A North East England college has tumbled from an outstanding Ofsted rating to inadequate, an inspection report published today (March 20) revealed.

Darlington College was slapped with a grade four-across-the-board rating following the inspection that took place from February 9 to 13, with inspectors finding that managers and governors had failed to take action as the quality of its provision “deteriorated considerably”  over “several years and failed to take effective actions to reverse the decline”.

It was a dramatic fall from grace from the college’s last inspection in 2009, when it was deemed outstanding-across-the-board and praised for its high success rates.

Inspectors criticised teaching standards at the 5,000-learner college in today’s report, as well as the “poor” success rates for 16 to 18-year-old learners on study programmes, which made up 55 per cent of the college’s provision in February.

The report added: “Teachers’ questioning techniques and assessment in lessons are often ineffective and fail to allow all learners to contribute and develop their skills and knowledge.

“Not enough lessons engage, motivate or challenge learners, including those who are more able; too many teachers plan insufficient variety of learning activities suitable for all learners.”

It also criticised arrangements for work experience as “weak”.

Darlington College principal Kate Roe said the result was “very disappointing”.

“The challenges we face are known to us and we are already tackling the issues highlighted in this report,” she said.

“The whole college is determined to address the findings of Ofsted and return the college to an improved inspection grade at the earliest opportunity.

“Ofsted looked at a number of areas where there are weaknesses but there are other excellent areas of teaching and learning which were not included in the inspection on this particular occasion.”

The report acknowledged that Ms Roe was only appointed to the role last summer and had taken steps to address the college’s problems.

“A new principal and deputy principal were appointed less than a year before the inspection,” the report said.

“They have jointly worked hard to reverse the college’s fortunes by adopting a tougher approach to performance management, strengthening the governing body, recruiting new staff and applying more stringent criteria for assessing teachers’ performance.

“Early indications suggest evidence of improvements in a few aspects of the college’s provision, but it is too early to assess the full impact of all of the measures that the senior team has taken.”

Inspectors also noted the college had brought in new, experienced governors “following concerns about the poor attendance of a minority of governors”, but added the “governors have not had a sufficient impact on the overall quality of the college’s provision”.

To improve the college’s performance, inspectors called for the college to “hold teachers accountable for their learners’ outcomes”.

The report added the college must “ensure that recently introduced performance management measures accurately identify weaker teaching and learning and take swift improvement actions”.

The report’s publication comes weeks after concerns were raised that Ofsted’s system for flagging up falling standards in outstanding providers was “insecure”.

In January two previously outstanding providers, Four Counties Training Limited  and Venture Learning Limited (VL) were branded inadequate after not being inspected for a total of 12 years.

Barry Lord-Gambles, contracts director for VL, said: “The current regime of inspections is of no benefit to providers. It provides a very insecure comfort blanket.”

New “digital apprenticeship vouchers” will be introduced in 2017, the government confirmed today as sector bodies raised concerns about the impact further departmental cuts might have on FE.

Documents released to coincide with Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget today revealed a little more detail to the voucher policy, which has essentially brought to an end a two-year apprenticeship funding reform saga in which employers were expected to be handed government money to pay for training.

The Budget documents confirmed that the vouchers, announced by Downing Street on Tuesday, would be in place by 2017. The system would give employers “purchasing power,” but actual government cash to pay for training will go straight to providers — just like the current system — and not into employers’ hands first.

The Budget document says: “The government, through the introduction of an apprenticeship voucher, will put employers in control of the government funding for the training apprentices need.

“The new mechanism, which will be developed and tested with employers and providers immediately and fully implemented from 2017, will give employers the purchasing power to have an even greater say in the quality, value for money and relevance of the training that their apprentices receive. As confirmed at autumn statement 2013, the government and employers will make cash contributions towards the cost of training for apprentices.”

It comes as organisations including the Association of Colleges (AoC) and National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) raised concerns about the future of general FE funding after Mr Osborne announced that efforts to reduce the deficit would include £12bn in additional departmental cuts between 2016 and 2019.

Blogging on the AoC’s website, assistant chief executive Julian Gravatt said: “Future spending cuts will come on those already made to post-16 education.

“We learnt last month that the 2015-16 academic year budget for adult further education will be 24 per cent less than this year’s budget. The Skills Funding Agency’s allocations were due on Tuesday and are now due later this week. We have lost one million adult learning places in the last five years – we’ll lose many more from this cut.

“The UK’s excellent employment record has been supported by the publicly funded further education system in recent years. This prop may not be available in future.”

Niace chief executive David Hughes said: “The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) tables set out how severe the Chancellor’s planned cuts are for 2016/17 and 2017/18.

“These are cuts on top of those we have seen already and those planned into this year, so the impact could be devastating. The cuts since 2010 have already led to a loss of one million learning opportunities for adults, with another 400,000 to come next year.

“All of this at the time when all of the respected analysts agree about the benefits of greater investment in skills training for people of working age and when skills gaps and shortages are hampering economic growth. I believe that we are in a skills crisis now, but those looming cuts really are frightening.

“Even by the government’s own ambitions, the cuts look like they will be hitting the job and life chances of millions of hard-working families, which cannot be right, surely?”

Edge Foundation chief executive Jan Hodges OBE today announced her retirement next month after a 35-year career in education.

The former South Essex College of Further and Higher Education principal has run Edge for the last four years and will be succeeded by policy and research director David Harbourne until her permanent replacement is appointed.

“It has been a pleasure and privilege to lead Edge over the last four years, working to raise the status of technical, practical and vocational learning,” she said.

“There have been so many highlights. There’s our annual celebration of success, VQ Day, and our sponsorship of The Skills Show, to name just two.

“Then there’s our role in promoting innovation. I’m proud that Edge has supported new institutions such as University Technical Colleges and the Edge Hotel School. We’re also funding a raft of smaller projects through our Innovation and Development Fund.”

She started in education as a teacher in secondary schools abroad and in the UK and then as a lecturer and manager in FE.

For the nine years immediately before she joined Edge she was principal of South Essex College of Further and Higher Education.

But in a May 2012 FE Week profile (click here to read) she revealed how working at Edge had appealed because its central mission – championing technical, practical and vocational learning — chimed with her own beliefs. “Most of my career has been spent trying to do that…so it seemed the perfect job for me,” she told FE Week.

She has also been chair of the Essex Federation of Colleges and of a large apprenticeship consortium, and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex and in the Queen’s birthday honours 2013 was awarded an OBE for services to further and higher education.

An Edge spokesperson said she had been “a champion for vocational education and training”.

“What I shall miss most are the hundreds of people I’ve met – all of them with fantastic stories to tell. They are living proof of what Edge has always said, that there are many paths to success,” said Ms Hodges.

“I’d like to thank Lord Baker, trustees and staff at the Edge Foundation, and all of my friends and colleagues for their support and encouragement. I wish them all well in the years to come.”

Edge Foundation chair Lord Baker said: “I would like to thank Jan for the huge contribution she has made to the Edge Foundation. She has been instrumental in helping to raise the profile of Edge and will be much missed. Part of her legacy will be the increasingly positive light in which technical, practical and vocational education is viewed in the UK as a valid and respected path to success.”

An inflation-busting 20 per cent rise in the national minimum wage for apprentices announced today by Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy, Nick Clegg, has been welcomed by the FE and skills sector.

The rate paid to apprentices will rise from £2.73 an hour to £3.30 in October, as the adult national minimum wage rises from £6.50 to £6.70.

The increase represents a rejection of the Low Pay Commission (LPC) call last month for the apprentice minimum wage to rise just 2.6 per cent to 7p as it in turn rejected a proposal from Business Secretary Vince Cable to bring the apprentice rate in line with the rate for 16 to 18-year-olds, currently £3.79 per hour.

A Number 10 spokesperson said it was the “largest ever increase in the National Minimum Wage for apprentices and will halve the gap with the National Minimum Wage rate for 16 to 17-year-olds, that will be £3.87 an hour from October”.

Martin Doel, Association of Colleges chief executive, told FE Week: “The increase to the minimum wage for apprentices is very welcome in recognising the value that apprentices provide to employers and in recognising the costs that many apprentices have in transport and living costs.

“It makes the apprenticeship route still more attractive to young people seeking to earn while they learn.”

A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “We recommended narrowing the gap between the apprenticeship and National Minimum Wage rates but we need to ensure that this is done in stages.

“We have to ensure that increases in the apprenticeship rate do not have an impact on the number of employers providing these apprenticeship places by ensuring that the programme is properly funded in the sectors where the minimum wage is an issue.”

The government has also announced plans for a consultation with businesses on the future of the rate for apprentices.

Mr Cameron said: “At the heart of our long-term economic plan for Britain is a simple idea – that those who put in, should get out; that hard work is really rewarded; that the benefits of recovery are truly national.

“That’s what today’s announcement is all about – saying to hardworking taxpayers, this is a government that is on your side. It will mean more financial security for Britain’s families; and a better future for our country.”

Mr Clegg said: “This is just one of the many ways in which we’ve created a fairer society whilst building a stronger economy.

“If you work hard, this government is behind you all the way. Whether you’re on low pay or starting your dream career through an apprenticeship, you will get more support to help you go further and faster.”

But the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) accused the government of “politicising” the setting of the minimum wage by ignoring the LPC’s recommendation.

John Cridland, director-general of the CBI, said: “It’s positive that the government has accepted the independent Low Pay Commission’s (LPC) recommendations on the adult and youth rates. The Commission struck a careful balance, helping many low-paid workers without damaging their job prospects.

“Therefore it’s disappointing that the government has rejected the LPC’s recommendation on the apprentice rate.

“The National Minimum Wage has been one of the most successful policies of recent years thanks to the independence of the Commission – its politicisation is worrying.”

The method used by other European states to recognise English apprenticeships relies on the doomed Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF), a senior civil servant has admitted.

Angus Gray (pictured), head of the European Social Fund division at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was giving evidence to the House of Lords EU internal market, infrastructure and employment sub-committee today (March 16) alongside Employment Minister Esther McVey.

When asked by Lord Liverpool whether the government has any evidence of the UK apprenticeship qualifications being recognised in other EU member states, Mr Gray said the QCF, which is due to be scrapped by regulator Ofqual, currently allowed that recognition to take place.

Mr Gray said: “Essentially an apprenticeship, as you know, is a mixture of work and a series of qualifications which are made up in a series of models.

“And in terms of mapping to Europe, the current UK qualification system overall which is called the QCF maps across to the European equivalent, the European qualifications framework, so that does help other member states, people in other member states, employers in other member states to recognise what the UK means when they say ‘this apprenticeship is made up of these qualifications’.

“They can map those qualifications across to this European framework. And the more that other states also do the same, the more that cross-understanding of the equivalents can be understood.”

The two-year apprenticeship funding reform saga in which employers were expected to be handed government money to pay for training today came to an end — with cash continuing to pass directly from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) to providers.

Number 10 Downing Street, ahead of tomorrow’s Budget, announced that a “digital apprenticeship voucher” would be introduced for employers to give providers who then claim SFA funding.

A spokesperson said the system would give employers “purchasing power,” but actual government cash to pay for training will go straight to providers — just like the current system — and not into employers’ hands first.

It remained unclear how the new system might incorporate current pilots, including employer incentive payments and mandatory cash contributions, although the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was expected to reveal more details soon.

A Number 10 spokesperson said: “We are putting employers in control of the funding for apprenticeships by introducing a new digital apprenticeship voucher.

“Apprenticeship vouchers will further simplify things for employers and give them the purchasing power over the government contribution to apprenticeship funding.

“The employer would register their details on a system being developed by the SFA, including their type of business, the details of the apprentice and the apprenticeship standard being signed up to.

“The discounted rate, which could be up to 100 per cent for 16 to 18-year-olds and at which employers can purchase training, would be calculated and the employer would be able to pass on the voucher code to the provider that is delivering the training for their apprentice. The provider would then reclaim the value of the voucher from the SFA.”

It comes just a week after Jennifer Coupland, deputy director of the joint Department for Education and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills apprenticeships Unit, told delegates at the inaugural FE Week apprenticeship conference that “employer-routed funding” remained central to the reform plans despite a number of concerns emerging during two consultations.

“To (mis)use a quote from Mark Twain, rumours of the death of employer-routed funding have been greatly exaggerated,” she said.

“The government remains committed to it and sees it as a core part of the reform system and design to support growth and improvement in apprenticeships.”

However, the reform that has emerged bears little resemblance to the proposals of former BBC Dragons’ Den investor Doug Richard, whose report in late 2012 triggered the reform agenda.

His idea for boosting the attractiveness of apprenticeships to employers was to offer them tax incentives through National Insurance or a tax credit system.

He wanted employers, funded via either system, to pay providers directly for delivering their apprenticeships, adding their own funding to that of the government.

But a 2013 consultation uncovered wide-spread opposition to employer-routed funding.

And a three-month technical consultation, which ran from March 6 last year and attracted 1,459 responses, put forward a credit account reform option in addition to a PAYE model — but both were rejected in January as Skills Minister Nick Boles said more design work on the system was needed.

Martin Doel, Association of Colleges chief executive, told FE Week: “It has been a long term intention of government to put the purchasing power for apprenticeships directly in the hands of employers. It remains to be seen if this voucher scheme does make the system simpler for employers as intended, or whether it actually introduces further bureaucratic complexity to apprenticeship funding.”

The new system was also given a cautious welcome by CBI director-general John Cridland, who said:  “Employers must be in the driving seat when it comes to apprenticeship funding, so we welcome the announcement of the voucher system but await further details.”