Training experts say adults will be put off apprenticeships after the government announcement that training providers must charge VAT on new FE loans.
Chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), Graham Hoyle, pictured right, said the charges would have a “serious impact” on higher apprenticeships.
The charge, which Mr Hoyle expects will be about 20 per cent, will be introduced as part of the “24-plus advanced learning loan” scheme next year, but will not affect learners studying at general FE colleges.
“The current position is very unsatisfactory because it is bound to have a serious impact on the number of adults entering the apprenticeship programme next year,” Mr Hoyle said.
“The government’s ambitions to see more higher apprenticeships will be badly affected. The skills minister has been made aware of this and he has given AELP an assurance that further deliberations will continue in tandem with the current consultation on VAT on higher education.”
In their latest online update, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and HMRC confirmed that no changes will be made to the VAT treatment of further education for 2013/14.
The current position is very unsatisfactory because it is bound to have a serious impact on the number of adults entering the apprenticeship programme next year,”
It said: “It has not been possible to find a solution that would deal with the issues associated with the introduction of loans in isolation, without considering the VAT treatment of further education as a whole.
“The agency, BIS and HRMC are aware of issues raised by some commercial training organisations about the impact that the VAT rules would have on them. BIS and HMRC will continue working together to consider these issues.
“The 24-plus Advanced Learning Loans Policy Overview and FAQ have been updated to reflect this decision.”
FE Week first reported the imminent charge in June. At the time, Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), said that colleges, universities and schools operated on different “playing fields” to private providers.
He argued that general FE colleges were different in particular because they were not-for-profit and served their local community. Mr Doel said that if independent training providers wanted to operate on a par with colleges they would need to accept accountability to their local community.
Gordon Marsden, shadow FE minister, told FE Week the problem was because of the different legal statuses held by colleges and independent training providers. However, he later admitted there was “nothing immediately that can be done”.
The 157 Group has published ‘a collection of ten learner voices’, compiled in collaboration with the National Association of Specialist Colleges (Natspec), on the experiences of students with learning difficulties and disabilities in further education. Click here to download.
Chief executive of Natspec, Alison Boulton, and executive director of 157 Group, Lynne Sedgmore, write in the forward that the voices of learners are key to understanding how colleges can offer the best support.
“The traditional wisdom says that policymakers make policy and practitioners implement it. We believe that it does not have to be that way, and seek, through publications like this, to allow the real experiences of learners to influence those who make policy decisions,” they said.
One of the students featured in the report was former Ruskin Mill College student Charlie Avent, 24, who’s autistic.
Mr Avent is pictured above launching the publication at the 157 Group annual reception this evening, with Lynne Sedgmore, where he said in a speech about his experience being a learner:
I don’t have learning difficulties, I had teaching difficulties”.
With permission from the 157 Group we have included Charlie’s story below, as written by Jan Murray in the publication.
Charlie: Harmony through horsemanship
I didn’t get on well in mainstream education. Reading and writing was a struggle for me, but my teachers didn’t seem to understand my difficulties. Their constant criticism made me angry and confrontational, so it was difficult to make friends.
The kids at school didn’t seem to like me: they’d just beat me up and call me names. I felt completely isolated, as if I were in a foreign country where no one understood my language. By the age of 15, I was losing the will to live.
I did try riding as a child, but autism makes you very sensitive to the world around you and I was often panicky around the horses. Looking back, I realise I was freaked out by the violence of it all, particularly seeing horses being whipped, but I just wasn’t able to articulate those feelings at the time. I’d just freak out or have panic attacks.
I was moved to a special school at 15, and then on to Ruskin Mill College at 19. But despite having greater freedom, I still struggled to fit in at college. Then my art teacher Patricia introduced me to her horse, Oscar, and everything changed.
When I first saw Oscar, it was like meeting a long‑lost member of the family. I knew instinctively that I wanted to understand more about how horses communicate. Having noticed my enthusiasm, staff at Ruskin Mill College arranged for me to do work experience at Heartshore Horses, a centre for natural horsemanship near Minchinhampton in the Cotswolds.
Dawn, who owns the stables, introduced me to the concept of natural horsemanship, explaining how horses communicate through their movement and gestures. If you know what you’re looking for, you can tell if a horse is happy, sad, in love – or even if they like you.
In all, I had 18 months of weekly work experience and learning natural horsemanship at Heartshore. When I left Ruskin Mill College, I asked Dawn if I could stay on doing regular volunteer work at the stables, which I have been doing ever since.
I knew early on that I wanted my own horse, but had no idea how I would afford the livery. After talking it through with Dawn, she said I could keep a horse at Heartshore in exchange for helping out at the stables a few days a week.
Thanks to the help of staff at Ruskin Mill College and Dawn and my colleagues at Heartshore, I now have a much better understanding of myself.”
In natural horsemanship, your horse chooses you, not the other way round. As soon as I saw Spirit, she lowered her head and pawed the ground, which was a very clear sign that she was the horse for me. When your horses chooses you, it is a very powerful moment and I decided then that I wanted to use my interest to help raise awareness of autism.
Since then, I’ve continued to work part time at Heartshore and have started giving demonstrations in natural horsemanship to children and young people with autism. Last year, I gave a talk at the Natspec conference about autism – something I’d never have done before I started working with horses.
When you’re on the autistic spectrum, it’s like your brain is on a different operating system from other people’s; if you compare the brain to a computer, it’s like the difference between Apple and Windows 7.
Thanks to the help of staff at Ruskin Mill College and Dawn and my colleagues at Heartshore, I now have a much better understanding of myself, which means I am far more able to control my behaviour. I’ve learned that no one listens when you’re ranting and raving, which means I am far less likely to flare up like I used to.
I’m 24 now, and when I look back on my teenage years, I can see why I was angry. I felt I had no voice and no choice. I’m sure a lot of young people – and not just those on the autistic spectrum – feel like that.
Young people’s interests are their strength, and if we could develop a system that helped young people pursue their passions, instead of trying to educate everyone in the same way, I’m sure we could reduce anti‑social behaviour and underachievement.
I used to think of autism as a disorder, but my experiences have taught me that being on the autism spectrum is a disability only if you perceive it that way. Imagine an axe: in the wrong hands it can be destructive, but if used in the right way, it can create beautiful things. That’s how I see autism now. And for the first time in my life, I feel I can have my say.
FE Week can reveal that today Peter Roberts (pictured), principal of Leeds City College, has been unanimously elected as chair of the 157 Group.
Mr Roberts takes over from Marilyn Hawkins, the former principal of Barnet and Southgate College, who retired from the post in April 2012.
The 157 Group is a membership organisation, which “represents 27 large, successful and regionally influential Further Education colleges in England.”
Mr Roberts became the first principal of Leeds City College in July 2009, following the merger of Leeds College of Technology, Leeds Thomas Danby College and Park Lane College Leeds and Keighley.
The new merged college received an overall Good – grade 2 – from Ofsted in May 2012.
Prior to joining Leeds City College, Peter was principal at Stockport College for seven years, and he has worked in the FE sector for 25 years.
Mr Roberts is also a member of a number of local, regional and national committees including national Vice Chair of the Mixed Economy Group (MEG); the Learning and Skills Improvement Service Council; the AoC Strategic Quality and Strategic Skills Groups; the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Planning Provider Representative Group, and the National Bureaucracy Reduction Group.
Mr Roberts said: “I am very excited to be taking up the role of chair of the 157 Group at this critical and busy time for the sector. Our impact review demonstrates how much we have achieved under the chairmanship of my predecessor, Marilyn Hawkins, and the learner voice publication launched yesterday is an example of how our work aims to keep a focus on those who matter the most – our learners.”
Sarah Robinson OBE, principal of Stoke on Trent College, was unanmimously elected to the position of vice chair.
FE Week will be at the 157 Group annual reception this event, so stay tuned for more information.
With the budget announcements tomorrow coinciding with the half way point for this Government, Steve Besley, Head of Policy at Pearson, looks at what might lie ahead for the world of FE
The end of the year is always a busy time for the FE sector but this year it brings the added twist of marking the halfway point for the Coalition Government. From now on, the context will be increasingly set by the build up to the May 2015 general election. Indeed there’s already been talk of updating the Coalition Agreement though it seems we’ll now have to wait for the New Year for any announcements on that.
For FE, the last two and a half years have been spent coping with the funding settlement set out in the early stages of the Coalition while trying to provide the skills programmes needed. Its faced some new ambitions such as those on apprenticeship numbers, levels of English and maths, and quality standards, some important consultations on funding reform, 16-19 programmes, apprenticeship provision and ESOL, and some significant Papers including those on HE, adult and community learning and fee loans. Its had a few sticks waved at it in the form of new inspection criteria, new efficiency requirements and a new intervention escalation process but also had some carrots dangled in front of it such as simpler systems and greater freedom. It has survived but it has been a tough slog.
So what now, what should FE expect for the next two and a half years, more of the same or something different? The new(ish) Minister’s commissioning of a Guild suggests he’s keen to keep the momentum of the New Challenges, New Chances reform programme going while funding will never be far away especially with a new spending round tomorrow. It points in other words to more of the same.
Four issues in particular, however, look likely to dominate.
First, further transformation of the skills system away from centralised planning and towards local responsiveness. The mantra here is employer ownership, putting employers in the driving seat and where possible diverting funding to them so that demand led becomes a reality. This approach can be seen in such mechanisms as the Employer Ownership Pilots and some of the City Deals and has been adopted as a way forward by both major Parties. Ed Miliband’s Conference speech pledging to put a cool £1bn of apprenticeship funding into the hands of managing employer groups and Michael Heseltine’s recent single pot proposition for locally commissioned provision are both examples of where this approach is gathering momentum.
Providers are left grappling with some of the teething problems associated with funding change while having to operate two increasingly divergent funding systems.”
The issue here is responsiveness, a strong theme in Ofsted’s challenging Report in July and a big driver for Government generally but one that is not always straightforward. Labour market signals are not always clear and providers need to know where responsibilities for identifying them lie. Under the Heseltine model for instance, labour market needs would be articulated through (LEPs) Local Enterprise Partnerships and providers would negotiate business plans with them. The danger here is that this adds another layer of complexity to an already perceived complex system. As ever, the fit between demand and supply in the world of FE remains uneasy and is likely to see further refinements in the coming months.
Second, and never far away, funding reform. The story here over the last two and a bit years has been threefold: streamlining the system so as in theory at least to free up providers from bureaucratic restrictions; protecting essential provision and those most in need; ameliorating where possible the impact of cuts by adopting more efficient forms of provision on the one hand and fee loans and co-investment on the other. Views remain mixed about the effect of all of these and given both the new funding system and 24+ fee loans don’t kick off in until next year, the full picture is unlikely to be clear for some time.
For the moment, providers are left grappling with some of the teething problems associated with funding change while having to operate two increasingly divergent funding systems, one for pre-19 provision, one for post-19 and facing considerable uncertainty about the impact of fee loans on 24+ provision. According to recent figures from the SFA, 40% of colleges have strong financial health ratings compared to 29% four years ago; it says a lot about how well the sector has adapted and it will need to continue to do so.
Third, qualification reform. Much of this is being driven by changes in the schools sector but these and other waves will equally hit FE over the next few years. At 16-19 for example, apart from the proposed introduction of English Bacc Certificates due in core subjects from 2015, there are important changes coming to both A’ levels and general Programmes of Study from next September. Maths too remains an important element as the Level 2 threshold becomes established, alternative provision post-16 is identified and the big heave to raise performance levels for a substantial number of adults gets under way. Elsewhere, further development work seems likely to follow recent consultations on ESOL and Higher Apprenticeships, Ofqual continues to review the QCF, NOS and market generally while the impact of the Innovation Code remains a subject for debate. The issue here, as for much of the qualification system, remains how best to ensure quality while providing for flexibility.
Fourth, quality, or more precisely professional standards leading to quality, brought to the fore recently by the Lingfield Review. More wide ranging than anticipated, the Review has pointed the sector in a particular direction with its proposals for different forms of governance, the setting of professional responsibilities in a standard Covenant, new forms of peer assessment for high-performing institutions let alone of course the creation of a leading representative body in the form of a Guild.
Quite what impact this Review will have on the sector is hard to say at this stage but coupled with the work of the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning and that of LSIS on professional qualifications, we may yet see much stronger professional recognition for the sector. Something at least to look forward to.
A new deputy chief executive has been appointed to the Association of Colleges (AoC).
Gill Clipson, principal of Amersham and Wycombe College, will replace Lesley Davies who left the AoC to become Director of Quality and Standards at Pearson.
The announcement follows an unsettled time for the AoC, which has been making voluntary and compulsory redundancies as part of a cost saving and restructuring process, as reported in FE Week in May.
Gill held a number of senior management positions before joining Amersham and Wycombe, one of the largest educational institutions in Buckinghamshire, made up of over 2,000 full-time and over 5,000 part-time students. The college which specialises in the arts was ranked as satisfactory — a grade three, by Ofsted who last inspected the institution in 2011.
Gill has worked nationally on the quality and improvement agenda and has also worked as an inspector. She is a trustee on the Board of Creative and Cultural Skills and has worked with the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy since its inception. She was a board member of the Buckinghamshire Economic and Learning Partnership as well as a principal on the Gazelle Colleges Group which aims to “transform colleges through entrepreneurship”.
The AoC employs over 100 members of staff, as well more than 30 staff at three sister organisations located in separate regions.
An AoC spokesperson said: “The AoC can confirm that Gill Clipson, currently principal at Amersham and Wycombe College, is being appointed as our deputy chief executive, subject to the usual negotiations around a start date.”
At the time of going to press Gill Clipson was unavailable for comment.
A group of cross-party MPs and leading figures from the further education sector have called on multinational companies and colleges to join forces to help “awaken” the “sleeping giant” of FE.
The report, published today by the Skills Commission, urges companies to buy stakes in FE providers – creating new branded colleges, such as a ‘Google College’ or ‘Dyson College’.
Co-chaired by former Education Select Committee chair, Barry Sheerman MP, and chair of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, Dame Ruth Silver, the Commission’s report follows a six-month inquiry and urges colleges to do more to adapt to local businesses’ needs and encourage investment.
Mr Sheerman said there was a “vast untapped pool of talent” in colleges that, with high quality leadership and management, could transform communities.
“The FE Sector is described by some as a sleeping giant,” said Mr Sheerman.
“Let us work together and awaken its full potential. We believe FE colleges could play a much bigger role in driving local and regional economic growth, skills and employment.
To do this colleges needed to become known as providers of “first class specialist training that fully understand the needs of their local businesses and clients”, he said.
The report sets out ten key recommendations calling for The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) to investigate what incentives could best encourage large firms to invest in FE.
It said vocational courses could be adapted to meet the specific needs of businesses local to colleges and urges the government to create a publicly backed loan scheme which could ensure colleges had the most up-to-date facilities.
Building on Lord Heseltine’s growth review, the report also called for the creation of a network of ‘McKinsey Colleges’ — named after a leading global consultancy firm — to provide business development services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“We want employers to think of colleges as ‘first choice specialists, not as second best generalists’,” Mr Sheerman said.
The report’s ten recommendations:
Ofsted should review technical and vocational provision across FE.
The Institute for Learning and LSIS should examine professional development in FE.
The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) should consider the role of specialisation in the next phase of the Employer Ownership Pilots.
UKCES should consider how large firms can be encouraged to invest in FE.
UKCES should undertake an audit of specialist infrastructure, facilities and equipment across the FE sector.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) should look into a government backed loan scheme to support the specialist infrastructure, facilities and equipment within FE.
The Technology Strategy Board should review the take up of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and consider how providers can be encouraged to take up more of these.
The Association of Colleges (AoC) and Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) should review the number of providers that offer business development services and the funding gained from these.
AoC and AELP should develop a set of best practice guidelines for business development services offered by FE providers.
The BIS Select Committee should consider the role of specialist providers in regional and local economic development.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has rejected proposals that would call time on the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).
This comes despite the former Tory deputy Prime Minister, Lord Heseltine, recommending the agencies responsibilities should be devolved to regions through local enterprise partnerships.
In a question and answer session at the Association of Colleges (AoC) annual conference Dr Cable said he was happy with current funding arrangements for colleges and that some of Lord Heseltine’s proposals would lead to unnecessary complications.
“What we don’t want to do in a sector, where there’s sensible college funding, is to create another tier of bureaucracy. To create a model for transferring money en masse is simply not going to happen,” Dr Cable said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) said it was still looking at Lord Heseltine’s evidence and would respond shortly. “There are a number of far-reaching recommendations regarding the UK’s ability to compete in Lord Heseltine’s independent report,” a spokesperson said.
“These are Lord Heseltine’s views, and the government now needs time to consider these recommendations and hear the views of business and other stakeholders.”
BIS decline to comment on the future of the SFA.
We’ve already had to adapt so many times and it creates a phenomenal amount of extra work.”
Julian Gravatt, the AoC’s assistant chief executive, said it was good to see ministerial support for the SFA funding model.
“A shift to funding through local authorities, or LEPs, as set out by Lord Heseltine, would add extra complication to an already intricate funding system,” he said.
“We are not convinced that LEPs would be capable of taking on an enhanced role, which if instigated, would no doubt require a costly re-organisation at a time when budgets for further education and skills are already being cut.”
Eileen Cavalier, an associate member of the parliamentary group for skills and employment, and chief executive of the London College of Beauty Therapy, said the SFA should remain and branded Lord Heseltine’s proposals “totally impractical”.
“In theory Lord Heseltine’s recommendations sound good, but in practice they wouldn’t work. I don’t see how local enterprise partnerships would be able to cope with the volume of that administration, with the wide range of providers involved,” she said.
“It would massively complicate things for the provider. We deliver nationally on some programmes, if funding was split up regionally, how would it work from a provider’s point of view?
“In my time, we’ve gone from the Further Education Funding Council, replaced by the Learning and Skills Council in 2001, which became the Young People’s Learning Agency, and now it’s the Education Funding Agency and SFA. We’ve already had to adapt so many times and it creates a phenomenal amount of extra work.”
More light may be shed on the future of the agency next Wednesday when Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, sets out the government’s budget plans in his autumn statement.
