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The Great 2023 Grade Deflation: 7 things you need to know

Schools, colleges and students are eagerly awaiting A-level results on Thursday – the second series of summer exams since the pandemic.

The government and Ofqual have been clear since last year that grades issued will be much closer to pre-pandemic levels.

But as results days near, concerns are emerging about the impact of such a plunge in results on students.

So here’s our explainer on what you need to know about this year’s results …

1. 2023 cohort will bear brunt of grade deflation …

The rolling back of the grade inflation did start last year. Ofqual promised 2022’s results would be a “midway” point between the pandemic highs and the pre-pandemic norms.

However, as FE Week’s sister title Schools Week revealed at the time, there was just a 30 per cent drop in top GCSE grades issued last year, a way off the 50 per cent fall that would have constituted the “midway” point.

datalab | Schools Week — <a href=httpsffteducationdatalaborguk202208a level results 2022 the main trends in grades and entries title=>Credit FFT Datalab<a>

While last year’s top A-level grades did fall further, analysis by Education Datalab showed almost all subjects were above this midpoint.

It means this year’s cohort has been left facing the biggest whack in grade deflation.

2. … as ‘50k students set to miss out on top grades’

While grades will fall this year, there are still what have been called “soft-landing” protections in place.

Essentially, senior examiners will make allowances to ensure that national performance in subjects is not lower than before the pandemic.

For example: a student who would have achieved a B in A-level geography before the pandemic will be just as likely to achieve this, even if their exam performance is a little weaker.

This is important because we know, for instance, that students’ maths results have worsened since the pandemic. Were there no protections in place, it’s likely results would fall below pre-pandemic standards.

Exam aids such as formulae and equation sheets were also allowed in some subjects, as recognition that this year’s cohort have also had their schooling disrupted by the pandemic.

But the University of Buckingham predicts nearly 100,000 fewer A and A*s will be dished out, with up to 50,000 students missing out on top grades that they would likely have achieved last summer.

3. And it could be poorer pupils worst hit

The widest disadvantage gap at A-level since records began was recorded last year. This gap actually narrowed slightly during the pandemic – suggesting that poorer pupils saw their grades rise the most during the teacher grade process.

But as that inflation is wound back, it’s likely those pupils will now be the worst hit.

Gap | Schools Week — Credit Department for Education

Michelle Meadows, former deputy Ofqual chief and now education assessment professor at the University of Oxford, warned the disadvantage gap will be larger than before the pandemic which is a “serious concern”.

But she said it can’t be “remedied by any approach to grading – schools and colleges need the right level of resourcing to provide targeted support to those students who most need it”.

A survey of students by the Social Mobility Foundation found that those from disadvantaged or low-incoming backgrounds in England were less likely to have received the help they needed to restore the learning lost during the pandemic.

4. Ofqual says standards must go back for fairness

Ofqual has previously said it’s important we get back to normal so grades “set young people up for college, university or employment in the best way possible”.

The Sunday Times reported that 30 per cent of young people dropped out of some university courses over the two years of pandemic grading – citing it as a reason for the return to “normal” grading.

A quote from an unnamed source added it was “not in young people’s interests to have grading arrangements that do not appropriately support their progression”.

However, Clare Marchant, UCAS chief executive, said this morning she was “struggling to understand” where the data came from.

Johnny Rich, a higher education specialist, also added “it’s very early” to state Covid drop-out rates, as data is yet to be published. Some courses prior to covid already had drop-out rates of 30 per cent, he added.

He believed a “lack of funding and miserable study conditions during the pandemic are far more realistic explanations” for dropouts rather than A-level grading being over generous.

5. High predicted grades could cause a problem …

Analysis by consultancy DataHE suggests nearly 60,000 university hopefuls predicted AAB and above could miss these grades on Thursday.

UCAS doesn’t publish predicted grades data until later in the year. But researcher Mark Corver estimated 113,088 students are predicted AAB and above this year by teachers (while awarded grades have “jumped around” over the years, predicated grades from teachers have been “much more stable” so are easier to estimate, he said).

However, his analysis found the actual number of top grades issued could be just 53,718.

“If this happens it will certainly be a big shock for these students, who had the strongest ever GCSE results,” Corver told the Guardian. This year’s A-level cohort would have been awarded higher-than-usual GCSEs during the 2021 teacher grades process.

When asked about the analysis, Ofqual pointed out that only 21 per cent of accepted applicants to university in 2019 achieved or exceeded their predicted grades.

Yet 86 per cent of UK UCAS applicants aged 18 took up a university place.

In September, the regulator recommended that teachers use the familiar pre-pandemic standard as the basis for predicting grades this year. It expected predicted grades this summer to be “much closer” to pre-pandemic years.

6. … but universities say they’ve accounted for it

As Corver points out, grade distribution should not in theory make any difference to getting a university place.

“People are not becoming more or less able; it is just the ruler is being changed,” he said.

However, he did warn “in practice both universities and applicants probably find it hard to completely shake off the grade equivalent of the ‘money illusion’, where you focus on the nominal value”.

Universities also don’t receive a nationwide grading picture until results day.

The Russell Group, which represents 24 leading UK universities, said during Covid there had been “uncertainty around grade boundaries” so universities were “more cautious with offer making”.

But this year, the organisation said it can model offer-making with greater certainty and factored in predicted grades being higher.

Even if more students don’t hit their predicted grades and miss their offers, universities can adapt and show “leniency” during the offer route, or go into clearing to find students.

Asked about the predicted grades gap, Marchant said she wasn’t “particularly concerned” as offers are made in context.

But she said there is a “broader issue” with predicted grades, adding: “We need to keep an eye on it. It’s very easy I think to overpredict but we need to be giving data to schools and colleges to get as accurate as possible around that.”

Another potential issue is that grades in both Wales and Northern Ireland will not return to pre-pandemic standards until next year, meaning results will be higher than for English students. Scotland also took a “sensitive approach” to grading.

The Russell Group said admission teams are used to accounting for variation in outcomes annually.

7. Clearing warning: Be ‘quick off mark’ and have Plan B

However, Marchant warned last week that students need to be “quick off the mark” on results day if they want to study at a top university, as competition in clearing will be tougher this summer.

Analysis by the PA news agency found fewer courses available in clearing this year among the Russell Group universities.

But Marchant said this was down to more 18-year-olds and international students competing for places, not an issue with grades.

The number of UK 18-year-old university applicants was down two per cent this year compared to last year, but still above 2021 figures by 2.8 per cent.

However, the offer rate for this group is higher at 76.2 per cent, compared to 73.9 per cent last year.

Marchant added they expected the vast majority of students will receive their first choice on Thursday.

But she advised students to research their options and prepare for a plan B.

EEF names former Ofsted boss as new chair

A former Ofsted boss is set to take over as chair of charity the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

Dame Christine Gilbert, who was chief inspector between 2006 and 2011, will replace philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl in the new year.

FE Week’s sister title Schools Week revealed in April that the outgoing chair – who also helped found the EEF – was stepping down after a “successful longstanding tenure”.

The organisation was launched 12 years ago by social mobility charity Sutton Trust, formed by Lampl, after it was backed by a £125 million government grant.

The EEF – which received a £137 million injection last year from ministers – aims to break the link between family income and education achievement by supporting schools and colleges through the better use of evidence.

Speaking today, Lampl said the charity “has set new standards for educational research” and been an “invaluable resource” for teachers, sector leaders and policy makers.

PeterLamplinset600px | Schools Week — Sir Peter Lampl

“Its recent re-endowment reflects the strong value and recognition of its work across the sector.

“I am delighted Dame Christine will succeed me when my term comes to an end. I look forward to continuing my association with the EEF through my emeritus chair role.”

Gilbert has been an EEF trustee since the beginning of this year. She also led the National Tutoring Foundation, which was set up by the EEF in 2021 to run the government’s flagship National Tutoring Programme.

However it was dissolved after Randstad was awarded the contract in 2021-22.

Gilbert is also the joint chair of the Education Partnership Association and has been a visiting professor at UCL Institute of Education for more than a decade.

Following the announcement of her new role, she said: “Over the past decade, the EEF has become a much-respected part of the English education landscape.

“I’ve got to know their work in great depth during my time as Trustee, during which time I’ve been grateful for Sir Peter’s leadership.”

Legrave’s term as FE Commissioner extended

Shelagh Legrave’s term as FE Commissioner has been extended by six months until the end of March, the Department for Education announced today.

The former chief executive of Chichester College Group will serve her new term as FE Commissioner from October 1, 2023 until the end of March 2024.

Legrave has been in the post since October 2021, when she took over from Richard Atkins, following the announcement that she would take up a two-year term earlier that year.

Legrave said: “I am delighted to continue to serve as the Further Education Commissioner and to support all colleges in a sector which changes lives through learning.”

The Department confirmed that Legrave’s salary will remain unchanged for the extended term. She will be remunerated £135,000 per annum and will work up to 4 days per week in the role.

She has published four formal intervention reports on struggling colleges so far in her tenure, as part of her ambition to reduce the number of colleges facing intervention, as told to FE Week.

On taking office, Legrave spoke about wanting to change the perception of the FE Commissioner’s role from one of fear to one of support. In her first interview as Commissioner, she told FE Week “The FE Commissioner is there to support the sector. Yes, it has an intervention role, but support is my focus.”

FE Commissioner warns of college solvency risk and the danger of reclassification

On her watch, the Commissioner’s team of deputies, advisers and national leaders have prioritised delivering programmes of “active support” including diagnostic visits and health checks, for colleges on request rather than just working with those already in trouble.

Throughout her tenure as FE Commissioner so far, Legrave has commented publicly on the finanicial struggles facing colleges and the risks this poses to delivering the government’s skills agenda.

At the Skills and Education Group’s annual conference this year, Legrave honed in on staff recruitment and retention difficulties, saying “There is a real danger that the sector will not be able to deliver the reforms that the government is looking for in further education because you can’t find the staff to teach the qualifications.

Every college I’ve been to has not been able to honour some qualifications because they can’t find the expertise to teach it.”

And in her latest annual report, Legrave warned colleges not to drop the ball on oversight of subcontracting, cyber-security and long-serving governors getting “too comfortable”.

National Extension College: Sixty years of second chance learning

The National Extension College (NEC) has pioneered distance and second-chance education for six decades this August, and its founding mission is more relevant than ever, writes Sir Alan Tuckett

Organisations focusing on second-chance education for adults have had a tough time these last twenty years, as more than four million publicly funded places for adults in further education have been cut since 2010 as a result of funding changes.

In the open and distance learning field there has been a litany of failed government initiatives to create a sub-degree equivalent of the Open University – among them the Open Tech, the Open College, the University for Industry and the NHS University.

All short-lived, all suffering from the sudden shifts that have characterised post-school lifelong learning policy in recent decades.

Yet as the Covid pandemic highlighted, distance learning is of key importance for people unable to leave home for whatever reason.

For that reason alone, it is worth celebrating the sixtieth birthday this month of the National Extension College (NEC), and to use the occasion to argue for an overhaul of policy thinking on the field, to recognise its place in addressing social disadvantage, and in levelling up education opportunities in Britain.

The NEC is small, innovative, independent of government funding, yet committed to the public good. It was the brainchild of the social entrepreneur Michael Young, and his colleague Brian Jackson, who became the college’s first director.

Pioneering distance learning

Young recognised that many people who had missed out on much of their education the first time around because of the second world war and passages of ill health, and those with work or family commitments, would welcome a second chance to learn and to gain qualifications.

He believed there needed to be an opportunity to enable them to learn in their own time, and at their own pace. Young argued, “We were searching for education without institution, learning while earning, courses which people of all ages could take in their own time, at their own pace.”

NEC’s start was modest. Supported by a grant of £16,000 from the Gulbenkian Foundation and £1,000 from The Guardian, its initial range of programmes in 1963 included O level mathematics and English, university courses, mounted in partnership with the University of London’s external course programme, and a range of vocational programmes.

An early media partnership with Anglia Television introduced new approaches to learning maths and English, just as later the NEC partnered with the BBC in offering early computer literacy courses. Its early experiences shaped the Open University which opened to students in 1971.

Among the college’s alumni was Eddie the Eagle (Michael Edwards), immortalised in film for his exploits on the ski slopes at the 1988 Winter Olympics. In the 1990s Eddie took a range of O and A level courses through the NEC before going on to a degree at De Montfort University. The comedian Russell Kane studied A level sociology at the NEC and now sponsors student scholarships.

By 1988 the College had provided comparable course opportunities to more than 250,000 people – a figure more than tripled now.

Saved from disaster

Growing demand saw a steady growth in staff support to some 70 people in 2002, and through the 1990s and the first decade of this century, NEC managed the transition from a paper and post service to online delivery.

But in the years leading up to 2010, it suffered several years of financial losses which prompted its board of trustees to seek a merger.

They opted to join with the Learning and Skills Network (LSN), which sold off NEC’s prime location in Cambridge for £6 million. But in a matter of weeks, the LSN itself went into administration in 2011.

The original NEC charity had been dissolved at the time of the merger, but, convinced of the critically important role the college played in its students’ lives, Ros Morpeth set about resuscitating it.

Morpeth led NEC from 1988 to 2003 and maintained an active engagement thereafter. With colleagues she found a dormant charity, the Open School Trust (another of Michael Young’s creations), and put a successful bid to the administrators, PwC, to take the National Extension College out of administration, with support from the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and the Open University.

Morpeth’s success in re-establishing the NEC, which she ran again for several years without remuneration, was recognised when she was voted FE leader of the year in the 2016 TES FE awards.

As the college celebrates its birthday in robust health under the leadership of Esther Chesterman, and prepares for its next sixty years, it looks to engage artificial intelligence for its potential benefits to personalise the learning process, while being aware of the risks it brings.

There is no doubt that its original remit – to offer second chances to learners in our educationally divided country – is as relevant as ever. And any lifelong learning policy worth having must surely find an effective way of supporting institutions and provision dedicated to those ends.

(L) Holly Brown, marketing executive, & (R) Esther Chesterman, CEO

Multi-million-pound donation to fund apprentice wages in ‘radical approach’ to heritage skills

A near-£29 million donation will fund training and apprentice wage costs in a bid to rescue dying heritage craft skills in the UK.

The donation, made by philanthropist Hamish Ogston, will provide a “sustainable, future-facing ecosystem of heritage conservation” to the sector, he said. It will fund training for up to 2,700 people across the UK and Commonwealth, and will “ensure the survival of some of the greatest historic buildings around the world”.

That will come as a welcome boost to a sector struggling to recruit apprentices in England due to low demand and high training costs.

Ogston’s donation comes as FE Week revealed earlier this year that only a quarter of heritage crafts in England, some of which have a history of apprenticeships going back centuries, have government-approved apprenticeship standards today. Many of those, despite being approved, are not being delivered due to a lack of demand and high-cost training facilities.

Difficulties finding training providers and end-point assessors have also hit heritage crafts in England, which has left many of them “endangered”. Waning demand leads to training providers pulling out of heritage crafts as running them becomes unviable.

For instance, apprenticeships in sectors including clockmaker, assistant puppetmaker, bookbinder and blacksmith have all failed to recruit any apprentices through the government’s apprenticeship system in England.

A break with tradition: the crafts fighting for survival

The donation is the largest single financial gift to the sector, according to the Hamish Ogston Foundation, and will fund training costs, and apprentice and teacher wages through projects run by several heritage organisations: English Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, Commonwealth Heritage Forum and the Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship.

English Heritage received £11.2 million which will fund more than 50 seven-year courses in flint and stone masonry, and heritage brickwork.

It will also fund a new heritage skills training centre in East Anglia and will “safeguard” 34 castles and abbeys in the East of England. They include Canterbury Cathedral and Bury St Edmunds Abbey.

Gerard Lemos, chair of English Heritage, said that though the East of England had been “historically defined” by the flint trade, “that’s no longer happening, and both the buildings and the people have been the poorer for it.”

“Our new skills apprenticeships will provide a radical new approach to address the decline,” he added.

English Heritage will also boost outreach across East Anglia’s schools and post-16 sector too, which will include training sessions for 450 FE construction students.

In total, 19 countries across the Commonwealth will benefit from the fund, including India, Fiji, Bermuda and Ghana.

The fund will help maintain historic buildings including the Herbarium at the Botanic Gardens in Kolkata, India, and New Zealand’s Christchurch Cathedral, which was damaged by an earthquake back in 2011.

Hands-on training at 20 sites outside of the UK will also be funded – with £12.3 million going to other parts of the Commonwealth.

Historic Environment Scotland will have access to £5.2 million of funding, which will fund 100 training places north of the border.

Ogston, the philanthropist, said the donation would “establish a coherent and accessible training infrastructure for those looking to learn skills in heritage conservation.”

Free meals funding ‘another real-terms cut to bear’

Free meals funding for disadvantaged students will increase this August for the first time since the policy was introduced nine years ago.

The Department for Education announced today that the rate per student per meal will increase by 5 per cent from £2.41 to £2.53.

But with food inflation currently standing at 17.4 per cent, college leaders have warned this the new rate will still require cross-subsidy from other budgets.

If the per-student per-meal rate had increased in line with the consumer price index, the measure of inflation for everyday goods and services, it would stand at £3.17.

Colleges and providers face a “real terms cut” in free meal provision despite government plans to increase funding, a principal has warned.

Darren Hankey, principal of Hartlepool College of Further Education, said he “appreciated” an increase to the funding rate for free meals but warned the 5 per cent rise is “substantially below [food] inflation”, which according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) stood at 17.4 per cent in June.

“In essence, it’s another real-terms cut which colleges will have to bear,” Hankey said.

Colleges, independent learning providers (ITPs) and sixth-form colleges can fund free meals for disadvantaged students between 16 and 18. Funding is also available for disadvantaged 19-year-olds who started their studies before they turned 19.

The policy was extended to the further education sector in 2014-15 after it was available to school children for decades. Disadvantaged students are those who, or whose parents receive at least one benefit from the government.

Other than the rate rise, there were no other policy changes announced today.

However, providers will receive payments from the Department for Education in three batches next year, rather than two.

The announcement follows a year of skyrocketing inflation, particularly of food prices. In March, food price inflation reached its highest rate in more than 45 years, coming in at 19.2 per cent.

Cost-of-living crisis driving up domestic abuse and criminal exploitation of college students

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) said sixth form colleges “already tend to spend more per meal than is allocated by government” for free school meals and said this “will likely continue to be the case with the increased rate”.

But he said sixth forms will “continue to pay whatever it costs to ensure a nutritious meal for young people, topping up government funding as necessary”.

“However, in the circumstances in which colleges operate, with funding allocations continuing to fall behind inflation, and with greater cost pressures stretching their already limited budgets, any increase, however small, will be a welcome step in the right direction.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said increased the free meals funding rate because it “recognises” the impact inflation is having on students and colleges.

“We are separately helping disadvantaged students by increasing the 16-19 bursary fund to over £152 million this academic year to support with the costs of books, equipment, and trips where needed,” they added.

“This is on top of the biggest increase in 16-19 funding in a decade – with an extra £1.6billion in 2024-25, compared to 21-22.”

The cost-of-living crisis has had a sharp impact on the further education sector as it struggled to deal with mounting costs across the board. Last month the all-party parliamentary group for students warned more students were falling victim to domestic abuse and criminal exploitation due to the cost of living crisis.

The APPG also warned more students were using transport bursaries to support their families and called for more students to be eligible for free meals funding.

All childcare apprentices dropped out at ‘inadequate’ training provider

A North London training provider where every one of its childcare apprentices left early has been slammed by Ofsted.

The UK College of Business (UKCB), based in North Finchley, got hit with an ‘inadequate’ overall effectiveness rating in its first full Ofsted report which was published today, after a damning inspection in April. It received ‘inadequate’ ratings for education quality, leadership and management, and apprenticeships, with ‘requires improvement’ ratings in behaviour and attitudes, and personal development.

Ofsted said all 42 of the provider’s childcare apprentices left early, while some learners were left without supervisors at work and some learners were not in “appropriate employment” when they started their apprenticeships.

Inspectors flagged that because apprentices have no access to English training, many are unable to complete tasks independently.

Apprenticeship training on offer at UKCB ranges from levels three to seven in standards including content creation, dentistry, digital and childcare. On top of the 42 childcare level four and five apprentices who had left their studies early, a further 10 apprentices also left early from courses in content creation, fundraising and senior leadership. At the time of the inspection, 46 apprentices on level three courses in content creation, fundraising and senior leadership were waiting to take their end-point assessments.

Just two level four dental practice manager apprentices, one level four digital community manager apprentice and four level seven senior leader apprentices were in learning at the time of the Ofsted inspection.

The provider is currently suspended from taking on new apprentices according to the apprenticeship providers and assessment register (APAR).

Back to basics

Ofsted found that apprentices do not receive “planned regular support” to prepare for their assessments, and were missing basic individual training plans. That left apprentices “unclear” on what they need to do to make progress in their studies.

Inspectors said “too few apprentices” complete their programmes. According to government data, just 27.8 per cent of the learners achieved their apprenticeships in 2021-22, half the national average.

Though the leaders “recognise that they have made numerous errors and have tried to correct some of these,” their “poor management” had a “negative effect on too many apprentices”. Among many of the criticisms aimed at leaders was that they “do not ensure” their staff have the expertise to plan and teach apprenticeships.

However, apprentices on the level 3 fundraiser apprenticeship said they feel “well supported” by their tutors and enjoy their programmes, while on others they learn behaviours that are valued in the workplace.

‘Not aware’ of the potential risks

Safeguarding at the UKCB was deemed ‘effective’ yet inspectors found the leaders do not routinely carry out risk assessments of the employers their learners work for, meaning “they are not aware of the potential risks their apprentices face when they are at work”.

The UKCB is too small to publish full accounts, but had fixed assets worth £104,000 in the year to 31 July 2022, according to its micro business accounts for that year. It also reported debts of £100,000.

Its website boasts “We have the necessary physical and human resources to provide adequate support to students.”

Its owner and chief executive, Abdul Matin Khan, is also principal and owner of the Commonwealth College of Excellence, based at the same premises as UKCB. The Commonwealth College has not been inspected by Ofsted but is on the Office for Students register.

UKCB did not respond to requests for comment.

Care leadership training provider hit with ‘inadequate’ rating

A West Midlands independent training provider specialising in the care sector leadership apprenticeships has been branded ‘inadequate’ after Ofsted identified “systemic weaknesses” in its training delivery.

In its first full Ofsted inspection, Stourbridge-based Phemagrace Ltd was handed the lowest rating in a report published today, following an inspection in June. It received ‘inadequate’ judgements for quality of education, leadership and management, personal development and apprenticeships, but scored ‘good’ for behaviour and attitudes.

The firm provided training to 55 apprentices at the time of the inspection, mainly in the care sector, but has no employees other than a single director, Morenikeji Babatunde Dawud, according to its latest annual report for the year to 31 December 2021.

Phemagrace’s apprentices are all on level three and level five courses, in adult care leadership, business administration, and team leader standards.

Inspectors said the provider had not acted on comments they had made in its previous monitoring visit report from last November when they found poor teaching quality, gaps in the provider’s systems so that its courses could not be improved, and problems with its careers advice.

Phemagrace is currently suspended from taking on new apprentices according to the apprenticeship providers and assessment register (APAR). Under the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s funding rules, an ‘inadequate’ judgement from Ofsted usually results in a suspension from the apprenticeship providers and assessment register (APAR) and contract termination.

Neither Dawud, nor a representative from Phemagrace was contactable at the time of publication.

‘Systemic weaknesses’

Inspectors highlighted a lack of quality assurance procedures meaning the provider was unable to identify or fix “the systemic weaknesses in their apprenticeships.”

“As a result, the quality of education has not improved,” the report added.

Curriculums at the provider are also “not sufficiently well planned to ensure that [learners] build substantial new knowledge, skills and behaviours over time”. Inspectors identified a failure to “routinely” develop English and mathematics skills during apprenticeships, meaning apprentices are not “well prepared” for their next steps.

There is also not enough emphasis on learner feedback at the provider so apprentices do not know how to improve their work as they move through their studies. Apprentices are also often not prepared for their end-point assessments.

‘Too few’ completions

That all means “too few apprentices” successfully complete their apprenticeships – with many “significantly behind” the planned end date of their apprenticeships.

Back in 2020-21 the provider recorded 40 new apprenticeship starts, mostly on the level 3 team leader or supervisor standard, with an additional three on the level 5 children, young people and families manager apprenticeship.

In 2021-22, the business flipped to deliver largely higher level apprenticeships, with the better funded level 5 leader in adult care standard making up the bulk of its starts that year.

In the first three quarters of this year, it has started 29 apprentices on the level 5 leader in adult care standard.

In each year the number of apprentices achieving their apprenticeship has been too low to record an achievement rate.

Ofsted did praise the provider on its “effective” safeguarding arrangements, and noted that apprentices speak “positively of what they have learned”. But inspectors found “too few apprentices” could say what exactly they had learned on their apprenticeship, or how what they had learned would help them in the workplace.

The quality of teaching also suffers as the provider does not have a strategy to improve the skills of assessors. Despite commissioning an external organisation to address those concerns, the provider has not acted on its recommendations. Inspectors said that resulted in a “poor” standard of teaching and assessment.

Ofsted’s report also detailed a lack of “useful, impartial careers advice”, and a lack of direction on where apprentices could progress to following their studies.

Phemagrace is too small to publish full business accounts, and has not yet published micro-business accounts for 2022. But in its accounts for 2021, it reported debts of nearly £50,000, in comparison to just £723 the year prior. Their sole director, Dawud, also is a director at Phemacare, a charity providing personal in-home care.

It is not registered on Ofsted, but got a ‘requires improvement’ rating from the Care Quality Commission in its latest report from July 2021.

Phemagrace and Phemacare were both approached for comment.

Rip-off degrees might not be the ones people think they are

Rishi Sunak recently announced a crackdown on ‘rip-off’ degrees, aimed at studies that don’t lead graduates to gainful employment. Predictably, this seems to be targeting what have historically been lauded as ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees e.g., the social sciences and humanities. But the real ‘low-value’ degrees may in fact be in STEM. 

Non-continuation rates for computer science (9.8 per cent) and engineering and technology (7.2 per cent) suggest they are not delivering for students – this is coming at the same time as the government has been vocal about its new drive to make the UK a tech superpower, announcing huge funding in different areas of the tech sector.  

The spring budget included huge funding boosts in various parts of the industry, and there is clearly a real push from the government to enhance the technology skills of our workforce.  

But scaring people away from humanities degrees is unlikely to deliver that. What we need are viable routes into the sector – and STEM degrees may not be providing that right now. 

More people than ever are taking STEM courses now, with acceptances into computer science courses rising by almost 50 per cent. But in spite of this rise over the past decade, skilled workers aren’t entering the workforce fast enough and the UK Government lists programming, software development, IT and communications, IT business analysis and system design as the most in demand skills needed right now.

The needs of the workforce are shifting – STEM jobs used to stringently require a relevant degree, this isn’t always the case now. Some have shifted to a degree in any subject, whereas others may not need one at all. Tech giant IBM has dropped from around 80% of their jobs advertised requiring one, to around half.

University has traditionally been the default option for school leavers, which is part of the problem. There hasn’t been enough investment or awareness of other viable options, and the key policy concern should surely be to ensure there are a diversity of suitable routes for students to go on and get skilled work. 

STEM jobs used to stringently require a relevant degree; this isn’t always the case now

The universities sector has work to do on that front, for example by increasing the number of courses with an industrial placement. But AI is a perfect example of how technology can completely transform our professional and personal lives in a few short months. With its rapid acceleration, a three or four-year degree seems increasingly unlikely to satisfy either the learners’ or businesses’ needs.

Work is already happening that reflects this change. Just recently, Microsoft partnered with Milton Keynes College and others in Buckinghamshire to design a curriculum which focused on areas where it felt there was a “large skill gap”, including courses in software development, programming, digital marketing and game development. It will also reportedly cost almost £10,000 less than a traditional degree, but with equal qualifications.

Degree-level apprenticeships and partnerships between universities, colleges and industry professionals show education is responding. Students are increasingly leaning toward earn-as-you-learn apprenticeships and boot camps as much better value for money.  

But a lot more needs to be done to deliver on the government’s ambition, and it is more involved than simply giving money to sectors in the hope that they will find and develop their own talent pipelines. We need more relevant apprenticeship standards, and more capacity to deliver them.  

Our own academy took in 65 per cent of its learners from non-STEM degree backgrounds last year, and many of our junior consultants have gone on to forge very successful careers in tech over the years, in many different types of roles within the industry.  

In the wake of this degree cap announcement, the next step we need from the government is a clear plan for upskilling and training in the UK. They need to help target these pain points where students are being failed by supporting these alternative pathways; young people and the country deserve more. 

This needs to be done with the cooperation of colleges, training providers and academies who are central to this – failing to acknowledge that would just amount to policy making for the sake of policy making.