Local enterprise partnerships (Leps) outside London were told by central government that they would not be getting Euro skills cash to dish out because of European Commission (EC) rules. Jim Sims explains the importance of this ruling for those in FE.

Regardless of your views about the reasons behind the recent announcement of changes to the way local areas and Local Enterprise Partnerships (Leps) will be involved in the delivery of the 2014-2020 European Union (EU) Growth it’s vital that managers in the FE sector understand the implications of the recent decision to ‘row back’ on a government commitment to give local areas more control over the distribution of EU funding.

Before rehearsing how the FE sector can respond to this issue, it’s probably worth explaining some of the reasons why many European specialists in the Lep Network believe that the outcome of the negotiations with the EC was inevitable and perfectly predictable.

Notwithstanding the fact the UK government appears to suggest it was the EC that railed against their plans for actively involving local areas in decisions about local investment priorities, it’s probably worth recognising that the EC has actually provided member states with some strong tools for devolving strategy formulation and decision making to local areas — in the form of Integrated Territorial Investments (ITIs) and Community-Led Local Development (CLLD).

Under these initiatives, localities are basically able to draw up Integrated Investment Strategies for local areas, nominate local bodies to be Intermediate Bodies (IBs) and then manage the dispersal of EU funding locally, in accordance with EU regulations.

What should the FE sector be doing to best utilise EU funding to deliver future skills priorities?

So, why hasn’t the UK universally taken advantage of these tools? Well, for the UK government — in common with many other member states — it’s all about risk and control. At the outset of the programme, it basically had two policy objectives which ultimately ended up being in conflict with each other. The first — more publicly-stated objective — was to try and devolve more control to local areas, by empowering Leps to have a central role in dispersing EU funding.

The second — less publicly-stated goal — was to minimise the UKs exposure to the risk of non-compliance and claw-back by the EC by effectively agreeing that devolving EU funding was a ‘red line’ not to be crossed.

Ultimately, this second objective won out, and we now find ourselves in a position that can best be characterised as European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) essentially operating to the traditional ‘open call’ model, with the majority of bidders being asked to bring match funding to the table; and European Social Funding (ESF) using a variety of ‘match at source’ models, through the Skills Funding Agency, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and BIG Lottery Opt-ins (with the potential for a local call model, in fairly defined areas like Youth Employment Initiative, City Deal etc.). And the European Agricultural Farming and Rural Development Funding (EAFRD) / European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) basically uses Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs core funding as match, but asking private sector bidders to bring additional match to the table.

That said, at the time of going to press only the EAFRD/EMFF Operational Programme has been signed off by the EC — although both the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the DWP are hopeful theirs will be signed off soon. So much for a single European Growth Programme I hear you say.

So, given the above, what should the FE sector be doing to best utilise EU funding to deliver future skills priorities? Well, given the highly centralised (supply driven) structures that have been maintained under the ESF Operational Programme (and recognising the increasing government drive towards demand-led funding models) my own view is that the real winners in the sector are likely to be those organisations that are successful in working with Leps to make better use of ERDF and Skills Capital Funding to drive their business engagement and outreach activities.

Stewart Segal looks at the traineeship programme in light of a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) one-year review.

There has always been a range of programmes designed to help young unemployed or under-employed young people into work.

The names of the programmes will be familiar to many — E2E, Programme-Led Apprenticeships, Access to Apprenticeships and many more.

So when the previous Skills Minister Matt Hancock announced traineeships in a blaze of publicity, it was not surprising that many people were a little sceptical.

The programme design itself was excellent. It followed many of the recommendations that we had made over a number of years.

It was a flexible design enabling the provider to create a programme around the individual. It could contain work preparation, work experience and English and maths and for the first time, the Skills Funding Agency would pay for non-qualification activities such as work experience.

However, the government couldn’t resist launching the programme with restrictions on learner eligibility, complicated funding rules, complex contracting arrangements and no exemptions to benefit rules. It has taken time, but gradually we are seeing some of those restrictions lifted. And we still need to lift the biggest restriction — the government continues to stop many providers delivering the programme, which means many employers cannot provide traineeship opportunities for young people.

Considering the complexity of the programme and the fact that the recent BIS survey was completed at a very early stage, the results are very positive.

Some of the main points made in the report are 67 per cent of trainees were in an apprenticeship, a job or further study and many more were job seeking and work experience was the most useful element of the training.

These results are very encouraging especially as the programme has already had a number of rule changes to respond to the issues AELP and providers had raised.

Since the start of the programme, the benefit rules, and work experience timings have been relaxed while the eligibility rules have been expanded to include level two learners over the age of 19.

The initial restriction of only allowing Ofsted grade one and two-rated providers to deliver traineeships should now be reviewed

The review does not really address the issue of those trainees on benefits and there are still some Job Centres where the benefits rules do restrict the delivery of traineeships.

This means that some JCPs are still not referring young people onto the programme because they are concerned that the programme may be too long.

This is further complicated by the fact that JCPs have their own programmes such as Work Experience or Sector Based Work Academies.

Our view is that traineeships should become the main programme for all young people looking for work.

The final issue is how young people get on the programme. The highest number of trainees came through a provider direct (25 per cent) which was more than the Job Centre (18 per cent). Even fewer came through the National Careers Service or the Apprenticeship Vacancy site. The latter now covers traineeships so we hope this will improve.

The majority of employers reported that referrals came through training providers. It is clear from the review that training providers are the only common link to all of the sources of referrals and they make the link with employers.

This is good evidence to support the fact that we have to increase the numbers of providers delivering the programme.

The initial restriction of only allowing Ofsted grade one and two-rated providers to deliver traineeships should now be reviewed.

Any provider that has evidence they can deliver a high quality traineeship programme should be allowed to deliver.

Many of these providers have existing relationships with employers and have established apprenticeship programmes.

They can make those links and ensure that the programme can be expanded and more employers will see the benefit of providing these important first work opportunities.

With these recommended changes, we have a real opportunity to develop a high quality, flexible programme delivered by quality providers in partnership with employers.

Making learners who don’t achieve at least grade C in their English and math GCSEs is a requirement not only of them but also the numeracy and literacy teaching skills of their post-16 tutors explains Andrew Harden.

Many of our best vocational teachers have moved into colleges from the workplace where they have built up years of expertise in their fields.

With highly developed skills in businesses ranging from construction and car mechanics to hairdressing and health and social care, they have been ideally placed to train new generations.

Since August of last year, there has been a requirement for 16 to 19-year-olds who do not hold English and maths at GCSE A*-C to continue to study these subjects. It has been recognised that a key way to support this is for vocational teachers to embed English and maths into their teaching.

This is not a new idea — a study done a decade ago by the Institute for Education found that successful embedding of literacy, language and numeracy for learners on health and social care, hair and beauty therapy, construction, business and engineering courses, helped more to succeed in achieving their literacy, language and numeracy goals and their vocational objectives.

But the reality, as highlighted recently by Marina Gaze, Ofsted’s deputy director for skills, is that not all our vocational tutors have the confidence and ability in their own English and maths to fulfil this new requirement. This is not a failing on their part — their skill sets were the basis of their employment and now the goalposts have been shifted.

It is imperative that they are comprehensively supported to improve their English and maths, but colleges should approach this carefully.

It has to be accepted that vocational tutors can’t become English and maths experts overnight and that the key to success is support

The starting point is to invite all vocational tutors to attend Functional Skills development sessions. And the key to good attendance is the provision of genuine staff development time. All too often, we hear staff development is undertaken solely during lunch hours or at the end of the day.

One good example already up and running comes from The Education and Training Foundation, which runs one-day workshops teaching maths up to level two. The workshops, currently taking place across the country, aim to develop personal maths skills and improving teaching techniques and confidence.

Alternatively, colleges can use their own tutors to run courses. This allows English and maths teachers to see more of what their vocational colleagues do and help them explore the best ways to work literacy and numeracy into their course content.

Again, this can be a time-consuming process, but its success rests upon both sets of staff being given adequate time to do it. Furthermore, where vocational tutors really lack confidence, they should be offered the opportunity to take Functional Skills or GCSE courses themselves.

However, this new drive for success in English and maths will ratchet up pressure on our vocational tutors in other ways. We have heard reports that some colleges plan to remove the three hours a-week required for each English or maths GCSE course out of a student’s vocational course. This means that some students will have six hours less a week to focus on their vocational course.

The new requirements on vocational tutors will also mean that marking is going to become significantly more complex as they will be required to take into account spelling and grammar in addition to assessing subject knowledge. Anecdotally, we have heard reports of tutors now spending twice as long on marking. Their proportions of contact time and administrative time should be adjusted in light of this.

The underlying theme is support for the FE sector. The government is very good when it comes to warm words about colleges, but plans announced last month to slash as much as 24 per cent from adult learning budgets tell a different story.

Without doubt, the coming year will be an intense time for vocational tutors. It has to be accepted that they can’t become English and maths experts overnight and that the key to success is support. That means colleges must be given the capacity to support their staff through changes, to provide genuine staff development and to retain and attract experienced vocational skills teachers.