The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has allocated providers an extra £240 million since the start of the academic year, new data has shown.

An updated spreadsheet for 2011/12, published by the SFA earlier this week, shows that allocations have risen to more than £4 billion combined.

The extra funding has been distributed mostly through the Adult Skills Budget (ASB), which has risen by seven per cent to £2,604,934,311, up from £2,441,138,450.

The new figures show that the funding for 16-18 apprentices has also risen by seven per cent, up to a total of £54,037,357.

The largest benefactor of the in-year allocations, HIT Training Ltd, has received an extra £9,576,909 from the Agency, up 87 per cent from the start of the academic year.

The SFA spreadsheet shows that the company, which delivers training for the hotel and catering Industries, was given an extra £7,810,400 through the ASB and anadditional £1,766,509 for apprentices aged 16 to 18.

Elsewhere Ufi Limited received additional in-year funds of £8,476,405, up seven per cent from their initial 2011/12 allocation.

The firm, which was sold by the Ufi Charitable Trust (UCT) to Lloyds TSB Development Capital (LDC) for £40 million last October, now has a total allocation worth more than £130 million with the SFA.

The updated spreadsheet also shows that ESG (Skills) Limited, a supplier of welfare to work and vocational skills services, has had the largest fall in funding allocation since August 2011.

The company is shown to have had 78 per cent of their allocation clawed back by the SFA through 16-18 apprenticeships, down almost £4 million, and also through the ASB, which was reduced by nearly £2 million.

South Nottingham College, now the sixth largest provider in the UK following a merger with Castle College Nottingham, received the largest in-year allocation out of all FE colleges.

The College received an extra £4,617,289 from the SFA, increasing their total SFA allocation by 19 per cent to £29,042,384.

Newham College of Further Education received the second largest allocation increase for FE colleges, up £4,096,389 to £26,372,899.

The data also shows that Elmfield Training, which delivers apprenticeships at Morrisons, now has an allocation for 2011/12 worth more than £41 million.

While its funds for 16 to 18 apprentices has been reduced by £2 million to £10 million, its provision for adult learners has risen by £5.75 million to £31,101,000.

An investigation into secret changes to a government website has unearthed “process failures” and an inability to pinpoint who made the unauthorised adjustments to data.

The views are made in a breach report, published by UK Statistics Authority into the FE Choices website, which is managed by the Data Service; part of the Skills Funding Agency.

As revealed by FE Week in March, an investigation by the Agency found nearly 2,700 changes were made to “unique values” in the Learner Satisfaction indicator of the site, without public knowledge, after it went live on January 26.

This affected 442 providers, with 62 providers unaffected. However, while the Authority’s report lifts the lid on how it occurred, it was unable to identify who made the changes.

The Authority’s report says: “The SFA have examined available email and other electronic records, and interviewed staff, but are unable to identify who made or authorised these changes, or uploaded the revised data file as around 45 staff had access to the site used to feed the updates to the external web manager.”

It also tells of a “reorganisation of the FE Choices data team” from April 2011, which placed them under the auspices of the Data Service. Transition and incorporation on to Data Service protocols is still in progress.

As soon as the Agency received reliable intelligence that a problem had occurred, they took immediate action by uploading position statements on the FE Choices webpage and began a thorough investigation

The report says: “A number of process failures have been identified relating to a lack of data backup procedures, failure to follow the required version control procedures, sign-off procedures which did not require statistician approval, and resourcing, including dependence on contingent workers and high levels of staff
turnover during the reorganisation.

“All these issues are limited to the FE Choices system and processes, and do not extend to other SFA statistical outputs.”

The report also highlights that the Agency became aware of “further changes” to FE Choices during their investigation.

After the FE Choices data was published, data in the Learner Satisfaction indicator was subsequently corrected on February 6.

This was reported by a “former SFA contingent worker” in a letter to John Hayes, minister for further education, skills and lifelong learning, and copied to the National Statistician, which was received on 21 February 2012.

It was also communicated to FE Week.

The report adds: “The Agency added a notice to their website alerting users to a potential problem on 21 February 2012. While investigating the reported change, further changes that had been made to the data came to light.

These were a revision to the treatment of zero values, correction of a coding error relating to questions 6 and 7, and the exclusion of data relating to large employers who train their own staff.

“These changes should also have been announced at the same time as the changes were implemented, and information made available about the nature of the changes.”

In response, the Agency has implemented measures that it says will stop a reoccurrence of this incident in the future.

These include improving existing “change control process to restrict the number of people able to upload web changes to the feeder site to two” and that all changes must now be approved by a GSS statistician.

The Agency has also “tightened” existing procedure to ensure full records are kept of any changes or revisions, so that an “audit trail” exists.

A longer term plan includes improved documentation of process, and improved testing of code and data to allow “more time, more automated testing, and adequate ring-fenced resources” between website and data projects.

The Authority’s report also says although permanent staff within the Agency are aware of the Code of Practice, not all “contingent workers” are. A refresh of this knowledge is planned.

An Agency statement reads: “As soon as the Agency received reliable intelligence that a problem had occurred, they took immediate action by uploading position statements on the FE Choices webpage and began a thorough investigation.

“Once the Agency had conducted their investigation, they communicated findings (on FE Choices) and began implementing processes, which we are confident will aim to prevent any reoccurrence of this singular incident.”

As tag lines go, the one being championed as the essence of Adult Learners’ Week, which begins on Saturday, will take some beating.

It reads: “There has never been a more important time to celebrate and promote the benefits of learning – encouraging adults to discover the positive impact learning can have on their lives, their families and their community.”

The Week, spearheaded by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is the UK’s largest annual festival of learning, incorporating thousands of events and award ceremonies, with the aim of promoting “every type” of learning.

With just days to go until the beginning of the Week, David Hughes, the chief executive of NIACE, told FE Week that the Week has many elements, with the first event, held on Monday, the Adult Learners’ Week National Award Ceremony.

We just don’t celebrate enough in this country. We have the degree awarding ceremonies, but we don’t really have anything for students leaving school

He said: “It’s about celebrating what adult learning can do for people and about exceptional learners who have changed their lives.

“It’s about recognising the real wider benefits of adult learning. It’s not just about skills or work or leisure or pleasure, it’s about all of these things.”

He added: “What we try to do is showcase people who can provide that. It’s one thing to talk about it, but another for a learner to say ‘this is my story’ and we want people to be empowered by these people to see that they can do it too.

“We just don’t celebrate enough in this country. We have the degree awarding ceremonies, but we don’t really have anything for students leaving school.”

The following day, NIACE will hold its National Policy Conference, in conjunction with The Open University, which will explore the current and emerging challenges and approaches to widening participation in adult education.

Mr Hughes said: “We’re holding a conference on widening participation which is one of the big issues for us. We have John Hayes coming to speak and also employers and learners and people from the community.”

He added: “Widening participation is the largest issue we’ve got. The focus on apprenticeships is a good thing, but they are expensive.

“There are three areas under pressure; employers, the government and the individual. It does cost more to do widening participation really well.”

The Week will continue on Wednesday with a Parliamentary Reception.

Mr Hughes said: “We have a parliamentary reception with the all-party group for further education and skills, where we’ve invited former award winners to come back and speak.

“It’s great, because it helps to show that adult learning is not just for Christmas, so to speak.

“Most go on to do more learning or achieve more in life, whether it’s work or helping to mentor, or getting involved in their community.

When you have over one million who are NEET, you worry about them making a difference to their lives.

He added: “When you have over one million who are NEET, you worry about them making a difference to their lives.

“It’s a generation of young people who may be one, two or three years not in work or training, and not being hopeful and optimistic.”

But the Week is not just about events on a national scale, it is also about localised activities, as Mr Hughes explains.

“Another big part is that we have thousands of events across the country so people can drop in and have a go locally at adult learning.

“Around 100,000 people have previously taken part in these types of events during ALW and that’s really important to the Week.”

For more information on Adult Learners’ Week, visit http://www.alw.org.uk/.

Alternatively, follow NIACE on Twitter and join in by tweeting about your Learners’ Week activity by using #ALW12.

The group HR and communications director at Morrisons has announced he will leave the supermarket retailer at the end of June.

Norman Pickavance, who has been questioned by the BIS Select Committee over the apprenticeship programme at Morrisons, will leave “to pursue opportunities” elsewhere.

Dalton Philips, the chief executive of Morrisons, said: “Norman has been pivotal in making Morrisons an award winning employer.

“He has transformed our HR function and has been a great advocate for developing people from all backgrounds across the business.

“We wish him well for his future.”

Mr Pickavance will continue his work as a non-executive director at Create, a social enterprise which helps support homeless and disadvantaged people back into work.

Gary Stott, deputy chair of Create, has confirmed Mr Pickavance will be receiving “no salary or remuneration” for the on-going position, which includes being chair of the board.

“I think that Norman has a tremendous career history and a passion to see people’s lives transformed through the experience of work,” Mr Stott said.

“I am sure he will be using the next few months to work with a number of different organisations that are close to his heart and share his passion.”

FE Week revealed in March how Elmfield Training, a private training provider which delivers apprenticeships at Morrisons, donated £200,000 to Create.

Mr Pickavance was then questioned alongside Ged Sydall, chief executive of Elmfield Training, during an evidence session held by the BIS Select Committee for their inquiry into apprenticeships.

Ministers asked Mr Pickavance if the supermarket would have continued the training attributed to each apprenticeship had they not received government funding.

“We would have done it anyway,” Mr Pickavance said.

“We do not receive any money from the government purse for the training that we provide.

“All the training that we deliver is at Morrisons’ cost, and so it should be.”

He added: “We use the government money through a third-party provider, because we are not experts in accrediting people and we are not experts in national standards.”

Mr Pickavance was questioned further during the BBC One Panorama programme “The Great Apprentice Scandal”.

I am sure he will be using the next few months to work with a number of different organisations that are close to his heart and share his passion

The show revealed that 40 per cent of the company’s workforce was on an apprenticeship last year, with more than two thirds aged 25 or above.

“Forty per cent of people are trying to get a basic qualification,” Mr Pickavance told the BBC.

“People who don’t leave school with a qualification often feel they don’t have access and don’t see the skilled jobs or managerial position as something they can aspire to.”

He later added: “Actually when you look at the results that are being delivered through this programme, with a private provider, we’re doing something that is actually exemplary in terms of the qualifications people get.”