The National Society of Apprentices (NSOA) has called for a childcare funding scheme that hands out up to £8,400 a-year to young adults in FE extended to apprentices.

The group — launched by the National Union of Students (NUS) in March, as reported at the time by FE Week (pictured) — gathered views from 50 apprentices across London, Bristol, Liverpool, Doncaster and Birmingham last month on key issues facing members.

A common complaint, it said, was that Care to Learn, which provides under 20s with up to £8,400 a-year in London and £7,680 elsewhere in England for childcare, was not available to apprentices.

The NSOA has therefore made the issue one of its first campaigns with an aim to make the government extend the scheme.

Another campaign suggestion from apprentices was to develop a new kite mark for “excellent” apprenticeships.

An NUS spokesperson said: “Care to Learn is a lifeline to many young parents who are looking to continue their education while caring for their children. The NSOA think it would be fantastic if its provision could be extended to apprentices.”

A government spokesperson declined t comment on whether Care to Learn would be extended to apprentices, but told FE Week: “Apprentices are entitled to a range of support and financial benefits [but not Care to Learn] in the same way as any other employees — such as child tax credits, to help them support their family and continue their education.

“We have also doubled the number of two-year-olds that are eligible for 15 hour-a-week free childcare to 116,000.”

Parents entitled to child tax credit, which is for example available to most one parent families with a combined income of £26,000 or less, can be paid up to £2,750 a-year per able-bodied child and £7,105 annually for each seriously disabled child.

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, said: “This is a good example of how inconsistent and unfair the learner support systems for young people
can be.

“I am sure the intention was never to disadvantage young apprentice parents, but the way this policy [Care to Learn] works means it does. I would hope that common sense prevails and this problem can be addressed quickly.”

The NUS spokesperson said “nothing is solid enough to present just yet” regarding the proposed apprenticeship kite mark.

But, she added: “Apprentices at the events [in London, Bristol, Liverpool, Doncaster and Birmingham] wanted a way of differentiating between apprenticeships. This year the leadership team will be looking at how this might work.”

All providers that train apprentices can register with NSOA. It already represents 150,000 apprentices from 130 registered training providers.

After providers join, their apprentices are entitled to apprentice extra discount cards launched by the NUS in 2012.

A ballot that could have led to renewed industrial action at Lambeth College has been suspended to allow union members to consider a “new” offer, FE Week can reveal.

University and College Union (UCU) members walked out for five weeks from 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.

The UCU opened a ballot on September 22 on whether to launch a new strike ahead of scheduled talks between college and union leaders on October 6.

But a UCU spokesperson said the ballot, which was supposed to close on Monday (October 13), was suspended on Friday (October 10) to allow for consideration of offers made during the October 6 meeting by college management.

He said: “The ballot at Lambeth was suspended following the improved offer by the college management. Members are now being consulted over that new offer and the consultation finishes on Wednesday [October 22].”

A college spokesperson said it had offered a guarantee that staff taken on before April 1 would stay on the original contract until at least September 2017.

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

The spokesperson said both options would be dependent on staff agreeing to work an extra hour per week from September — increasing their overall annual working hours from 828 to 864.

The UCU spokesperson said members would now vote on whether “they wanted to accept one of the two options or reject both”.

There could be another ballot for strike action if both offers were rejected.

Principal Mark Silverman (pictured) said: “I remain hopeful that UCU members, the majority of whom understand and support the changes that have transformed this college since 2012, will accept our propositions and that we can bring a swift and decisive end to the dispute.”

Meanwhile, the UCU’s FE committee was set to meet on Friday as FE Week went to press to decide how to respond to a court ruling that stopped it launching a national strike.

The protest, which was scheduled to take place on Tuesday (October 14), was called off after the High Court handed down an injunction the day before barring industrial action.

Members were due to walk out over an ongoing row over pay, but the AoC challenged the UCU over the validity of a ballot of members.

Marc Whitworth, acting director of employment services at AoC, said: “Strike action relying on an old ballot was prevented, which meant colleges and their students could go about their day-to-day business as normal.”

The UCU spokesperson said: “We were disappointed the AoC decided to make a late dash to the High Court to overturn the ballot rather than deal with members’ concerns over pay.”

The trial of seven people charged with fraud-related offences after allegedly ripping off the taxpayer at welfare-to-work provider A4e is under way at Reading Crown Court.

Ex-A4e recruiters Hayley Faye Wilson, Matthew Hannigan-Train, Sarah Hawkins, Serge Wyett, Yasmin Ahmad and former account managers Ines Cano-Uribe and Zabar Mehmood Khalil all pleaded not guilty when the trial opened on Monday, October 6.

The case followed a police investigation into financial rewards claimed for helping the unemployed into work through the European Social Fund (ESF) ‘Aspire to Inspire’ Lone Parent mentoring programme, which ended in July 2011.

It is alleged that they “made false instruments” — forged documentation to support fraudulent claims for rewards for work with learners who had not found work or did not exist over a period of four years until February last year.

Wilson, aged 26, of Milton Keynes, Cano-Uribe, 38, of Madrid, Hannigan-Train, 30, of Bristol, Hawkins, 32, of Bagshot, Surrey, and Wyett, 40, of Richmond, are all charged with conspiracy to make false instruments.

Cano-Uribe and Khalil, 35, of Slough, are jointly charged with making false instruments but separately face further charges — Khalil is charged with a further three counts of making false instruments, while Cano-Uribe faces one more of the same charge.

Yasmin Ahmad, 40, of Colchester, faces charges of making false instruments and making articles for use in fraud.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “Under the terms of the contract, payments were made when the scheme successfully placed individuals in employment.

“It is alleged that many of the reward payments related either to people who never attended A4e or to clients whom A4e had not successfully placed in employment. The contract was to deliver motivation and training and to assist people to find employment.”

Andrew Dutton, A4e chief executive, said: “A4e co-operated fully with the police enquiry, after our own internal investigation first brought these alleged incidents to light.

“Since these alleged events took place, we have augmented our controls and processes to seek to ensure that nothing like this could ever happen again.

“Furthermore, rigorous audits undertaken by the Department for Work and Pensions [DWP] and the Skills Funding Agency have concluded that there is no evidence of fraud on any of the contracts that we hold with them.

“A4e has, of course, committed to paying back in full the total value of alleged unsubstantiated claims that were made to the DWP.”

A CPS spokesperson said the case was expected to run for five weeks in total.

All defendants are on unconditional bail.

[Proceeding]

All-age apprenticeships starts fell by 13 per cent last year according to provisional government data released this morning.

The figures, published in the Statistical First Release (SFR), suggest that the number of people starting apprenticeships has dropped for the second year running.

In 2013/14 the number of apprenticeship starts was provisionally put at 432,400 [click here and view table 18.1], a drop of 62,700 (from 495,100) since the same figures were released for 2012/13 [click here and view table 16.1].

The final figures for 2012/13 showed the first drop in apprenticeship take-up in seven years (from 510,200 to 499,800 — a 2 per cent drop) and if today’s provisional figures are confirmed in the next SFR (due in January), they could prove that this trend is continuing.

The number of under 19-year-olds starting apprenticeships meanwhile, appears to have risen 5 per cent, to 117,800, since last year, but the number of 19 to 24-year-olds fell by 3 per cent, to 156,900, and the number of 24 + apprenticeships tumbled from 222,200 to 157,700 — a drop of 29 per cent.

For more on the SFR, see edition 115 of FE Week, dated Monday, October 20.