A government U-turn today on GCSE English and maths entry requirements for new childcare apprenticeships launching in August has been hailed a victory for sector employers.

The Department for Education (DfE) had been planning to require would-be learners to have the qualifications at grade C or above to be able to start the Early Years Educator (Eye) level three Trailblazer apprenticeship.

But the policy, which had led to fears that potential learners would be put off the sector, was today rejected by Childcare Minister Sam Gyimah (pictured above), who said: “Unnecessary barriers shouldn’t stop skilled people joining the workforce, and it makes much more sense to have an exit standard rather than a barrier to entry.

“That’s why I’m pleased to say that we will offer people the chance to study their maths and English GCSEs alongside their childcare apprenticeship training.”

Stewart Segal, Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) chief executive, said: “We are pleased that the government has listened to the strong lobby from childcare employers including the Trailblazer group and AELP to review the English and maths requirements for the advanced apprenticeship framework.

“The AELP had provided evidence that this proposal was creating a real barrier to entry for many young people which had reduced the number of entrants to the sector when employers needed more recruits than ever, particularly in the light of the government’s plans to double the amount of free childcare for working parents.”

It is the second government U-turn on the issue of Eye apprenticeships and GCSE entry requirements. Government had been planning to make grade C or above English and maths a requirement for course starts, rejecting Functional Skills (FS), from September last year.

But just a month ahead of the planned implementation, the National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) confirmed GCSEs would instead have a completion requirement until the new Trailblazer apprenticeship standard came into effect.

And the policy appeared to have little favour with Trailblazer employers who drew up the Eye apprenticeship in August with the GCSE requirement placed upon completion of the course — not at entry, as reported by FE Week.

Nevertheless, there are hopes today’s confirmation of that standard’s GCSE exit requirement will make the sector more attractive to learners, and therefore meet the demand for staff, with the Conservative Party having made provision of childcare places part of its 2015 general election manifesto. It said a new Conservative government would “bring in tax-free childcare to support parents back into work and give working parents of three or four-year-olds 30 hours of free childcare a week”.

But while the change of heart on the GCSE entry requirement was widely welcomed by the sector — pressure remained to include FS as an alternative to GCSEs.

“This decision is welcome but we believe that the drive to improve English and maths should include FS as a high quality alternative to GCSEs. We agree with the drive to improve standards but it is numeracy and literacy that is the real need for childcare employees,” said Mr Segal.

“GCSEs are broader than FS but include some elements that are not essential for those teaching young children — FS are very focussed on the practical skills and knowledge that will support young people.”

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said: “While the majority of the sector support the intentions behind government’s drive to improve the qualification levels of the workforce, many practitioners — and in particular, setting managers — were concerned that the previous eligibility criteria had created a serious barrier to entry for otherwise suitable learners.

“As such, we warmly welcome the news that the existing GCSE requirements for level three apprenticeships will now apply on exit, rather than on entry.

“Following on from this decision, we would urge the government to review its current stance on GCSE equivalents, such as FS qualifications, given that the majority of early years employers agree that such qualifications are a valid demonstration of competency in English and maths.

“A decision not to accept equivalent qualifications is likely to lead to significantly fewer qualified employees in the workforce, at a time when the government is actually looking to expand early years provision in this country.

“Additionally, the fact that this decision only currently applies to EYE qualifications undertaken as part of an apprenticeship risks creating an unbalanced position where practitioners wanting to undertake an EYE as a standalone course will still be required to have GCSEs on entry.

“In the interests of fairness and consistency, we would urge the government to reconsider its position on this issue.”

And National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) urged the DfE to look at qualifications for all routes to Eye qualifications — not just apprenticeships. Purnima Tanuku OBE, NDNA chief executive, said: “Making permanent the acceptance of GCSE at grade C or above in English and maths as an exit requirement for Eye apprenticeships will help a small proportion of the early years workforce.

“However, alongside this we also urgently need GCSE equivalency to be accepted for all Eye qualifications, regardless of the pathway they can take.

“This was a clear barrier identified by the sector in our recent Annual Workforce Survey. Many of the workforce take routes other than apprenticeships to Eye and these must also be addressed.

“We look forward to a continuing dialogue with the DfE on the steps needed to recruit, retain and develop the early years workforce to meet the challenge of delivering the high-quality early learning and childcare that we know makes such a positive difference to the lives of children.

“With the free 30 hours on the horizon, it is very important that we have a clear workforce strategy and the investment to support it in place.”

The DfE is yet to comment on FS.

Prominent management consultant and former adviser to Tony Blair Claudia Harris has been appointed to lead the Department for Education’s £20m ’employer-led Careers and Enterprise Company.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan announced in the House of Commons this afternoon that Ms Harris, a former partner at McKinsey & Company and health team member of ex-Prime Minister Mr Blair’s delivery unit, is the first chief executive of the company, set up in December to improve careers advice in schools.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Harvard-educated Ms Harris worked as a microfinance intern for ProMujer in Bolivia from February to June 2003 before joining McKinsey & Company for the first time in September 2003 as a business analyst.

From September 2005 to August 2006, Ms Harris worked for the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit in its health team, returning to McKinsey & Co in September 2008 as a partner. Her profile indicates she has been in post at the Careers and Enterprise Company since last month.

The new company was set up with £20m of new funding announced in the Chancellor’s autumn statement last year, but concerns have been raised about the longevity of the project, expected to be funded by businesses from its third year, and potential conflicts in remit between it and the National Careers Service.

Announcing the company in December, Ms Morgan said the independent body would help schools fulfil their statutory duty to offer careers advice by brokering relationships between schools and employers.

She said the company “will encourage greater collaboration between employers and schools, helping schools and colleges access a wealth of experience to inspire young people about the possibilities of the world of work”.

“This will benefit young people across the country and ensure they leave school fully prepared for life in modern Britain,” she said.

Commenting on Ms Harris’s appointment, Ms Morgan said she had a “proven track record at the highest level of business”, and would “make an invaluable contribution to the company’s drive to transform the provision of careers, enterprise and employer engagement”.

Christine Hodgson, who chairs the company, said: “Claudia’s experience working with employers and her understanding of talent and skills will be invaluable in helping us to connect employers and schools more effectively for the benefit of young people.

“There are still too many young people today who don’t have any connection with the world of work while they’re at school and we aim to change that.”

And Ms Harris said: “Young people need to be motivated, helped to better understand the relevance of their education, and supported in making independent and fact-based decisions about their futures.

“Direct exposure to employers and the self-employed is key. There are many excellent examples of schools and employers working together today but the system overall does not yet work well enough and vacancies continue to co-exist with youth unemployment.”

She said the company’s role was to connect schools to employers , adding: “Our approach is to build on what works in collaboration with organisations that are running effective programmes today, to take a local view which reflects the different challenges and activity across the country and to test, learn and adapt as we go.”

From September, the company will roll out a programme to connect employees from firms of all sizes to schools through a network of enterprise advisors, who will be volunteers from the business community. Over the next year it will roll out further elements of its plan including research, a £5m investment fund to scale good ideas and fill gaps in provision and a digital ‘enterprise passport’ for young people.

The managing director of a family-run Nottingham-based provider that shot up two Ofsted ratings to outstanding in just 16 months has revealed to FE Week how the company achieved its dramatic turnaround.

Charlotte Moreland, believed to be one of the youngest ever managing directors to achieve an outstanding Ofsted rating at the age of 27, said she was “over the moon” with the result for NHTA (Nottingham Hairdressing Training Agency) , which provides hairdressing and barbering apprenticeships.

The independent learning provider (ILP) had last been visited by Ofsted in February last year, getting grade three ratings for all but quality of teaching, learning and assessment in which it was rated as good. Its previous inspection, in December 2011, had also resulted in a grade three rating.

But it was rated outstanding across all headline areas and was praised for learners’ “excellent progress” by inspectors, who examined the provider in May and reported back last week.

“I am over the moon about this fantastic result,” said Ms Moreland, who took over as managing director in 2013 when her father, David, stepped down from the role to chair the company.

“I am very proud NHTA will be added to the very small list of providers or colleges in the country with such an accolade.”

“This is a testament to the support and commitment we receive from all our employers and learners and is a phenomenal result and reflection on the whole NHTA community.”

Ofsted had told the company last year it required improvement because “too few apprentices achieve their intended qualifications”.

But Ms Moreland, who said she believed she was among the youngest managing directors to achieve a grade one Ofsted result, said the 100-learner ILP’s transformation was the “result of a five-year investment and strategy”.

In 2010 — three years after Mr Moreland bought the company — it was branded inadequate, before moving up to grade three (then satisfactory) the following year.

But it now has apprentices in more than 60 salons across Nottingham, Chesterfield, Mansfield, Newark, Loughborough, Derbyshire and surrounding areas, and she said the 2010 grade four result had been “the platform” she and her father needed “to change the culture, the ethos and the brand identity”.

“We began sculpting a highly effective senior management team which has been crucial in supporting and monitoring all the changes,” she said.

“We also employed a quality consultant who was also an associate inspector for Ofsted, Elaine White, and instigated yearly ‘health checks’  — effectively a mini Ofsted — using external consultants to inform our self-assessment report and naturally our quality improvement planning, which is a whole company approach.

“This ensured all the team remained accountable, knowledgeable and committed to the direction of travel of NHTA and also aware of the data impact of each individual tutor on the data and retention statistics.”

Ms Moreland said data had been “key” to improvement at the ILP, which as of April had a Skills Funding Agency allocation of £760k.

“We produce very detailed quarterly data packs on everything that moves to identify any issues early on,” she said.

“Our retention and success rates have remained high due to a very effective cause for concern register, which any staff member, from tutors to admin staff and even myself, can add a learner to if something we’ve seen or heard causes concern which requires monitoring.

“We are very proud to say learners really are the centre of everything we do and all staff have an excellent knowledge of every learner in our provision.

“We have a highly effective teaching, learning and assessment strategy which supports and develops staff when needed supported by learning walks to ensure our standards remain consistently high.”

Ms Moreland said up to 65 per cent of the company’s learners arrive without a GCSE A to C or equivalent in English and maths.

“We strongly believe all young people should be given the opportunity to do an apprenticeship and we support our learners to have a second chance at English and maths while learning their vocational skill too,” she said.

“Vocational learning is about building skills for young people’s future not about closing the door when they need support or guidance the most.

“Our employers consistently engage and support these young people and we have an active employers group we call the Associate Members group who attend a meeting twice a year and steer the organisation to ensure we are giving the employers the best service we can too.”

Pictured, from left: Emma Musgrove, tutor, Elaine Hines, admin supervisor, Joanna Thompson, desgnated safeguarding person/health and safety officer, Stephanie Abbott, operations manager, Charlotte Moreland, managing director, Shaun Cobb, admin manager, Leanne Willis, tutor, Stephanie Hadrill, quality team leader, and Gemma Little, admin, HR and data coordinator

 

New Business Secretary Sajid Javid has refused to rule out college closures as a result of adult skills budget cuts.

Mr Javid chose to criticise Labour’s economic record instead of guaranteeing the future of FE college when he was grilled by Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna during business questions in the House of Commons this afternoon.

Mr Umunna, right, said: “Britain has the worst productivity in the G7 bar Japan.

“Proper adult skills provision plays a vital role in addressing this, not just apprenticeships, but the adult skills budget has been cut by 35 per cent in last five years, and now the chancellor tells us a further £450m is to be taken out of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) budget. This could lead to the end of FE as we know it.

“In light of these very real concerns, what assessment has the Business Secretary undertaken on the risks posed to the sector, and can he now guarantee that no college will close as a result of what he and the Chancellor are going to do.”

Although Mr Javid did not directly rule out college closures as a result of the cuts, he did say the government would not put college resources “at risk” when implementing further cuts after he was the possibility of job cuts at his former college – South Gloucestershire and Stroud – was raised.

Mr Umunna said: “When you’re consolidating, you have to make appropriate choices, and you don’t want to cut off your nose to spite your face. If we want increased revenue we need to increase productivity.

“Just look at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, which he attended. This month, it confirmed 70 staff posts are in danger due to the reduction in their adult learning funding.

“The principal of that college said ‘we need to reduce our costs in line with reduction in funding to maintain our solvency’. Should the alarm bells not be ringing when his own college already cites issues of solvency before we have seen the full scale of what he is going to do to the productive capacity of this economy?”

Mr Javid said: “It was an excellent college and it still is. I still know many people who attend that college and speak of it very highly.

“The important thing is not just that college but all colleges have the resources they need to do their jobs and we will not put that at risk, and especially as they continue to invest in apprenticeships because that is one of the surest ways to give people the training they want.”

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) today launched a series of how-to guides for its online professional standards resources for FE practitioners.

The professional standards for FE teachers, trainers and lecturers were released in May last year, ending a seven-year wait for upgraded guidance.

The 20 standards, divided into three headings of values and attributes, knowledge and understanding, and skills, were accompanied by a 22-page guidance document offering practical examples of how the standards could be applied.

Now the ETF has published the first in a series of ‘how to’ guides on its website, covering a range of topics and intended to help professionals “embed the standards in their working practice”.

David Russell (pictured right), ETF chief executive, said he was “delighted” with how well professional standards had been received since they were launched.

He said: “I hope that the standards continue to help teaching staff develop and grow as professionals throughout their career and are shared further with colleagues and networks.”

The standards are used both in training new teachers and in continuing professional development.

According to the ETF, the standards are the most popular download on the ETF website and have been accessed more than 43,000 times.

Visit www.etfoundation.co.uk/professionalstandards for more information and to view the standards and guides.

Sector leaders backed “radical change” and stressed that they do not want to “defend the status quo” in a joint letter to Business Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured below right).

The letter, seen by FE Week, was sent by Kirstie Donnelly (pictured below left), UK managing director of City & Guilds, on behalf of a host of organisations including the Association of Colleges, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, 157 Group, and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.

The other organisations signed-up to it were Creative Skillset, Energy and Utility Skills, the Trades Union Congress, the Edge Foundation, and the Lep (local enterprise partnership) Network.

The letter said they could “collectively” help the government with, for example, delivering 3m apprenticeships by 2020, developing higher and degree level apprenticeships, improving careers advice, boosting traineeships, and providing “specialist higher-level vocational training in sectors critical to economic growth”.

“Our aim is not to defend the status quo,” it said. “Radical change is needed to the funding and regulation of the FE system, the way we engage with people and employers, the way we offer and manage learning and skills, and create skills pathways which are easy to navigate, from first steps to high level professional qualifications.”

The letter warned that employers and individuals were “confused” by multiple funding streams, qualification levels, “unhelpful” distinctions between FE and higher education, and “differences between apprenticeships and other forms of work-based training”.

“The answer is, of course, simplification —something we all want to achieve,” it added.

It said the organisations that signed-up to the letter “have extensive experience of policy implementation, knowledge of what works in the UK and around the world, and an ability to find ways round potential pitfalls”.

Warning of the potential pitfalls of “too much change” and “mistakes” that “were often repeated” in the past, it added that “we can draw on lessons from the past 30 years of skills policy”.

It said that they would “like to meet you as soon as possible and take this forward together”, adding that “while this offer is to work collectively with you on common aims, we recognise that there will be times when you want to talk to our organisations individually and we to you”.

Dr Ann Limb, chair of South East Midlands Lep, who signed up to the letter on behalf of the Lep Network, said the idea behind sending a collective letter to Mr Javid (pictured above left), who was appointed to run the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on May 11, was to send him a “positive message”.

She thought it showed all of the organisations were prepared to take a “grown up” approach to managing funding cuts and implementing the government’s skills agenda.

A BIS spokesperson said: “We will respond in due course”.