Sue Pember casts her eye over the Ofsted 2014/15 annual report.
Ofsted’s mission statement is ‘raising standards and improving lives’ and that is certainly the focus of the 2014/15 annual report.
Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw was absolutely right to highlight the failure of many secondary schools and point out how the performance of secondary schools in the North is worse than those in the South.
I do worry though that poor schools in the South will think they are now off the hook. It is scandalous that the good work of primary schools is undermined and not followed through into secondary schools.
Shouldn’t we be encouraging Ofsted to get involved and help shape the activity when it is being developed rather than leaving it to when a programme is up and running?
However, this is not new. Ask any FE lecturer and they will tell you stories of bright youngsters who didn’t do well at secondary school but flourished when they went to college, and they tell you of the heartache they feel when they have to try to re-motivate a young person who has been turned off learning for five years, has completely lost confidence, and has to start back at the basics.
What is also interesting in the chief inspector’s report is that the North/South divide is not there for primary schools, or for colleges.
I struggled to find in his report a comparison of how schools are doing compared to colleges, or any recognition that this element was always going to be very problematic. This is an area where we all need to work together and, if Ofsted has the answers, then course managers and lecturers must listen and respond.
But, this issue, did make me reflect on the role and timing of inspection.
In business and in manufacturing, inspection is key to quality control and the inspectors don’t just appear at the end of the process — they are in the mix from the start, making it clear what they will be looking for in the final inspection.
So shouldn’t we be encouraging Ofsted to get involved and help shape the activity when it is being developed rather than leaving it to when a programme is up and running and only then saying what they are looking for?
I don’t want to distract from the issue of improving quality, but I do feel this is what has happened on study programmes. Wouldn’t it have been more effective to detail the inspection criteria at the start?
I am worried that we may repeat this scenario again with apprenticeship standards and we will find ourselves in two or three years’ time with Ofsted offering their critical assessment of the new standards without having said in development stage anything about what they will be assessing.
There will be many hundreds of standards with different delivery patterns and many with different end tests/assessments — these could be about how to build a wall, completing a workplace project or sitting a viva voce.
Many of these will be delivered without being piloted. Therefore, it is vital that the quality measures/outcomes which the inspectors will be reviewing are determined now, otherwise we will undermine the policy and the inspectors will be back criticising apprenticeship quality in three years’ time.
The chief inspector was right to draw attention to the drop in adult learning participation. We need to do more and collectively we need to refocus our adult learning strategies. Our nation’s productivity is never going to improve unless we tackle the legacy workforce with poor basic skills. We need a sustained programme of adult English and maths courses in the work place and we need to share the cost between the state who failed them when they were at school and the employer.
Adult education is not a luxury but an essential service, to meet the demands made on it, it will need to grow in the future and our collective challenge is to ensure we provide the leadership and direction and not to let down those older learners who are relying on us. Therefore it was right to feature in the annual report and I hope that it now galvanises us all into establishing a new focus on adult learning.
The launch date for the first round of long-overdue invitations to tender for European Social Fund (ESF) contracts has been set for Monday (December 7), FE Week can reveal.
The previous 2007 to 2013 Euro skills contracts closed on July 31 and none have gone out to tender through the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) since.
A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said that resulting funding gap had “led to staff redundancies, centre closures and even providers having to cease trading [because of the sudden loss of the ESF cash]”.
But an SFA spokesperson told FE Week this afternoon that “as communicated to our stakeholder group today, we have processed six specifications for NEET [not in education, employment, or training] provision, and we are now in a position to launch six Invitations to Tender on December 7”.
“The second set of invitations to tender are scheduled to be launched on December 14,” she added. “In line with our procurement process there will be a 30 calendar day bidding window (excluding December 24 to January 3 inclusive).
“The procurement programme is flexible and when we are in receipt of agreed specifications from Leps, we will process and launch them in appropriate sets, at regular time frames.”
The SFA is yet to comment on which six NEET geographic areas the first round of contracts will be tendered for.
It comes after FE Week exclusively revealed on November 10 that the SFA planned to run a “sequence of procurement” for handing out £650m of delayed ESF cash, which must be finished by the end of September next year at the very latest to allow a minimum delivery period of 18 months.
The delivery period, up to March 2018, was determined with ministers unable to say that the SFA would oversee anything other than apprenticeships beyond then.
Mike Bell, SFA deputy director for localism policy implementation, wrote to Local Enterprise Partnership (Lep) and European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) committees with details of the timeline (pictured above).
“Ministers have agreed that we cannot put in place contractual or match-funding arrangements beyond the point at which the SFA might cease to be accountable for the non-apprenticeship adult skills budget,” wrote Mr Bell, who said a new “simplified procurement initiation document” would help the process.
Furthermore, FE Week revealed in March that then-Minister for Communities and Local Government European Programmes, Lord Ahmad, had told Leps that only the London Lep would be allowed to “take decisions” over ESF funding.
The government had previously planned to give all 39 Leps a “direct role” in dishing out ESF cash, but his letter to them said the European Commission had barred this.
It is thought that the long-running dispute between the government and the European Commission leading up to Lord Ahmad’s announcement, over the role that should be played by Leps in the process, was a significant cause of delay with launching the tendering process.
These are the first areas which the will be involved in the first round of long-awaited invitations to tender for European Social Fund (ESF) contracts, FE Week can exclusively reveal.
The previous 2007 to 2013 ESF contracts closed on July 31 and none have gone out to tender through the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) since.
However, FE Week revealed last night that the launch date for the first round of six invitations to tender for not in education, employment, or training (NEET) provision had been set for Monday (December 7).
The SFA did not say which regions these would apply to — but FE Week now understands the local enterprise partnership (Lep) areas that the invitations to tender will go through will include Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, and Solent (covering the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton).
The other Leps involved will be Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership, Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership, and Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, which is understood will be involved with two contracts including one specifically for offenders.
An SFA spokesperson declined to comment on the areas this morning, saying it had to “follow a 48-hour rule which is in the new public contracts directives 2015”.
“The information has to be published to the rest of the EU prior to us publishing nationally,” the spokesperson added. “Therefore LEPs can publish on their website on Monday after 5pm but not before.”
It comes after an SFA spokesperson told FE Week yesterday that “as communicated to our stakeholder group today, we have processed six specifications for NEET provision, and we are now in a position to launch six Invitations to Tender on December 7”.
“The second set of invitations to tender are scheduled to be launched on December 14,” she added. “In line with our procurement process there will be a 30 calendar day bidding window (excluding December 24 to January 3 inclusive).
“The procurement programme is flexible and when we are in receipt of agreed specifications from local enterprise partnerships (Leps), we will process and launch them in appropriate sets, at regular time frames.”
It follows another FE Week exclusively on November 10, which revealed how the SFA was planning to run a “sequence of procurement” for handing out £650m of delayed ESF cash, which must be finished by the end of September next year at the very latest to allow a minimum delivery period of 18 months.
The delivery period, up to March 2018, was determined with ministers unable to say that the SFA would oversee anything other than apprenticeships beyond then.
Mike Bell, SFA deputy director for localism policy implementation, wrote to Local Enterprise Partnership (Lep) and European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) committees with details of the timeline.
“Ministers have agreed that we cannot put in place contractual or match-funding arrangements beyond the point at which the SFA might cease to be accountable for the non-apprenticeship adult skills budget,” wrote Mr Bell, who said a new “simplified procurement initiation document” would help the process.
Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission chair Alan Milburn (pictured above) has told a Lords committee how the FE sector is “an absolute jungle” for learners and it needs to “take lessons from the higher education system”.
Mr Milburn told the House of Lords Social Mobility Committee that FE was in need of “simplification” as he gave evidence on improving the social mobility in the transition from school to work.
He appeared before the committee at its penultimate evidence session on Wednesday (December 2) and said: “The choices that young people are making are not the greatest choices.
“And that is for a whole variety of reasons, like the lack of transparency in the [FE] system.
“In fact to grace it with the word system seems to me a complete misnomer — this is not a system it’s a jungle.”
He said the higher education system had “total clarity” and “a portal of entry” — referring to Ucas, which operates a system called Progress for the FE and skills sector.
The FE system, he claimed, was “almost designed to induce more complexity and the wrong choices”.
He added: “We need to imbibe some of the lessons from higher education and translate those lessons into how we structure and guide people through vocational education.
“I think we have got to do some serious rethinking of all of this and almost go back to basics in terms of design.”
Mr Milburn referred to “16,000 courses” to choose from in FE and said “with such a multitude of organisations and qualifications, it’s almost impossible to make a trade-off between them”.
He said: “Heaven help us — if there is ever, ever a need for simplification it is here.”
He also commented on last month’s Budget and said “colleges probably breathed a sigh of relief” after hearing Chancellor George Osborne’s speech, but added that “there are some real challenges” with growth, which “has obviously fallen”.
The Social Mobility Committee evidence session came just a day after Association of Colleges (AoC) president John Widdowson (pictured) discussed higher education at the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee.
John Widdowson
He said: “It’s tempting to use university as a proxy for all higher education, but clearly it isn’t, and will become less so in the future.”
Mr Widdowson added that a set of metrics “might work perfectly well in the current university system, probably won’t work with some of the new entrants that are coming into the higher education world”.
The set of metrics to enhance teaching and learning in higher education include, focusing on enhancement, enhancing reputation, preserving diversity, preserving autonomy and efficiency within the sector.
The final Lords Social Mobility Committee evidence session is due to take place on Wednesday, December 9 at 10.35 with Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Skills Minister Nick Boles as witnesses.
The committee has already heard from high profile figures including former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw.
It is expected to report its findings by late March.
Six reviews have been detailed in the Midlands, London and the North West among other areas, and are set to begin next month.
And just like the seven reviews of the first wave, in which 83 colleges are being reviewed, no school sixth forms were listed.
Steering groups for the second wave, each of which will be chaired by either FE Commissioner Dr David Collins or Sixth Form College Commissioner Peter Mucklow, are expected to get under way between January 18 and March 10.
The indicative timings for waves three, four and five to begin were April, September and November next year respectively, and comprising 22 proposed area reviews — although the government acknowledged that some local areas may wish to change the timing of their reviews and circumstances at some colleges may change.
“Together these three waves cover all of the areas in England not covered in waves one and two, although area reviews covering Greater London are yet to be confirmed. We currently anticipate that they will form part of waves two and three,” said a government spokesperson.
In the Marches and Worcestershire area review in wave two seven FE colleges will come under scrutiny, along with four SFCs. Thames Valley will have the greatest number of FE colleges reviewed in the second wave at eight institutions, but only one SFC — The Henley College.
The West of England will have four colleges examined and one SFC, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College, while Cheshire and Warrington will see six FE colleges and two SFCs under review.
In Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire it will be five FE colleges and one SFC, City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College, and in Surrey four colleges and six SFCs — the great number of SFCs for the regions in this second wave of reviews.
The first group of area reviews to be announced, as reported in FE Week on September 8, covered 22 FE colleges and 16 SFCs in Birmingham and Solihull, Greater Manchester, and Sheffield. More reviews, involving 21 FE colleges and 13 SFCs, were announced on September 25 for the Tees Valley, Sussex Coast and Solent regions.
The seventh and final region in the first wave of area reviews was announced on October 16 as West Yorkshire and included seven general FE colleges and four sixth form colleges.
The government has said the “need” to move towards “fewer, often larger, more resilient and efficient providers,” underlies the area reviews. However, Dr Collins has said “divorces” could also be on the cards.
Main image indicative only and based on local enterprise partnership boundaries
Wave two
The Marches and Worcestershire
FE colleges
Heart of Worcestershire College
Hereford College of Arts
Herefordshire and Ludlow College
North Shropshire College
Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology
South Worcestershire College
Telford College of Arts and Technology
Sixth form colleges
Hereford Sixth Form College
New College Telford
Shrewsbury Sixth Form College
Worcester Sixth Form College
Thames Valley
FE Colleges
Abingdon and Witney College
Activate Learning (City of Oxford College, Banbury and Bicester College and Reading College)
Amersham and Wycombe College
Aylesbury College
Berkshire College of Agriculture
Bracknell and Wokingham College
East Berkshire College
Newbury College
Sixth form colleges
The Henley College
West of England
FE Colleges
Bath College
City of Bristol College
South Gloucestershire and Stroud College
Weston College of Further Education
Sixth form colleges
St Brendan’s Sixth Form College
Cheshire and Warrington
FE Colleges
Macclesfield College
Mid Cheshire College
Reaseheath College (specialist land based)
South Cheshire College
Warrington Collegiate
West Cheshire College
Sixth form colleges
Priestley College
Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College
Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire
FE Colleges
Burton and South Derbyshire College
Newcastle-under-Lyme College
South Staffordshire College
Stafford College
Stoke-on-Trent College
Sixth form colleges
City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College
Surrey
FE Colleges
Brooklands College
East Surrey College
Guildford College
North East Surrey College of Technology
Sixth form colleges
College of Richard Collyer
Esher College
Godalming College
Reigate College
Strode’s College
Woking College
The government also announced the following regions for indicative area reviews*:
The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) has appointed a Yorkshire-based firm to run a consultation with the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) on how English and maths Functional Skills should be reformed.
The government asked ETF to carry out a comprehensive review of English and maths Functional Skills, as reported in FE Week in July, that will lead to new qualifications being launched by September 2018.
The ETF has now told FE Week that it has appointed Yorkshire-based Pye Tait Consulting, in partnership with Niace, to lead the consultation on its behalf, following a public procurement process.
Adrian Smith, associate director of Pye Tait Consulting, said: “We are delighted to be working with the ETF on the project.
“The evidence that ETF has already gathered shows that there is a need to look in more detail at Functional Skills.”
Joyce Black
Joyce Black, assistant director of development and research at Niace, said: “We are delighted to be working with Pye Tait Consulting in the delivery of this vital and timely ETF consultation.
“We know from our longstanding involvement in adult literacy and numeracy, and from our recent ‘What Employers Want’ project, how important good English and maths skills are in life and at work.”
She added that Niace was looking “forward to working with the learning and skills sector and employers to help ensure that Functional Skills English and maths qualifications will meet the needs of all learners, and offer improved support for progression in learning and at work, to benefit individuals and the wider economy.”
The ETF has in addition to this appointed London-based ICF Consulting Services, also through a public procurement process, to lead an “independent evaluation” of the reforms.
Colin Howat, project director for ICF Consulting Services, said: “We are delighted to be undertaking this independent evaluation of the reforms to maths and English functional skills qualifications for the ETF.
“We will be looking at both the process of reform and the eventual impact, as the programme progresses.’’
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said that the overall aim of the review would be to “improve the rigour of Functional Skills and ensure they are recognised and respected by employers” and the new qualifications would be “available during 2018”.
A steering body, for example including the Association of Colleges (AoC), the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, Holex, the Federation of Small Businesses and the UK Commission for Employment & Skills, will help oversee the process.
David Russell
David Russell, ETF chief executive, said: “We’re delighted to be asked to lead this work through its next phase, having been closely involved since its beginning.
“With a million Functional Skills certificates issued each year, these qualifications must equip learners with the maths and English they need in a way that employers understand and trust.”
Gill Clipson, deputy chief executive of the AoC, said: “We are pleased to be working with the ETF to ensure that these improvements are made.”
The 2014/15 Ofsted annual report painted a picture of an FE and skills sector in which two years of improvement came to a near-halt last academic year — and general FE colleges even saw a “decline” in performance.
Shakira Martin
Click here for more of the report, which was launched at 10am, while sector responses to Ofsted’s findings can be found below.
Reflecting on the report’s comments on the financial pressures face by the sector, National Union of Students vice president for FE Shakira Martin said: “Colleges have done well to ensure that there is a decent standard of education during a time of immense financial pressure.
“However, we remain concerned that providers will struggle to continue with this given greater pressures on staff and with attention of senior leaders and governors diverted by area reviews and mergers.
“More needs to be done by providers to develop effective student engagement processes that drive quality improvement. The dependence on survey data as a measure of student satisfaction should not be the sole means. Providers could learn a lot, for example, about learners perceptions and ideas for the effective delivery of English and Maths GCSE, through effectively resourcing student voice and creating a partnership approach to quality improvement.”
David Hughes
David Hughes, chief executive at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) said: “The findings in the Ofsted report are worrying because we want every learner to have a great experience, but we have to recognise the funding pressures that colleges and providers are under at the moment, as well as the impact of the new inspection framework.
“The concerns raised about apprenticeships being used to accredit existing skills with no substantial new learning must be addressed.
“It is precisely why Niace is working closely with employers and apprentices to develop the Apprentice Charter, guaranteeing a high quality learning and learning experience.
“We’re also calling for the Government to use 1 per cent of the income from the new apprenticeship levy to create a quality and access fund — making sure everyone has access to a high quality apprenticeship.
He added: “Once again, the chief inspector was highly critical of learning and skills in our prisons.
“It cannot continue and we must make sure that the review led by Dame Sally Coates and re-tendering of Offender Learning and Skills Service (Olass) contracts really do make a difference.
Mr Hughes said: “Our recommendations to the Coates Review would help deliver a step change in offender learning, ultimately reducing reoffending rates.
“For instance, we need to enable long-term prisoners to access higher level courses, including on-line if we are to support people into decent jobs on release.
“We would also like to see incentives in Olass 5 contracts to increase partnership between education providers and community-based partners and to monitor progress through the gate.
“To help achieve the step-change, we need more up skilling of prison staff so that the important link between learning and rehabilitation is reinforced consistently across the whole prison regime,” he added.
Mr Hughes said that Niace was also pleased “to see that Ofsted has highlighted improvements in learning, skills and employment in women’s prisons.
“Our research ‘Learning for Women in Prisons’ shows the importance of addressing women’s personal, domestic and socio-economic circumstances alongside vocational learning and training.
“We have worked with female prisons to develop innovative approaches including family learning and tailored personal social development programmes.
“These have been successful in helping women to break out of destructive patterns, develop skills, access sustained employment and training, better care for their families, and become effective members of their community, and have led to some of the improvements noted in Ofsted’s report.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills responded to the concern raised in the report about the negative impact of funding cuts on FE provision.
She said: “Investing in skills is vital to achieving our ambitions to increase UK productivity. By 2019/20, government spending on apprenticeships will have doubled in cash terms compared to 2010/11.
“Funding for the core adult skills participation budgets will be protected in cash terms and five National Colleges will train an estimated 21,000 students by 2020 in industries central to the productivity agenda.
“Locally-led area reviews will help improve quality by securing an efficient and financially resilient sector, capable of delivering high quality apprenticeships and the technical and professional skills that learners and employers want. Additional government funding will help to support area reviews.”
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: “Ofsted’s annual report is a damning indictment of the Government’s skills policy. Although young people clearly value the education and training they receive in FE colleges, they have 267,000 fewer students than last year.
Dr Mary Bousted
“It is extremely concerning that during the current academic year only 35 per cent of FE colleges have been judged good or outstanding, less than half the percentage in 2015 and a dramatic fall from the upward trajectory of improving performance between 2012 and 2014.
“Ofsted rightly lays the responsibility for fewer FE colleges being judged good or outstanding on the Government’s doorstep for putting ‘colleges under considerable financial pressure’.
“It is clear the devastating cuts to the skills budgets is having a marked effect on colleges’ ability to deliver good quality courses and affecting the opportunities for young people to improve their life chances through education.
She added: “Ofsted is also right to be critical about the withdrawal of funding for careers education, advice, information and guidance in schools, with only one in five schools ensuring students in years 9 to 11 are receiving the support they need to make key decisions about their future.
“With teachers unable to access the information, CPD and time they need to support their students, it is unsurprising that vocational opportunities and apprenticeships are not well promoted, and are still regarded as second best to A-levels and university.”
She also said that ATL agreed “with Ofsted that the Government‘s apprenticeship policies should focus much more on quantity, rather than relentlessly pursuing the target of 3m, if it is to attract young people onto these programmes”.
“As Ofsted points out, the surge in apprenticeships since 2010 has mainly resulted from new programmes in the customer service, retail, administration and care sectors, and many of these have not been of sufficient quality — nearly half of apprenticeships have been judged as inadequate or requiring improvement,” she added.
Gordon Marsden
Shadow Skills Minister Gordon Marsden said: “The decline [in FE standards] that Sir Michael has noted in his report is concerning, but it is hardly surprising in the face of a series of cuts that the sector has faced. He clearly acknowledged the impact of the financial problems in his report.
“Providers have also too often had to make major adjustments under impossible time constraints.
“His observations on the need for colleges both to improve and expand their apprenticeship provision is concerning, because FE colleges are so much the centre of the local skills community and have a vital role to play in this area.
“They need to take those points raised in the report on board, but unfortunately the area review process that the Government has embarked on is not conducive to such reflection, as it’s cost driven.
“Sir Michael also said little about adult skills in the summary of his report, which is unfortunate because this area, and how it is funded, will be just as important to the future of colleges in the coming years as 16 to 19 and 19 to 24 provision.”
Stewart Segal
Stewart Segal, the Association for Employment and Learning Providers’ (AELP) chief executive, said: “Despite the funding pressures acknowledged in the report, it is pleasing that in respect of independent learning providers, Ofsted has found the percentage of training providers who are judged good or outstanding has increased again in 2015 to 79 per cent, up a point from last year and an increase of 10 per cent in two years.
“It is a terrific achievement in a time of great change and challenging financial circumstances.”
He added: “The views of employers and learners are paramount in terms of measuring quality and large surveys by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Confederation of British Industry (CBI) regularly show high satisfaction ratings with training programmes.
“Therefore it is encouraging that Ofsted has underscored this with its own Learner View findings of 12,000 learners, 91 per cent of whom said that they would recommend their provider to a friend, AELP has always said that the views of employers and learners should rank as highly as success rates in an Ofsted inspection.
“Ofsted inspections early in an academic year tend to focus on the worst performers and this should be made very clear in the report. Nearly 80 per cent of provision overall is either good or outstanding and we need to promote good practice.
“Since September 2015, we have had another Common Inspection Framework in place after the previous one lasted a mere two years and providers now have to manage inspections under a new regime.
“We agree that the reforms of apprenticeships must focus on raising the quality, rigour and profile of all apprenticeships and not on simply increasing the numbers of apprentices. The resulting system must also be simple and easy for employers to use and it should lead to the employer commitment and improvement in quality that we all want to see.”
Sally Hunt
University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said: “As the report rightly recognises, the FE sector has faced massive budget cuts in recent years. It is little surprise that this rapidly changing funding environment is acting as a barrier to quality.
“If the government wants to support improvement in the FE and skills sector, it should put a sustainable funding system in place which ensures that cost is not a barrier to people accessing the skills learning they need. It should also recognise that apprenticeships are not the only solution to the country’s skills needs and enable colleges to focus their provision to meet local priorities. The report supports UCU’s previously expressed concerns about the poor the quality of many apprenticeships.”
Gill Clipson
Gill Clipson, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “The government is committed to creating 3m apprenticeships by 2020 but ensuring a sufficient number of young people access these opportunities will require a change in attitude.
“Young people must be informed at school, by the age of 14 at the latest, about the wide range of careers that are open to them, and the education and training routes, whether technical, professional or academic. Colleges are keen to work closely with schools to the benefit of students as well as the wider economy.
“Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector has highlighted a decline in the overall performance of FE colleges inspected this year. We are pleased though that Ofsted has recognised the ‘context’ behind this.
“Considering the level of funding cuts colleges have had in the last five years, and the massive task of providing thousands of young people with GCSE maths and English qualifications, it is a great achievement that nationally, 77 per cent of colleges are judged to be good or outstanding.
“The government has given colleges breathing space in not reducing funding any further in the recent Spending Review. Ofsted has called for a renewed focus on FE and skills and colleges are committed to playing a key role in driving the country’s economic prospects, closing skills gaps and raising productivity.”
James Kewin
James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, said: “This year’s report acknowledges that more sixth form colleges are judged to be good or outstanding than any sector.
“Attainment at A-level remains strong and the report shows that Sixth Form Colleges lead the way in securing good GCSE grades in English and maths for learners who did not achieve these at Key Stage four.
“All of this has been achieved against a background of funding reductions and curriculum reform. Sixth form college staff and leaders have done exceptionally well in helping to deliver such outstanding results at such a challenging time.”
Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw has told how he has “seen the pace of improvement slow” in FE and skills — picking out general FE colleges in particular as where “performance has declined”.
English and maths commitments, finances and falling standards in leadership were among the issues for colleges identified by the education watchdog’s chief inspector as he launched his 2014/15 annual report this morning.
Sir Michael’S report described how Ofsted had hailed sector improvements over the last two years — but they had had now “slowed down,” he warned.
“In the case of general FE colleges, there has been an overall decline in standards,” he wrote.
“With the financial pressures on the sector and the structural uncertainty brought about by the area-based reviews, it is imperative that the underlying weaknesses are tackled to prevent further falls in quality.”
Ofsted 2014/15 annual report
He added: “Ofsted found just 44 per cent of the leadership in general FE colleges to be good or outstanding, 19 percentage points lower than last year.
“Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) have reported concerns about the performance of leaders in the sector across most regions of the country, with London performing slightly worse than other areas.
“In the good and outstanding colleges seen by inspectors, leaders focused on ensuring consistently high‑quality teaching. They worked well with local employers when developing their curriculum offer and tackled long-standing weaknesses.
“As in schools, the challenge is to share this good leadership practice more widely, something that is not always done well or willingly in this highly competitive sector.”
His conclusions were drawn from the inspection results of 51 GFE colleges, 127 independent learning providers and 15 sixth form colleges.
“Across England, 77 per cent of all general FE colleges are good or outstanding compared with 79 per cent last year [2013/14],” wrote Sir Michael.
“This decline is because one-in-three of the GFE colleges inspected this year dropped at least one grade and a further 16 failed to improve from their previous grade of requires improvement or inadequate.
“Worryingly, just 34 per cent of 16 to 19 study programmes were found to be good or outstanding.”
He added: “The majority of general FE colleges inspected this year were judged less than good. With only 35 per cent judged good or outstanding, this reflects the fact that general FE colleges are struggling on a number of fronts.
“This year, the number of learners who had to study English and mathematics in order to have their study funded rose dramatically, and because many colleges did not have an adequate strategy to respond, the quality of teaching declined.
“At the same time, almost half of these colleges were operating a deficit budget, in part because the sector lost almost 267,000 learners in a single year.”
He revealed that a “thematic survey” of study programmes would be carried out to look into what the issues were.
“The quality of apprenticeships remains a particular concern, notwithstanding the fact that there continues to be some excellent practice in this country, notably in the construction and engineering sectors,” he wrote.
“The figures from our routine inspections this year are shocking, with almost half the provision judged to be less than good.
“Of the 190 apprenticeship programmes inspected this year, 72 were judged to require improvement and 21 were inadequate, affecting around 73,000 apprentices.
“This year we found that many of the programmes on offer were failing to give apprentices the skills and knowledge employers want.
“Too many low-skilled roles were being classed as apprenticeships and used to accredit the established skills of employees who had been in a job for some time.
“In some cases, apprentices were not even aware that the course they were on was an apprenticeship.
“Despite all the investment, the number of 16- to 18-year-olds being taken on as apprentices is almost as low today as it was a decade ago. In 2014/15, 43 per cent of places went to apprentices over the age of 25.
“I can only repeat here what I said when I launched the survey report in October. The fact that only 5 per cent of our youngsters go into an apprenticeship at 16 is little short of a disaster.
“The government has recognised these issues, and its recent reforms to apprenticeships are welcome. We now need to see the quality of apprenticeships improve and employers taking responsibility for ensuring expectations are kept high.”
But Sir Michael also acknowledged the sector’s financial pressures.
“The National Audit Office this year published a report that demonstrated the rapid decline in the financial health of the sector,” he said.
“The figures were alarming, with just under half of the 244 colleges operating in deficit. It is understandable then that the government has begun a process of area-wide reviews to ensure that FE providers have sufficient capacity to meet the needs of learners and employers, are financially stable and deliver high-quality provision going forward.”
Click here for breaking reactions to Sir Michael’s report.
