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From IfATE to Skills England via DfE: What you need to know

Skills minister Jacqui Smith introduced a 12-page bill in the House of Lords yesterday which will transfer all of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s (IfATE) powers to the Department for Education, paving the way for Skills England.

Here’s your trusty FE Week explainer on what’s in the bill, and what happens next:

What’s new?

Skills England itself is not mentioned in the snappily titled Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill, but accompanying documents reveal the new body will be established as an executive agency within the DfE rather than an independent or cross-government organisation.

This is a departure from what was announced at the King’s Speech earlier this year when we first learned of IfATE’s demise. Number 10 said at the time a Skills England Bill will “transfer functions from IfATE to Skills England” suggesting the latter would have some statutory footing of its own.

Instead what we got was what’s called “amending legislation,” a rewiring of legal powers and responsibilities rather than any fundamental statutory reforms.

Can Skills England really fix our broken skills system?

The bill also gives the secretary of state some “exceptional” powers to bypass employer groups to design and approve standards and apprenticeship assessment plans in a move touted to make the skills system more “agile” to employer needs. More on that further down.

Lords will get the chance to debate the bill and its wider implications for the skills system on October 22. MPs won’t get a chance to debate the bill until it’s been debated and amended by the Lords. Predictions are that the government wants Skills England, which is currently a “shadow” body, to be fully operational by April.

Hopes had been high among skills leaders for the new body to work in partnership with the sector to close debilitating skills gaps and create a more coherent system for learners, providers, regional governments and employers.

Labour has also claimed Skills England will be central to achieving the government’s five missions and relies on it to work cross-government in areas like industrial strategy and reducing immigration.

Much of that hope rests on Skills England’s clout across the government as the latest in a long-line of further education quangos.

Bringing skills in-house

We now know more about what kind of organisation Skills England will be and where it sits within government.

IfATE is legally established as a non-departmental public body (NDPB) whereas Skills England will be an executive agency. While both are types of quangos, there are some important differences between an NDPB and an executive agency.

As an NDPB, IfATE has some operational independence from the Department for Education. That’s because its functions and responsibilities have been set out in legislation approved by parliament. Skills England will instead be a defined team within DfE.

This is different from organisations like Ofsted, which are non-ministerial government departments (NMGDs) – established in law and accountable to parliament, not the government, which gives them greater clout.

For example, until this bill is passed, the law of the land states that IfATE decides how occupational standards and apprenticeship assessment plans get developed, it can approve or reject those standards and plans, quality assure apprenticeship assessments, commission the development of technical qualifications, run procurements and, for T Levels specifically, award and manage the awarding organisation licenses. It also approves higher technical qualifications (HTQs) and advises the government on apprenticeship funding.

The bill means all of those functions get absorbed by the education secretary, who will decide which bits to delegate within Skills England’s wider remit around skills strategy, planning and restricting level 7 apprenticeships.

As an executive agency, Skills England will legally be part of the Department for Education, so not as notionally independent as IfATE was. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is also an executive agency, and as such could be easily abolished without debate or parliamentary debate.

It also means whatever strategy that emerges for Skills England, will in essence be a DfE strategy. This could feasibly spell an end to IfATE’s ‘employers first’ approach to developing policy and qualifications in favour of whatever strategy the education secretary of the day prescribes.

DfE’s spin on this is that: “The transfer of IfATE’s powers to the secretary of state may enable closer integration of employer input with broader government strategies and policies.”

Consider that alongside previous announcements about Skills England’s role in convening education providers, employers, unions and regional governments, all the signs point to the sort of social partnership approach sector bodies have been pushing for.

Interviews for a permanent chair and board members for Skills England take place early next month.

The government is taking steps not to spook employers too much though. DfE recognises its new approach “could lead to a perception that employers’ influence and centrality within the system is being diluted.” However, “extensive external engagement with employers” has been promised to reassure businesses.

Continuity with change

While the face of the bill suggests it’s simply transferring IfATE’s powers to DfE, it also changes “overly prescriptive” functions DfE thinks can make the skills system “more responsive and agile”.

Currently, IfATE convenes groups of employers through its trailblazer and route panels to develop and approve apprenticeship standards and assessment plans.

DfE said its “default” approach will still be for “groups of persons” to produce standards and plans. But the bill allows the secretary of state, and presumably later Skills England, to intervene and directly develop and approve standards and/or assessment plans where they are “satisfied this is more appropriate”.

The theory is this will speed up amending or introducing standards and assessment plans, bypassing what can currently be an arduous exercise of lengthy reviews involving employers, awarding organisations, training providers and multiple layers of officials.

Policy notes suggest these powers wouldn’t be used as a matter of course. The example given is if a standard required “minimal update due to a regulatory change or obvious knowledge-based changes” then the secretary of state could intervene. DfE said: “Giving the secretary of state this flexibility will enable the skills system to be more agile.”

Another “agility” change in the bill gives the secretary of state the power to bypass third-party “examination” of new standards and apprenticeship assessment plans before they’re approved.

Should the secretary of state use any of these new direct powers around standards and assessment plans, they will uphold “a high level of rigour” and consult with stakeholders, DfE said.

Another change is the way the government wants to review technical education qualifications. Current legislation stipulates technical qualifications should be reviewed “at regular intervals” against a published timeline. This bill keeps the requirement for reviews but removes any requirement for a regular timetable. Instead, the secretary of state can determine when to review qualifications. According to DfE, this gives “flexibility” to the government to prioritise reviews “which will have the most impact”.

A final change in the bill closes a loophole left by the abolition of IfATE which means Ofqual can step in to accredit technical qualifications “should the secretary of state consider it to be appropriate”.

Should any of that go awry, the bill helpfully gives the secretary powers to make “consequential” changes using secondary legislation.

Transition dangers

Transferring IfATE’s most learner-facing responsibilities could cause confusion and disruption, a Department for Education impact assessment on the bill has warned.

For example, apprenticeship standards and technical qualifications currently going through IfATE’s various approval processes could be delayed while IfATE shuts down. There will also need to be “a clear framework” for end-point assessments (EPA) during the transition period to avoid “periods of uncertainty” when IfATE’s EPA responsibilities are moved to DfE or Skills England.

Learners aged 25 and over have been flagged as potentially at risk from a slowdown of new apprenticeships and technical education courses because they are more reliant on local options than younger learners who have “greater mobility and fewer conjugal responsibilities”.

Training providers may be concerned about a raft of new or expensive compliance processes as DfE takes over IfATE’s regulatory functions. DfE acknowledges “there could be a cost” to training providers but expects it to be “negligible” given there are no plans to deviate too from IfATE’s current requirements.

DfE said any possible temporary disruptions affecting learners and apprentices during the transition were “limited” and “speculative” and promised to address any impact on affected groups with “the correct mitigations”.

Teacher pay: The quiet before the sixth-form storm

Every teacher has at some point encountered The Quiet Student: the one who says little and whose friends speak for them. Part of our job is helping these students find their voice and their strength so they can speak up for what they need. Lately, I’ve been thinking of sixth form colleges (SFCs) in the same way.

In an emergency, rescuers are trained to initially ignore screaming people and head for the quiet ones. If you’re screaming, you’re breathing, and the quiet ones are more likely to need urgent help.

Likewise, when they do speak, make sure you listen. A famously ill-fated party leader once said, ‘Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man’ – just before he was silenced. There’s something of Iain Duncan Smith in the sixth form experience too.

Our sector is pressed on one side by the secondary behemoth, and on the other by the lumbering might of the FE sector. Squashed between them, our tiny cohort languishes – consistently successful, yet often overlooked. Neither school nor FE college, it is neglected in most policy thinking.

As a result, a tension is brewing in these settings. Parents (and ministers) may think the threat of teacher strike action is past, but in the sixth form sector at least, it is not.

And the reason the quiet one might be about to make itself heard is simple – even silly: someone somewhere has presumably forgotten we exist.

When the new government offered a 5.5-per cent pay rise to teachers, it was on the condition that it was only for academised institutions. But not all SFCs have been able to academise, so teachers in these institutions are de facto excluded from the deal.

It isn’t necessarily that these colleges didn’t want to academise. Rather, they were not able to by law because they are Catholic. Fifteen of our 58 SFCs are Catholic – over one-quarter of the total. To become academies when the process began, they would have had to resile from their religious status by law.

Laws were changed in 2022, but the slow process of academisation only began for these settings in 2023. Many simply haven’t had the chance to complete it.

We all deserve the pay, or none of us will take it

Now, due to the tyranny of timing, they are being excluded from a pay rise. They are sitting at the back, silently stunned, left out solely on the basis of their religious character. There are grounds to suspect judicial review would find this discriminatory.

In the meantime, collective bargaining means this affects everyone teaching in SFCs. Unlike the rest of the FE sector, pay here has long been managed nationally by the Sixth Form Colleges Association and the teaching unions.

Broadly, this has worked. Teacher pay is lower in SFCs than in schools as the funding is lower, but collective bargaining has resulted in offers the profession could endorse.

The new government has put all that at risk. Its explicit manifesto commitment was to uphold collective pay bargaining, but they have done the opposite.

In essence, the SFCA can’t offer the full 5.5 per cent to all of its members, which means they can’t offer it at all – an invidious position.

Some college leaders will no doubt feel pressure to increase pay, and some teachers could accept it locally. It would be hard to blame them. But the essence of collective bargaining is that the voice of the quietest ones is amplified by being combined with the loud.

So teachers in SFCs who could receive the pay rise are currently objecting to it unless it is also available for their colleagues in non-academised, and in particular Catholic, colleges.

In spite of the rising cost of living, there is a principle to defend. We are going against our own best interests to help the quieter voice be heard. We all deserve the pay, or none of us will take it.

To destroy collective bargaining would leave the SFC sector an FE Wild West, with an inevitable downward pressure on pay.

If this government truly believes in collective bargaining, they will need to step in to finesse their pay offer.

Because the quiet one here needs serious attention, and silencing it is not an option.

Legislation to abolish IfATE laid in parliament

Laws abolishing the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) and transferring its powers to the education secretary will be debated in parliament later this month.

Skills minister Jacqui Smith introduced the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill in the House of Lords this afternoon ahead of the creation of Skills England.

A briefing note from the Department for Education states the bill will transfer the functions of IfATE to the secretary of state, rather than the new skills body.

Once IfATE’s functions have been subsumed by the education secretary, the Department for Education will decide what to allocate to Skills England and what to keep for itself.

Can Skills England really fix our broken skills system?

The bill has been introduced in the House of Lords. Its second reading, which will be the first opportunity for a debate, will take place on October 22. There will then follow debates around amendments to the bill before it moves over to the House of Commons.

The transfer of powers to the secretary of state, rather than Skills England, is a departure from what was announced at the King’s Speech earlier this year. Number 10 said at the time the bill will “transfer functions from IfATE to Skills England”.

It’s not yet clear whether Skills England itself will be established in statute, as IfATE was, raising further questions about its independence from the Department for Education and its ability to galvanise other government departments.

Alongside replacing the apprenticeship levy, establishing Skills England as a national planning and co-ordinating body for skills was central to Labour’s post-16 policy agenda at the general election.

Since then, DfE board member Richard Pennycook has been appointed as interim chair of Skills England, which is currently set up as a shadow body with some staff from IfATE and the DfE’s Unit for Future Skills already working for the quango.

DfE “anticipates” that remaining IfATE staff will transfer to Skills England or “other teams within DfE” once the bill has passed.

Ministers have made clear Skills England will decide which non-apprenticeship programmes will receive funding through its proposed growth and skills levy and which level 7 apprenticeships will be restricted to “refocus” funding.

They have also described how Skills England will work with other government departments, regional governments, unions, colleges and training providers as well as the migration advisory committee to assess and close skills gaps in key sectors. However, it does not appear those responsibilities or objectives will be written into legislation.

Interviews for a permanent chair and board members for Skills England take place early next month.

Skills England published its first report last month outlining a “long list of challenges” for the “fragmented and confusing” skills system.

Smith said: “This bill marks the next step in our plans for Skills England, to help kickstart economic recovery by breaking down barriers to opportunity and unifying our fragmented skills system.

“IfATE has done fantastic work over the last seven years and Skills England will build on that to ensure there is a comprehensive suite of technical qualifications and apprenticeships for employers and individuals to access.”

SEG chief Paul Eeles resigns

A longstanding awarding body chief and well-known FE figure has suddenly stood down from his role.

Paul Eeles, chief executive of Skills and Education Group (SEG), resigned yesterday. He said the time was right for fresh leadership, ending fourteen years at the helm of the awarding and professional development organisation.

Deputy chief executive Scott Forbes will lead the organisation until a new chief executive is appointed.

Eeles, a former Federation of Awarding Bodies chair, said: “After nearly fourteen years leading Skills and Education Group, I have decided the time is right for someone new to lead the organisation into its next phase.

“Looking back, it’s been a privilege to have worked alongside an incredibly dedicated and talented staff team. I’m so proud of the things we’ve achieved together for the skills sector; colleges, training providers of all shapes and sizes, and tens of thousands of learners.

“I am particularly proud of putting social mobility at the heart of everything we do at SEG, especially the work of our Foundation in reinvesting directly in learners who most need support.”

A Skills and Education Group spokesperson said: “Paul has told the group he feels it is time for someone with a fresh vision to lead them forward into their next phase and towards their 2030 vision.

“As of now and until a successor is appointed, the day-to-day running of the Skills and Education Group will be overseen by the current deputy chief executive, Scott Forbes, with the support of the group chairs; Atholl Stott, Yultan Mellor and Gill Clipson.

“The Skills and Education Group would like to thank Paul Eeles for his hard work and commitment.”

Eeles joined the organisation, then known as Emfec, in 2011 just in time for its 100-year anniversary in 2012.

Emfec became Skills and Education Group in 2018 following the acquisition of ABC Awards and Certa Awards and now consists of its grant-giving Foundation, awarding and end point assessment arms and the British Institute of Innkeeping Awarding Body, acquired in 2021.

Over that time, Eeles also served on the board of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, clocking up seven years in total, including four as chair.

Before joining Emfec, Eeles was a senior director at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, then known as the Association of Learning Providers.

Ex-UKCES CEO to chair London college group

A former chief executive of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills is to become the chair of London’s largest college group.

Michael Davis (pictured) will lead the board of Capital City College from October.

He replaces Alastair Da Costa, who has held the role since the group launched in 2016.

Davis, currently CEO of the National Centre for Social Research, led the employment and skills commission for five years until 2016. The non-departmental public skills and employment body, which was the predecessor to the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, closed in March 2017.

Davis was also previously a board member of Warwickshire College Group and joined the Capital City College board as a member in January – at the same time the group welcomed former Warwickshire College Group chief executive Angela Joyce as its CEO.

Outgoing chair Da Costa said: “Having led the group to a £130 million revenue institution with 35,000 students and achieved ‘good’ status with Ofsted, I feel now is the right time to step aside and let our CEO Angela Joyce and Michael lead the organisation through its next stage of development.”

Davis said: “Alastair leaves an impressive legacy of achievement behind him and a set of very big boots to fill. The board is enormously grateful to Alastair for his strong leadership and taking the group to being one of the largest within the country, delivering technical and vocational education that allows 30,000 students annually to achieve their ambition and meet the needs of 2,000 local employers.”

Capital City College dropped the word “group” from its name last week as part of a rebrand. The group consists of City and Islington College, The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, Westminster Kingsway College, will operate under the shared identity of Capital City College.

Ofqual issues £50k fine to EPAO but owner refuses to pay

An awarding body that accused Ofqual of unfairly driving it out of the apprenticeship assessment market has vowed to not pay a £50,000 fine imposed by the regulator.

Qualifications for Industry (QFI) surrendered its recognition with Ofqual last year and all 17 of the company’s full-time staff lost their jobs as the firm went dormant in March.

QFI’s owner Richard McClelland previously told FE Week the decision to close followed a “traumatic” six-month investigation into the company’s capacity and capability that left him feeling suicidal and drove his responsible officer to stress medication.

Ofqual today published a monetary penalty notice following a review of the case by the regulator’s enforcement panel.

The regulator claimed QFI breached a special condition placed on the company in 2021 which said that no more than 200 learners in total were at any one time allowed to be registered to take its qualifications and no more than 200 learners in total could take assessments for its qualifications in any 12-month period.

QFI did not dispute that these volumes had been exceeded but alleged that the regulator misled the organisation into believing that this special condition had been lifted.

The company also argued that the 200 cap only applied to the qualifications and apprenticeships it first gained recognition for, not the many other courses it was recognised for through later expansion requests.

Ofqual’s enforcement panel, which is made up of its own employees and board members, ruled that QFI either “wilfully breached the special condition or was grossly negligent in assuming that the special condition no longer applied”, adding that there was a “significant failure of governance at QFI”.

The regulator’s enforcement panel considered whether to reduce the £50,000 fine amount in light of QFI’s decision to surrender, but it ultimately decided this would not be “appropriate” as Ofqual’s “fining power” would be “less of a deterrent if awarding organisations believed they could operate in a non-compliant manner and surrender recognition to avoid a monetary penalty”.

McClelland said Ofqual was using QFI as a “sacrificial lamb” and said he does not “intend” to pay the fine.

He told FE Week: “We continue to refute all allegations made by Ofqual. The decision to fine QFI is just that of a kangaroo court made up of internal people making decisions to support internal processes. We do not intend to pay the fine. We will be seeking legal advice in relation to how to take things forward.”

Other AOs warned of ‘fining power’

QFI entered the end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) market in 2015 to offer specialist apprenticeship assessments in areas such as civil engineering and engineering construction.

McClelland said his firm operated successfully under the regulation of the Education and Skills Funding Agency when it was listed as an EPAO for around 60 apprenticeship standards, but this changed after the 2020 decision whereby all EPAOs would need to gain recognition as an Ofqual-approved awarding body.

QFI gained Ofqual recognition in February 2021 but opted to go through the process in batches of standards.

The 200 cap was imposed by Ofqual from this point because it “considered there was an unacceptable risk that QFI might not have the resources or capacity to develop, deliver, and award qualifications which complied with the general conditions of recognition beyond a certain level of demand”.

QFI could however apply to “vary” the restrictions at any time.

Ofqual’s enforcement panel investigation found “no evidence that QFI had submitted a request to Ofqual for a variation of the thresholds” and therefore the “cap of 200 registered learners was not varied at any time”, according to today’s report.

Despite this, QFI exceeded the restriction by allowing 848 learners to be registered as of 30 April 2023 and broke the cap by assessing 237 learners in the period January 2023 to 13 July 2023.

QFI claimed it was led to believe the cap had lapsed because Ofqual did not carry out a promised review of the special condition 12 months after it was put in place.

It also and pointed out the regulator was aware the company may exceed the cap based on detailed forecasting it signed off on through successful expansion requests. QFI also argued that the cap did not apply to standards later recognised through those expansion requests.

The company claimed the special condition was only belatedly re-issued at a time when its numbers were in excess of the cap.

Ofqual’s enforcement panel hit back, stating that the special condition states “plainly that the restriction applies to QFI’s qualifications” and was not “confined to qualifications recognised at the point of recognition or any other specific point”.

Today’s report said the panel “does not consider that it is possible sustainably and realistically to interpret the condition in the way suggested by QFI”.

The panel also said even if Ofqual wrongly failed to review the special conditions, this would “not affect the application of those conditions or Ofqual’s ability to enforce those conditions, and nor would it provide a defence for QFI”.

“This is because, under Ofqual’s framework, unless the condition itself specifies a sunset provision (i.e. a provision stating the condition would expire on a set date) a special condition will remain in place until Ofqual decides to remove or vary that condition,” the report added.

August 2022 meeting notes also allegedly demonstrate QFI was aware it had not received notification about the removal of the special conditions and the company’s advisory board recommended it should seek formal notification that the conditions had been lifted, but this step was never taken.

No money left

QFI was served with an investigation report in November 2023 that detailed several alleged Ofqual breaches and imposed new conditions, including a public statement that it can’t register apprentices without special permission going forward.

McClelland said this would have left his business untenable and decided to close it down. He told FE Week there are no funds left in the company even if it agreed to pay the fine.

He said: “Ofqual has not been fair or consistent in its use of its cap-related special condition across all EPAOs; Ofqual has specifically selected QFI, a Scottish company and forced it out of the United Kingdom qualifications/apprenticeships sector; Ofqual stated the reason for this was to ‘improve compliance by other awarding organisations as it demonstrates the importance that Ofqual places on compliance with special conditions’.

“Why should QFI be held up by Ofqual as its ‘sacrificial lamb’. I just can’t believe the qualifications sector or industry accepts the actions of Ofqual as any form of quality assurance or contribution to the improvement of qualifications/apprenticeships.

“In my opinion, Ofqual is a danger to the health and wellbeing of people working within the qualifications sector.”

How QFI could avoid paying the fine

Sean Moran, partner in the restructuring and insolvency team at law firm Shakespeare Martineau, explains the next steps for QFI and Ofqual if the company stands firm on its pledge to not pay the fine.

“This is the final stage in a process commenced by Ofqual. QFI has an opportunity to make further representations and/or arguments in mitigation before the fine is confirmed by Ofqual.

“QFI is a Scottish company, so the procedures for enforcement and winding up are different to England and Wales.

“Assuming no challenge is made, and the fine is confirmed, Ofqual would need to secure a monetary order from a court in Scotland or register an order made in the English courts within the Scottish jurisdiction, allowing the instructions of Sheriff officers to serve a charge on QFI.

“If the fine remained unpaid, the charge for payment could form the basis for a petition to wind up QFI, resulting in the liquidation of the company.

“The winding up of QFI would result in the appointment of a Scottish-qualified insolvency practitioner as liquidator and they would manage the affairs of the company (collect assets, schedule liabilities, interview directors, report to creditors etc).

“The fine would rank as an unsecured claim if QFI went into liquidation.”

DfE resumes search for antisemitism training firms

The government is set to restart a £7 million procurement that aims to tackle antisemitism in schools, colleges and universities.

Officials are once again searching for organisations to train education staff and provide learning resources for students on the understanding of antisemitism after halting the competition in March.

The Department for Education told FE Week the pause was due to “stakeholder concerns”, namely that smaller Jewish or Holocaust education groups claimed the format and style of the procurement favoured larger organisations for various technical reasons.

The tender has now been made more inclusive for all types of organisations to bid, the DfE said.

DfE claimed the pause had nothing to do with a judicial review that was launched in the High Court around the same time as the pause by Jewish-led international organisation Diaspora Alliance, which is challenging the DfE’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in the tender.

DfE will hold an engagement event for the refreshed tender with interested parties on October 15, with a view to publish a new procurement in November.

Scholarships and education resources

Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed in the 2023 autumn statement that the government would dedicate £7 million over three years to tackling antisemitism in schools, colleges and universities.

The DfE confirmed the scheme will go ahead today on the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel.

The contract, which will last between 2025 to 2028, will look to award one or more suppliers.

One lot will offer two scholarships teaching antisemitism in-depth: one for school and college teachers and staff, and another to university administration and students’ union staff.

The second lot will procure education and training resources for universities and the third lot will provide schools and college staff online learning resources on the Department for Education’s Educate Against Hate portal.

DfE said today that £500,000 of the total funding has been awarded to the University Jewish Chaplaincy for welfare support for Jewish students in universities.

The department said it also plans to launch an innovation fund that will offer “opportunities to support work at all levels of education on tackling antisemitic misinformation on social media”, alongside Becky Francis’ curriculum and assessment review.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said in an op-ed for the Telegraph today: “It is completely unacceptable for Jewish students to feel they cannot fully participate in university life out of fear for their safety. All students, regardless of race or religion, should be free to focus on their studies rather than worry about their safety.” Diaspora Alliance was approached for comment about its judicial review.

Training giant BPP hires Halfon

One of the country’s largest training providers has hired a former skills minister as a senior adviser.

Robert Halfon announced today that he will be joining professional education and apprenticeships giant BPP this month as a senior adviser on skills and social mobility, alongside multiple other consultancy and advisory roles.

Halfon resigned as skills minister in March saying he wished to dedicate his remaining time as an MP to his Harlow constituents. He stood down from parliament when it dissolved before the July general election when his former seat was won by Labour.

Writing on his LinkedIn page, Halfon said: “Today, I am really pleased to announce that I have joined BPP as a senior adviser, working in skills and social mobility. After serving as MP for Harlow and minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education, it feels good to be able to continue my passion for skills.”

BPP has been approached for comment.

This is the latest post-ministerial appointment for Halfon, who last week received clearance from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) for other paid advisory and training roles.

Halfon has also become honorary chair of the Green Skills Advisory Panel and last month was appointed a trainer for Dods Training and a senior adviser for consultancy firms Candesic and GK Strategy.

The former minister, known for his “ladder of opportunity” catchphrase to represent his work on skills and social mobility when in office, has also launched his own consultancy company: Ladder of Opportunity Consulting.

The Green Skills Advisory Panel is an initiative started and funded by Exeter College and brings employers and training organisations together to promote entry routes into green careers.

ACOBA has advised Halfon he is not allowed to lobby on behalf of any of his new employers on matters he was responsible for as minister for a period of two years from leaving office, nor can he “draw on any privileged information available from [his] time in ministerial office.”

Closer to home, Halfon has also revealed he is to chair the Stanstead Airport College, part of Harlow College, advisory group.

BPP is one of the country’s largest private-sector education and training organisations, offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses alongside higher-level apprenticeships through its university and professional education companies.

The bulk of BPP’s apprenticeships are delivered through BPP Professional Education Limited. Its most popular apprenticeships include the level 7 accountancy and tax professional, level 5 coaching professional and the level 4 professional accounting or taxation technician.

Analysis of the latest available apprenticeship levy data placed BPP Professional Education Ltd as the fourth largest training provider by levy income, generating £36.7 million in 2021/22.

Solicitor apprenticeships on trial: can they survive level 7 cash cull?

As the government rethinking funding for level 7 apprenticeships, Jessica Hill cross-examines the promise of solicitor apprenticeships: are they truly a gamechanger for under-represented talent, or a cheaper path for the privileged?

The goal was described as “simple yet ground-breaking”… to “revolutionise the legal landscape by empowering students from diverse backgrounds to pursue a career they may have never thought possible”.

So said City Century, a collaboration of 50 City law firms launched last year to promote the level 7 solicitor apprenticeships that were rapidly gaining traction in the legal sector.

There were also plans to introduce barrister apprenticeships next year, breaking down barriers to the country’s most elitist profession.

Then-skills minister Robert Halfon welcomed the City Century collaboration for “extending the ladder of opportunity” by “giving more people from all backgrounds the chance to enter this prestigious career without a student debt”.

But the new government has a different view of Master’s-equivalent level 7 apprenticeships.

It is moving some of them – it hasn’t yet decided which – outside the scope of levy funding, putting the future of solicitor apprenticeships under threat.

Jonathan Bourne, managing director of Damar Training, claims defunding its solicitor apprenticeship programmes would mean centuries-old barriers that are “just beginning to come down will be reinforced”.

But have these programmes really extended a ladder of opportunity? Or have they simply enabled those from privileged backgrounds a new entry point into lucrative careers without the burden of up to £60,000 of student debt?

Apprenticeships experts Jonathan Bourne of Damar Training and Victoria Cromwell of BARBRI Global

Programme lowdown

The level 7 solicitor apprenticeship takes at least six years to complete and provides funding of up to £27,000. For those with degrees already, graduate solicitor apprenticeships can be completed in half that time.

The apprenticeship, launched in 2016, was an attempt to build better vocational routes into the legal profession.

The full programme, aimed at school and college leavers, paralegals and chartered legal executives, covers a law degree with hands-on experience. To qualify, apprentices must take the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE), the second part of which is the end-point assessment.

The programme is currently the fourth most popular level 7 apprenticeship, with 2,090 learners starting in the last two years.

Bourne is expecting “continued strong growth” in 2024-25, while another provider, Datalaw, says it has registered over 1,000 expressions of interest to join its 2024/25 cohort in the past six months.

FE Week found at least 64 law firms offering or planning to offer solicitor apprenticeships, with the programme also provided to those within the in-house legal departments of private companies, central and local government and the Crown Prosecution Service.

By 2040, City Century envisaged that at least 100 new partners would have been created via the solicitor-apprentice route.

Legal ladders

The upper echelons of the legal profession are notoriously difficult to break into. Around 24,000 law and graduate diploma law students graduate each year, but fewer than 6,000 make it onto the solicitor training contract – the traditional route into the profession.

Bourne says for those who are not “economically or academically extremely fortunate”, it is “a big bet to take with £60,000 of borrowed money”.

“Many people who aspire to become solicitors end up doing other things or getting stuck in paralegal roles,” he says.

But solicitor apprenticeships are even more competitive to get onto than the traditional route, given there are no hefty student loans to repay and apprentices earn whilst qualifying.

The average median hourly pay for an 18-year-old apprentice last year was £7.72 (roughly £16,057 a year), but a college leaver at law firm White & Case can earn £32,000, rising to over £60,000 as an apprentice solicitor.

Five other law firms offer at least £28,000 a year to apprentices.

Legal recruitment consultant Sue Lenkowski says many firms take on around two apprentices, but “may be attracting 1,500-plus applicants”.

Jagtara Singh Taak, 20, was rejected by four of his five university choices for a law degree, then turned down for a solicitor apprenticeship, despite getting two A*s and three As at A Level. After joining law firm Loch Law as an admin assistant, the firm noted his potential and put him on the apprenticeship path.

But while some law firms are inundated with applicants, parts of the system are creaking with workforce shortages.

Last year The Law Society warned of a 26 per cent fall in the number of duty solicitors available to advise people who have been arrested, where they aren’t able to pay for their own defence lawyer.

Law Society president Lubna Shuja warned “our crumbling courts are overwhelmed, prisons overcrowded, and judges and lawyers overstretched. With fewer duty solicitors and more cases coming into the system, we have reached breaking point.”

Diversity doubts

Solicitors still overwhelmingly come from privileged backgrounds; last year 21 per cent of lawyers at firms regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority had attended a fee-paying school.

And it doesn’t yet appear apprenticeships have made a dent in widening access. The proportion of lawyers from low socio-economic backgrounds reduced from 21 per cent in 2015 to 18 per cent in 2023, an SRA survey found.

However, Lynette Smith, learning and development partner at law firm Brabners, believes the diversity-boosting impact of the apprenticeships just takes time to show up in the figures.

“To turn the ship around takes a while to get people on board in terms of the new way of doing things,” she says.

Her firm only started a new apprenticeships programme in January 2023, to “support those from underprivileged backgrounds”.

She adds: “We wanted to ensure that those apprenticeships were not just an opportunity for those wanting to progress, but an opportunity for those who couldn’t progress through the traditional means”.

Bourne says a “significant proportion” of Damar’s solicitor apprentices are from “non-traditional” backgrounds, while Datalaw says 42 per cent of its cohort are from minority groups and 34 per cent from local authority areas with high deprivation.

Phil Hodgson of Citizens Advice Gateshead (Society Matters Group)

In-house benefits

It’s not just those in law firms benefitting from solicitor apprenticeships. Around 29 per cent of the employers signed up to Damar’s apprenticeship programme are in-house legal teams. They include 21 councils, a part of the legal sector that Bourne says has “traditionally found it hard to recruit, develop and retain legal talent”.

Fiona Anthony set up a solicitor apprenticeship programme while at NP Law (owned by Norfolk Council), enabling its paralegals to qualify as solicitors. She says it was “transformative”, adding: “The likelihood is that [without it], our paralegals would have left for training contracts elsewhere.”

Victoria Cromwell, head of new business and account management for legal education provider BARBRI Global, says there is a “real shift” for in-house legal teams to “grow junior talent”, given “constraints on budget and headcount”.

About 30 per cent of BARBRI’s business is now from “corporates” rather than law firms, which is “significantly higher than two years ago”.

Cromwell says: “Whereas previously the apprenticeship levy was heavily used in the engineering division of a company for instance, we’re now seeing the legal teams taking a piece.”

Of Datalaw’s solicitor apprentices, 43 per cent work in legal aid-funded law firms covering crime, family, or children’s law, representing vulnerable people, and the same proportion work for other small organisations.

Solicitor apprentice Phil Hodgson says his employer, Citizens Advice Gateshead, is a charity which “could not otherwise afford this training”.

Flex Legal, an online platform that aims to boost diversity in the legal profession, will by November have placed 100 trainees from lower socioeconomic backgrounds into solicitor apprenticeships in the last three years. It recently worked with Tesco to set up an assessment process to pick three “aspiring lawyers” from “the shop floor”, says company founder Mary Bonsor. Two are now solicitor apprentices.

Jamie Holden, who works in the legal department for optician chain Specsavers, had no post-GCSE qualifications and worked in a nightclub and in a bookies, before “falling into” work as an IT specialist. It was only after his Specsavers boss tasked him with leading a commercial project with its legal team that he showed an interest in law, which led to his apprenticeship.

He says he “never imagined” he would be doing an apprenticeship at age 47. Next year he will take his first “big exams”, while his daughter takes her GCSEs.

“My friends laugh at me because I’ve got a student card – I get 10 per cent off at Superdrug. Most of them think apprenticeships are just for brickies.”

As Specsavers’ first solicitor apprentice, he and the company are on a steep learning curve. But he feels “old and ugly enough to roll with it”.

Tough but flexible

Holden describes his apprenticeship as “possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever done”.

That’s reflected in the 2022-23 achievement rate for solicitor apprenticeships which was 46.2 per cent, compared to 57.6 per cent for all legal programmes and 54.3 per cent for all apprenticeships.

But Bourne points out the first cohort “battled through a long, fledgling and very challenging programme, and navigated Covid”.

Lucy Andrews, who started her solicitor apprenticeship with WBW Solicitors after finishing her law degree, says the “intensive” course is “a big commitment and can be stressful”.

But she also says the flexibility of the programme is “really advantageous”, and allowed her to change her weekly study day if needed.

Madison Earl says her solicitor apprenticeship with Sills & Betteridge LLP has enabled her to “balance work, study, and family life”.

“As a young working mother, I never imagined a career in law was possible,” she says. “It’s opened doors I thought were permanently closed to me.”

Reforms ‘bad for opportunity’

Bourne is proud that almost three quarters (71 per cent) of Damar’s solicitor apprentices are 25 and over because they include many paralegals who previously had no accessible progression route to qualification. But it is their age that may count against future cohorts, as the new government wants to see more funding poured into training young people.

Labour’s manifesto pledged a “youth guarantee” of training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work for all 18 to 21 year olds, and with the current apprenticeship budget at breaking point it cannot afford to keep funding level 7 programmes which are often undertaken by older, already highly qualified people.

But Datalaw’s founder Charles Peter argues that solicitor apprenticeships provide “essential skills for day-one solicitors, not seasoned managers”.

The future of the level 7 barrister apprenticeship, which had been expected to go live this year, is also now under threat.

Given that 56 per cent of King’s Counsel senior lawyers attended private schools it was hoped that the legal profession, “historically shrouded in tradition and rigidity”, was “on the brink of a monumental shift”, said Lawyer Portal, a platform for those breaking into the sector.

But if the cuts to funding level seven programmes do include these legal apprenticeships, surely law firms will dip into their own pockets for training instead?

After all, legal services is one of the UK’s most successful sectors, with its market turnover expected to pass £60 billion by 2027, a report by IRN Legal found.

Those currently offering apprenticeships include three of the world’s 10 biggest law firms; DLA Piper, Dentons and White & Case all had global revenues last year exceeding $2.9 billion.

Smith says she would “bravely like to think” that Brabners will “stay true to our values as a firm, and support [apprenticeships] regardless. But at the end of the day, it’s a business that we’re running.”

Bourne is not convinced that law firms would step up.

He points out the minimum one day a week off-the-job training already represents a significant investment for them. “I fear that we’d see retrenchment back to a small group of employers. Apart from a few targeted social mobility programmes run by those with the deepest pockets, most successful candidates would need to have some level of advantage.”

And the top rung of Halfon’s “ladder of opportunity’ would, Bourne warns, be removed. “It will be bad for growth, bad for opportunity and bad for employers,” he adds.