Students in the FE sector are trailing behind their higher education counterparts when it comes to the handling of complaints, explains NUS vice president for FE Toni Pearce. While universities who wrong their students could face a hearing with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, FE students have no such recourse — and it’s time that changed, she says.

For some time now, there has been cause for concern in relation to how complaints made by students in FE are dealt with.

As we look ahead to the future of the sector — the end of routine Ofsted inspections for some and the extension of compulsory education and training, as well as a less regulated sector — it is clear that students are in need of a safeguard to ensure that systematic problems are detected and dealt with in institutions.

Students in FE who experience issues with the quality of their learning, and those students who fall victim to unfair discrimination or poor provision, are without recourse to an independent adjudicator to preside over complaints.

Over the last year, we have been conducting research into the experiences of students in relation to these problems throughout England and Wales, as well as the procedures that colleges currently use to deal with them.

The complaints and appeals procedures in our sector are not monitored in any formal way, and students are unable to turn to an independent body. We believe the implementation of such a body would make providers truly accountable.

The findings of the research we have undertaken supports the anecdotal evidence with which the NUS is consistently provided by members.

This evidence suggests more can be done by colleges to promote the existence of complaints procedures and the processes these involve.

More too can be done to encourage individuals to submit a complaint if they feel unfairly discriminated against, and more can also be done to resolve complaints as quickly and fairly as possible.

The complaints and appeals procedures in our sector are not monitored in any formal way”

The quality of complaints procedures throughout the sector currently leaves students in the dark when it comes to their own rights of redress against their provider.

Only 4.3 per cent of respondents to our survey believed their students were “fully aware” of the college complaints procedure.

And 71.4 per cent of respondents felt that students should be able to appeal against the college’s decision to an independent body beyond the college.

We believe that having a national independent adjudicator for FE will help drive up the quality of complaints procedures within institutions.

More than 60 per cent of respondents to our survey believed that college complaints procedures were transparent, fair in just “some cases,” or not even at all.

As part of the research, we have produced a set of recommendations for the government, including implementing a national independent adjudicator for student complaints in FE.

We have drawn up a set of recommendations for providers that includes publicising complaints procedures during enrolment, making them accessible and easier to find, providing a maximum timetable for complaints and appeals to be dealt with within, staff training around handling of complaints and making information available to the students’ union about the number of complaints, and those which are upheld.

University students currently have the ability to have their complaint adjudicated on by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) which NUS campaigned to be created.

It’s time that this opportunity was extended to students in the FE sector, who deserve the same rights as those studying in higher education.

That’s why the NUS is calling on FE Minister Matthew Hancock to resolve complaints adjudications for his sector’s students this January.

Toni Pearce, NUS vice president for FE

With the cost of new tuition fee arrangements seeming to hit the popularity of higher education, EAL’s Ann Watson looks at the rising star of apprenticeships.

The end of 2012 brought with it revealing figures from two of the most important bodies in the UK’s education sector.

For the first time, the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) revealed the number of apprenticeship applications through its online database.

Meanwhile, UCAS also announced the number of higher education applications.

The findings are an indicator of a slowly-evolving education landscape in the UK, with the vocational pathway becoming a valuable option for an increasing number of people, making dents in academia’s image as the number one gateway into fulfilling, highly-skilled careers.

New data released by NAS at the start of 2013 showed there were almost 1.13m
apprenticeship applications last year for around 106,000 vacancies in the organisation’s online database.

UCAS also published its End of Cycle Report 2012, which showed that overall demand for higher education had weakened, with applications dropping 6.6 per cent to 653,600.

Those applying were the first to do so under the UK’s new HE fee arrangements and policies, the majority of universities are now charging around £9,000 a year.

The prospect of tens of thousands of pounds’ debt after three years of education with no guarantee of a job at the end has clearly had an impact on students’ decision making.

However, the availability of other options, such as high quality apprenticeships, is also having an impact.

The government has put in place a number of policies to help promote apprenticeships, give employers support, and review programmes that do not meet required standards.

For example, there will be at least another 12 months of £1,500 grants for SMEs that have never taken on an apprentice or have not recruited one in over a year. NAS has conducted reviews of more than 80 cases of providers running short duration apprenticeships following the introduction of new rules stating they should last at least 12 months for 16 to 18-year-olds.

And higher level apprenticeships are gaining further support, providing routes into a greater range of careers — the latest including accounting, insurance and law.

One of the biggest barriers to wide scale acceptance of apprenticeships as a premier route into highly-skilled careers is perception among schools, parents and learners. But, as NAS figures demonstrate, this is slowly changing.

It is also vital that more employers are encouraged to take on apprentices and are made aware of the benefits, as the number of applications is more than ten times greater than advertised apprenticeship places.

Overall, demand for higher education has weakened”

Within EAL’s industry sectors, manufacturing proved extremely popular, with almost 42,000 applications for only 3,500 vacancies on the NAS online database.

Business and administration was the most popular, with more than 300,000 applications for fewer than 27,000 vacancies.

This presents a great recruitment opportunity for employers, as there is clearly huge demand for quality apprenticeship places.

Unemployment is still lingering at incredibly high levels and young people in particular need greater opportunities to get on the career ladder.

Combined with skills shortages in sectors such as engineering, apprenticeships are an ideal solution for employers and young people alike.

As an awarding organisation, EAL works with businesses in our sectors, as well as schools and training providers, to ensure apprenticeships are finely tuned to meet skills needs and offer genuine value for both learners and employers.

Creating more of these high quality apprenticeship opportunities is a priority.

As their popularity increases, however, we must be ever watchful of standards.

Apprenticeships must continue to rival higher education — and in some cases, surpass academia altogether — providing learners with alternative pathways into engineering, manufacturing, construction, business, law and a range of other professions.

Ann Watson, Excellence, Achievement and Learning (EAL) managing director

Apprenticeships made the news time and again in 2012 with a host of reviews. Graham Hoyle, from the AELP, explains what he thinks should be on the apprenticeship agenda for 2013.

As ministers consider the direction they intend to travel following the various reviews of apprenticeships that took place in 2012, it is worth doing a stocktake on where we are on the flagship skills programme so vital in supporting a sustainable economic recovery.

Apprenticeships are assuming an almost unprecedented profile for modern times, even if a university-educated national media may only now be starting to take notice because the increases in HE tuition fees mean more young people with good exam results are looking at apprenticeships as an alternative path to a high-earning career.

Last year’s apprenticeship reviews had some common threads.

We were pleased that while there was an understandable recommendation government funding should support apprenticeships for young people as a priority, improving the skills of existing adult members of the workforce through apprenticeships was recognised as an important element of the programme’s future.

Against the backdrop of the UKCES employer ownership pilots, both Jason Holt and Doug Richard were clearly very sympathetic to the idea that more funding should flow directly to employers, but they recognised this did not necessarily represent a panacea for increased business engagement with apprenticeships, particularly in respect of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Holt review acknowledged that training providers play a key role in ‘selling’ apprenticeships to smaller companies and in our view, the current funding system helps to encourage this.

We remain concerned that some of the proposed major changes in funding routes for apprenticeships could see a reduction in SME take-up rather than the increase that everyone seeks. A change that might work could be an arrangement whereby vouchers are handed to SMEs to help them purchase apprenticeship training provision from quality assured providers.

The government has said again it was committed to introducing traineeships for young people as a route to apprenticeships or other sustainable jobs.

This would be a very positive step, especially if it was also accompanied by fundamental change in the way schoolchildren receive advice about the vocational learning options available to them from the age of 16.

It must remain a priority to ensure young people attain the required levels of English and maths before they leave school rather than have to undertake remedial work during a traineeship.

We still believe schools should be subject to a degree of output-related funding to ensure this critical objective is achieved in 90 per cent of cases.

Last month’s BIS Skills Funding Statement 2012-15 projected a welcome increase in 19+ apprenticeships to 681,000 by 2014-15 accompanied by a modest increase in funding.

Training providers play a key role in ‘selling’ apprenticeships”

However, the need to spend increased amounts of scarce resources on remedial functional skills English and maths activities (because of the failure of schools) is already restricting the number of apprenticeships that can be provided by AELP members, despite having clear evidence of employer demand and apprenticeship growth remaining a clear ministerial priority.

This makes it even more important that the Skills Funding Agency takes full advantage of its in-year reallocation funding powers to reward good performing providers by reallocating funds from underperforming providers of all types to make the system genuinely demand-led.

My members will also take more notice of government mid-term review statements on employer responsiveness if they believe
that the adult skills budget is going to be allocated in full to providers that actually deliver training.

Finally, and remaining positive, we must applaud the continuing high priority governmental support for apprenticeships at all levels as a critical ingredient of the government’s long-term economic growth policy.

Also to be welcomed with real anticipation is the development of an all-embracing, flexible and personalised traineeship programme that will afford expert providers the opportunity to better prepare many in the NEET group to gain sustainable employment.

Graham Hoyle OBE, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP)