Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has called on young people and employers to “get an apprenticeship” ahead of National Apprenticeship Week.
In a one and a half minute video message, which marks the week-long celebration of apprenticeships beginning on Monday, Mr Clegg said every young person had “the talent and potential to succeed”, and one of the ways they could do this was through an apprenticeship.
He said: “National Apprenticeship Week gives us an opportunity to recognise the incredible achievements of these apprentices.
“It also enables us to thank the thousands of British employers giving them this chance to earn and learn.
“And inspire more young people, businesses and organisations to get involved.”
Mr Clegg listed the benefits of apprenticeships, saying the “facts speak for themselves”.
He gave examples of careers which can be accessed through apprenticeships, such as TV production, legal services and engineering, as well as telling employers there would be a “hard-working, dedicated” apprentices for them “whatever your sector”.
“More apprentices than ever are making it into our top professions,” he said.
“Many employers tell us that taking on an apprentice has benefited their business.”
He added: “Help us build on this success. So, if you want a good career or a boost to your businesses’ bottom line – get an apprenticeship.”
To watch the full video and read the full text of Mr Clegg’s speech, click here.
For more on National Apprenticeship Week, take a look at the dedicated supplement with this week’s edition of FE Week.
All 14 to 16-year-olds should be able to study a vocational subject at school – and colleges could hold the key to providing that offer, an influential group of politicians and sector leaders recommended today.
The Demos thinktank’s Commission on Apprenticeships, launched last summer, has published its report, which also calls for an “apprentice guarantee” that could see learners liable for off-the-job training costs if they don’t complete their framework.
The 11-member commission includes co-chairs Conservative MP Robert Halfon and Labour peer Lord Maurice Glasman, Mike Cherry, national policy chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses, Kirstie Donnelly, UK managing director of City & Guilds, Steve Radley, Construction Industry Training Board director of policy, and Stewart Segal, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive.
The Commission has made its recommendations in the 116-page report alongside the results of a survey of 1,000 parents, which revealed a big difference in the proportion who thought apprenticeships were a good option for young people generally (92 per cent), and those who favoured them for their own children (32 per cent).
As well as calling for vocational options to be offered to school pupils, the report also welcomes the “direction” of apprenticeship funding reforms, but calls into question government plans to route funding through employers.
The report says: “All students aged 14 to 16 should be offered the chance to take a vocational subject alongside academic study. This would not be compulsory but the option should be available to all.
“This entitlement could be delivered through schools forming partnerships with institutions with a strong vocational focus, such as FE colleges and university technical colleges.”
On funding reform, the report calls on the government to “either revert to one of its earlier policy options, such as the provider payment model, or offer each business a choice as to whether they directly handle public money or not”.
It adds: “The government should trial a new ‘mutual guarantee’ arrangement at the start of an apprenticeship, as part of an apprenticeship agreement.
“Employers would clarify the level of their investment in off-the-job training and exactly what individuals should expect from an apprenticeship, while apprentices would commit to completing the apprenticeship or else covering the costs of off-the-job training.”
Other recommendations include face-to-face support from the National Careers Service and an apprenticeship charter for employers who demonstrate commitment to high quality training. The report also calls for better use of destination data.
Commission co-chair Lord Glasman said: “This report shows that we have a long way to go before the skill and character required to complete a quality apprenticeship are fully recognised in Britain.
“We have privileged the academic over the vocational for too long.”
Next academic year’s 24 per cent FE funding cut will “intensify” the challenges faced by college governors, the University and College Union (UCU) has warned after a government report conceded the effect of spending reductions so far had been “profound”.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) report assessing the impact of governance reform in FE colleges outlines how “reductions in public funding and the need for colleges to find new, innovative ways to deliver education and training to students has drawn strong colleges towards a culture of ‘institutional responsibility’.”
It said: “These changes have had a profound effect on governance, with clerks reporting the appointment of many governors new to their role and to the FE sector.”
It added: “Reductions in traditional funding streams have required governors to make difficult decisions about priorities.”
A UCU spokesperson said it was “encouraging that the report recognises the crucial role of staff and student governors within college leadership”.
She said: “The report acknowledges the challenges posed by the speed and scale of FE reform in recent years — the latest cuts of up to 24 per cent to adult skills budgets will only intensify these challenges.
“UCU would welcome a greater emphasis from BIS on the importance of gaining wider feedback from staff, as well as students, to inform decision making in the future.”
David Walker, director of governance for the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “This review of FE college governance recognises that colleges have used their independence to meet the challenges they face.
“College governors act as an oversight on the management of the college, including their finances, and this review gives a fair assessment of the progress they have made since 2011.”
Dr Sue Pember, the former head of FE and skills investment at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), who was awarded an OBE for services to the sector in 2000, puts her extensive sector knowledge to good use in answering your governance questions in edition 131 of FE Week, dated Monday, March 16.
Click here to read first section, which appeared in edition 124 of FE Week.
The abolition of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) within just over a year has been proposed by a local government thinktank as it recommended devolving “various streams straight to local enterprise partnerships (Leps).”
The 66-page Next Leps: Unlocking growth across our localities report from Localis calls for the SFA to lose its £3.5bn from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) by 2016/17 among other far-reaching FE and skills recommendations.
It suggests that, from the same period, Education Funding Agency (EFA) spending on University Technical Colleges (UTCs) should go through Leps “to treble the number of UTCs by 2020 – including a minimum of one per Lep”.
It goes on to recommend that “should Leps deliver cost effective spend in both these areas, devolution of all post-14 skills monies should be considered in 2020”.
However, it also points out how there are 18 (almost half) Leps without FE representation on their board and that “this appears a problem in need of urgent attention” — but it gives no firm recommendation to address the issue.
Report author Richard Carr, a history lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and a senior visiting fellow at Localis, describes the recommendations as a “Heseltine-plus approach to sub-regional growth”.
Lord Heseltine
The term is a nod to the Tory peer’s October 2012 report entitled No Stone Unturned in pursuit of Growth, in which he said central government should “identify budgets”, including the skills budget worth around £17bn over four years, and “bring them together into a single pot of funding” for Leps.
And Mr Carr’s report acknowledged how, since Lord Heseltine’s recommendations, “some SFA money has already been devolved – about £500m of the SFA’s £4bn budget is in the form of European Social Fund money or capital grants which are already being packaged into the Local Growth Fund (LGF)”.
It said: “But, even ignoring the central strait-jacket around the LGF, this still leaves over £3.5bn in SFA hands.
“The most elegant solution would be to abolish the SFA and devolve its various streams straight to LEPs to meet the aims contained within their Strategic Economic Plans.
“In practice the biggest accounting adjustment here would be £2.9bn of funds ceasing to be transferred from BIS to the SFA, and expanding the LGF by that sum.”
A BIS spokesperson said it had “no plans to abolish the SFA” and Alex Pratt OBE, chair of the Bucks Lep and chair of Lep Network Management Board, told FE Week “it’s not for Leps to comment on the viability of the SFA”.
“There is however an open and legitimate debate about how we might properly devolve accountability, responsibility, capability and resources across a number of areas,” he said.
He described UTCs as “potentially valuable, but just one tactical component in a complex system which needs to both maximise the life chances of individuals and deliver the skills needs of our businesses”.
He said: “Devolving all post 14 skills funding to Leps might well prove to be the right way forward, as might devolving other centrally held budgets in other areas relevant to driving the growth we need to pay down our debts and keep our people employed.
Alex Pratt
“Personally, at this stage as one Lep chair I would not wish to have full responsibility for our colleges because not only are we not yet equipped to take this on, much of what colleges do is not about driving private sector growth, which is the dedicated focus of Leps.
“One real danger is that of mission creep where Leps could lose their focus on private sector growth.”
He added: “If every legitimate interest were to have a seat on all Lep boards we’d need to build 39 amphitheatres and nothing would get done.
“Colleges and independent learning providers would in my mind do better to align together and focus hard on making sure Lep boards are fully informed in so far as the advice and evidence they receive (most if not all have a skills board that makes recommendations).”
The BIS spokesperson said: “We welcome contributions to the debate about how we secure the right balance between support for national and local priorities, and how we deliver long term support for the UK’s key industries and economic growth.
“The reforms we have in train will ensure we have a high quality offer with much greater control in the hands of employers and learners.
“Through the successful City and Growth deals, we have increased the power and resources local leaders have to shape skills outcomes so they meet the needs of their local economies.”
Almost 50 FE colleges will take part in a £3.75m project to help ensure industry knowledge is passed on by the sector’s higher education staff.
The Association of Colleges (AoC) has been given £2.75m by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) Catalyst Fund for a project that will see higher education staff at 47 colleges working with employers to improve their knowledge of industry and jobs.
The funding, which will be boosted further by £1m of investment from the colleges themselves and businesses, will be used by the AoC to facilitate the project, which is part of Hefce’s enhancing professional and technical education programme.
The three-year project aims to encourage teachers to make regular visits to employers and bring real-life experience and work-based projects to the classroom and will result in a new framework to enhance teaching and learning. It will involve 15 lead colleges and 32 others, listed below.
Professor Madeleine Atkins, chief executive of Hefce, said: “FE colleges have a vital role to play in the development and delivery of high-level technical knowledge and skills, which are a priority for local and national economic growth.
Madeleine Atkins
“Hefce is delighted to be working with the AoC and other partners on this project, which aims to bring about a step change in higher technical education scholarship and teaching practice.
“It will benefit the wider sector by deepening employer engagement, enhancing higher technical education, and improving students’ learning experiences and outcomes.
The Catalyst Fund money was announced at the AoC’s higher education conference this morning.
Nick Davy
Nick Davy, higher education policy manager at the AoC, said: “There is increasing demand for employees with practical skills at a higher level, such as a foundation degree or a higher national diploma, as the labour market changes and 3.6m skilled older people will leave the workforce in the next 10 years.
“We are looking forward to working closely with the participating colleges to see how we can improve learning to ensure more graduates have the skills employers need from their staff.”
College leaders have called for a government National Audit Office (NAO) probe into college financial sustainability to consider the effect of a national cut of 24 per cent next year.
The government spending watchdog has announced an investigation into oversight of financial sustainability in the FE sector, focusing specifically on colleges.
The NAO, which will report on the subject in the summer, will examine the performance of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and, specifically, whether sufficient monitoring of the financial health of the sector is in place to identify emerging risks.
It will also aim to identify if there is a clear framework for deciding whether and when to intervene if a college is in financial difficulty, and whether effective action is taken to manage financial health issues which arise.
The review has been welcomed by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and Association of Colleges (AoC), which both called for proposed cuts of up to 24 per cent from the non-apprenticeship part of the adult skills budget in 2015/16 to be taken into account.
Malcolm Trobe
Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary of the ASCL, said: “It is important that the NAO will be looking at key areas around the financial health of the FE sector, intervention and support for colleges with financial health issues.
“However, more important is the fact that the cuts announced last week mean that there needs to be a fundamental review of how adults can access learning and skills support. ASCL is supporting those within the FE sector who are calling for an independent, public review of how our country should develop a new system for supporting the skills needs we have as a nation.
“Given its importance, we hope that this proposal will have cross-party support to consider how to stimulate investment from individuals and employers as well as how to spend the diminished government funding.”
Julian Gravatt, assistant chief executive of the AoC, said: “We’ve discussed the study with the auditors and we’re looking forward to seeing the results. Colleges face a number of financial challenges at the moment and it would be useful to have an independent view on the manageability of the task ahead of them given the funding cuts in the pipeline.”
Julian Gravatt
The University and College Union (UCU) has also called for a closer look at cuts. A spokesperson said: “The National Audit Office plays an important role in ensuring that funding bodies are operating effectively, and so this investigation is to be welcomed.
“However, in the wake of news that adult FE budgets are to be slashed by up to 24 per cent in 2015/16, it is clear that funding cuts pose the biggest risk of all to the sector.
“The NAO should focus its investigation on whether government’s prescriptive focus on apprenticeships is undermining colleges’ ability to respond to local need and sustainably fund other courses which cater for a wide range of learners.”
The NAO is expected to report back on its findings this summer. Its report will be followed up by a hearing of the House of Commons public accounts committee, which will also report on its own findings.
The learning process of an apprenticeship is well-recognised for the apprentice, but it also asks much of the person overseeing that process, and as such the role of mentor is one not to be taken lightly explains Graham Hasting-Evans.
Everyone is talking about apprenticeships and while each party shouts loudly about their own policy with a view to the election, it is encouraging that the future of the programme seems secure with everyone fully committed.
But beyond Westminster, it is also important that employers are confident in apprenticeships — that they can deliver what is needed in terms of the requisite skills and knowledge to boost productivity. This includes confidence in the value of the final qualification, and that it is an accurate assessment of a person’s ability to do the job.
NOCN is one of the awarding organisations involved in designing apprenticeship qualifications and we are a passionate supporter of the programme.
And I understand its value to the UK economy. Proper apprenticeships, which are recognised and supported by employers, are crucial for our future economic success.
Employer support for apprenticeships has to be demonstrated in the workplace. An apprenticeship is an investment in the future success of the business and requires careful nurturing to realise its potential.
The mentor role is vital to the success of the apprentice, but the importance and skills necessary for the mentor as they oversee the apprentice’s progress are quite often over-looked
This is where the work-based mentor comes. The mentor role is vital to the success of the apprentice, but the importance and skills necessary for the mentor as they oversee the apprentice’s progress are quite often over-looked.
The apprentice will spend more time under the supervision and guidance of their mentor than they will with any tutor in a classroom. The mentoring may be informal or structured, it may even be shared between various people, but the mentor needs to fulfil three key roles.
Firstly, the must be a supervisor who controls the work of the apprentice, just like they will when the apprentice is fully qualified.
Secondly, they fulfil the role of teacher — someone to impart knowledge and help the learner apply it for productive output.
And finally, they must act as counsellor to help the young person understand the demands of the world of work.
In this way the mentor guides the apprentice according to the needs of the business, ensuring the standards set by industry are met.
Everyone’s a winner because the apprentice gets expert advice and focused training while the employer gains an employee with exactly the right skills and knowledge.
Mr Hasting-Evans will be talking about the structure of apprenticeships and in-work assessment at the FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conference 2015.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has called on the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) to crack down on “short-term tactical subcontracting”.
The warning came as part of the Skills Funding letter 2015, and followed a raft of changes to the funding rules, released at the beginning of February.
In the letter, Dr Cable (pictured above) wrote: “While we appreciate that you [SFA] have worked with the sector to enhance the controls around subcontracting in the last two years, there continues to be levels of short term tactical subcontracting that are causing concern.”
He added: “You should review the use of subcontracting with a view to recommending further action, for implementation in 2015/16, to mitigate the risks of subcontracting and to ensure funding is allocated appropriately.”
No one from the SFA was available to confirm whether this review was under way.
Dr Cable also ordered the SFA to name and shame subcontractors where provision had been so poor it had been forced to terminate the contract.
In 2013, a promised blacklist of subcontractors the SFA had forbidden prime contractors from working with failed to materialise after the SFA said it had not banned any providers.
The new rules state providers “must not subcontract to meet short-term funding objectives” and said they “must robustly manage and monitor all of your subcontractors to ensure high-quality delivery is taking place”.
An Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) spokesperson told FE Week: “Issues around subcontracting are likely to be minimised if lead contractors are already fully adhering to the existing SFA rules… and if the SFA is seen to be enforcing them.”
He added AELP would like to see more contractors routinely referring to the sector’s Common Accord for supply chain management best practice.
An Association of Colleges spokesperson said: “The rules that are being put in place are an attempt to ensure all subcontracting arrangements are signed off by the board of governors.
“We will continue to work closely with the SFA to ensure rule changes are workable.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said: “The enhanced controls do not seek to reduce subcontracting, but aim to ensure all publicly-funded provision is of high quality… while protecting public money.”
An SFA spokesperson said it would “act in accordance with the skills funding letter and will continue to work closely with BIS on subcontracting policy”.
For Shoreham-by-Sea-based Hit Training it is the second year running it has been included, rising in the list from 92nd place last year to 88th this year.
Cardiff-based ACT Training has fallen from 35th place to 64th in its third year on the list.
Jill Whittaker (above), managing director of Hit, which was graded as good at its last Ofsted inspection in 2012, said: “Once again, inclusion in the list is an overwhelming affirmation of the vast expertise and sheer dedication that every single member of staff contributes every day.
“This year’s ranking again reflects the amazing positivity within our organisation and underlines everyone’s constant commitment to delivering quality in every aspect of their jobs.
“I know that Hit is one of the UK’s best companies to work for but now it’s been officially recognised for a second year running.
“The fact that so many of our employees chose to take part in the survey is an incredible affirmation of the amazing feel-good factor within the company and underlines HIT’s strong and flourishing business principles.”
Zoe Hall (right) is delivery director at ACT Training, which was inspected, along with its 15 sub-contractors, in June 2012 by Estyn, the Welsh education inspectorate, which reported that it provided a “good standard of training” and had “good prospects for improvement”.
She said: “We are delighted and extremely proud to be in the Sunday Times best companies for the third time running.
“The happiness and wellbeing of our staff is hugely important to us and this reflects on the service we deliver.
“Last year we surveyed our learners to ask them what they thought of our programmes and 90 per cent rated us as excellent which we feel is attributed to having a happy and motivated workforce.”
A similar list for small companies, which last year saw defunct ILP Bright International Training and Educ8 come 12th and 51st respectively, was due to be published on Sunday, with a list of not-for-profit companies expected a week later.
