The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has missed its deadline for confirming growth requests for 16 to 18 apprenticeships and traineeships, saying only they would be confirmed “as soon as we can”.

The SFA announced in August, in a document entitled ‘Operational Performance — management rules 2015 to 2016′, that it would clarify growth requests with providers by January 8.

It was part of streamlining measures to the process introduced by SFA chief executive Peter Lauener, which meant that for apprenticeships and traineeships there are now two, instead of the previous three, windows to request in-year growth.

But FE Week was alerted by a college source on Monday (January 11) that it had still not received confirmation, and the SFA declined to comment at the time on whether the same thing had happened with all providers.

However, the SFA told FE Week and confirmed in an Update message on its website: “We are not yet in a position to confirm support for your request. We apologise for this delay and will confirm the position as soon as we can.

It added: “Thank you to those colleges and training organisations that submitted a growth request for 16 to 18 apprenticeships and/or 16 to 18 traineeships. It was part of our performance-management point 1 in December 2015.”

“For further information, please contact your Central Delivery Service adviser,” it said.

The SFA declined to comment ahead of publication on why confirmation of the growth requests has been delayed.

The government’s area reviews of post-16 education and training are already running behind schedule, with the government accused of working to an “unrealistic” timetable.

According to the government’s own published guidance, the first wave of reviews in Birmingham and Solihull, Greater Manchester, and Sheffield City region, which began in early September, ought to be wrapping up within the next month.

However, FE Week checks indicate that they are barely half-way through the process.

The government’s guidance on post-16 education and training area reviews, published in September, gave a “typical timescale” for a review of around three to four months.

However, a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) told FE Week on Tuesday (January 5) that they only expected the first areas “to be moving to analysis of options and recommendations over the next month or two”.

Meanwhile, the ‘options analysis’ stage only featured after the third of five steering group meetings, in a flowchart produced by the government that plotted how the reviews should progress.

It indicates that there is still a long way to go and principal of Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College Chris Thomson (pictured above left) said the Sussex area review that his college is part of, which was announced on September 25 and had its first steering group meeting in October, was likely to overrun.

He said there was “tension” between the drive to complete “as quickly as possible” and “the more practical wisdom of about how you actually achieve change at a local level”.

“If the process actually overruns by a couple of months on individual reviews, but you get outcomes that are workable and genuinely improving, that’s a price worth paying,” he added.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said “extending the timescale is the sensible thing to do, particularly as academy status for sixth form colleges is now linked to the review process”.

The delay led Gordon Marsden, Shadow Skills Minister (above right), to hit out at what he called the “botched nature” of the reviews.

He accused his government counterpart, Skills Minister Nick Boles, of “moving with sometimes inordinate haste to a fixed agenda”.

“The timescales for the review have always been unrealistic,” he added.

Gill Clipson, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), said the reviews “should not be rushed through”.

“It is important that the area review process is carried out thoroughly, taking the appropriate amount of time to consider the best possible outcomes,” she said.

The government has so far announced details of how 101 general FE colleges and 54 sixth form colleges feature in the first two waves of the area reviews covering 15 regions.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan claimed in November that they “haven’t been set up in order to save money” in an evidence session for the House of Lords Social Committee.

A BIS spokesperson denied that the area reviews are behind schedule.

The head of Croydon College school of art has paid tribute to its iconic former student and rock star David Bowie.

The singer, famous for his artistic approach to rock and pop and the chameleon-like manner in which he regularly transformed his image over more than 40 years in music, died of cancer at the age of 69, it was announced yesterday.

The loss was felt at Croydon College, where Bowie studied there in the mid-1960s.

Tim Strange, head of the college’s school of art, said it was a “very sad day for the Croydon school of art community”.

Mr Strange said Bowie (pictured above with wife Iman), who first found fame in 1969 with hit single Space Oddity before creating his alter egos Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke in the 1970s, was “one of the few exceptionally creative artists that continually explored and pushed creativity and its possibilities”.

“He is and will continue to be an inspiration for the students and staff at Croydon [College’s] School of Art, where he is one of our illustrious Alumni,” he added.

“His talent was second-to-none and his constant impact on music, fashion and art will be sorely missed.

“He was the exception to the rule as an artist and musician. South London should be very proud of the contribution that Bowie has made to culture on a global scale”.

The college’s school of art was established in 1868 and other past students include Malcolm McLaren, who went on to manage punk band the Sex Pistols, Ray Davies, lead singer of the Kinks, international fashion designer John Rocha, and painter Bridget Riley, a leader of the Op Art movement.

Main pic: John Barrett/Globe Photos/ZUMAPRESS.com

Invitations have been invited from today for the fifth annual Brathay Apprentice Challenge.

Teams of nine apprentices can enter the competition from a single large or small employer, a group of small businesses, an industry sector, supply chain, or training provider.

More than 700 apprentices from 50 teams entered last year. They visited more than 300 school visits to promote the benefits of apprenticeships, recruited over 100 employers to offer apprenticeships, and delivered 47 projects to help their communities.

The eight teams that made the 2015 final in and around Lake Windermere, in the Lake District in July, competed in events including orienteering, coracle boat building, an assembly line puzzle, and a whaler boat race.

Apprentices from Dale Power Solutions (pictured above) and Sellafield Ltd were jointly named 2015 apprentice teams of the year.

Godfrey Owen, chief executive of the Brathay Trust, said: “The challenge provides apprentices with the opportunity to develop a huge range of skills with previous entrants reporting improved teambuilding, leadership, logistical and communications skills.

“Employers reported that they saw improved skills among the apprentices and increased local profile of their organisations through positive PR and CSR opportunities.

“We look forward to both apprentices and employers reaping these benefits in the 2016 search for the apprentice team of the year.”

Sue Husband, director of the National Apprenticeship Service, said: “The quality of work from the teams that take part in the challenge demonstrates the really impressive contribution that apprentices make to both business and the wider community.

“It’s a brilliant opportunity for employers to let their great apprentices shine, so I’d encourage them to put their teams forward and enter today.”

Over the course of the last four years of the competition, 280 teams, involving 2,500 apprentices, have carried out 174 charity projects and have promoted apprenticeships to an estimated 2.5m people, through 12,000 pieces of media and social media.

The other six teams that made last year’s final were from Redrow Homes, Nottingham City Homes, Pera Training, Plymouth City Council, HSBC and British Airways.

After triumphing last July, Adam Sharp, apprentice at Sellafield Ltd, said: “We hope that winning the title will aid in our efforts to inspire young people and promote apprenticeships.

“Hard work, determination and self-confidence are key in success. We also hope that young people can use our journey as a lesson for themselves.”

Visit www.brathay.org.uk/challenge for more information on the Brathay Challenge and to enter a team.

Major charity and training provider Age UK has tumbled from a ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating.

The report out today rated Age UK as inadequate for effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, outcomes for learners, adult learning programmes, apprenticeships, and traineeships.

The inspection team also returned ‘requires improvement’ verdicts on personal development, behaviour and welfare, and 16 to 19 study programmes.

The report said that “trustees do not hold senior managers sufficiently to account for the deterioration of learners’ outcomes and the inadequate quality of provision” and “trainers fail to motivate and challenge learners”.

It added that senior leaders and managers had “systematically failed to address the areas for improvement” highlighted in its previous ‘good’ across the board Oftsed report published in February 2013.

That report had recommended, for example, that Age UK should quickly identify “learners at risk of leaving early and take corrective actions to help them achieve their qualification” and “ensure that staff make better use of initial assessment to plan learning”.

The report out today was damning of apprenticeship training.

“Too many apprentices make slow progress and fail to achieve their qualifications. Learners’ performance has significantly declined since the last inspection,” it said.

The report also pointed out that more than a quarter of all learners fail to attend classes

“Too many learners do not demonstrate the employability skills that they are developing when they attend sessions at Age UK,” it added.

Of the approximately 3,500 learners with the provider, approximately 2,300 are on apprenticeships, 100 are on traineeships, 613 are full-time learners on the 16–19 study programme, and 480 are adult learners, mainly on part-time employability programmes, according to the report.

It warned that “staff do not develop learners’ English and mathematical skills effectively across all programmes of study”.

However, it identified “good pastoral support” as a strength with Age UK’s provision.

“Learners have good access to warm and welcoming learning centres complemented by a good range of training resources,” it said. “Age UK is consistently good at supporting some extremely vulnerable learners who have significant difficulties with learning, for example, care leavers, young parents, and adults with identified mental health difficulties.”

The report added that in order to improve “trainers should improve progress reviews for apprentices, and challenge individual learners to make better progress through the use of specific learning targets, which are reviewed carefully and regularly”.

It also, for example, called for managers to implement “effective strategies” to improve teaching, learning and assessment, by challenging all staff to develop their skills, and “creating a more professional approach to the observation of teaching, learning and assessment”.

Managers should also, the report said, take “decisive action” to improve the teaching of functional skills in English and mathematics to apprentices.

A spokesperson for Age UK said: “We are very disappointed with the results of the Ofsted inspection which took place in November 2015.

“We have immediately taken the decision to review our processes and put an action plan in place to ensure our processes are scrutinised effectively. We are now working extremely hard to make improvements and address the concerns raised by inspectors.

“Our priority is to make sure that our training activities deliver the highest standards. Age UK’s trustees and directors will closely supervise the actions and performance of Age UK Training to ensure that standards improve quickly and that this improvement is sustained.”