Giving people an opportunity to earn and learn, as well as filling skills gaps faced by many industries, it’s well-known that apprenticeships offer huge potential to transform both industries and lives.
However, despite their potential, apprenticeships suffer from high-non completion rates with nearly half of all apprentices dropping out before completing their programmes.
Over two-thirds of early leavers cite issues with training quality and support. The government has set out targets to address issue and to increase apprenticeship achievement rates to 67 percent by 2025, encouraging providers to analyse performance and boost retention. The St. Martin’s Group, in their Apprenticeship Outcomes and Destinations report and recently released Enabling Better Outcomes report, identified that direct support from providers and employers is vital for apprentices to succeed.
Supporting you to secure apprenticeship success at AAC
At City & Guilds, we believe that by working together we can secure apprenticeship success, and we are here to support you at every stage of the journey from onboarding through to end-point assessment (EPA).
We are looking forward to an action-packed two days of talks and workshops at AAC in Birmingham on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 February 2024. We’ll be exploring topics including:
Funding and policy updates – what’s happening with apprenticeships
Driving learner success and preparing for EPA in Leadership & Management
Closing the digital skills gap through apprenticeship delivery
AI in Education: Navigating myths and realities for better apprenticeships
Driving success and preparing for EPA within the engineering sector
Our team will also be at Stand A51 to answer all your questions about delivery support, policy, funding and the evolving landscape of apprenticeships. Whether you are a provider looking for further support to ensure your apprentices’ success, or an employer looking to optimise your apprenticeship programmes, please join us to gain valuable insights and new perspectives.
More apprenticeship support: Guidance and best practice for providers
To help you maximise the success of your apprenticeship outcomes from start to finish, we have also created an apprentice success guide aimed at providers. In the guide we identify some of the key challenges that contribute to apprentice withdrawal at different stages of the journey and share practical tips to help you and your teams overcome them.
The guide includes expert advice on:
How to develop a clear onboarding plan and learning structure for your apprentices
How to overcome common challenges on-programme and ensure your apprentices develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours to succeed
How to help your apprentices prepare for end-point assessment
Additional support resources to help you plan ahead at each stage of the apprenticeship journey
There have been a few unfortunate news stories about sexual harassment in FE recently, training providers as well as Croydon and Lewisham Colleges have projected dismissive attitudes towards these issues – whether intentionally or not, it’s a perception.
The core of the issue isn’t the actual prevalence of sexual harassment, but the general sense that reporting it often leads nowhere. This dismissiveness is damaging to victims and the reputation of the sector.
According to TUC research, 58 per cent of women in the UK experience sexual harassment in the workplace and 68 per cent of students endure harassment on campus. Yet, a staggering 79 per cent of these incidents go unreported. Why?
The answer lies in the perceived futility and fear surrounding the reporting process. Victims often believe that their voices will be dismissed or, worse, that they might face repercussions for speaking up.
This belief isn’t baseless. The response to last year’s Ofsted report by Croydon College, in which students’ concerns were not ‘recognised’, exemplifies this particular issue. Similar concerns have been raised at Lewisham College, where the process and its aftermath allegedly failed to address the severity and impact of the claims made. Now the Metropolitan Police are involved.
When institutions that are meant to be safe havens for teaching and learning don’t recognise when their community is facing such serious issues, they fail in their duty of care and erode trust.
These two colleges are not unique. It’s a wider problem where the real causes – such as power dynamics, hierarchical structures and cultural norms – enable harassment.
The impact of this can affect mental health, work quality, academic performance and overall wellbeing. And it perpetuates a culture where sexual harassment is normalised, passed off as ‘banter’, and silence is preferred – sometimes with the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
FE can pivot from this path of seeming indifference
It’s particularly concerning in FE, where young people are continuing to shape their understanding of social interactions and boundaries.
FE can pivot from this path of seeming indifference to one of proactive engagement.
This means establishing clear, accessible, and safe reporting channels that guarantee confidentiality and protection from retaliation, as well as focused training.
But it ought to go beyond box-ticking and/or setting up processes; it must work towards fostering a culture where every report is taken seriously and dealt with transparently.
Education and training play a crucial role. These recent stories show that staff and students need to understand what constitutes harassment, how to report it without fear or intimidation, and the importance of speaking up.
The challenge extends to changing the cultural norms and perceptions around harassment. Sexual harassment needs to stop being viewed as an isolated issue that ‘doesn’t happen here’. Each institution must accept that it does.
Post-16s and college staff have also experienced harassment on campus and if, collectively, we think of it as a systemic issue – it becomes preventable.
This includes removing barriers that often discourage individuals from reporting and providing a system where people can feel safe, perhaps even anonymous, and yet supported.
For FE, national coverage of harassment and discrimination elsewhere, be it the NHS, McDonalds or uniformed services, should be a wake-up call. Action shouldn’t be for fear of being next, or
because of a new legal requirement with bigger fines but understanding that you have a moral and ethical duty to our communities.
The way forward is clear: Acknowledge that there are issues, take every report seriously, and foster a proper culture of transparency. Nothing short of that will demonstrate the sector genuinely values the safety and wellbeing of its employees and students.
In taking clear action, colleges will not only protect their own reputations but ensure FE is the safe and nurturing environment it’s meant to be.
At the Teaching Awards Trust, we know teaching is more than just a job. We know you don’t do it for the accolades, yet every day without fail, thousands of teachers and support staff across the UK go out to inspire and encourage the next generation and we think it’s important to celebrate the impact of our classroom heroes.
We do this every year with the Pearson National Teaching Awards – the Oscars of the teaching profession – but we need your help! By entering your colleagues you can help celebrate the work that takes place in your college and your community, and give them the recognition they deserve.
Help us to shine a light on the inspiring stars in your community
Past winners of the Pearson National Teaching Awards have told us these awards not only made them feel appreciated but also boosted the morale of the entire community. “I don’t think people can underestimate the value of this, not only on a personal level but for your community, for parents, and of course for the children.”
There are 16 categories awarding individuals, teams, and staff members, from early years and primary to secondary and further education. Whether it’s an incredible teacher, knowledgeable lab tech, efficient office staff member, or much-loved lunch supervisor, enter them today!
How to enter
It’s easy and free to enter, head to teachingawards.com to tell us about your nominee and their background, and why you think they deserve to be considered for the award. The deadline is 5PM onFriday 1st March 2024.
We want to hear about the positive impact that your colleague has had on learners, colleagues and the wider community. Whether it be through organising extracurricular activities, building relationships with local businesses, improving academic results, or anything else that has made a difference.
Make your colleague feel like a superstar
Silver Winners will be announced on National Thank a Teacher Day (19 June 2024), presented with a trophy and invited to a celebratory tea in London.
A few Gold Winners will have the chance to be revealed on BBC’s The One Show in the week running up to the glittering annual awards ceremony where the remaining Gold Winners will be announced. At the November ceremony the honoured educators will get the true VIP experience with an overnight stay in London, a four-course dinner, and a stunning trophy to serve as a reminder of all their hard work and dedication to their profession.
Each nominee (Silver or Gold Winner or not) receives a certificate in recognition of their hard work from their peers and community
Paddy McCabe, headteacher of St. Oliver Plunkett Primary School, Gold Winners of The Award for Making a Difference – Primary School of the Year said,
“I am delighted for the staff team, our parents and pupils and indeed our community. The application process forced us to step out of the maelstrom of the daily grind and to take stock and to recognise that we do indeed “Make a Difference”. The Silver and subsequently the Gold Awards, in many ways, are the icing on the cake, the process was prize enough.
“I was especially proud to receive the award because of the title, ‘Making a Difference’. Having been a past pupil I know the impact that the school had on me and continues to have on children in our community to this day.”
Paddy McCabe
Help a worthy, hardworking colleague receive the acknowledgment they deserve. Enter an outstanding colleague into the 2024 Pearson National Teaching Awards today.
Fewer than ten prisoners have enlisted on an interdepartmental apprenticeship scheme, lauded at its launch to offer opportunities to 300 prisoners in England, an FE Week investigation can reveal.
Data obtained through a Freedom of Information request has found the Department for Education has missed its target by at least 90 per cent, after fewer than 10 people serving time in prison have started apprenticeships in England since long-awaited legislation was introduced in September 2022.
The DfE and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) offered apprenticeships to up to a hundred eligible prisoners across England in the first year of the pilot scheme. It’s expecting up to 300 prisoners to be recruited by 2025.
The data, provided by DfE, specified that fewer than five offenders are undertaking level 2 supply chain warehouse operative apprenticeships, and less than five are on level 2 production chef apprenticeships.
The few apprentices are spread across the country, with nearly five located in the Yorkshire & the Humber, and less than five each in the North West and South East England regions.
The specific number of individuals who signed up for prison apprenticeships is unknown, due to the government’s rounding-up policy, to protect the identity of participants.
Before the law change, thousands of prisoners who were eligible for release on temporary licence (ROTL) to carry out work or training were not able to carry out apprenticeships due to Ministry of Justice policy prohibiting offenders from signing employment contracts, to avoid potential contractual disputes because they are serving prisoners.
Apprenticeships are classed as a contract of employment in law.
After five years of discussing a change, in September 2022, an amendment to the law was made to allow prisoners in low-category open prisons on day release to be able to undertake apprenticeships without the need for a contract of employment.
The news made headlines at the time, with former education secretary Nadhim Zahawi calling the scheme a “life-changing chance” for prisoner rehabilitation and employment.
“We are about to expand the scheme to include more prisoners”
However, figures showing the slow uptake exemplify the cracks in the prison system.
The MoJ says the low figures are due to the department restricting the scheme to a small number of open prisons.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Our drive to get offenders away from crime and into work has seen us double the number of prisoners in employment six months after release, and apprenticeships are just one part of these efforts.
“Since its launch the apprenticeship model has been restricted to a small number of open prisons and we are about to expand the scheme across the wider estate to include more prisoners and increase the numbers of participants.”
A DfE spokesperson said it had nothing to add to MoJ’s statement.
Prison education experts have lambasted the devastatingly low figures, blaming the government for leaving prisons to figure out apprenticeships themselves after changing the law. They also cited multiple barriers to improving apprenticeship take-up, such as understaffing in prisons, uncommitted employers, and a misunderstanding of apprenticeships from prisoners.
“They said, ‘there’s a law change, now off you pop,’ and expected the prisons to be able to respond,” said Alex Miles, managing director of non-for-profit Yorkshire Learning Providers, who works with prisons in the region.
Prisoners’ Education Trust chief executive, Jon Collins, added: “It is no surprise that it is taking time to get this off the ground.”
“Pressures on prisons are acute and with severe overcrowding and staff shortages, it is really difficult for prisons to implement new initiatives. If we want to give people leaving prison the best chance to thrive, we need to sort out the broader failings in the prison system,” he said.
Miles, who set up a quarterly prison support forum in Yorkshire prisons in anticipation of the law change said even prisoners misunderstood the scheme.
“There’s a women’s prison in York I go into all the time, and they think I’m there to talk to them about apprenticeships for their children on the outside,” she said.
Some employers have quietly walked away from the scheme too.
Timpson is a large employer of ex-offenders and partnered with training providers Novus and Total People to deliver apprenticeships at the time. But FE Week understands that Timpson has walked away from the provision.
Timpson did not respond to a request for comment.
Pub group Greene King said they’ve found one prison leaver undertaking an apprenticeship and will complete early this year.
A spokesperson for Novus also claimed one of the prisoners partaking in the pilot.
“To date, one of our learners has started an apprenticeship through the pilot, receiving positive feedback from their employer and going on to secure a job in the hospitality industry following the end of their sentence,” they said.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of hospitality employer representative UK Hospitality, said: “It’s naturally disappointing that there has been such low take-up of apprenticeships through this scheme, but it remains the case that hospitality has a successful track record in helping people re-enter the workforce.”
“It’s not like they let them out willy-nilly”
The Co-op, also a big namecheck in DfE’s launch, did not participate due to the “restricted types of apprenticeships currently on offer that aren’t compatible with roles available at Co-op, for example, hospitality, catering, construction etc.”
A spokesperson for the retailer said: “Also, other factors, such as the practicalities of having prisoners on ROTL, carrying out a job and attending college to study makes the logistics tricky.”
Miles refuted the claims. “Logistically, it’s not too much of a nightmare,” she explained.
“All of that pre-vetting happens by the prison, it’s robust. It’s not like they let them out willy-nilly,” she said.
Miles added that since then, prisoners, prisons, employers and apprenticeship providers are all on board with the scheme, but central government need to coordinate support with all the parties.
“The issue is that there’s nobody centrally, either via the MoJ or the DfE, coordinating this,” she said. “I think if the MoJ and DfE can come together and fund a coordinated effort, prison apprenticeships would triple.”
One positive Miles says the scheme has done, is improve conversations with prisons about upskilling.
“It has opened prisons up to have a much more skills-based response. In York prison, they have just rolled out their first round of bootcamps in the prison, rolled out two weeks ago.”
The MoJ launched a new Prison Education Service at the start of the academic year, which will seek to recruit a head of education in prisons. MoJ said the service will expand its “ground-breaking” prisoner apprenticeships scheme.
College leaders have blasted new proposals that could see them pay higher awarding body fees for T Level students if they under-recruit students.
FE Week revealed earlier this week the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) is planning to introduce a new “demand-sensitive” pricing model in its new contracts for re-licensed wave one and two T Levels.
The move has been designed to make T Levels more “commercially attractive” for awarding organisations, enabling them to achieve the profit margin agreed with IfATE when they bid for the contracts.
FE Week understands that lower-than-expected student numbers on T Levels so far, as well as high development and operating costs, have left several awarding organisations barely breaking even, or even making losses, on their current T Level contracts.
Pre-procurement documents, seen by this newspaper, indicate that a full invitation to tender will be launched by March for a new awarding organisation to run T Levels in health, healthcare science and science. Those contracts are currently held by NCFE. It’s not yet clear whether NCFE will re-tender.
This means all T Levels in the first two waves of their rollout, in 2020 and 2021, now have a timetable for re-procurement.
IfATE launched its so-called “generation two” procurement for seven T Levels in December for education and early years, construction and digital.
The new contracts will feature a “demand-sensitive” adaptive pricing model, which means awarding organisations can charge providers higher fees if student numbers are lower than expected. Fees could also be reduced if student numbers are higher.
Awarding organisations with generation two T Level licenses will be allowed to make a “one-off adjustment” to the entry fee it charges providers if the projected number of students increases or decreases over the generation two contract term.
ABS ‘not helped’ T Level recruitment
FE Week reported in October that several colleges had abandoned some T Level courses due to low student uptake.
College leaders have also expressed concern that the introduction of the Advanced British Standard, announced by the prime minister as a successor qualification to A-levels and T Levels, will hit student interest in T Levels.
James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, told FE Week there was “no justification” for increasing awarding costs amid already rising fees from awarding organisations, and the factors affecting T Levels that are out of colleges’ control.
“Schools and colleges should not bear the risk of national T Level numbers being lower than expected. Our members already pay a significant and growing amount in fees to awarding organisations and there is no justification for introducing further cost and uncertainty into the system.
“The government’s announcement that T Levels are being scrapped has not helped T Level recruitment. Colleges and schools should not have to pick up the tab for that, or for making T Level contracts more commercially attractive,” Kewin said.
Ministers are standing firmly behind T Levels despite the prime minister announcing they are set to be replaced by the Advanced British Standard in the next decade.
Writing for FE Week in October, skills minister Robert Halfon said, “This is not the end of T Levels, which will be the backbone of the new [ABS] qualification. The Advanced British Standard will build on the success of T Levels.”
IfATE operates a single-license model for the technical qualifications in each T Level, meaning that one awarding organisation is responsible for updating content and assessment materials, providing training to teachers and provider staff, quality control, and assessing and grading students.
Catherine Sezen, director of education policy at the Association of Colleges, said, “Colleges have faced many questions from prospective students, parents and carers about the longevity of T Levels following the prime minister’s announcement of the Advanced British Standard.
“Regarding the adaptive demand sensitive [pricing] model, colleges need to have reassurance that any price increases are not going to be passed on to them.”
New contracts will be awarded for five years, with the option for up to three annual extensions, overlapping with level 3 qualification reforms and the development of the Advanced British Standard.
Start dates for teaching of the newly re-licensed T Levels will be staggered.
Students will be taking new generation 2 T Levels in early years, construction and digital from September 2025, while the health and science T Levels won’t be ready for teaching until September 2026.
The awarding organisations that currently hold T Level licenses can re-tender, though the generation 2 contracts do make provisions for staff to be transferred under TUPE regulations if a new awarding organisation takes over.
Documents also state “there will be a need for constructive collaboration” in the event of an overlap from one T Level license holder to another.
Interested awarding organisations have been provided with DfE estimates of health and science T Level numbers over the generation 2 contract period. They currently predict 32,400 entrants to the T Level in health over the five years, 9,700 entrants to the T Level in healthcare science and 16,900 to the T Level in science.
‘Adaptive’ pricing locks in awarding body profits
If student numbers don’t reach forecasted levels, providers could be left fitting the bill.
Chris Morgan, deputy director for commercial and business analysis, told FE Week: “The adaptive pricing (AP) model has been developed to make sure T Level contracts remain commercially viable in support of quality delivery for the young people taking these gold standard programmes.
“In finalising arrangements for these procurements, IfATE and DfE have ensured the contracts provide security for learners, providers and awarding organisations. Colleges will always have the best of their students at heart and enrolment decisions should never be made against students’ better interests.”
FE Week understands the Department for Education will recalculate student number projections after the first two cohorts of generation two T Level students have enrolled, but ahead of cohort three. These contracts will be for at least five annual cohorts.
If forecasted student numbers are higher by more than 15 per cent from what was in the tender documents for the contracts, the awarding organisation will be allowed to lower the entry fee it charges providers. Vice versa, if the new projections are 15 per cent lower, the entry fee can be increased from cohort three onwards.
Procurement documents state: “Where the updated projection is 15 per cent or more below the projection of total learner volumes in the tender documents, the authority will calculate an entry fee, being the maximum level to which the supplier [awarding organisation] will be entitled to increase their entry fee for learners with effect from the commencement of cohort three, for the remainder of the contract term.”
The fees paid by colleges and providers will, according to the documents, “be set at a level that would maintain the opportunity for the supplier [awarding organisation] to achieve the percentage profit margin for the contract established in their pricing schedule.”
Their idyllic rural settings, historic buildings and strong links with local communities have enabled land-based colleges to diversify their income streams in innovative ways to survive. Jessica Hill investigates what the future holds for England’s land-based college sector.
Land-based education sits at the forefront of the biggest crises facing our world, from food scarcity to environmental destruction and global warming.
And running a land-based college is no countryside picnic. Their principals have a myriad of responsibilities on top of ensuring that education is up to scratch and budgets balanced.
Their vast estates are costly to upkeep and, for some principals who live on-site, like Kingston Maurward’s Luke Rake, it is a 365-day-a-year job.
In his spare time Rake, who is also a director of Landex (the membership body for land-based colleges and universities) is a “rock god” and lead guitarist in Britain’s biggest Iron Maiden tribute band, Ironed Maiden.
But by day, he is a “mild-mannered principal” who enjoys watching the eight species of birds he gets on any one morning landing on his bird feeder.
Luke Rake in Ironed Maiden
On his daily walks around the 750-acre estate in Dorset, clad in wellies and accompanied by his black labrador, Rake keeps an eye out for otters, egrets, herons and deer as he greets students, staff and members of the public.
“The really special thing about land-based colleges is the culture is so palpable. I’m not just the principal of a college, I’m the chief executive of a county estate,” explains Rake.
The Oxford-educated former zoologist and mountain rescuer professes to be “not a suit and tie kind of guy, not one for sitting in the office”. And who can blame him, with such picturesque grounds to enjoy?
But these grounds are eye-wateringly expensive to maintain. While all colleges complain about not having enough revenue funding streams for capital upkeep, this is particularly true for land-based colleges.
Kingston Maurward, which spends 14 per cent of its turnover on maintaining its estate, has attempted to diversify its income streams by hosting a farm shop, a school and alternative provision. It also boasts a new university centre (in partnership with the Open University) and wedding and conference venues.
But even then, the college can no longer afford to remain independent.
It is now merging with Weymouth College, causing the number of remaining independent land-based colleges to shrink from 12 to 11. There were 50 in 1980.
Marcus Clinton, principal of Reaseheath College in Cheshire, says one of his biggest challenges is “keeping complex estates and specialist equipment and technologies maintained – funding to recognise it is not just the initial purchase”.
Plumpton College in Sussex, which started taking students in 1926, has focused on galvanising England’s fledgling wine industry: more than 95 per cent of the country’s wineries and vineyards employ Plumpton graduates. The college produces its own sparkling wine, Plumpton Estate English Brut NV.
A quarter of Plumpton’s funding now comes from commercial revenue, while half is from the government, 21 per cent from fee income from adults, higher education and employers, and 6 per cent from grants.
Plumpton College shot by Christopher Lanaway
Principal Jeremy Kerswell believes it is growing commercially more rapidly than any other land-based college. Its turnover has grown by 56 per cent in the past eight years, from £16-£25 million.
But, apart from offering residence and venue space outside term time, “all that activity has to be for student experience first and revenue generation second”.
Rake takes me on a tour from Kingston Maurward’s main house, where the writer Thomas Hardy lived, down to the Elizabethan former home of Augusta, the milkmaid on whose life Hardy based his novel [ITALS] Tess of the d’Urbervilles. The journey’s visuals have hardly changed since Hardy described them in [ITALS] Under the Greenwood Tree.
Rake was “really into Hardy” as a youngster growing up on the edge of Dartmoor, which was “one of the attractions” for him of coming here in 2016 from Hartpury College in Gloucestershire.
Luke Rake, Kingston Maurward’s principal
Preparing for the future
Land-based colleges stand with one foot in the past in terms of maintaining proud farming traditions, and the other very much in the future.
When they were formed in every county in the wake of the 1947 Agricultural Act, amid a shortage of farming labour, students were taught to “lump a load of pesticides and fertilisers” on land to ramp up food production, says Rake.
That culture is changing, although farming is “still very much a family tradition”. We watch as one of Kingston Maurward’s agricultural students clambers eagerly into one of its high-tech tractors, which can drive itself.
The student is focused on the computer screen to the right of the steering wheel, which tells him about yields and moisture levels. They use GPS trackers and learn how to drone-map the land to within “a couple of inches” to ensure “really precise applications of fertiliser and pesticides”.
“That’s better for nature and finances,” says Rake. “And let’s not pretend the students don’t love the tech!”
Kingston Maurward College tractors
Similarly, Myerscough College in Lancashire recently installed robotic milking units, reducing the labour required and “leading to reduced feed costs and greater efficiency of milk production”.
Richard, a level 2 agricultural student at Myerscough, said “the younger generation of farmers are not willing to put in the milking time anymore.”
Declining jobs in farming is nothing new. Rake thumbs through an old farming logbook from 1955, flipping open a page which details the roles of the 13 staff then working at Kingston Maurward’s farm. It states that Fred Atkins spent an hour hauling buckets of water for the pigs.
Nowadays three full-timers run the farm, with “far more animals” than there were then.
Many jobs in the sector that will become available in current students’ lifetimes have yet to be invented, according to environment, food and rural affairs committee chair Steven Bonnar MP, with future jobs emerging in programming, coding and data interpretation.
For Rake it is an “interesting question” whether all this new farming technology will create a sense of disconnection between farmers and the animals and land upon which they work.
But he is not shy of the future. Kingston Maurward is investing in aquaculture and hydroponics. He is also entering “discussions” with companies around cultivating marijuana.
“It’s not just a 750-acre learning estate, it’s a laboratory – let’s do stuff with it, let’s play. That brings in other companies.”
Kingston Maurward College
Technological advances are already creating industry skills gaps.
David Llewellyn, chair of Lantra, an awarding body for land-based industries, says the sector is “desperately short” of agricultural engineers who can maintain all the new specialist equipment.
The Landworkers’ Alliance believes more needs to be done to get environmentally aware young people to join the sector.
In its response to the environment, food and rural affairs committee’s inquiry into education and careers in land-based sectors, it says that although “many young people are motivated to pursue careers that help tackle the climate and ecological crises… farming and forestry are often seen as part of the problem, rather than particular ways of managing the land and forests producing food and timber being highlighted as a potential solution”.
Kerswell says one of the biggest problems that his college faces is that of “perception”. “People in schools and careers still think we represent sectors that are in decline, poorly paid and are only for people who aren’t academic.” The reality “could not be more different”, with employer demand being “very much” for those trained at “level three, four and above”.
‘Everything is a classroom resource’
Jeremy Kerswell, Plumpton College principal
Gesturing towards the grade two-listed gardens where horticultural students are planning displays for the next Chelsea Flower Show, Rake explains how at land-based colleges “everything you see is a classroom resource”.
Kingston Maurward just got DfE funding for a new building on site for its 11-16 school. It also hosts a homeschooling group and has just reintroduced 14-16 alternative provision, enabling schools to send pupils who find it challenging to concentrate in conventional classroom settings.
But, despite their youth focus, land-based colleges like Kingston Maurward are predominantly located in rural areas that are demographic timebombs.
Dorset is expected to soon become the first county with more retired than working-age people, with Kingston Maurward projecting a 10 per cent reduction in students in five years.
In the 1990s, many land-based colleges started offering residential provision, so they could cast their nets further afield. Of Plumpton’s 1,200 full-time students, 120 live on-site, while Hartpury, which has a strong focus on sports, can accommodate around 1,000 students.
Rake says Kingston Maurward tried offering residential, but only got about 20 students taking it up. “With the costs of managing it, plus the fun that you have with Ofsted care standards, it wasn’t worth our time.”
Balancing the books
Future demographics are not the only financial challenge for Rake. After losing £600,000 of income in 2020-21 due to Covid lockdowns, Kingston Maurward’s coffers were further dented last year when it exchanged old oil-fired boilers for an air source heat pump system, partly funded through the government’s decarbonisation scheme.
It has helped the college already to hit its target of becoming net zero by 2025, assuming you discount the dairy herd whose milk is sold to Marks & Spencer.
“Cows produce a lot of methane. But we can’t get rid of them.”
Kingston Maurward College in lambing season
However, the move to electricity, just as Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, meant the college’s utility bill tripled overnight.
Furthermore, for almost three years Kingston Maurward has been embroiled in a “cordial” clawback dispute with the Education and Skills Funding Agency, now worth £1.1 million (10 per cent of turnover), because the auditor felt apprentices had not been given sufficient off-the-job training.
Rake describes it as an issue that “exercises myself and my governors”. He adds: “The students have passed, we’ve delivered the training now. It’s just punitive.”
The saga has prompted the college to scrap apprenticeships altogether.
It previously took on around 100 apprentices a year, worth £500,000 of income.
But, on top of the risk of further clawbacks, the higher delivery costs involved in visiting students on rural placements meant it was “losing a six-figure sum” from the provision. “When finances are tough, you make tough decisions.”
But not all land-based colleges are turning their backs on apprenticeships. Plumpton grew its apprenticeship numbers by 400 per cent between 2016 and 2023 by “stimulating the employment market”, with 450 current apprentices.
As well as seeing significant growth with SMEs regionally, it also now delivers several national training contracts to organisations including the RHS and Tesco.
Many land based colleges offer equestrian courses
“It’s a big upfront investment and the relationships with employers take time to build trust, but has paid off,” says Kerswell.
Rake says most of the young people who would have chosen apprenticeships are now studying with the college full-time instead.
Given farming’s high mortality rate, he believes they are “better off” getting skilled up in the safe college environment. But course defunding also looms large over the sector.
Uptake in the new T Level in agriculture, land management and production has been “extremely low”, according to the Landworkers’ Alliance, and City & Guilds says the T Level’s structure is “not completely reflective of current industry practice”.
At Plumpton, 93 per cent of students are employed when they leave, which Kerswell believes “demonstrates the value of the current qualifications to the diverse industries we represent”.
Clinton says that, where adults “infill into 16-18 classes, they can no longer do so if that provision has switched to T Level. So [it’s] important we develop alternative provision they can access.”
Kingston Maurward students in its metal workshop
Community links
Land-based colleges also play a vital role as community hubs.
Kingston Maurward hosts a liaison group between the council, police and traveller community and a free meeting space for Men’s Sheds, a charity which organises community spaces for men to enjoy practical hobbies.
It is also doing its bit to keep rural heritage crafts like blacksmithing alive, although its metal workshop can only fit 10 students at a time, making it “expensive to deliver”.
While recruiting for such specialist teaching roles can be a challenge, “culture here is everything. It’s a family”, so “people stay in those jobs for a long time”, says Rake.
“We’ve got an educational mission, a societal mission and a cultural mission that we do here.”
Hardy’s ashes were taken to Westminster Abbey when he died, but his heart is buried in Kingston Maurward’s churchyard.
As Rake makes his way back to his office in the college’s 18th-century stately home, from where he can look out over its lake and gardens, I cannot help but think that the principal’s own heart belongs there too.
As a SEND college, we had worked hard throughout the pandemic and the resulting ongoing impact to support the mental health of our students and families. Ironically, across our campuses in London and Manchester, we felt we were beginning to return to a more normal time. Our students, all of whom have an education, health and care plan for learning difficulties, disabilities, social anxiety, or autistic spectrum disorders, were re-engaging with work placements and our curriculum delivery was regaining its consistency in the absence of interruptions.
Then, on 7 October last year, the world changed again. Langdon is a Jewish college whose aim is to ensure its students experience a supportive, nurturing and culturally appropriate learning environment. Until that Saturday, their experiences and knowledge of Israel were of joy and family. Overnight, friends lost loved ones and fear increased among their family members. For our young students, this not only challenged their perceptions of the world but brought the fear of antisemitism to the front of their minds.
The impact was immediate. On Monday morning, our independent students were already expressing a sudden fear of walking to college or using public transport. Many became reluctant to attend work placements which they had been confidently attending until then. Indeed, some began to question attending college at all out of fear of attacks.
One conversation I held with a young man saddened me. “Am I going to be abused in the streets?” he asked.
Antisemitic behaviour has far-reaching consequences, particularly when it comes to the impact on young people. It can have a profound effect on anyone’s mental health, social integration, and overall well-being – and not least on the youngest and the most vulnerable among us. Antisemitic incidents may cause young people to question their own identity and heritage, leading to confusion and self-doubt. It is a sad consequence of recent events that our college has experienced this for the first time.
It requires a collective effort to promote tolerance
Faced with this new challenge, we have ensured that additional focus was placed on supporting our young people. We have always provided and encouraged an open environment for our young people to raise concerns. As such, our students did share their fears and worries, and this enabled us to have open discussions.
This approach is vital to ensure we have an opportunity to listen and reassure while promoting a strong sense of identity. Fostering a supportive environment and encouraging an open dialogue can empower young people to stand against prejudice and work towards creating a more inclusive society.
Alongside supporting our students, we have worked hard to ensure our multicultural team feel supported and safe. The impact on the staff can be overlooked, but their concerns and fears (particularly in the immediate aftermath of an event like this) should not be overlooked.
We have also increased security at our campuses, which has acted as a visual demonstration to all that we are ensuring safety is a priority. Sadly, it is also a visual reminder that times have changed.
But let us not forget that this is an ongoing challenge. It requires a collective effort to promote tolerance, education and understanding, creating a society in which our students can thrive without fear and discrimination.
The college continues to provide additional one-to-one and tutorial support for those who need it as news from Israel continues to dominate the headlines and conversations at home. We continue to encourage open and honest conversations, which allows us not only to reassure them, but also to challenge the misinformation that abounds.
Above all, it is our role to make every effort to maintain a sense of normality and stability for our young people, so we continue to empower them to be proud of who they are.
But that is challenging in a way we have never experienced. “Nothing bad has happened to me yet,” were the somewhat reassured words of the young student I quoted above, at the end of our conversation.
There are students like him in every college. EHCP or not, their needs right now will be profound and complex. Our collective response must be equal to that.
Private providers of FE teacher training will no longer have access to student finance unless they have a partnership with a higher education provider, the government has confirmed.
Following a consultation into further education initial teacher (ITT) training, from September this year onwards, pre-service FE ITT courses delivered by HE providers or their validated partners (including FE colleges) will only be eligible to receive student support funding.
This feared proposal means 13 ITPs are expected to lose around £27 million in fee income from the removal of its student finance access and could affect nearly 4,500 students, according to 2022/23 student loans company data.
DfE’s calculations assume each student pays an average of £6,000 in fees per course.
In the consultation response, published today, the Department for Education slammed private sector providers, saying there was “no evidence” provided to “prove the existence of high-quality provision” or that they supply “significant” numbers of FE teachers to the sector.
It is worth noting that no private organisations or representative bodies responded to the consultation.
DfE added that Ofsted’s 2023 annual report highlighted their concerns about the state of FE ITT delivery in the private sector.
“Individual inspection reports conclude that there is little or no evidence that providers are adequately preparing their trainees to secure teaching employment in the FE sector,” DfE said.
The consultation was launched last September, and closed in November, and asked the FE and HE sectors as well as unions and awarding bodies if they agreed to limit student funding for pre-service further education initial teacher training (ITT) courses from 2024/25 to HE providers.
Overall, 71 per cent agreed with the government’s proposals – the college sector overwhelmingly (88 per cent) voted in favour of the move. A total of 16 FE colleges responded to the consultation.
The Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers said the move will “help safeguard quality and in doing so make for a better trained workforce and therefore improving employment opportunities for new teachers in the sector.”
Ben Rowland, AELP CEO, said: “The true impact of these proposals is hard to quantify at present and would only be seen in time. AELP certainly welcomes moves to improve the teacher training ecosystem, however it is important to emphasise that we already see ITPs delivering quality provision without the oversight of a higher education provider.”
There was outcry from private providers when the proposals came out last year. One provider, the London School of Academics, which teaches 150 FE teacher trainees, said it would be forced to close if the government pushes through the policy.
“That’s not fair at all. We solely teach for FE staff and so would need to close down [if it got approved],” the organisation’s director Sheila Singh told FE Week at the time.
FE Week has reached out to the London School of Academics for comment.
Meanwhile, Dr Sarah Marquez, dean of higher education at University Centre Leeds – the part of Luminate Education Group that delivers ITT, said: “While measures to ensure higher quality within ITT are certainly welcome, encouraging and enabling high-quality ITT providers to train more teachers is equally important. Encouraging more potential teachers toward ITT through pay incentives forms a part of this, but investment must also be made to grow the overall capacity of high-quality FE ITT providers.”
Skills minister Robert Halfon said: “To ensure that the FE teachers of the future are equipped for success, we expect all teacher training providers to be setting and achieving the highest quality standard for their courses, and these decisive actions will enhance existing good practice in the sector, enabling further education to deliver exceptional teaching, achieve positive results for students and extend the ladder of opportunity to people from all walks of life.”
The next government should increase funding for sixth-formers by at least £710 per student, college leaders have demanded.
The uplift would see funding for 16-19-year-olds keep pace with inflation, deliver teacher pay awards, and pay for non-qualification time like employment and mental health support.
Estimates by the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) show a funding rise at this level would cost the government an extra £135 million per year just for students in sixth-form colleges and 16-19 academies. It would see average per-student funding for sixth-formers rise from £5,760 to £6,470.
The figures come from research organisation London Economics, which was commissioned by SFCA to model the costs of per-student funding increases.
Its report, published today, found average real-terms funding for sixth-form colleges has dropped by 15 per cent. In 2023/24, funding was £5,760 per student, lower than the £6,820 per student in 2010/11.
“Sixth-form colleges have seen a significant real-terms funding erosion since 2010/11, and even the additional funds allocated in recent spending reviews have done little to reverse this trend,” said Maike Halterbeck, divisional director at London Economics.
The report estimates an extra £410 per student is needed so the per-student rate in 2025/26 remains the same in real terms as in 2023/24.
Additionally, a further £300 per student would be needed to provide the additional hours of student support such as mental health and welfare services plus employability training, tutorial activities.
These new figures form “the first priority” in SFCA’s general election manifesto, also published today.
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “Mental health, welfare and employability services are not ‘nice to haves’, they are essential elements of the support that sixth form colleges provide to students.
“That is why raising the rate of funding is the first priority in our election manifesto. We urge all political parties to adopt all six of our priorities ahead of this year’s election to ensure that sixth-form students in England receive the education and support they need to prosper.”
London Economics calculated that an extra £1,290 would be needed by 2025-26 to “fully reverse the substantial real-terms erosion” of sixth-form funding, raising the funding per learner to £7,050.
The report also calculated the additional cost of delivering an extra 2.5 hours of teaching time per week – a key element of the government’s proposed Advanced British Standard qualification – would need an additional £1,760, bringing the average per-learner funding rate up to £7,520.
The call for additional funding forms part of the SFCA’s six manifesto priorities for the next government following this year’s expected general election.
Alongside its headline funding ask, the SFCA, which has led the charge against government plans to defund level 3 qualifications that rival T Levels, wants the next government to promise to retain BTECs.
“BTECs are popular with students and parents, respected by employers and universities, and provide a well-established route to higher education or employment – particularly for disadvantaged young people. A commitment should be made to retain BTECs in the current three-route qualification system alongside A levels and T Levels,” the manifesto says.
The membership organisation has also called for a guarantee that core funding for 16- to 19-year-olds does not fall below the level of core funding for 11- to 16-year-olds and for the pupil premium to extend to 16-19-year-olds.
It also wants the next government to commit to expanding existing colleges to deal with a demographic boom of sixth-formers, rather than opening new competitor institutions.
SFCA’s general election manifesto priorities:
Raise the rate of funding for sixth-form students by at least £710 per year
Protect student choice by retaining BTECs alongside A levels and T levels
Co-ordinate policymaking and cut bureaucracy
Tackle the teacher recruitment and retention crisis
Create capital funds for expansion and maintenance
Conduct an evidence-based review of the sixth-form curriculum
