Latest news from FE Week

A new Apprenticeship Delivery Board (ADB) is set to advise the government on how to reach its target of 3m apprenticeship starts in this parliament.

The board, announced today by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), will offer guidance to the government on how to expand the programme, and will be jointly chaired by David Meller (pictured, left) and Watford MP Richard Harrington (pictured above).

A BIS spokesperson said that the other members of the board were still being chosen and would be announced “in due course”.

Mr Meller also chairs the National Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network (NAAN), is a non-executive board member for the Department for Education, and sponsors a number of academies university technical colleges through the Meller Educational Trust.

He said: “Through my work as chair of the NAAN, I have seen first-hand just what a difference apprenticeships can make to people’s lives, and how beneficial they can be for employers who gain loyal and skilled staff that add genuine value to their business.”

Mr Harrington was confirmed as the Prime Minister’s advisor on apprenticeships in June.

He said: “The creation of the ADB is further proof of the incredible commitment that this government has to apprenticeships, which will give so many more people the opportunity to earn a wage, and gain a valuable qualification and skill that they will have for life.”

The move was welcomed by Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) chief executive Stewart Segal.

He said that “AELP has previously recommended the creation of a stakeholder group led by employers to ensure that there is an overall governance of the trailblazer process and the expansion of the programme”.

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has released its annual accounts and report for 2014/15, so we had a comb through and discovered the following…

 

1. Staff sickness at the agency has plummeted year-on-year…

 

2. But then again, so has the number of staff…

 

3. And fewer staff means a HUGE rise in the cost of redundancies and other exit packages…

 

4. The financial health of providers is acknowledged as a “significant risk” for the Agency…

 

“Increasing weakness in the financial health of colleges, leading to increased intervention putting pressure on SFA staffing and financial resources. One of the most significant risks that the SFA has had to manage, and will have to continue to manage over the coming years, is the deteriorating financial health of the sector delivering the training provision we fund.

“The financial pressure is due to reduced funding, increased competition, increased costs and a more cautious stance by banks on lending. This will result in increased work for the SFA in managing intervention cases. The SFA will continue to mitigate these risks by analysing early the financial plans of colleges most at risk to establish whether they are sufficiently robust.

“We will monitor potential cases of financial weakness through college management accounts. We will intervene early when there are signs of financial weakness to bring about recovery/ structural change where appropriate.”

 

5. The number of FE providers under a ‘notice of breach’ has risen sharply…

 

6. The number of cases of fraud under investigation by the SFA is down…

Between April 2014 and the end of March 2015, the SFA received 81 allegations of financial irregularity, compared to 132 in 2013/14 (although a “significant number” of those related to a single case).

There were 37 cases brought forward from the previous financial year, compared to 40 brought forward from 2012/13

At March 31, 15 cases were still live (compared to 18 at March 2014) and the SFA was vetting a further eight cases (compared to 22 at the same time last year).

 

7. Apart from almost £50m in capital funding which could have been wrongly paid to colleges, SFA boss Peter Lauener thinks the Agency has done a good job…

“I believe that the risks the SFA faced in the financial year 2014 to 2015 were generally managed effectively, with the exception of the management of capital grants to colleges which resulted in payments in advance of need and the qualification of these accounts.

“Work is under way to learn the lessons which will be shared with colleges and with BIS partner organisations.

“It will be a priority for me to enhance the existing processes and practices of the SFA in the coming financial year.”

 

 

8. The “effective management” of the SFA’s accounts isn’t the only reason Mr Lauener and other senior managers have to be pleased. May we draw your attention to the five and six-figure pension lump sums they are sitting on…

Five FE and sixth form colleges facing “significant financial challenges” are “actively considering” collaboration plans, following a pioneering review of post-16 provision in North East Norfolk and North Suffolk.

Great Yarmouth College (GYC), Lowestoft College (LC), and Lowestoft Sixth Form College (LSFC) released a joint statement this morning confirming that they are looking at forming a “partnership, designed to combine their strengths but still protect the individual identity of each college”.

Daphne King (pictured right), principal of grade two Ofsted rated East Norfolk Sixth Form College (ENSCF), in Gorleston, also said that ENSCF plans to “strengthen” its existing partnership with fellow grade two Ofsted-rated Paston Sixth Form College (PSFC), in North Walsham.

The exact format of both collaborations is still to be agreed.

The moves follow a review of post-16 provision in North East Norfolk and North Suffolk, which covered all five colleges.

It was overseen by the FE Commissioner Dr David Collins (pictured left) and Sixth Form College Commissioner (picture below right) during the first five months of this year.

A report on this published yesterday (Monday) by Mr Mucklow said that it was “clear from the evaluation, that it would be difficult for all five [colleges] to stand alone in the longer term.

“Doing nothing has already been determined not to be a viable option,” the report added.

“There is the strong likelihood of the collapse of some of the local provision within the next two years if nothing is done.”

It added that all the colleges involved were facing “significant financial challenges”.

“Between the five colleges at the time of the site visits, the picture showed a potential deficit for the 2014 to 2015 academic year of just over £1.3m.

“Some of this has since been managed down through in-year efficiencies, but this is projected to rise in 2015 to 2016.”

It added that the combined college liability, in terms of long-term bank loans to fund past capital development, was also almost £11m.

It comes after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) yesterday announced plans, in its report Reviewing post-16 education and training institutions, for a “programme of area-based reviews to review 16+ provision in every area” of the country.

The North East Norfolk and North Suffolk review and another for Nottingham, which FE Week revealed had been launched on May 1, were pilots for this.

The spokesperson for GYC and LSFC, both rated good by Ofsted, and grade three Ofsted rated LC said: “This is an innovative and arguably overdue solution for the towns of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

“As individual institutions, we are each experiencing the challenge of a fall in the college age population across our two towns, so rather than competing amongst ourselves, we want to explore a way to work together.

“Our aim is to create a new, stronger college group with the secure foundations needed to establish an even wider range of relevant and specialist courses.

“This will strengthen links with local industries, such as our growing energy sector, by delivering a skilled workforce.

“It will also ensure our local students gain the experience they need to secure their chosen career, with a seamless transition from secondary, through to further and higher education.”

Ms King said: “My college and PSFC have been sharing services since September last year and further work is being done to ascertain the benefits of forming a stronger partnership.

“We are two of the highest performing colleges in Norfolk and we want to build on our reputation for excellence.”

No-one from PSFC was available to comment.

Gordon Boyd, assistant director for education at Norfolk County Council, said: “We want the best possible education for Norfolk students, so we are very supportive [of the plans].”

Suffolk County Council was unable to provide a comment ahead of publication.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Education Funding Agency (EFA) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), which were all involved in the area review, declined to comment.

National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) will run next year from March 14 to 18.

The dates for the ninth annual NAW, which celebrates the positive impact that apprenticeships and traineeships have on learners, businesses and the economy, were confirmed today by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

This year’s (2015) NAW, which ran from March 9 to 13 and was covered extensively in a special FE Week supplement, saw more than 600 apprenticeship-themed events and activities, staged for example by learners, FE providers, schools and employers, across the country.

A spokesperson for the SFA, which co-ordinates NAW, said that “we hope there will be even more events next year [2016], making it the best ever”.

They will include the second FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conference and Exhibition (AAC), which will be held at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre (ICC) for three days from Wednesday, March 16.

Stewart Segal (pictured right), chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers,  said: “NAW is a great opportunity to focus

on the success of the apprenticeship programme and the 2016 week will show the progress towards achieving the 3m target.

“Many training providers work with employers and their apprentices to raise the profile of this vital programme.

“We’ll be supporting our members during the week and are delighted to be strategic partners again in the AAC.”

Teresa Frith (pictured left), senior skills policy manager for the Association of Colleges, said: “Apprenticeships are an important way for young people to bridge the gap between education and the world of work, by earning while they’re still learning.

“National Apprenticeship Week helps to make young people aware that there is another career option open to them.”

Tom Stannard, deputy chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace), said: “The NAW will play a key role in highlighting the importance of apprenticeships for people of all ages and not just young people.  We hope that the government’s ambition for 3m apprenticeship starts results in millions of completions, providing apprentices with a solid foundation for their future career and progression throughout.

“We also hope that the week will encourage more employers to set up quality schemes and benefit from the increased productivity that higher levels of training, including apprenticeships, bring to workplaces of all sizes across the country.”

Richard Harrington, Prime Minister David Cameron’s advisor on apprenticeships and joint chairman of the new Apprenticeship Delivery Board, said: “As part of its remit to stimulate apprenticeship growth, I’m pleased to say that the Apprenticeship Delivery Board will be steering the direction of the next National Apprenticeship Week, which in 2016 will be between March 14 to 18.

“The knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm of the board will assist our colleagues in business, in BIS, the SFA and the FE and Skills sector to deliver a great week that will highlight the government’s key priorities and commitments in this area — including the drive towards 3m apprenticeship starts in this parliament and the progress of reforms to give employers control of apprenticeships.”

A 157 Group spokesperson said: “We continue to support and promote NAW and look forward to getting involved with the 2016 campaign.

“This is a vitally important initiative to raise the profile of apprenticeships, among potential apprentices, employers — particularly small and medium sized enterprises — and the wider public.

“Apprenticeships have been given centre stage by the government’s skills agenda and it is crucial that all employers understand how and why they should get involved.”

Part of the purpose of NAW is to encourage more interest in apprenticeships. This year’s (2015) NAW saw an additional 200 businesses joining the Trailblazer programme, which is challenging employers to design hundreds of new apprenticeship frameworks.

There was also a record-breaking 23,000 apprenticeship vacancies were pledged and the SFA spokesperson said that the “ambition for NAW 2016 will be to better this”.
Sue Husband (pictured left), director of the National Apprenticeship Service, said: “Last year’s NAW saw some tremendous achievements, but I want next year’s to be the best yet.

“I am looking forward to once again raising the profile of apprenticeships and traineeships and celebrating the important role they play in equipping people of all ages with the skills that they need to prosper in their lives.”

The 2015 AAC attracted more than 600 delegates to Westminster’s Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, in March.

Speakers at the event, hosted by broadcaster and journalist Kirsty Wark, included Skills Minister Nick Boles, Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna and the then-House of Commons Education Select Committee chair Graham Stuart, who used the conference to launch the committee’s report on apprenticeships and traineeships for 16 to 19-year-olds.

Would-be delegates to the 2016 AAC are being urged to save the date, register their interest here and keep an eye out for further announcements about booking information, speakers and other activities, in FE Week and at feweek.co.uk later this year.

Further cuts to college budgets will account for just 13 per cent of extra savings needed at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Nick Boles has announced in a letter to the sector.

In a letter issued in the wake of yesterday’s announcement by the Skills Funding Agency that FE providers will face a cut of 3.9 per cent on their non-apprenticeship adult skills budgets between August this year and March 2016.

It comes on top of cuts of up to 24 per cent already made to adult skills budgets earlier this year.

It comes after FE sector leaders criticised the cuts, with Association of Colleges assistant chief executive Julian Gravatt (right) claiming they would have a “devastating impact”.

Mr Boles (pictured above) said the savings achieved through the cut, plus the additional withdrawal of mandatory ESOL funding, added up to £60m of the £450m of savings which BIS needs to find during this financial year.

He also set out how a national programme of area reviews would help FE operate on “tight budgets”, and re-iterated the government’s desire to see “fewer, larger” providers.

He said: “In order to achieve our ambitions on productivity in the context of tight budgets, we need to take the opportunity to proactively reshape our provider base to deliver both strong and stable institutions.

“Yesterday I published a policy statement that sets out our approach to facilitating a restructuring of the post-16 education and training sector through a series of area based reviews.

“Colleges will participate in these reviews as independent institutions but I do expect all institutions to take advantage of the opportunity to consider the best structure to deliver for learners and employers in their areas.

“The objective of the area reviews is to enable a transition towards fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient providers, and more effective collaboration across a range of institution types.

“A critical aspect will be to create greater specialisation, with the establishment of genuine centres of expertise, able to support progression up to a high level in professional and technical disciplines, while also supporting excellence in other fundamental areas such as English and Maths.”

The FE sector is also waiting to find out what will happen to 16 to 19 funding, with the Department for Education also expected to save £450m during this financial year.

The Education and Training Foundation has been asked to draw up a “programme of reform” for functional skills qualifications, Skills Minister Nick Boles has announced.

In a letter to providers, Mr Boles said he was tasking the Foundation with coming up with ideas to make the qualifications a “well-respected and credible” alternative to GCSEs.

It comes after an ETF review of the qualifications led by former Jersey principal Professor Ed Sallis earlier this year found they were “not broken, but could be improved”.

In his letter, Mr Boles said: “In my previous letter, I mentioned that I had commissioned the Education and Training Foundation to carry out a review of the best way to achieve and accredit maths and English in post-16 education outside of GCSEs.

“The Foundation’s recommendations, published in March 2015, provide valuable new evidence for improving the quality and recognition of functional skills qualifications to ensure they meet the needs of employers and learners.

“I believe that Functional Skills should continue to be the main alternative English and Maths qualifications to GCSEs. However, to be well-respected and credible, it is critical they suit employers’ needs and are properly taught and assessed.

“I have, therefore, asked the Foundation to set out what a programme of reform to update English and maths functional skills qualifications would involve, working closely with BIS, DfE and Ofqual.”

The further review of the qualifications has been welcomed by sector leaders.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal said: “We are pleased that the minister has confirmed his support for functional skills.  We believe that employers and learners value Functional Skills as a real alternative to GCSEs.

“We are pleased that the minister has asked the ETF to do this review as this will ensure that the sector will be involved in the discussions to improve the delivery of the both English and maths.

“We need to ensure all learners have an alternative route to improving their basic skills and functional skills is a different but just as rigorous as GCSEs. We look forward to working with ETF and providers on this review.”

Charlotte Bosworth, director of skills and employment at OCR, said: “Core skills in English and maths are clearly critical to learners of any age engaging in learning and employment. We agree with Nick Boles that there needs to remain an alternative to GCSE.

“Part of the difficulty experienced by functional skills is the lack of name recognition that the GCSE has. Partly this is due to the relative youth of Functional Skills as a qualification when compared to the more long standing GCSE, but this is partly due to too little being done to promote the existence of Functional Skills to employers.

“We advocate an alternative GCSE that is more suited to the post-16 education environment that shares the GCSE name but retains those elements of flexibility that are critical to enabling post-16 learners to succeed, for example, a more modular approach and with more frequent opportunities for assessment.

“However, we caution against jumping again to immediate qualification reform, with so much currently being reformed in the education and training sectors, it might be better to focus on engagement, at least initially, rather that launching another round of reforms.”

ETF chief executive David Russell said: “Since our inception we have been delivering significant programmes of work to help providers build capacity in their teaching workforce to meet the demand for maths and English.  Our review ‘Making maths and English Work for all’ clearly demonstrated the demand for qualifications which provide practical maths and English skills.

“We are delighted to have been asked by the Minister to set out what a programme of reform to update English and maths functional skills qualifications would involve.  We will use our unique sector-owned position in the skills system to consult with education and training professionals and their representatives, employers and other key stakeholders such as awarding organisations, alongside BIS, DfE and Ofqual.”

Almost £50m of funding may have been wrongly paid out by the Skills Funding Agency last financial year and could be clawed backed from 16 colleges.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report on the SFA’s 2014-15 accounts published this morning has revealed the “irregularity of expenditure”.

It related to payments for capital projects totalling £49.9m made to the 16 FE colleges “in advance of need”, which the SFA may now have to claim back from the colleges following a review.

An NAO spokesperson criticised the SFA for failing to “challenge revised expenditure profiles submitted by colleges sufficiently” before handing out the disputed capital grant payments in February and March, despite “evidence of slippage in the capital programme” in December 2014.

The SFA also failed, according to the NAO spokesperson, to “seek prior approval from HM Treasury for the payments in advance of need, as required by the Treasury’s Managing Public Money.

“The SFA then sought retrospective approval from the Treasury for making the payments which the latter refused on the grounds that it had not sufficiently demonstrated the benefit or value for money from making these payments”.

The SFA’s programme assurance team will now “review the compliance by colleges with the financial programme management arrangements for the College Capital Investment Fund (CCIF),” the NAO spokesperson said.

He added: “If this review identifies that colleges claimed funds in advance inappropriately, the SFA will seek to recover those funds.”

The SFA’s chief executive Peter Lauener will also, the NAO spokesperson said, be commissioning a review by the Government Internal Audit Service into financial management and control arrangements relating to the College Capital Investment Fund (CCIF), following the disputed payments.

The payments were, the NAO spokesperson added, part “of a distribution by the SFA of £143m of remaining capital funds to FE colleges by the end of March 2015”.

Responsibility for public funding of capital projects at FE colleges passed to local enterprise partnerships from the start of the current financial year.

An SFA spokesperson said: “During our year-end audit of expenditure performed by the NAO, it was found that 16 colleges (one with 2 capital schemes) had secured payments in advance of need for capital projects funded by profile through the CCIF, which finished at the end of March 2015.

“This resulted in a qualification of the SFA accounts for the 2014 to 2015 financial year.

She added: “The NAO has said that our accounts have been properly prepared and show a true and fair view, and that except for the capital grant payments, in all material respects the expenditure and income of our accounts has been used for the purposes intended.

“There is no suggestion that these payments were not for agreed capital programmes.

“We will be commissioning reviews of our internal financial management and control arrangements and the compliance by colleges with the financial programme management arrangements for the CCIF.

“If this review identifies that colleges secured funds in advance inappropriately the SFA will, as is our normal process, seek to recover those funds.”

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “We are confident that all payments were used by the colleges to complete the necessary building work and there is no suggestion from the SFA that this funding has not been used for the purpose intended.

“It is also not surprising that in some colleges such large scale construction projects ran over their original completion dates.”

The 16 colleges which secured pre-payments were Harrow College, Knowsley College, Lewisham and Southwark College, Stoke on Trent College (2 capital schemes), Warwickshire College, Wiltshire College, Bradford, Capel Manor, Colchester Institute, Kendal College, PETROC, Reaseheath College, Sheffield College, Somerset College of A&T, South Thames College and Leeds City College.

The government’s Productivity Plan will be the first focus of the new business, innovation and skills (BIS) select committee, its chair Iain Wright has confirmed.

The recently-elected committee has launched an inquiry into the plan, which was released earlier this month and set out plans for an apprenticeship levy, per-learner funding for adult learning, new institutes of technology to replace some FE colleges and further devolution.

Mr Wright (pictured), the Labour MP for Hartlepool who beat former chair Adrian Bailey MP and Roberta Blackman-Woods MP to the chair earlier this month, said the committee wanted to play a “constructive role” in assessing the plan.

He said: “Productivity is the pressing economic challenge of this Parliament and tackling the productivity gap is crucial to the UK’s economic competitiveness and to improving workers’ living standards.

“As a committee we will keep a determined focus on scrutinising investment, regulation, innovation and skills policies designed to boost productivity.

“Launching this inquiry marks the start of the committee playing a constructive role in assessing the government’s productivity plan and ensuring it delivers meaningful results for the UK economy.”

The committee has asked for written submissions by Thursday, September 10, and has issued a number of questions for respondents to consider.

They are, firstly, do you agree with the government’s assessment of the reasons for the UK’s productivity slowdown (as outlined in the annex to the Plan)? and has the government acknowledged all of the main causes of the UK’s poor productivity growth?

Secondly, it states that “one pillar of the government’s plan is to increase “long-term investment”. It outlines eight areas with specific measures to increase productivity” before asking why has the UK’s long-term investment been so low up to now? and how can we ensure that the measures relating to long-term investment in the new plan will contribute to productivity growth?

Thirdly, it says “the second pillar of the government’s plan is to encourage a “dynamic economy”. It outlines seven areas with specific measures to increase productivity” and then asks what are the main weaknesses of our economy, in terms of dynamism, which are suppressing our productivity? It also ask whether the measures introduced under in the plan address those weaknesses and are they appropriate?

Finally, it asks whether, overall, the plan adequately addresses the main causes of low productivity in the UK (as discussed in question 1) and will it have the desired results?

Click here to take part, here to visit the committee’s webpage, here for its Twitter account, and keep updated on its inquiry using the #ProductivityPlan hashtag.

You can read an extensive FE Week Q&A with Mr Wright here.