Frustration is growing among Trailblazer apprenticeship designers with many of the new standards still awaiting government approval for delivery almost a year after they were published.

Twenty two standards published by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) in November are still waiting to be approved despite months of consultation and design having already gone into them by employers.

There are now 24 standards judged ready for delivery by BIS after it approved their assessment plans, which also include details of how the standard will remain consistent across the sector.

However, there remains 104 standards published but awaiting approval for delivery, with those still waiting since November having been rejected in the initial submission round in February before being resubmitted in June.

But with 2015/16 Trailblazer funding rules published on the BIS website last week, there is mounting frustration at the wait for approval.

Terry Fennell (pictured right), operations director at the Food and Drink Training and Education Council, chairs the butchery Trailblazer — which is still waiting for one standard to be declared ready to use — and said many Trailblazers were getting “a little uneasy” about the delay.

He said: “Employers on the butchery group have committed a lot of time and effort since March 2014 to the development of a new apprenticeship assessment plan that was submitted in June, so its naturally a little frustrating to be kept waiting for a decision.”

Julie Hyett, talent lead at insurance company Aon, chairs the insurance trailblazer and said they were due to hear last week whether their standard for insurance practitioner was ready for use, but had not yet been told of a result.

Ms Hyett said: “It should have all been wrapped up by now — it’s been rumbling on for quite some time and we’re just sitting on our hands waiting for BIS to come back and approve the plans.”

The group’s initial assessment plan was rejected in February, said Ms Hyett, over small linguistic changes which the government had required, and had to be resubmitted in June — a submission date that had to be pushed backwards because of May’s general election.

Ms Hyett said the group was prepared to “default” back to the old apprenticeship framework if the new trailblazer standard was not deemed ready to use in time, but admitted the delay had been “frustrating”.

“Obviously we want to crack on with the trailblazers — that was the purpose of developing them, but we have to work in line with the government and I think there’s a degree of understanding that they don’t operate to the same time scales,” she said.

Last month, when 15 new standards were published, the government announced it would be moving to a monthly deadline for assessment plan submission dates, along with the submission deadlines for standards and expressions of interest in developing a standard.

The guidance note, published on July 22, said the move was “aimed at removing current bottlenecks in the development process and should speed it up considerably”.

A BIS spokesperson said: “It is up to individual employer groups to decide when they are ready to submit their standards for formal approval.

“There are no deadlines for approval as it’s important employers have the time they need to ensure the standards developed meet the requirements of their industry.”

It is understood the latest round of standards declared ready for use, which could also include standards published back in December, March and last month, is due to be published by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, figures exclusively obtained by FE Week under the Freedom of Information Act (see below) show that just eight providers, along with 16 employers, were behind the 300 Trailblazer starts in the first nine months they were available.

The figures, from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), also show that only four employers started more than five Trailblazer apprenticeships between August last year and April and 60 per cent of all these were accounted for by just Jaguar Land Rover.

The 300 starts came from a pool of nine Trailblazer apprenticeships, and half of these starts were with Warwickshire College, which is among only four providers to start more than 10 apprenticeships on the new standards.

The low figures will make uncomfortable reading for the government, which has stated an “ambition” for all apprenticeship starts from 2017/18 to be Trailblazers.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and the Association of Colleges (AoC) both said they were unsurprised by the low take-up figures.

Stewart Segal, AELP chief executive, called for a review of the funding and audit systems for Trailblazers to ensure they were working effectively and to encourage close working between employers and providers.

“It is not surprising that there are very low numbers of starts on the new Trailblazer standards,” he said.

“It has taken a lot longer than planned to put together the standards, the assessment plan and getting the right processes in place to get apprentices started.

“The majority of the 300 starts involve large employers and it will be an even bigger challenge to involve smaller employers.”

Teresa Frith, AoC senior skills policy manager, blamed the low number of starts on confusion over programme assessment plans.

She said: “It’s no surprise that employers and providers have been slow to take up Trailblazer apprenticeships because, at the current stage of development within the Trailblazer programme, there is insufficient detail for providers about the independent end-of-programme assessment that apprentices will have to undertake.”

She added the “vast majority of colleges” and the employers they work with had not been involved in the process.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) declined to comment on the figures.

However, when June’s Statistical First Release data revealed only 300 apprenticeship starts since the beginning of 2014/15, a spokesperson said: “Trailblazers is a new programme and the figures included in the June 2015 SFR are provisional in-year estimates.

“The figures are subject to change when the final full year data is published in November.”

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Table 1: The name of the employers with Trailblazer starts and how many starts they had

Employer	Total
ACTDRIVE TECHNOLOGY LIMITED	–
Allpay	–
Barclays Bank plc	10
Bright Future Software Ltd	40
COMPUTER EYEZ (SOUTH) LTD	–
CROSSLAND AND DUDSON TRAINING LIMITED	–
I-Dash Ltd	–
Jaguar Land Rover	180
JSL Computers	–
Kaonix Solutions Ltd	–
National Grid Plc	20
Supplenta Ltd	–
Sysdoc Ltd	–
Telis Limited	–
Vestey Foods Group Limited	–
Waymark IT	–
Grand Total	300

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Table 2: The name of the providers with Trailblazer starts and how many starts they had

Provider	Total
B-Skill Limited	–
Capita PLC	10
EEF Limited	10
Huntingdonshire Regional College	10
National Grid PLC	20
North West Training Council	20
Total People Limited	40
Warwickshire College	150
Grand total	300

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Table 3: The number of starts against each Trailblazer Standard

Trailblazer standard	Total
Electrical/Electronic technical support engineer	10
Manufacturing engineer	20
Mechatronics maintenance technician	30
Network engineer	10
Power network craftsperson	20
Product design & development engineer	40
Product design & development technician	80
Relationship manager	10
Software developer	50
Grand total	300

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Notes on the data (supplied by BIS):

.      The tables have been produced using provisional in-year estimates for the first nine months of 2014/15 – August to April

.      Volumes are rounded to the nearest ten except for grand totals which are rounded to the nearest hundred. The rounding convention is consistent with SFA/BIS statistical release and has been applied to these counts in order to minimise the risk of disclosure breaching the Data Protection Act 1998

.      ‘-‘ Indicates a base value of less than five

.      Provisional data for 2014/15 are subject to change until final data are published in November 2015

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The Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) has welcomed Ofqual’s decision to simplify its original plans for how the size of qualifications will be described after the current Qualifications Credit Framework (QCF) has been scrapped.

The qualifications watchdog launched a three-month 19-question consultation on March 25 requesting views from across the sector on its plans to replace the QCF, as reported by FE Week on the same day.

Jeremy Benson (pictured right), executive director for vocational qualifications, confirmed in a letter to awarding organisations (AOs) published online today that the regulatory arrangements for the QCF will be withdrawn and the QCF Unit Bank closed on September 30.

He added that having taken into account views expressed by the 119 respondents to the consultation, “an important change” had been made to proposals on how the sizes of qualifications will be described.

“In the consultation, we proposed that all qualifications should have a size expressed in terms of total qualification time (TQT), made up of guided learning hours (GLH), dedicated assessment hours and invigilated assessment hours,” he said.

“Based on the responses we received, we have simplified this and decided that all qualifications should have a figure for TQT and, where appropriate, part of this should be expressed in terms of GLH.”

The move was welcomed by FAB’s chief executive Stephen Wright (pictured below left) who said: “We were impressed with the way that Ofqual conducted the consultation providing clear information and opportunity to discuss the issues and respond.

“As a result the initial Ofqual proposal for TQT has been replaced by a more pragmatic and workable model more simply described as GLH plus ‘everything else’.”

He added that the move away from the QCF to the new framework of regulated qualifications (FRQ) “marks a return to a more flexible marketplace”.

Bu he warned that “while FAB welcomes the increased freedom for awarding organisations to design the structure, assessment and content of qualifications, there is also likely to be a perceived increase in the number of qualifications and issues of untangling the intellectual property rights issues as AOs move from the shared units of the QCF to the pre-QCF position of most AOs owning their own units”.

The letter from Mr Benson added that Ofqual will “soon give notice to you [AOs] that the requirements for all new qualifications to have a measure of size will come into effect on October 1”. For existing qualifications, he added, Ofqual has decided that AOs “must have allocated a measure of size, expressed in terms of TQT and GLH by no later than December 31, 2017”.

“We may however elect to bring this date forward for specific types of qualifications and will keep this date under review,” he added. “If we decide to bring the date forward we will give you advance notice and explain our reasons.”

He added that AOs had been granted additional time “before bringing the new requirements into force for all existing qualifications” to “ensure that you properly review your existing qualifications and make evidence-based decisions on TQT and, where appropriate, GLH allocations”.

Mr Benson also stressed in the letter that for existing qualifications, if the term QCF is not removed from the title on the register and in marketing materials by December 31, 2017, it will be seen “as an indication of non-compliance with our titling rules”.

Charlotte Bosworth (pictured right), director of skills and employment at OCR, said: “We are pleased with the outcomes of the Ofqual consultation on the withdrawing the QCF. They show that the consultation was true and that feedback has been taken on board, particularly for elements like TQT, where a pragmatic approach, which we advocated, has been adopted.”

An NOCN spokesperson said: “We are fully aware of these changes and are broadly in support of them.

“Anything which simplifies and improves the system is good news. We are already planning for this transition and our customers will see the new elements appearing over the transition period.

“The removal of the QCF allows for greater flexibility to tailor qualifications to better meet the needs of employers, something which NOCN very much agrees with.”

Ofqual first confirmed that it planned to remove the QCF rules before Christmas.

The decision by the regulator, which was reported on by FE Week on December 9, followed a previous 12-week consultation and earlier review of the rules.

Ofqual chief executive Glenys Stacey has announced that she will be standing down at the end of February.

Ms Stacey (pictured), who is also Ofqual’s chief regulator, said today that she thought “the time is right now for a change in leadership”.

She has led the qualifications watchdog, which was set up in April 2010, since March 2011.

“I have been enormously privileged to have led Ofqual for the last five years, and delighted at the way in which it has developed,” said Ms Stacey.

“It is now an established part of the education world, with a key role in maintaining standards and improving qualifications central to young people and their future life chances.”

She added: “It is time now for a fresh face to lead the organisation. I took this job in order to establish Ofqual as a credible, effective regulator. I have achieved that.

“I am not retiring, and will look to use the skills I have acquired over my long career in public service.”

A spokesperson for Ofqual confirmed Ms Stacey, who was previously chief executive of Standards for England, Animal Health, the Greater Manchester Magistrates’ Courts Committee and the Criminal Cases Review Commission, would leave “when her five-year term concludes at the end of February”.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: “During a time of significant reform she [Ms Stacey] has brought both great insight and fastidiousness to this crucial role and our education system is much the better for it. I would like to thank her for all she has achieved in her time at Ofqual and for her commitment to public service.”

One of her most noticeable impacts on the FE sector was felt last November, when she said in a letter to Skills Minister Nick Boles that Functional Skills (FS) should remain “as stable as possible”.

She was replying to a letter sent to her by Mr Boles the previous month, in which he said that FS would “continue to be one of the types of qualification that learners have available”.

She welcomed the minister’s “clear statement about the importance you attach to FS”, but warned that “it takes some years for qualification titles to become understood and trusted, particularly by employers and others who are not close to the education system”.

“In general, our view is that we should keep the qualifications system as stable as possible, to allow qualifications time to prove themselves,” she said.

Ms Stacey also marshalled the regulator’s response to the 2012 GCSE fiasco where grade boundaries were changed dramatically by exam boards midway through the academic year.

Ofqual said the boundaries set were too easy, but teachers and parents hit out against the change and took their case to the High Court.

The regulator stood firm despite the mounting criticism and judges dismissed the case – ruling out unlawful behaviour by Ofqual.

Ofqual chair Amanda Spielman said: “Glenys will be a huge loss to Ofqual, but it is typical of her approach that she has given us an extended period of time to find a suitable replacement and opportunity to ensure a smooth transition.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said that it will oversee the recruitment process for Ms Stacey’s successor.

Employers should be consulted on the “scope and rate” of a new apprenticeship levy and have “real control” over the whole apprenticeships system, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has said.

In a briefing note on the levy, which was announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his July budget, the CBI predicted the levy would be “around 0.5 per cent of payroll” and “is likely to include all businesses with 250 employees or more”.

The CBI has also used the briefing to expand on its earlier concerns and raise new ones, including that a consultation currently running on the levy only covers its implementation, with “no formal commitment to consult on the scope or rate of the levy”. 

In the document, the organisation claims there is “no conclusive evidence that levies work”, before going on to explain its primary concern is that although the levy “may deliver quantity and help the government hit its target”, it “does not guarantee quality”.

It goes on to say: “Those who have experience of levy systems have highlighted the negative impact and unintended consequences which can arise from badly designed and poorly implemented levy systems – and many more have expressed concerned about the lack of detail in the Chancellor’s announcement, particularly given the potential scale and scope of the levy.

“Employers will judge the success of the levy based on the quality of apprenticeships delivered and on how well these meet the needs of business and the economy.”

The document calls for a system which incentivises the delivery of higher level skills and encourages growth in key sectors and gives employers “real control”.

It adds: “If employers are to fund all or most of the cost of apprenticeships, then employers must have real control. Not just on funding – but over the whole system.”

The CBI has also demanded that the levy system be “simple to administer and where the fund is easy to access”, and that it is “flexible, supporting collaborative working – and not penalising those businesses and employers who want to take a sectoral approach”.

It goes on to say: “The levy must be fair, proportionate and subject to proper consultation Getting the rate and reach of the levy right will be critical – and the CBI is calling for full consultation on this.

“Once the rate is agreed, it must be subject to regular scrutiny and review. The levy should support the development of vocational skills and apprenticeships in every part of the UK and exemptions from the levy must be made where mandatory sector levy schemes remain in place.

“Small employers should remain exempt from the levy – but levy funding should not be used to cross-subsidise apprenticeships for small business.”

It comes after the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) urged the government to hold off introducing the levy for “three or fours years”, urging it to build capacity first.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which will administer the policy, declined to comment.

Picture: HM Treasury

Sao Paulo 2015 is the first WorldSkills competition to be held in Latin America and, with 1,192 registered competitors, it’s set to be one of the biggest celebrations of vocational skills ever staged.

So how do hosts Brazil view further education and skills, and how does its vocational education and training (Vet) system prepare young people for the world of work?

According to Simon Bartley (pictured above), president of WorldSkills International, Brazil “takes skills development so seriously, that it’s an embarrassment for many of us in the West”.

Vocational training in Brazil is overseen by the National Service for Industrial Training (Senai) — a huge network of connected colleges, which also co-ordinates Brazil’s WorldSkills team and the Sao Paulo competition.

Since it was founded in 1942 by the government, 61m people have gained professional qualifications across 28 different sectors with Senai, which currently has 1,017 campuses across the country — some fixed, and some very mobile.

Roberto Spada, vice president of WorldSkills Brazil, who has worked for Senai for 41 years, explains this allows the organization to reach people in spite of the size and geography of Brazil.

“It means we can offer training to the cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants needing training and for the small communities — with the mobile units have to make the investment in property all the way across Brazil,” he told FE Week.

The mobile units include floating classes in boats which go up the Amazon to teach forestry and agricultural husbandry to remote rainforest communities.

This means the network can enrol a total of 3.5m students per year, as well as a further 50,000 people on distance learning courses.

The system is funded entirely through employer levy. What that means, said Mr Bartley, is that “young people get a meaningful college education in crafts and skills and they have a really well-funded college sector”.

“And because of that, a powerhouse is developing the economy,” he told FE Week.

“And that gives the message to parents and to others that actually, if your child can go to a Senai school or college, then they are going to be a great success in their life.”

And that claim is more than just wishful thinking.

“The immediate past president of Brazil, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, started his life as a student, training as a lathe operator at the age of 15 in a Senai college — and went on to be the president of his country,” said Mr Bartley.

In fact, 88 per cent of learners leaving a Senai institution walk straight into a job.

“The philosophy of Senai is learning by doing,” said Mr Spada.

“They learn with real equipment, so from the first day at work they can get started on using the real processes and then the companies accept and contract the Senai students because perform well.”

Senai and vocational training is central to the Brazilian economy, he said.

“The best vehicle to make the social and economic transformation is the vocational training courses,” said Mr Spada.

“If you have the opportunity to go to vocational training, learn a trade, get a job, you can change your life and pay tax — this is a chance to make a socio-economic improvement which involves your family and your community.

“A strong vocational system not only shows the person is a good worker but also that the nation has a social responsibility and a commitment to raising the condition of the country.”

Keep up with all the action before and during the competition with FE Week – on feweek.co.uk or on Twitter with the handle @FEWeek and the #GoWSTeamUK hashtag.

The lure of a new foreign market has temped NOCN to offer management training qualifications in India as it follows the lead of other awarding organisations (AOs) in branching out abroad.

Sheffield-based NOCN has struck a deal with the All India Management Association (AIMA) to provide content, assessment, an IT platform and certification support.

Delivery of courses will be carried out by AIMA, but NOCN will also certificate some of AIMA’s existing courses, beginning with its trainer programme.

Graham Hasting-Evans, NOCN managing director (pictured above), said: “We are delighted to support AIMA in its ambitions to raise the professional standards of Indian managers.

“This will improve productivity and quality, strengthening the Indian economy.

“This partnership between AIMA and NOCN is really exciting and we are proud to be part of the Indian skills revolution.”

The qualifications will be designed to comply with India’s National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF), but a statement from NOCN and AIMA said their collaboration could be extended to other countries.

It added that they expected to enrol around 5,000 learners in the near future.

Director general of AIMA Rekha Sethi said: “Management and entrepreneurship training is rare in India’s skills market and NOCN will collaborate with AIMA in assessing and certifying these skills.”

AIMA also plans to use the collaboration to develop a Professional Manager Recognition System to provide internationally valid joint accreditation to Indian managers at trainee, manager and senior management level.

However, NOCN is not the first UK-based AO to venture abroad.

In May, AQA announced it was joining with the Oxford University Press to create a set of international GCSE and A-level qualifications initially aimed at schools in the Middle East, but with plans to expand further.

Andrew Hall, AQA chief executive, said at the time the partnership and new qualifications presented “a real opportunity to provide something which really responds to the needs of international educators and will enable us to share the UK’s strong educational values and best practice internationally”.

Pearson, which operates as an AO as part of the larger multinational company Pearson PLC, has long had an involvement in the international market, offering its qualifications in range of countries.

A spokesperson said: “We believe it is vitally important for awarding bodies to have an international outlook.”

She said international work had allowed them to improve UK qualifications, by allowing experts to compare them to the best in the world.

And in 2009, City and Guilds formed MCG — a joint venture with Indian company Manipal Global Education — and has signed a deal with Indian Government’s National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to train 63,000 people over ten years in construction, hospitality and retail and an additional 77,000 people in other sectors, as part of the Indian government’s aims to upskill 150m people by 2022.

Thousands of FE staff will begin the new academic year with a ballot on whether to strike over pay.

The University and College Union (UCU) has confirmed it will ballot members next month over industrial action after its FE committee rejected the most recent pay deal offered by the Association of Colleges (AoC), which proposed no rise at all for 2015/16.

Unite the Union will also ballot its 600 members working in colleges, while the Association of Teachers and Lecturers is to hold a survey of members to decide its course of action, also in September.

It comes almost a year after a stand-off between college bosses and unions over pay rise offers of 0.7 per cent and 1 per cent for 2014/15 came to an end in December.

A UCU spokesperson said: “Our FE committee rejected the employers’ provocative decision to recommend a pay freeze and has agreed to organise a ballot of members, which will start when the new academic year begins.

“For too long staff have seen their pay erode in real terms and a pay freeze at this time is simply unacceptable.”

A spokesperson for Unite said: “We have 600 members who will be affected by this pay issue and we will be balloting in September, although we don’t have an exact date.”

Marc Whitworth (pictured right), director of employment policy and services at the AoC, said: “The pay recommendation made by the AoC reflects the feedback we have had from colleges about the stringent financial circumstances in the sector. Although not unexpected it is nevertheless disappointing that the UCU will ballot for action in the autumn.

“Strikes are very disruptive for colleges and more importantly for students. We would encourage UCU to consider how we might better work together to represent our respective members collectively and position the further education sector to remunerate more effectively in the longer term.

“There is a willingness from the employers’ side to work together to protect the prospects of further education, its skilled workforce and the students it serves.”

FE Week contacted Unison, which also represents some college staff, but it is yet to comment.

A struggling London college has been praised by Ofsted for “reasonable progress” across the board less than eight months after inspectors branded it inadequate.

Greenwich Community College, a 5,000-learner South East London college, was given the grade four rating in December, before FE Commissioner Dr David Collins uncovered “serious problems — both in terms of the quality of what is on offer and its worsening budget position” in his resulting visit the following month.

The extent of the problems led Skills Minister Nick Boles to place the college into administered status.

But it was praised following Ofsted’s third monitoring visit, with “reasonable progress” in each of the seven themes looked at by inspectors.

They praised principal Lindsey Noble’s leadership team for introducing “robust and effective procedures” to monitor and improve the standards of learning and student achievements, and said action plans for improvement were “unequivocal” and had been communicated “effectively to all staff”.

Although the report recognised that lines of accountability for student successes and failures were now “much clearer and better understood”, it warned that historic weak practice meant improvement to in-year learner performance remained “modest”.

It said progress towards improving teaching, learning and assessment was “good”, but warned standards were not yet high enough. Weak practice, the report said, had “virtually been eliminated”, but, as a consequence of improving standards, a small number of courses and learners had been adversely affected by changes to teaching staff.

The report said progress in English and maths was good, and that further training and better resources had enabled teachers to relate mathematics and English more appropriately to vocational subjects.

Data use by governors, managers and staff was now “widespread”, the report said, adding that managers maintained a “realistic outlook” on improvements to date and, based upon data analysis and the quality of teaching and learning, “rightly judged” that outcomes for learners continued to be inadequate.

The report has been welcomed by Richard Bourne, acting chair of the corporation, who told FE Week: “Staff at the college have worked hard in the last six months to positively change the way it is operating and make improvements to the quality of the provision.

“We are pleased that inspectors have recognised the improvements that have been made since their last visit. The college has implemented a number of strategies to drive up standards and performance across the board which are clearly working.”

Dr Collins recommended structure and prospects appraisals be carried out at both Greenwich College and nearby Lewisham Southwark College, and the prospect of a possible merger was raised, but this is now likely to wait until the government begins its first wave of area reviews, due to start next month.

It also comes after Dr Collins (pictured) rejected plans by Southwark Council to break up Lewisham Southwark College and bring half of it under its control.

A new Ofsted report is also a cause for celebration for employer-provider Select Service Partner (SSP), which rose from inadequate to good following its re-inspection in June. No one from SSP was available for comment.