City College Norwich (CCN) is developing a federation model alongside two academies and a potential University Technical College (UTC), which will help share essential services and promote collaboration.
Dick Palmer, principal of CCN, says their proposals include a shared services company which will be in charge of purchasing “basically everything other than teaching and learning.”
“Our shared services will be quite unusual,” Mr Palmer told FE Week.
“It will be providing services to both FE colleges and schools, but we’re also looking at possibly the fullest range of shared services I think that anyone is looking at.
“So we’re looking at advice and guidance, PR, marketing, library services, as well as the normal things like HR, finance, IT and premises.”
The college was given £900,000 last year through a Skills Funding Agency Collaboration and Shared Services grant to help setup the federation. The partnership, which consists of CCN, City Academy Norwich and Wayland Academy in Watton, aims to help all of the providers be more efficient when purchasing services, including impartial information, advice and guidance (IAG).
“Schools are expected to get impartial advice and guidance and we know that’s quite difficult for many schools to do that,” Mr Palmer said.
“We already provide an impartial IAG service from within the college, not just to ourselves but to other people around the region, and we know it can help deliver that in our federation schools as well.” He added: “Creating a better, wider, more supported and more informed learner experience is undoubtedly part of the ambition for the project.”
David Brunton, principal of City Academy Norwich, says the federation could also include up to seven more providers, including a UTC which CCN hopes will be approved later this month.
Mr Brunton said: “We’re hoping that something in the region of ten organisations will form part of the federation so we can maximise our purchasing power. In the current climate of individual academies, there is a danger of isolation and therefore another key element of the federation is to setup formal, collaborative structures focused on the development of high quality teaching and learning.”
The federation will launch in September and be fully operational by January 2013.
Mr Brunton said: “We will own the service company and they will be part of our federation, so we will have direct input and be able to hold them to account for their performance.
“That closeness of the relationship gives all partners within the federation a sense of ownership, and it’s not only about having the service available, it’s about having high quality and value for money.”
He added: “We think, with the spending power that we have, we will be able to make sure that we deliver the highest level of service.”
Growing up in rural Lancashire, the young Gordon Birtwistle wanted to be a joiner and undertaker. But while he liked the idea of making coffins, he wasn’t quite so keen on the idea of working with dead bodies.
“That was the job in those days; make the coffins, bury the people or burn them,” he recalls, grimly.
When he left his secondary modern school at 15 (having failed the 11 plus examination “miserably”), Birtwistle did apply, unsuccessfully, to be an apprentice joiner and coffin-maker.
He ended up with a job at a textile machinery manufacturers in Accrington, and by the time he was 21, was a qualified jig and draughtsman, with two higher national certificates under his belt and no regrets about not making it as an undertaker.
But it was tough going. The Liberal Democrat MP for Burnley recalls: “I worked in the skill workshop, as a mechanic and in the machine shop repairing the machines. I worked with the ‘mill rats,’ men who moved heavy machines around the plant, and I worked in the foundry with molten metal. I did everything.”
And on top of a 46-hour working week, including Saturdays, Birtwistle also went to college three nights-a-week and spent most of his weekends studying
But life was hard for everyone in Lancashire back then, he says.
His parents grew their own vegetables and bred chickens and rabbits to feed the family and Thursday night was “always mashed potatoes because that’s all we had left.” His mother couldn’t afford to buy anything else until his dad – a wood pattern maker – came home on Friday with his wages.
After ten years working in engineering, including a stint as a sales rep, selling machine tools, Birtwistle decided to set up his own engineering company.
He became a local councillor in the early eighties and Burnley Council leader in 2006, but despite having three attempts at winning a parliamentary seat, he never seriously thought he would become an MP.
In fact, he jokes, he only made a third attempt – in the 2010 general election – because he was the only candidate that could afford to buy the leaflets.
Much to his own surprise – and his colleagues in the Liberal Democrat party – he won, by a majority of almost 2,000. But becoming an MP, at the age of 66, came as a big shock to Birtwistle, who had just retired.
“I had a load of mates at the allotment, I was growing veg, I’d won a prize for my tomatoes, I was taking the grandchildren to school…it was great fun. And all of a sudden I was back in it,” he says.
But becoming an MP in a former Labour stronghold (the seat had been held by the party for 77 years) brought challenges. Having run the election campaign from a room over the top of a funeral parlour, Birtwistle realised he needed an office and some staff – and he needed them fast.
It’s all very well getting these results, but when the young people can’t get a job afterwards, that’s defeating the object”
Within the space of a couple of weeks, he had acquired, decorated and furnished an office, recruited a team of staff for both Burnley and Westminster and been appointed parliamentary undersecretary to the chief secretary to the treasury, Danny Alexander – quite a lot to take in for a man who “had only been to London about seven times in my life.”
While he still doesn’t like London, Birtwistle has settled into his new role. And earlier this year, he became chair of a new All Party Parliamentary Group dedicated to apprenticeships.
Launched by the awarding organisations EAL and IMI, the group will focus on the changing needs of employers and apprentices across the engineering, manufacturing, building and automative sectors.
“We have to up our exports, we have to get rid of our balance of payments deficit; once we have done that, growth will fly,” he says. “But growth won’t fly unless we have people to ensure we do it.
“When I started work, manufacturing was at least 40 per cent, maybe 45 per cent, of GDP. We didn’t have balance of payment problems in those days, even though we didn’t have much money.
“But in the last 30 years, manufacturing has been allowed to decline and previous governments have banked everything on the service sector and the city. The city catches a cold and we all catch pneumonia.”
In Burnley, where the majority of jobs come from manufacturing, many companies have permanent vacancies because they can’t recruit enough skilled workers, he says.
Burnley’s biggest company has an average age profile of 45, and there are too few people coming up behind them.
“I think it is completely tragic when we have young people who can’t get jobs, so let’s kill two birds with one stone and train young people to do the jobs of the future, so that the companies that we have, that are prospering, will have the staff in the future.”
But “Mickey Mouse apprenticeships are no good,” he says, by which he means short apprenticeships, particularly in the retail and service sector, some of which can be completed in as little as 12 weeks.
“We have got to have proper apprenticeships where people do proper training for a period of time until they are skilled at their job. My apprenticeship took five years.
I wasn’t qualified and I didn’t get full pay, until I had served my time. I accept now, with modern technology, they [young people] don’t need to do five years, but they certainly need to do three years.”
The reason some young people are not considering apprenticeships, is because their perceptions – particularly of manufacturing – are outdated, he says.
“It’s not the Terry Webster type engineering that you see on Coronation Street with dirty overalls on and an oily rag in his top pocket. That’s not engineering any more – it’s high-tech manufacturing.
But if attitudes are to change, young people must have access to good quality independent advice and guidance – something that has been lacking in schools for the past 25 years, says Birtwistle. “Secondary schools should be more involved with careers than they are at the moment.
“I think they are more concerned with meeting targets, five A*-C including maths and English, and they have taken their eye off the ball on what they do once they have left. It’s all very well getting these results, but when the young people can’t get a job afterwards, that’s defeating the object.”
Birtwistle is amongst those Liberal Democrat MPs who voted for a rise in university tuition fees. And he is keen to point out that he did challenge Vince Cable on the detail of the policy, including how the new tuition fee structure would affect students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
But he is unrepentant about his decision, saying the increase was necessary to help get the country out of economic trouble.
“Danny Alexander’s predecessor left a little note saying, ‘There’s no money left. Good luck.’ Now, I’ve been brought up that if you’ve got no money, you don’t spend it.”
If he could achieve one thing during his time as an MP, it would be to see manufacturing up to a minimum of 20 per cent of the UK’s GDP, he says.
“If we get it to that, then apprenticeships will follow, there won’t be as many young people out of work, the balance of payments will be almost resolved and we will have massive growth in the economy.”
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has published a research paper detailing how learners feel about the upcoming “24+ Advanced Learning Loans” policy.
The research, carried out by TNS BMRB, found that 74 per cent of learners aged 23 or above said “they at least might take a course” at level 3, while more than half (58 per cent) said they would consider taking out an FE loan to fund it.
The research included 18 focus groups, consisting of four people each, as well as an online survey completed by 405 “likely future learners” aged 23 and above.
“This created worry about costs, debt, impact on poorer groups,” the presentation reads.
“Associated with bank loans and credit with heavy, inflexible, high rates of interest.”
However, the Department says their opinions changed once the scheme was explained to them in-depth.
“Most felt they would not be put off after understanding the full details, although those aged over 40 and seeking a route back into the labour market were still negative.”
A further 18 group discussions, which consisted of eight people, and two mini groups of four people were used to complete the study.
The Department has concluded that FE loans “do not appear a strong deterrent to participation”, and will be successful if the policy is communicated well.
“The core questions people had (income threshold, repayment levels, eligibility) need to be answered upfront as early as possible, alongside the reassurance that repayments cease
when income dips below the threshold,” the research report states.
“No upfront costs are also seen as a key benefit of loans, and should be communicated early on.
“All these elements can be distilled into a couple of introductory sentences, and could replace the current initial messages that refer to an end to the government subsidy.”
It later adds: “The final piece of core information – interest rates – is more problematic.
“This is an important aspect of the loans proposition, and questions about it arise spontaneously; but the arrangements are difficult to communicate succinctly.”
(FE Week held a roundtable debate about the upcoming FE loans scheme last Wednesday. Read our event report here.)
The fast-approaching FE loans policy has been labelled as “very complex to implement”, “difficult to market” and cause for “real worry” from key figures in the sector.
A roundtable debate, held at the FE Week office and attended by a representative from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the University and College Union (UCU) and the National Union of Students (NUS), as well as the shadow minister for FE, among others, was used to discuss the sector’s growing concerns with the scheme.
Peter Pledger, chief executive of South London Business and chairman of the Confederation of Apprenticeship Training Agencies (COATA), criticised the government’s timetable for introducing the policy, emphasising that learners would need more time to think about applying for a loan.
“With all due respect, you need to get your act together,” he said.
The Department has revealed to FE Week that the new system has been renamed as “24+ Advanced Learning Loans”.
A BIS spokesperson told FE Week: “After carrying out testing with a sample of learners, we have chosen the name ‘24+ Advanced Learning Loans”’.
“This describes the loan offer which covers learners aged 24 and above studying at level 3 and above.”
Gordon Marsden, shadow minister for FE, skills and regional growth, emphasised at the roundtable debate that learners in FE are very different to those in HE, and should be treated accordingly by the Student Loans Company (SLC).
Mr Marsden said: “(The) government can say until its blue in the face that it will be done in the same way as HE loans.
“They may want to use the same instrument, the SLC, but it’s a very different kettle of fish, delivering loans across variable courses for variable lengths and at variable times of the year, to doing a sort of one size fits all with HE loans.”
Andrew King, the lead on FE loans at BIS, responded: “We have had to look at how the systems operate in relation to that, and ensure that there are systems in place so that it can be dealt with.”
Toni Pearce, vice president (FE) at the NUS, said the absence of UCAS in the further education sector would be another issue for the SLC.
She said: “For the SLC to only have to interface with UCAS is one thing, but to have to interface with a variety of different providers in the country?
“We could well be in a situation where students receive a loan and don’t get onto their course, or get onto their course and then don’t receive a loan because those two things have to interface separately.”
The FE loans scheme was first announced as part of the spending review in 2010.
The priority is to shift money towards young people in an age where we have millions of young people unemployed”
A budget was then set to introduce FE loans in 2013/14 (£129 million) and 2014/15 (£398 million), based on the current system used in higher education (HE).
It is understood that learners will make repayments on an income contingent basis, equivalent to nine per cent above the £21,000 threshold.
The Department held a consultation with the sector last summer, and has also published reports detailing the initial impact assessment and equalities screening impact assessment.
The final versions of these reports – alongside new market research which examines the potential impact of FE loans on learners – are expected to be published later this month.
Mr Marsden said he was waiting with “baited breath” to see how the research had been carried out.
“I think the whole picture that we’re building up is of concern, concern that people will be nudged away from FE and real, severe difficulties about the implementation period, and relative breakneck speed at which this is now proceeding,” Mr Marsden said.
“Yes, it was flagged up in 2010, but what has actually happened between 2010 and up to the last six months? The answer is very little.”
Kate Lomas, a lecturer at Greenwich Community College and member of UCU, said she knew teaching staff who were still unaware of the policy, and that it would be very difficult to sell the concept of a loan to learners in their local area.
“Teachers who are involved in enrolment and marketing, who have to promote the college, are going to find it very difficult to market,” she said.
“We’ve spent a lot of time trying to engage adult learners, over 24s, and particularly women in our community, and it’s going to be very difficult to sell that whole notion to them.”
Mr Pledger said he did, however, support the introduction of the FE loans system.
“It’s absolutely the right policy,” Mr Pledger said.
Kate Lomas, lecturer at Greenwich Community College and UCU member and Peter Pledger, chief executive of South London Business and chairman of COATA
“Will it hurt FE colleges? Yes. Will it hurt adult community colleges? Yes. But that’s not the priority. The priority is to shift money towards young people in an age where we have millions of young people unemployed and that’s where you want to shift money, and we support it.”
Mr Pledger added that the introduction of FE loans would also help create a “truer market” for learners aged 25 and above.
“They will choose the courses that truly will help them make more money,” he said.
The shadow minister for FE responded by saying the government should be worried about the effect the policy will have on the record number of new adult apprentices.
“I think the government should be concerned that their much flaunted expansion in post -24 apprenticeships could well fall off a cliff if this goes wrong, because you will get droves and droves of people not prepared to take a post 24 apprenticeship loan up on an individual basis,” he said.
Mr Pledger said that while he agreed the number of adult apprentices would drop following the implementation of the loans system, it would also ensure greater value for money and help eradicate ‘deadweight’.
“What I would like is – if we’ve got a limited amount of resource – is that resource is focused at those under 24 without a level two or level three qualification, and if we want people to up skill at a higher level, the employer either pays for it or the individuals get loans on qualifications that truly meet their needs,” Mr Pledger said.
Mr King said the Department had looked “very seriously” at apprenticeships, and argued that many apprentices would be happy to take out a loan once they understood the value of the qualification associated with their programme.
“Once they understand the offer of the loan that’s available to them, that’s when they’re willing and willing to cost taking that out,” Mr King said.
“(They) see the value of the loan offer that’s available, rather than just the increasing debt that it might otherwise be seen as.”
The Department will be using a paper based system with the SLC to manage the loan applications from April next year.
However, Maxine Room said the FE loans system should be deferred a year unless an online system was available instead.
“I’m driving an e-strategy in my college, and it seems incredible that you’re even thinking about it,” the principal of Lewisham College said.
“What will happen in colleges – and the psyche of college is something I know well – is you start with a paper based system, you then go to an online system, but staff keep their paper based system because they’re worried about the online system.”
Mr King was clear the Department was developing an online system simultaneously, which they hoped to implement at the earliest opportunity.
“It’s not that we’ve made the decision not to have an online system, but obviously (we’re doing) as much as we can to accelerate that process and potentially bring it forward,” he said.
Gordon Marsden, shadow minister for FE, Skills and Regional Growth, Maxine Room, principal, Lewisham College, Toni Perace, VP for FE, NUS and Andrew King, lead on FE loans at BIS
However, Ms Room said providers would also need time to trial the online system.
“We need to have our information this year, now, and the system up and running so we can trial it,” she said.
“We’ve had issues in our own organisation about trialling some of the system changes, and staff have been very negative when we’ve put systems in without actually piloting them.
“Now for you to come in and say the system is a paper based one, but you might have an online one, well for me is a no-no.”
The new name for FE loans, “24+ Advanced Learning Loans”, was also criticised during the roundtable debate.
“Well it could be simpler,” Ms Room said.
“It’s not a name; it’s a descriptor isn’t it?”
Mr Marsden added: “I think the name is potentially going to have the unintended consequence of turning quite a lot of people off.
“I’m sure that’s not what (BIS’) intention is, but I think the psychology hasn’t been thought about.”
Mr King said the new name was a result of a survey conducted with the sector.
“It wasn’t a name we put forward as part of the survey, but it was actually something that was suggested as part of the responses.
“So we gave three responses and people came back with ideas about Advanced Learning Loans, and 24 + Advanced Learning Loans. They felt there should certainly be an age related element to the title and that it should be referenced to the type of learning it was for.”
Tom Wilson, director, UnionLearn, TUC David Hughes, chief executive, NIACE
Ever-rising levels of unemployment, lack of skills among sections of the population, equality, changing policy and funding rates are just some of the issues that those in further education need to battle on a daily basis.
But how do they move forward? The potential answers were discussed at The Future of Adult Learning, organised by the Westminster Employment Forum, last Tuesday.
Deborah Roseveare, head of the skills beyond school division in the directorate for education at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said there are three reasons why adult learning matters.
She said: “First, it contributes to human capital development, both economic and social. Secondly, the changing skills demand, especially over the 40 years of working life.
“Thirdly, demographics mean if you want to boost the human capital and you want to meet changing skills demands, then you have to look at adult learning, because the university cohort adds such a little fraction to the labour force each year.”
Mrs Roseveare also told delegates the OECD is currently carrying out a survey to assess skills held by adults, which will be available in October.
She said: “One of the challenges that we have is that we don’t know what skills adults actually have and the good news is we are currently carrying out a major international survey of adult foundation skills.
“This is looking at literacy, numeracy and problem solving and a lot of information about background and how they are using their skills if they are in the workplace.”
Mrs Roseveare said adult learning should not be looked at “in isolation”, adding: “Adult learning needs to be linked to other economic and social policies.
“We are, in a few weeks, going to be releasing the OECD skills strategy, which looks at the evidence and sets out a framework for developing better policies for skills development and utilisation.”
David Hughes, the chief executive of the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), spoke of the opportunities and challenges for adult learning.
“I’m not wholly optimistic about the way things are going at the moment.
“Therefore, opportunities are difficult to focus on and actually I think challenges are what we should be focusing on,” he said.
He began with six “areas of context”, such as the economic crisis, which Mr Hughes believes is also a social crisis.
The second point, he added, is government uncertainty, “about understanding what they are about and what they stand for”.
His third point revolved around “fewer adults” learning, while the threat to widening participation, caused by declining numbers, funding cuts and reductions in the unit of funding for learning, was his fourth point.
He added: “The fifth is a shift, particularly around level 3, from state funding to state financing, so we are moving into a world where we are asking people to take loans at level 3 which has never happened before.
“We should be worrying about the impact of that.”
His final point related to the government’s localism agenda.
Moving on, Mr Hughes then spoke of key challenges, including the “need to promote adult learning in terms of its wider benefits” and inequality.
He also added: “I think there is going to be a social wave of concern around social inequalities in our society. We’ve got to get in there and show just how unequal so much of the adult learning sector is in terms of the sorts of people who participate.”
Mr Hughes also stressed “all forms of adult learning are equally important” and the best employers “really do understand that learning is an important skill”.
However, he also suggested that the sector needs to “rehabilitate the word ‘learning’”.
He said: “We’ve focused too much on skills, too much on training and too much on teaching, rather than learning.
I’m not wholly optimistic about the way things are going at the moment”
“It’s positive to us in this room but if you go to many people out there, they don’t think learning is a positive. If you think about people taking their driving tests, they are proud if they do it in as fewer lessons as possible, as the learning is not what they want, it’s the passing.
Meanwhile, Tom Wilson, director of unionlearn, the learning and skills organisation of the TUC, said: “From a trade union perspective, we are quite optimistic.”
He also said: “Through unionlearn, we have around 230,000 people every year going through some form of learning.”
Mr Wilson spoke of a recent trip to Germany with skills minister John Hayes.
“There isn’t that same distinction between personal, informal and what counts as company learning. There is encouragement for all sorts of learning and a recognition that the two blend into each other,” said Mr Wilson.
The director also said it is the union’s view that, in order to get “any kind of job” in Britain today, you need “at least” a level 2.
He said: “Most of the young unemployed are people who can’t get a job, because they can’t get a level 2. If you think about all sorts of jobs, retail, working construction sites, social care, restaurants, hotels, they require basic levels of skills, which they didn’t used to.”
Mr Wilson later said: “It’s not the squeezed middle, it’s the excluded bottom.
“The two or three million out there, of any age, who can’t get in the workplace or easily engaged and we have to reach out to them and the way to do that is informal learning.”
Deborah Roseveare, head of Skills Beyond School Division, Directorate for Education, OECD
Other discussions continued with talks from representatives of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Working Links, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, National Numeracy, UNISON and Rolls Royce.
Meanwhile, president-elect for Association of Colleges, Maggie Galliers, gave an insight as principal of Leicester College into adult apprenticeships.
But it was a question from the floor, surrounding the “disappearance” of ESOL, which caught the eye.
Mr Hughes said: “It’s a question we keep asking ministers.
“It’s gone quiet, I think really simply for political reasons and that mixture between ESOL being about people coming in to this country and that whole paranoia, right-wing paranoia, about immigration.
“They just want to put it to bed. What they’ve done is said nothing about it and hope it goes away as an issue.
“We should be promoting ESOL as a positive part of creating a society that we want to live in. That’s the kind of positive that we want to turn it around to and I think the government and ministers don’t want to talk about it.
Elmfield Training Ltd, who have been scrutinised by the BIS Select Committee for their delivery of apprenticeships with Morrisons, are starting to make redundancies.
A spokesperson for Elmfield Training told FE Week: “In respect of the staff consultation, part of running a business is to make sure there are the right people in the right geographical areas to meet customers’ needs and this consultation is part of this process.
“Having gained new customers recently, as well as continuing to work with existing ones, we expect to be able to redeploy the majority of staff who might be affected and where this is not possible we will make every effort to help them get alternative jobs.
“The current changes taking place affect a relatively small proportion of our workforce.”
The spokesperson did not disclose how many redundancies are taking place, or if there are more to follow.
FE Week approached Elmfield Training about the redundancies following an unpublished comment posted on the FE Week website. It reads: “The ‘little guys’ are already beginning to pay the price as Elmfield started its first round of redundancies this week.
“As a dedicated employee who has been involved in assisting learners to enhance their skills and increase their employability prospects (which is what the company so proudly presents as its goals) we are now faced with being thrown on the scrapheap as a result – hypocrisy in the worst form.”
Another comment left on the FE Week website, which has not been published, claims that assessors are being pressured into accrediting Morrisons apprentices prematurely.
When asked about the claims a spokesperson for Elmfield Training said: “This has been a highly successful contract with great outcomes for learners.
“Our stringent governance and quality control arrangements mean that our work is very carefully monitored, with all of our staff working within a strict code of conduct and any deviation away from this is taken very seriously.”
The CEO of Elmfield Training, Ged Syddal, was accused by an MP of a “rip off” during an evidence session held by the BIS Select Committee for their inquiry into apprenticeships.
It follows pre-tax profits of £12.3 million for the company in 2009/10, which Mr Syddall has confirmed “was all government money”.
The provider was also scrutinised during the BBC One Panorama programme, “The Great Apprentice Scandal.”
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has realigned the funding rates used in the Employer Responsive (ER) Other funding stream, matching the funding rates currently paid for Adult Learner Responsive (ALR) delivery.
More than 750 learning aims have been changed in-year, significantly increasing the amount of funding which providers will receive for delivering qualifications.
The changes, which are effective immediately, will also back pay providers for the previous nine months in the 2011/12 academic year.
A spreadsheet published by the SFA shows that the funding attributed to each qualification have all risen, with some, such as the Diploma in Roof Slating and Tiling, increasing by as much as 781 per cent.
The SFA has not revealed the overall cost of the change, but told FE Week: “We have modelled the impact of these changes and this was taken to the Funding External Technical Advisory Group.”
Many private training providers used to be only funded on the basis they would be delivering qualifications in the workplace.
The training was thought to take more teaching time than if it was delivered in a classroom, and was therefore funded at a lower rate.
However, the introduction of the single Adult Skills Budget (ASB) has enabled providers to deliver classroom provision, creating an anomaly in funding rates.
By upping the rate where the differences are marked, the SFA appear to be equalising rates fairly and encouraging a broader range of qualification delivery.”
The SFA website reads: “The consequence of this has been to highlight differences between the funding rates in Adult Learner Responsive (ALR) and Employer Responsive (ER) Other provision, due to the different drivers used to set rates historically.
“This will not be an issue in the longer term.
“Under our testing of a new streamlined and simplified funding methodology, to be introduced from 2013/14, the aim is that there is a single funding rate for every learning aim regardless of the mode of delivery.”
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has welcomed the change in ER Other funding rates, as well as the SFA’s plans to equalise the funding of all stand-alone workplace and classroom based qualifications in 2013/14.
Paul Warner, director of employment and skills for the AELP, told FE Week: “The good news about the ER alignment is that it aligns the variances where the variances are most marked, as opposed to aligning merely the most popular qualifications.
“By upping the rate where the differences are marked, the SFA appear to be equalising rates fairly and encouraging a broader range of qualification delivery.”
He added: “We don’t see why any provider should lose from this if they are performing well. However, as the funding for alignment will come from claw back money, we hope that this move will not adversely impact on the ability of good providers to grow under the new system.”
Training providers which will benefit from the changes include Building Crafts College, who expect to receive at least an extra £100,000 throughout 2011/12.
Philip Wildman, director of corporate affairs for Building Crafts College, told FE Week: “Do we welcome it? Absolutely. These increases have actually, from our perspective, restored the values available to us under the previous regime.”
Colleges spent at least £65 million on agency staff during the last financial year, according to information obtained by Unison.
The trade union has calculated a combined bill of £64,613,485 for 170 colleges through freedom of information requests.
The disclosure, which details spending between August 2010 and July 2011, follows plans for potential redundancies at a number of FE colleges across the country, as revealed in FE Week last month.
Unison say using agency workers is “a disgraceful waste of money”, and colleges should be using their resources to either protect jobs or improve wages.
Jon Richards, head of education at Unison, said: “Colleges are claiming that they cannot afford to relieve the pressure on workers and their families by giving them a pay rise.
“These staff will be rightly shocked that colleges have tens of millions to spend on agency workers and on VAT bills.”
Mr Richards added: “It is time for colleges to stop wasting money and manage their budgets so they can pay workers fairly and safeguard jobs.”
While Leeds City College appears at the top of the table, it is important to look at these figures in context.”
Leeds City College, who spent a total of £2,777,628 on agency workers in 2010/11, came out highest in the information gathered by Unison.
However, the college told FE Week it is common practice to employ external contractors and consultants.
A statement from the college reads: “It is imperative for the college to be able to fulfil its key function of teaching and learning – and due to a number of factors (for example maternity cover, staff absences as a result of illness), there may be the requirement for the use of highly specialised academic or business support personnel for short specific periods of time and/or projects.”
It later adds: “While Leeds City College appears at the top of the table, it is important to look at these figures in context.
“Leeds City College is the third largest FE college in the country and any additional temporary spend is likely to be numerically greater than that of most other colleges.
“In 2010/11, the College had an annual turnover of £80 million, with more than 45,000 students over multiple sites.
“College agency spend highlighted is the equivalent of 3.4% of total turnover.”
Rotherham College of Arts and Technology, which spent £2,214,529 on agency workers in 2010/11, has also defended the practice and says it helps them to quickly respond to learner needs.
Gill Alton, principal and chief executive of the college, told FE Week: “We use agency staffing as a part of our overall staffing mix.
“It enables us to respond flexibly to changes in student demand but also funding changes, of which there are a lot in further education at the moment.”
Unison say agencies regularly charge “as much as three times” what they would for a permanent member of staff, and also have to pay 20 per cent VAT on agency bills.
Evan Williams, director of employment and professional services at the Association of Colleges said: “Colleges, which are independent organisations, are aware of the financial benefits and implications of employing agency staff, but it is not always easy to fill these specialist positions often leaving the institutions with few alternatives. It is up to colleges to best channel resources to account for these conditions and they are always looking to be prudent.
“It is a more complicated issue that requires an all-round approach to maintain quality provision.”
The number of adults taking part in formal learning has fallen five percentage points, a survey by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) has revealed.
The annual adult participation in learning survey, published by the independent charity last week, shows that the majority of adults (62 per cent) have not participated in any formal study in the last three years.
The research also shows that more than a third of adults haven’t taken part in any learning since they left compulsory education.
David Hughes, chief executive of NIACE, said: “Participating in learning can help people secure work, stay and flourish in their jobs, keep healthy and play a positive role in their community.
“All of those are even more important now with a tough labour market, an ageing population and stressed communities.
“So it is disappointing that participation in learning is declining, with many of the people who could most benefit missing out.”
Roughly one in five adults who responded to the survey said they are currently learning, while 38 per cent said they had participated in the last three years.
NIACE say this is a drop of five percentage points since 2010.
What’s needed now is for policy-makers, providers, businesses, unions and charities to work together to encourage more people to take up learning.”
A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) spokesperson said: “Adult learning has great benefits for individuals, their families and their communities as well for the economy and growth.
“That is why despite declining budgets we have protected investment for priority groups including the low skilled, young adults without intermediate and advanced qualifications and the unemployed.”
Toni Pearce, vice president (FE) at the National Union of Students (NUS), told FE Week the figures were “very worrying” and likely to decline further once the government’s FE loans scheme is introduced.
“It would be a national tragedy if those who have been shut out of education in the past, and who are increasingly unlikely to be offered the right opportunities to re-enter, were even further deterred from taking up life-changing routes to lifelong learning by the creation of new financial barriers to education and skills” she said.
“Ministers now need to urgently take the initiative and create a lifelong learning climate to replace the one-chance-and-you’re-out approach which casts those with huge potential onto the scrapheap and threatens to do permanent damage by offering no route back.”
The research, which surveyed 5,237 adults aged 17 and over, also provides a comparative snapshot in participation rates between adults in work, looking for work and retirement. More than 40 per cent of respondents in full and part time employment said they had participated in some kind of learning in the last three years, compared to only 14 per cent of retired people.
The survey also shows that adults who stayed on in initial education are much more likely to participate in learning than those who left at the earliest opportunity.
Mr Hughes said: “Our survey shows that you are much less likely to take part in learning if you are retired, or outside of the labour market, if you are in a low skilled job, or if you didn’t do well in school.
“What’s needed now is for policy-makers, providers, businesses, unions and charities to work together to encourage more people to take up learning.”
The Association of Colleges (AoC) say it is difficult for providers to maintain the participation levels of adult learners when budgets are being cut and “student entitlements are being eroded.”
Joy Mercer, director of policy at the AoC, said: “It is a testament to the commitment of providers that there has not been a more substantial decline in the number of adult enrolments.
“Having said that, if colleges are going to be part of the solution to high levels of unemployment then there needs to be positive encouragement. Those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds should be helped as much as possible to engage with education, to retrain, or to upgrade their skills.”
