A report commissioned by a secret group of FE colleges has accused other institutions of manipulating data in order to boost success rates.

The document, written by Tenon Education Training and Skills Limited on behalf of the Tenon Education Training and Skills College Forum and seen by FE Week, suggests FE colleges are able to improve headline success rates by up to 10 per cent by adopting unfair practises.

The “widespread” methods listed in the report include recruiting above a college’s funding targets, then declaring certain learners to be unfunded and removing them from the final Individualised Learner Record (ILR) return.

Other practices include making late decisions on whether or not they should declare a learner is studying an additional qualification to their primary learning goal.

The use of practices to improve success rates is widespread within FE colleges.”

The methods, which the report says were originally identified by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), also include changing the end dates of courses retrospectively, removing overseas or work-based learners from their ILR return and using transfer codes to remove students from specific lines of data.

The report reads: “The use of practices to improve success rates is widespread within FE colleges.

“The failure of the regulatory bodies and the funding agencies to deal with these practices in a clear and open way has led to their continuation and expansion into other colleges as the sector strives to achieve sector success benchmarks which are artificially high.”

However, the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) say they are “assured” that data manipulation is not a widespread issue in the FE sector.

“Since 2009 we have only uncovered one case of data manipulation,” an SFA spokesperson told FE Week.

“This was uncovered through audit and appropriate steps were taken.”

The spokesperson added: “We are aware of an unpublished report produced by Tenon making allegations of data manipulation in the FE Sector. As it stands, the research methods and analysis in the report do not provide for robust conclusions. We would be pleased to discuss our reservations once the report is published.”

The Department for Education (DfE) told FE Week they had nothing to add. The “unfair” practices, the report claims, now make it impossible to compare colleges with one another using success rates.

“These practices make it difficult for the colleges in the sector which put learners first and do not undertake practices to inflate success rates to compete and could ultimately result in the sector’s outstanding colleges being those that do not necessarily deliver the best chance of success to the learners,” the report reads.

The report also says colleges are using specific practices “to support in the manipulation of inspection grades.”

One of these, called “destroyed the trends”, is where a college stops offering a specific learning aim once its success rate starts to decline.

“Although the data would be included in the overall success rates for the previous two years, it would be excluded from the remit of the inspection,” the report states.

The second, called ‘buy one, get one free’, is where a college decides to run a learning aim with a declining success rate as a non-funded qualification, while choosing to use a similar learning aim under a different inspection code.

“We understand these practices have been in a number of colleges that have achieved high grades at inspection,” the report reads.

However, Ofsted say looking at success rates is only a small part of their inspection process.

A spokesperson for Ofsted said: “Ofsted uses success rate data as a starting point for inspection and as a source of evidence to judge outcomes for learners. Ofsted is confident of the reliability of the national success rates data for this purpose.”

The report says the Tenon Education Training and Skills College Forum was created because principals felt “cheated” about the practices being used to improve success rates.

Part of the forum’s role, the document says, is to show there are a “significant number of colleges who strive to act with the highest possible integrity” for their students and communities.

However, it is understood that FE colleges can only enter the group when once they have been invited by Tenon Education Training and Skills, and also passed certain “entry criteria”.

Tenon Education Training and Skills declined to comment on the report and membership of the forum.

The Association of Colleges said they have a policy of not commenting on leaked reports.

Figures published by the Data Service on the 24 May show that ‘General FE College including Tertiary’ all length success rate rose from 79.3 per cent in 2009/10 to 81.4 per cent in 2010/11.

For more on the techniques described in the Tenon report and latest success rate figures see page 4 in the FE Week newspaper.

Staff at Sunderland College are striking over a row concerning their pay.

The University and College Union (UCU) said the dispute relates to proposals to cut the salaries of more than 150 lecturers by £10,000 and downgrade 70 per cent of its teaching workforce to inferior pay grades – with staff seeing a 25 to 30 per cent drop in their salary. This would breach nationally-agreed pay scales according to the Union.

In March the College announced it needed to save £2.26m in 2012/13 due to government funding cuts and that 36 people would be made redundant. It also stated that the cuts would mean it needed to review job descriptions for all teaching staff.

Since March it has been consulting employees about ways to make savings. Only pay cuts and redundancies are being put forward according to the Union, but the College disputes this. It said that these are the initial proposals that have been put on the table for discussion and that there are other suggestions.

Nine out of ten members of the UCU voted to take strike action and over three-quarters backed action short of a strike, which would see members working to contract and not fulfilling the other duties they take on in addition to their contracted work.  The Union expects 250 people to take part.

Nobody wants to take strike action but members will not sit by while their pay and conditions are attacked”

Angela O’Donoghue, principal of Sunderland College, said: “The College is looking at lots of different ways to save money and cutting lecturers’ pay is just one of them – we want to work with the unions, not against them.”

The principal stated that the College is also “committed to working with unions to reduce the need for compulsory redundancies through a programme of voluntary redundancies.”

She added: “All proposals put forward are a starting point and talks are on-going. We want to work in a positive way with the unions to mitigate the impact on individuals.”

The Union is angry because they believe staff are shouldering too much of the burden.

They point to agency staff as an area where savings could be made, as they say that the College spent £2 million on this in the last financial year.

In response, Ms O’Donoghue stated: “All colleges have to turn to specialists in some fields as they do not have the necessary skills in their own teams, for example IT experts, architects and designers. In addition we do need to use the flexibility of agency staffing to cover sickness absence and other short term programmes were funding is provided on an adhoc basis.

“This is normal practice for colleges and for all professional businesses, however as part of the College’s strategic plan we aim to reduce these costs.”

UCU regional official, Iain Owens, said: “Nobody wants to take strike action but members will not sit by while their pay and conditions are attacked in this punitive way. The college cannot afford to dismiss this result and should be looking to work with us instead of finding excuses to deliver teaching on the cheap.

“Breaching nationally agreed pay scales is not in the long-term interest of the institution. It will succeed only in destroying morale and deterring the best and the brightest from wanting to come and work at a college where they will be paid far less than the national average.”

Staff at A4e are struggling to improve the way they deliver apprenticeships, according to a monitoring report published by Ofsted.

The document, which details a monitoring visit carried out in April, says the training provider is making “insufficient progress” in three areas and “reasonable progress” in the remaining five.

The mixed grades follow a “satisfactory” inspection rating which was given to the training provider in August 2010.

It says that while A4e has made changes to try and improve the success rates of their learners, such as a new management information system and revised learner recruitment procedures, they are “yet to result in sustained improvement.”

“These initiatives have improved success rates in a few subject areas and regions, but overall success rates declined in 2010/11,” the monitoring report reads.

A4e says they have introduced a number of successful initiatives in the company and made “significant progress” since Ofsted inspected them in 2010.

“This latest inspection commends us for doing so,” a spokesperson for A4e told FE Week.

“It has identified some areas which need improvement and we have put in place an action plan to meet these requirements.

“A4e continues to work towards providing outstanding skills-based training programmes for our customers.”

The monitoring report by Ofsted says A4e are “poor” at monitoring the delivery of their consortium partners and sub-contractors. It later says the company focuses “too heavily” on making sure these providers complete their paperwork properly, rather than on the quality of training being delivered.

“A4e places too strong an emphasis on consortium partners declaring their own areas for improvement either through discussion, their self-assessment reports or position statements,” the monitoring report reads.

However, the Ofsted report also praises staff at A4e for taking on “an increased responsibility for implementing improvement initiatives.

“They enthusiastically and swiftly make changes to the provision which have positively improved the experience of learners,” the monitoring report reads.

“During meetings, staff teams regularly discuss the progress they are making with quality improvement plans.”

It is unclear whether the progress made by A4e is common for other private training providers.

A spokesperson for Ofsted told FE Week: “Ofsted does not comment on individual inspections over and above the published report – in this case a monitoring inspection report.

“As each monitoring report will focus on issues raised at the previous inspection, we do not undertake any analysis across a range of monitoring visit reports.”

The former head of audit at A4e submitted written evidence to Parliament last week detailing how “weak management” and “inadequate control systems” led to fraud at the company.

Eddie Hutchinson, who also attended a meeting held by Public Accounts Committee last Tuesday, claims “that the incidence of frauds and irregularities was a major problem for the company.”

The written evidence, given to the Daily Telegraph, reads: “An ever-increasing volume of frauds came to my attention, often via a particular direct report of mine in the audit team.”

A4e has since issued a statement, which reads: “The majority of allegations made by Mr Hutchinson are unfounded and untrue.

“A4e always adheres to established procedures by ensuring relevant issues are referred to the relevant funder authority.

“None of the issues raised here prove there is systemic fraud at A4e and all of them relate to historic contracts.”

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) issued a statement earlier this month confirming they have found “no evidence of fraud” in the training delivered by A4e. The finding follows allegations of fraud relating to the company’s work with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

“The Agency now has adequate assurance on current and potential future contracts with A4e,” a statement by the SFA reads.

“As with all of our suppliers, we will be vigilant and use all of our oversight and audit processes to maintain assurance that public funds and learners’ interests are safeguarded.”

The government terminated A4e’s Mandatory Work Activity contract earlier this month, despite finding no evidence of fraud in its delivery of the programme.

Employment minister Chris Grayling said: “While the team found no evidence of fraud, it identified significant weaknesses in A4e’s internal controls on the Mandatory Work Activity contract in the South East.

“As a result, the Department has concluded that continuing with this contract presents too great a risk and we have terminated the Mandatory Work Activity contract with A4e for the South East.”

The Association of Colleges (AoC) is making redundancies as part of a cost saving and “restructuring process”.

The job losses so far affect three managers, two directors and a policy coordinator.

Martin Doel, chief executive of the AoC, told FE Week: “The reality is that AoC is not immune to the financial pressures faced by the public sector and this is, in part, a response to a downturn in public sector projects. “The commercial wing of the organisation has, as a result, seen some difficult market circumstances.”

The AoC employs over 100 members of staff, as well more than 30 staff at three sister organisations located in separate regions.

This has been a difficult and upsetting time for all staff”

Mr Doel said: “It goes without saying that every member of AoC staff is highly skilled, experienced and provides, without fail, a first class service to members.

“This has been a difficult and upsetting time for all staff but we have tried to deal with it as fairly as possible and can assure member colleges they will continue to get the highest standards of service”.

The AoC has also said that an additional three posts are at risk of redundancy “through a compulsory process.”

Mr Doel said: “Unfortunately we didn’t receive all of the cost savings we needed to as part of the process and have had to identify three additional posts as being at risk of redundancy.”

Consultation with staff is currently underway, and is likely to continue until at least June 8.

It is understood that another senior member of staff at AoC will be dropping down to three days a week from the start of June.

The AoC say they will be offering all departing staff one to one careers advice, as well as job application and interview preparation through the HR Consultancy firm Connor in order to help them find new work.

“We will, of course, be offering every assistance to them through this difficult transition as valued members of the team,” Mr Doel said.

However, the organisation has also revealed they will be employing new staff as part of the company’s restructure. “In order to ensure continued strong representation AoC will be recruiting to key positions in line with the new shape of the organisation,” Mr Doel said.

A third of pupils have never been presented with the option of taking up a vocational course, according to research published ahead of Vocational Qualification Day.

The independent education foundation Edge surveyed 500 A Level students and found that 77 per cent were even discouraged from pursuing a vocational path. Almost a quarter thought their school was more concerned with sending students to university than concentrating on what is right for the individual.

Jan Hodges, chief executive of Edge, which is leading the plans for Vocational Qualification (VQ) Day said it is “extremely disappointing” that so many young learners felt they lacked sufficient information about all opportunities available.

“There are many paths to success in life and work,” she said. “University is not a one size fits all solution and the government has a duty to educate schools and teachers further about the benefits of VQs and vocational routes, such as apprenticeships.”

“We must reject the snobbery that says the only route to social moblilty is through university”

The fifth annual VQ Day is calling on the government to supply teachers with thorough information on the benefits of vocational routes. Last year’s event saw more than 300 schools, colleges and work-based providers get involved.

The survey also found that over a quarter of students interviewed had been told that VQs were aimed at pupils who were less bright.

On Monday Ed Miliband spoke about the “snobbery” that exists towards non-academic education.

“Social mobility can’t just be about changing the odds that young people from poor backgrounds will make it to university,” he said.

“We must reject the snobbery that says the only route to social moblilty is through university, as if only one kind of path to success matters.”

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has been lobbying Ofsted to include impartial advice on vocational qualifications in school inspections.

The chief executive of the organisation, Graham Hoyle, said: “Schools will be required by law from this September to offer impartial advice to their students from an external independent advisory service and it will not be enough to simply refer the students to a careers website.

“The big concern is that checks won’t be made to see if schools are complying with the new statutory guidance unless Ofsted inspectors are given a role to play in overcoming the remaining stigma against vocational learning.

“Recent commitments from ministers are reassuring and it’s important that their determination to see compliance is fully followed through wherever problems are identified.”

The event will be held at the Bafta Picaddilly June 20.