Skills Funding Agency (SFA) interim chief executive Barbara Spicer has written to contractors with an update on a range of sector issues, including funding software and local enterprise partnerships (Leps).
Ms Spicer said “final adjustments” were being made to the troubled new Funding Information System (Fis). And she thanked providers for their “patience” over the eight-month wait for reliable software.
Ms Spicer added she had written to local enterprise partnership (Lep) chairs offering guidance on long-term capital spending planning — as Leps will take over skills capital spending from the SFA from April next year.
She said: “I am pleased to say I received a very positive response. Shortly, I will write again to Lep chairs to set out in more detail the support the agency’s technical experts can provide.”
She said £432m had been allocated to 95 projects in 2013-14 and 2014-15 through the college capital investment fund, with a further £48m split between 114 colleges in need of refurbishment.
Ms Spicer also reflected on the SFA’s “slimmed down” management structure and said that “by the end of June we will have reduced our overall headcount by 30 per cent”.
It is understood a 30 per cent cut would mean the loss of around 360 jobs.
More than 160 engineering apprentices are set to be transferred to City College Norwich from an independent learning provider facing closure.
The college said the East Anglian Group for Industrial Training (Eagit), based in Norwich and formed in 1967, is set to close in July.
The college will take on 146 level three and 22 level two engineering apprentices — which the college said were all the apprentices currently registered with Eagit.
Corrienne Peasgood, principal of City College Norwich, said: “We will draw on our existing expertise in engineering training, our well-established relationship with Eagit, and our extensive experience of apprenticeship delivery, to ensure a smooth transition for employers and apprentices.”
Eagit is a lead provider and City College Norwich and Lowestoft College are subcontractors, through contracts worth £28,255 and £16,053, respectively (as of March 27).
City College Norwich confirmed it had delivered training for technical certificates for Eagit’s level three mechanical engineering apprentices since 2005.
Eagit also runs a variety of engineering-related FE courses and the college spokesperson said: “We are in discussion [with Eagit] to ensure that its adult learners, and this provision, can also continue.”
A spokesperson for Lowestoft College said it provided specialist engineering training for Eagit, but declined to comment on whether it would become the primary contractor for Eagit learners.
David Shorten, chief executive of Eagit, said: “Eagitis pleased to have secured provision for our current apprentices and the future of engineering apprenticeships in Norfolk.
“The current economic climate means it is increasingly difficult for a small provider like ourselves to survive.”
Norwich college is inviting Eagit apprentices and their employers to meetings to discuss the transition plans on Thursday, April 24, and May 1.
Eagit was rated as “inadequate” by Ofsted in July last year, when it had 280 learners.
A subsequent monitoring report published in January said it had made “reasonable progress” with improving apprentices’ numeracy and literacy, but “insufficient progress” with managing staff.
Eagit received £114,769 funding from the adult skills budget and £882,119 for 16 to 18 apprenticeships in 2012/13.
A Skills Funding Agency spokesperson said: “We are assured that City College Norwich has the capacity available to support learners currently studying with Eagit through to the timely completion of their apprenticeships.”
A pay deal for college staff is yet to be agreed for the next academic year.
The University and College Union (UCU) and other unions have begun talks with the Association of Colleges (AoC) over staff pay for the 2014/15 academic year.
But in a recent session, no agreement was reached. It comes as a dispute over last year’s pay deal remains ongoing.
A UCU spokesperson said: “The 2014/15 pay talks opened on April 8 at a meeting of the National Joint Forum (NJF) where the trade union side presented their claim of three per cent or £1,040 whichever is the greater, a recommendation to colleges to become Living Wage employers and pay protection for a minimum of three years in line with school teachers (in restructures and re-grading etc).
“Disappointingly, the AoC insisted it was unable to make an offer on the day. However, it gave a commitment to bring an offer that was ‘without strings attached’ to the next meeting of the NJF on May 16. The AoC also said it was sympathetic to the call for a Living Wage but needed to consult further with members.”
Marc Whitworth, the AoC’s acting director of employment policy and services, said: “Our discussions with the trade unions are at an early stage but we intend to make a pay offer when we meet in May following further consultation with our members.”
The UCU has said it had not given up on its efforts to secure a pay deal for the 2013/14 academic year, which will end in July.
Meanwhile, further industrial action at sixth form colleges has still not been ruled out after staff walked out at the end of last month.
Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in sixth form colleges took part in strike action on March 26 in protest against proposed changes to pay and conditions – particularly the proposed introduction of performance-related pay for teachers.
Speaking on the day of the strike, NUT general secretary Christine Blower said further strikes could take place in the summer if there wasn’t movement in talks with the government.
Colleges will get £2.41 for every free meal served to a disadvantaged learner under a new system coming into force this year, the government has revealed.
As part of a plan to introduce universal free school meals, FE colleges will be required by law to offer free meals to qualifying youngsters aged 16 to 18 from September.
A report issued by the Education Funding Agency has set out the legal requirement which will be imposed on colleges, and reveals for the first time the rate that schools will be funded for the meals.
It also reveals that colleges will be given financial help to set up schemes for payment in school, like vouchers or card payment systems.
Corrienne Peasgood
The report said: “Maintained school and academy sixth forms are already required by the Education Act 1996 to provide free meals to disadvantaged students who are aged over 16.
“From September 2014, this requirement is being extended to disadvantaged students following FE courses at the range of FE funded institutions. Funding agreements will be amended to place a legal duty on institutions to comply with this requirement.
“In the 2014 to 2015 academic year, institutions will receive funding at a rate equivalent to £2.41 per student per meal taken. Initial allocations will be based on students being matched as previous recipients of free school meals at the age of 15, and subsequent adjustments will be made on a lagged student number basis.”
Free meals will be given to learners who receive, or whose parents receive certain types of income support including job-seeker’s allowance (JSA) and employment and support allowance (ESA). They will also be available to those being supported under part VI of the immigration and asylum act, those claiming child tax credit whose income is below £16,190 a year and those receiving working tax credit and in some circumstances universal credit.
City College Norwich principal Corrienne Peasgood (pictured) said: “The news that there will be help with the set-up costs for allocating and processing free meal payments is very welcome.
“At City College Norwich we will be introducing a new cashless card payment system for all students to use across all of our catering outlets from September. This means that there will be no stigma involved as it will be impossible to know whether any given student is getting the free meal entitlement.
“The set-up costs attached to this will not be insignificant, not least because we have so many catering options on campus, including student-run cafés alongside those run by outside caterers, but we feel strongly that free meal students should have the same choices available as everybody else.
“We will draw on the experience of our partner Academies in the Transforming Education in Norfolk (TEN) Group federation to assist us in implementing an effective system for this.”
Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “It is gratifying to see this come to fruition after the success of AoC’s No Free Lunch? campaign in gaining free meals for disadvantaged 16 to 18-year-old students who study in colleges.
“It is good news that colleges will receive a one-off payment to help them put in place
the processes and facilities to provide
free school meals for disadvantaged
students.
“Allowing students to use a cashless system to take meals on campus and in local outlets is also welcome, as is the ability to be able to provide the students with cash in certain circumstances.”
A large London college has been criticised in a follow-up report on its inadequate Oftsed rating.
LeSoCo, a 17,000-learner college in South London, got grade four by Ofsted in January.
A follow-up monitoring visit was carried out in March and the report has now been published.
The original inspection criticised teaching standards and said improvements were needed to tutorials with learners.
But inspectors on the follow-up visit found there was still insufficient monitering of sub-standard teaching and said: “Many learners testify to the strong support they currently receive from their personal and subject tutors, but too many tutorial sessions have low attendance.
“Learners’ progress in still not monitored with sufficient diligence.”
The quality of teaching, learning and assessment in foundation English and maths was also criticised in the original report.
But monitoring visit inspectors found “reasonable improvement” had been made in this area.
It said: “College staff place a high priority on supporting teachers in these subjects, particularly those who were not performing well.
“The number of permanent staff teaching English and maths has increased, further strengthening the capacity of the department to improve learning.”
Qualifications in accounting and youth work have proved the most popular for students taking out 24+ advanced learner loans, officials have revealed.
Since loan applications for courses starting in August opened in April, 42,534 learners have used them to enrol — and the top loans-funded qualification was the Association of Accounting Technicians’ (AAT) level three diploma in accounting, with 2,238 students enrolling with loans.
The level four diploma in accounting, also awarded by AAT, was the third most popular choice with 1,119 enrolments.
Julie Hyde
Suzie Webb, AAT director of education said the association was “very pleased” by the news.
She said: “Accounting technicians play a vital role in the finance function and have solid foundations that make them invaluable to the economy.
“So we take pride in knowing that AAT is the preferred option for people who receive a loan to study.
“This data is evidence that both employers and students see the value of studying an AAT qualification.”
The second most popular course was the Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education (Cache) level three diploma for the children and young people’s workforce with 1,640 loans-funded enrolments.
The fourth and fifth most popular qualifications were also awarded by Cache, with its certificate in supporting teaching and learning in schools and diploma in specialist support for teaching and learning in schools, both level three, attracting 928 and 908 enrolments through loans, respectively.
Director of Cache business development Julie Hyde said: “This highlights the importance of these qualifications to the sector, especially in light of the perceived barrier that 24+ advanced learning loans present, and is a clear indication of the value of these qualifications to both learners and employers alike.”
The figures come as a survey commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills revealed that just 12 per cent of the general public were aware of 24+ advanced learning loans although around two-thirds of potential and current learners said they would or might take out a loan to fund a qualification.
The full results of the government’s apprenticeship funding consultation last year have been released for the first time — revealing the vast majority of provider and employer respondents did not support the government’s proposed reforms.
The consultation ran from July until October and in November Skills Minister Matthew Hancock announced the government would be seeking to fund apprenticeships through the PAYE system, just one of the options suggested in the consultation.
Some consultation results were released in March with the launch of a new, technical consultation on how the new PAYE system might best work.
However, it has emerged that PAYE funding, where employers would claim funding through the tax system, had been supported by just 29 out of 366 respondents from businesses, providers and other stakeholders according to the results — and even where it had the highest support, among medium-sized business, it was supported by less than one-in-four.
The current system of channelling funding through providers was the most popular option, enjoying support from 213 of the 366 respondents, but was not mentioned in proposals laid out as part of the second consultation.
Chief executive of the Association for Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) Stewart Segal called for changes to be “based on evidence”. He said: “There is no overwhelming support from employers to move to mandatory cash contributions or direct funding to employers. In fact many smaller businesses have said they will not recruit apprentices if they have to manage the funding directly.
“Our interpretation of the consultation results was that employers of all sizes expressed a greater preference for the current provider funded model than any other option. Employers should have a choice of direct funding where they can meet the criteria or to work with a provider of their choice that would manage the funding.
“The frustration is that the option many employers want has not been included in the latest consultation.”
It comes as apprenticeship forum body Apprenticeships 4 England described the consultation as “a farce” in a formal complaint to BIS after the 744 responses it submitted were counted as just one response.
Apprenticeships 4 England chief executive Lindsay McCurdy said: “It worries me that we submitted a range of responses from across our membership, but if they only counted it as one, whose response did they use?”
She added: “There should be two options — we should keep the system as it is unless an employer says they specifically want to take on responsibility for directly handling apprenticeship funding — in which case, let them.”
A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) spokesperson said: “We are reforming apprenticeship funding to give employers direct purchasing power to drive up the quality and relevance of training.
“Responses to the July 2013 consultation made it clear that this is unlikely to be achieved by simply adjusting the current system, which routes funding through the training provider. We are therefore consulting further on employer-routed funding as part of a fundamental overhaul to make the new system as simple and user-friendly as possible for all employers.”
The current technical consultation closes on May 1.
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock (pictured above) has hit back at criticism of government cuts, claiming it was “misleading” to say funding for adult skills faced a 19 per cent fall in the next two years.
In an exclusive interview with FE Week, he defended his record with the sector.
It comes after the annual Skills Funding Statement (SFS) revealed the Adult Skills Budget would fall from its current rate of £2.467bn to £2.004bn by 2016 — a cut of more than £463m, or 19 per cent.
Mr Hancock blamed “difficult financial constraints” for the cuts he has presided over, and said the adult skills budget cut would be mitigated by an increase in the amount of funding for advanced learning loans from £129m to £498m.
He said: “I am standing up for colleges extremely robustly. The idea that funding is being cut by as much as 19 per cent is inaccurate — it is a switch in funding from one type to another, and for good reason.
“For instance, keeping hold of the loans budget, even when we took apprenticeships out of loans, I think was really important for the sector.
“So of course we have to live within difficult financial constraints, and we all know why that is, and it very clearly dates from before 2010, and anybody in this job would be having to live within those constraints.
“The question is, do you do what is necessary to support the colleges to get through that? And I think that we are.”
It follows the release of a report, 16-19 Education Stripped to the Bare Bones, from the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Association of Colleges (AoC), Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA), Independent Academies Association (IAA), Freedom and Autonomy for
Schools (FASNA) and Principals’ Professional Council (PPC).
It says that funding for post-16 education was now just over a half (58 per cent) of what it was when today’s 17 year-olds were born, and called on Education Secretary Michael Gove to take action.
But Mr Hancock defended Mr Gove. He said: “The policy is that funding is ring-fenced from five to 16. So, whether you are in a school sixth form, a sixth form college or an FE college, you are treated exactly the same, and the new funding formula is the same per pupil for every pupil except for more support for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, more support for those with learning difficulties and more support for more expensive courses like vocational courses.
“So if you actually look at the policy you will find a progressive policy of support for people from less well-off homes, and those who need extra support because, through no fault of their own, because of a disability or learning difficulty, and people on vocational courses. So if you want to call that ideological, it’s progressive and it’s supportive of those most in need.”
An Essex-based independent learning provider is one step closer to opening the first new FE college in 20 years after receiving the backing of the government.
Prospects Learning Foundation has revealed it has been given permission by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to incorporate as an FE college.
The independent learning provider (ILP), which has a current Skills Funding Agency allocation of £2.6m and already brands itself as Prospects College, launched a consultation on its plans to get FE college status in January.
Chief executive Neil Bates (pictured) has previously said he hopes the move will unlock government money and allow Prospects set up new bases — potentially competing with existing colleges.
Speaking to FE Week this week, Mr Bates said: “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.
“We also had an OfSTED in December which judged the college to be good in all areas with outstanding features and outstanding visionary leadership.
“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.”
It could be the first new FE college in more than 20 years, and comes after the government separately unveiled proposals for a new FE college to train engineers for HS2.
In an interview with FE Week in January, Mr Bates said he was “very keen” to talk to the government about Prospects, which already trains engineers for the rail industry, being involved in the HS2 college plans, but the government has yet to unveil its preferred location.
