New apprenticeship certification to be launched

A new online system for certification of apprenticeships will be launched today (Wednesday).

Apprenticeship Certificates England (ACE) has been brought in to improve the quality and consistency of apprenticeship certificates in England.

It replaces the paper-based system previously provided by the 25 Sector Skills Councils (SSC) and Sector Skills Bodies (SSB). It is a web-based system that will rid the system of paper and reduce bureaucracy.

The Alliance of Sector Skills Councils, the organisation responsible for representing  Sector Skills Councils, Sector Skills Organisations and their employers across the UK skills system, will launch the system in conjunction with the National Apprenticeship Service.

Apprentices will receive a new certificate approved by John Hayes, the minister of state for further education, skills and lifelong learning, which includes either bronze, silver or gold foil seals:

  • Bronze this seal appears on the certificate issued to apprentices who completed an Intermediate Apprenticeship.
  • Silver this seal appears on the certificate issued to apprentices who completed an Advanced Apprenticeship.
  • Gold this seal appears on the certificate issued to apprentices who completed a Higher Apprenticeship.

The new centralised ACE system will save Apprenticeship training providers and issuing authorities valuable time, resource and investment and will allow them to track the progress of Apprenticeship candidates.

Mr Hayes, who will launch the system at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, in London, this afternoon, said: “The government is restoring practical learning to its rightful place as a hallmark of personal attainment and national pride.

“Apprenticeships are a gold standard qualification, and it’s right that the hard work of people who undertake them should be marked and celebrated.

“In this Olympic year, I am delighted to launch the new national gold, silver and bronze certificates to recognise the success of apprentices.

“The launch of these awards reflects the sterling achievements of the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils and the National Apprenticeship Service in helping forge a revitalised skills system that meets – and raises – the aspirations of learners and employers.”

John Rogers, Executive Chair of the Alliance, said: “I am delighted to be able to announce the launch of ACE, a system that will enable the certification of Apprenticeships in England and will underpin this vital programme.

“Apprenticeships play an important role in the provision of a highly skilled workforce in England and it is vital that we ensure individuals have the right skills, at the right time, to ensure they are best-placed to take advantage of the opportunities that arise as the economy continues to recover.”

For more on this story, see this week’s FE Week.

Further 19 colleges to benefit from Enhanced Renewal Grant

More than a dozen colleges who missed out in the share of £100 million worth of capital funding have been handed a lifeline.

Skills Funding Agency chief executive Geoff Russell has written to 19 colleges that applied for the Enhanced Renewal Grant advising them that the Agency, in agreement with BIS, is now able to fund their proposals.

Their proposals exceeded the Agency’s quality threshold but could not be funded with the main allocation, revealed in December, of £100 million.

The Agency says it has been able to “re-prioritise its own budgets” to fund these 19 new  projects, which amount to just under £29 million.

Geoff Russell said: “We are delighted that we can provide Enhanced Renewal Grant allocations to an additional 19 colleges.

“These grants are part of our continuing support and commitment to colleges and the modernisation of the FE estate.

“This investment reflects the crucial role that further education colleges have to play in providing skills to young people, adults and businesses, providing regeneration to local communities and the economy.”

The Agency received more than 129 applications totalling more than £200 million, for the initial fund.

The 19 colleges that will now receive an Enhanced Renewal Grant are:

Abingdon and Witney College
Berkshire College of Agriculture
Bury College
City College Plymouth
Dudley College
Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education
Henley College Coventry
Knowsley Community College
Lancaster and Morecambe College
Leek College of Further Education & School of Art
Leicester College
North Hertfordshire College
Oxford and Cherwell Valley College
Plumpton College
South Devon College
Stafford College
Truro and Penwith College
Westminster Kingsway College
Wiltshire College

Ofsted to launch consultation on ‘satisfactory’ grade for colleges

Ofsted is to consult on replacing the ‘satisfactory’ grade with ‘requires improvement’ for FE colleges.

Matthew Coffey, national director of learning and skills at Ofsted, said: “Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, announced on 17 January 2012 his intention to scrap the ‘satisfactory’ grade for school inspections and to replace it with ‘requires improvement’.

“The same arguments for doing so apply to the learning and skills sector as for schools.

“Ofsted will therefore further consult with the sector on making the same change in respect of the grade criteria used for the Common Inspection Framework from September 2012.”

Ofsted plan to publish the new inspection arrangements in May, alongside the findings of the previous consultation, which ended in November.

Mr Coffey says the last Annual Report identified a growing concern with colleges which have been graded ‘satisfactory’ for a number of years.

“Figures in our 2010/11 Annual Report, published in November, highlighted a continuing concern with the number of learning and skills providers who were not judged to be good or outstanding and in particular those who have failed to improve over a number of inspections,” Mr Coffey said.

“In last year’s Annual Report we identified 45 colleges, 75 independent learning providers and 11 providers of adult and community learning who were judged satisfactory or inadequate.”

He added: “We also highlighted that 22 colleges had been judged satisfactory twice and 16 for the third time.”

The previous consultation found that Ofsted should focus on inspecting providers with lower ratings.

“The proposal to focus more of our inspection activity on those providers who were not yet good was very well received,” Mr Coffey said.

“Three quarters of respondents from the sector agreed that we should inspect these providers more frequently and consider the benefits of doing so without notice.”

(Read the next edition of FE Week to find out the results of the last consultation, as well as Ofsted’s plans for changing the ‘satisfactory’ grade.) 

Work Programme at risk of fraud and under-delivery, say NAO

The government’s Work Programme is being exposed to fraud and will help significantly less people than expected to secure a job, a new report has revealed.

The National Audit Office (NAO) says the scheme will put just over a quarter of claimants who are on Jobseekers Allowance and aged over 25 into employment, compared to government estimates of 40 per cent.

The NAO say the Department for Work Pensions’ (DWP) “over-optimistic” assumptions, used to set the prices and performance incentives for providers, will make it difficult for providers to meet minimum performance targets.

“If these estimates are too high, prices will have been set too low and providers will find it difficult to meet minimum performance targets and struggle financially,”  the report states.

The NAO fear the lack of accountability and difficult performance targets will encourage prime contractors to focus on claimants who are easier to employ.

“If the assumptions underpinning our calculation are correct, the performance requirements the Department has set are going to be considerably more challenging for providers to meet,” the report states.

“This increases the risk that they might seek to protect profits through activities such as overlooking harder-to-help claimants.”

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, added: “The Department has set providers stretching performance targets and it needs to ensure that they do not cut corners to stay in profit, such as targeting easy to reach people, reducing service levels or treating sub-contractors unfairly.”

The Work Programme, introduced by government to try and tackle rising unemployment in June 2011, is currently operating without the IT systems needed to prevent fraud and administrative errors, the report added.

The NAO say this was a consequence of the government trying to introduce the scheme quickly.

there is an increased risk of fraud and error.”

“The pace at which the Department introduced IT for the Programme was out of step with the introduction of the rest of the Programme,” the report states.

“The Department decided not to have all of the IT in place for the Programme’s start because it considered that waiting would have negated the benefits of the Programme’s early adoption.”

The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, added: “The rush to get the programme up and running was so great that the supporting IT is still not in place, even though the programme was launched eight months ago.”

“This has led to an increased risk of fraud and error.”

The missing IT systems mean the DWP is unable to carry out the automatic checks needed to determine whether people have entered employment, stopped claiming benefits and reached a point where providers should be paid.

The NAO says the DWP will therefore make payments of roughly £60 million to prime contractors based on manual submissions.

The NAO report, titled “The introduction of the Work Programme”, says at the earliest it won’t be until March 2012, 16 months since the programme launched, before the supporting IT will be functioning properly.

The report states: “In the period from March to May 2012 there will be a full reconciliation of payments made and providers will have to pay back any claimed inappropriately.

“In the meantime there is an increased risk of fraud and error. “

The report adds that the risk of fraud will continue to increase if the DWP delays the implementation of the IT systems in March.

The NAO has also criticised DWP for making important decisions about the Work Programme before finishing the associated business case.

The final version of the business case was approved in April 2011, a week after the prime contractors had already been announced.

The case failed to consider any alternative approaches to the Work Programme, assess the costs of implementing the Universal Credit system and a contingency for replacing failed prime contractors, as well as estimating the cost of terminating the scheme.

The NAO say the DWP is also facing significant costs as it continues to terminate existing welfare to work contracts, leftover from previous schemes.

The report reveals DWP settlements totalling £63 million, with a final deal for two remaining providers still ongoing.

The Department estimates the Work Programme will cost between £3 billion and £5 billion over the next five years, helping up to 3.3 million people.

Claimants form one of nine groups based on the type of benefit(s) they are receiving from government.

Providers are then paid by the DWP for taking a claimant on to the Work Programme, for putting them into employment for a sustained period of time and meeting performance levels set by the government.

Claimants who are thought to be ‘harder-to-help’ have a higher amount of total funding available to providers.

New register launched

The new Register of Training Organisations has been launched.

It follows an extensive review and evaluation of the former Approved College and Training Organisations Register (ACTOR) during 2011.

All organisations that wish to be considered for funding to deliver Education and Vocational Training Services, including European Social Funding and Apprenticeships will needto complete the Due Diligence Gateway Assurance process.

The exemption extended to some providers last year will not operate in 2012/13, which means that some will need to complete the Assurance Gateway for the first time.

IfL begins work on commission into adult education and vocational training

The Institute for Learning (IfL) has announced a research project to help the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) prepare for an independent commission into adult education and vocational training.

The institute wants 100 of its members to complete “reflective diaries” which explain how they plan for classes, meet curriculum requirements and the needs of learners.

Lee Davies, deputy chief executive of the IfL,  said: “As the professional body for teachers and trainers, IfL is ideally placed to gain critical insight into vocational pedagogy from the perspective of teachers and trainers.

“Having long called for an independent inquiry into world-class teaching and training in our sector, we are very pleased that we can now offer our members the opportunity to shape the nature of the independent commission.

The project, titled ‘A week in the life of’, is asking specifically for teachers of engineering and motor vehicle engineering, hospitality and catering and business administration to volunteer to participate.

The IfL say they hope the diaries will show the challenges faced by vocational teachers and trainers in their day-to-day work.

“These reflective or descriptive diaries, which do not necessarily have to cover a calendar week, will capture the planning that goes into vocational teaching and training; the challenges a teacher or trainer faces in terms of addressing the curriculum and meeting the needs of learners; the pedagogy or approach to teaching and learning adopted; and general observations on teaching and training practice,” Mr Davies said.

The IfL will hold a number of regional seminars throughout February and March 2012  to discuss vocational pedagogy with teachers and trainers, including participants in the diary research project.

The institute will also ask students’ unions what they think good teaching and learning looks like, focusing on younger learners who have made the transition from school to further education.

The commission into adult education and vocational pedagogy was announced by BIS as part of a formal response to the New Challenges, New Chances consultation, titled “Further Education and Skills System Reform Plan: Building a World Class Skills System”.

Filton College students work with charity

A college has teamed up with housing provider 1625 Independent People to solve issues for local young people.

Students on Building and Construction Courses at Filton College will take on repair jobs in the charity’s properties.

Groups of four or five students and their tutor will take on repair and maintenance jobs as part of their course.

Also young people housed by Independent People will do up their properties as part of an introduction to the construction course.

Independent People support 16-25 year olds who are homeless by providing housing, support and advice.

The charity and college are in also talks with local authorities and housing associations with a view to renovating empty properties to house homeless people.

Chief executive Dom Wood said: “This partnership is a brilliant opportunity to help turn a raft of problems into positive outcomes for young people.”

Success rates are due

The Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) will publish 2009/10 school and academy 16-19 qualification success rates on February 2.

The 16-19 success rates show, at a headline level, the proportion of young people that start a qualification in an institution and achieve it by the end of the required period of study.

This measure has been used in the college sector for many years and is considered to be a key indicator of an institution’s performance.

School and academy success rates are not yet directly compatible with college success rates, say the YPLA.

Merger plan unveiled

A consultation is underway for the proposed merger of Lewisham and Southwark Colleges.

The document sets out an “exciting and radical vision for a college of the future” in south-east London.

It adds: “Lewisham and Southwark Colleges firmly believe that by working together we will be able to get more local people into work and support the businesses that are transforming our communities.”

For more, visit www.lewishamsouthwark.co.uk