Response to ‘Government publish FE Choices’

If you saw FE Week’s front-page headline “Private providers ahead of FE colleges in government learner satisfaction survey” and also visited the FE Choices website ( http://fechoices.skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/ ) you might be puzzled.

Yes: you can bring the data together as FE Week does; but FE Choices doesn’t compare provider types like that and isn’t meant to. Instead, it lets you look at individual providers, and a number of scores for each – learner satisfaction is just one – allowing comparisons against the worst, median and best providers of the same type. The website is designed to be useful to employers and prospective students comparing individual institutions, and may therefore send a wake-up call to under-performing providers.

The data is limited. It only sorts learner satisfaction data by age and level of qualification, not programme area and doesn’t differentiate employer satisfaction at all. Providers with very small numbers of respondents are excluded from the calculations.

This applies to the majority of the private providers serving my own area, including one major national player. It seems that even when calculated, these indicators are commonly based on under one-third of learners.

Providers who have the Training Quality Standard are exempt from the employer satisfaction measure, which reduces its value as a benchmark.

The data actually tell a rather more positive tale about colleges than the FE Week commentary. Their lowest median learner satisfaction score is over 7 out of 10 – I’d normally be delighted to recommend a service rated at that level.

Median level colleges typically had only 7 per cent of users or fewer recording satisfaction ratings of 3 out of 10 or below. More importantly one can’t make any serious comparisons between FE colleges and private providers without like-with-like comparisons – learners from similar backgrounds studying the same types of qualification.

Comparing the employment rates of learners at the different provider types is seriously misleading. In colleges higher proportions of learners want to continue education on completing their current course, including entering university.

This is confirmed by the learning rate data, where the comparison with private providers strongly favours FE colleges.

The combined learner destinations rate is a far better measure of comparative performance and shows an equally high median score (82 per cent) for both colleges and private providers.

To put the learner satisfaction data in context, it helps to see them in relation to those for past years, and for other sectors.

The FE Choices data indicate a marginal deterioration in the median learner satisfaction rating for FE colleges (and for employer satisfaction across all types of provider). Whether this constitutes a trend is too early to say.

The last National Learner Satisfaction Survey commissioned by LSC in 2007 revealed that 90 per cent of FE learners and 91 per cent in WBL were fairly satisfied or better, with 27 per cent & 26 per cent respectively extremely satisfied. The equivalent numbers expressing any dissatisfaction were only 7 per cent & 6 per cent.

FE compares well with equivalent data for other sectors, The 2011 National Student Survey for higher education indicated that 83 per cent were satisfied overall, and 8 per cent dissatisfied.

Many of the highest ratings, incidentally, applied to HE in FE colleges. The most recent customer satisfaction data for retail banking and for energy supply are much less positive.

The real story ought therefore to be that learner and employer satisfaction levels across all types of FE provider are reassuringly high.

Setting one type against another risks confusing this message, for the media and the general public alike.

FE Choices may help inform user decisions and assist providers to improve quality; and publishing this information encourages providers to help make the data better, as quickly as possible.

Peter Davies, researcher and
consultant, Policy Consortium

The government need to sharpen their focus

It’s great as Shadow Skills and FE Minister to celebrate this fourth annual Apprenticeships week. Looking back on Labour’s record in Government, our revitalisation of Apprenticeships remains for me one of our most substantial achievements.

Lifting the number of starts from a mere 65,000 in 1996/97 to just under 280,000 was buttressed by the then Secretary of State John Denham launching the National Apprenticeship Service alongside National Apprenticeship Week.

Being the Shadow Minister covering Apprenticeships has allowed me to continue my previous work as chair of Parliament’s Skills Group and on the Select Committee – championing both skills and the FE sector and arguing for a continued focus on take-up, progression and quality.

It has been a particular pleasure to see the contribution that FE Colleges have been making countrywide engaging with employers and apprentices alike.

Having worked with John Hayes in the Skills Group, I don’t doubt his longstanding commitment to the vocational route and desire as Minister to build on this strong Apprenticeship legacy we left.

But there’s much more his Government, BIS and especially the Department for Education should be doing to expand access and safeguard quality.

The vast bulk of their expansion has now been shown to be on the back of 25-plus apprentices, many following courses previously covered under Train to Gain. In many cases these have value, but they do little to tackle the huge challenge of the sceptre of a generation of jobless young people.

That’s why I’ve just been putting forward ideas from Labour to help do just that. We recognise Apprenticeship strategy has to go hand in hand with boosting growth in the regions on the back of an active industrial strategy – which this Government has failed to do. Skills and growth policy must be linked on the ground.
It’s no good Government pushing apprenticeships, if there’s not enough pull from employees. We also need to see FE Colleges as a crucial link here – which is why Labour believes they must take a central role in the new Local Enterprise Partnerships.

We’re calling on Government to make a step change in the quantity of quality apprenticeships available to young people.

That includes a major expansion via SMEs – incentives for large companies to buddy up with supply-chain smaller partners in taking them on.

We would use the unspent and so far unfocused Growth and Innovation Fund – and use the £60 million there to boost the work of training organisations – GTAs and ATAs – and to enable FE colleges and learning providers to work effectively with HE and LEPs to build collaboration helping more businesses to take on apprentices as part of local growth strategies.

There’s much more [the] Government, BIS and especially the Department for Education should be doing to expand access and safeguard quality”

This builds on our existing commitment to ensure all public procurement contracts handed out over £1million come with taking on apprentices.

This would expand the range and reach for apprenticeships and create the new opportunities young people are crying out for. Expanding the quantity of apprenticeships must not come at the expense of their quality.

Already BIS Ministers’ race for numbers has brought some casualties here – that needs to be remedied urgently, not just for 16-18 years but also for the cohort beyond it – as I urged the Government in Parliament’s debate on apprenticeships before Christmas – with new safeguards on minimum course duration.

They need to take heed of what the Select Committee’s Apprenticeship enquiry will say – and make sure the unexpected departures at the top in the National Apprenticeship Service and Skills Funding Agency do not throw up further problems.

The priority must be for a sharper view of what Apprenticeships are for, with clear progression strategies – including into HE – and real jobs on completion.

Gordon Marsden, shadow minister for further education, skills and regional growth

Sue Rimmer, principal, South Thames College

“We are heading towards the edge of a cliff, which we’re going to fall off,” says the principal of South Thames College, describing the on-going funding crisis in further education.

Strong words perhaps, but Sue Rimmer speaks from a vast amount of experience in the sector. It would be unwise not to listen.

Raised in Birkenhead, Sue says she had a happy childhood. Growing up, her father worked in a factory and her auntie lived just around the corner. The area has mostly been knocked down now, making way for modern redevelopments, but back then it was a stable community.

“It was the type of environment where you walked to primary school and you weren’t that far away from the secondary school. I simply wasn’t aware of anything different,” she explains with pride.

Aged 16, Sue left secondary school with Grade 1 CSEs, quickly snapping up a job as a pharmacy technician at Clatterbridge Hospital. Within a year she had moved onto the research laboratories at Unilever, a “strange environment” with different peers.

“I was with middle class girls who hadn’t got the A-levels to go to University and were waiting to get married and have kids. So I found myself in a slightly strange environment where I didn’t quite fit.”

The opportunity to do an ONC at her local FE college came from work, but Sue decided to drop out in the first year, later embarking on an eclectic mix of O-levels and A-levels. By her mid-twenties Sue had “got into her head” that she wanted go to University, and with little inspiration, she decided to pursue being an educational psychologist, based on the preconception that they “earned a lot of money”.

Although Sue stayed in Liverpool to study her degree, by this point she had already moved away from home. The decision, acceptable by most modern standards, was frowned upon at the time.

“The only reason you left home was to get married. So nobody could understand why I was leaving home and not getting married. I broke the trend.”

University allowed Sue to study psychology, sociology and education, but perhaps more importantly than that, it was where she met, her husband, Andy Wilson, principal of Westminster Kingsway College.

“At the end of my second year, I went along to this Union meeting where the new president stood up, and I thought, well, he’s quite nice,” Sue says.

A plan was soon set in motion. Sue was in charge of organising the end of year sociology party, and cleverly decided to book Andy’s band, ‘Chokey Bill and the Rampsmen’. The pair started dating on the night of the party and have been inseparable ever since.

Graduation steered Sue towards a profession in the public sector. With little interest in neither higher education or the schools system, Sue quickly decided to try an FE teacher training course in London.

A mature student herself, Sue then developed an interest in adult returners and access courses. Despite her working class background, Sue says was unprepared for some of the people she would meet.

“I hadn’t experienced anybody, who I was aware of, who were gay and I hadn’t experienced discrimination. The scale of the abuse that some of these women, who I was tutoring and who must have been older than me, it was, it was quite an eye opener for me.”

Education is a route out of deprivation, and it was this potential for change that really ignited Sue’s passion for adult education.

“I was a fairly passionate person anyway, but I became very passionate about how these women could change their lives through education. It was a route out of difficulty for them, and so I got very, very involved with it.”

Sue climbed up the ladder in a number of London institutions, spending time as a lecturer at Lambeth College, an equal opportunities coordinator with the Greater London Council (GLC) and a coordinator at the Open College of South London.

“I’ve always tried to do everything I did really well. I‘ve never planned any of the next stages. If an opportunity crossed my path that seemed to make sense, then I’ve taken advantage of it.”

The chance to step into management came along unexpectedly, when a principal asked if she would be interested in taking over an ageing site in Kennington.

 I thought, well if I don’t apply for the job and somebody gets it that I don’t like, then I’ll always wonder…”

The campus was like a blank canvas for Sue, allowing her to build new facilities, including a new library and canteen, on a shoe string budget. Soon everyone wanted to be taught on her campus. It wasn’t long before the principal of Carshalton College noticed her phenomenal work.

“When they put me in Kennington, they expected me to run it reasonably efficiently, but they were actually really surprised how I’d made it the centre that everybody wanted to go to. Therefore they wanted me to apply for this job, which I applied for and got.”

Moving to Carshalton was the step that pushed Sue up into senior management. By this point Sue had moved away from the teaching profession, realising she could have a bigger impact further up the career ladder. While appreciative of her increased influence, Sue says she misses the immediate feedback from teaching in further education.

“When you’re that close to the ground you get immediate feedback. You’ve made a difference to this person’s life, rather than, a more dispersed impact on a lot of people’s lives.”

Sue didn’t look back though. Some years later Sue moved to South Thames College as deputy principal. When she arrived, the institution was sat in the bottom ten per cent of the country. Just eighteen months later, when the college was judged to be ‘satisfactory’ by Ofsted, a five year plan was drawn up to improve the college. It was then that the current principal, aged 63, decided it was an appropriate time to retire.

“I hadn’t expected her to go so quickly. But I thought, well if I don’t apply for the job and somebody gets it that I don’t like, then I’ll always wonder…”

As principal, Sue has spent the last decade giving the college an incredible makeover, tackling the college’s financial difficulties, merger proposals and crumbling buildings with the utmost vigour.

“My approach has always been that if you’re taking on students who are coming from a deprived background, particularly the younger students if they’ve already failed before, then you basically have the obligation to give them the very best opportunity you can.”

Sue Rimmer has experienced a lot in further education and by the looks of it, she has no plans to stop any time soon.

Flexibility and ‘black box’ at top of AELP ‘In-Tray’

In the seemingly ever-changing landscape of further education, providers are forced to adapt at a rapid rate of knots.

With that in mind, and in the wake of a number of challenges to the sector and a raft of new policy announcements, AELP put together a weighty agenda for its annual ‘In-Tray’ conference, in Leeds.

It focused on five themes; youth unemployment, apprenticeships, employability, funding simplification and delivery.

However, it was discussions around flexibility and ‘the black box’ approach which caught the imagination.

It was a theme set from the outset, particularly by AELP chief executive Graham Hoyle, in his opening address when discussing the single Adult Skills Budget, which was opened up to providers on August 1 last year.

He said: “You have a single flexible budget, some of you don’t believe it, some of you don’t know how to use it, and some of you are scared about using it. I’m told by the SFA that 128 providers out of about 1,000 use it.

“That’s a darn good figure from a standing start against something which we never thought would happen.”

Stewart Segal, director at Aegis, later described “a change of culture” in the sector.

He said: “There is more flexibility. The move this year to a move flexible contract was a massive move forward.

“Some of you have taken part in that new flexibility and delivering new things, others are very good at what you do and sticking to it and that’s absolutely right. You should be choosing what’s good for you.”

Mr Segal, meanwhile, also added: “There are flexibilities in the new contract that we are uncomfortable about.

“There will be lots of times when the rules are unclear.

“We need to be brave and take hold of those opportunities and deliver a programme that’s right for you, that’s right for the employers and right for the learners and justify it when it comes to it.”

Mr Hoyle also called for more freedom, in the form of ‘the black box’ approach similar to the one used by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in its flagship Work Programme.

He said: “There’s two big things we are asking for, and I think I almost heard a yes to one of them, we are basically saying we want a DWP type ‘black box’ to design a bespoke offer for often difficult young people.

“I think we really want to check it out because if it really is the case, I’m not disbelieving you, but we need to look again and grasp if we have got that freedom, so I’m hoping that’s a tick in that box.

“The other one, and I won’t go into today as we don’t have time, is we’re still concerned and it’s a policy led thing, not a funding led thing, that we still believe that the whole of foundation learning should be not just giving them extra qualification, but actually focusing on getting them (the learner) into work as a positively funded outcome and we are not there yet.”

The approach was also referred to by Olly Newton, head of raising participation unit at the Department for Education (DfE) in his speech.

Following which, Mr Hoyle said: “The words I picked up on were ‘black box’. We’ve not heard that from DfE before, but we have from DWP. That’s music to our ears. We want to unpack and look inside that black box.”

In reply, Mr Newton said: “The black box we are talking about is similar to what we are talking about with the Work Programme.

“We will put out information on the first phase in the next few weeks.”

Meanwhile, a question from the audience floor asked about flexibilities in foundation learning.

It sparked an encouraging response from Kevin Street, head of funding development at the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA).

He said: “Whatever a learner needs when they come through that door, deliver it, put the learner first, think about progression first and then think about how you are going to fund it.

Anybody who wants to come to me in the coffee break and say ‘I want to do that for our foundation learners but I can’t fund it’, I’ll go back tomorrow and I’ll fix it”

“If you get any hassle from our auditors for doing that then we will personally take them on, because that’s the intention of the programme and the intention of the funding methodology.”

He added: “Anybody who wants to come to me in the coffee break and say ‘I want to do that for our foundation learners but I can’t fund it’, I’ll go back tomorrow and I’ll fix it.”

Nick Chomyk, funding policy development manager at the Skills Funding Agency, spoke about the work currently ongoing to simplify the funding system.

He said: “We have people out there who don’t understand how it works.

“After three years of the existing system, there are still people struggling and we need to make it more transparent.”

He added: “Every single qualification will be given a rate. When you simplify things you do end up with rough justice.

“Complexity gives you precision, but it’s getting the balance between the two because we don’t want rough justice.”

However, Mr Street also spoke out about a “poor” response to the 16-19 funding review consultation from independent providers.

He said: “It was single numbers. That indicates you are not particularly engaged with this consultation, you haven’t seen the issues around it. The AELP did respond – an extremely good response.

“So we have to assume that the AELP represent your views because the response was so low. Today, I really want to get you back engaged with that so you can recognise that it’s important to you.”

Mr Segal conceded that the response to the 16-19 consultation “was not a good signal”, adding: “The AELP response was very strong and lots of people supported it and thought that was all that needed

“So we need to be careful that it’s not seen to be a low response because we are not interested.”

However, Mr Hoyle asked Mr Street not to worry about the lack of responses from independent providers.

He said: “We pushed those out twice, before they came back to you to 600 members. A lot of members join to get behind AELP. So please don’t worry about the apparent lack of response, they have done it through ours.”

While flexibilities formed an important part of the debate at the conference, discussions also took place on a range of other subjects.

Michelle Manson, managing director at Best Ltd, asked about the government’s recent announcements on wage incentives.

She said: “Wage incentives for the Work Programme, which are available to employers, but can an employer access the apprenticeship incentive as well? We don’t want these initiatives competing against each other.

“A Work Programme customer should be able to access an apprenticeship programme and will an employer, if not allowed to access both of the incentives, will they choose one over another

“We certainly don’t want to disadvantage any youngsters on the Work Programme from taking an apprenticeship.”

Mr Newton replied, saying the issue has been raised by a number of organisations.

He added: “There hasn’t been a final decision made yet.

“But I know it’s at the top of the agenda in terms of discussions DWP and Treasury colleagues are having

“Clearly we need to get the balance right to in the right outcomes without double funding.”

 

The definiton of ‘black box’ funding

The term ‘black box’ has been adopted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to describe the funding approach implemented in the Work Programme.

The definition of ‘black box’ is a system which judges results, in this case employment outcomes, without any knowledge of its internal workings.

In the Work Programme, training providers are paid by government agencies based on the number of learners which find a job; it doesn’t what training programme or framework has been delivered, provided the end results are the same.

A Work Programme report, published by the DWP in June 2011, states: “Rather than asking providers to make one-size-fits-all services work for a wide range of participants with varying needs, government is providing freedom for providers to personalise support for the individual in a way that fits the local labour market.

“This is sometimes referred to as a ‘black box’ commissioning approach.”

 

Graham Hoyle, on getting flexible

It was one of the buzz words from the conference, but what exactly does flexibility mean to independent providers?

Speaking to FE Week, Graham Hoyle, chief executive of the AELP, said it is something to be embraced by the sector.

He said: “One of the big things that has come out of the conference is the scope for our members to embrace the flexibility offered to them.

“We have a government philosophy through the Skills Funding Agency saying, ‘you go out with your marketplace with you stakeholders, your communities, find out what you need and do it’.

“The AELP message is embrace this offer of flexibility and there’s real scope for you to really do what your customers want.”

However, Mr Hoyle admitted not all providers would be happy to give up their business plans in favour of flexibility.

He said: “There’s also an interesting side to it that for many of our members their core business has been apprenticeships.

“They are good at it so they have not got an awful lot of inclination to move out of it but it appears to be a high government priority just now.

“So, on the other hand it’s absolutely right that some providers say, ‘that’s fine but we are good at this and we will do more of it, I’m sticking to apprenticeships’ and that cannot be a wrong answer.

“In fact, if everybody took the flexibility route and they did less apprenticeships, I have a feeling there would be some political repercussions.

“So at the moment we’re saying more of our members could do more for unemployed as well as working with apprenticeships.”

However, Mr Hoyle also warned that some members are “holding themselves back”.

He said: “They are fearful of doing something and someone down the track six months later saying, ‘sorry you’re not doing that, we’re taking your funding back’.

“So there’s a tension there and we have to get confidence through the system and say ‘be bold’.

“I think independent providers more of them ought to explore broadening portfolios, but not criticising top class apprenticeship providers that are producing the kind of figures we have seen this week with 96 per cent achievement, employer and learner satisfaction rates sky high.”

NAO’s verdict on adult apprenticeships

Funding rates are unreliable

The funding rates used to pay training providers for delivering an apprenticeship are not based on robust information, according to the NAO.

The NAO says the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and NAS have set tariffs without “reliable evidence” to support estimated training costs.

The ‘Adult Apprenticeships’ report states: “The Agency and the Service currently set tariffs without sufficiently robust information on the cost of provision.

“This may mean that some frameworks have become more financially attractive to offer than others.”

The NAO say both the SFA and NAS are unable to judge the extent to which providers may be generating significant profits or losses as a result of inaccurate rates.

Skewed funding rates on individual frameworks have led to some employers not paying the expected contributions towards training providers’ costs.

The report adds: “Employers pay apprentices’ wages and deliver on-the-job training, but some are not paying the expected contributions towards training providers’ costs.

“Employers are required to contribute towards the cost of adult apprenticeships, and the funding rates paid to providers assume employers contribute at least half of the training costs, either in cash or ‘in kind’.

“However, evidence suggests that some employers do not pay the required contributions.”

£1.2bn – Programme cost in 2010‑11, including £451 million for adults

Simon Waugh, chief executive of the NAS, says the government is devoted to raising quality in the programme and driving out poor performance.

“We are working with the Skills Funding Agency and other partners to raise the bar on quality, recognise excellence, and drive out poor performance; reducing unnecessary red-tape and bureaucracy for those who engage with the Apprenticeship programme,” Mr Waugh said.

The NAO report references a survey, conducted in 2009, which found that 43 per cent of providers choose not to collect fees from employers.

“With full contributions from employers, government funding could deliver more or higher quality apprenticeships for the same cost,” the report states.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: “It [BIS] needs to target resources more effectively; confirm the training provided is in addition to what would have been provided without public support; and make sure that the funding system is informed by robust information on the cost of delivery.”

 

Adult apprenticeships are good value for money

Adult apprenticeships offer good value for money, but the government needs to focus its resources on industries which offer the best economic returns, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) claims.

The independent body says the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) needs to “set its sights higher” on the apprenticeship programme, despite exceeding all previous expansion targets.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: “The apprenticeships programme has been providing a good return for public spending.

“Nevertheless, the Department should set its sights higher in order to get better value from the £0.5 billion and rising now spent on adult apprenticeships each year.”

The apprenticeship programme has increased by 140 per cent during the last five years, of which 68 per cent were learners aged 25 or above.

Previous recruitment targets set by government were smashed, at least in part, by the 182,100 new adult apprenticeship starts in 2010/11.

David Hughes, chief executive of NIACE, described the increase in adult apprenticeships as “great news”.

He said: “NIACE is pleased that the NAO confirms BIS’ view of there being a public value of adult apprenticeships and endorses their prioritisation.”

Julian Gravatt, assistant chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), added: “This is a balanced report from the NAO, which confirms that apprenticeships are valuable for young adults, that the expansion in adult apprenticeships has been well managed, but that action is needed in a number of areas.”

However, the NAO report also criticises BIS and the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) for not targeting the higher level qualifications, frameworks or age groups which will have the biggest impact on the economy.

The report states: “The Department needs robust evidence to identify which qualifications are having most impact and where the additionality delivered against public funding is greatest.

“The Department should use this information to decide where to target its resources. It has recently announced its intention to do so, though has yet to publish details.”

More than 80 per cent of the expansion between 2006/07 and 2010/11 was covered by 10 apprenticeship occupations, with health and social care, customer service and retail coming out on top.

John Hayes MP, minister of state for further education, skills and lifelong learning, said: “The report rightly identifies a need to prioritise investment where returns are greatest, and that is what the government is doing.

“We will continue to drive improvement by developing new higher level apprenticeships, giving training providers more freedom to meet the needs of local businesses, reducing bureaucracy and making financial incentives available to small firms hiring their first apprentices.”

 

The unknown level of ‘dead-weight’

The value of adult apprenticeships is being exposed to significant dead-weight, according to the NAO.

The NAO says “optimistic” figures produced by BIS assume all of the training delivered by apprenticeships would not have occurred without public support.

The criticism follows statistics by BIS, reported in March 2011, which estimate that adult apprenticeships deliver a return of roughly £28 for every £1 of public spending.

The NAO says the programme produces a return closer to £18 when considering all levels of an apprenticeship.

The NAO report states: “The difference between our figures and those of the Department reflects the sensitivity of the calculations to the underlying assumptions, in particular our respective assessments of the available evidence on the potential wider impact of the training on the productivity of the workforce.”

Skills minister John Hayes said he was pleased with the NAO estimates.

53,110 starts – in customer service – most popular apprenticeship subject, 2010/11

“I am delighted that the NAO has recognised the progress we have made and that they identify the extraordinary economic benefits of apprenticeships,” Mr Hayes said.

“Few, if any, other government programmes produce anything like the return of £18 for every £1 spent let alone the still greater return that our economists estimate.”

The NAO says BIS has failed to assess the level of additionality (the extent to which public funding results in training that would “not otherwise have occurred) being delivered by the apprenticeship programme.

The report states: “The Department assumes that, for economic returns to apprenticeships, all public funding achieves additionality, but lacks data to support this; therefore any reduction in additionality would result in an equivalent reduction in the economic returns.”

The NAO says BIS has an evaluation in progress which will help them to measure the additionality of the apprenticeship programme, with results available in early 2012.

 

One in five adult apprenticeships under six months

A growing number of adult apprenticeships are being delivered in under half a year, the NAO has revealed.

The report says 34,600 apprenticeships were delivered by providers in less than six months in 2010/11, making up nearly a fifth of completions for learners aged 25 and above.

A further 6,200 (three per cent of adult completions) were found to be less than three months long.

The NAO says the rapid expansion of the apprenticeship programme “presents risks that need to be managed.”

“In four of the top ten fastest-expanding subjects around a quarter or more apprentices completed in six months or less (2010/11),” the report states.

“In one of the fastest-growing subjects, IT and telecoms professionals, over two-thirds (68 per cent) completed in under six months.”

The NAO say SFA and NAS are currently investigating 87 providers thought to be delivering ‘short duration’ apprenticeships and have said they will be checking to see if providers are complying with their contractual obligations, and will close down provision if necessary.

Simon Waugh, chief executive of NAS, said: “We will continue to strive to ensure that Apprenticeships represent the best value for money for the investment made in them by government and by employers.”

Vocational quals counted out

Concern has been raised at the government’s expulsion of thousands of qualifications from school league tables.

While stating that its members would welcome the strengthening of vocational education, the Association of Colleges (AoC) believes it should not be allowed to result in less 14 to 15 year-olds being exposed to vocational qualifications.

It comes after the education secretary, Michael Gove, announced that the number of vocational qualifications that will count towards a school’s GCSE performance in league tables is being cut from 3,000 to 70.

Just 125 vocational qualifications will be included from 2014 and only 70 will count towards the main performance measure – the percentage of pupils getting five A* to Cs at GCSE, including English and maths. The other 55 will count in the tables, but will not contribute towards the main measure.

It is an attempt to stop schools encouraging youngsters to take qualifications that boost league table position, but do not help prospects, and follows recommendations made in a report by Professor Alison Wolf last year.

An AoC spokesperson said: “Colleges will welcome the implicit endorsement that provision of vocational education needs to be strengthened to ensure that high standards are maintained in all types of institutions, including schools, in order to ensure the delivery of high quality vocational provision that our young people need in order to secure satisfying and fulfilling future employment.”

Currently, there are 63,000 14 to 15-year-olds enrolled in a college; with 3,500 full-time and 59,000 part-time.

The AoC spokesperson added: “Evidence has shown that colleges are best-equipped to deliver high quality vocational education and we believe that all 14-year-olds should have the opportunity to attend their local college.

“Colleges were pleased with the Wolf Report’s support for colleges looking to enrol more 14-year-olds onto full-time courses.

“Alison Wolf was insistent as to the value of high quality vocational provision for young people.

“Whilst the announcement confirms that commitment, we would be concerned if it resulted in fewer young people who would benefit from an early exposure to vocational learning having that opportunity.

“Ultimately, we believe that colleges should take centre stage in the delivery of vocational education and become hubs of vocational excellence, using their expertise and resources to support provision in their locality.

“And we are in discussion with the Department for Education to make this intention a reality.”

The Department for Education said some of the qualifications still to be included are subject to future review and schools will remain free to offer any other qualification accredited and approved for study by 14- to 16-year-olds.

Young apprenticeships fall as adults nearly double

The rise in adult apprenticeships has continued to accelerate in the first three months of the new academic year, while the number of starts aged between 16 and 18 has dropped, new data has shown.

Provisional figures, published by the Data Service in the Statistical First Release (SFR) last week, show that the number of new apprentices aged 25 and above has risen to 53,300 in the first quarter of 2011/12, up from 27,600 in the same period last year.

Gordon Marsden, shadow minister for further education, skills and regional growth, says the figures show a disregard for the widening gap in apprenticeship volumes.

“Officials disregarded the imbalance of post-25 and said never mind the quality, fill the width,” Mr Marsden said.

“You can’t turn these things around overnight and they‘ve recognised now that they do need to do more of the 16 to 24.”

A spokesperson at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) says it is “not possible” to compare the provisional figures with data from 2010/11.

“Provisional data for the first quarter of the 2011/12 academic year (August 2011 to October 2011) provide an early view of performance and will change as further data returns are received from further education colleges and providers,” the spokesperson said.

“Quarterly figures for 2011/12 will be updated throughout the year and will be finalised in the January 2013 Statistical First Release. It is not possible, therefore, to directly compare provisional data for the first quarter of the 2011/12 academic year with data from earlier academic years.”

The growing number of adult apprenticeships, shown to be up by 93 per cent in the SFR provisional figures, follow four consecutive quarter increases in 2010/11.

Tess Lanning, research fellow at the IPPR, says the rise in adult apprentices reflects an “increasingly broad definition” of what counts as an apprenticeship
“Over the past decade apprenticeships have become increasingly less likely to offer a route into skilled employment for young people,” she said.

“Instead, the biggest increases have been for adult apprentices, most of which are existing employees, many in low-paid jobs.”

The number of apprenticeship starts aged 16 to 18 dropped by three per cent in the first quarter of 2011/12, down to 53,700, according to provisional statistics in the SFR.

The figures follow record levels of youth unemployment, which has now reached 1.04 million for young people aged 16 to 24, announced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last month.

“What these figures show is that the government was too slow to respond to the crisis in youth unemployment by adjusting the priorities,” Mr Marsden said.

“They were too slow in picking them up and even when they did so, the pick-up in those 16 to 18 and 19 to 24 areas, although it has increased, has not increased anywhere near enough in volume to match the huge increase in post 25.”

A BIS spokesperson said the government would be doing all it could to help young people get back into work.

“The private sector is playing an important role: creating over half a million jobs in the past year – the highest in the G7 countries – and we are in turn supporting business by cutting corporation tax to make the UK the most competitive tax system in the G20 and making an unprecedented investment in apprenticeships,” the spokesperson said.

“It is vital that we do all we can to help young people without work get back into employment with good long term career prospects.”

The total number of new apprenticeships starts hit 457,200 in 2010/11, up 14,500 from provisional figures published in October last year.

Employability qualifications are just the job

Increasing unemployment is fuelling a sharp rise in demand for short employability qualifications, figures obtained by FE Week reveal.

Statistics from three major awarding bodies – Edexcel, City and Guilds and NCFE – report significant increases in registrations for courses which aim to improve CVs, improve interview techniques and aid application writing.
Although aiming to help get people into work, the qualifications, in some cases, only see little more than a third enter employment.

Despite this, the reason behind the surge in people registering for the qualifications is blamed, by the bodies, on rising unemployment rates.

However, it could also be down to the opening up of the single Adult Skills Budget from August last year, which means training providers who previously offered apprenticeships or workplace learning are now able to deliver outside the workplace.

Figures from Pearson, owned by Edexcel, from the start of September to the end of November in 2010 and 2011, show registrations of their Workskills qualification by training providers rose from 1,951 to 27,878 – an increase of some 1,428 per cent.

However, during the same time period, numbers for non-training providers – schools and colleges – have slightly decreased from 87,753 to 87,244.

The total for both provider types is 115,122 in 2011 – an increase of 25,418 when compared to the total of 89,704 in 2010.

A Pearson spokesperson said: “More than ever, individuals wishing to progress in the workplace, in education and in training, need to demonstrate flexible and wide-ranging skills.”

Further analysis shows the increase is due to the introduction of a ‘Designed for Apprentices’ model of the qualification, accounting for 24,909 of 2011’s figures. The qualification was not available the previous year.

A spokesperson for Pearson confirmed that there are no apprenticeship frameworks that mandate a Workskills qualification, adding: “As far as we understand it, providers are taking this in addition to their apprenticeships – even though it’s not funded – as it helps learners with the apprenticeship programme.

“As there is no additional funding for this, we took the decision to provide free registration for the WorkSkills qualifications as part of the BTEC Apprenticeship package when registering on full frameworks.”

Fellow awarding body City & Guilds (C&G) has also revealed an increase in registration numbers for their Employability and Personal Development qualification.

In the same time period, figures have risen from 15,160 to 24,872, but they were unable to split the figure by provider type.

A spokesperson for the organisation said: “This increase can probably be attributed to the sharp rise in UK unemployment figures recorded over the same period.”

The spokesperson added: “With high levels of unemployment, people are focusing on developing the skills needed to find work. The qualifications help learners develop employability skills that employers require, helping them be more attractive in a competitive job market or progress into education.”

NCFE, due to “commercial sensitivity” were unable to provide specific details, but have revealed that registrations for their eight employability qualifications have risen by 396 per cent during the past 12 months.

A spokesperson for NCFE said: “The growth is understandable when you consider the emphasis now being placed on the government to ensure young people are prepared for work and rapid growth in unemployment figures.

“These particular qualifications are popular as they provide core skills needed to help people gain employment and get their first step onto the career ladder.”

The Skills Funding Agency said greater access to the Adult Skills Budget was “intended to simplify the funding system” and increase opportunity for learners.

A spokesperson said: “This means that training organisations that have previously been restricted to workplace learning can also deliver provision geared to meet needs of individuals, including helping unemployed people into work.”

The Agency also said that colleges and providers are “free to make their own decisions about the mix and balance” of their provision, including the specific qualifications they deliver, when asked about the budget’s use.

Among those offering employability skills is RTT Group, which delivers the full-time qualification over two weeks at 10 sites across England.

Nick Barton, director of operations employability at the provider, said: “We will expect to see 7,500 to 9000 clients from Jobcentre Plus, Work Programme and Work Choice from across the country by the end of this academic year.

“That could easily increase by 25 to 50 per cent if we could fund it.

“The numbers are more than double than we saw last year through Response to Redundancy and Routes into Work.”

When asked about job progression, Mr Barton added: “We can’t offer 100 per cent of the learners employment.

“We offer 100 per cent of learners in our Sector Based Work Academy programmes that we run with Jobcentre Plus, a guaranteed interview and work experience.

“Our job entry rate is better than many Welfare to Work providers and, depending on where we are delivering in the country, we expect it to be over 38 per cent and for our Work Programme customers, over 50 per cent.”

More than 14m learner accounts unused

Less than 0.01 per cent of more than 14 million learning accounts have been accessed directly by learners, figures obtained by FE Week reveal.

The statistics, released in a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), show only 800 learners have accessed their Personal Learning Record (PLR), out of 14,166,906 Unique Learner Numbers (ULN) which have been created to give them access.

The PLR is managed by the Learning Records Service (LRS), a team of 17 staff within the SFA which enables the sharing of learner and achievement data across the education and skills sector.

The provision and maintenance of the ULN, which the FoI response says cost £7.2 million to implement, is also one of the services delivered by the LRS.

the total number of learners that have accessed their record directly to date is 800.”

It was first piloted back in 2006, before being rolled out in 2008, with access for the first learner to the LRS in January 2009.

However, the SFA, in the FoI document, say access to the accounts by learners will increase when they are promoted actively.

It reads: “It is not possible to quantify all the interactions on behalf of a learner.

“However, 1.76 million individual learner records have been accessed and updated.

“Many of these transactions will have been triggered to support a learner such as enabling a claim for public funding of learning.

“Direct access for learners to their records has not been actively promoted and the total number of learners that have accessed their record directly to date is 800.

“We expect this figure to rise significantly with the roll out of easier ways for learners to access their record online and promotion of routes, such as via Lifelong Learning Accounts in England.”

Denise Gledhill, head of funding and learner records at Wakefield College, said there seems to be a “general lack of awareness” about the LRS.

She added: “As a college, we incorporate standard information about the LRS within the Learning Agreement at enrolment, as required.

“Only two learners, from around 8,000 learners enrolled so far this year, have contacted my team this academic year, to request their ULN.”

Although admitting it is difficult to quantify time and money invested in LRS, Mrs Gledhill said that on average, one member of staff spends 20 per cent of the week investigating ULNs – which includes matches, duplicates and serious errors.

She also said: “We are not opposed to the principle of ULNs and the Personal Learning Record, but as a college we are currently seeing no benefit from the LRS.”

It is not the first time concerns have been raised about ULNs and Personal Learning Records – as its use by awarding bodies has previously been questioned.

Little more than a year ago, the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) raised members’ issues on the system over lack of control and responsibility for errors.

At the time, FAB’s chief executive Jill Lanning also said that exam boards were “nervous” over the prospect of confidential data being shared.

Meanwhile, in November, at an information authority meeting, the group “expressed concern that they have to put a lot of time and effort” into ULNs, but they said awarding bodies “do not seem to have bought” into them.

Mrs Lanning, speaking to FE Week, said: “We are still discussing details with the LRS about moving forward.

“Some awarding bodies are signed up to it, with some only for a trial period, but some are still biding their time to decide.”

The LRS provides services to more than 7,600 organisations, including schools, FE providers, higher education institutions, careers services and awarding organisations.

Since the introduction of the LRS, it is estimated the UK education sector has benefited from £56.9 million of avoided costs, while total salary costs including for all LRS staff were £847,722.54 for 2010/11 and £463,395.15 for 2009/10.

The increase is explained by the “recruitment of a permanent team following completion of the programme” that set up the service.

However, the SFA was unable to comment further at the time of going to press.