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Four recommendations to build construction’s workforce

I have been involved with training for the construction industry for over 30 years, both in the UK and overseas. Although some challenges such as net zero are being addressed in many countries, the UK faces a range of very serious challenges that are home-grown.

The construction and built environment sector provides the critical infrastructure, housing, repairs and maintenance to support the UK’s economy and communities.Its output is over £216 billion per annum, and it provides around 8.8 per cent of the UK’s jobs.

On net zero, it needs to upskill the workforce to support the UK in constructing the low-carbon world to support our economy and communities into a stable future- all while cutting the carbon emitted during the construction process.

In addition, the industry faces three other major challenges.

First, a major skills shortage of circa 250,000 skilled personnel up to 2027.

Second, a significant requirement to upskill the workforce to improve productivity through digitisation, different materials, new products and new methods of working.

Third, arising from Grenfell, to ensure compliance with the legal requirements of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in DBT by improving the level of competency of the workforce.

All this against a background of 10 years of changing skills policies from DfE, as well as the impact of devolution. There are green skills initiatives from the department for energy security amd net zero, such as the Solar Task Force Skills Group. There’s the need to design new UK-wide skills competency frameworks with the building safety regulator in the department for business and trade. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales obviously have their own policy initiatives.And there is also a UK-wide review underway of the future of construction industry training board and its engineering counterpart, which is expected to report soon.

It is no wonder the medium and small contractor companies find this array of government departments, quangos and differing and changing systems bewildering. They struggle to see how to address the major challenges.

This array of departments, quangos and differing and changing systems is bewildering

Recognising these massive challenges, we carried out a review, with the support of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), of what employers thought was the way forward to boost employment in the sector.

We found that employers use a range of existing training routes to bring people into industry, They see it as essential that all these routes are retained and properly funded. To ensure full competency of the workforce and comply with the Building Safety Act is a challenge for employers.

For example, there are 442,000 people with only a labourer card (level 1 or no qualification). So the sector’s priority is to get people to competency level 2, but this is at odds with governments’ policies focusing on level 3 and above.

In the view of employers, over the past ten years skills policy and the skills system have become more fragmented. This is aggravated by a decline in skills funding.

The industry has used the single carding scheme (CSCS) as the mechanism for verifying competency, but it needs to be better re-integrated into the overall skills system. This point is not fully recognised by governments’ policies.

Based on this information gathering, the report proposes four key recommendations:

Retain and improve through modularisation of training and best quality assurance all the existing routes into the sector, i.e. apprenticeships (including levels 2 and 3, higher and degree), vocational competence qualifications (NVQs) and bootcamps, where these are of a high-quality (with appropriate training to facilitate entering employment).
Industry needs to work with governments and other key stakeholders to establish a common consistent UK skills system for construction which is based on a common core for each occupation with built-in flexibility for national and regional variations.
Develop the CSCS scheme to support the new verification of competency under the Building Safety Act and ensure it is integrated into the UK skills system and policies.
As set out in the CLC Industry Skills Plan, industry needs to take a leading role on diversity and enhancing the various approaches currently being used with the co-ordination of a single coherent, focused and powerful message of the benefits of working in construction; under-pinned by an agreed approach to EDI.

What is clear from our review is that the major skills challenges of the construction sector are significantly different to those of others and therefore it requires skills policies and a system that are fit for purpose for it.

Could you be the next NCG Leader?

I am extremely proud to lead NCG, one of the country’s largest college groups. We’re made up of seven colleges across a national footprint, with over 2,500 colleagues supporting more than 40,000 learners towards a successful future across the country.

With a mission to enable social mobility and economic prosperity for all our learners and communities, having the right people with the experience and talent to lead our colleges and our colleagues is absolutely crucial. Finding talented leaders, helping them to develop and enabling them to drive the success of our colleges is something that I am particularly passionate about and it’s something we’re really focused on at NCG.

Right now, we have five rare and exciting opportunities to join our colleges as Assistant Principals. These roles are part of new ambitious plans to strengthen our college leadership teams, providing the support and challenge for our colleagues that will help us to achieve the ambitions we have set for ourselves in our Strategy Towards 2030.

So, what does being a leader at NCG really mean?

It means being dedicated to helping people fulfil their ambitions. It means working in an innovative way and within a unique structure and culture that provides opportunities you may not find elsewhere.

Our national footprint is both NCG’s biggest strength and challenge. Our seven colleges are focused on the specific needs of their different communities and the economies around them, but all our talented and passionate team of colleagues work together as ‘One NCG’, working collaboratively in some way to share expertise and support each other. Our colleagues may work with different learners in individual colleges, but the work we do together is what helps us make a difference to people across the country.

For our college principalship teams this means providing leadership at their local colleges and working as part of the broader leadership community across our Group; a network of colleagues in the same role at other colleges in our Group. This model provides opportunities to work closely with peers and a support network for those new to the role.

We know that opportunities in Lewisham are very different to those in Carlisle, and that there are different economic priorities in Kidderminster to Newcastle. But having an extended team of colleagues spread across the country is a fantastic resource to have – drawing on each other’s different backgrounds and experiences to offer each other a real support system. That’s something that can often be hard to find in smaller, standalone colleges.

It’s a fantastic set-up for innovation and progress too. Our college-based leadership teams lead projects right across our Group – whether they are supporting students’ mental health, developing part of our curriculum, or focusing on a community initiative. They collaborate, communicate weekly and innovate to share best practice and ensure students from all our colleges can benefit from great initiatives that start as an idea in just one of them.

Our positive culture, our ethos of ‘One NCG’ and the shared goals of colleagues across the Group to provide high-quality education to our learners were all highlighted in our last Ofsted report too. So, we know it makes a real difference to our learners and our outcomes.

Because it’s so important, we really believe in developing talent from within. That’s why we launched our own Leadership Hub, a development programme for NCG colleagues that aims to instil a supportive and inclusive culture across our Group and support our strategic objectives. I am thrilled with its success and so far, we’ve had more than 300 colleagues complete the programme.

How do we know this approach works?

Well, many of the colleagues in our existing college leadership teams have progressed from elsewhere within NCG – a really great example of how a Group like ours can create and provide opportunities that smaller, standalone colleges may not.

Our current Executive Principal of People and Culture, Gerard Garvey, joined the Group as Principal of Newcastle Sixth Form College in 2015 and was seconded to Lewisham College for 18 months before moving into his current role, where he focuses on developing our people and making NCG a fantastic place to work.

One of Newcastle College’s Assistant Principals, Lisa Hoseason – who has been with NCG for almost 20 years – recently moved to head up West Lancashire College. Lisa started working in classroom support and studied her teaching qualifications at Newcastle College alongside her job. Her leadership journey at NCG is a wonderful success story that really highlights how we value and develop our colleagues.

“I’ve been offered so many opportunities working at NCG and I’ve always been really supported and encouraged to develop and progress. Now, working to support colleagues and learners at West Lancashire College, I have really felt the benefits of the way our college leadership teams work together. I’ve not only felt supported in the change, but I’ve really been able to see the wider impact that the work we do together has on our learners and our communities. It’s brilliant.”
Lisa Hoseason

Joining one of our college leadership teams means being part of a local community, supporting and responding to local people, employers and stakeholders. As part of NCG, you will have the support, autonomy and accountability to meet these local needs at the same time as delivering Group strategies and priorities, and helping us to achieve the objectives of our Strategy Towards 2030.

The most exciting part of being an Assistant Principal at NCG is the chance to work collaboratively with colleagues up and down the country, leading on ambitious initiatives that will create life-changing opportunities for our learners, with the freedom to grow, develop and feel truly supported as you do your best work.

Having worked in education for more than twenty years, I absolutely know that there are talented further education leaders with the vision and passion for excellence that would be the perfect fit for NCG. So, if we sound like something you would love to be part of, we want to hear from you!

First apprentices awarded ‘professional status’ post-nominals

Sixteen apprentices are among the first to receive post-nominals through a new “game-changing” professional recognition scheme.

The Association of Apprentices (AoA) and the Chartered Institution for Further Education (CIFE) launched the post-apprenticeship recognition scheme (PARS) in November to “elevate the societal and industrial cachet” of apprenticeships and help to increase retention and achievements.

Successful apprentices are awarded a “professional status” and post-nominal designations through the scheme depending on their apprenticeship level.

Post-nominal designations are typically awarded for graduate-level qualifications, honours or professional body memberships, but have today been awarded to apprentices for the first time.

Jason Holt, co-founder and vice-chair of AoA, said at the scheme’s launch last year it “will be game-changing for apprenticeships, elevating the recognition and value of vocational education and raising parity of esteem with other learning routes”.

CIFE and AoA have run a pilot of the scheme and said all 16 applicants were successful. The 16 apprentices range from level 2 to level 7, are the first in the country to be awarded the new professional status.

The apprentices were announced this afternoon at a joint AoA and UCAS event at Mansion House in London during National Apprenticeship Week (full list below).

Speaking at the event, Dawn Ward, vice chair of CIFE and chief executive of Burton and South Derbyshire College, said: “I want to pay special thanks to a group of 16 amazing former apprentices who have taken part in the PARS pilot programme. I’m excited to announce that as of today, they are able to use their post-nominals.

“They are the trailblazers – first in the country – for many more qualified apprentices to follow this route. Congratulations.”

Apprentices recognised through the scheme can use post-nominals that correspond to the level of their apprenticeship:

CSA (Certificate of Standard Apprenticeship) – level 2
CAA (Certificate of Advanced Apprenticeship) – level 3
CHA (Certificate of Higher Apprenticeship) – level 4/5
CGA (Certificate of Graduate Apprenticeship) – level 6+

Employers signed up to the scheme to date include the BBC, Royal Mail, Amazon and training providers Umbrella Training and Lifetime Training.

The AoA and CIFE are now evaluating the PARS pilot and said the programme will be open for applications in “early summer”. There will be a fee to apply.

To be eligible, apprentices need to have passed their end-point assessment and have their application supported by their employer or an industry sponsor.

Applicants also need to provide examples of how their apprenticeship has “helped them to make a positive impact”.

Care apprenticeship provider slated for focus on diploma rather than OTJ and EPA

An adult care apprenticeship provider has been hit with an ‘inadequate’ rating after Ofsted found unsupported off-the-job training and “uninspiring” teaching.

Geoseis Consultant Limited, which trades as Geotraining, was also criticised for focusing on the achievement of a diploma qualification that is only part of the apprenticeship while failing to make apprentices aware of their end-point assessment.

The provider started delivering apprenticeship training in April 2020 but today received Ofsted’s lowest possible judgment in its first full inspection. The firm now faces likely contract termination from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Geotraining had 55 apprentices on adult care programmes from levels 2 to 5 based in the Midlands at the time of Ofsted’s visit in November.

Too few apprentices have achieved their apprenticeship and hardly any have completed it on time, according to the inspectorate’s report.

The watchdog found that too many apprentices do not receive their full entitlement to off-the-job training, which should be a minimum of six hours per week. Most Geotraining are also required to learn in their own time and are “not supported” by their employer.

Ofsted raised concern that level 2 apprentices “learn in noisy workplaces”, or through online meetings with no practical opportunities.

Inspectors took aim at Geotraining leaders for not ensuring that the basic requirements of an apprenticeship are promoted to and implemented by employers.

The report claimed that too many employers are “only interested in their apprentices achieving the diploma qualification, which is only part of the apprenticeship, rather than the knowledge, skills and behaviours that the apprenticeship standard prescribes”.

Apprentices are “often unaware of the requirements of the end-point assessment or the requirements of the broader apprenticeship”.

The government is currently implementing reforms to align qualifications within apprenticeships with end-point assessments after discovering this was a key reason why nearly half of apprentices drop out before completing their programme every year.

Ofsted had found Geotraining making ‘reasonable progress’ in an early monitoring visit report published in November 2022. But since then, the firm’s director has reduced the size of permanent staff, according to today’s full inspection report, and the remaining managers and team members “do not have the knowledge or skills to manage, monitor and improve the quality of training that apprentices receive”.

The few tutors that remain “do not have the time or skills to provide effective training to apprentices”, Ofsted added.

As a result, too many apprentices “do not receive timely and regular reviews of their progress, receive a poor standard of training and make slow progress on their apprenticeship”.

Apprentices also reported feeling “frustrated by constant changes in tutors which has slowed their progress”.

There is no external independent oversight of Geotraining’s leaders, who fail to systematically review and evaluate achievement, retention and attendance data, Ofsted said.

The watchdog concluded: “Leaders’ oversight of the quality of education is not fit for purpose. Their assessment of the quality of education that apprentices receive is too positive and does not identify the many weaknesses at the provider.”

Geotraining did not respond to requests for comment.

Birmingham sixth form college awarded ‘outstanding’ second time running

Birmingham’s only sixth form college has received its second consecutive ‘outstanding’ grade from Ofsted.

Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College (JCC) was given top marks again by inspectors for its ambitious curriculum, highly structured governance and skilful teaching.

In the watchdog’s report published this morning, inspectors found learners were “extremely positive about their learning” and make “substantial and sustained progress from their starting points”.

At the time of the inspection, conducted in December, the college had 2,375 learners studying academic and vocational courses entry level to level 3. JCC also employed one subcontractor to teach 790 adult learners on ESOL courses.

Ofsted praised the college’s “strong” contribution to meeting skills needs. This included prioritising digital skills in adult learning courses and having strong links with employers and higher education providers to improve learning in real-time.

Tony Day, principal of JCC, said: “[The report is] the perfect endorsement of the tireless work we do to educate and support our students.”

Inspectors said that teachers expertly use a variety of teaching strategies and resources as well as using assessment to inform and plan their teaching. They were also commended for teaching learners to use subject-specific technical vocabulary “exceptionally well”.

“Learners develop substantial new knowledge and skills and produce work to a consistently high standard,” the report said.

JCC’s governance was also commended for its “highly coherent structure”. Inspectors said governors, who comprise “experienced practitioners”, provide robust challenge and actively support leaders and staff to achieve their strategic goals.

For example, Ofsted inspectors found the board to scrutinise leaders on performance, teacher retention and equality and diversity at the college.

Regarding its subcontracting provision, the watchdog found the college works “highly effective” with Birmingham Ethnic Education and Advisor Service and has “robust systems to oversee the quality of education that the subcontractor provides”.

Inspectors added that college leaders are actively involved in designing the ESOL course which targets the hardest-to-reach members of the community, including refugees and migrants. It has resulted in learners developing skills to “successfully integrate” within their communities.

In a statement on its website, the college said the report recognised its mission of providing “an exceptional education for all”.

“The recent Ofsted report reveals JCC to be a truly exceptional institution and the first sixth form College in England that has been judged as making a ‘strong’ contribution (the highest possible grade) to the development of skills urgently in demand among the local community as well as the wider country,” the statement added.

Ofsted rejects RAAC inspection exemption call

Ofsted has rejected calls to automatically exempt education providers with RAAC from inspection, but urged leaders to use its deferral policy if they get the call.

In the autumn term, the watchdog removed all schools and colleges affected by the crumbly concrete from its inspection schedule.

But since January, these education providers have been eligible for inspection.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, wrote yesterday to education secretary Gillian Keegan to request an extension of the approach.

He asked “that you instruct Ofsted to continue to avoid scheduling for inspection any school on the published RAAC list until the school is fully operational, unless the headteacher has notified Ofsted that they are happy to undergo an inspection”.

In a statement issued today, Ofsted said RAAC schools would be eligible for inspection this term, “however this will be sufficient grounds to defer the inspection, should the school wish to”.

A spokesperson from Ofsted confirmed to FE Week that this approach also applies to FE colleges.

“We know that the situation with RAAC is still causing challenges for school staff, pupils and their parents and guardians,” the watchdog’s statement added.

“For schools that do not have confirmed RAAC but may still be impacted by RAAC, for example where a school is hosting pupils from schools that have RAAC, we will carefully consider any requests for a deferral of an inspection.”

It comes after Barton took aim in his letter at the pace of government action to address the RAAC crisis in education.

He said the danger of structural failure in buildings where RAAC was used in construction “has been known since at least 2018”.

‘Extremely difficult position’

“The unacceptable length of time it has taken the government to act on a risk of this seriousness has led directly to the extremely difficult position in which many leaders now find themselves.”

He also echoed calls for mitigations to exams for students in affected settings.

Where schools and colleges have had to close specialist provision like science labs, “students in these subjects should automatically be given special consideration for coursework and non-exam assessment (NEA) in any subjects affected”.

This “should be at a cohort level, without the need for centres to apply individually for each candidate, as is currently the case”.

He added that special consideration “should include the maximum extended time to complete the NEA, and the maximum percentage of additional marks available under current JCQ guidance”.

He also called on chancellor Jeremy Hunt to introduce a “new recovery funding stream for all 231 RAAC-impacted schools [and colleges] in the spring budget”, and said government must ensure outstanding RAAC spending by education providers is reimbursed “as soon as possible”.

Hundreds of small businesses utilise removal of apprenticeship cap

More than 250 small and medium-sized employers have already recruited over 10 apprentices since the government scrapped a cap on starts last year.

SMEs were restricted to a maximum of ten apprenticeship starts from 2020 until April 3, 2023.

Ministers finally decided to abolish the cap after consecutive resets amid warnings from FE Week and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers that non-levy paying businesses were being forced to turn apprentices away after hitting the limit.

Skills minister Robert Halfon has now revealed, in answer to a parliamentary question from Grahame Morris MP, that 256 non-levy payers have recruited 11 or more apprentices since the policy change came into force 10 months ago.

The majority – 214 – hired between 11 and 19 apprentices, while 33 had starts of between 20 and 29.

Six other SMEs managed to enrol between 30 and 39 apprentices, another recruited between 40 and 49, and two managed to enlist over 50.

Number of starts since April 2023 (grouped)	Number of non-levy employer accounts
11-19	214
20-29	33
30-39	6
40-49	1
50+	2

Source: Department for Education

The figures come at the start 17th annual National Apprenticeship Week.

Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “It’s great to see so many non-levy payers taking on larger numbers of apprentices since the cap was lifted, bringing in lots of new talent for them to nurture.”

However, McKenzie warned that taking on numerous apprentices is still financially out of reach for most small businesses. She called for the current £1,000 bonus for hiring an under-19 apprentice to be increased to £3,000 for small businesses and expanded to cover under-25s.

The SME cap was originally introduced in January 2020 with a limit of three new apprenticeship starts, before it was lifted to ten in summer 2020.

Small businesses that do not pay the apprenticeship levy receive 95 per cent of training costs from the apprenticeship budget, funded by levy paying businesses.

The rationale of the cap had been that it would help prevent the overall apprenticeships budget from being overspent.

Simon Ashworth, AELP director of policy, said it was “positive that the removal of cap of ten non-levy starts cap has enabled more employers to access the benefits we know that apprenticeships bring”.

However, he warned that although the changes have helped, the government still hasn’t “addressed the wider barrier of employer engagement and accessing opportunities in the first place”.

“It is critical to get the apprenticeship service system working more effectively, for SMEs including by giving providers more autonomy”, Ashworth said, adding that the current “expert” provider pilot has the potential to support this change.

Electric car charging grants for colleges rise to £2,500

The government has increased a grant offered to schools and colleges to install electric car charging points to £2,500, and said settings could use them to generate revenue.

Under the scheme, state-funded schools, colleges and nurseries could previously apply for up to £350 towards the cost of installing charge points.

Today, technology minister Anthony Browne announced the government will now cover up to 75 per cent of the cost of buying and installing the points, up to £2,500 per socket.

Charge points could be used by staff and visitors, and the government said education institutions could also “generate revenue by making their chargepoints available to the public”.

The announcement is part of a wider scheme to create more charging infrastructure across England. Funding of £381 million is going to local authorities to install the technology in their areas.

‘Exciting opportunity’

Baroness Barran, the academies minister, said it was an “exciting opportunity to become part of an ongoing move towards a greener public sector”.

Baroness Barran

“Schools [and other education settings] engaging with this grant will be supporting the development of green infrastructure, helping to improve their local environments.

“Developing a greener education estate is a key element of our sustainability and climate change strategy. The expansion of this grant supports our ambition to improve the sustainability of our schools in the ongoing move towards net zero.”

The government said its schools grant was for state-funded education institutions, including colleges, “which must have dedicated off-street parking facilities”. Applications can be made online.

Ofsted orders review into wiped evidence claims

Ofsted chief Sir Martyn Oliver has ordered a “rapid review” of the inspectorate’s system for recording inspection evidence after long-standing issues with data being wiped were revealed.

On Friday, FE Week’s sister publication Schools Week revealed how the electronic evidence gathering (EEG) system has for years suffered glitches that force inspectors to re-record their findings, sometimes from memory after a visit has ended.

Multiple current and former inspectors described situations in which their screen “froze” and evidence “disappeared” in front of their eyes during visits. Others discovered evidence had been wiped upon returning to their hotel room.

Following Schools Week’s story, the Observer also covered the problems, as well as claims inspectors had been forced to “make up” evidence after the system crashed.

An Ofsted spokesperson told Schools Week it had seen “nothing to support the claim that evidence has been ‘made up’ – something that would never be tolerated”.

But they added: “Sir Martyn is initiating a rapid review to satisfy himself that the EEG and the guidance to inspectors is robust. If schools or inspectors have any concerns, we would want to hear about them directly, so we can respond appropriately.”

‘Blame turned back on inspectors’

Current and former inspectors told Schools Week that Ofsted was repeatedly warned about the problems, but initially refused to accept there was something wrong and “blame turned back on the individual inspectors”.

Ofsted said it was “aware that on some occasions inspectors can have issues with the EEG, for example connecting to WiFI due to the provider they are in or to the system itself”.

But they said these issues were “more frequent when the system was first introduced” and inspectors have been “instructed to use other means to record their evidence in these circumstances”.

The watchdog also said it believed there had “only been a very small number of instances since 2019 where we have declared an inspection incomplete as a result of a technical issue”. This was said to potentially be as low as one or two.

In those instances, “we have then returned to the school to collect more evidence to ensure the judgement is secure”, the watchdog said.