The inaugural FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conference went with such a bang, how could we not do it again next year?

Hundreds of delegates from across England and across the spectrum of FE and skills organisations — from providers to awarding organisations, and from government officials to MPs, and more besides — descended upon the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre.

Broadcaster Kirsty Wark kept the speakers — including Skills Minister Nick Boles (pictured), Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna and Ofsted FE and skills director Lorna Fitzjohn, among others — in check.

Extensive coverage of the two-day conference can be found in the supplement with this edition of FE Week.

Click here for an expert piece overview of the conference from David Harbourne

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) has promised extra cash to support a struggling college’s improvement strategy, following a visit from the sixth form commissioner.

Hartlepool Sixth Form College will use the extra £22,000 to support professional staff development after commissioner Peter Mucklow (pictured) found not enough students were completing their courses, teaching was not “consistently good” and staff performance monitoring processes were “not sufficiently robust”.

Mr Mucklow visited the college on January 22, following a grade four Ofsted result in September.

Principal Alex Fau-Goodwin said it had been “a very productive visit, challenging but extremely supportive and a fair outcome”.

“The EFA has agreed to support the college improvement strategy with additional funding to support the quality improvement strategy,” he said.

“It will be used on professional development to help staff access excellent practice, either through work shadowing, good practice visits, consultancy or external staff development events.”

The extra cash was suggested by Mr Mucklow as one of his 10 recommendations for the college, including the chair of governors and committee chairs should consider “twinning” with peers in a high performing college to share experience and expertise.

In his report Mr Mucklow criticised the college for focussing on “attaining student numbers and financial viability to the detriment of quality”.

However, he acknowledged the college was facing “increasing competition” and an expected drop in the number of 16 to 19-year-olds available locally which would “present significant financial challenges”.

This meant the college would need to “reduce costs” and “undertake scenario and contingency planning” to enable it to “live within its 2015 to 2016 academic year budget”, he said.

Mr Fau-Goodwin said: “The college is already making good progress in addressing the recommendations made by the commissioner.

“We anticipate meeting full all recommendations before the end of this academic year.”

Mr Mucklow agreed with the principal’s assessment, saying Mr Fau-Goodwin had drawn up a “comprehensive” post-inspection action plan.

An EFA spokesperson said the financial contribution was “nothing unusual”.

He added: “We have consistently shown that we will not hesitate to take action where there is evidence that any school is failing to give young people the very best start in life.”

An Association of Colleges (AoC) report has called for “radical reforms” to the way FE provision is inspected, saying it should be separated from school inspections.

The 26-page discussion paper, commissioned by the AoC and produced by FE consultant Mick Fletcher (pictured), recommended self-regulation for adult provision and “a slimmed down” Ofsted process for learners up to 19.

The report foreword by West Nottinghamshire College principal Dame Asha Khemka, said the document was “intended to stimulate discussion, to gather views and to encourage a debate”.

The report examines the history of inspection in the UK, how inspection is carried out around the world as well as the impact of the current Ofsted regime.

In the report, Mr Fletcher said: “The time is right for radical reforms that separate arrangements for school age students from those for older learners.

“There need to be changes to the way provision for those up to the age of 19 is inspected, but the approach should be common across all educational settings.

“For adults there needs to be a decisive step towards self-regulation.”

The report highlights that in other countries, external inspection of post-compulsory education is “rare”, and weighs up the possibilities of alternative forms of performance management.

Mr Fletcher said: “Some argue the FE sector is now sufficiently mature to move to self-regulation in line with higher education institutions. Colleges have over 20 years’ experience of self-assessment.”

He added: “In a world where individuals and employers are increasingly expected to fund FE, a college’s focus should be on their paying customers rather than a government agency.”

But, on the other hand, he added, there was “strong political support” for keeping external inspection.

“It is seen as more objective and is increasingly well established across the public sector,” he said.

Mr Fletcher went on to make three key recommendations.

He called for “a slimmed down and more independent Ofsted inspecting provision for those up to the age of 19 in schools, colleges and other settings”.

For adult provision, he said, there should be “a peer review process… linked with expanded arrangements for local accountability”.

He also called for quality assurance of FE higher education delivery to recognise the “distinctive nature” of the provision.

A government report on the apprentice Trailblazers has identified the emergence of “potential risks … that require national attention in coming months”.

The changeover to a new funding system and the pace of development of new apprenticeship standards were among several risks to successful delivery, according to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills interim report entitled Evaluation of the Apprenticeship Trailblazers.

It was published on Thursday, March 12, and looked at how the Trailblazer groups, which the government sees as implementing the Richard Review recommendations for greater employer ownership of apprenticeship training, was progressing.

The 60-page report said the ability to manage risks and “set up a structure and process that allows Trailblazers to truly take ownership of their development is the key challenge for the national policy team and one they are tackling head on”.

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said: “We have for some time been recommending that there should be an independent evaluation of the Trailblazer process so we welcome this assessment.

“The report makes some interesting observations on the new standards and raises the issue of different approaches between sectors. We need to ensure that there is a balance between flexibility and having a coherent and transferable system.

“We welcome the flexibility we have seen recently around matters such as end-assessment and grading where the government has accepted that grades are not appropriate for all sectors.

“On funding, the report raises a number of issues that AELP has brought up including the fact that co-investment can take many different forms. It reinforces the concerns of employers if mandatory cash contributions are part of the new system.

“We have long recommended the need for employer investment but this can be achieved in other ways. We hope that the government takes this report’s findings into account in its rethink of the funding model.”

The report came out the same day Skills Minister Nick Boles announced 200 more employers had signed up to the Trailblazer overhaul of apprenticeships.

Mr Boles said: “Giving leading firms from British Gas to video games manufacturer Ubisoft the power to design and deliver high quality apprenticeships, means we can ensure more young people have the skills our economy vitally needs.”

New College Durham principal John Widdowson will be the next president of the Association of Colleges (AoC), it was announced today.

Mr Widdowson, who has been a college principal for 16 years and has served on the AoC board and Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), will take over the role from Exeter College principal Richard Atkins in August.

He is the first principal from a college in the North East to be elected to the role.

Mr Widdowson said he wanted to help the AoC “secure a positive future” for FE, “confronting the practical issues we face and sustaining the values and vision that colleges represent”.

He added: “Whatever government is elected in May, AoC must reinforce colleges’ position as essential to the UK’s economic recovery and making education accessible to all regardless of their background.

“I’m looking forward to working with AoC to influence decision makers to get the best for colleges, our students and communities.”

Born into a family of mill workers and growing up in Lancashire, Mr Widdowson fell into the education world by accident after taking a job at a local college for some extra cash after graduated with a law degree from Durham University.

He joined New College Durham as principal in 1998, having been vice-principal at Cambridge Regional College for 10 years. During his career he has also led sector bodies such as the Further Education National Consortium and the Mixed Economy Group, a group of 44 colleges which offer higher education in an FE setting.

Martin Doel (pictured right), chief executive of the AoC, said: “John brings a wealth of experience to the role of president at a time when further education is looking towards a challenging future but one in which colleges must have a central role.

“After the general election in May, our work with the next government will be of great importance and I know John will be an asset in helping AoC to move towards achieving the aims we set out in our manifesto.

“We’re also pleased that John is the first principal from the north east to be elected as president.”

Richard Atkins said: “John has many years of experience in running a college, as well as experience on the political stage, and I know he will work tirelessly to get the best deal for colleges and their students.

“FE has faced more than its fair share of funding cuts in the past year, but John will help us to look forward to what happens next in the sector.”

Read FE Week’s profile of Mr Widdowson from April 2012 here.

Senior FE figures were told to abandon the traditional “heroic” leadership model at the inaugural Fetl lecture.

The speech was delivered by James Krantz (pictured right), management expert from New York-based leadership consultancy Worklab, to a packed lecture hall containing leading lights from across the sector including Peter Lauener, Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency chief executive, Lorna Fitzjohn, Ofsted national director for FE and skills, and Martin Doel, Association of Colleges chief executive.

Mr Krantz said FE had been a “neglected second child” compared to schools and higher education, but there was “a new aura of hope in the air” because of the importance politicians were attaching to training and retraining workers.

He warned that hiring charismatic individuals for top management posts could cause a “collective escape from responsibility” by staff lower down in the management chain who needed to contribute more to the overall success of their organisations.

Jill Westerman, chair of Fetl, told the audience afterwards: “Most of us know a different style of leadership is called for than the one we grew up with in the 1990s when heroic leadership felt like the right way to lead.”

From left: Fetl honorary president Dame Ruth Silver and Mr Krantz

The majority of young people taking part in traineeships have gone on to apprenticeships, employment or further learning, according to government research published today.

The outcome of an initial government evaluation of the first year of the programme found that half of trainees went on to apprenticeships or employment, and a further 17 per cent undertook further learning.

Skills Minister Nick Boles, in a framework for delivery document also out today that references the research results, said: “We owe it to young people to retain this focus on quality outcomes, which is why we have strengthened the use of performance data from 2015/16.

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

The research went on to highlight high levels of satisfaction in the programme among employers and trainees with 84 per cent of providers and 94 per cent of employers consider traineeships an effective way of increasing young people’s chances of finding paid jobs and apprenticeships.

It also showed how the majority of trainees (82 per cent) said that the traineeship at least matched their expectations, with over half (54 per cent) saying it exceeded their expectation.

Meanwhile four-in-five trainees (80 per cent) said that the support they received during their work preparation training had helped to improve their job search.

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, told FE Week: “We are pleased with the findings of this research on traineeships.

“The overall satisfaction ratings from trainees at 80 per cent is very high considering that this is still a new programme.

“It is clear trainees hear about the programme from a number of sources with training providers being the most common source including referrals to employer programmes.”

Traineeships launched in August 2013 with the aim of giving young people high quality work experience and training to help them into an apprenticeship or employment.

In December, FE Week revealed how Job Centre Plus (JCP) staff had been set a target of 10,000 traineeship referrals this academic year amid concerns the programme had not been promoted to benefit claimants because it extended their time out of work.

And information in the statistical first release (SFR) last month showed 5,000 starts on the programme in the first quarter of this academic year, compared to 3,300 in the first six months of 2013/14.

However, Mr Segal said: “We really need to see an increase of referrals from JCP and a commitment to ensuring that they are flexible in managing benefit issues.”

The research was based on interviews with 1,590 trainees who started between August 2013 and and July last year, 200 traineeship providers and 218 participating employers over the same period.

The results come just days after the House of Commons Education Select Committee reported that the impact of the programme was unclear, and called for greater clarity from the government on the success criteria for the programme. However, a full impact assessment of traineeships will be undertaken over the next two years.

Mr Boles, who has said he wants to double the number of traineeships to hit the 20,000 mark this academic year, said: “While the signs at this early stage in the traineeship programme are very encouraging, we are determined to continue raising the quantity and quality of traineeships, ensuring more young people have the best possible start in life.”

See edition 132 of FE Week, dated Monday, March 16 for more on the government’s traineeship research.