The big Lep Euro funding step

Within the next couple of weeks, we expect the Skills Funding Agency to finally begin the process of European Social Fund procurement, advised by European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) committees within Local Enterprise Partnerships (Leps).

This will be the first time Leps will have influence over where and how public money is spent on learning and skills programmes.

Yet, with devolution all the rage, this is just the beginning of stronger local oversight over economic growth and public service reform. Since Lord Heseltine’s ‘No Stone Unturned’ report just over three years ago, devolution agreements have been made between central government and nine local areas.

From Cornwall to West Yorkshire, Liverpool to Tees Valley, more and more city regions and combined authority will be afforded devolved budgets and decision making powers over health, social care, transport, employment and skills.

The strengths, opportunities and potential benefits of devolved education and skills systems are persuasive. Skills is a good example of how England stands out as the European Capital of centralised skills policy.

As a democracy, we are facing up to the realisation that central government can’t solve all of the problems. Programmes from Whitehall can’t close skills gaps, they can’t eliminate lifetime low pay and they are not making progress in getting those furthest away from the labour market into work.

That’s why it is welcome that local areas have been promised co-commissioning roles for new employment support programmes.

Yet, I remain restless about a couple of things in particular when it comes to devolution of skills.

My first one is about political leadership. In return for powers, local areas have to commit to electing a ‘metro-mayor’. Working with the mayor will be a combined authority with its own cabinet of local authority leaders and its own executive. Combined authorities are networks of local authorities, each of which will have its own executive and cabinet of elected councillors.

The quality of local outcome agreements, skills and employment strategies etc rest on the quality of leadership, policy and oversight from councillors.

My real worry here is how much freedom local political leaders will actually be given to direct policy in their area. It’s all well and good devolving power and responsibility, but if it’s in HM Treasury wrapping paper with a massive un-Christmassy list of government policy requirements, then its not really devolution at all. So I think the quality, and freedom, of local political leaders are really important.

Following any discussion about political leadership usually comes accountability.

While the government’s consultation on outcome based success measures only closed last week, I know that many are concerned about this idea of a trade-off between accredited and employment outcomes verses non-accredited and other types of outcomes.

There’s potential for an ‘accountability paradox’ here for local political leaders in that if devolution only provides proportioned central government budgets, rather then actual power, local political leaders could find themselves satisfying their devolution conditions at the expense their constituents.

My hope though, is that in areas like Greater Manchester, local people feel a genuine sense of ownership over learning and skills and local politicians have the ability to prioritise those in most need in their communities.

Clearly, the devolution agenda at the moment throws up as many questions as it does theoretical benefits.

We know that it’s most likely at this stage that adult skills and community learning budgets are likely to be devolved under a combined umbrella package.

With that would also come learner support funding, but we don’t know the extent to which local areas will have powers of learner support policy or just the PIN number for the central government budget.

Now that learning loans are to be extended, it’ll be interesting to see what ideas local areas have in flexing local learning markets to boost demand for advanced-higher level learning and, again, whether localities will have powers over eligibility policy.

Climbing out of the abyss

Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget last month was widely expected to be disastrous for FE. But while many are still awaiting the finer details, the sector appeared at least safe for now. Neil Carmichael outlines his view of the sector settlement.

The mood of the Association of Colleges conference when I attended on the closing day could be best summarised by the headline in the conference edition of FE Week — ‘Staring into the funding abyss’, following warnings from Skills Minister Nick Boles that “FE will not be insulated from further spending cuts”.

The reaction therefore when the spending review announced that the core adult skills budget would be protected in cash terms at £1.5bn was one of relief at a better than expected settlement.

Coupled with the announcement of the apprenticeship levy and increased availability of loans for students who wish to pursue higher levels of vocational education, the overall settlement in my view represents a clear recognition by this government that the FE sector will have an increasingly important role to play in delivering its policy outcomes around apprenticeships, workforce skills and productivity.

I am very alert to the challenges that still exist for the FE sector

The government wants strong local areas and for employers to take a leading role in establishing a post-16 skills system. The series of area-based reviews is already being carried out to establish how local areas can set up institutions that do this.

Colleges will be invited to specialise according to local economic priorities, and to provide better targeted basic skills alongside professional and technical education. Some of these will be invited to become Institutes of Technology which will be sponsored by employers, registered with professional bodies and aligned with apprenticeship standards.

In my own constituency the South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) has already made itself well poised to develop even more exciting opportunities for young people, building a new training centre at the now decommissioned Berkley Green power station focussing on energy renewables, advanced manufacturing and cyber security which is already proving to be highly popular, judging by the success of the recent open day.

The FE sector is not just in need of reform. For too long, it has been seen as Cinderella in contrast to higher education so parity between technical and professional training with academic outcomes is long overdue.

One way to achieve this is to introduce a properly valued and recognised National Apprenticeship Award — guaranteeing the quality of the training and saluting the achievement of recipients, which should be part of the government’s early proposals for an Institute for Apprenticeships.

Another useful change made in the Spending Review was to allow sixth form colleges to become academies. This will simplify the post-16 arena and, by extension, help to define more clearly the role of the FE sector.

The FE sector is currently charged with the task of dealing with the huge number of GCSE maths retakes — and I congratulate the way many colleges have risen to this challenge — but this policy needs to be reviewed.

While it is absolutely right for young people — wherever possible — to have a qualification in maths (and English), a numeracy qualification could suffice. Furthermore, maths should, in my view, be part of a post-16 curriculum through learning for a National Baccalaureate, formed through maths and English components plus traditional A-levels or technical qualifications.

I am very alert to the challenges that still exist for the FE sector — for example, between them the Department for Education and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills both still need to secure potentially £500m of savings outside the adult skills budget, and managing this will create challenges.

But both myself and the Labour chair of the Business and Skills Select Committee have long recognised the importance of the FE sector in addressing UK skills and this will be a focus of our joint inquiry into UK productivity over 2016.

The challenges of the spending review now present a real opportunity to create more resilient colleges taking the opportunities now available to them through greater employer engagement and an ability to embrace new innovative structures to meet students, and employer demands.

 

Tutor brings back Danish lessons

A City of Liverpool College sports tutor is using his experience in working with Olympic hopefuls to benefit his students.

Simon O’Brien is the lead medical officer for the England volleyball under 19s squad, helping to prepare them for, hopefully, future Olympics.

He returned from Denmark with the team in October where they competed in the Northern European Volleyball Championship and secured a bronze medal.

Mr O’Brien was the lead sports therapist for the team, coordinating with the managers and coaches to aid England’s success at the games.

He said his experience at the championship would be a “huge advantage” to his students as he can demonstrate real hands-on experience in the field.

“The whole experience has been fantastic and the connections I have made will benefit my students at the college greatly,” said Mr O’Brien.

“We have made excellent steps in securing a permanent relationship with the team that will give our sports therapy students the chance to gain some vital hands on experience working with England Volleyball and taking part in lessons at the national training base in Kettering.”

Pic: City of Liverpool College’s Simon O’Brien (back right) with the England under 19s volleyball team

Bankruptcy warning on Saudi college ventures

English colleges who set up new learner ventures in Saudi Arabia as part of multi-million pound deals could be facing “bankruptcy” as the projects prove less popular than expected, it has been claimed.

Education Investor has reported that Saudi’s Colleges of Excellence programme, which attracted the likes of Lincoln College, Moulton College and Activate Learning among others, is struggling to get the number of learners it had expected.

The report said Pearson, which was contracted to run three colleges, dropped out of the programme in June and is understood to be in a legal dispute with CoE.

Dr Ian Baird, former chief executive of the Pearson and Hertvec (Hertfordshire Vocational Education Consortium) CoE initiative, was quoted as saying: “The CoE project was deemed to be a massive change to how technical and vocational education is delivered in the Kingdom, but the initial excitement for providers has waned.

“The size and complexity of this project could actually cause British state-funded colleges to go bankrupt, as they incur costs without getting paid for the resources they are providing.”

In April last year, then-Skills Minister Matthew Hancock announced that UK education providers had won four new contracts worth £850m to set up 12 technical and vocational training colleges in Saudi.

At the time, 16 British operators had been hired to run 37 Saudi institutions and the project was said to be worth £1bn to the UK economy.

UK Trade and Industry (UKTI) Education was responsible for bringing together consortia to bid for what it described as “high value contracts”.

Although the projects were thought to be providing new revenue streams for an increasingly cash-strapped domestic college sector, such ventures have not been without their critics. Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw, for instance, once urged colleges to focus on “Deptford not Delhi,” as previously reported by FE Week.

However, according to Education Investor, representatives of several operators have now spoken out to say highlight the lack of student demand that has left some running “virtually empty colleges”.

Other providers whose involvement was highlighted on the gov.uk website included Lincoln College; the Oxford Partnership, a consortium comprising Activate Learning, GEMS Education Solutions and Moulton College; Hertvec, a consortium led by Hertford Regional College and including North Hertfordshire College and the University of Hertfordshire; and FESA, another consortium of UK colleges and training providers.

Education Investor reported that Hertvec, for example, won a £225m five-year deal to run three colleges in 2014, but added that its “numbers are understood to be well below target”.

All college groups, apart from NHC which declined to comment, the UKTI and CoE were contacted by FE Week for comment but were yet to respond at the time of going to press.

Main image: Al Aflaj colleges’ governor Zaid Al Hussein and Paul Batterbury, dean of Lincoln Aflaj College at Lincoln College International, Lincoln College Group, at colleges’ opening ceremony in October last year

 

The ‘heartbreaking’ path to raising standards through competition

Among the many proud principals watching learners take part in last month’s WorldSkills UK competitions at the Skills Show was Graham Razey. But despite no mention for his college among the medal winners, he views taking part as an opportunity to challenge and improve [click here for the FE Week 2015 Skills Show supplement].

I’m a very competitive individual. That trait is one which comes from my longstanding passion for team sports. I’ve seen first-hand the difference that competing can make for people, as they practise repeatedly to hone their skillset which is eventually tested in the arena of competition.

I make no bones about my competitive nature and drive. So it would be understandable, therefore, for you to think a skills competition — for me, as principal of East Kent College — would be all about winning and the haul of medals our students could bring home.

So when the college’s competitors returned from the recent WorldSkills UK Skills Competition finals held at the NEC without any glittering awards, you’d think I would be upset.

Not achieving podium finishes this year has not deterred us from going back and striving for yet higher standards

You’d be right. In fact, I was utterly inconsolable, but not for the reason you’re thinking.

At East Kent College, we took the decision to get involved in skills competitions about two years ago, so we’re fairly fresh to them on the national stage. We made the decision to start taking part because we, as a college, wanted to begin showcasing the high standards which our students were achieving.

We wanted to put our students up against the best of their peers. There was a reason for that — confidence. We, as a college, were confident that we were teaching our students at the highest standards, and they too were pushing themselves to achieve the best possible results.

The crucible of skills competitions would also, in our view, ensure that our tutors and all staff continued to not only provide the highest standard of education, but would keep innovating, keep pushing forward to help students fulfil their potential. Our students would also benefit from taking part in skills competitions.

Being tested in the tough competitive environment, we felt, would help to not only get the best from them, but also to inspire them. Being surrounded by the cream of the crop would motivate our students to push themselves.

And it seems to be working at East Kent College. Our students are achieving ever higher standards, and our staff have continued to drive forward, always working to ensure that they are the top of their game.

So as a competitive man, and someone who believes in our students and staff, when the results for the WorldSkills were announced I was heartbroken. But it was not because of the lack of medals.

It was because over the three-day competition I’d seen the passion, determination and drive of all of the college’s students and tutors, and in truth, I was gutted for them. By the time the competition had finished all of our students looked shattered. I have never seen nine individuals give so much to a competition, they were all utterly drained.

And that is the heart and soul of what skills competitions are about. It isn’t about getting a medal, it’s about building our students up — shaping them and helping them to be the best they can be. When I saw how much my students had achieved, with such high standards, I desperately wanted them to be rewarded for their efforts. That was the real reason I was inconsolable, not the lack of medals.

The journey East Kent College is taking is one of progression. Not achieving podium finishes this year has not deterred us from going back and striving for yet higher standards. In fact, it has only served to make us more determined to come back stronger.

And when our students win gold in the future — and I have no doubt they will — it won’t just show an individual with talent, it’ll show a college which has worked hard to continue improving its skills standards, and showed commitment to helping everyone achieve their full potential.

It will show that the college is further down the road in its journey to being the best educational establishment it can be, for students, for staff, for the local community and for the businesses our young people will go on to work for.

Level three 19 to 23 entitlement remains

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has given more details of its plans to extend FE loans, as announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget.

He said loans would be made available to level three and four learners aged 19 to 23, and to level five and six learners aged 19 and above.

“The extension of loans, which we plan to implement from the 2016/17 academic year, does not affect the duty on the Secretary of State to ensure that learning for a first full qualification at level three should be free for 19 to 23-year-olds,” a BIS spokesperson told FE Week.

A spokesperson for the Student Loans Company (SLC) said implementation of the FE loans expansion was “progressing well”.

“SLC is confident that application and payment systems will be in place for those starting courses next September,” they said.

The spokesperson was unable to confirm when the system would be open for applications.

A spokesperson for the Association of Colleges said: “It is important that these loans are properly administered to provide additional support for students.”

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “We need to understand the details of how the loan facility will be extended to the new groups.”

Prime Minister unveils plans to ramp up public sector apprentice numbers

Prime Minister David Cameron is tomorrow expected to unveil plans for 2.3 per cent of staff in large public sector bodies to be apprentices.

It is thought the move will see apprentice numbers boosted by 200,000 as the government chases its 3m starts election manifesto target for this Parliament.

Measures to achieve the public sector numbers will be laid out in a policy package entitled English Apprenticeships – Our 2020 vision.

Around three quarters of apprenticeships are in the private sector, with the rest coming mainly (16 per cent) from the public sector while around a tenth are in the voluntary sector.

Mr Cameron is due say: “In our manifesto, we made specific commitments – we said we’d reach 3m more apprenticeships.

“I can tell you, in the three months after the election alone, we delivered 115,000 more – in industries from law to fashion design, aerospace and more.

“And today, we’re going even further, with our apprenticeship 2020 vision. We will make every part of the public sector – from Whitehall to local government, the NHS to the police, ensure that apprentices form at least 2.3 per cent of their workforce.

“And our 2020 plan will also help an age group that has, so far, missed out: young adults. Just 6 per cent of 16 to 18-year-olds take an apprenticeship at the moment.

“But with the public sector and the private sector fully on board, we want to increase that, helping us to make sure every school-leaver goes into an apprenticeship, work or university – and gets the skills they need.”

College principal’s ‘regret’ at studio school closures over low pupil numbers

The principal of a Midland college behind two studio schools struggling with low pupil numbers has told of her regret at having to shut them down.

Midland Academies Trust, which is sponsored by North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, is set to shut Midland Studio Colleges in Hinckley and Nuneaton next summer with just 157 pupils out of a combined capacity of 600 making them economically unviable.

Marion Plant OBE, college principal and trust chief executive (pictured above), told FE Week: “The first thing to say is that is it hugely sad and personally am deeply regretful that, what was a very innovative project and development, hasn’t worked.

“What I am proud of is the huge amount of success that has come out of both studio schools, because a lot of the young people have progressed to apprenticeships and gone on to working with local companies.”

The Hinckley school opened just three years ago and the Nuneaton branch followed a year later.

But trust board chair Tim Render said “lower than forecast” pupil numbers meant the trust was unable to achieve a “high standard” of education.

The trust has started the process of finding places for pupils from the losing studio schools at its other four schools — The Nuneaton Academy, Hartshill School, The George Eliot School and The William Bradford Academy.

Ms Plant was adamant there would be no further school closures, that the decision would not affect the college, and said: “It is just two small schools which, for different reasons, have under-recruited and are not viable in the longer term.”

She added: “It’s about us having put everything into trying to address the situation around student recruitment, including investing heavily in a very professional marketing and recruitment campaign.”

The year 11 and 13 pupils can stay at the closing studio schools until the end of the academic year and the year 10 and 12 students will be given the option to continue their studies at either The George Eliot School, or The William Bradford Academy from January 2016.

Ms Plant said the schools had been appreciated by employers who saw them as connecting education and work.

She said: “While I am expressing regret — and I am deeply regretful that the students’, parents, and carers are so upset at the decision — I think what we have learned on a positive sense is the studio school model of learning is a really effective model.”

Channel Four programme claims high street giant Next saved £2.5m in wages employing hundreds of low paid apprentices

High Street giant Next slashed £2.5m off its wage bill by employing hundreds of low-earning apprentices, according to a hard-hitting Channel Four programme exclusively previewed to FE Week.

Apprenticeships come under scrutiny in Dispatches tomorrow night as investigators look at the wages and quality of training delivered by high-profile companies.

The programme, entitled Low Pay Britain, focuses on retail giant and employer provider Next, which was given nearly £1.8m of public funds last year for training 30 hours a-week apprentices.

The programme claims that, with the apprentice minimum wage of £3.30 an-hour lower than that of normal workers at £6.70 an-hour for those aged over 21, “if all of Next’s 800 apprentices had been paid the full rate for the 30-hour week they were working, it would have cost Next almost £2.5m pounds extra in wages this year.”

Investigators heard from a number of former learners at Next — which has been given Skills Funding Agency (SFA) permission to take on new learners despite an Ofsted grade four result this year — who saw full-time fellow workers paid more even though they did the same shopfloor work and got little or no training.

They also hear how former learners felt let down at seeing more apprentices taken on after they’d finished their own programmes only to be offered contracts of just 15 hours a-week.

“I know the management did all they could and they wanted me to stay there, but it was the company saying: ‘We’d prefer to churn out another apprentice’. So I felt I had to turn it down on a moral point and also a financial point,” former Next apprentice Alex Harding tells presenter Seyi Rhodes.

The firm claims it provides specialised training so apprentices are set up for a career in retail and, following severe Ofsted criticism, has implemented a “vigorous programme of improvements”.

Mr Harding told the Channel Four show when he joined Next as an apprentice in 2013 he was paid £2.65 an-hour, the apprenticeship minimum wage at that time.

Channel 4 investigators were told learners would go on to earn around £2 an-hour more. And while the programme questions the fairness in paying apprentices less than colleagues, it also looks at the quality of training for learners.

Mr Harding told the programme: “There was very little one-on-one training. It was just such a small store which wasn’t suited to having this kind of position where you’re meant to be training someone when actually, you need everyone working at the same time because the number of staff is so small.”

Similar criticism, that Next apprentices were given little or no time to learn, came from Becky Markham.

“The training was just on the shop floor, so it wasn’t like I was on my own doing my work,” she said.

“I was still there helping customers when really I should have been learning and studying. Well, I never really had a chance to write in my book, basically, thinking about it, because I always had to really be there for the customers.”

She added: “They [supervisors] were just basically throwing out warnings, if you don’t do it, we’ll give you a disciplinary, we do need you to be on the shop floor.

“They were just making sure they hit their targets. They weren’t focusing on what I needed. To me, it didn’t feel like an apprenticeship at all, it just felt like a job.”

The programme comes just months after Ofsted inspectors found the Next’s level two retail and call centre apprenticeships to be inadequate.

Their report read: “Too many apprentices withdraw from their learning — the support provided for them is inadequate and does not ensure that they remain on their apprenticeship to complete their qualification.”

The result saw the SFA issue Next with a Notice of Concern and suspend it from taking on new apprentices.

But, according to figures obtained by Dispatches, the firm has been handed more than £200,000 since the inspection in July after it was given permission to take on learners again.

Next said after its inspection that it “completely accepts the report’s findings and recommendations”, adding: “We have commenced a vigorous programme of improvements and aim to make significant progress within the next six months.”

A spokesperson for the firm told Dispatches the apprenticeship management team has been “re-organised and strengthened” and rates of pay have been increased so 67 per cent of apprentices now earn above the national minimum.

The improvements were recognised in a monitoring inspection report published by Ofsted in October.

An SFA spokesperson said: “Since receiving the notice, Next has put in significant work to develop and strengthen their programme and received a positive Ofsted monitoring report.

“Although the notice remains in place and continues to be monitored until concerns have been successfully addressed, given significant improvements made by Next, the SFA has given it permission to take on a maximum of 50 new learners.

“These learners will be funded through Next’s existing contract allocation and we will monitor and review this delivery on a monthly basis.”

Next did not respond to a request for further comment for FE Week yesterday (Saturday).

Dispatches Low Pay Britain airs at 8pm tomorrow (Monday).

Picture: Dispatches reporter Seyi Rhodes outside a Next store