FE staff and students are set to lobby politicians directly tomorrow afternoon as they take the fight against swingeing sector funding cuts to Parliament.
The mass lobby of Parliament in protest against Adult Skills Budget cuts has been organised by the University and College Union (UCU) and is expected to take place from 2pm.
The lobby event follows news in March that funding for Adult Learning would be cut by up to 24 per cent in 2014/15, and an announcement this month that both the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education would each be facing cuts of £450m — with FE budgets specifically earmarked for savings.
Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, said: “For too long, further education has been underfunded and underappreciated. The support for the campaign from across the sector and beyond is testament to how valuable adult learning is for people from all sorts of backgrounds.”
The UCU says the cuts will around 400,000 learners missing out on opportunities.
Ms Hunt said: “MPs now need to listen to the concerns of those working and studying in FE and take action to protect the future of the sector.
“We should be expanding opportunities for people to retrain, not cutting vital resources.”
FE staff and students attending the event are due to meet on Parliament Square at 2pm before moving over to the Houses of Parliament to lobby their MPs between 3pm and 5pm.
They will also hear from a range of speakers, including Green MP Caroline Lucas, National Union of Students vice president for FE Joe Vinson and Association for Teachers and Lecturers deputy general secretary Peter Pendle.
A petition calling for the cuts to be reversed, signed by more than 42,000 people, is expected to be handed in to Parliament in the next few weeks.
The new chief executive of the 157 Group is to be Ian Pretty, currently a senior vice president for public sector at Capgemini UK, it was announced today.
Mr Pretty is due to take up the post on September 7 when current executive director Dr Lynne Sedgmore retires after seven years leading the 157 Group.
Mr Pretty’s previous roles include director of strategy at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and director of strategy at the Cabinet Office.
Sarah Robinson
Sarah Robinson, 157 Group chair and principal of Stoke on Trent College, said: “I am delighted that Ian has decided to join the 157 Group.
“Having held a number of senior positions in both central government and the commercial sector, he brings a wide range of skills and experience to the group as we continue our influential work to raise the profile and importance of FE and skills.”
Mr Pretty’s LinkedIn profile says he has “an in-depth understanding of managing the commercial sector’s relationship with Government”.
It lists him as having been at Capgemini, which offers business and public sector consulting and outsourcing, since 2007, when he was vice president, head of global tax and welfare.
His first post is listed as a Manchester-based HMRC tax inspector in 1993, before moving to the post of HMRC director of strategy at the large business office just under three years later.
He then took on the Cabinet Office role in 1999. In August 2001 he became director of communications for the Aspire Project at HMRC and three years later he moved to the post of director of strategy at the HMRC chief information officer’s office.
In May 2007 he moved to Capgemini where his posts have since included senior vice president of tax and welfare, and senior vice president of public sector. His current “specialties” are are listed as public ssector and transformational change in tax and welfare agencies.
Her time at the 157 Group has seen her gain a spot on this year’s Debrett’s list of the UK’s 500 most influential people.
She told FE Week: “I have loved my 35 years in the sector and have never wanted to be anywhere else. The work that FE colleges do for a huge cross spectrum of students is totally amazing, we truly transform lives for the better.
Dr Lynne Sedgmore
“I will miss colleagues and professional friends but in my 60th year, it feels time for a new and different life. I have plenty of things I want to do, places to go and adventures still to be had.”
Ms Robinson said Dr Sedgmore’s “contribution to the 157 Group, and to the wider further education and skills system, has been enormous”.
“Part of her legacy will surely be the increasingly positive light in which further education is viewed as an alternative gateway to sustained employment and a successful life,” she said.
Apprenticeships will be given the same legal protection as degrees, allowing a clampdown on firms which misuse the term, the government has announced today.
A plan to force public bodies such as schools, hospitals and prisons to hire apprentices has also been announced as the government sets the ball rolling on plans to create 3m apprenticeship starts over the course of this Parliament.
The proposals from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which will be introduced to Parliament in the autumn as part of the government’s enterprise bill, come after the department remained silent over concerns raised by sector leaders about apprenticeship funding.
Sector leaders have warned the government not to leave providers short-changed after the Skills Funding Agency announced a delay to a decision on in-year growth requests, which will now not yet be made until after the budget on July 8.
Having previously pledged to protect apprenticeship funding, the government has so far been unable to say whether this protection will include growth funding, which is given to providers where they have over-delivered on their contracts.
Announcing the new measures, Skills Minister Nick Boles said apprentices deserved their “moment in the sun” as much as graduates, adding: “Businesses know their value so it’s high time they were recognised both by the public and in law as being equal to degrees.
“We want far more employers to get involved in apprenticeships. This means making sure that we practice what we preach in government, so we’re going require all public sector bodies – schools, hospitals, prisons and police forces – to employ apprentices.”
The organisation behind Lord Baker’s university technical colleges (UTCs) has said it will be “working with” Skills Minister Nick Boles as he looks into the performance of the project as it comes under growing criticism.
Officials at the Baker Dearing Trust look set for difficult questions from Mr Boles with UTCs suffering much-publicised recruitment issues.
Among those to have struggled to recruit have been Walsall’s inadequate-rated Black Country UTC and Hackney UTC — both of which are set for closure at the end of the academic year.
Mr Boles pledged to “look at the programme” to consider whether it was “as successful as it can possibly be” before opening any more UTCs as questions were asked in Parliament in the wake of the decision to close the Black Country UTC.
And while Mr Boles said the government was “firmly committed” to the UTCs programme, he said: “I think it is very important now at the start of a Parliament that we look at this programme and we ask ourselves is this programme as successful as it can possibly be before we launch ourselves into the process of opening more institutions like this.”
Including Black Country and Hackney, there are currently 30 UTCs. A further 20 are due to open by 2017.
A Baker Dearing spokesperson said: “We welcomed the Minister’s strong reiteration of the government’s commitment to UTCs during the debate.
“UTCs are a new responsibility for the Minister and, in the coming weeks, we will be working with him and his team to ensure he is fully briefed on the technical education pathway offered by UTCs.”
Mr Boles’s pledge to examine UTCs, which offer specialist vocational training alongside core academic subjects for 14 to 19-year-olds, has been welcomed by college groups.
Association of Colleges deputy chief executive Gill Clipson (pictured)said: “In order for UTCs, or indeed any new institutions, to be successful in recruiting a significant number of students there needs to be a consistent demand across all the necessary age groups.”
She added that since the UK education system was “fairly fixed” around transition at 11 and 16, and with “insufficient” careers advice available “it is not surprising that recruitment has been challenging for some”.
“Therefore, the Minister is absolutely right to say that the programme needs to be reviewed,” she said.
Lynne Sedgmore, 157 Group executive director, said: “We are delighted the minister has listened to advice from the 157 Group, supported by UCU and other sector bodies, to review the UTC programme before expanding any further.
“While we all want to make sure that high quality vocational programmes are available to all young people, it is clearly the case that new institutions, including UTCs, are not always the best answer.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “As is normal practice, we will continue to look at the performance of the UTC programme and how we can make sure they work most effectively.”
Former North Hertfordshire College (NHC) principal Fintan Donohue has denied any “knowledge of wrongdoing” after it was discovered that success rates were artificially boosted while he was in charge.
Current NHC principal Matt Hamnett (pictured below right) launched an investigation into learner information management shortly after starting in the post three months ago and he said it had uncovered “a series of issues”.
It found, he said, that details of failing learners were omitted from ILR returns as far back as 2008, with the effect of inflating classroom-based success rates by around 4 percentage points to 90.5 per cent last academic year.
There is no suggestion NHC would have been overpaid because it meant the college would have not been funded for some learners, but the practice would have given it an unfair success rates advantage over colleges who declared all learners.
However Mr Donohue (pictured top), who was principal and chief executive of the college from 2005 until the end of August 2012 when he stood down as principal but stayed on as chief executive for another year, told FE Week: “I have no knowledge of the alleged wrongdoing in respect of data inflation when I was principal of NHC.
“I have no reason to believe the forensic investigation initiated by the new principal suggests otherwise.”
The practice of boosting success rates by not claiming funding for failing learners was condemned in a 2009 letter to colleges by Geoff Russell, then-chief executive of the Learning and Skills Council, and a report commissioned by a group of colleges just over three years ago warned of “widespread” success rates manipulation among FE colleges.
I have no knowledge of the alleged wrongdoing in respect of data inflation when I was principal of North Hertfordshire College
The report, by Tenon Education Training and Skills Limited, was leaked to FE Week at the time and identified one such method as ‘buy one get one free’, which it described as: “Where the college has declining success rates and has chosen to stop offering the learning aim, potentially it could lose many learners.
“One solution to this is to continue to run the ‘declining success rate’ learning aim as a non-funded qualification, while choosing a similar learning aim (inspected under a different inspection code).”
But despite the warnings at the time, Mr Donohue, now chief executive of the Gazelle Group of Colleges, said: “I had every reason to be confident in the senior team responsible for data management.
“I do, of course, regret anything that casts doubt on the quality of any aspect of performance of the college over that period.”
The college was even granted an Education Training and Skills Green Flag Data Credibility Award in 2013 by Icca Education Training and Skills, which counts two of the Tenon report authors among its senior staff in Scott Winter and Vici Cadwallader-Webb.
“Audit reports including the green flag voluntary audit provided me with every confidence in the quality of data management,” added Mr Donohue.
He was succeeded as principal and then chief executive by former deputy principal Signe Sutherland (pictured left) as the duo, among others, launched Gazelle. She retired and was replaced by Mr Hamnett, but could not be reached for comment by FE Week.
He said: “I instigated a comprehensive piece of work to confirm the extent of these issues, properly address them and ensure that we have the platform we need to realise our high aspirations for the institution.”
An Ofsted spokesperson would not say whether the NHC findings had invalidated its last inspection result, in 2010, of ‘good’ overall with ‘outstanding’ leadership and management.
She said: “The 2010 report is five years old and reflects evidence available at the time. Ofsted’s focus is on what can be known and how we can take this into account in relation to the next inspection of this college.”
A Skills Funding Agency spokesperson said it had reviewed the NHC findings and “sought assurance from the corporation to ensure the situation would not arise again”, but it was “not planning to take any further action”.
The Education Funding Agency declined to comment. Nobody from Icca was available for comment.
Editor’s comment
Ignorance is no defence
Fintan Donohue says he did not know of any “wrongdoing” in respect of “data inflation” at North Hertfordshire College during his time in charge there.
It seems a classic case of ‘if he was aware then he did wrong and if he didn’t know then he wasn’t doing his job properly.’
Neither of these scenarios offer Mr Donohue any positivity, but taking him at his word we must believe the lesser of two evils — that as principal and chief executive he failed to spot, and therefore act to halt, long-term and serious cheating in relation to success rates.
The same two scenarios extend to Mr Donohue’s successor at the college, Signe Sutherland, who would also have been in charge while this data manipulation was taking place.
It’s an issue that will rock the sector for some time and who knows how it might affect Mr Donohue’s Gazelle project, although it’s a safe bet that it will not be of benefit.
The only person to emerge with any credit is new principal Matt Hamnett, who has been open with his findings and sought to draw a line in the sand for the college.
Providers hit with an unexpected and “agonising wait” to find out if they will be paid for apprenticeships and traineeships they have already started have halted further recruitment and are even contemplating job cuts.
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA), as exclusively revealed on feweek.co.uk, said it was delaying the outcome of growth requests from providers who have over-delivered on their contracts until after the budget on July 8.
The uncertainty over whether providers will be paid — even for government-prioritised 16 to 19 apprenticeships — has forced providers to turn away learners while some could be forced to lay off staff.
Mike Gore, director of Blue Apple Training, a provider with more than £800,000-worth of SFA subcontracting, told FE Week he could be forced to cut jobs because of uncertainty about the future in connection with the delay.
He said: “We are in the process of trying to agree with our lead contractors for next year but because everything is on hold we don’t know what we will get, so it doesn’t allow us to plan for the future, which has an impact of security of staff jobs.”
And Chris Baker, of Crackerjack Training, a lead provider with a current SFA allocation of almost £1.5m, said in a comment on feweek.co.uk website that his firm had been forced to suspend its traineeships intake as “we cannot afford to take the risk of delivering a programme that may not be funded”.
It comes after Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement that he wanted to see in-year savings of £450m each from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education — although Skills Minister Nick Boles told MPs that the £900m of cuts would not all fall on the sector.
However, concerns have been raised about the impact of potential curbs to growth funding on the government’s
3m apprenticeships target
in this Parliament.
And sector bodies have warned that providers should not be left “short-changed” by non-payment following delivery.
David Corke, director of education and skills policy for the Association of Colleges (AoC), said the 3m apprenticeships target was “ambitious”, and that a “common-sense” approach from the SFA was needed if it is to be met.
He said: “I hope the SFA and other agencies will take a common sense approach to make sure colleges and other providers are not short-changed.
“Although this over-delivery of apprenticeships affects a small number of colleges and other providers, it is important that they are paid for the work they have done.”
Dr Lynne Sedgmore, 157 Group executive director, said: “We appreciate that much is unclear in the realm of public finances at the moment, but the need to grow apprenticeships is not one of those things.
“Colleges and providers who have delivered on the clear priority for growth now face yet another agonising wait at a time when their financial position is already difficult.
“If the apprenticeship growth target is to be met, it has to be accompanied by a durable funding settlement which leaves those delivering the provision in no doubt that it will be properly funded. That must happen soon.”
An SFA spokesperson said it was awaiting the outcome of the budget before communicating about growth requests to “ensure that in-year funding is considered in line with government’s wider financial position”.
She added: “So far, in the 2014 to 2015 funding year, we have fully funded credible growth requests at performance points one and two, recycling £50m funds into apprenticeships and traineeships.
“Colleges and providers are responsible for managing their funding allocation or contract value.”
Why the government should guarantee funding for apprenticeships and traineeships
The Skills Funding Agency’s delay in announcing whether requests to fund growth in provision sent shockwaves through the sector. Angela Middleton explains how the delay will affect apprenticeship numbers.
This week’s announcement that funding for quarter three growth requests will be delayed has understandably caused frustration and fear among providers gearing themselves up to deliver more apprenticeships and traineeships.
The Chancellor announced that the government will save £0.5bn from FE, but there are still plans to protect apprenticeships.
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) contacted organisations on Monday [June 8] that provide traineeships and apprenticeships to inform them of the delay.
While it was nice to receive an individual call and the representative I spoke to was very understanding of the concerns felt by myself and other training providers, there was very little explanation as to why this has happened, or of the steps that will be taken to rectify the situation for those whose growth requests are outstanding.
MiddletonMurray as a training provider, like many others, has grown capacity steadily in order to deliver in line with government priorities and this involves taking a sensible risk as a commercial business that growth in funding will be forthcoming so long as the stated criteria are met.
The announcement throws us into uncertainty and makes us pull back on the business development we do with employers and the encouragement we offer to young people in relation to apprenticeships, because as much as we want to deliver this service, we have costs to cover and cannot be left overly exposed financially.
Progress in apprenticeship starts for our specialist area of 16 to 18-year-olds will stall
Stuart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), has said that he was “disappointed” by these developments and stressed that the delay would cause problems for both prospective apprentices and employers, who have made a commitment to a programme, the terms of which have now suddenly been changed.
We at MiddletonMurray are making schools and colleges aware of the opportunity of apprenticeships, and are effectively building the desire of young people to go into the world of work through an apprenticeship, often preceded by a traineeship.
Like many, we work tirelessly to help young people not in education employment or training (Neet) and small and medium-sized employers (SMEs) see the benefits of apprenticeships. We’ve also worked hard to achieve a grade two in our recent Ofsted inspection thus making us eligible to obtain traineeship funding, but despite this, we are now effectively in limbo.
It’s completely understandable that cuts need to be made, and the new government is under obvious pressure to do so. Upon his election, Prime Minister David Cameron’s first promise was to create 3m new apprenticeships, and I don’t believe he will backtrack on this promise.
What seems to have happened is that while the cuts are being worked out, funding for apprenticeships and traineeships has been grouped together with all other funding within the education system and rather than going ahead with growth on those protected categories, everything has been held up while cuts in those other areas are being calculated.
I myself am confident that the funding for the traineeships and apprenticeships is ‘safe’ and will ultimately be awarded to providers such as MiddletonMurray.
However, being made to wait for the government to make cuts in other areas means that the progress in apprenticeship starts for our specialist area of 16 to 18-year-olds will stall, young people who were excited to be going into jobs through apprenticeships will be disappointed, and SMEs will wonder why having made the decision to give youth a chance, they are now being told to wait. Let’s hope this isn’t for too long.
City and Islington College principal and chair of the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (Cavtl) Frank McLoughlin has been given a knighthood in the Queen’s 2015 Birthday honours list.
He leads a pack of more than 20 honours bound for people either working in or related to FE and skills that includes four other principals, three managing directors, a governor and even a prison bricklaying tutor (see below for full FE and skills list).
Mr McLoughlin’s award comes as official recognition for his services to FE having been City and Islington College principal since July 2002. He has more than 30 years of experience of the sector after joining as a part-time lecturer in 1980.
In 2012 he was appointed Cavtl chair by then-Skills Minister John Hayes, who said: “It is great news that Frank McLoughlin has agreed to chair this commission. His wealth of experience in delivering further education and skills in a challenging inner-city environment gives him the right credentials to lead work which will shape the future of teaching and learning for adults in England.”
Cavtl’s findings, taken on by the Education and Training Foundation, were published in March 2013 and included proposals for a national centre for a National Vocational Education and Training (VET) Centre to champion research and development of vocational pedagogy and develop a regional network of centres to showcase excellent vocational teaching and learning.
Mr McLoughlin said: “I am absolutely delighted that my contribution to further education has been acknowledged in this way. Receiving this honour is, most importantly, further recognition of the work City and Islington College undertakes to enable young people and adults to learn, thrive and succeed.
“Over its 22-year history, the college has transformed thousands of lives by creating fantastic opportunities for FE in London.
“I have been principal for 13 of those 22 years and I couldn’t be more proud of our staff and our students.
“I believe the honour also recognises the wider impact of Cavtl, which I chaired in 2013, and the critical importance of the FE sector as a whole.”
Next in the list were four CBEs, one of which is heading for Leeds City College principal Peter Roberts (pictured right) for services to FE.
“Having worked in education for 37 years and in the FE sector for 32 years, I am both delighted and humbled to be recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List,” he said.
“It is only fitting that I pay tribute and dedicate this award to all those who have helped, guided and supported me along the way. In particular, this includes my family, friends and all colleagues in the sector with whom it has been a privilege to work over this period of time.
“On a personal level I genuinely am honoured and the news is very timely given that I am planning to retire at the end of the summer.”
Nigel Whitehead (right) is interviewed by FE Week editor (then-deputy editor) Chris Henwood
Another sector-related CBE is going north of the border, to Dundee and Angus College principal Christina Potter (pictured below left) for services to education.
She has been the college principal for two years having previously been principal of Dundee College (before merger) for six years and principal of Elmwood College, in Fife, for a decade before that.
She told FE Week: “I’m stunned. It’s very special.
“They tell you a few weeks before it’s announced to make sure you aren’t going to turn it down, then you have to keep it a secret until the official announcements.
“My husband is the only one who knew because he opened the letter.”
When asked why she thought she had been awarded, she said: “I suppose, I’m the longest serving principal in Scotland [taking into account her three consecutive principal posts]. I’m stepping down at the end of July and this will be a perfect retirement present.
“I’ve enjoyed every single minute of my time in education because colleges can really make a difference to people’s lives.”
There were nine OBEs heading FE and skills’ way, with Judy Lowe’s services to the construction industry, particularly women in construction, earning her the honour.
The former Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) deputy chair (pictured left) told FE Week: “It’s all becoming real now. Part of you thinks ‘did I send the acceptance letter to the right person’.
“It’s for work I have done over the years to enhance the role of women in construction. In 1996 I became the first woman to join the board of a construction company, Mott MacDonald.
“One of my roles since leaving CITB is that I’m chair designate of the West Midlands Construction University Technical College, and we have had 15 per cent female recruitment, which is wonderful when you think the coalface average is 1.5 per cent.
“Young people are seeing construction for what it is now, not what it was 20 years ago.”
The 14,500-learner college, previously rated as good, achieved the top grading in all headline fields in April last year.
Inspectors praised staff for putting learners “at the heart of all college activity”.
She said: “I am absolutely thrilled and honoured to be receiving an OBE. It is, however, testament to the great staff and students of Chichester who have made this possible.”
Croydon College head of student life Di Layzelle (pictured below left) was one of six FE and skills MBE recipients, and was recognised for her service to FE. Her first job in education was as a school PE teacher, before she moved to Croydon College to help with the development of a vocational sports course.
She has worked tirelessly at the college for over a quarter of a century in various roles and is now head of student life. She has forged strong partnerships with UNICEF, steering the college to become the only Rights Respecting College in the UK and also forged links with a number of other charities, agencies and partners. Through this she has steered students and the college to engage in, and support, many significant causes to the benefit of Croydon and its community.
Croydon College became the first FE institution to receive the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service last year after learners collectively clocked up 18,000 hours of voluntary work in one academic year. She has continued to build upon this success with learners now reaching a total of over 24,000 hours of volunteering which have been delivered across a wide range of projects and with over 2,500 beneficiaries. Her efforts were further covered by FE Week in this profile article last year.
“I couldn’t believe it. I am sitting here with a big Cheshire Cat grin — it’s ridiculous,” said Ms Layzelle of her MBE.
“It’s fantastic for the college because I think it shows the true value they place on student engagement and this is really about helping students aspire and achieve what they might never have dreamed they could.
“This is phenomenal for FE but also for the college because I genuinely believe the work we do is unique.
“When you’re nominated for these things it demonstrates the true value of the work we do, and my work is with young people who are perhaps on their last chance.”
Frances Wadsworth, Croydon College principal, said: “Di Layzelle is truly remarkable and a worthy recipient of this tremendous honour. Her endless enthusiasm and complete dedication is awe inspiring.
“On behalf of all of the staff, students and governors I congratulate her and thank her for all of the work that she has done for Croydon College students. She is a wonderful example to us all”.
The FE and skills-related list of Queen’s 2015 Birthday honours awards
Knighthood
Frank McLoughlin, principal, City and Islington College and chair of the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (Cavtl) — for services to FE
CBE
Dr Heather McGregor — for services to business, especially employment skills and diversity in the workplace
Christina Potter, principal, Dundee and Angus College — for services to education
Peter Roberts, principal, Leeds City College — for services to FE
Nigel Whitehead, group managing director programmes and support, BAE Systems and UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) commissioner — for services to vocational education and skills
OBE
Sharon Jane Allen, chief executive, Skills for Care — for services to social care, homeless people and housing
Judy Susan Baker — for services to the development of cyber skills
Lesley Davies, vice president for quality, standards and research at Pearson, trustee of crime reduction charity Nacro and the Cadet Vocational Qualification Organisation (CVQO) — for services to Education.
Desmond Paul Lambert, principal, Plumpton College — for services to land-based education and young people
Shelagh Legrave, principal and chief executive, Chichester College — for services to FE
Judy Lowe, former deputy chair, Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) — for services to the construction industry, particularly women in construction
Vincent Samuel Middleton, chair and managing director, Newburgh Engineering Ltd — for services to advanced manufacturing skills training
Roslyn Louise Morpeth, chief executive, National Extension College — for services to FE
Emer Marie Murnaghan, head of business improvement, Graham Construction — for services to the civil engineering profession and FE in Northern Ireland
Michael Jarvis Smith, chief executive, Gen2 Training Ltd — for services to skills training and voluntary service to the community in Cumbria
MBE
Alexander Campbell Denholm, governor, East Riding College — for services to FE
Andrew John Dennis, brick instructor in prisons, Manchester College — for services to prison education and skills
Colin William Hagan, managing director, Riverpark Training and Development — for services to vocational skills
Kathleen Rebecca Harker, basic skills development manager, Ministry of Defence — for services to Army education
Di Layzelle, head of student life, Croydon College — for services to FE
Eric McLean MacIntyre, lately higher education manager, Loughborough College — for services to higher education
British Empire Medal
Carole Ann Garrett, director, Profit Optimiser — for services to enterprise and skills in Burnley
Super colleges and beefed-up sector skills councils could be on the horizon — if Skills Minister Nick Boles’s hopes of emulating the Dutch vocational system come to fruition.
During a special debate tabled in Westminster Hall on Tuesday (May 9) to mark VQ day, Mr Boles told MPs that in the UK “we always beat ourselves over the head” about how to get a vocational system more like Germany’s.
But, he said, the German system was “the product of a deep economic, educational and social culture that is somewhat different from ours”.
“The Dutch economy is more similar to our own in culture and approach than the German one,” he said.
“It is smaller, but it has what we would see as—I am not sure that the Dutch would accept this—Anglo-Saxon features.
“They seem to have a better system of clear routes through education to high, degree-level qualifications.”
In the Netherlands, vocational education comes under the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science — all except agricultural education, which represents a large part of the Dutch economy and is overseen by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation.
From the age of 12, pupils choose between three pathways — a four year pre-vocational pathway, a five year general education pathway, or a six year pre-university pathway, although most schools allow pupils to move from one pathway to another.
Post-16 vocational training mostly takes place within 42 state-funded super colleges, Regional Education and Training Centres (ROCs), with up to 35,000 learners, and offering more than 350 vocational courses.
According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, 25 per cent of Dutch companies also operate as employer providers.
Currently, employer representation comes through a national, sector-based group of 17 knowledge centres, similar to the UK’s sector skills councils but with larger remits — including designing qualifications and recruiting employers.
However, austerity has meant the government is planning to create a single national body, the Foundation for Cooperation on VET and Industry, which will be supported by eight sectoral bodies to take over from the knowledge centres.
Paul Casey, competition lead for the UK Commission on Employment and Skills, said the vocational system in the Netherlands was “seen as highly effective by employers in terms of delivering the right outcome for them and a clear channel to have an input into the design of qualifications.”
Around 55 per cent of young people take a vocational pathway in the Netherlands because, he said, the route was “highly flexible”.
“It can be school-based or work-based — so if you’ve got an economic crisis and those employers can’t afford to enable young people to train with them and offer apprenticeship places, then those students can be routed back through school training,” he said.
According Eurostat, the European Commission data body, the Dutch youth unemployment rate was 10.1 per cent at the end of 2014 — lower than the UK’s 16.1 per cent.
Before the creation of the ROCs, the Netherlands, like the UK, had many smaller colleges, which from 1996 were gradually merged to give the 42 of today.
However, Mr Casey was cautious about backing Mr Boles’s suggestion to re-create the Dutch system in the UK and said there would have to be “some serious feasibility studies”.
“Whether that’s transferable to the UK I’m not sure,” he said.
“They’re on different scales — the Netherlands is, compared to us, a relatively small country in terms of landmass but also population.
“There’s always a concern in terms of transferring a skills policy from one country to the other — because there may well be similarities, but there will be differences too.”
Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham sparked an alarmed response on Twitter after his comments on apprenticeship loans led to fears he was considering proposals to bring back a failed FE policy.
Former Business Secretary Dr Vince Cable revealed to FE Week exclusively in December 2013 that apprentice FE tuition loans would be scrapped after just 404 applications in around seven months.
However, last week Mr Burnham, one of five Labour MPs hoping to become the next party leader, told Sky News: “In our school system we focus too much on the academic but don’t give all children realistic prospects for when they leave.
“I’m talking of extending the loan scheme that students currently get to apprentices.”
Among those to respond to the comments via Twitter was Shane Chowen, head of policy and public affairs at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education.
He tweeted: “Coalition tried in and apprenticeship numbers went down. No appetite for it.”
He later added: “AB [Andy Burnham] would be better off coming up with ideas how to get more employers involved — that’s the problem right now.”
Mr Burnham’s office did not respond to requests to comment and give details of his proposals.
However, Sky reporter Sophy Ridge told FE Week the MP for Leigh had been referring to maintenance loans rather than tuition fee loans.
It led the National Union of Students (NUS) to call for a higher minimum wage for apprentices to avoid the need for maintenance loans.
Joe Vinson, NUS vice president for FE, said he wanted a “serious debate” over the minimum wage for apprentices, which is currently £2.73 per hour but will rise to £3.30 an hour from October.
He said: “Raising the minimum wage for apprentices to fall in line with the national minimum wage is a much more sustainable option that does not saddle young learners with the worry of repaying huge loans at the start of their careers.
“Currently apprentices and their families are also prevented from accessing benefits available to others, including child benefit and child tax credit, care to learn grants, interest free overdrafts and discounted travel cards.
“NUS has been campaigning for a serious debate to happen over the state of support for apprentices, one that will lead to a commitment to removing the financial barriers which currently exist.”
But David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace), said he supported such an extension of loans, although he echoed Mr Vinson’s concerns about the lack of a “decent wage” for some apprentices.
He said: “For too many young people this means that they cannot afford to do an apprenticeship because housing and living costs are prohibitive, unless they can continue to live at home.”
