The government is looking for alternative “quality providers” for up to 3,500 post-16 learners after it pulled the plug on funding the FE training wing of leading charity Age UK.

The decision by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and Education Funding Agency (EFA) was provoked by Ofsted’s inadequate-overall rating of Age UK in a report published a month ago.

This returned the lowest (grade four) ratings for apprenticeships, and traineeships, effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, outcomes for learners, and adult learning programmes.

It led to a government spokesman telling FE Week today that “the SFA and EFA have terminated their contracts with Age UK Trading’s training division following its [inadequate Ofsted] rating”.

“We are now working to ensure apprentices and learners find alternative quality providers with minimal disruption,” it added.

“This government is committed to spreading educational excellence everywhere, and any time spent in an underperforming institution is unacceptable.”

Last month’s Ofsted report stated that Age UK’s learning wing taught around 7,600 post-16 learners over the previous contract year.

Around 3,500 were enrolled at the time of publication, of which 2,300 were apprentices and 100 on traineeships.

A spokesperson for Age UK, which was allocated more than £8m EFA and SFA funding for the current academic year, said: “We have made the difficult decision to consult on closing Age UK’s government-funded training business.

“We will now be reviewing operations and are liaising with all staff to support them during this time. We have not made any final decisions.”

The closure could reportedly lead to more than 100 job losses.

A report on the Daily Mirror website stated that financial problems faced by the charity’s training wing had also been caused by the loss of European Social Fund (ESF) cash.

The charity and European Union (EU) declined to say how much ESF money was involved.

However, an EU spokesperson told FE Week: “The ESF programmes are managed by the national management authority — in the case of the UK, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

“For more information on why ESF funding was cancelled, I would therefore refer you to them.”

She added: “We do not see a link between this decision and the so-called ‘funding gap’”.

The ‘funding gap’ that she referred to was the lag between closing dates for 2007 to 2013 ESF contracts and procurement for new funding agreements — which forced a number of training bases to close as reported by FE Week.

The SFA confirmed in June last year that while old contracts would close on July 31, it anticipated that “the earliest” procurement rounds for 2014 to 2020 would “launch in July”.

The process was infact not launched by the SFA until December last year, as reported by FE Week, with tendering for further ESF contracts expected to open “at regular intervals between January and May 2016,” according to a spokesperson for the agency.

The DWP declined to comment in July last year on whether there would be a funding gap for its ESF contracts and was unable to comment on funding for Age UK ahead of publication.

After giving a speech to a packed room at the University and College Union (UCU) conference ‘Education from Cradle to Grave’ (February 6), Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn took time out of his busy schedule to tell FE Week his views on some of the sector’s most pressing issues.

Mr Corbyn on FE Week’s Edition 163 front page story…

FE funding should not just be reliant on a hypothecated amount coming from an indeterminate amount of money from LIBOR [fines]. It should be a commitment from central government to properly fund it.

I’m generally speaking fairly sceptical about this process, because if you hypothecate a tax from one funding source or the other, you don’t know the extent of the funding that’s coming in, therefore you cannot be certain of what is going to go out.

I’d rather we said we’re going to guarantee that funding and obviously collect the LIBOR fines and pay them into the public purse where they should be paid. So Gordon Marsden will be chasing this up – he has indefatigable skills at following things through.

On the current state of the FE sector…

I think the FE sector is going through a period of enormous change and turmoil. In Scotland there have been huge cuts in the number of colleges as a whole and a loss of a very large number of college places. The same process looks like it is happening in England, where there have been big mergers either planned, proposed or encouraged by government, and consequently a much more streamlined approach to courses – so the diversity of courses has narrowed.

Many are making very tough calculations about the numbers of students required to keep a course going, which loses out then on unusual skills areas. So you keep on hearing about small size but nevertheless important skills courses, high skill working courses, high skill electrician courses something, certainly things like jewellery making, all those courses that sometimes struggle to get large numbers but nevertheless are important for future economic benefit.

If somebody goes to college, develops a skills in a certain area, goes out and then founds a business to develop that skill or to promote that particular product – they’re going to pay taxes, they’re going to employ people, they’re going to be a growth in the economy. I rest my case!

I want every person who goes into an apprenticeship to be absolutely sure they’re going to come out of it with a qualification that is universally recognised and universally appreciated

On the government’s target for 3m apprenticeships by 2020…

I am concerned about the quality of certain apprenticeships. On my travels around the country, and I spend three days a week campaigning and travelling around the place, and I look at the quality of them and they vary enormously.

I went to the Engineering Employers federation Centre in Perry Barr, absolutely superb, absolutely brilliant, top-notch stuff. I was in Middlesbrough STEM college, STEM centre of the college there – fantastic, the work that they’re doing. You look at the quality of apprenticeships of Jaguar LandRover, look at the quality of apprenticeships at Rolls Royce, Airbus, really good, really high quality stuff.

You look at others, where you think well, hang on, what is the training here? What is the qualification that comes out of this? I want every person who goes into an apprenticeship to be absolutely sure they’re going to come out of it with a qualification that is universally recognised and universally appreciated. and I think we’ve just got to make sure that happens.

I also want the colleges who are doing apprenticeships to also deliver the wider education experience, so it’s not just totally vocationally skill-related. It should be related to a wider understanding of society. We want a better educated society where we value learning for learning’s sake.

University students by-and-large do get that wider experience, I don’t see why those that are doing vocational qualifications, who are going to be doing equally important jobs in the future, shouldn’t get that. An electrician is as valuable as anyone who has got a degree in anything else – they are all part of our society and we, too often in Britain, have not sufficiently valued vocational skills or science and engineering in our society. I come from a family of engineers, but I fell by the wayside and ended up with this job!

And finally, on the upcoming Institute for Apprenticeships…

The idea behind it is good, being that there is some fundamental centre monitoring it, checking on the qualifications – that’s good. We need some details on it. We need to know who is going to be involved and we need it to be not just one section it needs to involve unions, employers, society as a whole – they’ve all got a contribution to make.

If you’re doing good quality apprenticeships and FE, then in any city you’d involve the employers in that area. I have had discussions with the CBI [Confederation of British Industry] about this on the apprenticeships levy and the amounts being charged, and I will be having further meetings with the CBI and the TUC [Trades Union Congress] on this.

Main picture: Sally Hunt introducing Jeremy Corbyn. Credit: www.twitter.com/ucu

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn  called for a greater focus on lifelong learning, such as the provision offered by many FE colleges, to address the skills gap in Britain.

In addressing a large audience at the University and College Union (UCU) ‘Cradle to Grave’ conference today in Senate House, University of London, Mr Corbyn said the skills gap is “the biggest challenge facing the economy in Britain”, and the services provided by the FE sector are “crucial” in tackling the problem.

“Education needs to be a lifelong process. … I believe that we have a fundamental responsibility to provide opportunities for adults to learn and train to pursue their ambitions,” he said.

“Funding cuts have led to a 35% drop in the adult skills budget over the past five years. The Association of Colleges has warned that 190,000 course places for adult education could be lost in 2015 and 2016 alone.

“We must enable lifelong learning in order to succeed as individuals and as a society.”

He said that business is now “in crisis” because the number of workers with the skills needed is “drying up”.

“Education is absolutely vital in addressing the biggest challenge facing the economy in Britain, which is the skills gap at the present time,” Mr Corbyn said.

“All these cuts and attacks are doing permanent damage to the whole of our society and the ability to develop a much stronger, manufacturing-based, innovative economy in the future.”

He stressed the importance of ensuring that people have the ability to go back in and out of education during their working lives, to develop new skills and change direction – particularly older jobs-seekers who are also facing a rising pension age.

“I have met many in their 40s and 50s in colleges, often going through great personal hardship in order to try and gain a new qualification or develop in a new direction … education can be a lifeline for the future,” he said.

In discussing the situation for universities and colleges, Mr Corbyn praised the contribution of many providers, particularity in the FE sector, in opening doors for people of all ages.

“The government has scrapped maintenance grants which means that thousands of students every year will be worse off. Further education, and those who study and work in colleges will be significantly affected by this because more than one in ten of every student doing a higher education local degree course does it in an FE college.

“That’s why FE colleges are so crucial, because many of those from disadvantaged backgrounds are able to access further education and go on to higher education through the college system. It’s absolutely essential that we understand that and protect it,” he said.

He concluded by saying: “If we want to thrive as dynamic economy in the 21st century, we must focus on equipping people with the skills and training needed to plug the skills gap and the productivity crisis.”

Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, also spoke at the event, discussing ‘what is to be done’ in the future.

She drew out four points, beginning with the UCU’s plans to “continue to argue for an alternative to the current policies”.

She also highlighted the importance of the working conditions of university and college staff, saying: “There are very many great teachers today who are existing from hand to mouth with little or no job security. The results they do achieve for their students are sadly despite rather than because of the system which governments and employers have allowed to grow.

“We need to be telling students that because our working conditions are their learning conditions, it is long past time that we make common cause with each other.”

Ms Hunt raised the issue of morale and fair treatment of education staff and the need for a “progressive vision of education”, saying that educators should be “at the heart of policy not its periphery”.

At today’s University and College Union conference on ‘Education from Cradle to Grave’, FE Week spoke to some of the FE delegates to find out how they felt about the event and which hot topics they were discussing.

Danyl Bartlett – South Essex College

There has been such a variety of opinions here. It’s nice to see people who have just come from all over the country with very different perspectives on the same issues and being able to share that in a to share that in an open space has been great.

I don’t think there needs to be a single message to today, I think it just needs to be about getting everyone together to hear how different branches of UCU are coping with some of the big changes that are happening in FE.

The FE model is changing. It’s becoming more client-led, as opposed to academically-led and I think that is damaging the students’ experience, but I also think it is damaging the morale of academics.

Anya Cook – Newcastle College

I really enjoyed what Jeremy Corbyn had to say on the purpose and function of FE. What I felt was missed was that he didn’t talk enough about the social impact that education can have.

He talked about access to FE for developing skills for developing higher level thinking skills and imagination, he didn’t address how FE is important to enable people to come out of their social situation. There wasn’t enough, for me, about the barriers.

Graham English – Canterbury College

I think there’s a very positive feeling about the importance of the FE sector here. It’s easy on the job, in the colleges, to be caught dealing with day-to-day problems rather than stepping back and taking a wide look at how important the sector is and what it can offer society.

I think there’s a lot of feelings and thoughts apparent here – that makes me realise that a lot can be achieved and that the sector is perhaps undervalued and misunderstood and not thought about often enough.

Hand hand-in-hand with that is a belief in the people and a belief in the communities that the college and FE provision serves, and that you can have a far better, fairer, more equal society that benefits all if you keep working with these professionals.

Trust the professionals to do their job and stop trying to do quick fixes that are aimed at offloading government responsibility, head kept in the sand, thinking that apprenticeships will solve all the problems, or new management will solve the problems. Listen to the research, listen to the front line and then invest accordingly, so that the sector really functions.

Ikram Ulhak– Bradford College

I came here just because of Mr Corbyn really. I really enjoyed his speech. He seems to have a proper vision for the education sector, as opposed to just saying things. I think he understands the real purpose of FE. It’s more than just apprenticeships, it’s more of a community so I was really happy to hear him acknowledge that.

This is my first conference – I am a lecturer – we don’t get to hear much about what the management do but we hear the issues in the classroom and we see that the students and their issues really do need to be taken more seriously, and the only people who really know are the teachers who are with them.

Even the immediate managers don’t always know. I think teachers and lecturers should have more say in how to deal with the situation. I have students at the moment that are having financial problems just getting to college. Just the travelling. I think the real issues nobody is talking about and at least in the union they do have some idea.

Keith Gould – City and Islington College

The atmosphere here today started off really well. Obviously Jeremy Corbyn was here right at the beginning and everyone was happy to have him here. Then in our breakout session there was some interesting debate about getting older people back into education who have been unemployed.

I’ve missed that they didn’t cover the internet revolution and how that is affecting things, because that is obviously an overriding topic.

But Jeremy Corbyn is totally with the vein of the sector for most people. At City and Islington we are one of the colleges that is merging with another large successful college [Westminster Kingsway College] so we are going to be a super college. I don’t know how it will affect me yet, but they have focused on how the identities of the two colleges will remain unique, there may not be a rebranding but we are merging – so who knows what will happen.

Lorraine Yuill – Kendal College

I really like that Jeremy Corbyn raised the issue of lifelong learners. He was saying that he really believed in lifelong learning and if we were all going to be working to pension age and later pensions that we might be retraining and need the opportunity to go in and out of education.

I think people here have been talking a lot and are asking about what it is like in each others’ universities and colleges. It’s my first conference and I’ve very much enjoyed it.

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