Ofsted inspectors have branded the improvement action plan of an inadequate-rated university technical college (UTC) as “not fit for purpose”.

Central Bedfordshire UTC was slapped with the grade four result in June with inspectors criticising the quality of leadership, governance, teaching and the curriculum. They also said learning was “not secure” because teachers “do not always check students’ understanding or how well they have developed skills in lessons”.

Following the initial Ofsted report, then-Education Secretary Michael Gove asked nearby Bedford College to step in as sponsor for the 150-learner UTC that specialises in engineering and design.

But now a monitoring visit — carried out before Bedford College had stepped in — has resulted in a findings that “the statement of action, which incorporates the college improvement plan, is not fit for purpose”.

The inspectors’ report on the revisit, which took place mid-July, also revealed how “due to too few applications, the college is not expecting to admit any students into year 10 in the academic year 2014/15”.

Nevertheless, the principal of Bedford College and newly-appointed UTC chair of governors Ian Pryce (pictured) told FE Week he was “confident the UTC has a very bright future.”

He added: “The Ofsted conclusion was expected given the visit took place only a few weeks after the original inspection report was published, and before Bedford College stepped in.”

Of the three other UTCs inspected so far, Black Country and Hackney UTCs got grade three results while the JCB Academy in Staffordshire received a good rating.

However, the issue of low enrolment figures has hit a number of UTCs, including the one in Hackney, which is to close after this academic year having failed to recruit enough students.

But Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt (below right) appeared to be keeping faith with UTCs, telling FE Week sister publication Academies Week today that he wanted “ considerable growth” in their numbers.

However, he stopped short of the recommendation in June’s review for the Labour Party by Lord Adonis, called Mending the fractured economy: Smarter state, better jobs, in which the Labour peer outlined how he wanted 100 more UTCs by 2020.

Mr Hunt told Academies Week at the CBI Education Conference: “There should be considerable growth in UTCs but I won’t put a figure on it.”

However, the future of the Central Bedfordshire UTC could be in the balance following the poor monitoring report because the Department for Education said after the initial inspection that, “if Ofsted continues to judge the UTC to be inadequate, then we will not hesitate to take swift action, which could lead to terminating the UTC’s funding agreement.”

The monitoring visit report said: “The [improvement] plan lacks precise detail about what specific actions are to be taken and what the support is intended to be in order to raise standards in the college.

“There are also some missed opportunities to measure the success of the actions you plan to take, so that members of the governing body can check at regular intervals whether you are on track to achieve your targets.”

It warned that “a more rigorous improvement plan, which covers a longer timescale, should be in place and applied for the start of term in September 2014, once the new sponsorship of the college begins”.

Mr Pryce said: “Since Bedford College became sponsors of the UTC over the summer, we have appointed a new head, new senior team, strengthened the teaching team, revised the curriculum and invested in new facilities including the library.

“The Ofsted visit also took place before the summer exam results came out and these included excellent pass rates in engineering courses and improved A-level results.”

No one from the college was available to comment on whether a second UTC action plan had been produced, replacing the one criticised by Ofsted.

Councils are failing to track the status of learners in FE colleges and other training providers, a senior Ofsted director will claim in a speech to the sector tomorrow (Wednesday, September 10).

Ofsted’s director of FE and skills Lorna Fitzjohn will demand legal powers for councils to enable them to force colleges and other FE providers to report on the status of their learners.

She will also use the event, Ofsted’s annual FE and skills lecture, to publish the findings of the watchdog’s survey report into the government’s 16 to 19 study programmes.

In her speech, Ms Fitzjohn will say that while councils have a duty to collect data from schools, colleges and FE providers, they have no power to enforce it, making it nearly impossible for Ofsted to know the true number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet).

She will recommend giving councils legal powers to require providers to record and report on the status of their learners.

She will say: “All education providers need to implement the principals of the 16 to 19 study programmes and senior leaders made accountable for this. Learners must also be given access to impartial careers advice which gives them a clear idea of the paths available to them.”

Ms Fitzjohn will also call for the government to widen its focus away from reducing the number of young people not in education, employment and training (Neet).

She is expected to say will say that, a year on from the launch of study programmes, “much more is to be done to ensure a secure future for all those at 16 and beyond”.

She will add: “Much of the focus in tackling the number of young people classed as Neet has been on the 16 to 18 age group, however, this focus is too narrow and does not capture the full extent to which young people are falling through the cracks.

“If we look at the 16 to 24 age group then the number of young people not in education, training or working full-time rises to 1.18 million. 955,000 of these young people would fall into the Neet category. This age group is at risk of becoming the ‘new NEETs’.

“One initiative set up by the government to tackle this are the ambitious 16 to 19 study programmes.  This aims to make sure providers give learners a tailored course that benefits their aspirations, offer beneficial work experience placements and ensuring all learners have achieved GCSEs in English and mathematics at grade C or above.

“In conjunction with increasing the education and training participation age to 17, and next year to 18, the scheme looks to equip learners with the extra skills and experience they need to achieve their career aims.”

Ms Fitzjohn will also state that many local authorities are failing to track the progress of learners in their area, with the destinations of 40,000 16 to 17-year-olds currently unknown.

A careers investment fund, an improved National Careers Service (NCS) website and free or subsidised access to advice are among the recommendations of the National Careers Council (NCC) as it identified “insufficient progress” with reforms since its previous annual report.

As well as re-iterating its call for an employer-led government advisory board on careers, for which Skills Minister Nick Boles today announced a recruitment drive, the NCC set out three further recommendations in its report, 15 months after its report entitled An Aspirational Nation: Creating a culture change in careers provision.

The NCC’s first new recommendation, in a report called Taking action: Achieving a culture change in careers provision, is that the government should provide free or subsidised access to independent and impartial career development professionals. Its second is that the NCS website should be updated to make it more appealing to learners as a “matter of high priority”.

The third new recommendation is that a careers investment fund should be set up and administered by the Department for Education (DfE) in order to “improve existing and successful initiatives and the piloting of innovative local models”.

Dr Deirdre Hughes (pictured), NCC chair, said: “Last year, the council highlighted to government that a culture change in careers provision was urgently needed, particularly in getting good careers support for young people and adults into more classrooms and households across England.

“Some progress has been made in the last 12 months but this has been far too slow. Meanwhile, our education and labour markets remain complex and confusing for young people, parents and teachers and there are significant costs associated with this.

“We urge government and others to take action across England to halt the rapid decline in careers services for young people.”

Schools were given the statutory responsibility to provide independent and impartial careers advice for their pupils in 2011, when the local authority-run careers service Connexions was replaced with the NCS.

Since then, and following the publication of NCC’s first report, the government issued statutory guidelines to include specific references to vocational routes and apprenticeships, meaning schools have a legal requirement to promote them along with academic routes.

And the latest NCC comes after a report by auditor PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, commissioned by the Gatsby Foundation, estimated the cost to schools of delivering a full working careers advice and guidance system in England as being between £45,209 to £92,466 for the first year £38,472 to £77,445 annually thereafter, depending on the size of the school.

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Brian Lightman (pictured below right) said: “Schools and colleges have been trying extremely hard to provide careers guidance to their students and there are many examples of excellent practice.

“However many are finding it extremely difficult to access high quality provision from suitable qualified professionals. A stark postcode lottery is putting many young people at a real disadvantage. Young people need more help than ever to navigate the bewildering range of opportunities open to them.

“It is desperately important for our economy and for the life chances of our young people to address the shortcomings in provision highlighted in this report [NCC’s second full report]. The recommendations in this report provide a way to achieve this.”

Association of Teachers and Lecturers assistant general secretary for policy Nansi Ellis (pictured below left) said: “The government can no longer ignore the fact that it made a disastrous error with careers education when it dismantled the support available for young people.

“The findings of the NCC’s report confirm what teachers are telling us, that too few young people can reliably count on getting the support they need to make informed decisions about their

“Evidence from the Gatsby Foundation clearly showed that it would not be expensive for the government to fund effective careers education, information, advice and guidance, especially compared to the savings from stopping young people becoming unemployed.”

Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “We welcome the NCC’s report that forms a valuable part of the debate on the way young people and adults receive the careers guidance they need. Many schools and employers are doing excellent work to ensure young people are prepared for the world of work and we are committed to helping more to follow their lead.

“We are grateful for the council’s recommendations and can announce that the recruitment process has started for the employer led advisory group – the first recommendation of the council. We will carefully consider this report and respond in full shortly. We are grateful to the NCCCouncil and would like to thank chair Dr Hughes and members for all their hard work.”