Employers should be consulted on the “scope and rate” of a new apprenticeship levy and have “real control” over the whole apprenticeships system, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has said.

In a briefing note on the levy, which was announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his July budget, the CBI predicted the levy would be “around 0.5 per cent of payroll” and “is likely to include all businesses with 250 employees or more”.

The CBI has also used the briefing to expand on its earlier concerns and raise new ones, including that a consultation currently running on the levy only covers its implementation, with “no formal commitment to consult on the scope or rate of the levy”. 

In the document, the organisation claims there is “no conclusive evidence that levies work”, before going on to explain its primary concern is that although the levy “may deliver quantity and help the government hit its target”, it “does not guarantee quality”.

It goes on to say: “Those who have experience of levy systems have highlighted the negative impact and unintended consequences which can arise from badly designed and poorly implemented levy systems – and many more have expressed concerned about the lack of detail in the Chancellor’s announcement, particularly given the potential scale and scope of the levy.

“Employers will judge the success of the levy based on the quality of apprenticeships delivered and on how well these meet the needs of business and the economy.”

The document calls for a system which incentivises the delivery of higher level skills and encourages growth in key sectors and gives employers “real control”.

It adds: “If employers are to fund all or most of the cost of apprenticeships, then employers must have real control. Not just on funding – but over the whole system.”

The CBI has also demanded that the levy system be “simple to administer and where the fund is easy to access”, and that it is “flexible, supporting collaborative working – and not penalising those businesses and employers who want to take a sectoral approach”.

It goes on to say: “The levy must be fair, proportionate and subject to proper consultation Getting the rate and reach of the levy right will be critical – and the CBI is calling for full consultation on this.

“Once the rate is agreed, it must be subject to regular scrutiny and review. The levy should support the development of vocational skills and apprenticeships in every part of the UK and exemptions from the levy must be made where mandatory sector levy schemes remain in place.

“Small employers should remain exempt from the levy – but levy funding should not be used to cross-subsidise apprenticeships for small business.”

It comes after the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) urged the government to hold off introducing the levy for “three or fours years”, urging it to build capacity first.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which will administer the policy, declined to comment.

Picture: HM Treasury

Sao Paulo 2015 is the first WorldSkills competition to be held in Latin America and, with 1,192 registered competitors, it’s set to be one of the biggest celebrations of vocational skills ever staged.

So how do hosts Brazil view further education and skills, and how does its vocational education and training (Vet) system prepare young people for the world of work?

According to Simon Bartley (pictured above), president of WorldSkills International, Brazil “takes skills development so seriously, that it’s an embarrassment for many of us in the West”.

Vocational training in Brazil is overseen by the National Service for Industrial Training (Senai) — a huge network of connected colleges, which also co-ordinates Brazil’s WorldSkills team and the Sao Paulo competition.

Since it was founded in 1942 by the government, 61m people have gained professional qualifications across 28 different sectors with Senai, which currently has 1,017 campuses across the country — some fixed, and some very mobile.

Roberto Spada, vice president of WorldSkills Brazil, who has worked for Senai for 41 years, explains this allows the organization to reach people in spite of the size and geography of Brazil.

“It means we can offer training to the cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants needing training and for the small communities — with the mobile units have to make the investment in property all the way across Brazil,” he told FE Week.

The mobile units include floating classes in boats which go up the Amazon to teach forestry and agricultural husbandry to remote rainforest communities.

This means the network can enrol a total of 3.5m students per year, as well as a further 50,000 people on distance learning courses.

The system is funded entirely through employer levy. What that means, said Mr Bartley, is that “young people get a meaningful college education in crafts and skills and they have a really well-funded college sector”.

“And because of that, a powerhouse is developing the economy,” he told FE Week.

“And that gives the message to parents and to others that actually, if your child can go to a Senai school or college, then they are going to be a great success in their life.”

And that claim is more than just wishful thinking.

“The immediate past president of Brazil, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, started his life as a student, training as a lathe operator at the age of 15 in a Senai college — and went on to be the president of his country,” said Mr Bartley.

In fact, 88 per cent of learners leaving a Senai institution walk straight into a job.

“The philosophy of Senai is learning by doing,” said Mr Spada.

“They learn with real equipment, so from the first day at work they can get started on using the real processes and then the companies accept and contract the Senai students because perform well.”

Senai and vocational training is central to the Brazilian economy, he said.

“The best vehicle to make the social and economic transformation is the vocational training courses,” said Mr Spada.

“If you have the opportunity to go to vocational training, learn a trade, get a job, you can change your life and pay tax — this is a chance to make a socio-economic improvement which involves your family and your community.

“A strong vocational system not only shows the person is a good worker but also that the nation has a social responsibility and a commitment to raising the condition of the country.”

Keep up with all the action before and during the competition with FE Week – on feweek.co.uk or on Twitter with the handle @FEWeek and the #GoWSTeamUK hashtag.

The lure of a new foreign market has temped NOCN to offer management training qualifications in India as it follows the lead of other awarding organisations (AOs) in branching out abroad.

Sheffield-based NOCN has struck a deal with the All India Management Association (AIMA) to provide content, assessment, an IT platform and certification support.

Delivery of courses will be carried out by AIMA, but NOCN will also certificate some of AIMA’s existing courses, beginning with its trainer programme.

Graham Hasting-Evans, NOCN managing director (pictured above), said: “We are delighted to support AIMA in its ambitions to raise the professional standards of Indian managers.

“This will improve productivity and quality, strengthening the Indian economy.

“This partnership between AIMA and NOCN is really exciting and we are proud to be part of the Indian skills revolution.”

The qualifications will be designed to comply with India’s National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF), but a statement from NOCN and AIMA said their collaboration could be extended to other countries.

It added that they expected to enrol around 5,000 learners in the near future.

Director general of AIMA Rekha Sethi said: “Management and entrepreneurship training is rare in India’s skills market and NOCN will collaborate with AIMA in assessing and certifying these skills.”

AIMA also plans to use the collaboration to develop a Professional Manager Recognition System to provide internationally valid joint accreditation to Indian managers at trainee, manager and senior management level.

However, NOCN is not the first UK-based AO to venture abroad.

In May, AQA announced it was joining with the Oxford University Press to create a set of international GCSE and A-level qualifications initially aimed at schools in the Middle East, but with plans to expand further.

Andrew Hall, AQA chief executive, said at the time the partnership and new qualifications presented “a real opportunity to provide something which really responds to the needs of international educators and will enable us to share the UK’s strong educational values and best practice internationally”.

Pearson, which operates as an AO as part of the larger multinational company Pearson PLC, has long had an involvement in the international market, offering its qualifications in range of countries.

A spokesperson said: “We believe it is vitally important for awarding bodies to have an international outlook.”

She said international work had allowed them to improve UK qualifications, by allowing experts to compare them to the best in the world.

And in 2009, City and Guilds formed MCG — a joint venture with Indian company Manipal Global Education — and has signed a deal with Indian Government’s National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to train 63,000 people over ten years in construction, hospitality and retail and an additional 77,000 people in other sectors, as part of the Indian government’s aims to upskill 150m people by 2022.

Thousands of FE staff will begin the new academic year with a ballot on whether to strike over pay.

The University and College Union (UCU) has confirmed it will ballot members next month over industrial action after its FE committee rejected the most recent pay deal offered by the Association of Colleges (AoC), which proposed no rise at all for 2015/16.

Unite the Union will also ballot its 600 members working in colleges, while the Association of Teachers and Lecturers is to hold a survey of members to decide its course of action, also in September.

It comes almost a year after a stand-off between college bosses and unions over pay rise offers of 0.7 per cent and 1 per cent for 2014/15 came to an end in December.

A UCU spokesperson said: “Our FE committee rejected the employers’ provocative decision to recommend a pay freeze and has agreed to organise a ballot of members, which will start when the new academic year begins.

“For too long staff have seen their pay erode in real terms and a pay freeze at this time is simply unacceptable.”

A spokesperson for Unite said: “We have 600 members who will be affected by this pay issue and we will be balloting in September, although we don’t have an exact date.”

Marc Whitworth (pictured right), director of employment policy and services at the AoC, said: “The pay recommendation made by the AoC reflects the feedback we have had from colleges about the stringent financial circumstances in the sector. Although not unexpected it is nevertheless disappointing that the UCU will ballot for action in the autumn.

“Strikes are very disruptive for colleges and more importantly for students. We would encourage UCU to consider how we might better work together to represent our respective members collectively and position the further education sector to remunerate more effectively in the longer term.

“There is a willingness from the employers’ side to work together to protect the prospects of further education, its skilled workforce and the students it serves.”

FE Week contacted Unison, which also represents some college staff, but it is yet to comment.

A struggling London college has been praised by Ofsted for “reasonable progress” across the board less than eight months after inspectors branded it inadequate.

Greenwich Community College, a 5,000-learner South East London college, was given the grade four rating in December, before FE Commissioner Dr David Collins uncovered “serious problems — both in terms of the quality of what is on offer and its worsening budget position” in his resulting visit the following month.

The extent of the problems led Skills Minister Nick Boles to place the college into administered status.

But it was praised following Ofsted’s third monitoring visit, with “reasonable progress” in each of the seven themes looked at by inspectors.

They praised principal Lindsey Noble’s leadership team for introducing “robust and effective procedures” to monitor and improve the standards of learning and student achievements, and said action plans for improvement were “unequivocal” and had been communicated “effectively to all staff”.

Although the report recognised that lines of accountability for student successes and failures were now “much clearer and better understood”, it warned that historic weak practice meant improvement to in-year learner performance remained “modest”.

It said progress towards improving teaching, learning and assessment was “good”, but warned standards were not yet high enough. Weak practice, the report said, had “virtually been eliminated”, but, as a consequence of improving standards, a small number of courses and learners had been adversely affected by changes to teaching staff.

The report said progress in English and maths was good, and that further training and better resources had enabled teachers to relate mathematics and English more appropriately to vocational subjects.

Data use by governors, managers and staff was now “widespread”, the report said, adding that managers maintained a “realistic outlook” on improvements to date and, based upon data analysis and the quality of teaching and learning, “rightly judged” that outcomes for learners continued to be inadequate.

The report has been welcomed by Richard Bourne, acting chair of the corporation, who told FE Week: “Staff at the college have worked hard in the last six months to positively change the way it is operating and make improvements to the quality of the provision.

“We are pleased that inspectors have recognised the improvements that have been made since their last visit. The college has implemented a number of strategies to drive up standards and performance across the board which are clearly working.”

Dr Collins recommended structure and prospects appraisals be carried out at both Greenwich College and nearby Lewisham Southwark College, and the prospect of a possible merger was raised, but this is now likely to wait until the government begins its first wave of area reviews, due to start next month.

It also comes after Dr Collins (pictured) rejected plans by Southwark Council to break up Lewisham Southwark College and bring half of it under its control.

A new Ofsted report is also a cause for celebration for employer-provider Select Service Partner (SSP), which rose from inadequate to good following its re-inspection in June. No one from SSP was available for comment.

The government is allowing known minimum wage offender firms to advertise for workers on its apprentice vacancy matching service, FE Week has found.

Seven of the 75 employers ‘named and shamed’ by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) last week for failing to pay the minimum wage were advertising for apprentices on the website.

The situation has prompted a warning from the University and College Union (UCU) that apprentices could be at risk of “exceptionally low pay” from known minimum wage offenders.

And the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has called for government monitoring of firms behind the adverts to ensure they pay at least the legal minimum for apprentices, currently £2.73 an-hour.

London-based estate agency Rolfe East, Liverpool’s Ultimate Dental Laboratory, Nottingham’s Medina Chemists, Acorn Care Services in the Isle of Wight, Wakefield’s Compliance 365 and Worldflair, which runs Krazy Kingdom amusement park in Blackpool, were all advertising for roles of between 30 and 40 hours a-week. They were for either advanced or intermediate apprenticeships.

But while the adverts (see below) were in line with the apprentice minimum wage, BIS declined to say whether any of the firms behind them were among the 30 it named and shamed as having offended in relation to apprentice pay — although Rolfe East, Acorn Care Services and Surecare all said their offending had been on non-apprentice pay.

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However, Sally Hunt (pictured below right), UCU general secretary, said seeing known minimum wage offender companies advertising on a government website was “very worrying” and warned it “could leave their young apprentices vulnerable to exceptionally low pay”.

She said: “Companies should be made to prove they are adhering to the minimum wage before they are given the opportunity to use this website.”

Mary Bousted (pictured below left), ATL general secretary, agreed.

“It is likely that if the employer is not paying national minimum wage, they may also not be paying the apprenticeship minimum wage,” she said.

“On that basis, unless the government is monitoring the apprenticeship provision and is satisfied that the employer is fulfilling its obligations to the apprentice, then it would not be appropriate for the employer to be advertising on the government’s website.”

A BIS spokesperson defended allowing known minimum wage offenders to advertise posts on the Skills Funding Agency (SFA)-run Apprenticeship Vacancy Matching Service website.

“Providers can only advertise on the Apprenticeship Vacancy Matching Service once it is confirmed that the apprentice will be paid at least the apprenticeship minimum wage,” he said.

“All employers that have been named and shamed for failing to pay the minimum wage have already paid the staff who were in arrears and an additional financial penalty.”

Rolfe East, which neglected to pay 20 workers a total of £7,107.43, was listed as part of the BIS minimum wage name and shame campaign last week for its payments to, according to the firm, “trainee” workers and not official apprentices. The workers therefore should have been on the age-relevant — rather than apprentice — minimum wage.

The Rolfe East “trainees” were paid “30 per cent” above the apprentice minimum wage of £2.73, according to a statement by managing director Ashley Rolfe. This would have meant they were earning around £3.55 an-hour.

Sales director Jon Hadfield indicated that Rolfe East had offended in relation to the under 18 minimum wage (currently £3.79 an-hour).

Mr Hadfield said: “Because we hadn’t been through the government’s form-filling apprenticeship scheme, it was deemed these people weren’t being paid the NMW.

“The irony is that we’re now taking on new trainees via the government scheme who are earning less than those we took on privately.”

Mr Hadfield acknowledged it was “ultimately our choice” not to continue paying apprentices the higher rate they had paid to previous trainees but said the company taken advice from its provider on what to pay.

He said the company would pay the apprentice it was currently advertising for above the £2.73 an-hour minimum wage.

Acorn Care Services owed £784.38 to eight workers. Managing director Brian Ginders said the issue had arisen because the company was unaware it was required to count workers’ 30-minute breaks in their working time.

He said: “At no time did Acorn Care Service Ltd deliberately or knowingly underpay any members of its staff. We believed that we were paying above the national minimum wage in line with legislation.”

He added: “We have since reviewed all pay and have discussed with HMRC to ensure that our calculations work with their general rule of thumb.”

A spokesperson told FE Week that the issue had not concerned apprentices, and that the company would ensure that the apprentice hired would be properly paid.

Phil Pickford, director of Surecare which owed £236.60 to one worker said the issue had been an “admin oversight” and that the employee had not been an apprentice.

He said: “We have had apprentices in the past and they have always been paid in line with their contracts, which is above the NMW.

“We’ve done an audit of our systems so this problem won’t happen again.”

No-one from Medina Chemists, Worldflair or Ultimate Dental Laboratory was available to comment.

Compliance 365 declined to comment.

Local council plans to split Lewisham Southwark College and bring half of it under local authority control have been rejected by the FE Commissioner, it has been claimed.

The college announced today that commissioner Dr David Collins had thrown out a proposal from Southwark Borough Council last month to de-merge the college.

The council suggestion included taking on the Southwark provision and contracting it out.

It comes amid an area-based assessment of South East London’s FE and skills provision, consisting of two structure and prospects appraisals at Greenwich Community College and Lewisham Southwark after they were both served with inadequate Ofted ratings — the second in a row for Lewisham Southwark, which is currently in administered status.

nd in addition to the Ofsted blows, the merged college’s £290k ‘Lesoco’ rebrand proved a failure, as exclusively revealed by FE Week.

A statement from the college, which is currently in administered status, said the commissioner and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) “have now confirmed that the proposal is not an option that would be considered or progressed”.

It added: “Instead the college has been given time to work on its planned recovery which has recently been praised by both the FE Commissioner and received positive comments towards changes made by Ofsted.”

Principal Carole Kitching took up the role in June. She said: “Lewisham Southwark should be and will be stronger together.”

Dr Collins, BIS and the council are yet to comment.