Bosses of the FE sector’s new self-improvement body, the Education and Training Foundation, have been warned of “sycophantic nepotism” after it emerged that no advertising had taken place for senior roles.

The foundation’s chair and chief executive posts are currently publicly on offer, but interim posts, including director of contracting and procurement, look likely to be filled without having been advertised.

The body, formerly known as the FE Guild, is seen as replacement for the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), from which a number of staff have moved via Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment), or TUPE.

And foundation bosses said they had been seeking the “best possible candidates” for posts having approached sector bodies and recruitment agencies for candidates.

However, FE Week understands that no public advertising for some key posts took place. The situation has drawn warning from FE commentators against appointments without advertising.

Jayne Stigger, head of maths and science at North East Surrey College Of Technology, said: “This is a tactic sometimes used by colleges when they already have a preferred internal candidate and using it doesn’t help change the negative perception of ‘jobs for the boys’ and political appointments, rather than best person for the role. There is a danger of giving the impression of sycophantic nepotism.

“If FE truly is at the heart of the foundation, then as wide a range of candidates as possible should be sought and interviewed.”

Meanwhile, the chair of governors at one college in the north of England, who did not wish to be named, said: “The foundation has a pivotal role ensuring FE has the leadership, governance and workforce fit for the future and any appointments process should be transparent and accountable.

“The sector needs a fresh perspective not more of the same.”

Foundation interim chair Sir Geoff Hall, former principal and chief executive of New College Nottingham and chair of the Information Authority, said: “The foundation board at its meeting on August 1 — the first day of the new organisation — agreed the delivery plan for 2013/14.

“To ensure a good start was made to achieving the plan, and given only a handful of staff TUPE’d across from LSIS, the board accepted the need to fill vacant posts initially through a combination of interim appointees and secondees.

“We therefore approached four interim agencies to help us find suitable candidates who were immediately available.

“We asked them to come back to us with prospective candidates within a week which is a normal timescale when recruiting for interim positions with an immediate start date.

“Because those agencies mainly serve colleges, we also shared the specifications with, for example, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers [AELP] to see if there were available staff.”

Sir Geoff, who was also national director of the Further Education Funding Council/Learning and Skills Council, added: “Our chair and chief executive posts are currently out to advertisement in the usual way.”

FE Week was alerted to foundation roles and the lack of advertising after the AELP encouraged members to apply — but after the closing date.

Their weekly newsletter was sent out on Tuesday, August 13, directing members to a news page on their website containing links to the job pack.

Both job packs were posted on the deadline day of Friday, August 9. The AELP declined to comment, but FE Week understands it received the job pack from the foundation on Thursday, August 8.

Foundation lead for professional learning [a role also not advertised] Sue Dutton, a former deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “The foundation will be advertising its fixed term contracts in the second week of September for its establishment posts.

“We will be using a variety of media to ensure the fullest range of coverage and audiences within both the FE sector and in the wider community of education and training.

“We have some immediate staffing needs to cover the interim work of the foundation until the established posts can be recruited and have, therefore, used the services of four recruitment agencies well-known to the sector in order to attract the best possible candidates who are immediately available.

The former interim cheif executive of the now defunct Lifelong Learning UK added: “All candidates for both interim and substantive roles will be subject to a competitive recruitment process.”

The number of apprenticeships lasting less than a year has fallen “dramatically” after they were outlawed over fears about the quality of short-term programmes.

They fell from 43 per cent (224,000) of the total number of apprenticeship starts in 2011/12, to just 8 per cent (28,000) for the first nine months of the academic year.

The figures were obtained from the Skills Funding Agency by FE Week under the Freedom of Information Act.

A spokesperson from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), said: “It is our priority to ensure that apprenticeships are of sufficient duration to deliver the high quality training apprentices and businesses need.

“Although this is provisional data, it is good news that the proportion of short apprenticeships has fallen dramatically.

“Under the current rules there will always be a small number of apprenticeships lasting less than a year, because we allow some flexibility for adult apprentices who have relevant prior learning.”

There were 17,600 intermediate level apprenticeships of less than a year’s duration last year, among which the 19 to 24 age group saw the most at 7,600.

There were 10,300 short-term advanced level apprenticeships, with the 25+ age group the largest at 5,300. And there were 200 among higher apprenticeships, shared equally between the 19 to 24 and 25+ age groups.

The minimum duration rule came in from August last year following concerns about short-term programmes, some delivered in as little as 12 weeks, by private training providers.

David Way, National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) chief operating officer, said at the time: “We need to ensure that all apprenticeships are high quality.

“By ensuring they last between one and four years, we are not only giving employers what they say they want but also giving confidence back to everyone who has questioned the growth in shorter apprenticeships.”

The BIS Select Committee “supported” the minimum duration rule, but said it should be monitored so that, for example, talented learners did not feel held back if they felt able to complete the programme sooner.

However, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers was opposed to the rule and has continued to argue for exceptions in light of this year’s fall in short-term apprenticeships.

An association spokesperson told FE Week: “Employers and providers have down the years regularly shown that they are very flexible in adapting to rule changes in skills programmes, so the figures are hardly a surprise.

“We maintain the long-standing position though, that exceptional candidates should be allowed to complete an apprenticeship in less than a year if it is in the interests of both the employer and the learner.

“The select committee heard some evidence from employers that this was a reasonable stance and we should remember that apprenticeship frameworks are employer-owned.

“Furthermore, longer programme durations do not automatically mean an improvement in quality as there are a host of other factors which come into consideration as well.

“The committee was therefore right to recommend that the impact of the rule changes should be closely monitored to ensure that talented and older apprentices with appropriate work experience are not dissuaded from joining the programme.”

The number of young people out of work has risen despite the overall unemployment rate remaining the same in the last quarter, government figures have revealed.

The number of unemployed 16 to 24-year-olds went up 15,000 between April and July, from 958,000 to 973,000.

However, the figure is considerably down on the same period last year, when youth unemployment hit more than 1.1 million.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock said: “Youth unemployment is down 38,000 since last year, and the youth claimant count has now fallen for fourteen consecutive months, but we are not complacent, and are committed to giving young people the best possible chances for gaining the most up to date skills to participate in the modern economy.”

He pointed to the traineeship scheme, which will be funded from this month, saying it would “give young people a clear pathway into apprenticeships and other employment”.

He added: “We are boosting apprenticeships to provide businesses with the skills they need to compete.”

The increase in out of work 16 to 24-year-olds put the unemployment rate for the age group at 21.4 per cent, up 0.7 percentage points from January to March 2013.

According to international guidelines, unemployment rates are calculated as the number of unemployed people divided by the economically active population — people who are employed plus those who are not.

Increasing numbers of young people going into full-time education reduces the size of the economically active population and therefore increases the unemployment rate.

From April to July this year, there were 3.58 million 16 to 24-year-olds in employment, down 92,000 from January to March 2013.

There were 2.67 million economically inactive 16 to 24-year-olds, up 63,000 from January to March, but 74 per cent of these were in full-time education.

Spencer Thompson, economic analyst at think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said the performance of young people in the labour market was an “area of particular concern”.

“The danger is that when the economy really starts to get moving again, the young will miss out,” he said.

“This will have profound economic and social costs in the future.”

He added: “Getting the youth labour market working again is going to require a concerted effort from policymakers.”

He repeated calls made by the IPPR for the government to implement a jobs guarantee for young people which, he said, would “provide much needed work experience and employability skills to the growing ranks of unemployed youth”.