A “painful” funding cut to 18-year-olds’ full-time education that drew cross-FE sector opposition could be delayed.

Education Secretary Michael Gove told MPs he was willing to “have a look” at pushing the 17.5 per cent cut, due to be introduced the next academic year to save £150m, back until September 2015.

The cut was announced by the Education Funding Agency, which said 16 and 17-year-olds’ education funding would not be hit, just over a week ago.

The current, unweighted, funding rate for 16, 17 and 18-year-olds is £4,000. The new rate for 16 and 17-year-olds is expected to be announced in March, but at the current rate — and with the cut applied — 18-year-olds would be funded at £3,300.

The announcement drew strong criticism from the Association of Colleges (AoC), the 157 Group, the National Union of Students, the Sixth Form Colleges Association, the Association of School and College Leaders and the University and College Union.

And research commissioned by the AoC showed students from disadvantaged areas and black, minority and ethnic groups would be worst hit.

Martin Doel, AoC chief executive, said: “Our initial analysis is clear that, with more 18-year-olds studying in colleges than in schools, colleges will bear the brunt of this cut to the tune of approximately £100m.

“Sixth form colleges, some of the best-performing education institutions in England, could be worst affected and London colleges may be disproportionally hit as 25 per cent of their full-time students are 18.”

Middlesbrough College, Bedford College and Milton Keynes College said they could be forced to offer the same amount of provision for around half a million pounds less, while Uxbridge College could lose up to £800,000.

But while Mr Gove told members of the Education Select Committee this morning that the cut was “painful”, he agreed to review the move for colleges after hearing from committee chair Graham Stuart.

Mr Stuart said the cut would hit colleges, whose funding is lagged, hard. He asked Mr Gove to consider delaying the cut because colleges would be paid for this year’s intake — which had been enrolled without the knowledge of the impending funding cut — at next year’s lower level.

Mr Gove said: “Let me have a look at that. It’s a very fair-minded and generous suggestion.”

The Education Secretary had earlier told committee members that an impact assessment on the cut had been produced would be shared with them.

He said: “It is a painful cut forced on us by, A, difficult economic circumstances and, B, the fact that there are some parts of the education budget that are protected and some parts that are not.

“We conducted an impact assessment which we can share with the committee. In short, of all the ways we looked at to reduce expenditure in the 16 to 18 area, this is the one we felt was the least worst. But I won’t say that it’s a good thing to reduce spending in this area. It’s a difficult decision.”

The agency said the Spending Review for 2015-16 meant that savings were required from the 16 to 19 participation budget that year.

It had said the cut would affect less than a fifth of post-16 FE students and would come into force for 2014/15, by which time, it argued, most 18-year-olds would not need “as much non-qualification provision within their study programmes” because they will have already benefited from two years of post-16 education.

But it is estimated that the move would affect 100,000 18-year-olds in colleges, plus those in school sixth forms and studying foundation course in universities.

Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group, said: “With youth unemployment a major policy priority, it seems odd that the very groups of young people most likely to become disillusioned by education and therefore possibly Neet [not in education, employment or training] should be targeted in this way.”

Warm tributes have been paid to University and College Union (UCU) vice president John McCormack, who died on Friday (December 13).

The grandfather-of-one, described as a “wonderful, principled man,” had suffered a brief illness.

Mr McCormack, aged 66, was elected national president of UCU in 2012 and was due to serve his term next year.

Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, said: “John was a wonderful, principled man. He was always courteous, even when he disagreed with you.

“John embodied everything that is so good and important about education. He was steeped in the trade union movement and made friends wherever he went.

“His death is a huge loss to UCU and to anybody fortunate enough to have met or worked with him.”

In addition to UCU activities, Mr McCormack also served on several regional and national bodies, including the executive committee of the Northern Region TUC. He was awarded the Northern Regional TUC Certificate of Merit in 1991. Earlier this year he also contributed to an FE Week supplement from the Labour Party Conference.

He was the branch chair at Northumberland College, where he lectured in trade union studies, for many years where he was credited with leading successful campaigns against compulsory redundancies and for improvements to lecturers’ terms and conditions.

Mavis Taggert, IT lecturer at Northumberland College and UCU branch secretary, said: “It was with great sorrow that we received the sad news about John, who was a well-respected member of staff at the college.

“He was an inspiration to many, made many friends and was always polite and compassionate towards the needs of others.”

Mr McCormack also lectured at Newcastle College, from September 2009 to February 2011, and Bradford College.

Margaret Stephenson, TUC course co-ordinator at Newcastle College, said: “John brought real passion and expertise to the role and inspired staff and students alike.

“He was a lovely man who was extremely professional at all times and he will be sadly missed. My condolences go to his family.”

Steve Davison, head of trade union studies at Bradford College, said: “John delivered trade union courses for Bradford Trade Union Studies Centre in the northern region.

“He was not only a respected course tutor, but someone who had enormous experience of work, trade union activity and representational abilities at the highest levels. He was truly a graduate of the University of Life.

“Respected for his principled approach to advancing the causes of working people, John will be sorely missed by his colleagues at all the levels he worked at including his fellow tutors at Bradford College.”

Mr McCormack is survived by a son, daughter-in-law and grandson.

Business Secretary Vince Cable has exclusively confirmed to FE Week that the government is “dropping” the troubled 24+ advanced learning loans system for apprenticeships.

With just 404 applications in around seven months, he “accepted” the system had failed, but said non-apprentice FE loans would remain.

It comes just days after FE Week reported how the government was in behind-closed-doors talks about scrapping the system.

And Dr Cable, speaking after an event to launch the London Professional Apprenticeship (LPA) this morning, confirmed the end of apprenticeship FE loans.

He said: “The advanced learning loans system has taken off for non-apprenticeships, but for apprenticeships we accept it has not succeeded and we’re dropping it.

“Regulations have to be put through Parliament to conclude it [apprenticeship loans system], but we’ve accepted it didn’t work and there’s no shame in that, but it will continue with the non-apprenticeship learners.”

Latest figures, released last month, showed that of the 52,468 FE loan applications up to October 31, less than 1 per cent were for apprenticeships [click here for the FE Week FE loans guide].

The figure appeared well off target for the government forecasts of 25,000 applications for apprenticeship loans this academic year (by July 31, 2014).

The slow uptake has long-prompted concerns from the likes of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP).

David Hughes, chief executive of Niace, said: “We have been calling this a ‘failed’ policy for some time and would like to congratulate the government for recognising this and accepting that they need to act, and to act swiftly.

“We are anxious to see the detail of the new proposals. Whatever is proposed, we are sure that the government, employers, learning providers and learners and their representatives will need to work together to understand the full implications of this policy and how best to take it forward.”

A spokesperson for the AELP said: “This is very welcome news for the apprenticeship programme. Ministers have long said that they want to see more progression within apprenticeships from level two to higher levels and the problem is that loans are acting as a barrier to adults who want to move on to an advanced or high apprenticeship.

“By removing the cost differentials between studying individual elements of an apprenticeship inside or outside a framework which loans had caused, an outright abolition or fundamental reform could also rid us of a major anomaly in the market that was benefiting no one.”

Teresa Frith, senior skills policy manager at the Association of Colleges, said: “We are pleased to see the Minister has listened to concerns that have been quite strongly expressed about the effect loans have had on the demand for 24+ apprenticeships. Our concerns now are how 24+ apprenticeships will be funded as we move towards the new-look system.

“The concept of an all-age apprenticeships system is a good thing but only if money has been made available.”

The National Union of Students (NUS) has also been a long-standing critic of the system. It said apprenticeships were effectively taking out loans to pay to work.

Toni Pearce, NUS president, said: “We have been committed to campaigning against the introduction of HE-styled loans for students in FE aged 24 and over studying at level three and above ever since this entirely wrong-headed proposal was first put forward.”

Chris Jones, chief executive of City & Guilds, said: “There were always concerns around 24+ loans, even before they were introduced.

“As we said in our response to the Autumn Statement, too much bureaucracy can be detrimental to the education system, and particularly where apprenticeships are concerned. This is just another example of where bureaucracy has had a negative impact on the system as a whole.

“What we need to see is stability. There have been so many changes and developments in policy of late. All this flip-flopping about with policies is damaging to our education system as a whole and, most importantly, damaging to our learners.”

Sally Hunt, University and College Union general secretary, said: “Forcing older people to take out huge loans to retrain was always going to be a barrier and the time has come for the government to scrap the scheme and provide proper financial support for people who wish to study for an apprenticeship.”

Dr Cable’s comments came at the London offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where the LPA was launched.

The programme is set to provide 250 apprenticeships to attract young Londoners into professional services roles. The LPA, developed by PwC, will receive £1.4m from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with PwC contributing £900,000.

Sara Caplan, PwC partner, said: “The LPA is a new way of learning for London to create the next generation of business people and the networks to support them in training and beyond. It’s specifically designed to open up career opportunities based on people’s potential to learn and employer’s drive to grow, and challenges traditional perceptions of who can access what opportunities.”

A recruitment drive aimed at apprentices will begin in the New Year, and more businesses will be encouraged to employ apprentices through the LPA. Small and medium-sized enterprises will be targeted.

**Skills Minister Matthew Hancock said: “While the newly available loans for FE have seen higher than expected demand, loans for apprenticeships have not seen high demand.

“With the confirmation of a new funding system for apprenticeships in the Autumn Statement, now is the right time to reinstate co-funding for all apprenticeships ahead of more fundamental reforms, details of which will be publicised in the new year.”

Troubled K College has been put into administered status after becoming the first college to come under scrutiny from the FE Commissioner following the damning Ofsted report, published this morning.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock sent in commissioner David Collins and his team of advisers to review the college before the education watchdog’s report, which resulted in an inadequate grading, had even been published.

It was already in the process of being broken up following a failed merger and running up at least £15m of debt.

And the Ofsted report found that “continued uncertainty over plans for the college’s future existence is severely and adversely affecting the learner experience”.

It continued: “The quality of provision has declined and is not good enough in too many curriculum areas.”

The commissioner’s review identified “significant weakness” in governance and leadership, Mr Hancock told FE Week.

The Minister said: “On this basis I have taken the decision to place K College into administered status with immediate effect.”

Administered status means the college will be stripped of powers over staff changes, expenditure or transfer of assets.

“Protecting learners is my top priority,” said Mr Hancock.

“It is therefore critical that under administered status K College moves quickly to address the weaknesses identified by Ofsted and the FE advisers so that we can find alternative local education provision for learners and employers.”

Ofsted found that the proportion of students successfully completing qualifications in key areas such as English, maths, apprenticeships and AS-level courses was “too low”, with students failing to make adequate progress or gain high grades.

Teaching, learning and assessment, success rates, management’s ability to keep track of student progress all came under fire and the rate of improvement was deemed “too slow”.

The report did acknowledge that the senior leadership team and principal Phil Frier had “stabilised a potentially chaotic situation” but that their efforts had failed to improve the impact on learners.

Mr Frier said: “Obviously all of us at K College are disappointed by the Ofted inspection report, but it is a judgement on the past.

“It should come as no surprise and was almost inevitable, due to the financial meltdown that we experienced in 2012, that the grades awarded indicate that the college currently has an inadequate rating.

“However, the narrative of the report clearly recognizes the progress that we have made this year to recover the financial position and improve the quality of teaching and learning.

“Importantly, our own self-assessment has proved accurate, demonstrating that we knew what the problems were and how to fix them.

“What’s emerged from this inspection is that the pace of our improvement needs to be faster.”

The college was in the process of being divided up and sold off in preparation for September 2014, with Canterbury College, East Kent College, MidKent College, Hadlow College, Highbury College, Ixion Group Contracts Ltd, SEETEC Business Technology Centre Ltd and NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group) all shortlisted in October to take on provision.

However, FE Week understands the bidding process has ended with no contracts being handed out.

Meanwhile, the latest college governing board minutes suggest chair Laura Ellis — BBC head of new media for the English regions — is stepping down at the end of the year. Vice chair Professor Ian Craig — from the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London — is also stepping down at the same time.

They are expected to be replaced from January, respectively, by current vice chair Jenny Hawkins, and Caroline Shaw.