A Peterborough-based provider made “insufficient progress” in protecting the welfare of its learners and preventing bullying and abuse, Ofsted has found.

The education watchdog slapped the National Farriery Training Agency (NFTA) with a grade four inspection result in February after finding evidence of “bullying” and “abuse” of farriery apprentices.

Inspectors said learners’ on-the-job supervisors, or approved training farriers (ATFs), were getting away with abuse.

And an Ofsted monitoring visit last month — eight months after the full inspection — found the NFTA had done little “to properly ensure the well-being and welfare of its apprentices”.

The monitoring visit report said the provider had carried out a review to identify concerns, but added that bullying allegations were not being investigated “properly or fully”.

It also noted that “inadequate quality assurance measures in place at the time of inspection remain largely unchanged”.

But the NFTA, the UK’s only provider of training to shoe horses, has since given up responsibility for the apprenticeships.

The colleges which previously provided classroom learning as subcontractors — Hereford and Ludlow College, Myerscough College and Warwickshire College — took over provision from the NFTA at the start of the month.

The monitoring report said “reasonable progress” had been made in improving and dealing with complaints about off-the-job training, provided by colleges, which had carried out “either internal or externally-led reviews of the quality of teaching and learning”.

Ian Peake, Hereford and Ludlow College principal, told FE Week: “Now that the management of this apprenticeship provision has been fully handed over to the colleges, I am confident that we will make very significant improvements to farriery education and training.”

A Skills Funding Agency spokesperson said: “We are working with the three colleges concerned to ensure that the welfare of learners is protected and that the quality of learning is of the highest possible standard.”

Neville Higgins, NFTA operations manager, declined to comment on the monitoring report on the grounds that the provider had since been wound-down.

Nobody from NFTA parent body the Farrier’s Registration Council, which will continue to oversee provision at the colleges, was available for comment.

The Education and Training Foundation was heading for a £7m underspend this financial year, FE Week can exclusively reveal.
A spokesperson for the foundation, which was officially launched four months ago, said it was handing £7m of the £18m budget back to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on condition it was spent on the FE sector.
A spokesperson for the foundation, formerly known as the FE Guild, conceded delays with setting up a competitive tendering process had prevented it from committing funding to several large contracts before the end of the financial year.
It is understood to be one of the main reasons behind the foundation’s predicted underspend.
It has the same £18m indicative budget for 2014-15 and is set to get up to £10m the following year.
David Hughes, the foundation’s interim chair, told FE Week: “We have worked hard to establish the foundation on simple principles of transparency, sector ownership and impact.
“That required thorough work on setting priorities through consultation, new procurement and commissioning processes and an honest relationship with the government as the initial sole funder.
“I am pleased with the progress we have made and that we have been able to announce new projects and funding so quickly.
“We are making the best possible use of our 2013-14 funding through all our commissioning and direct spending to secure effective impact.
“It takes time to commission and procure the right services to implement the advances we are all seeking.”
A BIS spokesperson confirmed the underspend money would remain destined for FE.
A spokesperson said: “We have confirmed a commitment to ensure that the sector is able to access the full level of intended 2013-14 funding support whether that is direct via the Education and Training Foundation or via other routes.
“These routes may include grants or bursaries to improve and strengthen the workforce, especially in the key areas of English and maths.”
Mr Hughes, who is also chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace), and foundation interim chief executive Peter Davies announced last month that they were binning contract bids received under a previous non-competitive tendering process.
Organisations involved have since been invited to re-submit bids in a competitive process.
However, £75,000-worth of contracts awarded to member organisations such as the Association of Colleges (AoC) and Niace under the old rules were allowed to go ahead.
The foundation, with its sector ‘self-improvement’ role, is seen as the replacement body of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service.
But within weeks of its launch, Sir Geoff Hall, the interim chief executive, quit resulting in the temporary return of former FE Guild consultation project leader Mr Davies, who took on Sir Geoff’s post.
Department for Education policy director David Russell, a governor at Central Sussex College. was last month announced foundation’s first permanent chief executive.
Paul Mullins, chair of the BIS-sponsored Industrial Development Advisory Board since January 2012, was also named the new foundation chair, replacing Mr Hughes. Both men are yet to take up their new posts.
The foundation is funded by BIS, but “owned” by the AoC, Association of Employment and Learning Providers and the Association of Adult Education and Training Organisations (also referred to as Holex).

A Berkshire provider left in ruins after the Skills Funding Agency terminated its contract amid allegations of fraud has been cleared by an arbitration judge.

The agency severed its funding of NTQUK in March last year, saying it had “not submitted the requisite evidence” to support funding claims.

The move resulted in almost the entire 100-plus workforce at NTQUK losing their jobs, before the firm, which delivered apprenticeships in health and social care, customer service and business administration, went into administration.

However, its two former directors, Allan Bate (pictured left) and Alex Mackenzie (pictured right), and former HR manager, Jackie Rippington (pictured below), challenged the agency through arbitration.

They wanted to defend the 1,400-learner firm against agency claims, published at the time by FE Week, that there had been “significant errors and missing data which constitute a serious breach of contract”.

And the trio won rulings that the agency’s termination of contract without notice was unlawful and uncontractual.

It was also ruled that none of the breaches alleged by the agency amounted individually or collectively to a serious breach and that there had been no fraud or irregularity.

Mr Mackenzie told FE Week: “The original termination listed 23 breaches. By the time we got to the hearing in October that had decreased to three. By the time we left the hearing that decreased to two, and then by the end of the verdict, we ended up that there were no breaches at all.”

A number of arbitration rulings remain confidential, along with the financial details of an out of court settlement reached between the agency and NTQUK, he added.

An agency spokesperson said: “NTQUK and our chief executive agreed to resolve this dispute using arbitration.

“The clear legal position is that arbitration is confidential between the parties except in limited circumstances, for example, where the parties have agreed to waive confidentiality. We have not agreed to waive confidentiality.”

Nevertheless, the arbitration judge’s decision means the trio at NTQUK, rated as good by Ofsted in late 2009, are now looking to resurrect the firm having cleared its name.

“Here we are with a shell — nothing left compared to 18 months ago. There’s nobody left now,” said Mr Mackenzie, who said he had been legally advised to announce elements of the case in the public interest.

“The company has disappeared — it has gone into administration, but we’re trying to re-establish it with the same name…for the good name of the people who used to work for us.

“We’ve had some lovely emails from staff saying that they were really pleased to see that our name had been cleared with the verdict.”

He added: “Initially, a stigma suddenly appeared when you have your contract terminated, and then very quickly 100-plus people lost their jobs being made redundant. Then myself, Allan and Jackie were left to fight the arbitration — it was a very David and Goliath situation.

“It’s not been personal. It’s been obviously a business thing, but you do feel a little bereft knowing that a really good company and 100 people have lost their jobs and all that kind of thing.

“We had 13 years of developing a really good company that got to be in the top 10 per cent in the country in terms of quality, great provider, really good feel to the company.

“Thirteen years gone up in smoke — you have this reputation in the sector, in the industry and suddenly that’s taken away from you.

“So it’s one of the things that drove us to actually take the agency and ourselves through the arbitration process because we knew that it was wrong.”

 

 

Labour leader Ed Miliband gave his personal seal of approval to a new creative and digital media apprenticeship scheme at a London college, shortly after launching a taskforce that will investigate how to improve computer skills training across the country.

He met staff at Hackney Community College, apprentices and employers backing the scheme from firms based at nearby Tech City, in Shoreditch, at 11.30am on November 12.

Mr Miliband’s visit followed his party’s announcement that former Tomorrow’s World presenter Maggie Philbin, who is now chief executive of TeenTech which encourages teenagers to pursue careers in science, engineering and technology, had been appointed as head of a new digital skills taskforce.

This will work with schools, colleges and employers to produce recommendations before the next general election to improve training in this sector across the country.

Mr Miliband was greeted by principal Ian Ashman outside the college, before meeting apprentices and employers from Tech City in the canteen.

The Labour leader said: “When I meet young people and businesses like this, I see what the future can hold for the British economy — skilled people trained here, bringing well-paid jobs and security for the future.”

When I meet young people and businesses like this, I see what the future can hold for the British economy — skilled people trained here, bringing well-paid jobs and security for the future.

Mr Ashman said: “There are very few apprenticeships in this sector and this is level four, so we are very proud of what we are doing here.

“It has taken around 18 months to carefully develop this apprenticeship scheme, with a lot of input from the employers, which we are extremely grateful for.”

Obinna Ozoukwu, aged 22, enjoyed telling Mr Miliband about the apprenticeship he recently began with the college and Tech City digital design agency Ustwo.

He said: “It was exciting talking to him. It’s such an exciting time in general now I’ve started this apprenticeship, as I can see the way forward with what I want to be.”

Apprentice Kofi Adu-Boahen, 22, also met Mr Miliband.

He said: “It was good to meet him. I’m working four days a week for Poke, which is a Tech City creative agency that produces adverts for Facebook, Twitter and e-commerce and does things like web design.

“Then I will also be coming into the college one day a week.”

Natalie Lambert will be Kofi’s mentor at Poke.

She said: “Apprenticeships are something we feel really passionate about, as we have been in this part of London for 11 or 12 years now and want to give something back to the local community by training local people.”

Mr Miliband also met Symone Gray, 19, a business administration apprentice who is working in the principal’s office as part of her course.

She said: “It was good to meet such an important person. I really love being an apprentice here. “They show a lot of faith in me here and give me a lot of responsibility, which I really appreciate.

“If you don’t do something right first time, they give you a lot of opportunities to do it again and improve.

“I look after Mr Ashman’s post, check his emails, take notes and work on reception.”