Let’s get serious about AI and personalisation in apprenticeships

With a growing imperative around upskilling and reskilling, it’s never been more important to challenge our thinking about the tools and approaches we employ in pursuit of personalised, timely and effective learning.

It’s clear that the appetite is already there for workplace learning that blends study with practical experience. But there’s still a long way to go to realise the full potential of apprenticeships – not least because of the perennial ‘perception problems’ they conjure of being unduly complex, inflexible, and admin-heavy.

Rightfully, the discussion about meaningful return on investment (ROI) continues among employers and the education sector alike. To get to meaningful value, however, we first need to address how and where apprenticeship programmes are put to work. Get the approach right, and the ROI takes care of itself.

Emerging technology holds the very real possibility of taking the apprenticeship format to the next level – departing from the traditional, ‘linear’ learning model; improving user experience; and working ever-smarter within funding parameters.  

Breaking the mould

Advancements in technology – particularly GenAI – will continue to disrupt and reshape the way we live, work and learn.

Importantly, the true value that emerging technology has to offer learning isn’t in the gimmicks of creating more content, quicker; It’s about considered, contextual use that augments and elevates the richness and relevance of learning and unleashes the human potential that’s currently muzzled by the process.

It’s true that bleeding-edge technology and the apprenticeships don’t naturally go hand in hand. In fact, it’s no secret that a large portion of the conversation in the education space has centred around scepticism and concerns about plagiarism.

However, with a shift to see opportunity instead of obstacle, the possibilities extend beyond simple applications in platform augmentation. There’s an opportunity to deliver learning in an adaptable, hyper-personalised way to deliver value to learners and their businesses alike, in step with the changing demands of the modern workforce.

For example, in a recent pilot programme with Obrizum utilising their market-leading adaptive learning technology, we embarked on a mission to define an entirely new breed of apprenticeship programme with AI. Together, we set about reimagining the way that learning is constructed, consumed and measured.

AI has the power to unlock and apply datasets to provide a holistic view of learner progress. It can help deliver a superior learner experience by broadening or reducing exposure to certain knowledge themes based on competence and confidence dimensions, as well as empowering skills coaches to support learners in a far more personalised way.  

In other words, such technology enables true personalisation by continuously adapting the learning journey based on individual performance and providing actionable insights to learners and skills coaches.

A new era

When ‘done right’, the apprenticeship format is all about balancing technical skills development with the confidence and behavioural attributes to create self-aware, well-rounded individuals. Ultimately, the goal of intelligent technology deployment is to support and augment the human aspects of that work, not to replace it.

The results of our recent pilot programme speak for themselves: 94 per cent of learners on the adaptive learning pathways felt the learning was highly personalised to their specific needs, leading to a 1.5x increase in speed to competency.

Moreover, we’ve seen a 25 per cent increase in learner satisfaction versus the non-adaptive pathways, and a 28 per cent increase in overall learner confidence. The programme was also awarded the ‘Best use of AI in Learning’ by the Learning and Performance Institute, recognising its application of AI-driven adaptive technology to enhance learning outcomes.

The role of education is to provide learners with the skills required to take them to the next step of whatever journey they’re on. Within apprenticeships, this encompasses both technical skills and the essential soft (or ‘power’) skills to build confident, competent and future-ready individuals.

AI-enabled apprenticeships have a significant role to play in contributing to a workforce that is better prepared for the challenges of today and tomorrow. Getting it right – and going beyond superficial applications to unlock true value – requires bold adoption and considered thinking about the opportunities the technology presents.

The Staffroom. Strategies to unleash your green changemakers

In December, the government updated its sustainability and climate change strategy, specifically noting that the area in which the DfE has “the most work to do is reducing our environmental footprint”. Its efforts are not yet adding up to the wave of change we need.

To make the difference, the government has provided funding to train staff in FE settings to become Green Changemakers. The aim of this effort is to support professional development that will upskill colleagues and empower them to influence the green skills culture of their organisations.

Having undertaken the Green Changemakers programme, I feel it’s important to share some of the thinking, talking, and listening strategies I have learned to enable other FE staff to make these vital changes.

The thinking environment

As Time To Think founder Nancy Kline has written, “The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first. The quality of our thinking depends on the way we treat each other while we are thinking.”

Kline goes on to outline ten components of thinking environments that, individually and together, favour high-quality thinking and action. One of these is ‘feelings’, and when it comes to climate change it is particularly important to acknowledge people’s genuine and valid fears.

But it is equally important to convert those fears into what Susan Hoyle calls constructive hope. To do that, equality (valuing each contributor’s voice as expert in their field), positive encouragement and a sense of place. Creating a shared sense that we are making a difference means showing appreciation for every success along the way, no matter how small. 

Kline’s ‘Ten Components of a Thinking Environment’ are a great place to start to ensure your climate action has a transformative impact – on attitudes and on your college’s carbon footprint.  

Thinking councils

So how can we go about creating the sense of community Kline talks about? After all, colleges are not run like cooperatives.

For that, we can turn to an example from the NHS ‘Learning handbook’ on supporting systematic learning before, during and after project activity.

Among its recommendations is the use of ‘learning councils’. These are “similar to a focus group and can be used either to inform future work or to tackle a specific problem that is experienced in a project”.

Their aim is not to upend hierarchies but to “pass knowledge and experience from a group to the person in need of support”, in this case the college’s leadership team.

In conjunction with Kline’s ‘ten components’, learning councils begin to outline a strategy to empower smaller actions at the classroom level while informing better decisions at the leadership level.

Both, however, rely on providing genuine opportunities for colleagues to share their ideas and feedback without fear of interruption or judgement. Not all will be accepted or taken forward, but only in this context will truly creative solutions and solid consensus arise.

Facilitating the experts

The bigger issues around climate change can appear insurmountable. The key to a successful strategy in your college is to stay focused throughout on how each of us can be part of the solution, by providing essential information on local or departmental issues, suggesting steps to implementing our shared goals and communicating about the potential positive impacts taking those steps could have.

Here, The Knowledge Academy’s Sienna Roberts offers invaluable insights on specific facilitation techniques to guide groups through decision-making processes.

When choosing a method to facilitate decision-making on climate action in FE, recognising the audience is key. Open, respectful conversation about green matters will only occur with appropriate support, guidelines and role modelling.

A top-down, one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to work, especially in the diverse context of further education. However, once a method has been successfully utilised in one area, the mix of a positive thinking environment, formal methods for collective decision-making, and the right facilitation will all but guarantee ripple effects across the organisation.

‘Green Changemakers’ aims to ripple across the sector. Accordingly, our shared knowledge is shared openly and open to growth and challenge. The more of us there are, the greater the chances that the ripples will add up to a wave.

Practitioner research isn’t enough. FE must embrace a research ethos

Last weeks’ article by Catherine Gray in these pages shows the importance of research is recognised ever more widely in the sector. Twenty-seven years ago, when the Learning & Skills Research Network (LSRN) was founded, only a small band of enthusiasts and a few larger colleges were engaging with it and little infrastructure existed to support it. Things have improved, but there’s a way to go.

Among the positive developments, we can cite that over twenty LSRN convenors across England and Wales organise activities for hundreds of active practitioner-researchers. In addition, colleges committed to research have combined to form the Research College Group, the Association of Colleges has set up the Research Further initiative and the Society for Education & Training encourages research engagement through its Intuition magazine. Research activity in the sector is thriving.

Sadly, interest elsewhere about research in the sector seems to be dwindling. The current ESRC Education Research Programme hardly mentions FE at all and the Education Endowment Foundation, now a major research funder, restricts its work largely to schools.

In the university sector, academics who focus on FE, adult education and skills seem in short supply. This relative neglect should act as a clarion call for the sector to stand up, define its own expectations of research and start making demands upon the wider system.

The rise of research interest amongst practitioners is good news: it’s essential if a culture of research-use is to develop across the sector. Skilled researchers and infrastructure that supports them are important.

To convince leaders and funders to invest in research, however, requires more than a cohort of individuals pursuing their separate interests. It requires a connected system to produce sound evidence on pertinent questions, make it useful and then ensure it is put to use.

Perennial issues of practice and leadership in FE need a strong base of evidence: teaching methods in vocational areas, course design, employer engagement, college structure, patterns of governance and countless others.

Our relative neglect should act as a clarion call

To develop this requires collective effort, both within and beyond the research community: teachers, support staff, leaders and other intermediaries all have a part to play in identifying priorities, designing and commissioning studies and interpreting and using their findings.

It’s time for the sector to pull together to define its specific knowledge requirements, rather than just accepting generalisations from school research or the absence of good evidence.

These systems exist in other sectors. Health and social care have the National Institute for Health and Care Research). Manufacturing has the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.

In one inspiring governmental initiative, called for by Sir Paul Nurse and Sir Patrick Vallance, the Transforming Evidence network, is working with policymakers to identify Areas of Research Interest across government departments to help decision-makers in public services put clear knowledge requirements to research councils and other funders. 

Not only could the FE  and skills sector take the initiative by spelling out areas in which it needs better knowledge, it could also build up its own approach to research production. Iterative, multi-disciplinary studies could focus on the practical knowledge the sector needs to drive improvement. This could entail teachers and leaders working closely with researchers to specify project designs and modify, adapt and apply the results in real time.

FE has a proud tradition of imaginative development work: bringing on new courses, new learner groups and new assessment methods. It already has expertise in many fields that carry out research in this way: agriculture, healthcare, automotive engineering and the performing arts, for example. With a research stake in so many sectors, why not extend the ‘R&D’ approach to education research too? Good examples already exist in colleges, albeit on a small scale.

The pay-off for such engagement would be better and more convincing proposals for research funding. Greater investment in research is more likely when high quality, use-directed research proposals are put forward – a potentially important additional revenue stream to drive classroom improvements and learner outcomes.

With an ever-growing cadre of trained and skilled practitioner-researchers available, it’s surely time to develop the infrastructure and systems needed to capitalise on their individual capacities for the wider benefit of the sector.

These little-known providers could drive apprenticeships success

Following last month’s St Martin’s Group report on apprenticeship outcomes and destinations, it’s clear to me that a little-known part of the system could in fact be key to improving it.  

The report found that wrap-around support, extra care and attention and all-round employer involvement were lacking – all things which Flexi-Job Apprenticeship Agencies (FJAAs) specifically provide. 

FJAAs are organisations that recruit and employ apprentices directly, place them with host businesses and offer additional support for the duration of their apprenticeship. I believe their role is more crucial than ever.  

A recent article by Mesma CEO, Lou Doyle responding to the report in these pages questioned the current model of putting employers ‘in the driving seat’ of apprenticeships. They make better co-pilots, she argued, and providers should be at the wheel. 

I agree, but the barrier is that many independent  providers, colleges, and employers simply don’t have the time and resource to commit to this at the level that is required. FJAAs do, and they do so by design. A good FJAA will always do all that they can to support the apprentices’ needs, no matter the obstacle. It is their sole purpose. 

This support extends to periods when a change of host employer is required, as the flexi-job agency model recognises that the short-term nature of some roles will require this. In fact, we are increasingly being asked to support individuals who find themselves without an employer part-way through their apprenticeship. In other words, what we do is vital in supporting apprentices to completion.  

Of course, this doesn’t come without a price. At the moment, most FJAAs fund their work only by charging the host employers they serve.  Some have had the benefit of short-term funding from a variety of sources to grow and add value, but a clear barrier is that most of the sector doesn’t know we exist, let alone what we do. 

TrAC is the lead partner in FutureIN, a public-private sector partnership that was awarded the Construction News Workforce Awards Apprenticeship Initiative of the Year for 2023.

What we do is vital in supporting apprentices to completion  

FutureIN supports young people at risk of homelessness in Greater Cambridge into jobs and apprenticeships in the construction industry.  

We work with property developers, building contractors, the Department for Work and Pensions and local training providers to create jobs and apprenticeship opportunities which are then specifically allocated to FutureIN candidates.  

TrAC employs all FutureIN recruits and places them within its partnership businesses, initially for a pre-apprenticeship period of up to six months before moving them onto an apprenticeship pathway.  

All programme participants receive wrap-around pastoral support and care from their TrAC account manager, who also supports the host company staff where required. We arrange and coordinate the training and reviews, maintaining a proactive approach and nipping any emerging issues in the bud.   

The number of partnership organisations stands at 15, and it is growing. In addition to the income from host company placements, we have also been successful in obtaining grants from charities and local authority partners, as well as securing invaluable long-term support from the Department for Work and Pensions.  

All of these funders understand that the wrap-around support we provide can, by necessity, be very intensive. But more than that, they value that work because they know retention and completion matters – not to meet a target, but for the benefit of all concerned.    

Helping this cohort of young people can have significant impact and benefit across our society and communities, as well as mitigating the long-term cost to the state. Seventeen per cent of young people leaving care go on to make a homeless application. Care leavers make up 25 per cent of the adult homeless population, and almost 25 per cent of the adult prison population. Nearly 50 per cent of under 21s in contact with the criminal justice system have spent time in care. 

These are the people we are reaching and in whose lives’ we are making a positive difference. And if the model works for them, then there’s no reason it couldn’t work to improve engagement for all those who require more support to succeed.  

Skills minister backs FE lecturer ‘reservist’ trial

New skills minister Luke Hall has backed a proposal to train industry professionals to become “reservist” FE teachers.

The “FE lecturer reservist” trial, which looks to mimic the armed forces reservist model, will initially recruit automotive technicians and engineers across the West Midlands to undertake a short teaching course, and then be called up to support FE colleges while continuing their industry role.

It is designed to address high teacher vacancy rates in further education as well as skills shortages in the automotive sector.

Developers of the pilot, including the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), hope to have it up and running before the general election or the next academic year, whichever comes first.

During his first education questions session as skills minister in parliament this week, Hall praised the concept of the scheme and pledged to visit the pilot once it has launched. He attended a roundtable last week to discuss the trial with regional employers, colleges and training providers.

“We had really positive discussions about the exciting lecturer reservist pilot that will run in the West Midlands, bringing together regional employers, colleges and providers,” Hall said.

Recent Office for National Statistics data shows the motor trades industry (representing the automotive repair sector) has 4.1 vacancies for every 100 employees as of March 2024, the highest number of vacancies across all sectors.

The government is also concerned about the teacher recruitment and retention crisis in FE. Latest workforce figures show there were 5.4 vacancies per 100 teaching positions across the sector at the end of the 2021/22 academic year. The West Midlands had an unfilled teaching vacancy rate of 5.1 per 100.

The Department for Education took control of a teacher training scheme, called Taking Teaching Further (TTF), mid-contract last year from the Education and Training Foundation after numbers showed just over half the places available were filled. TTF aims to retrain industry professionals as full-time FE teachers.

Hayley Pells, policy lead at the IMI, said the FE lecturer reservist pilot could provide ‘bi-directional” benefits of lecturers “having closer links with industry” and reservists taking back ideas to the workplace.

“You’ve got your initial benefit of boots on the ground. We need to support our FE lecturers plus our learners need up-to-date experience of the technology that they’re going to be deployed to work on as soon as they qualify,” she said.

Benjamin Silverstone, who leads skills policy and workforce transformation at WMG and is ex-army, said the pilot was born out of a need for a “more sustainable and structured manner of enabling industry to support the FE sector”.

The pilot aims for each college involved to have at least one reservist from a company to test it out.

“It’d be quite nice if there’s a couple to get that internal consistency,” Silverstone told FE Week. “The focal point will be definitely around engineering.”

According to a briefing from last week’s roundtable, attended by Luke Hall, MP Chris Clarkson and former skills minister Robert Halfon, the pilot has the potential for a national rollout if successful.

Career changer programmes are waning after the Now Teach programme – for professionals to retrain as schoolteachers – was pulled by the government just last week.

Now Teach targeted people towards the end of their careers whereas the reservist programme is aiming to recruit motor professionals four or five years into their career who want to “give back” and develop career growth.

The nuts and bolts of the scheme

The granular details of the initiative are still unknown, but the West Midlands Combined Authority has already committed to funding an eight-week course for budding FE lecturer reservists.

After the course, the reservists’ employer and provider should agree the terms of how long and often the reservist would be needed away from work.

“It may well be that the individual is called on for their specialist capabilities to teach a module over 12 weeks or for an afternoon a week,” said Silverstone.

The roundtable briefing illustrated the rights of FE reservists, mimicking the armed forces reservists, their rights of which are enshrined in law.

If agreed by all stakeholders, FE lecturer reservists, like army reservists, could claim financial support of up to £400 per day to cover the difference between their substantive salary and the rate paid by the provider.

Small- and medium-sized enterprise employers could also claim £500 per month when their reservist employee is undertaking FE delivery.

Silverstone added that, under their proposal, “should that employer say, ‘I can’t pay you your full rate’, then the college could pay them and there’d be a top up as there is with the armed forces model”.

Miriam O’Leary, partnerships director at Colleges West Midlands, said the pilot might look completely different across the region, depending on its adoption.

“I think we’re working through the detail of how we work in practice, but we have a great deal of interest in working together to make it happen,” she told FE Week.

Lecturer wins payout over ‘distressing’ remarks after husband’s death

A southwest college has been ordered to pay more than £25,000 to a lecturer over claims she was bullied and subjected to “intimidating” remarks by her line manager.

Rachael Edgeler, a former health and social care lecturer at City College Plymouth, won her case of constructive dismissal and victimisation after she was forced to resign following criticisms from her manager shortly after her estranged husband died.

According to court documents, the teacher was subjected to “distressing” comments from the manager after she told her she should look for another job now she was a single parent.

The judge ordered the college to pay her £10,316 in compensation for unfair dismissal, £14,000 for injury to feelings and an interest payment of £905.65.

City College Plymouth has disputed the findings and is appealing the judgment “in the interests of justice and fairness” as its legal representative was not present at the hearing due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

However, Judge Nicholas Roper lambasted the college’s conduct for continually paying “scant regard” to the proceedings and being in “repeated breach” of tribunal orders, such as failing to file documents on time.

‘Maybe you should look for another job’

Edgeler, who began employment at the college in August 2020, was forced to resign in September 2022 after months of grievances with her manager.

The judge heard that Edgeler had a successful career at the college and had no criticism of her performance until her line manager joined in March 2022. Two days later, police told Edgeler that her estranged husband and father of her two young children had died.

While at her ex-partner’s funeral, the manager contacted Edgeler asking why she wasn’t at work, despite the college granting compassionate leave.

Upon her return to work, Edgeler’s line manager said her compassionate leave and a Covid-related sickness in late 2021 was “no excuse” for her absence.

“Now you are a single parent, maybe you should look for another job,” the former lecturer was told.

The tribunal heard that the manager publicly criticised Edgeler on a work WhatsApp group for running late. “Maybe leave home earlier as that’s the third time this week,” she told the group chat.

Edgeler was reprimanded for explaining her lateness was due to roadworks. “That’s not an excuse. Find an alternative route. Other people live that way. You would not be able to do that with any other employer,” her boss told her.

The manager was heard by a colleague claiming that Edgeler’s Covid sickness absence was “fraud”.

The judge heard that while Edgeler did not have set work hours, her boss said heavy traffic was not an acceptable excuse for being late and she must start work at 8.30am every day. She also told her that “she should look for another job with a work–life balance”.

After not receiving the results of an informal grievance with the line manager, Edgeler lodged a formal complaint with the college in June 2022. The following month, the college ruled that the manager had not “bullied or harassed” Edgeler, nor had she claimed her Covid sickness was a “fraud” as the colleague “must have misheard it”.

The college did find the WhatsApp messages were “unacceptable” for a manager and that “derogatory comments about a team member in front of their colleagues does constitute bullying behaviour”.

Edgeler launched an appeal but later found herself facing disciplinary proceedings over an allegedly transphobic comment she made to a student, and for allegedly creating a WhatsApp group to post negative and offensive comments about her boss.

After being signed off for sick leave from “stress and depression”, Edgeler found herself locked out of the college’s IT system, which was the deciding factor for handing in her resignation.

The judge said: “She was a single parent in difficult circumstances trying to cope with her work, and then found herself in a position where she felt she had no option other than to resign her employment.”

A City College Plymouth spokesperson said: “This was a case which was in fact decided in the claimant’s favour without our representative being present or our witnesses heard from. The judge decided the case despite our representative being on the way to the tribunal having been delayed due to extreme unforeseen circumstances.

“We are therefore appealing this decision in the interests of justice and fairness, and are unable to provide further comment until the appeal process has been concluded.”

New trials will build the evidence base to improve adult numeracy

Numeracy skills are vital in enabling people to improve their well-being and to access better jobs and better options for the future. However, more than eight million adults in England have numeracy skills lower than those expected of a 9-year-old and evidence suggests the majority of the country’s youngest jobseekers today are less numerate than their grandparents.

Confidence with numbers helps people with many everyday tasks from cooking to budgeting and helping children with homework. Brushing up on numeracy skills can also support people’s career progression and help them access higher levels of training.

So in 2022 the Department for Education (DfE) launched Multiply, its flagship programme to improve adult numeracy. Up to £270 million is directly available for local areas to deliver innovative interventions to improve adult numeracy.

There have been over 113,000 course starts to January 2024, with many more people engaged in outreach and engagement activity to build their confidence with numbers.

With such significant government investment, we want to build on this success and ensure evidence-based approaches inform future adult skills policy and delivery, and ultimately help improve outcomes for adult learners.  

That is why Tribal are working with the DfE and partners to launch a series of research trials over 2024 and 2025, designed to test the effectiveness of existing and new approaches to improving adult numeracy.

The research and evidence from these trials will be used to determine the most effective strategies to engage learners and teach adult numeracy skills. By grounding interventions in evidence, policymakers, educators and practitioners can maximise the impact of numeracy programmes and ensure resources are utilised efficiently.

Rolling out effective trials

Multiply has launched a research initiative to understand what works in adult numeracy through trials designed to identify effective strategies and interventions to help adults improve their numeracy skills.

In partnership with Campaign for Learning, Education and Training Foundation, IPSOS and King’s College London among others, we are rolling out five trials, with the majority starting in September:

  1. Preparation for GCSE mathematics
  2. An adapted mastery approach to functional skills qualification level 1
  3. A contextualised approach to functional skills qualification level 1
  4. Embedding maths in health and social care level 2, and
  5. A family numeracy programme.

The trials will be fully funded, and incentives are available. They also provide an exciting opportunity for training providers to contribute to research, collaborate with other organisations and access free training for staff to take part, all of which can enhance their existing provision.

Improving outcomes

These trials will help carve out a pathway to a more effective adult numeracy teaching landscape. By taking part you will be randomly allocated to a treatment (delivering something new) or control (business as usual) group.

If you are in the treatment group, it will be an opportunity to deliver something innovative that has potential to improve results for learners. If you are in the control group, you will continue to deliver your business-as-usual curriculum. Both groups are vital to the research and will receive payment for being involved.  

If you are in the treatment group, the interventions can slot seamlessly into guided learning hours making it easy for adult learning organisations and teachers to incorporate them into current practices.

Organisations will be fully supported to deliver this new scheme of work, and teachers will receive high-quality training ahead of the new academic year.

Investing in adult maths education that is evidence-based is essential to bridge skills gaps, promote social inclusion and unlock the full potential of people across society, helping to foster a more prosperous and equal future.

By adopting evidence-based approaches and leveraging effective strategies we can enhance adult numeracy education and unlock the full potential of individuals and communities across the country.

If you are a local area or a provider delivering maths provision to adults and would like to be involved, we’d love to hear from you.  To register your interest or for more information here

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 460

Helen Sharpe

Assistant Principal – Apprenticeships and Employer Engagement, London South East Colleges

Start date: May 2024

Previous Job: Operations Director – Apprenticeships, South Essex Colleges Group

Interesting fact: Helen has been passionate about apprenticeships since completing her own (in hairdressing) around 27 years ago. Having worked in apprenticeships for South Essex College over the last 20 years, Helen is excited to star her new role and bring that passion to LSEC.

Graham Knott

Operations Director, HIT Training

Start date: February 2024

Previous Job: Business Operations Director, Professional Assessment Ltd

Interesting fact: Graham loves the great outdoors and photography. He can often be spotted on remote Lakeland fells with his flask and camera. Graham also recently acquired his purple belt in Shorai martial arts and is continuing to work towards black belt.

Ben Ward

Vice Chair, Hopwood Hall College and University Centre

Start date: July 2024

Concurrent Job: CEO, University of Manchester Students’ Union

Interesting fact: Through his role at University of Manchester Students’ Union and as the Managing Director for Manchester Academy Venues, Ben leads a staff team of 90 full-time and 350 part-time staff with the organisation having a turnover of £8.5million.

‘Change on an unprecedented scale’: Ofqual responds to ABS plans

Rishi Sunak’s “Advanced British Standard” risks an increase in the volume of exams, the continuation of “unregulated” international A-level qualifications and “significant investment” to deliver change on an “unprecedented scale”, Ofqual has warned.

The exams regulator has issued its response to the government’s consultation on the new qualification, which ministers want to see replace A-levels and T Levels in around a decade.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. ‘Reform on an unprecedented scale’

Ofqual said achieving the ambitions of the ABS “requires change on a scale unprecedented in England in recent decades”.

“It envisages concurrent reform to curriculum, qualification content and structures, the qualifications market, and any associated technological reform.”

Reform on this scale “can be delivered successfully, but its scale and complexity require significant investment of resource across all parts of the education system”.

2. Start with compulsory maths and English

The regulator welcomed the “long-term reform timescale and the resourcing commitments set out in the consultation”, adding it was “important to sequence changes carefully”.

They suggested the government “consider a staged approach”, with compulsory maths and English introduced as a first step “initially focussing investment on the teacher workforce here, while contributing materially to the delivery of the longer-term vision of the ABS”.

3. Consider keeping A-level ‘brand’

They A-level brand is “well-regarded by qualification users”, with a trust built over 73 years, Ofqual said.

It is “likely that awarding organisations will continue to offer unregulated ‘international’ A-levels, even if the ABS means that A-levels cease to be regulated qualifications available in state schools”.

“These A-levels could be taken in UK independent schools and abroad. This could present a confidence or reputational challenge for the ABS.”

The regulator said the DfE “might consider” if the aims of the ABS could be met whilst “retaining the identity and branding of well-established, and more recently introduced qualifications”.

4. Students may not be ready for higher study

Ofqual also urged the DfE to consider the “wide range of achievement recognised at age 16”.

For example, students achieving grade 4 in GCSE mathematics “may not have studied much of the higher tier content that typically forms the basis for study at level 3, including in the existing core maths qualification”.

“Likewise, the curriculum content for English would need to be broad enough to meet a range of needs at this level, building on prior attainment and preparing students effectively for their next stages.”

5. ‘Likely’ to increase volume of exams

Ofqual warned increasing the volume of content while maintaining grade reliability “will likely increase the volume of assessment”.

This would create “challenges to address relating to exam timetabling, exam delivery in schools and colleges, and timely marking and issuing of results”.

Having more exams without “increasing clashes” for students would require a longer timetable, either encroaching on teaching time or the marking period.

And any increase in the volume of exam papers “would introduce additional risk to the delivery of results and could exacerbate existing pressures, such as examiner recruitment”.

6. ‘Major’ and ‘minor’ grading scale could ‘mislead’

The consultation proposed a single grading scale for “minors” and “majors” within the ABS for all routes. This “contrasts with the current established variety of grading approaches”, Ofqual warned.

Supporting parity across the routes “might be better achieved in ways other than a common grading scale”.

“Specifically, the direct comparability that a common grading scale appears to offer would be misleading and is likely to lead to unintended consequences.”

As the ABS is intended for a broader cohort than currently sit A-levels, the existing six-grade scale “would likely need to expand”, risking “unintended differences in grading profiles across the range, academic and occupational, of ABS components”.

7. ‘Pass-fail’ approach would lower achievement rate

The government has also set out several options for grading the overall ABS award.

The proposed lead option is a certificate or statement of achievement with minimum attainment conditions.

Making the ABS “pass-fail” would “lead to a lower number of students achieving the overall ABS than currently achieve level 3 qualifications, potentially impacting on, for example, progression opportunities post-18”.

There could also be a variation in pass rates by choice of subjects, which could “distort students’ subject choices to maximise their chances of an achieving an overall pass”.

The second option – a certificate or statement of achievement without any minimum attainment conditions – presents “few technical grading challenges”, Ofqual said.

The third option – an aggregate ABS score or grade – would “inevitably reduce the amount of information conveyed by that overall result compared with that conveyed by results for each major and minor”.

8. ‘Complex’ to use multiple exam boards…

If a number of exam boards become providers of ABS components, an individual student’s ABS “is likely to comprise elements from more than one AO”, something that would be “organisationally complex”.

“They may also require additional time prior to the release of results, with potential implications for when this could safely take place.”

9. …but could create ‘stronger market’

Exam boards would have to demonstrate “proven expertise in delivering such high stakes qualifications if they were to offer the ABS”.

“It is possible, and perhaps likely, that this would result in a consolidation of the number of awarding organisations offering the ABS when compared with those currently offering post-16 regulated level 3 qualifications.

“This could helpfully lead to a stronger market. It is unlikely that a single provider model would ensure sufficient capacity and resilience to deliver a high stakes qualification in the volumes that the ABS would involve.”

10. Warning over existing reforms

The ABS could also affect “current” reform programmes, such as the level 3 post-16 qualifications review and T-levels.

Some awarding organisations are developing qualifications “that might exist only relatively briefly before the ABS is introduced”.

Ofqual warned it was “critical that the ABS reform programme does not lead some awarding organisations to exit the market hastily, for example due to reducing demand for their qualifications or because they do not plan to offer ABS qualifications”.

“This would leave students in the short term with a reduced choice of courses and qualifications.”