Brooklands College has finally published accounts for the first time in four years.
The Surrey-based college was stung by an apprenticeship subcontracting scandal that came to light in 2019 following investigations by FE Week.
Left with a £25 million debt demanded by the government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency, the small college, which brings in just £11 million in income annually, has spent years negotiating a repayment deal that would prevent it from going bust.
In recent months the college has unveiled plans for a £45 million re-development, which includes selling an historic building and land for homes, to pay back the debt.
Even though the college is waiting on the local council to agree to planning permission, the plan, approved by the ESFA, has moved the college’s financial health up from ‘inadequate’ to ‘good’ and enabled the accounts for the past four years to be approved and published.
The accounts reveal the £25 million debt has been “discounted” to £23.1 million and can be repaid in the next three years.
“The amount due to the ESFA shown as a long-term creditor of £23m is supported by a repayment agreement and will not be called in for three years unless the development of the state enables this to be repaid sooner,” its latest accounts state.
They also show the principal that led the college at the time of the subcontracting scandal, which took place between 2014 and 2018, Gail Walker, received “compensation” of £14,175 when she after she resigned. The accounts state this was for “statutory redundancy only”.
Ninety-two courses taken by over 17,000 students face the axe as the government reveals its latest hit list of level 3 qualifications.
Popular courses for 16- to- 19-year-olds in engineering and manufacturing are set to lose their funding from 2025 as officials continue to clear the way for their flagship T Level qualifications.
The qualifications sentenced to defunding today rival wave 3 of the T Level rollout. They include Pearson’s BTEC national foundation diploma in engineering, the BTEC national extended diploma in engineering and IMI’s diploma in light vehicle maintenance. Over 8,200 young FE students enrolled on those qualifications in 2020/21.
Teaching of wave 3 T Levels began in September 2022, bringing in business and administration, legal, finance and accounting and engineering and manufacturing. Those students will complete in 2024. Overlap qualifications will be removed the year after in 2025.
Skills minister Robert Halfon announced this morning the Department for Education had identified 92 level 3 qualifications in total that overlap with wave 3 T Levels and will therefore lose their funding. See table below for the full list.
The DfE previously announced that 134 other level 3 courses that overlap with waves 1 and 2 of T Levels also face defunding.
“We are reforming technical qualifications as the current qualifications do not consistently progress young people to related employment,” Halfon said.
“Removing funding from technical qualifications which overlap with T Levels will ensure young people can feel confident that they are studying technical qualifications which will prepare them for jobs in their chosen occupation.”
DfE data shows that of the 92, 36 had no enrolments and 24 had fewer than 100 enrolments in 2020/21. Enrolment data “wasn’t available” for six qualifications.
The remaining 26 qualifications recorded 16 to 19 enrolments totalling 17,120 in 2020/21.
Pearson, which offers the popular BTEC, is the most affected awarding organisation, with 12,010 enrolments in in 2020/21 across 18 qualifications earmarked for defunding.
EAL and IMI are the next most affected awarding organisations, with 2,150 and 1,180 enrolments on affected enrolments respectively.
Pearson’s managing director for vocational qualifications and training, Freya Thomas Monk, told FE Week: “Our BTEC nationals in business and enterprise are highly regarded by learners and employers and we welcome that they are not on the provisional list of qualifications that was published.”
On the 18 Pearson qualifications that have been listed, Thomas Monk said: “We will be writing to our customers shortly with what this announcement means for them and their learners.”
Pearson confirmed it will not appeal to save any of the qualifications.
Other awarding bodies impacted by the wave 3 overlap list have until July 6 to appeal.
The most popular qualification on the list is Pearson’s Level 3 national foundation diploma in engineering, with 3,790 enrolments in 2020/21.
The qualification features as one of 75 applied general qualifications already deemed ineligible for consideration as an alternative to T Levels based on analysis by the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA).
James Kewin, SFCA deputy chief executive, said the inclusion of engineering courses on the latest list “serves as a reminder of the sort of popular and respected courses that young people will no longer be able to access in the future”.
Data obtained by a freedom of information request by the Protect Student Choice campaign, which SFCA leads, found that 68 per cent of 16 to 18 years olds currently studying applied general qualifications are enrolled on courses that will not be funded in the future.
“Ministers have reneged on their commitment to only defund a small proportion of AGQs and taken the extraordinary step of preventing 55 per cent of these qualifications from even starting the approval process,” Kewin said.
“This high-handed approach and steadfast refusal to acknowledge concerns about the direction of level 3 reform will leave many young people without a viable pathway at the age of 16.”
A provisional list of qualifications that overlap with the fourth and final wave of T Levels will be published “later this year”.
Kewin said: “We are now at a critical juncture at the reform process and we need ministers to start listening before irreparable damage is done to the life chances of tens of thousands of young people. A change to the defunding process is the absolute minimum we need, but delaying a bad idea does not stop it from being a bad idea – AGQs have a vital role to play alongside A levels and T levels in the future.”
DfE said the final wave 3 overlap list will be published “in the autumn” following decisions on appeals from the awarding bodies.
IMI and EAL were approached for comment but did not reply at the time of going to press.
I am all in favour of helping young people who want to go to university to do so. But after decades of education policy dominated by the University route, under governments of all colours, 36 per cent of young people make that choice in Greater Manchester. Which begs the question: what about the 64 per cent who don’t?
Our surveys of GM teenagers provide an answer to this question and make for difficult reading. Too many are left without a sense of direction or hope for their future, and feeling like second-class students.
We are determined to change this. Last week, seizing on the opportunities presented by the trailblazer devolution deal we recently agreed with the government, I unveiled plans for the UK’s first integrated technical education system with the aim of giving young people two clear, equal paths at 14: one academic, one technical.
Young people wishing to go to university have a clear path. The English Baccalaureate – or EBacc – is based on the GCSEs most favoured by universities. From there, they progress to A Levels and use the UCAS system to find a university place.
But there is no equivalent for the young people who wish to take technical qualifications and a more direct route to the world of work.
To create this balance, we are proposing a Greater Manchester Baccalaureate or MBacc, which would sit alongside the EBacc and be based on GCSEs and other qualifications most favoured by Greater Manchester employers. Our aim is to maximise people’s chances of getting valuable qualifications and a good job in the growing success story of the Greater Manchester economy.
There will be a range of views on what should and shouldn’t be included in the MBacc, so I am keen to hear from employers and educators. Following consultation, and subject to agreement with the government, our ambition is to start in September 2024.
Too many feel like second-class students
For my part, I don’t envisage two rigid, parallel routes but an approach with as much commonality as possible that will offer young people plenty of academic and technical options at 16 and the ability to switch between the two.
Here’s my starter for ten to get the discussion going. I would propose that the MBacc has three core, compulsory subjects: English, maths and – because practically every job in the GM economy is to some extent a digital job – either computer science or an alternative ICT qualification. Beyond that, students could choose from existing EBacc subjects and, critically, also subjects that are often currently excluded. That could be engineering, business studies or any of the creative subjects that have been worryingly downgraded over the past decade or so.
The MBacc’s aim is to lead people to a productive destination. To that end, we will build our integrated system around seven gateways reflecting the strongest areas of the Greater Manchester economy. These include sectors like manufacturing and engineering, digital and technology, and health and social care. Each of the gateways will lead to a group of quality T Levels, other technical qualifications, apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships.
This approach will only work if young people have access to wider careers and life advice to make informed decisions, and enrichment opportunities to help them become ‘work-ready’. It is also underpinned by ‘Our Pass’ – our free bus pass for 16- to 18-year-olds which opens up cultural and sporting activities, but also greater choice of education providers.
My belief is that a system of this kind, which offers a path for everyone, will help raise overall levels of attainment and school performance. If more students feel school is taking them somewhere and are constructively engaged at key stage 4, that can only be beneficial for all students.
My sense is our secondary headteachers feel the same way. James Eldon, headteacher of the Manchester Academy in Moss Side, told our launch event last week that he had invented his own version of the MBacc because he didn’t feel he had enough to say to students and parents at options evenings. It made the case for change more powerfully than anything else.
We can no longer afford our historic snobbery about technical education. Devolution to the English regions finally gives us the chance to get this right – and fix another issue Westminster has long neglected.
Six specialist colleges have been awarded for initiatives that help students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities to live independently, support their community, and forest bathe.
Natspec, which represents specialist colleges across England and Wales, announced the winners of the Natspec Innovation Awards during a virtual ceremony today.
Among the winners were Chadsgrove Educational Trust Specialist College, which won the student voice award for its student ambassador programme that led projects to support local organisations such as foodbanks.
Student ambassadors donated fresh produce grown in the college’s garden as well as non-perishable goods to the local foodbank. Awards judge and disabled rights campaigner Alex Johnson said learners conducted “outstanding work in giving back to the community”.
Hedleys College in Newcastle won the curriculum innovation award for its work with its local police force to introduce a more accessible police cadet programme.
Learners experienced what it is like to be a police officer, such as taking part in a swearing in ceremony and went behind the scenes with patrollers.
Derwen College was awarded for its innovative partnership working for its partnership with video production company Rocking Horse Media to produce content on the college campus with students.
Meanwhile, Hartlepool specialist college Catcote Futures, won the mental health and wellbeing award for its project to immerse learners in sensory forest bathing, an initiative where students planned trails to walk among trees and nature.
Former SEND Policy Lead at the Association of Colleges and awards judge Liz Maudslay praised the project.
She said it “made me realise how much we as teachers are concerned to ensure our students are continually learning and ‘doing’ and can sometimes forget that it is also important that they are supported in simply ‘being’”.
A redeveloped on-campus bungalow at Portland College kitted-out with accessible technology control such as Amazon’s Alexa and Samsung Bixby won the innovative use of technology award. The Mansfield-based college taught learners how to use to technology for tasks like heating, blinds, lights, and the weekly shopping as part of its SMARTHome project, to promote and eliminate barriers preventing their students from living independently.
Finally, the innovative routes into employment award went to The Hive College’s traineeship programme. Judges said the programme, which combined English, maths and ICT with occupational studies tuition and a work placement, “provides an ideal pathway into apprenticeships”.
Natspec chief executive Clare Howard said: “During such straightened times, after the specialist post-16 sector has already faced years of underfunding, it is inspiring that our member colleges are not just making do but are brimming with new ideas and practices.”
The eight-strong judging panel included: former Ofsted inspector Nigel Evans; Jeff Greenidge, director for Diversity for Association of Colleges; Rohan Slaughter, senior lecturer in Assistive Technology at the University of Dundee; Jane Hatton, Founder and CEO of Evenbreak, a social enterprise run by and for disabled people; and Yolande Burgess, Strategy Director for London’s Communities at London Councils.
The winners will be presented with trophies at the Natspec National Conference on Tuesday 13 June. They also will receive a £250 CPD bursary.
A major online training provider has put a stop to its loss-making apprenticeship division and turned full focus to skills bootcamps and adult education.
The Skills Network (TSN) has started the process of moving its current apprentices to alternative providers to complete their training.
Chief executive Mark Dawe (pictured) put the decision to pull out of the provision down to the “real challenges” with current funding levels for apprenticeships in sectors like care, which do not cover the true cost of delivery.
TSN moved into the apprenticeships space at the time of the levy reforms in 2017. The provision is a minor part of its business, having recorded fewer than 300 starts in each of the past two years in sectors that also include early years, leadership and management and IT.
FE Week understand that fewer than 30 staff will be impacted by the closure of TSN’s apprenticeships.
Dawe said: “It is a sad, but well-established fact, that there are real challenges with the current level of apprenticeship funding bands.
“We had already suspended starts in care, as we couldn’t continue to guarantee a high quality of provision for this vital sector, with the funding government provides per learner.”
TSN, rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, has long been one of the largest providers of subcontracted provision in further education. Government data shows the provider currently holds 36 separate subcontracting deals with colleges and councils worth over £8.5 million.
The company’s accounts show it enrolled over 25,000 students onto adult education courses last year, which are all delivered online.
TSN has also moved into skills bootcamps – a flagship government scheme worth over half a billion pounds that involves free courses for learners of up to 16 weeks in length, designed to get people quickly trained in areas of key skills shortages.
“Hundreds” of people enrol onto TSN’s bootcamps every month, according to the company, in areas that include care, digital marketing, cyber security and project management.
TSN said this period of “exciting growth” in bootcamps, the company’s online resources and adult education contributed to the “strategic decision” to cease its direct apprenticeship delivery.
A statement from the provider said: “We are very proud of our achievements in the apprenticeship space in which we have helped over 700 apprentices across a variety of sectors over the past five years – but the time is right for us to focus on the increased growth of our core business, maximising the positive difference we can make to learners, businesses, and communities across the UK.”
TSN added that while it will not be providing direct delivery of apprenticeships going forward, the company will “continue to support other providers of apprenticeships through our online learning resources and assessment packages through our platform EQUAL”.
Dawe said: “We are doing everything we can to find alternative roles for the small proportion of TSN staff affected, either within the business or transferring with the apprentices.”
TSN’s accounts for 2022 show turnover of £18.8 million but a loss before tax of £700,000.
The financial statements said the “negative financial impact” for the year was due to “combined cost implications of the return to normality post Covid-19, the wider economic factors and the new strategic activities have”, but added the company “expect these changes to bottom out and improve during 2023 and onwards”.
The government’s end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) register is set to be shut down and merged with the register of apprenticeship training providers (RoATP).
From August 1 the new single register will be called the “apprenticeship providers and assessment register” (APAR).
The move will drop a current requirement on training providers to prove that the employer has itself chosen which organisation should deliver their apprentice’s end-point assessment (EPA), and switch to a default position of the provider choosing the EPAO. Employers can however continue to select the EPAO themselves if they wish.
Under this new system, when an organisation receives recognition for an apprenticeship standard from Ofqual or the Office for Students they will automatically be placed onto APAR.
New EPAOs will still need to create an account on the apprenticeship service to confirm their place on the register, but they will no longer have to undertake two application processes.
Skills and apprenticeships minister Robert Halfon and the Department for Education’s director of apprenticeships Peter Mucklow teased this change during last week’s Federation of Awarding Bodies EPA conference, telling the audience they planned to help cut bureaucracy in EPA, but stopped short of announcing the registers would merge.
‘Welcome any efforts to streamline and reduce bureaucracy’
Announcing the change today, the government said: “From the August 1, 2023, when an organisation receives recognition for a standard from Ofqual or the OfS they will automatically be placed onto the list of approved EPAOs. DfE will merge this list with the ROATP and rename it the ‘apprenticeship providers and assessment register’ (APAR).
“Maintenance of the register will be undertaken automatically through data exchanges between the regulators and the awarding bodies, and we are now developing that process.
“Although DfE are merging RoATP with the new APAR the application process for providers and supporting providers will remain the same.
“Both Ofqual and OfS are fully supportive of these changes and are working alongside DfE to implement them.”
Further information and guidance on both changes for employers, providers and EPAOs will be made “in the next few weeks”.
Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said: “FAB members welcome any efforts to streamline and reduce bureaucracy associated with apprenticeship delivery and post-16 qualifications reform. Cutting down on the number of different registers is a great place to start.”
Colleges and providers are being invited to bid for a slice of a £165 million fund designed for initiatives that “respond to the specific priorities” identified in each area’s local skills improvement plan.
The Department for Education today launched the local skills improvement fund (LSIF) that aims to help “plug local skills gaps” and “get more people into jobs closer to home”.
Further education providers can use the cash to “renovate facilities with up-to-date equipment, help to upskill teachers, and deliver new courses in key subjects such as green construction, carbon capture and cyber security”, according to a DfE press release.
Minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education Robert Halfon said: “Building a world-class skills and apprenticeships nation means listening to the specific needs of local people, businesses, and institutions.
“This funding will revolutionise how we plug local skills gaps and provide a boost to the economy.”
Successful applicants will receive funding to invest in projects linked to priorities that have come out the employer-led local skills improvement plan (LSIP) for their area.
First proposed in the FE white paper in January 2021, the plans aim to make colleges and training providers align the courses they offer to local employers’ needs.
The plans have been created by employer representative bodies – mostly local chambers of commerce – in every region of the country.
Final LSIPs will not be submitted by the employer representative body for each area until May 31 and published in summer 2023. But DfE guidance said providers can use the draft plan priorities, which were shared with them on March 31, to develop their LSIF application.
The LSIF is the successor to a previous pot of cash called the strategic development fund (SDF), which was worth £157 million for the FE sector to invest in the equipment and facilities in areas such as electric and hybrid vehicle maintenance, automation and artificial intelligence.
Results of the bids to the new LSIF are expected to be announced by the DfE in October 2023.
Colleges, training providers and universities across Greater Manchester will part host the WorldSkills UK national finals this November.
Manchester College, Oldham College, Tameside College, Trafford College and Wigan and Leigh College have been chosen to host 40 finals between them.
Mantra, a local training provider which specialises in logistics and automotive training, will host five finals, while Rochdale Training and Japanese robotics company FANUC will host one apiece.
Two finals will take place at the University of Manchester, while four will be at the University of Salford.
The finals will begin on November 14, and will culminate three days later in an awards ceremony at Bridgewater Hall.
The finals will see the UK’s most skilled apprentices and students compete across professions (see list below) including automotive technology, aircraft maintenance and health and social care.
WorldSkills UK interim chief executive Ben Blackledge said: “As well as boosting young people’s personal skills and developing the skills that employers and the economy needs, events like the WorldSkills UK National Finals shine a light on the vital importance of high-quality skills to the UK and the vast talent and potential we have in the next generation.”
Anna Dawe, chair of GMColleges and principal of Wigan and Leigh College said she was “delighted” the finals are coming to Manchester.
“WorldSkills UK is a showcase of the very best technical skills so it is a cause for celebration that it is to be held in a city-region that is creating the first integrated technical education system,” she added.
“Our university and independent training provider partners are also hosting finals and together we hope to make this a competition to remember for young people and apprentices.”
The finals come at the tailend of a seven-month process including regional competition heats and intensive training.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ chief executive Jane Hickie has been suspended pending an investigation, FE Week understands.
[UPDATE – FE Week has since learned the AELP investigation was dropped following Hickie’s departure from the organisation.]
Hickie has worked at the membership body since 2016, initially as chief operating officer before taking over as managing director in July 2020 when former leader Mark Dawe stepped down.
She was made chief executive in January 2021.
The reasons for Hickie’s suspension are unclear at this stage. AELP chair Nichola Hay and vice chair Rob Foulston will support the organisation’s senior team for an interim period.
An AELP spokesperson said: “We understand there are rumours surrounding AELP and, for the record, we do not comment on individual employees. We also ask all our employees, members, and associates not to speculate.
“We can however provide reassurance to our members that the chair and vice chair of AELP will be supporting the senior management team on the operational leadership of the organisation for an interim period whilst our CEO, Jane Hickie, is taking a short period of absence.”
Hickie was approached for comment.
AELP represents around 800 organisations that deliver training and vocational learning. Prior to joining the membership body, Hickie was operations and corporate partnerships director for Groundwork, the national environmental charity.
She was also previously head of regeneration at Genesis Housing Group, and spent seven years at a firm called West London Leadership, recruiting corporates into a network which provided pro-bono support to hard-pressed communities.
