‘Once young people have become Neet we’ve already failed’
Amid the response to a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on young people not in education, employment or training (Neets) crucial issues were overlooked, says Amy Lalla.
It’s heartening to see MPs on the powerful PAC turning their attention to Neets, but there are three key issues that I was disappointed didn’t receive more attention.
To start with, we mustn’t wait until it’s too late. No one wants to hear the phrase ‘early intervention’ yet again, but when it comes to young people at risk of becoming Neet, it really is the only game in town.
Once a young person becomes Neet, we’ve failed. We know only too well that the consequences to them of disengagement are enormous — drug and alcohol abuse, mental and physical health problems, and high risk of involvement in crime.
Once young people become Neets, they are, by definition, hard to reach. So the cost of providing support rockets. And society, too, pays a high price.
For young people who have struggled at school until the age of 16, two more years of classroom-based learning is hardly going to be an attractive option
It’s in schools that ‘would-be’ Neets are identified. But schools can’t be expected to shoulder the burden of interventions alone. At Let Me Play, we go into primary schools and work with teachers to provide the extra support needed to children as young as 10. It’s at that age that the crucial ground-work is done to avert potential disaster at 16.
Secondly, advice, support and guidance has simply gone missing.
The deterioration in careers advice since provision was handed to schools — with no extra funding — has received much attention. Ofsted found that three quarters of schools visited by inspectors were providing inadequate guidance to students.
The sub-standard career guidance is often discussed in relation to young people’s choice of A-level subjects and university access, but its impact in this sector has been underplayed.
For young people who have struggled at school until the age of 16, two more years of classroom-based learning is hardly going to be an attractive option.
But they are simply not being made aware of the options available to them. We need the varied offering of the market place for education for 16 to18-year-olds communicated to young people far earlier, and we need a single access point for the information they need.
And thirdly, there’s the fact that travel costs bar students from learning. Let’s suppose, just for a moment, that these young people do receive that expert, impartial advice and have a place on a training course. How are they going to travel to and from the training centre or college?
Last week we had a teenage mum on the phone in tears because she couldn’t afford the travel to college — so we’re picking up the bill.
Last year, we had a student last year who travelled across town from near Staines in West London to Haringey in north London for our course. But he was late every day as he couldn’t afford to travel during peak hours.
Similarly, we’ve had to rent minibuses and hire cars to take our students to offsite exams, because the candidates simply can’t afford to get there.
Students can apply for college bursaries, but they are only awarded to students with good attendance records and they typically take six weeks to process. By this time, in our experience the young people have already started to suffer financially, their attendance levels have fallen and they won’t get the bursary.
As a London-based provider, we have lobbied the London Mayor’s office and Transport for London on this issue, but to no avail.
This is a nonsense that must be addressed — and fast. There are young people languishing who could be in training, but simply don’t have the means to travel there. How crazy is that?
Our young people deserve better.
Labour loses vote on apprenticeship two-year minimum duration and level three start
Labour this afternoon lost a House of Commons vote on plans to scrap apprenticeships of less than two years’ duration and below level three.
Following a heated opposition day debate in Parliament, a vote on a motion calling for the new standards was defeated 294 votes to 218.
The motion, submitted in Labour leader Ed Miliband’s name and supported by Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna (pictured) and Shadow Skills Minister Liam Byrne, was criticised by government ministers and MPs who accused the opposition front bench of “dismissing” level two apprenticeships.
But Mr Umunna said: “It is not to devalue them, it is frankly to bring them up to the same benchmarks as our competitors who are more productive than us.”
He said his proposals were not about doing away with lower level apprenticeships, but re-branding them. He also said he would give local councils more power over apprenticeships, including over enforcement of the minimum wage.
Responding on the minimum standards issue, Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “I think there is an important point about levels. I think the honourable gentleman dismissed too easily the value of level two apprenticeships.
“He seemed to imply that these were not quite apprenticeships, but actually there is quite a lot of statistical evidence that people who do a level two apprenticeship and no more have significantly higher earnings than people who don’t go through that channel.
“I think the figure is 11 per cent over a three to five-year period. There are a lot of very import trades, bricklaying for example, where a level two is a valuable progression into a badly-needed occupation.
“So although he’s right that we should be moving up the level chain, and we should be doing that, I don’t want him or anybody else to devalue level two qualifications or to eliminate them from the camp.”
As well as calling for the proposed minimum standards to be implemented, the defeated motion also called for concern over the fact apprenticeship starts among 19 to 24-year-olds has fallen by 6,270 in the past year and called on the government to use money already spent on procurement to require suppliers for large government contracts to offer new apprenticeship opportunities.
Mr Cable used the debate to defend the government’s record, and said he had acted to protect FE spending as much as possible in the early days of the Coalition Government, despite having to take a “political hit” after raising tuition fees for university students.
He said: “When I came into office I was told that there were plans by his government had they returned to office to cut my department’s budget by 25 per cent. That was all very clear, and indeed we’ve had to confront that.
“This is a budget which is dominated by higher education and adult skills. The advice I got, particularly from opposite in a particularly shrill and angry way, was ‘you must give priority to undergraduates’.
“Had we followed the advice we would have had to cut the ASB by about 40 per cent. Within that we would have had to cut apprenticeships even more because they’re more expensive than other forms of training.”
“I then made a decision which I think was one of my better decisions which was to listen to the advice, to reject it and do the exact opposite. We took a serious political hit on higher education but did the right thing and we made the decision to invest more and not less in apprenticeships.”
‘Be brave and stand’ says AoC president as election process for new leader gets under way
Principals have been urged to “be brave and stand” as the Association of Colleges today (AoC) begins the hunt for its next president.
Nomination papers are being sent out, before an election and then appointment to the year-long role from August.
Current president and principal of Exeter College Richard Atkins said: “I would unreservedly recommend this role. My advice would be brave and stand and if you have a genuine appetite to get involved in this work and represent the sector you’ll really enjoy it.”
Once the nomination papers are received, a college, through its chair of governors, can put its principal forward from nomination, which must then be seconded by a separate member college.
Candidates can also be nominated by individuals, with the backing of two principals.
Nominations close on March 4, and ballot papers will then be sent out on March 9 with the deadline for returning falling on April 1. The president for 2015/16 will be revealed two days later.
“The job is partly ceremonial but it’s also very much about influencing and getting involved with policy development and giving the team at AoC the voice of a working principal who’s in college two or three days a week,” said Mr Atkins.
Former AoC presidents include Bournville College principal Michele Sutton CBE and City College Coventry governors’ chair Maggie Galliers CBE. They were principals at Bradford College and Leicester College, respectively, at the time of their appointments.
WorldSkills UK Brazil job for sector funding boss Peter
The boss of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and the Education Funding Agency has been handed the enviable task of representing the UK at WorldSkills in Brazil this summer.
Peter Lauener, chief executive of both funding agencies, will be taking over the role of official UK delegate to the WorldSkills 2015 competition in Brazil. He replaces former SFA interim chief executive Keith Smith, who returned full-time to his director’s role over funding and programmes.
Mr Lauener said he was “pleased” to be attending the event, where young people from around the world will compete for gold, silver and bronze in a huge range of vocational skills.
“I will be personally championing the need for and value of skills training,” he told FE Week.
Ofsted pushes ahead with unified inspection plan for FE and skills, schools and early years
Ofsted today confirmed it was pushing ahead with “some of the most significant changes to the inspection of education in its history” following a public consultation on bringing all its inspections under one regime.
It was revealed in FE Week in August last year that the education watchdog planned for all education inspections to be “harmonised” under one common inspection framework (CIF) for nurseries, schools and colleges from September this year.
Its eight-week consultation on the plans, entitled Better inspection for all, closed before Christmas and Ofsted has now published a report on almost 5,000 responses, which indicated broad support for the proposals.
Ofsted’s national director of schools, Sean Harford (pictured right), also confirmed that a unified CIF would be introduced from September, along with more frequent but shorter inspections of good FE and skills providers and schools.
He said: “In recent years, we have seen encouraging improvements in schools and colleges across the country. The changes we are confirming today are designed to ensure that standards continue to improve. 
“Sir Michael Wilshaw set out our proposals at the launch of the consultation in October. Nearly 5,000 people have given their views since then, with the vast majority supporting all of our proposed reforms. I am very pleased that these changes now move forward with a strong endorsement from the public, education professionals, parents, carers and learners.”
Headline fields for inspections, under the new CIF framework, will be ‘effectiveness of leadership and management’, ‘quality of teaching, learning and assessment’, ‘personal development, behaviour and welfare’ and ‘outcomes for children and learners’.
At present they are ‘overall effectiveness’, ‘outcomes for learners’, ‘quality of teaching, learning and assessment’, and ‘effectiveness of leadership and management’. Guides for the new inspections are due out in the summer term.
FE and skills providers will also, under the new CIF framework, have the following areas of provision graded “where appropriate” — ‘16 to 19 study programmes’, ‘19+ learning programmes’, ‘apprenticeships’, ‘traineeships’, ‘employability’, ‘learners in receipt of high needs funding’, ‘community learning’, ‘14–16 provision in colleges full-time and part-time’.
The report said that FE and skills providers judged good at their last full inspection would no longer be subject to a full inspection once within a six-year period. They will instead usually receive a short inspection that will take place around every three years.
It added there were no plans to introduce reinspections of outstanding providers within a definite time period, so they will “usually only have a full inspection if their performance drops or there are other compelling reasons”.
The changes come just two years after the current FE and skills CIF was introduced.
There were 4,390 responses to the online consultation questionnaire, as well as qualitative data gathered through consultative events including more than 40 short inspection pilots with FE and skills providers and schools.
More than 60 per cent of respondents supported the proposal for more frequent, but shorter inspections of good FE and skills providers.
Almost 80 per cent backed the introduction of a unified CIF.
Mr Harford said: “Our Common Inspection Framework will ensure a consistent approach to Ofsted inspections. It will focus on keeping young people safe, the breadth of the curriculum in schools, the relevance of courses and training in FE and skills, and the quality of early learning.”
Law change ‘could lead to HE in FE complaints rise’
Student complaints about FE colleges offering degrees could rise with a proposed new law putting them under the universities ombudsman, principals have been warned.
Complaints about FE colleges’ higher education courses will be scrutinised by the Office for Independent Adjudication in Higher Education (OIAHE) if the government’s Consumer Rights Bill passes later this year.
Currently the OIAHE deals with complaints about FE higher education provision if they relate to something for which the validating university is responsible.
Responsibility varies depending on the validation agreement, but the OIAHE tends to deal with complaints over how grade disputes were handled, extenuating circumstances or mis-sold courses.
Ben Elger (pictured above left), OIAHE chief operating officer, said this could lead to a rise in the number of complaints, but said it was “impossible to see” how big the rise would be.
Smita Jamdar (pictured right), partner and head of education at SGH Martineau LLP, also warned the change in the law would “bring with it the powerful new remedies of a right to a repeat performance and a right to a discount”.
“More colleges that deliver higher education will find themselves directly subject to the OIAHE. This will almost certainly continue the upward trend as far as learner complaints are concerned,” she said in an exclusive expert piece for FE Week.
The news follows the 2013/14 Higher Education Review by higher education inspectors QAA, which said more than a quarter of FE colleges offering higher education needed to improve their complaints handling.
However, Association of Colleges higher education policy manager Nick Davy (pictured above right) said he didn’t “believe that there should be a significant increase in external complaints”.
He said: “In general the system works reasonably well although we have come across a few occasions where students haven’t been clear which organisations is their external adjudicator.
“Hopefully the Consumer Rights Act will clarify the situation.”
And FE colleges will also be able to access support through OIAHE subscription, although the model and costs were yet to be decided.
“We will have a direct relationship with the FE institutions,” said Mr Elger.
“Under the new legislation we will be able look at what’s actually gone on in the complaints process in the college itself.”
He added a “perception issue” could lead to a rise in student complaints, if students felt it was easier to make their voices heard.
“Perhaps students are more likely to see there’s a clear advantage of going to the OIAHE, because we can look at a complaint without having to worry about who is responsible for which bit,” said Mr Elger.
“The first part of our mission obviously deal with the complaint as a kind of ombudsman, the second part is to share knowledge and good practice and good complaints handling information,” he added.
Amendments to the bill are still being considered by the House of Commons and the House of Lords, but it is due to be given Royal Assent before March 30.
FE leaders criticise ‘disappointing’ and ‘disgraceful’ decision to deny FE funding ringfence
A decision by the Conservative Party not to pledge the same funding protection for FE as is afforded to schools has been labelled “disappointing” and “disgraceful” by sector leaders.
The Prime Minister this morning used a speech at a school in Enfield, North London, to confirm that the ringfence, which has been in place around the education budget for five to 16-year-olds since 2010, will continue if his party remains in office after May 7.
But the Association of Colleges (AoC), Sixth Form Colleges Assocaiton (SFCA) and Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) have criticised the decision to exclude funding for 16 to 18-year-olds from the ringfence once again.
AoC chief executive Martin Doel said: “Today’s announcement by the Prime Minister to ringfence the schools budget is good news for schools but is desperately disappointing for sixth form and further education colleges which between them educate over 830,000 16 to 18-year-olds.
“This leaves college students extremely vulnerable to huge cuts in the next Parliament and we strongly appeal to the Prime Minister to think again before risking the education and training opportunities of thousands of young people.
“We fail to see why, when everyone has to stay in education or training until the age of 18, this age group continues to be treated less favourably than their young counterparts. Investment in earlier years will be wasted if 16 to 18-year-olds continue to receive 22 per cent less than 11 to 16 year olds.
“We would urge the next government to prioritise a once-in-a-generation funding review of how money is spent at each stage of education to ensure we can adequately educate and train all children and young people.”
SFCA deputy chief executive James Kewin said: “This is a disgraceful decision. Sixth form colleges have been subjected to savage and disproportionate
funding cuts since 2010.
“This announcement is a clear signal that we should expect more of the same from a future Conservative administration. This will disproportionately affect sixth form colleges as they do not have the ability to cross subsidise from the more generous funding available for pre-16 students.
“Protecting school students by punishing college students (who are more likely to have lower levels of prior attainment and come from more disadvantaged backgrounds) is an act of educational and economic vandalism. The government needs to wake up to the crisis in sixth form funding, which risks damaging the prospects of young people at what is a vital time in their education.”
AELP chief executive Stewart Segal said: “After the Prime Minister said last week that the desired increase in apprenticeships would not be financed from within the existing adult skills budget but with additional funding, our hope is that government investment in non-apprenticeship provision to improve adults skills will be safeguarded, knowing that a sustained economic recovery is dependent on addressing skills shortages.
“For 16 to 18 year olds, we need to protect funding across the full range of education and training options, backed up by impartial careers advice, if we are to avoid an increase in the NEET group and the costs associated with those teenagers who drop out.”
In his speech, Mr Cameron said: “Good school places need money and we will make sure our schools are properly funded.
“Today, I can make this commitment about Conservative plans. We’ve demonstrated in the past five years that we can protect the schools budget while reducing the deficit and we will do so again.”
Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt has responded by saying the move will result in a real-terms cut over the next Parliament, but has not confirmed whether his party would protect FE funding.
The Liberal Democrats have pledged to protect education funding for learners up to 19 years old, but is yet to confirm whether or not FE’s funding will be ringfenced on its own, or as part of the wider budget.
Learner needs top in functional skills revamp
Learner needs for “frequent retakes” need to be taken into account amid Ofqual-recommended improvements to Functional Skills, Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) chief executive Stephen Wright (pictured left) has warned.
He welcomed the qualification watchdog’s plan to make Functional Skills “more relevant and more reliable” and said “FAB is supportive of the drive to increase the quality and value of functional skills”.
Mr Wright told FE Week: “In moving forward with this work we feel it will be important to maintain a clear focus on the intended purpose of Functional Skills and
the needs of the range of learners who use them to evidence their literacy, numeracy
and IT skills. It will also be necessary to ensure that the features most frequently identified by stakeholders as being important, such as frequent opportunities to take the tests and prompt delivery of results, continue to be evident in any improved approach.”
The improvement plan, issued on January 27, followed an Ofqual review launched last year of level two English and maths Functional Skills.
The report, entitled Improving Functional Skills Qualifications, said awarding organisations (AOs) had already responded “positively” to findings that the quality of assessment materials needed to be improved and the risk of malpractice and maladministration reduced.
The report also said AOs needed to strengthen standard-setting procedures and evaluate better how far qualifications were meeting user needs.
Jeremy Benson, Ofqual executive director for vocational qualifications, said he expected improvements to make Functional Skills “more relevant and more reliable”.
Debbie Ribchester (pictured right), senior policy manager at the Association of Colleges, said: “We are pleased AOs are committed to act on Ofqual’s recommendations to ensure there is consistency of standards and will ensure the suggested improvements are made.”
Stewart Segal, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, said: “More and more employers recognise functional skills and we need a period of stability to make these improvements effective.”
The Ofqual plan came out the day the Education and Training Foundation launched its review of teaching and accreditation — including Functional Skills — of non-GCSE maths and English for learners unable to reach D grade GCSE.