post.

He said: “The Cornwall College Group is the fifth largest FE college in the country, one of the biggest providers of apprenticeships, with eight sites, each vital to their local communities, together with significant outreach provision, stretching from Exeter to Falmouth.

“The principal’s salary was set on appointment in August 2013 and has seen no increase since this time.

“The principal was selected by a panel made up of members of our Board, with a focus on finding the right calibre of individual during a challenging time for FE. Our recent Ofsted inspection graded us as ‘Good’ in all categories.”

Birmingham Metropolitan College and Vision West Nottinghamshire College were unable to comment in the time available.

The Government’s Enterprise Bill — currently making its way through parliament — contains a number of measures designed to set minimum standards for apprenticeships, including legally protecting the term ‘apprenticeship’ and setting public sector targets.

However, reporter Jude Burke found that these pale in comparison to the first time government legislated on minimum standards for apprenticeships, back in the sixteenth century.

Apprenticeships — the early years:

The Statute of Artificers, introduced by the parliament of Elizabeth 1st in 1563, made it illegal for anyone to “exercise any art, mystery or occupation now used or occupied within the realm of England and Wales except he shall have been brought up therein seven years at the least as an apprentice”.

Before the introduction of this legislation, apprenticeships were regulated by the guilds of trades and craftsmen.

An apprentice, often starting as young as 10 or 12, would learn his trade over a period of years — often seven, but it could be longer or shorter than this — with his master being responsible for his board, lodging and clothing as well as teaching.

The 1563 Act was abolished in 1814, as the popularity of apprenticeships waned “due to conditions in factories and exploitation of young apprentices”, according to a House of Commons research paper from 2009.

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From heyday to low point:

Apprenticeships in certain trades, particularly those which required practical skills, remained popular in subsequent decades.

There were around 340,000 apprentices per year in the early twentieth century, according to an Institute of Directors (IoD) policy paper from 2003.

By the mid-1960s — “the high water mark for apprenticeship in Britain” according to the IoD — roughly 35 per cent of male school leavers aged 15 to 17 went on to do an apprenticeship.

However, by 1990 the number of apprentices had dropped to just 53,000.

The fall in apprenticeship numbers came despite the launch, in 1964, of UK Industry Training Boards (ITBs), which were intended to ensure there were sufficient numbers of apprenticeships to avoid skill shortages in traditionally skilled occupations and higher technician and engineering professionals.

The IoD paper cites a number of reasons for the decline in apprenticeships, including the changing nature of work which meant there were fewer traditional trade jobs, the cost of apprenticeships and the rise in post-16 education.

The rise of Modern Apprenticeships:

Modern Apprenticeships (MAs), first announced by then-Chancellor Kenneth Clarke in November 1993, were designed to reverse the decline in apprenticeship numbers and provide a boost to work-based training.

MAs were launched in 1994, and fully up and running by September 1995.

By June 1996, according to a government white paper called ‘Creating the enterprise centre of Europe’, there were already MA frameworks covering 54 sectors, with more than 20,000 apprentices in training.

By the end of 1998, according to a House of Commons blog from last year’s National Apprenticeship Week, almost 250,000 people in England and Wales had started an MA.

However, MAs were continually dogged by concerns over quality, and went through numerous reforms over the years.

These included the introduction, in the early 2000s, of frameworks setting out the minimum standards required of each apprenticeship, and, in 2004, dropping the word ‘modern’ from the scheme’s name.

From modern to post-modern:

The late 2000s saw the apprenticeship momentum grow.

The first National Apprenticeship Week took place in 2007, to draw more attention nationally to the benefits of apprenticeships.

Then in 2009, the National Apprenticeship Service was launched to oversee delivery of apprenticeships.

Nonetheless the reforms continued. In 2012 the Richard Review, commissioned by the Government and led by former Dragons’ Den star Doug Richard, recommended making apprenticeships more employer-orientated and called for employers to pay providers directly for apprenticeship training.

The Government’s response was to introduce, in October 2013, new Trailblazer apprenticeship standards designed by employers, to ensure apprentices develop the skills needed by industry.

The idea was that these would be co-funded, with the government paying up to two-thirds of the cost with employers responsible for the balance.

The first of these new standards were approved for use in November 2014.

At the same time, apprenticeship numbers continued to grow. The coalition government oversaw 2.4m starts, and in 2015 the new Conservative government pledged to create 3m new apprenticeship starts by 2020.

The future

From April 2017, large employers will pay the apprenticeship levy, set at 0.5 per cent of an employer’s pay bill over £3m.

It’s estimated that it will raise around £3bn for apprenticeship training, but questions still remain about how the measure will be implemented and how non-levy payers will access levy funds.

Apprenticeship legends — The film

A film about the history of apprenticeships in their home county is being launched by the Cornwall College Group (CCG) to coincide with National Apprenticeships Week.

The oldest record the production team discovered dates from 1541, and is for a carpentry apprentice named William Holyer of Lostwithiel.

Jamie Reed, PR manager for CCG and production manager for Apprenticeship Legends, said: “Apprenticeships have been recognised as a way of training for hundreds of years and that is certainly the case here in Cornwall.

“We have studied the archives at the records office at County Hall, interviewed families who have stories of organisations like Holman’s and spoken to former apprentices. It’s been a really emotional and enlightening journey.”

“Conditions were tough and the indentures bound the servant to their master and vice versa; the master was personally responsible for teaching the apprentice and their welfare.

“Our documentary also looked at the last 70 years of apprenticeships through Cornwall College.

“We’ve talked to people who are now company directors, master technicians, project managers and self-made millionaires; an apprenticeship can really take you anywhere in the world and our interviewees are proof of that.”

The government is launching court action to challenge National Union of Teachers (NUT) strike action planned at sixth form colleges across the country on Tuesday (March 15).

The hearing will be at London’s Royal Courts of Justice on Monday.

It comes after FE Week reported on February 29 that NUT members had backed the strike through a ballot, with 86 per cent voting in favour of the industrial action from a 44 per cent turnout.

A Department for Education spokesman old FE Week today: “The NUT is seeking to disrupt the education of thousands of students through what we believe to be an unlawful dispute, based on political grounds and not a trade dispute about the terms and conditions of its members.

“We therefore intend to challenge this through the courts.

“We recognise the importance of investing in education which is why, thanks to the difficult decisions we have taken elsewhere, we have been able to protect core 16 to 19 funding.

“At the same time we have ended the unfair difference between post-16 schools and colleges by funding them per student to ensure that all young people leave education with the skills they need to thrive in modern Britain.”

Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, expressed “regret” over the legal action.

“We regret that the government has chosen this route rather than seeking to resolve the dispute through negotiations about adequate funding for the sector, which could protect teachers’ conditions of service and students’ conditions of learning,” he said.

“Sixth form colleges provide a vital service that is in danger of all but disappearing if government does not listen and reverse and remedy the severe funding crisis in colleges.

“It seems as though the government is doing anything it can to avoid parents knowing about the funding crisis facing 16-19 education.

“This court case is every bit as much an attack on the right to strike as the trade union bill currently going through Parliament. We hope to defeat this cynical legal challenge on Monday.”

A total of 1,689 NUT members took part in the ballot, with 1,453 voting for the strike action and 235 against.

The question put to members was “In order to persuade the Secretary of State for Education [Nicky Morgan] to increase presently inadequate funding levels which cause detrimental changes to terms and conditions within the sixth form college sector are you prepared to take a day’s strike action?”

Local authorities have recorded a nationwide increase in the proportion of young people in education or training across England.

Data to be published on Wednesday shows that 91.2 per cent of 1,170,630 16 and 17-year-olds known to local authorities across the country were in some form of education or training at the end of 2015.

It represents a 1 per cent increase from the end of 2014.

All of the English regions experienced an increase, with the largest being 1.5 per cent for the West Midlands and the lowest 0.3 per cent for London.

The figures were welcomed by Catherine Sezen (pictured), senior policy manager for 14 to 19 and curriculum at the Association of Colleges.

She told FE Week: “Raising the age of compulsory participation in education and training has enabled colleges to offer high-quality technical and professional pathways to more young people.

“These figures are extremely encouraging and they emphasise the value young people place on post-16 education and training, when they are enrolled on the right courses in the right environment.

“Colleges are pleased to play a part in creating a positive experience for young people to encourage them to continue into further study or training.”

While the overall percentage increase was the lowest for London, where 169,250 16 to 17-year-olds were recorded in total, it had the highest proportion in full-time education and training at 88.8 per cent.

The capital, however, had the lowest proportion on apprenticeships at 2.3 per cent.

That was in contrast to the north east, where there were 57,620 young people from the same age group.

It had the lowest proportion in full-time education and training at 81.2 per cent, but the highest on apprenticeships at 7.4 per cent.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “The [overall] rise in 16-and 17-year-olds participating in education or training is very welcome, and we will work with councils to ensure this positive trend continues.”

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A former employee who defrauded Leeds City College of almost £500,000 has been jailed.

Julia Hogg (pictured) pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent activity against the college, between August 2011 and September last year, before she was jailed for three years and eight months.

Leeds Crown Court heard she had been in charge of giving out childcare financial assistance to students, but diverted large payments of money to her own bank account instead.

West Yorkshire Police confirmed the total amount stolen from the college was £479,000.

A Leeds City College spokesperson told FE Week on March 10: “We are shocked and disappointed at the behaviour of this former employee.

“As ever, our students remain our highest priority and we make every effort to ensure that they are supported at all times.”

Hogg, aged 43, of Field Lane, Thorpe Willoughby, near Selby, Yorkshire, began working at the college in 2009 and on a salary of £14,800.

Hogg’s role involved overseeing payments to childcare providers that were supposed to help students with parental responsibilities to attend lessons.

It was reported that she stole £141,000 in a single year at the height of her offending.

Hogg was sacked in October last year after the college realised what she had been doing.

The spokesperson said: “The learner support fund is administered by the college for those who require financial assistance to study and does not form part of the college budget.

“Once identified, we took immediate action to prevent further fraud and to ensure that students were not affected. Student welfare is always our main priority.”

The judgment came as the college, one of biggest in the country, dropped from a grade two to three Ofsted rating. The report, giving the college a ‘requires improvement’-overall rating, was published on March 9.

The college had previously been rated ‘good’-overall in May 2012.