Alarm as under-19 apprenticeship figures fall

The number of under 19 apprenticeships has fallen for the first time in three years — and figures indicate the slide could get worse.

The latest Statistical First Release shows there were 1,800 fewer 16 to 18-year-old apprenticeship starts last year than in 2010/11 – a 1.4 per cent fall.

And provisional figures for the first quarter of the current year show a 7.4 per cent decline on last year already.

FE Minister Matthew Hancock (pictured) told FE Week he was looking at the fall “closely” and said a number of factors could be behind the issue, including the government’s attempt to tackle “poor provision”.

The fall comes amid the backdrop of a boom in the overall number of apprenticeship stats — from 457,200 in 2010/11 to 520,600 last year.

However, the picture for under 19s was 131,700 in 2010/11 versus 129,900 last year.

And, like-for-like provisional figures for the first half of 2011/12 and the current year, were 53,700 versus 49,700, respectively.

It is clearly worrying that the number of 16 to 18-year-old apprentices is down.”

The collapse can be traced back to the second half of 2011/12 when 16 to 18 apprenticeships plummeted 13.48 per cent to 46,200.

However, Mr Hancock said the government was taking action and the planned introduction of traineeships would help the age group.

But he declined to “rule in or rule out” a review of the Coalition’s three-year policy, introduced from 2011/12, of cutting the national funding rate for 16 to 18 apprenticeships by 2 per cent a-year.

“I am looking at the 16 to 18 numbers closely, but they are part of an overall picture of growth in apprenticeships,” said Mr Hancock.

Nevertheless, Shadow FE Minister Gordon Marsden remained critical of the government over the figures.

“The continuing drop is deeply alarming and now appears to be a pattern,” he said.

“The government’s failure so far to have a proper pre-apprenticeship training route is costing young people, not least those in the NEETs [not in education, employment or training] category, dear.”

Association of Colleges assistant chief executive Julian Gravatt said: “It is clearly worrying that the number of 16 to 18-year-old apprentices is down. The reduction in the number of 18-year-olds and the state of the economy have a role, but we will continue to work with government to promote the scheme and develop the new traineeships route.”

Graham Hoyle, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, said: “The recession has been a tough for apprenticeship recruitment for under 19s and this is why traineeships are needed to equip school leavers with employability and functional skills.”

A government spokesperson said the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) would be stepping up its marketing campaign to increase job opportunities among young people.

“Our priority is to increase the number of apprenticeship being offered by employers and to improve the readiness of young people who apply and succeed in securing them,” she said.

David Way, chief executive of NAS, said: “Our immediate and continuing focus is on growing apprenticeships at 16 to 18, supported by the apprenticeship grant for employers to recruit a young apprentice and we are putting in place additional measures, including a marketing campaign targeted at employers
and young people.”

Government response ‘frustrates’

The government last week published its response to the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee report on apprenticeships. Committee chair Adrian Bailey MP examines the response.

Apprenticeships can play a pivotal role in creating the skilled workforce necessary for economic growth.

I welcome the government’s agreement with this main thrust of our report.

The Richard Review came out shortly after our report and largely supports our findings especially on the issue of quality versus quantity.

I am pleased the government agrees that quality is the key for the apprenticeship programme going forward.

The government has gone some way to simplifying and strengthening the delivery system.

However, in response to our call for further work they cite two reviews underway. Action is needed now, not further reviews.

The basic flaw in the response is the government’s failure to recognise that if it wants a skills agenda to realise its stated objective of ‘balancing’ the economy with more vocational skills then it must take meaningful steps to give vocational training parity of esteem with higher education.

The select committee drew upon the experiences of apprentices to make recommendations designed to change the culture in our schools that would encourage a greater take-up of apprenticeships.

Apprentices reported that they had received no encouragement as their schools were preoccupied with getting students into universities.

Apprenticeships are a viable and attractive path to a successful career and this should be reflected in the culture of our schools.

I am therefore deeply disappointed the government has declined to require schools to publish ‘apprenticeship entries’ as well as the number of university places their students achieve, and call on it to reconsider the committee’s recommendation.

Schools cannot be blamed for being preoccupied with university entrants if this is to be the only measure of their success.

We were shocked to hear evidence of the government wasting money”

The government also failed to take up our recommendation that a formal structure be set up to attach apprenticeships to public procurement contracts.

We understand the need to be flexible, however, we fail to believe that a structure cannot be found that retains flexibility, while also encouraging apprenticeships.

The government has promised to investigate best practice in local government contracts and we will watch this space closely.

During our inquiry, we were shocked to hear evidence of the government wasting money on training schemes that it could not quantify or ensure value for money.

This stemmed from firms being able to pay their share with ‘in-kind’ payments.

The regulator does not perform any value for money checks to assess the level of contribution nor, it would appear, was there any consideration as to the quality of the training provider when allocating public money.

In these straitened times, this is simply unacceptable.

We made specific recommendations to address these problems by placing an obligation on firms to quantify the value of their ‘in-kind’ payments and are frustrated by the refusal of the government to act on this.

We are pleased the government has agreed to consider the use of quality indicators when allocating money in future. We recommended that they do so and repeat that recommendation now. We will monitor carefully actions on this issue.

We are pleased, however, that the government has promised to consider whether it should use quality indicators when allocating money in the future.

High quality apprenticeships can provide the cornerstone of a thriving economy.

We are pleased that the government has recognised this in its response to our report.

We encourage it to now take the necessary action to turn recognition into reality.

The government has acknowledged the need to keep on reviewing and refreshing its strategy in this area.

My select committee will follow developments closely and take further action if needed.

Adrian Bailey MP, chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee

Sackings protest hits college open day

A Union said up to 100 members protested during a Midland college’s open day as a “last resort” over the sacking of four lecturers.

University and College Union (UCU) members marched through Halesowen, near Birmingham, waving banners and chanting support for David Muritu and three others — all formerly Halesowen College maths lecturers and active UCU members.

The college said they dismissed Mr Muritu, the union’s branch secretary, before Christmas because of his students’ poor results but the UCU claim the former maths lecturer was “treated unfairly” labelling it an “attack” on union workers.

A spokesperson for UCU told FE Week: “Any form of action is always a last resort and not entered into lightly. Such is the college’s behaviour that members felt they had little option but to use the day to highlight the unfair treatment of Dave and the three other union members.

“We would rather the dispute, like any other, can be resolved without the need to resort to these types of action.”

Halesowen College declined to comment on the protest, which happened on January 25 and followed a picket on the same issue earlier in the month. It justified Mr Muritu’s dismissal saying they had provided the lecturer “intensive support” over a period of three years.

“However, David Muritu had failed to make any improvement in student attainment, and indeed the pass rate declined further over the period,” said a Halesowen College spokesperson.

“One student group which he highlighted in support of his case turned out to show that from 14 students 10 failed to pass, with all but one student attainting a pass at least one or two grades lower compared to their grades in other subjects.”

“In addition, over the last three years his AS pass rates were generally some 15 per cent below the average pass rates across the College.”

The UCU dismissed Halesowen College’s justifications claiming only AS results had been used against him with no account of A-level results adding that one action plan had been put in place to support Mr Muritu but this was “abandoned” by management when the lecturer had to cover long-term sickness.

Barry Lovejoy, UCU’s head of FE, spoke at Saturday’s protest. He described Mr Muritu’s sacking as “improper” and claimed Halesowen College seemed “determined to pick fights with UCU at every turn”.

“As every teacher knows, student attainment is affected by many factors besides teaching, such as prior educational experience, home background, the ability and motivation of the students, and the general educational environment and support provided by the college,” he said. “The arbitrary and improper dismissal of teaching staff for the underachievement of students sets a worrying precedent.”

A petition calling for Mr Muritu to be reinstated received 1,100 people. A counter-petition signed by about 150 college staff called for Saturday’s protest not to take place.

Mr Muritu appealed but the decision was upheld at a hearing on January 24. The UCU said Mr Muritu was considering an employment tribunal.

Merger plan investigated by BIS

The proposed merger of two colleges is being investigated over concerns they may not have followed correct procedure, FE Week can reveal.

A six-week formal consultation on the plans for Birmingham Metropolitan College and Stourbridge College launched on January 18.

The merger would see the 12,500-student Stourbridge College dissolve on May 31 with its property, rights and liabilities then transferring to Birmingham Metropolitan, which had more than 26,000 learners two years ago.

A statement on the Birmingham college’s website said they were planning to merge “to become one of the largest and most significant further education providers in the country.”

However, a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) probe has been launched amid concerns the merger could be going ahead too quickly.

We aware of the consultation and are investigating.”

The consultation report is due out by March 20 — the day before governors were expected to rule on the proposals.

The consultation document says a draft order for the dissolution of Stourbridge College would come out the same day as the governors’ decision, with merger taking place on June 1.

A BIS spokesperson said: “We aware of the consultation and are investigating to establish if appropriate processes have been followed.”

A joint statement from the colleges said: “We reject any suggestion due process has not been followed in taking forward the merger process. The processes required by law have been, and are being, strictly observed.

“Views expressed in the consultation will be fully considered in due course and those views and the corporations’ response published.”

The Birmingham college achieved a good grading from Ofsted in March 2011 while Stourbridge got the same grade a fortnight ago.

London colleges’ decline

A London college that admitted success rates could have been exaggerated by up to 10 per cent two years ago has been hit with an Ofsted grade fall.

Croydon College was rated as in need of improvement, having been graded good following inspection in July 2009.

In 2011, the college’s then new principal, Frances Wadsworth, revealed there could have been a practice of failing to report details of unsuccessful students to boost results and funding.

“Depending on the methodology employed, the effect on overall success rates might lie between 4 per cent and 10 per cent,” she said in a report to governors. A college spokesperson later said the issue had been “rigorously addressed”.

Unreliable data in 2009/10 inflated apparent success rates.”

But it was visited again by Ofsted in December, resulting in the “requires improvement” grading.

It was also told to improve in the two sub-gradings of quality of teaching, learning and assessment; and effectiveness of leadership and management.

However, it was handed an “inadequate” grade for learner outcomes.

The report said: “Unreliable data in 2009/10 inflated apparent success rates to well above the national average for similar colleges.

“In reality, success rates were considerably lower. Accurate data for the following two years confirm that success rates are still too low, although they improved faster in 2011/12 than the average for other colleges.

“The number of students who remain on their programme is at the national average; however, too many students fail to gain the qualification they set out to achieve.”

Nobody from the college was available for comment.

It was the second London college within a week to suffer an overall Ofsted grade fall from “good” to “requires improvement”.

The 5,390-learner Richmond upon Thames College was also inspected in December, following a previous visit in January 2007.

It was told to improve for the three sub-gradings of quality of teaching, learning and assessment; effectiveness of leadership and management; and, outcomes for learners.

The Ofsted report said: “A significant number of [Richmond upon Thames] students do not make the progress they are capable of, particularly on vocational courses. Some teachers do not expect enough of their students when challenging them to fulfil their potential.”

It added: “The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is not consistently good enough and varies too much between, and within, curriculum areas.”

The report was also critical of managers, saying they “do not use the feedback from students and other users to provide an accurate overview of what is good about the college and what requires improvement.”

A college spokesperson declined to comment on the fall in grade specifically.

However, its principal, David Ansell, said he was “pleased” the report recognised overall success rates had improved in the last year “with 100 per cent pass rates in many A-level subjects and that many vocational courses are above the national average”.

He added: “New arrangements to further improve teachers’ professional practice are showing significant benefits in curriculum areas. In addition, the recent changes to the personal tutoring system are enabling teachers to focus solely on students’ learning and progress.”

College governors’ chair Cathy Bird said: “All staff will now work together to ensure performance targets are met and that all students fulfil their potential.”

Tax campaign taken to Treasury chief at Commons

he government has pledged to look into “correcting an anomaly” that sees colleges pay VAT while school sixth forms escape the charge.

Three colleges in Cambridge teamed up with local MP Dr Julian Huppert to put pressure on Treasury ministers over the issue that has been branded within the sector an “absurd discrepancy”.

Cambridge Regional College along with Hill’s Road Sixth Form College and Long Road Sixth Form College were behind Liberal Democrat Dr Huppert’s questioning of chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander MP in the House of Commons.

“Sixth form colleges and FE colleges like Hills Road and Long Road Sixth Form Colleges and Cambridge Regional College do excellent work, but face a very large VAT burden — some £300,000 for the sixth form colleges and well over £1m for Cambridge Regional College — that schools simply do not face, as well as being less well-funded than the schools sector,” said Dr Huppert during House of Commons Treasury questions on Tuesday, January 29.

It is manifestly unfair to treat sixth form colleges less favourably.”

“Will the government agree to investigate whether this anomaly can be corrected so there is a level playing field for sixth form colleges and FE colleges?”

Fellow Liberal Democrat Mr Alexander said: “We are taking steps year-by-year to equalize the funding arrangements. We will clearly have to look at that again in the spending round that will happen in the first half of this year.”

It comes a fortnight after Schools Minister David Laws told MPs: “I am sympathetic to concerns expressed about the different VAT treatment that sixth-form colleges receive from the government. I have asked officials to raise the matter with the Treasury and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and to report back to me.”

Anne Constantine, principal of Cambridge Regional College, said: “The thousands of students at Cambridge Regional College, Hills Road and Long Road Sixth Form Colleges will benefit from a reversal of this unjust policy.”

Linda Sinclair, principal of Hill’s Road Sixth Form College, said: “It is manifestly unfair to treat sixth form colleges less favourably than other state-funded schools and academies.”

Chris Sherwin, principal of Long Road Sixth Form College, added: “Our VAT costs are in the region of £250,000 per year which would go a long way to helping us to maintain our very much older, but much-loved, set of buildings, and more importantly to maintain staffing levels.”

Mark Bramwell, associate director of sixth form colleges at the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “An AoC survey in 2011 estimated that this absurd VAT discrepancy was costing colleges £250m a year.

“This is a significant amount of money which would be best spent on teaching and learning, particularly at a time of funding constraints for colleges.”

A spokesperson for the Sixth Form Colleges Forum said the VAT issue was just one example of the inequalities between colleges and schools that also included school and academy students being entitled to free school meals.

Mr Laws has told MPs the government was “currently looking at options for extending [free school meals] eligibility further across the 16-to-19 sector”.

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Plea for Ofsted to inspect school advice

The government has been urged to “bite the bullet” and call Ofsted in to inspect careers guidance services after concerns over the quality and objectivity of advice given to young people.

Association of Colleges policy director Joy Mercer said the watchdog should look at careers guidance during school inspections following a report on the subject by the Education Select Committee.

It identified a “deterioration” in advice since the service became the responsibility of schools in September.

Committee chair Graham Stuart MP questioned the advice of schools who, he said, “put their own interests ahead of that of their pupils, restrict access to other education providers and make the filling of their sixth form places more of a priority than their statutory duty to provide independent and impartial advice and guidance for pupils.”

And the dim view on careers guidance was mirrored by Ms Mercer.

“The Departments for Education and Business, Innovation and Skills need to bite the bullet and encourage the regulator to include careers guidance in its regular inspection of schools,” she said.

“The committee has recognised that careers advice must be delivered by qualified staff and schools should hold the matrix standard. This would mirror colleges’ service to their students.”

City & Guilds chief executive Chris Jones said the committee’s report painted a “shameful picture of how the system is failing young people.”

He added: “Receiving ill-informed, inappropriate career guidance can have an extensive impact on young peoples’ lives, and in turn hinder business and the wider economy.

“What we now need are careers counsellors that are given appropriate training to a recognised standard.

“In addition, colleges and training providers must be better linked with local employers and local enterprise partnerships, to ensure young people have access to high quality work experience.”

Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group, said: “The committee’s conclusions about the state of guidance in schools are worrying.”

However, a Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said it was too early to judge how careers guidance was delivered with the new system having “only been in place for a term”.

The committee looked at how careers guidance was affected by the Education Act 2011, which saw provision of the service shift from the duty of local authorities and delivered by Connexions, itself described by the DfE as “often costly, patchy and of poor quality.”

The committee heard from a number of education sector big-hitters, including Dr Deirdre Hughes, chair of the National Careers Council, who said there was a potential loss of £28bn to the UK economy if young people were not given the right career guidance.

“We have concerns about the consistency, quality, independence and impartiality of careers guidance now being offered to young people,” said the committee report, which said the transfer of responsibility for careers guidance to schools was “regrettable”.

Committee chair Mr Stuart called for the National Careers Service (NCS), which he described as “a great innovation for adults,” to be extended to support schools.

He said: “We found that the quality and quantity of guidance for young people is deteriorating.”

He also called for schools to produce annual careers plans to “ensure they can be held accountable for what they do”.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We introduced this new duty [on schools to provide careers guidance] to replace the previous system that was often costly, patchy and of poor quality.

“The duty requires schools to secure independent and impartial careers guidance for their pupils.

“We want head teachers to decide what careers guidance is right for their students and have control over their budgets to provide it. The duty has only been in place for a term — far too early to pass judgment on
its success.”

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Editorial : Advice for colleges

Expecting schools to offer impartial careers advice is unfair and unrealistic.

Sixth forms are part of an increasingly competitive market, in which every 16 to 18-year-old learner represents three to five thousand pounds.

If you were running a business would you promote the competition?

Would government investment in face-to-face professional careers advisers solve this problem?

Perhaps, but schools would still have budgets to protect, and where would this army of advisers come from?

Then there’s the thorny issue of paying for them – what services would have to miss out?

I’m told learners are increasingly savvy consumers, often making decisions heavily influenced by social networks both off and online.

Therefore, in this competitive market, FE providers need to quit feeling hard done by and promote their unique selling points better.

A good place to start would be promoting their success at getting learners into work with training.

Every FE provider website should have easy access to progression and destination data, which is also shouted about in the course prospectus and,
for example, the back of buses.

Expecting schools to refer learners is wishful thinking, you’ll need to
earn them.

FE Guild countdown picks up pace

The latest stage in the development of the proposed FE Guild is “going to be difficult” to complete in such a short pace of time, according to the independent chair of the guild’s steering group.

A formal consultation has begun, and will run until Friday, February 22,  leaving providers who want to contribute just three weeks to respond.

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, who chairs the steering group told FE Week: “I don’t underestimate that it’s going to be difficult and the time we’ve had to pull together the consultation document has also been really short. It would have been lovely to have another week, 10 days longer, but we haven’t got that time.

 a six-week consultation might have been better than three or four.”

“Right or wrong, the decision by government to announce the end of funding for the Learning and Skills Improvement Service has pushed the timetable very tight.”

He added: “I don’t think a 12-week consultation would have necessarily been better, but a six-week consultation might have been better than three or four.”

Following the informal consultation, which ran online and through consultation events between November and January, Mr Hughes said he was hopeful of a strong response from the sector.

“I suspect it will take up two to three hours of somebody’s time but I think it’s an important issue so I think a lot of people will take that time and make that effort,” he said.

“I was surprised we got more than 400 responses to the small online consultation – I didn’t expect to get many as it was around Christmas time, nobody really knew what the guild was, and there wasn’t really a proposition for people to respond to.”

Many respondents to the initial consultation raised questions about what the remit of the guild would be, and 42 per cent admitted they were unsure until they knew more.

Mr Hughes said he hoped the consultation document would provide clarification, but the guild would be shaped by the consultation and beyond.

He said: “The consultation isn’t the end of it, it’s to establish what needs to go into the implementation plan, and part of that has to be saying ‘how do we carry on engaging with people and properly understanding what people want through the life of the guild?’

“If the guild gets established it will want to carry on refreshing its understanding and meeting the needs of the sector so we think the consultation is really a chance for hundreds of people to come and give their views.”

He added: “When I started out just two and half months ago I wasn’t convinced it was necessarily the right thing, but now I’m more and more convinced we need something and that there’s a gap which needs to be filled, and I’m more and more convinced there’s a will to make it work among people who have engaged so far.”

And with just three weeks for the consultation, Mr Hughes called for input. He said: “I hope we get people being realistic about engaging with the document, trying to understand what we’re suggesting and being constructive with their feedback.”

Visit www.feguild.info for more details.