Gateshead College has shot up two Ofsted grades to outstanding while Weymouth College is making “significant” improvements as it rebuilds from an inadequate rating.

Gateshead was visited by the education watchdog last month and inspectors found a dramatic turnaround since it was deemed to require improvement three years ago.

Meanwhile, Weymouth was monitored for progress in four areas and achieved “significant progress” in three and “reasonable progress” in the fourth.

Weymouth’s report came out today — the same day as Gateshead’s, which listed outstanding ratings across the headline fields.

Inspectors praised the 19,000-learner college’s record on helping students move into further study or work.

The report said: “Learners develop first-rate personal, social and employability skills, leading to very high rates of progression to further study, employment and/or training.”

It added: “Learners receive excellent careers advice and guidance which makes sure they are assiduously prepared for their progression.”

Inspectors also said maths and English had been “skilfully embedded” into all provision and praised the college’s partnerships with employers.

It added: “A dynamic and inspirational principal, ably supported by a highly skilled senior team and governors, has successfully developed and delivered a clear and ambitious vision for learners leading to significant improvements in provision.”

The college, which has a £8.6m contract with the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), is only the second FE college to be awarded the top grade by Ofsted this year, following Somerset’s Strode College achieving the feat in October.

Gateshead principal Judith Doyle (pictured above), who took up the role in August 2013, described the result as “fantastic”.

She said: “I am very proud of this outstanding achievement. Our focus is to put our students in the best possible position to secure work when they leave us and I’m thrilled this has been recognised by Ofsted.

“Our strategy to work closely with the business community has been praised and acknowledged, recognising that it not only ensures our learners have the very best opportunities for work experience leading to high quality job outcomes, but also that employers have the highly skilled workforce they need to be successful.”

Governors’ board chair Robin Mackie said the grading was “the result of a fantastic team effort led by Judith”.

He added: “I am thankful to every single partner and colleague that has worked very hard to achieve such a great result.

“I am delighted Ofsted acknowledged the outstanding partnerships the college has with employers.”

Weymouth College also impressed inspectors during a second monitoring visit last month.

The 4000-learner college, with an SFA contract of £3m, was branded inadequate overall by Ofsted in January over the handling of its finances by former principal Liz Myles, despite getting a good grading for its learner outcomes and teaching learning and assessment. Ms Myles resigned in February having served three months of a suspension.

Nevertheless, today’s monitoring visit report found “significant improvement” in the college’s leadership of finance, governor expertise on finance and business planning, and “reasonable progress” on areas of the curriculum, such as maths and English, where inspectors had identified weak performance.

Acting principal Nigel Evans said: “We are delighted with the judgements made in the recent Ofsted monitoring visit.

“These judgements represent an impartial view on the honest and transparent progress we have made as an institution since the beginning of the New Year.

“It is of note that while we have made significant and positive progress against our financial position, we have maintained very high levels of academic performance, continuing to give our students a great experience.”

Shadow Education Minister for Young People John Woodcock has warned the government against “churning out numbers at the expense of quality” as it targets 3m apprenticeship starts by 2020.

Mr Woodcock (pictured above) was part of a panel of FE and skills experts who spoke at a House of Commons event last night hosted by the Young Fabians Education Network (YFEN) about the prospects for England’s apprenticeship system over the five-year lifetime of the newly-elected Conservative government.

He said that he had “grave misgivings” about the 3m target spelled out in the Conservative Party’s General Election manifesto.

“We [the last Labour government] were battered over what we can now admit was an overly targeted approach to, for example, health service reform,” he said.

“It did in some cases skew the system towards churning out numbers at the expense of quality and that is [now] a huge concern for apprenticeships.

“If those apprenticeships do not genuinely embed people in the world of work and set them up for a future profession, then we are doing a disservice to those young people coming into them.”

Another panellist at the event, which had around 50 audience members and was entitled ‘Beyond 3m: A successful apprenticeships system for the UK’, was director of early careers at Barclays Bank, Mike Thompson (pictured right).

He agreed that “systemically, there is a challenge with quality of apprenticeships, with people who are using the title but are genuinely not apprenticeships”.

He said many of the young people that Barclays had recruited as apprentices had already “been through very short apprenticeships, dangled a carrot of opportunity, and let go at month 11 or at the end” elsewhere.

“It has taken us three years to deliver a programme [since it was launched in April 2012] that can take apprentices from level two right up degree level,” he added.

He also thought that apprenticeships should be made “more accessible for all people”.

“Most companies require you to have A to C in maths and English, which discounts nearly half the young people in this country who don’t have that,” he said, with Barclays Bank apprenticeships advertised with “maths and English GCSE grades C and above or equivalent desirable but not essential”.

“We don’t have an academic criteria for our apprenticeships. It is not a problem for the government. It’s a problem for businesses as their human resources departments set the qualification criteria.”

But fellow panellist Ashley McCaul (left), chief executive at London training provider Skills for Growth, replied: “I don’t necessarily agree with what has been said this evening about recruitment thresholds for young people. Few of our young people have this [English and maths] GCSE A to C and that is generally the case with other providers of our type.”

She added: “Not all young people want to progress through from level two to level five, some simply need support to secure a job and to get into the labour market and that is the role for many providers who do their jobs really well.”

Ms McCaul praised the German apprenticeship system which, she said “has an incredibly grown up way of managing quality improvement”.

“If there is an issue with quality, there is a very grown up conversation between the institution and the chamber of commerce about how they can improve, which is then acted on,” she added.

Tom Bewick (right), managing director at consultancy firm New Work Skills Ltd and chair of Brighton & Hove City Council’s children, young people and skills committee, backed the plan announced by George Osborne in last Wednesday’s budget for an apprenticeship levy for large employers.

However, the Labour councillor said: “The devil will be in the detail. If you look around the world, there are some very successful and very unsuccessful levy schemes.

“You can get employers paying the tax [the levy charge], without a change in culture, they don’t change the recruitment culture.

“France is a very good example, the system there doesn’t deliver the boost to apprenticeships that it is designed to do.”

City and Islington College and Westminster Kingsway College aim to become “the main force for FE in central London” through greater collaboration and a possible merger, it was announced today.

The colleges confirmed, through a joint statement released this morning, that their governing bodies had agreed “to explore the potential” for developing closer links.

It added that no decision had been made over the “specific form” this will take, but a group of governors from each college will now work with the two principals to “steer the initial phase”.

“They will develop options and consult widely to agree a ‘best fit’ model which would be adopted in the summer of 2016. It could involve anything from closer working relationships, to federation or merger,” it said.

Both colleges intend, the statement added, to retain their existing names and brands “for the foreseeable future, and possibly in perpetuity”.

They will also both continue to recruit students across 14-19, basic skills, apprenticeships, professional and technical and higher education programmes, as well as serving their local, regional and business communities, the statement added.

Andy Wilson (pictured right), principal of Westminster Kingsway College, which received a grade two Ofsted rating when it was last inspected in 2011, told FE Week: “The ambition is to be seen as the main force for FE in central London. It’s too early to go into much detail about how management or governing structures will work.

“However, we firmly believe that we can grow the number of students as a result of the collaboration, which would hopefully lead to the creation of more jobs rather than cutbacks.

“We are both successful colleges in stable financial positions, but believe that we will be even more successful together.”

Mr Wilson added that staff, students, governors, other London colleges, and local authorities would be consulted over the plans.

Sir Frank McLoughlin (pictured left), principal of City and Islington College, which received a grade one Ofsted rating when it was last inspected in 2008, told FE Week: “This is nothing to do with survival or cost cutting, it’s about ambition.

“Both colleges are looking at a number of options, but if it were to go to a merger, then that would only make us stronger.

“Our reach will now, whatever form the collaboration takes, cut right across a huge swathe of central London, which is very exciting. It will give us a stronger base to work with more employers and stakeholders and improve our provision.

“We would, of course, survive and I’m sure thrive if we carried on independently, but I think that we can be even better together.”

Ruth Duston (pictured below right), chair of governors at Westminster Kingsway College, which was allocated £17.1m by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) for 2014/15 as of April and posted a £1.1m operating surplus for 2013/14, said: “The FE sector will be the focus for many changes over the next years.

“This potential alliance will mean two successful colleges are at the forefront in responding to the opportunities these changes will provide.”

Alastair Da Costa (pictured below left), chair of governors at City and Islington College, which was allocated £18.6m by the SFA for 2014/15 as of April and posted a £1.8m operating surplus for 2013/14, said: “Collaboration between our two colleges is a bold, strategic and sensible initiative to be considering.

“It has real potential to increase our impact and leverage further benefits for the communities we serve.”

The announcement was welcomed by councillor Danny Chalkley, cabinet member for children and young people at Westminster City Council.

He said: “We fully support this decision by City and Islington College and Westminster Kingsway College to move towards closer collaboration.

“We look forward to seeing their final model of working together which we expect will have a positive and long-lasting impact on the local community.”

Islington Council and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills declined to comment. The SFA was unable to comment before publication.

The government today learned how National Colleges planned to spend their funding as the deadline closed for proposals to be handed in.

Seven National Colleges, led by groups of employers to provide specialist skills for their industry, have been approved so far — one each for advanced manufacturing, wind energy, creative and cultural industries, onshore oil and gas, nuclear power, digital skills and for HS2 rail development.

The government has pledged £80m funding for the colleges, to be matched by employers — and it asked them to explain, in more detail, how the money will be spent and what the timescale was for progress.

And the proposals submitted to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) will help determine when they open.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “Subject to the assessment of the proposals from the National Colleges…, we intend to have a network of industry-led National Colleges operational by September 2017.”

Catherine Large (pictured right), deputy chief executive of the Creative and Cultural Skills National College, which will be headquartered in Thurrock confirmed the business plan had been submitted.

She said: “Led by employers including Live Nation and the Royal Opera House, the National College will provide apprenticeships and give young people the opportunity to learn up-to-date technical skills and develop industry experience.

“The creative industries contribute 1.8 million jobs to the national economy and are expanding exponentially. This National College will enable the industry to continue on a course of economic growth.”

Ken Cronin, chief executive of UK Onshore Oil and Gas, which will oversee the fracking National College with Blackpool and The Fylde College said he was “excited” about the project’s potential.

He said: “Our ambition is for the National College for Onshore Oil and Gas to train the next generation of onshore engineers and other specialists.

“We want to inspire younger generations to receive the training they need to allow them to take part in the great career opportunities available in our industry.

“I look forward to developing it into an international centre of excellence in the coming months and years.”

No one from the National Colleges for advanced manufacturing, in Sheffield, wind energy, in the Humber, nuclear power, with bases in West Cumbria and Somerset, digital skills, in London, or high speed rail development, in Birmingham, was available for comment.

A BIS spokesperson said the approval of National Colleges would be subject to the spending review.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg revealed a “profound disagreement” over careers advice at the top of the last government and told a Lords committee that the current government was threatening social mobility by “undermining the FE sector”.

Mr Clegg (pictured above) made the comments during his appearance yesterday morning before the House of Lords Social Mobility Committee, which held its second hearing as part of an investigation into the transition between work and school.

The ex-Lib Dem leader, who had responsibility for social mobility in the Coalition, said discussions about ensuring careers advice was available for all young people was “two steps forward, one step back”.

“I won’t go into the gory details, there was basically quite a profound disagreement,” he said.

“A stand-off between people like myself, who felt it needed to be an integral part of the system and [then-Education Secretary] Michael Gove, who felt it didn’t have any role in designing an education system.”

He said his government had been right to replace the “failed” Connexions service, but there had been “two or three fallow years” in which there was a failure to find a replacement.

But he said the legal obligation of schools to secure impartial careers advice had been a step in the right direction and praised current Education Secretary Nicky Morgan’s efforts to ensure young people had access to careers advice.

However, he said he was “frankly, very disappointed indeed” by other steps made in the first few weeks of the new Conservative government, and warned the previous government’s work was being “undone”.

“There is just no remote hope for this government to ring-fence foreign aid, pensions, pensioner benefits, the NHS, defence and spend hundreds of millions of pounds on tax breaks for people who frankly are not very needy,” he said.

He added: “That will have a very detrimental effect on funding for the FE sector, which is under huge pressure already… That will have a material effect on social mobility, because we know that if we have a properly supported FE sector, it has an effect on social mobility, and I think it’s very, very sad that they seem to be undermining it already at such an early stage.”

He was also asked by committee member Lady Sharp, the Lib Dem education spokesperson in the House of Lords, if he thought post-19 funding should be pooled with the rest of education, rather than being split across the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, as it currently it.

However, he said departmental responsibility was not the most important factor in ensuring successful policy.

“If the political will is there, it doesn’t really matter which department you’re in,” he said.

“You’re always going to have to put up with these slight baronial rivalries between them.

“What does make a massive difference is a centrally driven, clearly-expressed ambition from the top at all of government needs to devote itself to X or Y or Z aim.

“There is no surrogate for exercise of leadership from the top. You have to will the means, not just declare an affection for the end… as this government seems to be doing.”

Following Mr Clegg, the committee heard from Professor Ken Roberts, from the University of Liverpool, Professor Paul Gregg, from the University of Bath, and Professor Andy Green, from the Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies.

When asked by committee chair Baroness Corston what their key recommendations were for the committee, Professor Roberts said the 2004 report 14 to 19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform by Mike Tomlinson, calling for a unified curriculum and qualifications, including vocational education, from 14.

Professor Gregg said the government needed to “find the funding for expanding high quality apprenticeships”.

He said: “I think Allison Wolf’s recommendation for a training levy on apprenticeships is one way you might expand high quality apprenticeships, rather than the mixed bag we have now.”

Professor Green said: “We need to bring a coherence to the non-A level post-16 route. The government has a lot of initiatives but it hasn’t yet got a coherent structure in which to place those initiatives — and that should include careers guidance.”

The committee’s third hearing is expected to take place on Wednesday, July 22, but it is not known who the witnesses will be. The session will be covered live on Twitter by @FEWeek, using the #HLSMC hashtag. The committee is due to report its findings by March 23.

An employer has been jailed for eight months over the death of an untrained 16-year-old boy who became trapped in a factory lathe he was left to operate on his own just a month into his apprenticeship.

Cameron Minshull died after his oversized workwear became entangled with a computerised numeric lathe (CNL) at Huntley Mount Engineering, in Bury, in January 2013.

The teenager, who had only started on the NVQ level two apprenticeship in performing manufacturing operations a month earlier, was pulled into the machine and suffered fatal head and arm injuries.

A Greater Manchester Police (GMP) spokesperson said that Cameron, who was placed in the post by Yorkshire-based provider Lime People Training Solutions (LPTS) which went into liquidation five months ago, had been left to operate the machine “unsupervised, and having been given no meaningful training”.

Huntley Mount Engineering boss Zaffar Hussain, aged 59 and of Bridgefield Drive, Bury, admitted neglect under health and safety laws and was jailed on Tuesday at Manchester Crown Court for eight months and banned from being a company director for 10 years.

His son, Akbar (pictured above inset, bottom), 35, who worked as a supervisor at the firm, also admitted breaking health and safety rules and was given a four-month jail sentence suspended for a year, a £3,000 fine and told top pay £15,000 costs. He must also do 200 hours’ unpaid work in the community. The company was also found guilty of corporate manslaughter, fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £15,000 costs.

Meanwhile, LPTS was found guilty of failing to ensure Cameron’s safety, fined £75,000 and must pay £25,000 costs.

And the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) said it was “looking into the implications of the case” as to whether it should take action with LPTS having been a subcontractor of HIT Training, which has distanced itself from LPTS saying it “played no part in the selection of Cameron onto his apprenticeship programme”.

A GMP spokesperson said that Cameron, who was reportedly being paid £3-an-hour, had been instructed to “perform a task which involved him putting his arm inside the machine while it was running, which was made possible due to the safety lock on the machine door being disabled”.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Sarah Taylor said: “What happened was simply inexcusable. Safety devices are fitted to CNC [computer numerical controlled] machines for a reason and must never be defeated to allow access to dangerous moving parts.”

She added: “Organisations that place apprentices with employers should make checks in proportion to the level of risk present in the workplace.”

But she said that “LPTS placed Cameron without conducting even basic checks to ensure that it was a safe and healthy environment for any worker, especially a 16-year-old boy”.

A HIT Training spokesperson said: “We would like to reiterate our sincere condolences to the family of Cameron. HIT Training has fully supported every step of the HSE investigation and appeared in court as a witness for the Crown Prosecution Service.”

LPTS was, she said, approved as a subcontractor in October 2012, following a “rigorous” quality assurance check. However, Cameron was “never processed as starting his apprenticeship” because HIT “was not satisfied with the paperwork provided by LPTS, which was incomplete”.

She added that “HIT was not involved with the selection of Huntley Mount Engineering as a company for apprenticeship placement and HIT played no part in the selection of Cameron onto his apprenticeship programme”.

Jill Whittaker, managing director of Ofsted grade two-rated HIT, added that “LPTS went into liquidation some time ago. We terminated our contract with them at the beginning of the 2013-14 financial year.

“I believe that the total number of learners who were trained by them, through the subcontracting arrangement with HIT, was about 80 before we cut ties [through SFA contracts worth around £100,000],” she said.

An SFA spokesperson said: “There are clauses in all SFA contracts, imposing requirements in relation to the health and safety of learners with which all lead providers, and their subcontractors are required to comply.

“However, the primary responsibility for the health and safety of an apprentice sits with their employer”.

She added: “While LPTS was not an SFA-funded provider, it was subcontracted by HIT Training to deliver this apprenticeship. LPTS and HIT Training did not receive any SFA funding for the apprentice in this case.

“HIT Training is still funded by the SFA and we will now be assessing the implications of the case to determine whether there is any action we should take.”

 

 

Providers offering Trailblazer apprenticeships are in a race against time to submit their learner numbers after the deadline shifted four days closer with the Skills Funding Agency having decided to close the Hub.

The twelfth monthly Individualised Learner Record data return window for 2014/15 for the new employer-designed programmes was meant to close at 6pm on Monday, July 27 — but in its weekly Update newsletter, published today, the agency said the uploading software would be unavailable from 5pm on July 23 until the morning after the initial deadline.

The Update said providers would “not be able to post your individualised learner record (ILR) R12 data return” using the Hub during this period.

It added: “During this time, we will move the infrastructure supporting our business applications to a new supplier.”

The data, revealing how many learners are studying which courses, is used to calculate providers’ funding for July.

And the closure could also cause problems for providers returning data on non-trailblazer apprenticeships — the upload deadline for these programmes is August 6, just seven working days after the Hub reopens, whereas providers would normally have a window of 10 working days to submit.

Providers will be unable to view their contracting and performance data or post vacancies on the Apprenticeship Vacancy Matching System during the closure period.

The Update said: “We will issue guidelines next week to help you prepare and plan activities, specifically in relation to apprenticeship vacancies.”

However, the agency has yet to comment on whether it will be reviewing the decision or why it was taken.

A report out today calls for a new system of accrediting “sub-degree technical education” in which FE colleges and independent learning providers can “design and deliver their own qualifications”.

Dr Scott Kelly, in his report entitled Raising productivity by improving higher technical education: Tackling the level four and level five conundrum, said the new system should embrace existing “well-established brands such as Higher Nationals”.

And providers, including accredited higher education institutions, would play a key role in design “if they can demonstrate sufficient rigour and industry engagement”, according to Dr Kelly, who served as a policy adviser to former Skills Minister Jon Hayes from 2010 to 2012.

His 48-page report for the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), in partnership with Pearson, was due to be launched at a Parliamentary event today with Shadow Education Minister for Young People John Woodcock.

Dr Kelly’s proposals come in response to his assessment of the “detrimental impact on the British economy of a lack of advanced technical skills” in which “despite the genuine efforts of recent governments to increase the number of people studying for work-related qualifications at levels four and five, progress has been slow”.

“The FE sector is ideally placed to play a larger role in the provision of technical and professional qualifications but expansion must be dependent on links to local employers and on teaching that combines pedagogical expertise with knowledge of current practice in the workplace,” the report says.

It describes the current system of qualification design, validation and quality assurance as “complex” and claims that it “inhibits the development of short-cycle technical qualifications and also employer involvement in curriculum and programme design”.

“Without more substantial reform, sub-degree provision will continue to sit uncomfortably in the divide between higher education and FE and the skills system, and a great number of agencies will continue to be involved, including the Quality Assurance Agency, Higher Education Funding Council for England [HEFCE], the Skills Funding Agency, professional bodies, Ofqual and Ofsted,” the report says.

“While universities have well-developed and relatively sophisticated systems for developing and validating new degree-level awards, these processes are not well suited to short-cycle technical education.

“The model is rooted in traditional academic disciplines and involves long validation procedures that can be slow to respond to changing business needs.”

Dr Kelly proposes a “clear distinction between work-oriented qualifications linked to specific job roles and qualifications primarily intended as stepping-stones to first degrees”. The former, he argues, should be accredited and funded by a new body, while the latter should remain the responsibility of HEFCE.

He outlines the necessary features of a better system as including a well-defined set of institutions with a core mission based around technical and professional qualifications.

Hi report also says employers are alienated by overlapping, ad hoc and piecemeal initiatives to fund and accredit work-related education but they do want a formal role in determining the content of qualifications and a stable policy.

Dr Kelly further looks at teaching and argues that “if FE in England is to play a leading role in the delivery of technical and professional qualifications at sub first-degree level, consideration needs to be given to the standards of teaching and the paucity of links to practice in the workplace”.

He said: “A concerted policy effort is needed to provide a clear path to high-levels skills. Funding should prioritise the pressing needs of businesses and learners rather than always being directed at yet more undergraduate places and lower-level apprenticeships.

“A new funding mechanism, supported by employers, would give technical and professional education a strong voice in the education system — as in other countries — for the first time.”

David Corke, director of education and skills policy at the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “FE colleges are well placed to address the shortage of higher level skills and they are already providing good-quality technical and professional education and training.

“We are supportive of Dr Kelly’s report which highlights the value of ‘short cycle’ qualifications which can and are helping fill the nation’s skills shortages.

“Colleges are already offering 3m students with valuable employability skills, helping to develop their career opportunities and strengthen the local, regional and national economy.”

FE staff will have to wait to hear whether proposed new strike laws will affect them after the government confirmed it was consulting on how a new 40 per cent support threshold would affect certain providers.

Under new rules set out in the government’s trade union bill, a 50 per cent turnout requirement will be set for all strike action, with a separate requirement that strikes in “important” areas such as education and health have the support of 40 per cent of those eligible to vote.

At the moment, strike action can be called if a simple majority is in favour. That means that no matter how many eligible voters cast ballots, any vote share over 50 per cent in favour will count as support.

According to the wording of the bill, the 40 per cent support threshold would apply to staff working with provision covering statutory school age pupils, meaning those aged five to 16.

But the FE sector has been left in the dark after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills told FE Week it was not yet known if colleges which recruited at 14 would be affected.

Peter Pendle (above, left), deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and chief executive of AMiE, the ATL’s leadership section, said the confusion was “another case of the government not fully thinking through legislation”.

He said: “It would be plainly ridiculous if in FE colleges and secondary schools with students younger than 17 years old two different sets of rules applied.

“In many colleges and schools the same employees would be teaching both pre and post-17-year-old students.

“For lecturers, support staff and principals working in colleges which only educate the over 16s, the exemption will be little comfort amongst a raft of measures that are a draconian attack on their rights.

“ATL and AMiE always adopt the approach of debate rather than demand and rarely need to resort to industrial action.  But if we have to take action in an institution we are confident that we will still get the required turn out.”

University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt (above, centre) said: “The Conservatives have made a considerable effort to portray themselves as the party on the side of working people.

“However, reducing the few rights that workers still retain inside an already tight legal framework on industrial action will do nothing to help working people or their employers.”

Skills Minister Nick Boles (above, right), who also has responsibility for union matters, said: “People have the right to expect that services on which they and their families rely are not going to be disrupted at short notice by strikes that have the support of only a small proportion of union members.

“These are sensible and fair reforms that balance the right to strike with the right of millions of people to go about their daily lives without undue disruption.”

A consultation on the reforms, which will also collect views on how FE providers could be affected, will run until September 9 at gov.uk.