New minimum standards guidance for post-19 training was published today, revealing a shake-up in how the Skills Funding Agency measures qualification success rates (QSRs).

It comes just days after providers submitted their ILR 14 returns amid reports of ongoing problems with the Hub, which is due to fully replace the online data collection (OLDC) next month.

Providers’ QSR performances will be based on data submitted in ILR 14 and, as reported by FE Week, the hub broke down at a critical time at least twice since it started being used in July. The SFA previously acknowledged problems in August for R12 returns and in September, when the hub broke down on the deadline day for R13.

Nevertheless, previously, providers’ QSRs were divided up into three categories — long, for courses of 24 weeks or more, short, for courses lasting two weeks to 24 weeks, and very short, those less than two weeks.

Today, the government guidance said the categories had been “simplified” — into 13 qualification types, including apprenticeship frameworks (which continue to have a 55 per cent success rate threshold), A-level (which continues at 75 per cent), AS-level (which continues at 63 per cent), awards, certificates, diplomas, English for speakers of other languages, Functional Skills and GCSE maths and English.

There will also be categories for other GCSEs, other non-regulated qualifications, other regulated qualifications and QCF units.

Providers face the SFA’s intervention process, including a visit from the FE commissioner for colleges, if they fail to reach the QSR thresholds.

The QSR document out today also revealed that the SFA was ready to look at including other data within its minimum standards that has already been the subject of a consultation.

“It is our intention to explore how we can include other measures within Minimum Standards from 2014 to 2015 following the recent consultation on Outcome Based Success Measures,” it said.

“This will take a wider view of success and recognise whether individuals make progress into further learning or into / within work.”

It added: “We expect colleges, training organisations and employers to review their results and proactively identify and address under performance and/or areas for improvement.”

More than 700 employers will design 76 new apprenticeships in professions ranging from policing, the Armed Forces and TV production to welding and boat building, the Government has announced.

It will bring the total number of employers involved in designing apprenticeships as part of the Government’s trailblazers scheme to more than 1,000.

A Government spokesperson said the third wave of trailblazers would involve employers from across 37 more sectors designing “new apprenticeships to best meet the skills needs of their industries”.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “Across the country apprenticeships are a driving force behind getting young people the skills that employers want and the economy needs.

“Our reforms have empowered businesses large and small to design and deliver world-beating apprenticeships that offer a real route to a successful career.”

Employers including PwC, BAE Systems and Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue will work with organisations from across their industries to develop the new apprenticeships.

Employers involved in the earlier phases of the trailblazers scheme will develop a further 47 apprenticeships.

During a visit to Sky, one of 18 employers working together to design new apprenticeships in television production and broadcasting as part of the new phase of trailblazers, Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “There has never been a better time to do an apprenticeship. Apprenticeships give you the experience and top-quality training you need to get the career you want.

“I’m thrilled to be working with UK companies including Jaguar Land Rover and Grant Thornton to make our apprenticeship system the best it can be.”

Mr Boles also met with software developer apprentice Priscilla Ossai, a prominent figure in the Government’s newly launched Get In. Go Far campaign.

The campaign is working to change the perception of apprenticeships among young people, their parents and teachers by showcasing the variety and quality of apprenticeships on offer today in some of Britain’s biggest and brightest companies.

Graham McWilliam, Sky group director of corporate affairs, said: “At Sky we’re delighted to be supporting the trailblazer programmes. It forms part of our wider commitment to providing apprenticeships across our business — around 150 next year — as well as offering a huge range of other opportunities and training to young people across the UK.”

Steven Read, trainee programmes manager at UK Power Networks which delivers electricity supplies in London and were part of the Energy and Utilities trailblazer under the first phase of the scheme, said: “We are delighted to welcome our first 29 new recruits to the new power distribution craftspeople apprenticeship.

“The trailblazer initiative has allowed employers like us to introduce a common industry standard in the skills we teach to the dedicated men and women who keep Britain’s electricity distribution networks running.

“It is refreshing, as an employer, to be involved in designing and a developing the benchmark against which all our apprentices are trained.”

Trailblazers, which were launched in October last year, allow groups of leading employers within a sector to work together to develop new apprenticeship standards.

The initiative aims to ensure that every apprentice in England is enrolled on a scheme that has been designed and approved by employers.

Lambeth College staff who went on a five-week strike earlier this year have rejected “improved” offers over contract changes.

University and College Union (UCU) members walked out indefinitely on June 3 in a dispute over new staff contracts introduced on April 1, which the UCU said would leave staff with longer working hours, less sick pay and less annual leave, before returning to work on July 9.

The UCU confirmed two weeks ago that it had cancelled a ballot for further strike action to allow members to vote on whether they wanted to accept “improved” offers from college bosses.

But a spokesperson said today these had been rejected by 92 per cent of branch members who voted — although it is understood less than 55 per cent of UCU members who work at the college took part in the ballot.

He said: “Members have voted overwhelmingly against the proposals made by management, as is their democratic right. Any sensible employer would be working hard to try and resolve the issue and repair staff relations.

He added: “We will now be seeking approval from the officers for a fresh industrial action ballot.

“In the meantime we hope the college recognises the strength of feeling among staff and agrees to fresh talks aimed at resolving the outstanding issues.”

No date has so far been set for when a ballot for further industrial action could be launched.

The college offered a guarantee that staff taken on before April 1 would have stayed on the original contract until at least September 2017.

Alternatively, existing staff could have accepted a £1,500 “cash incentive” to transfer to the new contract by September 2016.

Both options were dependent on staff agreeing to work an extra hour per week from September — increasing their overall annual working hours from 828 to 864.

After learning that UCU members had rejected both offers, principal Mark Silverman said: “Obviously we are disappointed. The options we proposed were fair, harmonised the two contracts that the UCU branch opposed and provided Lambeth College with a contract that would support the flexible needs of learners and protect the financial viability and long-term sustainability of the college.

“Sadly it’s clear that there is a small minority of staff who seem determined to see the college fail and have little regard for our learners and communities who deserve an outstanding college.

“We have moved from the brink of closure in 2012 to a far stronger position where local people want to come to us to gain qualifications which will help them in their chosen careers.

“The college will focus on supporting our learners and has robust plans in place to do so throughout any industrial action.”

The college was slapped with an Ofsted grade four rating in 2012 but worked its way up to a grade three last year.

Mr Silverman said the new contracts were part of efforts to raise standards at the college.

Colleges are losing their focus on student success in favour of other activities, FE Commissioner Dr David Collins has warned.

In his third letter to the FE sector, which comes after he visited his 14^th college since his interventions began, Dr Collins (pictured) said senior teams were often seen by staff as “invisible”, often in colleges which had been judged inadequate in terms of leadership and management.

Dr Collins has now visited Barnfield College, Bicton College, City of Bristol College, City of Liverpool College, City of Wolverhampton College, K College, LeSoco, Stockport College, Startford-upon-Avon College, Weymouth College, Norton Radstock College, Bournville College, Guildford College and West Cheshire College.

He said senior leadership teams should provide “a sense of common purpose and teamwork that centres on the experience and success of the learner”.

But he added: “Given the multiple demands on time and resources, sifting out what is really important and at the heart of the institution – student success – seems to be lost sometimes in the pursuit of tangential activity at the expense of the core business.”

Dr Collins also said some colleges were failing to check their performance against other institutions and seek better practice.

He said the best college leadership teams were aware of what was happening in the sector and beyond, and a “deep understanding and solid relationship with business”, but that “in many of the colleges I have visited to date, this has been missing”.

He added: “A key characteristic has been that they have been inward-looking rather than outward-facing.”

He also called on colleges to address the balance when it comes to the skills of their senior leadership teams.

He said: “In the best colleges, senior leadership teams have the range of skills, qualifications and experience to ensure the delivery of high-quality provision while being sufficiently self-confident to implement change or ask for help if needed.

“In a number of colleges where an intervention has taken place there have been highly-skilled individuals at senior levels but the balance hasn’t always been right. Financial expertise in particular has often been missing and there has been a reluctance to seek help from elsewhere.”

Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “A great number of colleges have made significant steps in improving the quality of their provision. However, the FE commissioner rightly highlights that there is more work to do.

“I would encourage all colleges who need to improve performance to look to those who have demonstrated strong leadership, a clear outward looking vision and who nurture and celebrate the success of both staff and learners.

“That way we can help make sure the entire sector is delivering to the highest possible standards.”