The government should take some of the “buckets of cash” given to higher education and use it to prop up FE, a leading policy adviser has said.

Jonathan Simons (pictured front), head of education at the right-leaning Policy Exchange think-tank, which counts Skills Minister Nick Boles as founder, said the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) should divert cash from universities to help FE, which is “falling over”.

In an exclusive interview with FE Week, and expanding on his above comments from the Northern Rocks pedagogy conference in Leeds this month, he said the government needed to ensure value for money for “all students, regardless of what route they take”.

He said: “In advance of a challenging spending review, we need to think hard about how we best spend all available government funds. When it comes to post-secondary education, the field is currently skewed in favour of higher education.”

The sector, already hit facing a 24 per cent budget cut, is waiting to hear how a £900m in-year cut across BIS and the Department for Education would affect funding.

Indeed, at the time the 24 per cent cut was announced, Association of Colleges chief executive Stewart Segal said: “This is another major cut in budgets for the employment and skills sector while the funding for higher education continues to increase. This is the wrong focus while we are trying to give vocational learning the status it deserves.”

And cashflow concerns after the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) announced it was delaying a decision on growth requests for extra provision already delivered until after the July 8 Budget, have prompted some providers to halt apprenticeship intakes.

Mr Simons said: “When the adult skills budget is being cut by 24 per cent in 2015/16, and at the same time the higher education sector reports discretionary reserves for 2013/14 equivalent to just under half of their entire annual income, I’d expect BIS to think hard and work with colleges, universities, employers and training providers to ensure value for money in education for all students after the age of 18, regardless of what route they take and which qualifications they study.”

A BIS spokesperson said: “Any funding decisions will be made following the spending review.”

But Mr Simon’s call for a review of higher education funding in relation to FE was echoed in the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) submission for next month’s Budget.

“Partners across the sector recognise that to improve both understanding and take-up of skills training, from employers and individuals alike, we need to strive for greater simplification of the structures, funding streams and qualifications levels underpinning both FE and higher education,” it said.

It added: “We propose that government creates a single funding agency for all post 19 funding, merging the functions of the Skills Funding Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.”

Apprenticeship funding could be “more effectively spent” with independent learning providers which can provide evidence of additional demand from employers, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) will say today.

The AELP will renew calls for a review of apprenticeship reforms and a simpler contracting system as it launches its annual conference in London.

The organisation will draw attention to a recent SFA survey of 52,000 employers which found that three-quarters scored providers between eight and 10 out of 10 for the “flexibility of training delivered” and refer to its own proposals on apprenticeship expansion.

The AELP will renew calls to use training providers to link schools and employers, expand the Ucas Progress site, refocus the National Careers Service budget so that more than 30 per cent is spent on under-19s and ensure Ofsted focuses on independent careers advice in schools.

It comes over an additional £900m funding cut from Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Department for Education budgets, along with a Skills Funding Agency (SFA) decision to delay a decision on in-year growth payments until after the July 8 budget, sparked concerns about capacity to deliver 3m apprenticeship starts the government wants to achieve by 2020.

Chief executive Stewart Segal said: “The SFA survey, following previous similar findings published by CBI and BIS, offers significant evidence that training companies working with employers can provide the drive for growing the apprenticeship programme.

“It is clearly a myth that providers are not flexible when it comes to delivery and it is providers who will engage more employers in this very successful programme.

“Reforms of the skills system should take this evidence into account. If we can increase the investment in apprenticeships, make longer term commitments to employers and providers in terms of budgets and improve the funding and contracting system by building on what works, then we can grow the programme and maintain the quality of delivery.”

The AELP will also use the conference as a platform to raise concerns that the expansion of traineeships is “being held back” by a requirement that providers must have at least a “good” Ofsted rating to offer the frameworks, having previously argued that although there should be a quality requirement, it should not be the only thing taken into account.

The AELP National Conference 2015 is taking place today and tomorrow at Novotel London West. Speakers include Skills Minister Nick Boles and shadow Education Minister John Woodcock.

Follow FE Week on twitter for live updates, and keep an eye out for a 16-page supplement on the conference, out with edition 143.

The Conservatives have been accused of making an “apparent U-turn” over enforced apprentice recruitment.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) plans to make public bodies such as schools, hospitals and prisons take on apprentices were announced on Sunday, June 14.

But it comes after Conservative MPs opposed previous Labour proposals for enforced targets on apprenticeship recruitment.

Shadow Skills Minister Liam Byrne (pictured above) said: “Labour has long led calls for public procurement to be better used to boost apprenticeship opportunities. Sadly, ministers have blocked and opposed our plans at every turn. To see the government make an apparent U-turn is certainly welcome.”

Nevertheless, the policy will help ministers meet the target of 3m apprentice starts over the course of this Parliament, which was a central plank of the Conservative Party manifesto before they were elected on May 7.

A BIS spokesperson told FE Week “the level of the targets is still to be set.”

He said: “These will be stretching and will be based on analysis of the number of staff in the public bodies and the scope for further growth in apprenticeships.”

They came with plans for apprenticeships to be given equal legal protection as degrees to allowing a clampdown on firms misusing the term. The plans are all set to be introduced to Parliament in the autumn as part of the government’s new enterprise bill.

But in March 2013 Conservatives voted down Labour proposals to require companies receiving a government contract worth more than £1m to provide “apprenticeship opportunities”.

When asked, during a separate debate that month in the House of Commons, if he backed the idea, former Skills Minster Matthew Hancock (pictured below right) said “opportunities for the provision of apprenticeships” were only considered “on an individual basis”.

Mr Hancock also dismissed former Labour leader Ed Miliband’s plan, announced in September 2013, to force companies to train a “local” apprentice for every foreign worker they took on — branding them “illegal” under European Union law.

However, the BIS spokesperson said that the government’s recruitment plan was “on public bodies being set targets to take on more apprentices, not on public procurement contracts, which is a separate issue”.

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “We understand why the government sets targets, but they must ensure that the quality of apprenticeships does not suffer.”

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said: “Although we are not convinced about having hard targets because employers should be recruiting apprentices for positive reasons, AELP has always maintained that the public sector should be doing more in offering apprenticeships.”

Mr Hancock and the Conservative Party declined to comment.

Click here for an expert piece by Edge Foundation acting chief executive David Harbourne on government plans for legal protection of the term ‘apprenticeship’

Newly-elected Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee chair Iain Wright has outlined his plans for greater collaboration with education’s fellow newly-elected committee chair Neil Carmichael.

Labour MP Mr Wright (pictured above left), who beat former BIS committee chair Adrian Bailey in the MPs’ vote on Wednesday (June 17), said he was “determined to hit the ground running”.

He said greater working with Conservative MP Mr Carmichael (pictured above right), who beat Tim Loughton, was one of his priorities.

“I am determined to hit the ground running and make the BIS select committee a real driving force in scrutinising government policies, championing business and skills and making sure FE has a really big voice,” Mr Wright told FE Week.

He added: “I’m particularly pleased about Neil’s election because one of the pitches I made, and we worked together on this, is that I’m very conscious that actually, despite the best efforts of business and education, often it is really difficult to make sure skills policy is closely aligned and co-ordinated between education and business as it should be.

“We have pledged to work very closely together on joint enquiries about the skills system, about how education works together with business, and also, the big thing economically with this parliament will be productivity. So we are going to be doing an awful lot together.”

Mr Carmichael said: “One thing I am going to be doing very soon is discuss with Iain our proposal of doing a joint report on dealing with productivity gap. We have already discussed this on the assumption that we both would win, we actually talked about it a week or so ago.”

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), congratulated the duo, saying they would “make excellent chairs and hold government to account very effectively”.

“We have worked with them both in the past and, through their close relationships with their local colleges, they have an excellent understanding of the challenges and opportunities further education and sixth form colleges will have in the next few years,” said Mr Doel.

“We strongly support the notion — as set out by Iain and Neil — about the importance of joint working between their committees especially as the work of colleges crosses both. We look forward to meeting them in their new capacities to discuss how colleges can help.”

A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “It’s encouraging the BIS committee will be chaired by a former minister with direct responsibility for apprenticeships and we look forward to working with Mr Wright.

“As a member of the Education committee in the last Parliament, Mr Carmichael is already aware of the importance of issues such as improving careers advice in schools and we hope he maintains vigilance on these.”

An “area-based assessment” is being carried out by FE Commissioner Dr David Collins (pictured) into provision in South London’s Lewisham, Southwark and neighbouring boroughs.

Skills Funding Agency (SFA) chief executive Peter Lauener revealed details of the review in a letter to corporation chair of Lewisham Southwark College Christopher Bilsland, sent in April but made public Wednesday (June 17).

It comes after FE Week reported last moth that Dr Collins had been sent into both colleges after they got grade four Ofsted results — the second in a row for Lewisham Southwark — with BIS confirming they had entered “discussions” on a possible merger.

Mr Lauener wrote: “I can confirm the review will take the form of two linked structure and prospects appraisals of Lewisham Southwark and Greenwich Community Colleges, as well as a broader examination of the best arrangements to deliver strong outcomes for learners and employers across the area.”

He also confirmed Lewisham Southwark had been placed into administered status. A spokesperson for the college said Dr Collins had “welcomed the detailed recovery plans that have been put forward by the new board and recently-appointed principal Carole Kitching”.

Greenwich interim principal Lindsey Noble said the college was “participating fully in the structure and prospects appraisal”.

Mr Lauener’s letter was made public the same day commissioner reports for City College Brighton and Hove, Warrington Borough Council, and Norfolk County Council were released.

The report on Brighton, based on a visit in February triggered by the SFA declaring it inadequate for financial health, warned that “having an executive team comprising almost entirely of interims has a destabilising effect on the college”.

Its former principal and chief executive Lynn Thackway and deputy principal and finance director Colin Henderson left in February this year and September 2014, respectively.

The college, rated as ‘good’ by Ofsted in June 2011, currently employs deputy chief executive Paul Lonsdale and principal Monica Box on an interim basis. Ms Box said considerable progress had been made to “move the college swiftly towards a sustainable financial position”.

A college spokesperson added: “The principal appointment process is underway and we expect this to be concluded by the end of the month.”

A letter from Skills Minister Nick Boles accompanying Dr Collins’ report on Warrington’s community employment learning and skills service, following a February inspection triggered by an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating in October, said he agreed with the commissioner’s view that “delivery of this provision would be better provided by the colleges and other providers in the area”.

A council spokesperson said: “We fully accept the recommendations from the commissioner.”

The report on Norfolk’s adult education service, following a late March inspection triggered by an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating in January, called for “significant investment in the IT infrastructure and management information systems and new posts to lead and develop the service”.

A council spokesperson said in line with the commissioner recommendations it had appointed Helen Wetherall as interim head of adult education services. She added the council’s “data and ICT” systems had also improved.

The reports came the day after a 38-page FE Commissioner guide on college mergers was published by BIS.

New regional scrutiny committees will consider complaints about Ofsted from September as the education watchdog acts to address transparency criticisms.

The eight bodies, each made up of an Ofsted official not involved in inspections along with an “external” provider leader put forward by “appropriate national representative bodies”, will rule on internal reviews of complaints about inspection.

The news comes almost 18 months after the watchdog’s complaints system was branded “utterly pointless” by Dame Jackie Fisher, who famously threw inspectors out of Newcastle College in 2012 when she was its chief executive.

It also comes after FE Week revealed last year that of 35 formal complaints from September 2012 to mid-November 2013, 13 were upheld and at least one produced a significant uplift of grades from ‘requires improvement’.

The committees will form part of a new common inspection framework (Cif) spanning FE, schools and early years from September.

And the handbooks for the new Cif, which comes just under three years after the current Cif was introduced, were launched at an event in Westminster on Monday (June 15).

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw, speaking at the event, said: “I intend to set up a high-level scrutiny committee in each of Ofsted’s regions, made up of HMI and senior education practitioners not involved in carrying out inspections for Ofsted. They will assess and rule on the internal reviews of complaints about inspection. Their decision will be binding on Ofsted.”

It was exclusively revealed in FE Week in August last year that the education watchdog planned for inspections to be “harmonised” under one CIF.

Ofsted’s resulting eight-week consultation on the unified Cif plans, entitled Better inspection for all, closed before Christmas and its subsequent report on almost 5,000 responses indicated broad support.

Gill Clipson, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), said she was “pleased” to hear about the assumption during short inspections that good colleges remained good.

She added: “Too often we hear from colleges that inspection teams begin from a negative hypothesis which is dispiriting to say the least.

“We are also pleased to see the Ofsted complaints procedure is to be made transparent as this is something AoC has long been calling for.”

Stewart Segal, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, said: “While we are generally content with the direction of travel Ofsted has taken over the new Cif, we have expressed concern at the short timetable for its introduction, especially as the current framework has only been in place for two years.

“Providers’ preparation has not been helped by the fact the Ofsted handbook has only just appeared so we need to understand how some of the new elements in the framework such as the application of the Prevent strategy and the delivery of English and maths will be judged.

“We need to ensure Ofsted recognise the differences as to how those policies apply to learners that are employed, such as apprentices.”

He added: “The establishment of regional scrutiny committees is a very welcome step.

“For independent providers, for whom a grade four can automatically mean a loss of contract and hence the possible closure of the business, having this new avenue of appeal is a very sensible reform.

“We are pleased we will be involved in ensuring those panels are fair, open and transparent.”

The new Cif handbook further sets out a plan to give the assessment of learners’ welfare, behaviour and personal development more sway over the outcome of inspections of providers from September.

During the new inspections, judgements will be made on each major type of provision, including study programmes, apprenticeships, traineeships, adult learning programmes, high needs provision and full-time 14 to 16 provision.

But inspectors will no longer make judgements on specific subject areas. Ofsted will also launch new short inspections — as short as two days — for providers previously rated good, conducted on the assumption the institution under scrutiny remains good.

Click here for an expert piece on the new Cif by former FE and skills Ofsted inspector Phil Hatton

Further education leaders have thrown their support behind FE Chartered Status after it was approved by the Queen.

The Privy Council announced on June 11 that the Queen had approved the granting of a Royal Charter to the Institution for Further Education (IFE).

It had been launched in 2013 by Lord Lingfield to pave the way for a new chartered membership organisation for high-performing FE providers.

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), told FE Week that “IFE’s objectives to promote and celebrate professionalism in our sector will support the work that AELP and other representative groups have been doing in the sector for many years”.

“Any initiative that supports this drive is very welcome,” he said.

David Hughes, National Institute of Adult Continuing Education chief executive, said: “The Royal Charter is an important step forward for the FE sector, which needs and deserves more recognition. Now the hard work begins.

“The IFE must truly represent the best of the FE sector, in terms of quality, innovation and integrity as the sector confronts one of its most challenging times in its history.

“I’d particularly like to see it recognise the unique mission of post-compulsory FE to support the development of a truly lifelong learning society. FE does this by working with employers, providers and individuals to help people of all backgrounds, ages and circumstances to engage in learning, improve their skills, support business growth and get on in life.”

Gill Clipson, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “We look forward to working with the IFE to understand how it will work and the benefits it could bring to our members,” she added.

“Clearly a lot of work has been going on to achieve this status and our congratulations go to the organisation.”

It comes after concerns emerged in April that FE Chartered Status plans had “stalled”.

Plans, originally drawn up by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) for the Royal seal of approval to be granted to high-achieving FE institutions, were first revealed in July 2012.

But after confirming this month that Royal assent had been granted, Lord Lingfield said: “The new institution will give the sector its first ever chartered body.

“It will be part of the work of driving forward professionalism in FE, celebrating and building on what we do well, and bringing together the best performing organisations to take that work further.”

 

Further education and skills achievers took a walk on the wild side to receive their honours at this year’s City & Guilds Lion Awards.

London Zoo was the setting as TV presenter Kate Humble, along with City & Guilds managing director Kirstie Donnelly and chief executive Chris Jones helped recognise the efforts of tutors, students and a college.

The winners were Amy Rush (National people’s choice award), aged 20 and from Flint; Polaris Dyas (apprentice of the year and outstanding achiever), 20 and from Chester; Anthony Gregg (learner of the year), 41 and from London; Scott Mitchell (tutor of the year), 44 and from Chatham; and Sisira Dharmathilaka (international learner), 44 and from Sri Lanka.

The remaining winners were the Royal School of Military Engineering/MKC Training (centre of the year) headquartered in Chatham; and April Poblete (future leader), 25 and from London.

Ms Donnelly said: “This year’s winners are shaping the future workforce – from young women such as winner Amy Rush who is blazing a path for other women in the UK’s male dominated motor industry, through to the committed lecturers ensuring individuals have the skills to allow them to achieve.” See feweek.co.uk for more.

Main pic: City & Guilds chief executive Chris Jones (far left), managing director Kirstie Donnelly (third from left) and TV presenter Kate Humble (centre left) with Lion Award winners at London Zoo on June 17

 

Young people with learning and physical disabilities and their families gathered outside the Houses of Parliament to demand the right to choose an FE college that best suits their needs.

They brandished banners and wore T-shirts emblazoned with the “Right Not a Fight” slogan of a nationwide campaign being waged by the Association of National Specialist Colleges (Natspec).

It took place on Thursday (June 18) — two days after the University and College Union led a protest at Westminster against FE funding cuts.

The Natspec campaign was launched a year ago, just before the introduction of The Children & Families Act that promised greater choice to suitable colleges.

The special educational needs and disability code of practice also says that “the aspirations for children and young people will be raised through an increased focus on life outcomes, including employment and greater independence”.’

But a Natspec spokesperson said: “There’s a growing void between the act, the code and reality.

“Young people and their families were highlighting issues about the number of hurdles they have to jump to get into to the college they wish to attend — the lack of impartial information, advice and guidance, the endless assessments with people who often have very little understanding of their needs, and delays throughout the system.”

A survey, carried out this year by National Star College for people with physical and learning disabilities, in Cheltenham, found that out of more than 1,600 families questioned, 80 per cent had only been given information on options run by their local authority.

Meanwhile, 30 per cent had been actively stopped or discouraged from finding out about other options and 87 per cent said they had no idea how local authorities were making decisions about their child’s future.

Kathryn Rudd, principal of National Star College and chair of the Association of National Specialist Colleges, said: “Young people don’t believe they should have to fight for months to get into the college that best meets their needs and ambition.”

 Main photo: Carl Hewlett/TWM