Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) chief executive Stewart Segal urged the government to ensure that “all the facts are considered” before destination performance data is used to trigger “transformational improvements”.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) launched a consultation on Wednesday (September 30), which will close on December 2, on its proposal for an outcome-based success measure to complement the existing qualification achievement success rates.

The 38-page consultation document said providers that don’t achieve “positive outcomes”, should face “intervention action” for example by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), Education Funding Agency (EFA), Ofsted, and FE Commissioner Dr David Collins.

However, Mr Segal (pictured above) told FE Week: “Performance has to be seen in context. Much of the [performance] data will be out of date by the time it is reviewed, so any decisions around intervention have to be made once all the facts are considered.”

David Corke (pictured right), director of education and skills at the Association of Colleges, said: “Outcome-based success measures can be a useful indicator of the quality of FE as long as courses are judged on a wide range of factors.

“However, judging courses on their outputs creates a league table mentality which can lead to unfairly negative judgements being made on some courses.”

The consultation document stated that: “By introducing minimum standards for learner outcomes, we expect to provoke transformational improvements in the provision that is delivered and will want them to be seen as having ‘bite’”.

It explained that minimum standards, based on current qualification achievement rates, are under the existing framework “not a target to aim for, but are typically set below the levels that a good or average performing provider is achieving”.

The government would still, under the new framework incorporating the destination measures, “expect to set them below the level that a good or average provider is achieving”, it added.

But “if a provider fell below the minimum standards on either qualification achievement rates or positive destinations, government would expect to apply its intervention arrangements to determine whether action was warranted,” it said.

The document said the new outcome measures set for launch in summer 2017 into further learning and into or within employment including apprenticeships, learner progression, to a higher level qualification, and earnings following completion of a course.

But it added that the government was not proposing to use the earnings measure for the minimum standards framework, as it thinks that “is more appropriate for informing choice”.

The government also proposed measuring the proportion of learners that progress to a qualification at a higher level than their existing highest level of attainment, initially covering only 19 to 20-year-old learners, in a previous three-month consultation on the issue launched last August.

But the latest consultation document, which features 10 questions, said that this had proved to be “impractical” because of “greater than expected complexity with creating the required data from the available sources”.

In his foreword to the latest consultation, Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “In December 2014, I confirmed my intention to proceed with the new adult (19+) learner outcome measures for FE, to complement the qualification achievement measure we already use.

“The new measures have been developed using data from across government, matched robustly and securely.”

Former government adviser on apprenticeships Doug Richard appeared in court today to face child sex charges.

Richard wore a plain white shirt and black trousers and remained impassive throughout his appearance in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

He faced three counts of sexual activity with a child and one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. The alleged offences occurred on January 2 and relate to one victim, aged 13 at the time.

Richard, aged 57 and of Myddelton Square, Islington, spoke briefly in the dock giving his name and date of birth. He gave no indication of plea.

He was described by Lia Yiacoumi, prosecuting, as being of ‘good character’ before senior district judge Howard Riddle granted Richard unconditional bail ahead of his next hearing, at London’s Old Bailey on October 19.

The married father-of-three has denied the allegations. “I absolutely deny the charges against me and will contest this matter in court,” he said in a statement at the time the charges were announced by the Crown Prosecution Service early last month.

Richard’s work continues to impact the FE sector, following the launch of the 2012 Richard Review of Apprenticeships which recommended giving employers control over apprenticeship funding.

The multimillionaire’s previous roles also include working with the government as a member of the Small Business Task Force.

The government has been warned its “hastily put together area reviews have all the ingredients of being yet another Conservative Government shambles” with membership of their “unwieldy” steering groups potentially swelling to around 45.

Dozens of college governors’ board chairs, joined by either their chief executives or principals, and officials from local authorities take part in each steering group.

Also attending will be members of local enterprise partnerships (Leps), the FE Commissioner, the Sixth Form College Commissioner and Regional Schools Commissioners, not to mention officials from the Department for Education (DfE) and also the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

It’s a situation that has led to criticism from Shadows Schools Minister, and former Scunthorpe college principal, Nic Dakin.

He said: “These hastily put together area reviews have all the ingredients of being yet another Conservative Government shambles.

“The steering groups look very unwieldy. And the reviews don’t have to involve all post-16 providers in an area with sixth forms, UTCs, free schools and others left out.

“Finally there is no clarity where any additional money will come from to implement any outcomes.  So at first glance it has all the ingredients of another fine mess.”

Invite lists among the first meetings to have been held for the Birmingham and Solihull, Greater Manchester and Sheffield city regions featured, according to FE Week sources, no fewer than 25 members.

And the second lot of area reviews, announced on September 25, could see steering group memberships of more than 40 with, for example, 13 colleges involved in the Solent area review covering 11 local authority areas.

The Sheffield review involves 10 colleges and among them is Longley Park Sixth Form College, whose local MP, Harry Harpham, said the number of meeting attendees could affect the quality of decision-making.

“I am concerned that having 25 members is far too many to be perfectly honest and I believe it is unmanageable,” said the Labour MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough.

“If you have any group with over 12 to 13 members then you run into management ability issues. My experience is that you should get a group up to 13 as a limit to make proper decisions and have proper debates.”

The situation has also drawn criticism from former chief executive of the FE Funding Council from 1997 to 2001 David Melville, chair of Pearson Education Ltd and governor of Manchester Metropolitan University, who also said that school sixth forms should be included in the area reviews.

He told FE Week: “It is very difficult with such wide-ranging interests, some of which are conflicting with the exercise, to reach a sensible conclusion.”

He added: “I think it’s an ill-conceived exercise in that it’s clear it’s doing something it’s very difficult to do — review post-16 education without taking into account schools sixth forms.

“It doesn’t make any sense to not do this and the government is trying to make it look like it’s all-embracing.”

The first meeting for the Birmingham and Solihull steering group was on September 18, Greater Manchester’s was three days later and Sheffield’s was on September 28.

Of the second lot form the first round, Tees Valley was on October 1, Sussex Coast was due on October 22 and Solent was due on November 5.

A spokesperson for BIS and DfE said it was a “matter for steering groups to update their own meetings and progress, which they will do in due course.”

---

 

Editor’s comment

Lost at sea

The area reviews have a fundamental problem that won’t be easy to mend. Colleges are being reviewed in Lep area groups. This makes for both an unworkable and illogical process.

Take the Solent area review for example.

It is unworkable because the Lep area includes 13 colleges with 13 principals and governing bodies with a combined turnover of £190m, 3,558 staff and 64,000 students.

So they are being asked to navigate and launch an area review implementation plan within three to four months. A plan that will need to satisfy 11 local authorities, the LEP board, both commissioners, BIS, DfE, the Regional School Commissioner and presumably Skills Minister Nick Boles. Aside from a drunken sailor, who would think that this is achievable?

It is also illogical to create a college area review on Lep boundaries. For example, Brockenhurst College and South Downs College are in the same Solent Lep and yet 40 miles apart. Whereas the sixth form colleges of Richard Taunton and Totton are in different Leps in the Solent region — and therefore different area reviews — yet just five miles apart.

Before more time and money is diverted away from delivering courses and pointed towards consultants, the government needs to lower the anchor.

Or has the boat from Portsmouth College to the Isle of Wight College already set sail?

Chris Henwood

FE Week editor

chris.henwood@feweek.co.uk

A more joined-up approach to opposition FE policy was signalled at the Labour Party conference as Angela Eagle and Lucy Powell both pledged to fight cuts to the sector.

The Shadow Business Secretary and Shadow Education Secretary both named FE as a key battleground in their speeches in Brighton as they criticised cuts to post-16 funding.

Their shared concern about the area of policy is another signal that Labour plans to pursue a more joined-up approach to its opposition on the issue, with Gordon Marsden’s re-appointment to a Skills Minister post that now straddles both departments.

Young people deserve more than this ideologicallly-driven recipe of cuts

In her speech, Ms Eagle (pictured above) warned the government was presiding over a “skills emergency”, which she said threatened economic growth.

She said: “Success in the 21st Century means partnering with business to make the most of all of our talent. Yet more than two thirds of businesses now need more high-skilled staff. In construction, manufacturing, science, engineering and technology the skills shortage is at its worst.

“So what is the government’s answer to this challenge? They’ve cut FE budgets. They’re failing young people on vocational qualifications. And they’re dumbing down apprenticeships.

“Conference, our young people deserve more than this ideologically driven recipe of cuts and neglect.”

Turning her criticism to Sajid Javid, Ms Eagle said the business secretary had “recently boasted” that he was looking for 40 per cent cuts to his department ahead of “the Chancellor’s looming, ideologically driven Whitehall cuts”.

She added: “Perhaps he should concentrate more on the day job and less on his ambitions to be the next right wing Prime Minister.

“This Tory ideological obsession with a small state is getting in the way of our national interest and leaving our economy vulnerable.

“And if this failure to support strategic industries was not enough, this Tory government is presiding over a productivity crisis.”

Ms Powell warned delegates about what she described as the “deepest, most severe cuts to post-16 education that we’ll have ever seen”.

She added: “Investment in, and focus on, post-16 education is vital for young people getting decent jobs and for creating a productive economy.

“It’s perverse that under this government we are likely to see up to 40 per cent cuts in post-16 provision, leading to the closure of many good sixth form colleges and colleges.

“I don’t intend to sit on the sidelines. We will make a difference.

“On free schools meals we’ve already won a small victory this week. But let’s be clear this puts further pressures on early years and post-16 education.”

FE sector organisations have welcomed signs of a more joined-up approach and a stronger challenge to funding cuts.

Chris Walden, director of communications and public affairs at the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “We are pleased that the Labour Party has recognised the seriousness of the cuts and how they are affecting colleges.”

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said: “We are delighted that Gordon Marsden has returned to his former post, especially as his responsibilities now mirror those of [Skills Minister] Nick Boles.

“We look forward to picking up with Gordon on Labour’s apprenticeship policies and we’re be hoping to discuss how the party’s skills policies might link up with employment programmes.”

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

---

 

Apprenticeship problems ‘germinated’ under New Labour

Some of the “problems” facing apprenticeships policy were “germinated” in the New Labour period, a former adviser to David Blunkett and Gordon Brown has warned.

Nick Pearce, who worked for Mr Blunkett when he was education and employment secretary in the late-1990s and later headed up Mr Brown’s policy unit, told the Association of Colleges Labour conference fringe that Labour had “got some things wrong” as it tried to expand apprenticeships.

Mr Pearce, now director of the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank, said Labour expanded apprenticeships to coincide with Tony Blair’s 50 per cent in higher education policy and again a decade later under Mr Brown’s premiership.

But he warned that policy problems could not be solved by numerical targets, and admitted expansions of apprenticeships became too numbers-focused.

He said the National Apprenticeship Service was established because the government “thought the problem was that we didn’t have enough of a delivery state” and set targets.

He added: “If you’re then to do that you do set in train processes which allow people to say ‘3m apprenticeships, doesn’t matter what level, doesn’t matter what the quality is like, doesn’t matter if people are already in work’.

“We have to get away from thinking our policy problems are solved by setting a big number and then saying the state will deliver that.”

Mr Pearce also criticised the apprentice minimum wage, branding it “a complete disgrace”.

He said: “The use of apprenticeships to lower wages, to effectively circumvent the national minimum wage is a real problem.

“When the new so-called national living wage comes in, because it’s for over-25s, there will be even greater incentive for companies to employ young people on apprenticeships to keep their wage costs down.”

For more coverage of Labour 2015, see our supplement, free with edition 150 of FE Week.

A third FE research centre has launched just a year after Professor Lady Alison Wolf decried how the sector was “woefully short of good, up-to-date research”.

The Centre for Post-14 Education and Work, launched by University College London’s Institute of Education (UCL/IoE) on September 21, will undertake research in a number of areas, including technical and vocational education and training, and adult skills, community and lifelong learning.

Centre manager Paul Grainger (pictured above) said it would “look at the relationship of all education to work, including vocational, academic and baccalaureate qualifications, and adult education, to promote a more inclusive curriculum post-14 and in lifetime learning”.

The work of the new centre, said Mr Grainger, would complement that of other sector organisations involved in research, including the Further Education Trust for Leadership (Fetl) and the Centre for Vocational Education Research (CVER). Meanwhile, a fourth research body remains in the planning stages at the Education and Training Foundation (ETF).

Fetl launched last summer in response to the need for “decent independent research for FE-by-FE thinkers and in order to use the knowledge to make better tomorrows for the sector, its leaders and its task”, according to its founding president, Dame Ruth Silver.

Dame Silver said she was “delighted” by the arrival of “fellow travellers” with the aim of providing good quality, independent FE sector research.

The CVER, based at London School of Economics, “aims to become a world-class research hub” focusing on vocational education, according to founding director Dr Sandra McNally.

ETF’s Vocational Education and Training Centre, proposed in response to recommendations from the Commission for Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) in March 2013, is still in development with no date yet for its launch.

Sheila Kearney, head of research at ETF, said she was “delighted by the growth in research within the sector”. She added that ETF’s own research strategy “complements and supports the work of other partners who share our agenda around a research and evidence-based culture in our sector”.

Julian Gravatt, Association of Colleges assistant chief executive, said: “It’s good there are new centres and new programmes. The key is to ensure the research is good quality, adds to our understanding of issues and isn’t buried when findings are inconvenient.”

Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) chief executive Stewart Segal said: “Policy changes need to be supported by independent evidence-based research. It will be important that any research is integrated with the research initiated by other organisations in the sector such as ETF.”

Gazelle colleges have been told that proving their £15k membership fee is money well spent is now a “priority” for the organisation.

The fee was cut from £35k after the number of college members plummeted from 23 to ten in just over a year — with three out of five founder colleges among those to have quit — following repeated criticism that Gazelle carried out no return on investment (ROI) analysis.

The new membership fee was announced by the organisation, and reported on feweek.co.uk on September 24 with the conclusion of its long-running membership review.

And while the initial announcement contained no mention of ROI analysis, a spokesperson for the organisation has since told FE Week: “We know we need to do more work on ROI analysis of activity going forward and this is a priority for the new grouping.”

It comes after Gazelle chief executive Fintan Donohue (pictured right) told FE Week in January with the launch of an impact review — that did not contain any ROI analysis or consideration of whether membership might affect Ofsted grades — that it was for college members to decide if his organisation delivered value for money.

But Gazelle Colleges Group chair Stella Mbubaegbu, principal of continued Gazelle member Highbury College Portsmouth, said last week that Gazelle “needed to change in order to better reflect the financial pressures facing colleges”.

The Gazelle spokesperson further said the £15k figure had been determined by members as “an appropriate amount to support a more focussed set of objectives and associated activities”.

And it came in response to the January report which, she said, recommended “a more affordable programme of activity”.

She added: “The new structure gives full ownership to members through the mechanism of a not-for-profit company, providing a single type of membership by removing the distinction between founders and other members.”

Despite this, the two remaining Gazelle founder members — City College Norwich and Warwickshire College Group — will not have to fork out the £15k membership fee for two years “in recognition of their early endeavours and investment”.

A number of organisations had been linked to Gazelle, including Gazelle Global, Gazelle Foundation and Gazelle Transform, but Dick Palmer, chief executive of Transforming Education in Norfolk (Ten), which includes Norwich college, said: “Gazelle will be ceasing all activities and any residual funds will be shared among shareholders.”

He added: “A group of colleges, together with partners and sponsors, remain dedicated to advancing the enterprise and entrepreneurial agenda through the Gazelle Colleges Group. The Gazelle Colleges Group will, from December 2015, be the only Gazelle entity in existence.”