Latest news from FE Week

Labour remains committed to scrapping level two apprenticeships despite the absence of the pledge from the party’s education manifesto, it has been confirmed.

Speaking to FE Week following the launch of the document at Microsoft’s offices in Victoria, central London, Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna confirmed his party still wanted all apprenticeships to be at level three or above.

It comes despite the fact the policy did not feature in the manifesto document itself, and was not mentioned by party leader Ed Miliband in his speech.

Mr Umunna said: “We want all our apprenticeships to be level three and above. That is not to say that we don’t see a place for level two qualifications — we absolutely do.

“In and of themselves, there are important qualifications that are level two and of course they are an important stepping-stone to do a level three apprenticeship or other qualification.”

When asked why the policy was not included in the manifesto document, a spokesperson said the party did not comment on process issues, adding that manifestos were only meant to provide an “overview” of policy.

A number of FE organisations have come out against the policy including the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, where chief executive Stewart Segal said: “We share the view of Confederation of British Industry, Unionlearn and the Commons Education Committee that high quality level two apprenticeships should remain part of the programme because they offer a ladder of opportunity to further progression.”

However, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) has backed the policy.

Steve Mulligan, Niace assistant director for policy and public affairs, said: “At a time when we need to do all we can to boost productivity and people’s career prospects and incomes, the last thing we should be doing is capping opportunities at level two where, currently, most apprentices stop learning.

“No one would say that stopping learning once you’ve done your GCSEs is a good idea. The same should be true for apprenticeships.

“Apprentices have the right to a working and learning experience that sets them up for a successful career and life of learning. Raising the bar to level three, while of course maintaining level two training, is a sensible way forward.”

Mr Umunna also told FE Week that the details of which qualifications would qualify learners for his party’s proposed “apprenticeship guarantee” would be announced once his party is in office. The party has so far only said that those with two A-level passes or equivalent qualifications would be eligible.

He said: “In terms of the detail around that we will announce that when we get into government. I’m not going to go through the list right now because I can’t.

“Of course, when you put in place a guarantee you have a set of criteria that you reference your guarantee to, but I can’t give you a whole list of the qualifications now if that’s what you’re asking me to do.”

Labour also used the event to announce plans to divert £50m from the government’s widening access and participation fund to pay around 1,000 trained careers advisers, who will each work with clusters of two or three schools, in order to guarantee “face-to-face” careers advice for all learners from the age of 11.

Main pic: From left: Labour leader Ed Miliband,
Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna.
Picture Chris Radburn/PA

Labour’s manifesto pledges for skills

Deliver a new gold-standard technical baccalaureate for 16 to 18-year-oldsEnsure all young people study English and maths to 18

Raise standards in FE, with new institutes of technical education

Guarantee all young people face-to-face careers advice

Give every young person that gets the grades has the right to a high quality apprenticeship

Introduce new technical degrees delivered by universities and employers

 

The Conservatives will put a University Technical College (UTC) “within reach of every city” and increase the use of destination data about FE courses if they form a government again in May, the party has announced.

Alongside existing pledges to create 3m apprenticeship starts over the course of the next Parliament and “improve” FE by opening new national colleges, the Tories included plans in their manifesto to expand the network of UTCs despite concerns about their popularity and quality.

Launching the manifesto at UTC Swindon this morning, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Our ambition is to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business, and we have a plan to get there.

“We will deliver 3m apprenticeships and open more great new UTCs.”

In the manifesto document itself, the Tories simply pledge to ensure “there is a UTC within reach of every city”, without explaining what distance they consider “in reach” to mean. They have also stopped short of setting out a timetable for the expansion or a final number they are aiming for.

The document also commits the Conservatives to publishing “more earnings and destination data for FE courses”, but does not say how the roll-out of such data would be handled.

Three London colleges have announced plans to form a federation in a bid to combat budget cuts.

Newham College, Tower Hamlets and Redbridge College have formed the Federation of East London Colleges, due to have its first working group meeting this month.

College leaders said they hoped the move would allow them to share resources and facilities and to submit joint funding bids.

Di Gowland (pictured above left), principal of Newham College said the federation would “enable strategic collaboration to maximise opportunities… in the face of devastating cuts”.

The colleges, which employ a total of 1,366 staff and cater for 29,320 students, have a combined income of £82m, they claimed.

Redbridge College chief executive Theresa Drowley (pictured above centre) told FE Week the 24 per cent cut to the Adult Skills Budget announced last month was “unsustainable” for her college. “We felt we needed to take our college destiny into our own hands,” she said.

“As a group together we could be more efficient, get the best from each college and have a bigger voice within the national agenda.”

The news comes just months after the federation formed by Middlesbrough College and Gateshead College was disbanded in its first year after failing to offer additional value to learners.

However, all three East London college leaders insisted each institution would maintain its own independence and governance. Tower Hamlets College principal Gerry McDonald (pictured above right) said: “We’re not creating a Middlesbrough-type situation. Middlesbrough failed because it didn’t properly articulate the relationship between the colleges and the overarching structure. This is a soft federation — we’re not appointing an overarching chief executive, there will be equal status between the three colleges.”

The federation company would not have any dedicated staff “at this stage”, but would be a “vehicle” for bidding, said Mr McDonald.

“The Local Enterprise Partnerships don’t want to work on a borough by borough basis, they want to see real collaborative partnerships across the whole patch,” he said.

“It makes sense for us to put together bids for the European Social Fund as a strong partnership, rather than independently.”

Ms Drowley said cutting jobs “wasn’t the intention” behind the federation, but redundancies at management level were “likely”.

It is understood that a merger of Redbridge and Tower Hamlets colleges has not been ruled out, depending on both colleges’ individual strategic options reviews.

 

Providers have been warned to be vigilant after another attempted scam hit the sector.

Andy Cole (pictured), principal of the College of North West London, told FE Week how this month he was invoiced for a fictional United Nations (UN) programme.

And just two days before Christmas another phoney invoice, claiming to be from within the college, had demanded more than £100,000.

“I’m seeing a lot more stuff like this happening and hearing about it from other principals” Mr Cole told FE Week.

“It’s not just scams but stuff that’s getting past firewalls — we’ve got a pretty good one but we’re still seeing it.”

On Wednesday March 11, Mr Cole received an email claiming to be from the UN, asking for payment for a programme he had made an “irrevocable” commitment to — despite Mr Cole never having heard of the programme.

And on December 23, the college received an invoice claiming to be from within the college itself for £100,440 for money spent on railway engineering equipment — a key area of business for the college.

“It wasn’t college paperwork, but it was very convincing,” said Mr Cole. “If I was new to the college, I’d think ‘that’s credible, maybe that’s our paperwork’.”

The case was handed over to police but FE Week understands no further action has been taken.

“Our controller won’t let anything from anybody – including me – through if it isn’t 100 per cent compliant with our policies and procedures,” said Mr Cole.

He added: “The greater concern is the potential for electronic messages that get through any firewall containing a virus.”

Mr Cole’s comments follow a string of attempted scams to have hit the sector.

Last month, FE Week reported on a fraudulent email sent to Westminster Kingsway finance staff, claiming to be from college principal Andy Wilson, requesting an urgent payment.

And the Colchester Institute was hit around the same time by con artists posing as the contractors carrying out £5.8m worth of building work actually being carried out on campus.

In January at least eight colleges were targeted by a man calling himself Brian Hall who claimed to be a bailiff on the way to collect a fictional £7,000 debt. It is understood no colleges handed over money.

 

Apprenticeships were on the agenda as David Cameron hit the campaign trail in West Yorkshire on Thursday (April 9).

Mr Cameron met Cory Hurst, a level two fashion and textiles apprentice at Camira Fabrics in Huddersfield.

He also announced deals which had been struck with large employers including Costa to create 16,000 apprenticeships. The Tories have pledged to create 3m starts in the next Parliament if they form a government again in May.

The visit took place on the same day that Labour leader Ed Miliband was at Microsoft’s offices in Victoria with Shadow Education secretary Tristram Hunt and Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna to launch Labour’s education manifesto.

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Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA