The emergency plan that the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) would set in motion if its online data collection system went into meltdown could require a large box of stamps and plenty of envelopes, FE Week can reveal.

The SFA said in January that it had a ‘contingency plan’ to help providers meet deadlines for individual learning record (ILR) submissions in the event of widespread and prolonged system failure.

And that contingency plan — released to FE Week under the Freedom of Information Act and following repeated breakdowns with the SFA’s online systems — involves a return to more traditional methods of transferring data.

It stated: “In the event of sustained problems with our data collection system, we will assess the impact and consider whether there is a need to introduce a manual method of collecting data from providers.”

An SFA spokesperson said the “manual method” could involve asking providers to send files saved onto discs or memory sticks in the post, through Royal Mail or a private courier.

Another possibility would be sending encrypted messages by email.

An SFA spokesperson said on Wednesday (March 11) that she hoped it would provide users with “future reassurances” after users complained on the FE Connect online forum about repeated problems with the Hub, which fully replaced the old online data collection (OLDC) system in October.

But it failed on January 5, less than 48 hours before the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) R05 (fifth return of the academic year) deadline, following previous breakdowns in August for R12, September for R13 and December for R14.

The contingency plan says “We have service level agreements (SLAs) that underpin our contractual agreements. Where an issue is deemed to be a priority one or two, and those SLAs are breached, a major incident will be declared.”

An SFA spokesperson said priority one situations could include when the “majority of application transactions are failing” or follow “widespread data corruption of critical data”.

Priority two situations scenarios could include where “processing of data failed for a critical deadline due within [the] next two days”.

Stephen Hewitt, funding manager at London’s Morley College, said he was pleased to hear the SFA was planning for worst-case scenarios.

He told FE Week: “There have obviously been problems with data collection recently and it’s hard to believe that there won’t be more again, so it is good to know that the SFA is thinking in terms of a contingency plan.”

An SFA spokesperson said: “Recognising that the data collections processes in the 2013 to 2014 funding year did not run smoothly, we have listened to user feedback to improve our systems and have contingency plans in place as part of our overall business continuity planning.

“We hope this provides our colleges and training organisations with future reassurances for this key system.”

 Click here to read the contingency plans.

Newcastle College Group (NCG) could be in line to take over troubled welfare-to-work provider A4e, FE Week can reveal.

A spokesperson for the Ofsted grade two-rated college said it was committed “to delivering welfare and employability training” and would consider “any opportunity”.

NCG, which already runs Newcastle College, West Lancashire College and Kidderminster College along with Sheffield-based Intraining and Rathbone youth charity among other educational institutions, did not deny it was considering adding A4e, which in January saw several employees found guilty of fraud, to its portfolio.

Company founder Emma Harrison, who is a former adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron and is believed to have an 87 per cent stake in the company, has appointed auditors Deloitte to advise on the sale or break-up of A4e, according to the Financial Times.

An NCG spokesperson said: “NCG has a clear strategy, which includes commitment to delivering welfare and employability training, and we continue to monitor our portfolio of activities against that strategy.

“We would consider any opportunity as it arises however it would not be appropriate to make any further comment at this time.”

A4e is believed to be one of the biggest providers for the government’s £5bn welfare to work scheme and was paid £6,699,758 in the latest Department for Work and Pensions accounts.

NCG has been offering welfare to work provision in the North East through Intraining since 2011 through two contracts with the DWP.

However, one of those contracts was terminated by the government last year following concerns over quality.

A spokesman for NCG, said: “Our initial performance on the North East Yorkshire and the Humber Work Programme contract did not achieve our expected standards when it started almost four years ago.

“But last summer we vastly improved our performance and ranked eighth nationally — in the top quarter of performers. We are now exceeding DWP’s latest performance standard benchmarks.

“Intraining is committed to improving performance because we believe in value for money for the taxpayer and providing the best possible chance to the unemployed to find work. Our improving performance over the past year demonstrates this.”

A4e, which employs more than 3,000 staff, reported a pre-tax loss of £11.5m in 2013-2014, but had climbed to a pre-tax profit of £2.2m last year as sales rose from £167 to £189m.

In January, 10 former A4e employees were found guilty or admitted ripping off a DWP Inspire to Aspire scheme, submitting fake learner records to claim extra funding and bonuses.

A4e chief executive Andrew Dutton said it would pay back all the fraudulently claimed money, adding DWP and Skills Funding Agency audits found no evidence of fraud in current A4e contracts.

Both A4e and Deloitte declined to comment on the sale of the company.

London-based construction training charity Building Lives claims 180 people currently on pre-employment training schemes face missing out on starting apprenticeships after the industry training board pulled £2m of future funding.

Sian Workman, interim managing director of the registered charity, said the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) told it on February 27 that it would no longer be providing any cash for its apprenticeship training.

“We were expecting to receive around £2m from the CITB up to August 2016, which would have accounted for around a third of our basic income,” she said.

Ms Workman added the CITB’s decision meant that 180 “hard-to-reach” recruits currently undertaking level one pre-employment construction training with the charity were now at risk of not getting onto level two apprenticeships as had been planned.

But, she claimed, the CITB had committed to continue funding 55 apprentices already training with Building Lives and a number of different employers until they completed their training.

Steve Rawlings, who founded Building Lives four years ago, said the charity could be forced to close without alternative funding.

“We have reacted quickly to redesign our model to attract additional funding, but it’s an extremely worrying time for staff and learners,” he said.

The CITB funds construction apprenticeships through training levy payments paid by construction firms.

Carl Rhymer, delivery and customer engagement director for the CITB, said his organisation had never directly funded Building Lives, but funded its apprentices through payments to the charity’s partner employers.

He added: “We provide funds to in scope employers and in this case, a standard verification process revealed that an in scope employer had not complied with the grant scheme rules” — which was why the CITB pulled the funding, he said.

“The CITB is fully supportive of what Building Lives is doing to help unemployed and disadvantaged people, but we are unable to change these rules at will,” he added.

A spokesperson for the CITB declined to comment on which employer had broken the rules, or which regulations had been breached.

Mr Rhymer added: “We have committed to support all apprentices currently training with Building Lives who were enrolled with the CITB by January 2015.”

Two colleges have been granted permission to open their own free schools in the latest wave of 49 free schools given the go-ahead by the government.

New College Swindon’s bid to open a school and sixth form in Swindon and New College Pontefract’s plans to open a 1,200 learner sixth form centre in Doncaster were successful.

The latest Department for Education (DfE) approvals bring the number of college-sponsored free schools up to 11, with six already up and running and five still in development.

New College Swindon principal Graham Taylor (pictured front) said getting permission to set up its business and enterprise-focussed Great Western Academy was “simply great news for Swindon”.

Free schools are state-funded schools which are not required to follow the national curriculum, operate outside of local authority control, and answer directly to the Secretary of State for Education.

“As the third fastest growing town in the country there’s a desperate need for new schools and I’m pleased the government acknowledged this,” said Mr Taylor.

He said the local community had been very supportive of the bid, including local MP Justin Tomlinson, who initially suggested the grade two-rated college put in the bid.

Mr Taylor said the college would be seeking advice and guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) and successful schools.

“We are really excited to be starting up a new school from scratch for the digital age and we will do our very best to create a great learning environment that our local community deserves,” he said.

No one from New College Pontefract, which has an Ofsted grade one rating, was available to comment, but when the bid was submitted in September, principal Pauline Hagen (pictured above) told FE Week she thought the college “had a lot to bring to Doncaster, where most existing providers are grade three or four”.

Both free schools are expected to open in September next year.

A third FE institution, Croydon College, was also vying to get a school off the ground in this wave of approvals, but was not named among the successful bids.

However, a statement on the prospective New Croydon Academy website said the proposal had “received positive feedback from the DfE”, but that it “required more detail and further expansion on the proposal before we could proceed”.

A proposal is expected to be resubmitted in May, with the school, if successful, due to open in 2017.

The government has rejected an employer and provider suggested proposal that traineeship learners should be offered a financial incentive for taking part.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) revealed how the idea of payment for trainees emerged from the sector in its first year evaluation of the scheme (pictured top right), published on Wednesday (March 12).

It said: “The main improvements to the programme that were suggested by providers and employers were to offer a financial incentive to participating trainees, and to improve the promotion or advertising of the programme.”

However, a BIS spokesperson said that while it “encourages, but does not require, employers to consider providing trainees with support to meet their expenses such as travel costs,” there were “no plans at present to offer a financial incentive to participating trainees”.

Trainees can already access financial support including the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund, and Learning and Learner Support funding for 19 to 24-year-olds, she said.

Access to Work funding from the Department for Work and Pensions might also be available for the work experience element of traineeships if the learner has a disability or health condition.

She said the National Apprenticeship Service’s traineeship marketing and PR campaign would continue to raise awareness. “This complements the work of training organisations locally,” she said.

A National Union of Students spokesperson said it was “supportive” of the programme, launched in August 2013 with the aim of giving young people high quality work experience and training to help them into an apprenticeship or employment, but that “offering a salary would be a huge incentive for these often vulnerable young people, as well as offering them a route into permanent employment or an apprenticeship”.

“Many of the employers offering traineeships are similar in size to those offering apprenticeships, so they should be able to afford to pay trainees,” she said.

A CBI spokesperson said: “If firms are in a position to pay trainees then that is welcome, but what is important is that such opportunities exist in the first place to allow young people to get a foothold in the labour market.”

John Allan (pictured), national chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “If employers feel able to offer financial support for trainees, this should be encouraged. However, any mandatory paid requirement could risk turning some businesses away from the scheme. A careful balance is required.

“Where they can, businesses should look to offer expenses. The Government could do more too, by promoting financial support schemes. For example, the 16-19 bursary fund and the learner support funding.”

The evaluation document further found that half of 1,590 trainees surveyed went on to apprenticeships or employment, and a further 17 per cent undertook further learning.

Skills Minister Nick Boles, in a framework for delivery document (pictured top left) out the same day the evaluation was published and which referenced the results, said: “We owe it to young people to retain this focus on quality outcomes, which is why we have strengthened the use of performance data from 2015/16.

“As announced in the government’s response to the funding consultation on traineeships, we will do this via a number of routes; provider funding, the publication of provider-level employment outcomes to inform young people’s and employers’ choices, and by setting minimum standards for progression to employment from traineeships.”

The evaluation document came the same week Mr Boles revealed government hopes of doubling traineeships to hit the 20,000 mark this academic year.

Finance problems figured prominently in the two latest college inspection reports from FE Commissioner Dr David Collins (pictured above left).

The reports by Dr Collins on Greenwich Community College and 11,000-learner Central Sussex College were both published on Monday (March 9), following visits in early January.

The commissioner was particularly critical of the South East London college, which had around 3,500 learners as of November, which Skills Minister Nick Boles, following his advice, placed into administered status.

Among the problems identified by Dr Collins, who was sent in to inspect the college after it was given an inadequate Ofsted grading in December, was a “somewhat different picture” to its previous estimate of a £3.5m bank balance at the end of 2014/15 — the prediction now stands at around £500k after a £3m “deficit”.

And the report of Ofsted monitoring visit carried out a few weeks after Dr Collins’ was there highlighted little in the way of progress at the college, which currently has a £5.9m adult skills budget.

Andrew Murdock, the college’s finance director and vice principal, told FE Week: “The commissioner raises a number of issues which have been acted on.

“The college has taken immediate steps to address the projected deficit by cutting all unnecessary expenditure and making plans to reduce its long term cost base. This includes a review of staff costs and utilisation.”

Dr Collins also said that “a financial recovery plan is needed to address the college’s financial weaknesses, including issues of overstaffing and inefficient resource utilisation”. He added that a structure and prospects appraisal should be carried out “as soon as possible to determine the best way of providing high quality education and training for the learners and employers of the area” and called for “weaknesses at board level” to be addressed.

Richard Bourne OBE, chair of the college corporation, said: “We look forward to participating in the structure and prospects appraisal process. The board is aware of our role to ensure the community of South East London is well served with high quality FE in the future.”

Dr Collins was more positive about the Ofsted grade three-rated Central Sussex College, which he inspected after it was assessed as inadequate for financial health by the Skills Funding Agency in February last year.

He praised the “well balanced” governing board which has “changed significantly over the past two years” and said: “The senior management team has been completely revised following the appointment of a new principal [Sarah Wright, pictured above right] in 2013.

“The incoming principal inherited a number of major problems including a debt representing more than 100 per cent of turnover and unsatisfactory internal auditing arrangements.”

But Dr Collins added: “The new board and management team are performing well and should be supported in what is a major turnaround situation.”

However, he recommended that the audit committee at the college, which currently has a £4.5m adult skills budget, needed strengthening and “ways of reducing the college’s level of debt to manageable levels should be explored as a matter of urgency”.

Dr Collins added the senior management team needed someone with “overall college-wide responsibility for quality improvement and curriculum development”.

Ms Wright said: “We are pleased to note their published recommendation that the senior team and board of corporation are performing well and should be supported in what is a major turnaround from an inherited poor position.

“The college is working to ensure speedy progress against all recommendations.”