Allegations of bullying and physical abuse have prompted three subcontractor colleges to take over apprenticeships from a Midland-based prime contractor.

A damning Ofsted report found “serious allegations of physical and verbal bullying and harassment” and deemed the National Farrier Training Agency (NFTA) to be inadequate, as reported by FE Week in June.

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) banned the NFTA, which teaches shoeing and hoof trimming of horses and similar animals, from taking on any new learners until a long-term strategy could be agreed.
The NFTA, based in Peterborough, was the prime contractor with the SFA, organising vocational training for apprentices with approved training farriers (ATFs) across the country.

The NFTA also subcontracted classroom learning to Herefordshire & Ludlow College, Myerscough College and Warwickshire College.

The vast majority of allegations in Ofsted’s report on the NFTA were made about learners’ treatment during training with the ATFs, not in the colleges.

And the three colleges are due to take over full responsibility for farriery apprentices later this year, drawing funding directly from the SFA.

It is hoped the move will allow colleges to screen ATFs and ensure apprentices’ well-being.

A spokesperson for the SFA said it was working closely with the NFTA’s parent body, the Farriers Registration Council (FRC).

She said: “We expect all existing learners to transfer to the colleges currently involved in the delivery of the farriery apprenticeship.

“Our intention is to open up the market to enable a wider range of providers to deliver this provision, should they wish to.”

Herefordshire & Ludlow College principal Ian Peake spoke to FE Week on behalf of the three colleges and said the move would be good for farriery.

“We are very pleased to be taking the work on because we’re comfortable will be able to deliver a very good quality programme and there won’t be the complication of working with more than one body which has really proved to be unhelpful,” he said.

The FRC will still accredit training and monitor colleges’ delivery, for which colleges will pay a levy, and will have the power to strike off a college that fails to deliver good quality apprentice training.

An NFTA spokesperson said: “Much must now be done to bring the new training system into action so that apprentices are provided with a safe learning environment and an effective and enjoyable training system.

“The timescale has yet to be finalised, but the move of existing training is expected to take place during autumn 2013 with the first intake of new apprentices starting in early 2014.

“The NFTA will continue to exist to run existing apprenticeships until the handover to colleges takes place, which will be sooner rather than later.”

The SFA spokesperson added: “We are satisfied with the progress and plans to date, and we are committed to ensuring that all learners receive their full learning and training, with minimal disruption.”

Qualifications bodies have been in talks with Muslim groups over concerns the summer exams season could be affected by Ramadan.

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) is among those working to “reduce as far as possible the impact” of the month-long religious period, which is expected to fall in the key
academic months of June and July in three years’ time.

We will be working closely with Muslim groups on the setting of future timetables to reduce as far as possible the impact on those observing Ramadan

It could affect the exams season right up to 2023 prompting concerns — shared by the Muslim British Council (MCB) — about learners getting up before dawn to eat so they can observe daytime fasting.

There are fears that interrupted sleep could affect grades.

A spokesperson for the JCQ, which is responsible for timetabling A-level and GCSE exams, said: “We have met with Muslim groups to discuss the changing dates of Ramadan and how, over the coming years, it will increasingly clash with examinations.

“We will be working closely with Muslim groups on the setting of future timetables to reduce as far as possible the impact on those observing Ramadan.

“There are limitations on how flexible the timetables can be but, for example, we will review whether a balance of morning and afternoon slots or just morning slots are preferable for large entry subjects.”

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and it changes every year depending on the position of the moon.

Shabnam Khan, secretary of the MCB’s education committee, said: “Muslims who are fasting will usually get up before dawn to have their breakfast — this does interrupt their sleeping patterns and educational centres and places of work are advised to be aware of some of the special aspects of a fast.”

She added: “In 2019 it is expected that the month of Ramadan will coincide fully with the end of year examination period.

“To help students reach their potential and to help educational centres in the UK as much as possible, the committee is working in consultation with various organizations including Ofqual, JCQ as well as with schools across the country … to assess this impact.”

A spokesperson for Ofqual, which last month invited the JCQ, MCB and education charity VIP Minds, to its offices in Coventry to explore the concerns, said it was the first time the issue of Ramadan falling on the exams season had been raised.

She said: “We recently invited JCQ, MCB and the charity VIP Minds to a meeting to discuss the issue of students fasting for Ramadan and examination timetables.

“Timetabling for GCE/GCSE examinations is the responsibility of JCQ and as a result of the recent meeting they are working with VIP Minds to look at the most effective timetabling for exams from 2016.

“We are also considering the impact of Ramadan on linear assessments as part of our equality analysis into the proposed GCSE reforms.”

Kwik Fit has come under fire from the National Union of Students (NUS) for running unpaid traineeships of up to 936 hours across five months.

An investigation by FE Week found the car servicing firm advertising “multiple” 16 to 18 vacancies “nationwide” on the government’s National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) website.

But the advert, which said trainees would do a “maximum of 39 hours a week Tuesday to Saturday” for up to 24 weeks, was removed this afternoon after FE Week started looking into the posts.

However, it reappeared just hours later with an added line saying simply “most weeks will be less”.

“Expecting young people to be unpaid in a traineeship of up to 39 hours a week for a five-month period is unacceptable,” said NUS vice president for FE Joe Vinson.

“Unfortunately, it’s likely that this is just one example of the many organisations across all industries.”

A spokesperson for Kwik Fit, which had a turnover of nearly £640m for the year ending March 2012, defended its traineeship scheme.

He told FE Week: “Participants will spend their entire period training and will never work unsupervised and we hope that people will actually complete their training modules more quickly than the maximum period allocated.

“Our hope is that they will become Kwik Fit apprentices but whatever they decide to do, they will be far more ready for work than when they started with us.”

All of the 120 traineeship vacancies offered by firms advertising on the NAS website as of Tuesday were unpaid.

However, Kwik Fit was the only firm asking for more than 35 hours a week as part of their traineeship — the government’s flagship policy launched last month to reduce unemployment among 16 to 23-year-olds.

Kwik Fit, graded outstanding by Ofsted following its last inspection in June 2008, was also the only organisation on the website named as both the employer and training provider.

It is understood that the Skills Funding Agency will pay Kwik Fit an average of £1,250 to £2,000 per trainee.

Kwik Fit can run traineeships because it has an apprenticeship contract with the agency. The contract, which also funds traineeships, is worth nearly £2m for the current academic year.

The firm’s spokesperson said trainees would spend a total of around 10 days in the classroom or workshop and the remainder on-the-job, where activities would include tyre-fitting and stock-handling, among others.

To run traineeships, the government requires firms to offer a “high quality” work placement with English and maths qualifications offered, if needed.

They can take from six weeks to six months.

But, with no government requirement that trainees be paid, Mr Vinson said: “We are seeing an increasing amount of traineeships turn into what are effectively unpaid internships.”

The Kwik Fit spokesperson said: “We provide an industry leading apprenticeship scheme which delivers exceptional value to the tax payer.

“We receive 18,000 applications each year, however our experience shows that while some school leavers have the right attitude or personality, for one reason or another they aren’t quite work-ready.

“We want to help those people close that gap and get ready to take their first step on to a career ladder.

“We hope they succeed and go on to an apprenticeship with us, but there is no imperative for us to introduce traineeships — in fact the scheme will cost us more in time and resources than we will receive in funding.”

A spokesperson for the agency said Kwik Fit’s, “traineeship funding is calculated at individual learner level and is based on the number of hours planned for both the work placement and the teaching associated with the learning components.”

There is no suggestion Kwik Fit vacancies breach traineeship rules.

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Editorial: Making traineeships work

Traineeships, as I said in my Newsnight interview, are a good thing — particularly given youth unemployment is on the rise again.

But let’s also be clear that the government has taken ownership of the term ‘traineeship’ and it is not intended to be a qualification-based programme.

It is a government-funded work placement scheme, with some work preparation and English and maths training where required.

The total time, most of which is likely to be the work placement, determines the amount paid to the training provider, in this case Kwik Fit.

So the tension comes from the government paying thousands of pounds in work placements for potentially unpaid trainees.

For traineeships to succeed, the government must protect learners from the threat of exploitation from both the training provider and employer.

When trainees are adding value in the workplace they should be paid, something the TUC argued as part of its Traineeship Charter, published last month.

And even when paid, it is also important that traineeships do not become an unnecessary and costly pre-apprenticeship programme.

The FE sector needs to work with employers to rally round the programme which, when done the right way, is the difference between being out of a job or developing the workplace experience and employer reference to get a job — and keep it.

Nick Linford, editor