Employers will be able to anonymously rate, review and compare providers using an online tool launched by Ofsted.

Employer View allows staff to share their thoughts on providers they have worked with, and find out what other employers think about any provider which trains it’s employees, apprentices and work placement or work experience staff.

The site was launched on Monday April 28 and is open to the public, but employers’ details will be kept confidential.

Ofsted national director for FE and skills Lorna Fitzjohn said: “The tool will inform inspectors’ understanding of the effectiveness of provision, increase employers’ engagement in education and training, and help them and employees to choose the provider that is right for them.”

A questionnaire on the site asks employers to rate their provider partners on the quality of their communication, monitoring of employee progress, training provision, and feedback and support.

“Employers in the past have often not been sufficiently included in the education and training of learners, including apprentices, and we recognised that this needed to change,” said Mrs Fitzjohn.

“Engagement with employers was highlighted as a major theme for improvement in Ofsted’s Annual Report and we hope Employer View will facilitate a dialogue between employers and providers.

“I therefore urge all employers using a provider inspected by Ofsted to visit the Employer View page on our website and contribute.”

A statement by Ofsted said safeguards would be in place to prevent the site from abuse, such as user registration and systems to flag signs of potential misuse, and that the site security compared well with similar public sector sites.

Mrs Fitzjohn said: “We have worked hard to make sure we strike the right balance between security and accessibility when deciding the measures to put in place.

“If a provider or employer believes information is being skewed they should let us know and we will investigate.”

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) chief executive Stewart Segal said: “We are pleased Ofsted is giving more recognition to the views of employers.

“We have always said that the more focus we put on outcomes and views of the ultimate customers the better.”

However, he said there was already a “crowded marketplace” for information on providers.

“Employers now have a number of sources of information and support including National Apprenticeship Service website, FE Choices, Ofsted main site, Ofsted Employer Choices, Apprenticeship Makers, National Careers Services which will confuse many smaller employers,” he said.

“We are now looking at how access to these services and support can be made more effective through one single information source.”

He added: “Ofsted need to use the informal information generated by Employer Choices carefully and ensure that this is balanced with the more formal survey information already generated by training providers.

“Responses to the system will be anonymous and may not be statistically significant so there has to be a process where the information is reviewed with the provider as the responses may not be a balanced sample.”

The tool will use the same model as Learner View, which was launched in September 2012 to allow learners to rate their providers.

Visit www.employerview.ofsted.gov.uk to use Employer View.

 

Ofsted has defended its TripAdvisor-style website where learners review providers after it emerged that just seven learners at a college inspected in March had logged on to share their views since the start of the academic year.

The education watchdog launched Learner View, which allows learners to rate their provider, in September 2012 — and since then the site has received an average of just 48 responses per provider.

At West Thames College, which received a grade two result following inspection in March, just seven of its 7,562 learners contributed to the site this academic year.

And at Chichester College, which was achieved a grade one rating last month, 86 of its 14,629 learners, or one-in-170 contributed, while at West Cheshire College, given a grade three last month, 58 of 15,257 learners shared their view on the site — one-in-263.

At London’s grade four LeSoCo college, 292, or one-in-60, of its 17,618 learners shared their experiences.

But Ofsted national director for FE and skills Lorna Fitzjohn told FE Week she was standing by the website.

“In the last year Learner View has received over 60,000 unique responses from learners eager to voice their views on their provider,” she said.

“We believe this shows the role the tool is playing in enabling learners to get involved in improving education and training provision.”

There are currently 1,250 providers registered on the site, and given Mrs Fitzjohn’s 60,000 figure, this would average out to 48 contributions per provider over the 18-month period since its launch.

However, she did acknowledge that greater awareness of the tool among learners would boost the number of visits to the site, and the amount of feedback on providers it received.

She said: “We will continue to promote the tool so that more learners can contribute and benefit from it.”

Learners are asked to rate whether their training programme has met their needs, the support they have received the quality of the teaching, assessment and feedback.

They are also asked whether they would recommend the provider to a friend.

Mrs Fitzjohn said: “As well as giving learners a better insight into which provider is right for them, the tool has also proven a vital asset for Ofsted inspectors in helping them understand the effectiveness of providers.”

She added: “The launch of Employer View, a tool for employers to rate the providers they use, will complement Learner View and help further a dialogue between learners, employers and providers that will ultimately benefit the quality of education and training.”

 

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock has revealed hopes for 5,000 new traineeships through the employer ownership pilot (EOP) scheme.

He said National Grid, Everton Football Club, Somerset-based electrical installation firm Rogers Restorations, and Berkshire-based construction and engineering firm Costain aimed to create the traineeships.

The announcement was made during the Minister’s speech at a UK Commission for Employment and Skills event in London on Wednesday (April 30), and came around two months after official figures revealed there had been just 3,300 traineeship starts in the six months following the scheme’s launch in August last year.

He said: “Under this [EOP] scheme, employers combine their own money with government funding, to invest in the training they need. It’s simple, direct, and focused. Figures released today show that the
first projects will create over 5,000 traineeships.”

A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) spokesperson said the EOP traineeships would be subject to the scheme’s usual delivery rules, so they could only be run by providers with an Ofsted grade one or two inspection result.

The government has said it has no target for traineeship numbers, but Access to Apprenticeships, which is seen as the scheme’s previous incarnation, saw 7,200 starts in its maiden year of 2011/12 and then 5,500 in 2012/13. It stopped at the end of the last calendar year with 1,500 starts.

And take-up for traineeships had already been dubbed “disappointing” by former Ofsted FE and skills director Matthew Coffey at the Association of Colleges (AoC) annual conference in November.

Keith Smith, the Skills Funding Agency’s executive director for funding and programmes, also said at the AoC conference that — despite no official target having been set — “colleges have indicated they will deliver around 57 per cent of projected 19 to 23 traineeship starts for 2013/14”.

Mr Hancock also announced in his speech that £20m was being made available for skills training in the automotive sector.

 

Features of Ofsted’s new data dashboard have been leaked to FE Week, revealing a focus on English and maths up to level two, and data on local enterprise partnerships (Leps).

The dashboard, which is due to launch on May 12, has been developed to allow leaders, governors, and members of the public, to access key performance

information.

The design will replicate the one used by Ofsted’s existing dashboard for schools, but will contain a more extensive breakdown of information — separating out measures for learners aged 16 to 18 and those aged 19 and over.

In addition to showing how well learners are doing, it is expected to show how the provider’s performance compares to other providers nationally.

It will also have information that allows the provider to be viewed in its local economic context — such as to what extent it is meeting Lep priorities.

Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills, Marina Gaze (pictured), said: “The dashboards will be a valuable tool in assessing the impact of education and training provision.

“It is important that we are always mindful of the link between education and employment and this tool will be a vital asset in helping learners to achieve their career goals.”

For each category, the dashboard will show what percentage of planned qualifications were achieved in the previous academic year.

It will also show separate data for levels one, two and three, splitting maths and English GCSE and functional skills from other subjects and dividing A-levels, vocational training and apprenticeships.

The dashboard will also show learner destination data, although the data for learners over 19 is not expected to be available until November, when it will show how many unemployed learners have gone on to find jobs and how many have moved into further learning.

When FE Week first reported on Ofsted’s plans for a dashboard in June last year, then-director of FE and skills Matthew Coffey was confident it would be a useful tool “supporting governors in their role”.

“Governance is such a fundamental aspect of leadership and management, something that was highlighted in last year’s [2011/12] annual report,” he said.

“Weak accountability, leadership and governance are common failings in poor provision.

“One of the most significant underpinning reasons why providers failed to improve was a lack of effective accountability.”

 

Further education leaders have called for action to stop a sharp decline in part-time higher education study after a report revealed the number of entrants fell by almost half in three years.

Research conducted by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has shown that the number of part-time w and EU undergraduate entrants fell from 259,000 in 2010/11 to 139,000 in 2013/14 — a drop of 120,000, or 46 per cent.

The report has prompted concerns across the FE sector, which caters for large numbers of part-time higher education learners.

Association of Colleges higher education policy manager Nick Davy said: “Many of its [HEFCE’s] findings — decline in public sector employment, cuts in training budgets, various policy changes such as the introduction of loans and the equivalent and higher qualification policy — chime with intelligence from our colleges. This is a very important market for them as nearly 50 per cent of their higher education intake is part-time, and many colleges are in poor areas, often reliant on public sector employment.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, said: “The decline in part-time study is bad news indeed for the economy
and for adults who want to improve their career prospects.

“The solution to this is not simple because it requires policy changes and funding action, as well as institutions to respond creatively.

“More than anything we need to stimulate the demand from individuals and employers such that policy and supply flexes and responds.

“Above all, though, the report highlights just how far we are from the kind of diverse, flexible, creative and collaborative higher education system that is needed to meet the needs of a growing economy and an ageing population.”

Click here to read Mark Corney’s expert piece

 

The official incorporation of the first FE college in more than 20 years has been heralded by Skills Minister Matthew Hancock.

Mr Hancock confirmed FE Week exclusives dating back to July last year when he announced on Wednesday (April 30) that Prospects College of Advanced Technology had officially been given permission to incorporate.

The venture by Essex-based charity Prospects Learning Foundation comes after a month-long consultation (document pictured right) earlier this year.

Mr Hancock said: “Since the incorporation of FE colleges over 20 years ago, no new colleges have been formed. Yet new colleges can offer greater choice to students, drive up standards, and be more responsive to the needs of employers, responding to skills shortages.

“Consistent with our support for free schools for those of school age, the government strongly supports the establishment of new colleges, allowing
the entry of new organisations that drive up quality, customer focus and responsiveness of the FE sector.

“For the first time, we today set out formally our intention to establish Prospects College of Advanced Technology as a new FE corporation.”

He added: “Prospects College of Advanced Technology is being established to deliver a unique new employer-focused, specialist technical college of further education in the south Essex Thames gateway. It will have three specialist apprentice skills training centres for engineering (including rail), building services and aviation and a post-16 campus.

“At the time it is fully operational it will deliver provision to 800 full time and 350 part time learners, 1,200 apprentices and 2,500 delegates on short corporate courses all aged 16+.

“A full public consultation has taken place, responses were received from 41 individuals representing 26 organisations and no responses opposed the proposal to open the new college. I wish this new college every success and hope it will be the first of many.”

Prospects Learning Foundation chief executive Neil Bates told FE Week: “We are delighted that the minister has approved our application.

“The consultation resulted in overwhelming support from employers and employer organisations, local authorities, Members of Parliament and students.

“The minister will open the new college in September. This will include the opening of a new railway engineering academy where the majority of funding for this new facility is coming from major employers in the rail sector.

“Our ambition is to be outstanding within three years and to have 1,000 advanced and higher technician apprentices at the college supporting key sectors of the economy.”