Fears have emerged that government proposals to streamline “difficult” minimum wage rates for apprentices could lead to lower pay.

The Low Pay Commission (LPC) has been asked to look at simplifying the rate for apprentices, which is £2.68-an-hour for those in year one before normal worker minimum rates apply.

A government spokesperson said: “The current system can be difficult for employers to understand, leading to poor compliance. The new remit will look at streamlining
the apprenticeships rate so that apprentices get the minimum wage they are entitled
to.”

The fear is that a simplified system could entail a new minimum rate for all apprentices, with learners no longer moving up after 12 months to the higher rates enjoyed by normal workers.

Toni Pearce, president of the National Union of Students, told FE Week: “It would be completely unacceptable for ministers to let companies off the hook under the guise of simplification with one hand, and then to give them free reign to pay a lower flat rate minimum wage for the duration of an apprenticeship with the other.”

It comes after findings in the apprenticeships pay survey 2012, which came out late last year, showed 29 per cent of learners did not receive the then-legal minimum of £2.65 an-hour in 2012, up from 20 per cent the year before.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “I want to see apprentices paid the right wage, so I am asking the LPC to simplify the system to make it easier for employers to know exactly what wage they must pay.”

The apprentice minimum wage is set to rise by 5p an-hour to £2.73 from October and the LPC is due to report to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and Dr Cable in February.

Ms Pearce added: “Although Dr Cable is suggesting that it is not currently easy enough for firms to understand the rules on apprentice pay, in reality the issue is quite simple.

“We need to see both government enforcement to ensure companies obey the law, and moves to close the discriminatory pay gap by adopting an equal minimum wage which is both fair for employees and simple for employers to understand.”

John Allan, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “While minimum wage legislation is already fairly straightforward, simplification of the apprenticeship rate has the potential to help small businesses by reducing some of the complexity of taking on an apprentice.”

A spokesperson for the Confederation of British Industry, whose director for employment and skills, Neil Carberry, has been appointed to the LPC, said: “The LPC is an independent body that will review this issue and make recommendations. We will be consulting our members on this in the coming weeks.”

Fears that a new planned hours system of funding 16 to 19 study programmes was being misused have prompted a review by the Education Funding Agency.

It is understood that the agency was alerted to possible problems after greater proportions of learners were registered as being in full-time study than were previously seen under the old funding system. It now pays per learner, rather than by qualification, as recommended in Professor Alison Wolf’s 2011 review of vocational education.

And for learners to qualify as full-time under the new system providers must record them with at least 540 planned hours, but it is understood that learners who would previously have been funded as part-time were now being funded as full-time.

The agency, FE Week understands, is concerned that providers were either not delivering the full 540 hours or, where delivered they were condensed into periods of as little as four months. However, it announced on Thursday (June 19) that it would be conducting a review this summer to ensure all data and funding claims were valid.

An agency spokesperson said: “The agency will ask institutions that have had the most significant increase in full time programmes to complete a straightforward return highlighting the main reasons for the increase. Institutions selected for funding audit,  that have had an increase in full time programmes, will also be asked to complete this return.”

In order for planned hours to qualify for funding, the activity done in that time must contribute towards a coherent study programme for the student, be timetabled, organised or supervised by the provider and be within the provider’s normal working pattern.

The spokesperson added: “All institutions should ensure that planned hours recorded for the 2013 to 2014 academic year meet these criteria. EFA will continue to monitor the returns it receives to decide if further audit work is necessary.”

The chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, Stewart Segal, said: “We were expecting a review on the impact of study programmes at some stage and we would welcome input into it. AELP supports the flexibility of study programmes and hope that the review will reinforce that flexibility rather than create too rigid a definition of the learning activities.”

In her 2011 report, Dr Alison Wolf laid out her arguments for funding by student, rather than qualification. She said the move would “focus… management and staff attention on student programmes rather than the minutiae of individual qualifications’ fees” and “make it much easier for institutions to collaborate in offering different components of a programme”.

Two colleges branded inadequate by Ofsted last year have both emerged badly in the latest of three monitoring visits each from the education watchdog.

Lesoco, in South London, and Stockport College have shown weaknesses during previous monitoring inspections and both were again making “insufficient progress” in key areas, said inspectors who visited last month.

A Skills Funding Agency spokesperson said: “We aware of the findings of the recent Ofsted monitoring reports and continues to work with Lesoco and Stockport College as they implement their improvement plans.”

The most recent visit for Lesoco, formerly grade three Lewisham College and grade four Southwark College, found there had been insufficient progress to improve quality of teaching, learning and assessments, learner attendance rates, or in strengthening tutorial and learning support arrangements.

However, it had made “reasonable progress” in improving maths and English provision.

The college’s initial inadequate grading in November led to a visit from the FE Commissioner and the resignation of the principal Maxine Room.

Her successor, Ioan Morgan, said: “Since the last monitoring visit and the helpful comments from Ofsted, the pace of improvement has increased.”

He added: “The appointment of new and experienced leaders working with a streamlined existing team will ensure momentum is evidenced and that outstanding provision present in parts of the college are replicated throughout.”

Stockport College, which fell to inadequate having previously been outstanding, had made insufficient progress in creating and implementing a post-inspection action plan, improving maths and English and in performance management by senior leaders.

It was, however, was judged to have made reasonable progress on teaching and learning and curriculum change planning.

It too was visited by the FE Commissioner and saw principal Stephen Carlisle replaced by Ian Clinton.

Mr Clinton said: “Following the FE Commissioner’s intervention… a range of measures and targets were agreed, many of these relate to financial matters and the curriculum agenda. The college remains on track to achieve these targets by the end of the academic year.”

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills declined to comment.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has today published summary reports of FE Commissioner Dr David Collins’s visits to colleges.

Dr Collins’s interventions are triggered either by a grade four Ofsted rating, a notice of financial concern from the Skills Funding Agency or Education Funding Agency, or failure to meet national minimum standards of performance set by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills or the Department for Education.

The commissioner has so far visited LeSoCo, Barnfield College, Stockport College, City of Liverpool College, K College, City of Bristol College, Weymouth College, Bicton College, City of Wolverhampton College and Stratford-upon-Avon College.

See edition 107 of FE Week for more.

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