The government has today published for the first time employment and other 19+ learner outcomes for FE and skills providers — and Darlington College has the highest job outcome rate of all general FE colleges. Click here to see full report for Darlington College.

The data from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), for learners at all Skills Funding Agency-funded providers that completed in 2010/11, comes as part of a consultation on proposed new success measures from 2016/17.

However, BIS itself, along with the Association of Colleges (AoC) and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), has urged caution over the use of the “experimental” data, which also covers progression within learning and earnings.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “This country needs high quality post-19 education and training that equips learners with the skills employers need and value. This data and consultation is an important step in recalibrating the way we think of success in FE.

“Simply gaining a qualification is not the reason learners enter education and therefore should not be the sole measure by which we determine success.

“Instead we need to look at where education leads — whether that’s employment or further study. We need to be scrutinising not only how well FE providers deliver learning, but also what that learning achieves. By using a more holistic measure of success, we are working to incentivise providers to stretch and challenge students.”

The proposals for the new success measures for publicly-funded post-19 education and skills, excluding higher education, are laid out by BIS in a 12-question consultation, which opened today and is due to close on October 10.

Joy Mercer, director of education policy at the AoC, said: “It is seldom possible to sum up success in a single measure, particularly when colleges serve so many different students in so many different circumstances, and we support the use of a range of ways to identify success.

“Anything that helps students of all ages to make properly informed decisions as to which course and institution in which to invest their time and effort will be worthwhile.

“The publication of this data is also useful to colleges, who currently have to spend time and money finding out what happens to their students. This will help save money — at a time when they have seen their funding for adult students cut by 25 per cent.

“However, the government must be careful not to confuse helpful data on which courses can lead to better employment prospects, with expecting colleges to have direct responsibility for job success.

“Some colleges are operating in the most deprived areas where jobs are scarce, and the government must accept that there are a whole range of local stakeholders, in particular Local Enterprise Partnerships, who also play a key role in creating new employment opportunities.”

An AELP spokesperson said: “We welcome the use of data if it is offering a broader view of how success is measured, providing that the information is accurate and up to date.

“But it’s important that the data needs to be reviewed in context; in other words, it’s not right to set absolute targets because learner cohorts vary so much. Nor would we want to see tables and rankings based on data only. We should be very cautious about how the data is used.”

Within the documentation released, it said: “These measures are experimental, and have been published for transparency as well as to develop an initial view of how to make full use of them to support the FE sector.

“This publication provides the headline outcomes for destinations and progression, and also showcases some features of the data that are important for their interpretation. The type of provision offered and the clientele that providers work with are just two of the considerations that should be taken into account to understand that a low rate does not necessarily equate to poor performance. Therefore it is not recommended to use the data to compare provider performance at this stage.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said: “The measures will not impose any additional data collection burdens on training providers, employers or members of the public as they will be based on robust and statistically valid matching of currently collected administration datasets from across BIS, the Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.”

At the time of going to press, no individual providers had been contacted.

The appointment of Nick Boles (pictured) as Skills Minister following the promotion of his predecessor, Matthew Hancock, has led to questions about whether he will have enough time in the role to learn about the FE sector, its challenges and its successes included.

Here, Association of Colleges (AoC) chief executive Martin Doel and Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal set out their priorities for Mr Boles.

Martin Doel

Together with the AoC president [Richard Atkins] and our associate director for sixth form colleges [Mark Bramwell], I was fortunate enough to meet the new Skills Minister, Nick Boles, only days into his new job.

The Minister (the fifth I have worked with who has responsibility for FE) was, as I had expected, focused, business-like and keen to hear our ideas. But he has a number of significant challenges and decisions to make.

Only a few weeks ago, both [former Education Secretary] Michael Gove and Matthew Hancock gave AoC and our sister organisations assurances that government had received and understood our consistent message that colleges have taken far more than their fair share of austerity.

The lack of ring-fence around funding for the education of 16 to 18-year-olds has left many colleges taking massive cumulative hits to their budgets and this is beginning to affect the curriculum range they can offer students. Further while quality as evidenced by Ofsted results continues to be strong there is an incipient, but no less real threat to quality of provision over time.

The new Minister will be taking a big decision in the autumn about funding in 2015-16. He should be in no doubt about the significance of this for the future of colleges.

Meanwhile, on the Department for Business, Innovation an Skills (BIS) side of the Minister’s brief, funding for adult FE students has declined by 40 per cent since 2010. This situation is clearly unsustainable over the medium to long-term and this provides some rationale for the current consultation concerning the extension of student loans to 19 to 24-year-olds and for level two provision for 25-year-olds and above.

With colleges operating within such tight and declining margins in both their Department for Education and BIS remits, there is little capacity for them to adapt to new requirements of policy or to respond to opportunities and needs identified by local economic partners, like local enterprise partnerships. For this reason, I suggested to the Minister that he consider a growth and innovation fund for colleges similar to that available to universities under the Catalyst scheme.

The reform of apprenticeships remains a major worry for colleges. Officials will no doubt have informed the Minister that colleges and others remain concerned that the proposed changes will only make it more difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to take on apprentices. These companies are the lifeblood of our economy and to create a system which requires them to take on all the administration of an apprenticeship seems risky at best.

There is also a concern about the sheer pace of change. Politicians, businesses and colleges have all worked hard to transform the reputation of apprenticeships for the better. They are now seen as a valuable option for many, resulting in better jobs and associated salaries. We shouldn’t rush into reform of something which is just (re)establishing itself.

There are also opportunities for the new Minister, particularly in relation to higher technical and vocational education. Our recent publication, Breaking the Mould proposes an increased role for colleges at levels three, four and five and sets out a range of ideas.

Most of these would require specific ministerial action, for example the creation of a new technical accreditation council to approve institutions that want to make their own higher technical and vocational awards and allowing colleges with foundation degrees to award them at other institutions. Our overall message is this: the monopoly of university control of higher technical and vocational qualifications is not serving the needs of a dynamic and recovering economy.

The role colleges play internationally, both in-country and recruiting students from overseas, is under-developed and is an area where they could do with additional support. Some of the constraining factors are outside of BIS’s direct control, such as the Home Office’s immigration rules, the lack of capital investment and the relatively small size of colleges in relation to universities. However, there is scope for a new Minister to build strong links with all parts of BIS and other departments to ensure colleges can play a full role in delivering to this important aspect of the UK’s Industrial Strategy.

Stewart Segal

It is a few weeks since the new Skills Minister, Nick Boles, joined BIS and took responsibility for the apprenticeship changes. Since then there has been an interim Q&A covering some of the issues raised in the recent funding consultation but it did not respond to the main issues involved.

It is not clear when that the full government response to the consultation submissions will be but let’s not forget it may not address the main issues of the impact of mandatory cash contributions, negotiated rates and payments and whether direct funding of employers will positively or adversely affect apprenticeship quality and numbers.

The consultation only covered a very narrow question so we hope that the new Minister will be considering the wider issues where the evidence we have seen suggests that employers are not in favour of the proposals. The construction industry including shop fitters, the hairdressing industry, the electrical contractors industry have all expressed real concerns about these changes. The previous Minister claimed full support from the employer representative bodies but that support has been in principle and all of them have expressed similar concerns about the current proposals and the impact on businesses, small business in particular, and young people.

AELP has also supported these principles which include more employer engagement especially in the development of the new standards, more flexibility in delivery and more focus on the impact of the programme on employers and apprentices. However we do not believe that some of the proposals will move us closer to those objectives we are all driving for. We hope the new Minister will look at some of the proposals we have put forward which we believe are based on clear evidence from employers and based on giving employers more not less choice.

With regard direct funding of employers, all the evidence we have is that employers want more control and influence over the content and delivery of the apprenticeship programme but do not feel they need more control over the funding. However we believe that if they do want direct funding, they should be allowed to follow that route but they must have the option to work with a training provider chosen by them to draw down the government contributions on their behalf.

Employers would be in control of the process in either scenario but it would be based on employer choice. In our view, this would be very much in line with the CBI’s view that arrangements that currently work for employers should be retained.

We also support the drive to increase the employer contribution towards apprenticeship training. However this co-investment comes in many different ways including cash but can also include the provision of staff time, facilities and training equipment. These are very real and important contributions that will be put at risk if we try and enforce cash payments. Employers should have the choice of how to make these contributions but we agree that we can put more focus on this issue and make it a more important part of the Ofsted framework.

We are expecting announcements on how the first trailblazer standards will be managed and funded during 2014-15 when some of the phase 1 trailblazers may become available for delivery. We are not expecting huge numbers of starts but the rules will have to be issued shortly as some employers and providers are expecting to start learners this year.

There are still a lot of issues still to be resolved such as which band of maximum government contribution each of these new standards will slot into. We also need to understand how employer contributions will be collected and evidenced, particularly as all payments will be made through providers or employer providers this year. Clearly providers will play an important part in this process and we need to understand if the ‘incentive’ payments could be off set against the employer contributions which might reduce transactions considerably.

We have been involved with BIS and the Skills Funding Agency in a number of discussions about the future structure of the new standards and have recommended a number of solutions including a more staged approach to the changes such as allowing the new standards to bed in for 12 months before introducing grading and having a clear overall process for managing the trailblazers to ensure an integrated approach.

We hope that Mr Boles will adopt an approach that reflects the views of employers and that encourages input from all parts of the sector to ensure that the changes build on a very successful apprenticeship programme.

Funding for FE was cut last year to pay for the government’s universal free school meals policy, a former aide to ex-Education Secretary Michael Gove has told FE Week.

Dominic Cummings (pictured), who was a special adviser to Mr Gove, claimed cuts announced in 2013/14, including the controversial 17.5 per cent cut to the full-time funding rate for 18-year-old learners, were necessary to find cash to pay for universal free school meals — a policy championed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

He said the trade-off was rubber-stamped by ‘The Quad’, a decision-making body at the top of government consisting of Prime Minister David Cameron, the Deputy Prime Minister, Chancellor George Osborne and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander.

But the Department for Education (DfE) denied the accusation, insisting the money for free school meals was pumped in from the Treasury.

Mr Cummings, who has come under fire from Coalition leaders after previous attacks on the government, said: “The decision in 2013 to cut 16 to 19 further was necessary because of all the extra money for universal free school meals and other constraints imposed by The Quad.

“Left to his own devices Gove would not have done that but he was given no choice by Downing Street. Number 10 gave Clegg universal free school meals as a trade-off for their own announcement on married couples’ taxes.

“It was a small but telling example of the stupid way decisions are made by Cameron and Clegg without proper thought and it is more telling that they have no idea why it’s stupid.”

Mr Cummings also suggested in posts on Twitter that the DfE had been forced to make cuts to 16 to 19 funding that were never revealed at the time.

He said: “The cuts process uses figures which aren’t made public. £ is shuffled/created/magicked in/out of existence in ways that would get you arrested immediately if you did it in a company. ‘Is this real or funny money?’ is a phrase heard many times/day.”

In the last year, providers have been told a 19 per cent cut to the adult skills budget over the next two years will see their budgets slashed by 15 per cent, on top of a cut in the full-time funding for 18-year-old learners, from £4,000 to £3,300.

But the DfE dismissed Mr Cummings’s claims, and said the money for the free school meals programme — £1bn in revenue funding from the Treasury and £70m in capital cash for new kitchens — was new.

A DfE spokesperson said: “This is completely untrue. All of the funding for providing universal infant free school meals has come from the Treasury and unspent school maintenance budgets — as made clear in the 2013 Autumn statement.

“The announcement also meant that, for the first time, all disadvantaged 16 go 19-year-old students will be eligible for free school meals, whether they choose to study in college or sixth form.”

Mr Clegg’s official spokesperson did not respond to a request for a comment, and Downing Street said it had nothing to add to the DfE response.

Picture: Asadour Guzelian

 

What do you think? Let us know below whether free school meals were a price worth paying for FE and skills cuts elsewhere.

A new round of University Technical Colleges (UTCs), involving two general FE colleges, has been announced by Chancellor George Osborne (pictured).

Bromley College and Sheffield College were among those to win approval for seven new UTCs to add to the 17 currently operating and 33 in development.

Five universities are behind the other new UTCs, along with employers including Bentley, Kodak and McCain Foods (GB).

Mr Osborne, who also announced four new studio schools to take the total open and in development to 49, said: “UTCs are a key part of the government’s long term economic plan because they help ensure young people have the right skills so they can maximise their potential.

“The new colleges will provide the next generation of British workers with the skills they need to secure the high tech jobs of the future.”

The announcement comes just two months after Bedford College stepped in to take over at Central Bedfordshire UTC at the request of then Education Secretary Michael Gove after it was rated inadequate by Ofsted. And the Black Country UTC was given a grade three rating last year. However, Staffordshire’s JCB Academy, which turned into a UTC in January last year, received a good rating from Ofsted in June.

The new UTCs’ announcement also comes despite growing concerns that UTCs were under-subscribed, with figures released late last year showing that some had been running at less than 30 per cent capacity. The 150-pupil Central Bedfordshire UTC was just 30 per cent full for 2012/13, while the 480-pupil Black Country UTC, near Birmingham, was 36 per cent full. A further three opened at the beginning of 2012/13 but the combined figure for all five UTCs was still only 57 per cent (825 pupils).

And less than month ago Hackney UTC, which opened in September 2012 and filled 77 per cent of its 100 pupil places in the first year, announced it was to shut its doors for good after 2014/15 with just 29 out of its target 75 pupils having applied to join in September. It had been rated as requires improvement (a grade three inspection result) by Ofsted in January.

Despite the issues, the Labour party pledged in June to open a further 100 UTCs in the next parliament if it won next year’s general election, despite concerns raised by the Association of Colleges that UTCs “may not be the best response”.

Nevertheless, all 57 of the 14 to 19 institutions are expected to be open by September 2016, by which point it is estimated that there will be 35,000 UTC student places.

The 600-student Bromley UTC, due to open in September 2016, is a joint venture between Bromley College, Canterbury Christ Church University and King’s College Hospital and is supported by a number of employers such as Oxleas NHS Trust, Nuffield Health, and Mytime Active.

It will be the only one in London and Kent to specialise in health and wellbeing sciences, with specialist courses including genetics and genetic engineering, microbiological techniques, biochemistry and biochemical techniques, laboratory science, forensic science, medical science, environmental science and biological, chemical and physical science. It will also offer a range of courses in sports biomechanics and nutrition.

Bromley College principal Sam Parrett said: “Our vision is to provide outstanding vocational education and train our students for careers in the health and wellbeing science sectors with direct input and support from employers in the industry.”

The 600-student Sheffield Human Sciences and Digital Technologies UTC will be the city’s second UTC and is due to open in September 2016 on the site of the former Don Valley Stadium. The first Sheffield UTC, backed by the Sheffield Hallam University, opened in September and specialises in advanced engineering and manufacturing, creative and digital media.

The city’s new UTC is led by Sheffield College, the city’s two universities, Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the city council and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Boeing (Advance Manufacturing Research Centre) and MLS Contracts.

Andrew Cropley, executive director for strategic planning and business development at Sheffield College, said: “We are delighted the city’s bid for a second UTC has been given the go-ahead.

“We will use all the experience gained from UTC Sheffield, the first of its kind in Yorkshire and the Humber, and work with our partners to create an extraordinary and career focused educational experience for young people who have an interest in the science of the human body and computing.”

The seven newly-announced UTCs:

Bromley UTC
Bromley UTC will cater for 600 students and specialise in the health and wellbeing science sectors. This project is led by Bromley College in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University and a number of employers including Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Nuffield Health and Mytime Active. The school will use a project-based learning approach supported by coaching and mentoring.

Crewe UTC
Crewe UTC will cater for 800 students and specialise in engineering, manufacturing and design in an area where there is a high regional demand for engineers and technicians. This project is led by Bentley and OSL Rail in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University and Cheshire East Council. A number of other employers are also engaged including Siemens, Bosch, Oliver Valves, Chevron Racing and Optical 3D.

Leeds UTC
Leeds UTC will cater for 600 students and specialise in advanced manufacturing and engineering. The project is sponsored by the employers Kodak, Siemens, Agfa Graphics and Unilever, in partnership with the University of Leeds. The UTC will integrate vocational and academic subjects in a business-based environment.

Scarborough UTC
Scarborough UTC is sponsored by Unison Ltd, McCain Foods (GB) and Dale Power Solutions, along with the University of Hull and a host of other employer partners. The UTC will specialise in advanced engineering and design and control. The UTC will cater for 600 students and will deliver a curriculum that provides students with the skills that local engineering companies need now and in the future to support the predicted growth in the sector.

Sheffield Human Science and Digital Technologies UTC
Sheffield Human Sciences and Digital Technologies UTC will cater for 600 students and specialise in human sciences and digital technologies. The project is sponsored by the Sheffield College and Sheffield Hallam University and employer partners include Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Boeing (Advance Manufacturing Research Centre) and MLS Contracts. The curriculum will be underpinned by work-based learning and employer-led assignments.

South Durham UTC
South Durham UTC will cater for 600 students and specialise in engineering and advanced manufacturing and will be the first UTC to open in the North East. The project is sponsored by the University of Sunderland, Hitachi Rail Europe and Gestamp Tallent Ltd, two major engineering employers from the rail and automotive industries in the region. The UTC’s curriculum has been designed with a focus on local employer need in mind.

WMG Academy for Young Engineers
The WMG Academy for Young Engineers in Solihull will cater for 640 students and specialise in engineering and science. Led by WMG (formerly known as the Warwick Manufacturing Group) at the University of Warwick in partnership with Jaguar Land Rover, EEF (the Engineering Employers’ Federation), West Midlands Manufacturing Consortium and Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, with support from other employers including Aero-Engine Controls (part of the Rolls Royce group). It will utilise the employers’ expertise in the automotive, aerospace and construction industries to help prepare students for careers in local high growth sectors. The trust will be opening its first UTC — the WMG Academy for Young Engineers in Coventry — next month.

A Midland college is under growing pressure to go public over the departure of its former principal after she unexpectedly stepped down temporarily before it was announced this week that she would not be returning.

The University and College Union (UCU) wants the severance package being offered to Warwickshire College’s Mariane Cavalli, who officially leaves post at the end of next month, revealed along with details about what’s behind her departure.

Her temporary leave of absence was announced “with immediate effect” at the end of June and she was replaced on an interim basis by governors’ chair Sue Georgious. The college announced on Monday that Ms Cavalli would not be returning, but refused to comment further, citing legal reasons.

Andrew Harden (left), UCU head of FE, said: “It is disappointing the college is refusing to give any reasons why Ms Cavalli is leaving the college, or details of a severance package funded by public money.”

The college declined to reveal Ms Cavalli’s severance package and would not comment on why she was leaving.

Ms Cavalli was one of the five founding college principals of the Gazelle Colleges Group and each has dished out more than £530,000 to the organisation, according to figures obtained from Freedom of Information Act.

More than 20 current and former member colleges were asked by FE Week what they had spent on the organisation, which was launched in January 2012 with standard annual membership priced at £35,000.

Gazelle, which raked in around £3.5m from colleges, claims to, “develop innovative new learning models and new partnerships with business to deliver an improved outcome for students, their communities and the economy”.

Its chief executive, Fintan Donohue, said the “enrichment of student experiences and outcomes” was its “overriding goal,” but no independent research has been carried out into whether learners benefit. However, the UCU has called for publication of a report by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) which Gazelle claimed was “supportive” of its leadership development programme. Both the ETF and Gazelle have so far declined to go public with the report.

Nevertheless, Warwickshire College praised Ms Cavelli’s record on Gazelle and also pointed at the ties she had developed with China.

“Under Ms Cavelli’s leadership, Warwickshire College became one of five founder colleges of the Gazelle Colleges Group, a growing group of leading colleges from across the country, committed to developing an entrepreneurial mindset in their students. From just five the Group has now grown to 23 UK Colleges and continues to works with leading entrepreneurs from across the world,” said a college spokesperson.

“Her leadership also saw Warwickshire College launch the first UK FE college in China. The China-UK National Skills College was officially unveiled in 2012, cementing a joint venture between two leading vocational colleges from both countries and a Chinese Education Investment Company.”

However, the UCU remained critical.

“A successful college is one rooted in the heart of its local community,” said Mr Harden. “Ms Cavalli may leave with the warm words from people she met on taxpayer-funded trips to China ringing in her ears, but staff facing redundancy will probably view her tenure as less triumphant.”

He added: “We are not convinced that being a founder of the Gazelle Group is a particularly proud boast. A lot of money has gone to the Gazelle Group, but it seems to have just gone towards a promise of ‘student outcome enrichment’ and ‘educational concepts’, which have yet to demonstrate much in the real world.”

A college spokesperson told FE WEEK: “Regarding severance pay and any international visits, we are unable to comment or provide any further details at this time, however, the college’s annual report and financial statement for 2013/2014 will be made public in December.”