Qube Learning, one of the biggest training providers in England, has suddenly ceased trading.
Owner Claire Whichello informed more than 200 staff of the “heart-breaking” decision to close today, which will affect around 3,500 learners who are mostly apprentices.
In an email to staff, seen by FE Week, she said that “increased competition in the apprenticeship market, challenges regarding stagnant funding bands, uncertainty around adult education budget contracts and the expected expiry of our traineeship contracts has meant there is too much uncertainty for the business to continue”.
Staff were given until midnight to park their company cars in a secure location before their insurance expired. They were also given information on how to make a claim through the Redundency Payments Service, but were told claims couldn’t be made until the company was officially in liquidation, which isn’t expected to happen until week commencing April 17.
The decision comes just days after the Department for Education ended the provider’s HGV skills bootcamp contract.
It is unclear how big a part this contract termination played in Qube’s decision to cease trading.
One former staff member posted: “This should serve as a wake-up call for the sector, and to the DFE, otherwise there will be many more to follow. We worked in the ‘not so sexy’ sectors, care, logistics, retail and facilities, where it’s really challenging to deliver remotely, unfortunately the funding does not reflect these challenges.”
Another said: “Working at Qube, and the amazing people has been one of the proudest achievements within my career. I believe we all made a difference to so many people, employers, students and our colleagues alike.”
The company’s latest accounts are for the year ending December 31, 2021 and show a £10.9 million turnover but a loss of £590,000 compared to a profit of £744,000 the year before.
Qube holds Education and Skills Funding Agency contracts worth £3.1 million in 2022/23 for adult education, traineeships and non-levy apprenticeships. The provider’s levy-funded contracts for this year are not yet known but in 2020/21 – the latest available data – it earned £7 million worth.
It delivered training to big-name employers like Specsavers, JD Group, Matalan, BT and Greater Anglia in sectors including care, logistics, retail and facilities.
The latest apprenticeships starts data shows that in the first two quarters of this academic year (August to January), Qube started 760 apprentices. Some 440 of those were in health, public services and care.
In the last full academic year, 2021/22, the company started 2,850 apprentices. Again, the majority, 54 per cent, were in the health, public services and care sector.
Like most training providers, apprenticeship starts dipped during the Covid years but appeared to bounce back, exceeding pre-lockdown levels.
In 2021/22 Qube entered the Traineeships market and became the third largest provider of with 540 starts.
In December 2022 Ofsted published a report that downgraded Qube from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.
The provider was incorporated in 1994 and has been one of the largest independent training providers for many years.
Whichello told staff today: “On behalf of all the directors, I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to every single colleague for your dedication, loyalty, professionalism and hard work. This is a heart-breaking decision to have made, but please do not lose sight of the contribution and positive impact you have made to so many students over the years.”
The Department for Education (DfE) has announced £14 million to provide mentoring for new FE teachers as well as a support programme for leaders and governors over the next two years.
The DfE has signed a two-year deal with Cognition Education to deliver a teacher mentoring programme for the FE sector, which will run until the end of March 2025.
The contract is worth up to £4.2 million – £1.2 million for the contract itself and £3 million of grant funding for eligible FE providers to boost sector engagement with the mentor training programme and fund extra mentoring hours.
The programme had previously been run by the Education and Training Foundation from 2020 to 2023, but in spring last year the charity announced that the DfE had slashed some of its grant funding, estimated to be around 15 per cent.
It left expectations that some of its programmes may be re-tendered.
However, the second contract the DfE has announced today has been awarded to ETF for continuous professional development supporting leadership and governance in the sector.
It is a programme the ETF has already been delivering in previous years with other sector bodies.
Robert Halfon, minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education, said: “With more and more fantastic technical training offers being rolled out, including apprenticeships, T Levels and skills bootcamps, it is vital that we support FE teachers to deliver top class education and training.”
The teacher mentoring scheme will have a focus on helping early career teachers in the FE sector with mentoring in recognition of the extra support needed in the first few years of teaching.
The measure comes off the back of the Skills Bill, with the Skills for Jobs white paper in January 2021 explaining that “to deliver high-quality teaching, professional development must continue throughout an individual’s career”.
In the white paper, the government pledged to “take a more active role to support the sector”, and added: “We will provide effective support to new teachers moving into the sector by continuing to enable access to mentoring.”
According to the DfE, around 2,000 FE workers had undertaken training or professional development under the programme when it was run by ETF, meaning around 6,000 people have benefitted from access to a skilled mentor.
Training and development of a minimum of 600 mentors has been targeted for the new two year contract for Cognition Education, which will enable around 1,800 early career teachers to benefit from a mentor.
Cognition Education is a global education consultancy organisation founded in New Zealand, and has been operating since 1989.
Tracey Newman, UK managing director at Cognition Education said: “The support this contract offers to new FE teaching staff is invaluable and we are proud to be able to assist in the delivery of the programme to the FE sector with the teaching skills, subject knowledge and confidence they need for the benefit of their learners.”
The leadership and governance programme secured once again by ETF aims to strengthen FE leadership teams, support the growth of leadership pipelines and bolster improvement in the sector.
The DfE said it anticipates that more than 5,500 people in leadership and governance roles are set to benefit from the £9.55 million two-year programme.
The ETF is jointly owned by the Association of Colleges, HOLEX and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.
AELP walked away from the organisation in 2018, claiming that it was “no longer an organisation run by the FE sector for the sector”, but re-joined in the last year.
Dr Katerina Kolyva joined as chief executive in February, and recently told FE Week of her ambitions to diversify income, bolster global opportunities and address issues such as sector recruitment and retention, austerity, sustainability and green skills.
On today’s announcement, Kolyva said the organisation was “delighted to continue the growth of professionalism across the FE sector”.
Kolyva added: “Effective leadership and governance are crucial to enable the sector to thrive and we welcome the opportunity to work closely with our sector partners to deliver this ambitious programme of support to existing and aspiring leaders and governors across the sector.”
Employers are being offered up to £25,000 towards “legitimate costs” in what is the Department for Education’s latest move to increase the quality and quantity of industry placements for T Levels.
The department announced in February that £12 million will be set aside for a new T Level employer support fund. More information has been published today, just days before the turn of the new financial year when the new fund goes live.
New guidance reveals that employers can claim up to £25,000 for costs relating to industry placements that start between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024. That figure isn’t dependent on the number of placements on offer, nor does it need to be paid back if a placement ends unexpectedly.
Colleges and other T Level providers will be responsible for making the payments to employers and making judgement calls about what to fund and when to make payments.
T Level providers have been allocated a set amount they are able to distribute to employers. Allocations have been based on the number of T Levels students providers have told DfE they have signed up.
Any unspent funds will be clawed back in August 2024.
T Levels include a mandatory industry placement of 45 days or 315 hours with an employer.
Any organisation providing placements is eligible to make a claim, except for government department departments and their arm’s lengths bodies. This means colleges, schools and NHS trusts are technically eligible, but organisations like DfE itself, Ofsted and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education are not.
This includes administrative costs like “setting up processes and procedures” as well as training for existing staff, equipment, insurance and students’ transport.
Claims can’t be made for costs that could otherwise be funded via other streams, such as T Level revenue funding.
Providers are ultimately accountable for what they dish out. A six-weekly data return will include a self-declaration form signed by employers confirming what they have requested the funding for.
Employers won’t be asked to provide evidence for the costs at the point they claim – they merely sign the self-declaration – but DfE said they will conduct random spot checks on providers and employers to check on what’s been claimed.
And if a student drops out early, or the placement ends unexpectedly for any other reason, the DfE said they do not expect employers to pay any money back to the provider, though they can if they wish.
In November, FE Week reported that just £500,000 from a previous £7 million employer support fund – 8 per cent – was used during its previous run from 2019-2022.
That scheme offered firms £750 to cover tangible placement costs in four regions of England, upped to £1,000 per placement in 2021/22.
An evaluation report published last year found that just 843 placements were supported against a target 32,466 with the fund.
Research from earlier in 2022 found that three quarters of employers had not heard of T Levels and only 7 per cent of employers not interested in offering T Level placements would change their mind if offered a £1,000 incentive.
Employer bodies, such as the Federation of Small Businesses, have however called for the reintroduction of employer cash bonuses for T Levels.
Colleges and training providers that deliver adult education in Liverpool City Region will receive a one-off 5 per cent funding rate uplift this year to help them cope with rising costs and inflation.
The increase will apply to 2022/23 with leaders at the mayoral combined authority reviewing whether to increase the base rate again in the next academic year and beyond.
The move follows a meeting between mayor Steve Rotheram and colleges in the area who spoke of their battle with the cost-of-living crisis, particularly the challenges posed by rising energy prices as well as staffing pressures.
It comes weeks after the Education and Skills Funding Agency announced a 2.2 per cent uplift for the national adult education budget in both 2022/23 and 2023/24, which will also include an additional 20 per cent boost in “vital” subjects such as engineering and maths.
Other mayoral combined authorities have offered bigger in-year increases: both the West Midland and West Yorkshire are offering a 10 per cent boost to AEB funding rates, while London has offered a 3.5 per cent uplift.
Rotheram said: “Rising living costs mean that our learning providers are under more pressure than ever to continue delivering the high-quality training our residents need to thrive. This additional funding will enable them to continue to support both current and future learners and strengthen our skills sector.”
He added that this is an investment that “simply would not have been possible before devolution – we’re opening up doors to our residents and building a more resilient workforce along the way”.
Liverpool City Region took control of its AEB in 2019. The budget for the area totals just over £50 million annually.
The 5 per cent uplift will apply to both the 17 grant-funded colleges and local authorities that deliver AEB in the Liverpool City Region, as well as the 14 other training providers on procured contracts.
Schools and colleges should make students do some coursework in class “under direct supervision” to make sure they are not cheating amid fears about artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT, new exam board guidance states.
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) – which represents boards – has published guidance for education centres today on “protecting the integrity of qualifications”.
While the majority of qualifications are exam-based and unaffected by AI, there are some assessments such as coursework which allow access to the internet.
It follows reports of schools scrapping homework for fears of cheating as top universities ban the use of AI in coursework and exams.
Here’s what centres need to know…
1. Misuse of AI is malpractice…
JCQ said chatbots may pose “significant risks” if used by students completing assessments. They can often produce incorrect answers, biased information or fake references, the guidance reads.
Students who misuse AI – where the work is not their own – will have committed malpractice and may attract “severe sanctions”. Any use of AI which means students have not “independently demonstrated their own attainment” is likely to be considered malpractice.
Sanctions for “making a false declaration of authenticity” and “plagiarism” include disqualification and being barred from taking qualifications.
Centres policies should address “the risks associated with AI misuse” and staff should communicate the importance of independent work to students.
2. …but AI tools can be used
The exam boards said AI tools must only be used when the conditions of the assessment permit the use of the internet and where students are able to demonstrate the final submission is their “own independent work and independent thinking”.
Students must appropriately reference where they have used AI. For instance, if they use AI to find sources of content, the sources must be verified by students and referenced.
So teachers can check whether AI use was appropriate, students must “acknowledge its use and show clearly how they have used it”.
Students must keep a copy of the questions and AI answers for reference and authentication purposes. But it must be non-editable – such as a screenshot – and provide a brief explanation of how it was used and submitted with the work.
3. Consider supervised work and restricting AI
JCQ has set out a list of actions that schools and colleges should take to prevent misuse – many of which are “already in place in centres and are not new requirements”, they added.
Actions include considering whether students should sign a declaration on understanding what AI misuse is.
Centres should consider restricting access to online AI tools on their devices and networks, including those used in exams.
“Where appropriate”, centres should be “allocating time for sufficient portions of work to be done in class under direct supervision to allow the teacher to authenticate each student’s whole work with confidence”.
Centres should consider whether it’s “appropriate and helpful” to have a “short verbal discussion” with students about their work to confirm “they understand it and that it reflect their own independent work”.
Teachers should also examine “intermediate stages” in the production of work to make sure their final submission “represents a natural continuation of earlier stages”.
4. Look out for typed work and hyperbolic language
JCQ says identifying AI misuse requires the “same skills and observation techniques” teachers already use to check students’ work is their own. For instance comparing it against their previous work to check for unusual changes.
Potential indicators of AI include default use of American spellings as well as vocabulary which might not be appropriate for the qualification level.
Others are where a student has handed in work in a typed format, when their usual output is handwritten. Staff should also keep an eye out for “overly verbose or hyperbolic language” that may not be in keeping with a student’s usual style.
JCQ points to several services – such as GPTZero and OpenAI Classifier – which can determine the likelihood text was produced by AI.
5. ‘Detected or suspected’ misuse should be reported
If a teacher’s suspicions are confirmed and the students have not signed the declaration of authentication, a school or college does not need to report malpractice to the exam board. The matter can be resolved prior to any declaration signing.
But if this has been signed and AI misuse is “detected or suspected” by the centre, the case must be reported to the relevant exam board.
If misuse is suspected by an exam board marker, or it has been reported, full details will usually be relayed to the school or college. The board will then consider the case and “if necessary” impose a sanction.
Staff should not accept – without further investigation – work they suspect has been taken from AI tools as this could encourage the spread of the practice. It could also constitute sanctions under staff malpractice.
Nearly 150 colleges have secured a slice of a £286 million Department for Education funding pot for new buildings and upgrades.
Allocations were published this morning for the final stage of the FE Capital Transformation Programme – a £1.5 billion pot of money over six years pledged in the March 2020 budget.
Today’s announcement totals £286 million, which has been awarded to 146 colleges.
The FE allocation includes 71 colleges which received more than £1 million. Among the biggest winners were £15 million for NCG, Havant and South Downs College which secured £11.5 million, and City of Bristol College with £10.4 million.
Thirty-five colleges received no allocation, while eight received less than £100,000.
Those to receive more than £1 million will have their allocation in two instalments – the first in the 2023/24 financial year and the second in financial year 2024/25.
Robert Halfon, minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education, said: “This significant investment will transform school and college buildings across the country so that they are fit for the future and can provide the best education for students, no matter where they live.
“We want every young person to have access to high-quality facilities and learning environments, to gain the skills they need to climb the ladder of opportunity into further study and work, whilst supporting efforts to grow the economy.”
Most colleges – more than 180 – were handed a share of the £200 million first tranche in 2020. For the second phase in 2021, the DfE pledged support for 16 sites in the most desperate need of resources, but the amount of funding for those projects – some of which are still being procured – has never been publicly disclosed.
Excluding the unknown amount of funding being committed in phase two, the combined spend on phases one, two and four equates to around £936 million of the £1.5 billion pot.
The DfE said it was not yet able to say how much will be spend on projects in phase two as work is still ongoing, but promised that the whole of the £1.5 billion pot will be used to upgrade the FE college estate.
Government guidance says that the final stage of the programme will be through a “formulaic allocation”, with first payments expected to be paid in May.
The £1.5 billion pot was designed to upgrade colleges estates over six years ending in March 2026, targeted at sites in the most need for renovation.
The DfE said the FE Capital Transformation Fund is one of a number of investments aimed at boosting post-16 education, with others including £300 million to establish a network of institutes of technology, £150 million in capital funding following reclassification of FE into the public sector, £140 million in post-16 capacity funding and the T Level capital fund to bolster delivery of the new flagship level 3 qualifications.
But Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that while investment in schools and colleges was welcome, the announcement “comes against a background of inadequate funding”.
The full allocations are outlined in the table below (click to enlarge).
England’s largest apprenticeship provider is planning to cut around 60 jobs – months after the company was taken over by its lenders, FE Week can reveal.
Lifetime Training said the move, which will reduce its workforce of around 1,000 staff by 5 per cent, follows a “strategic review of its cost base”.
FE Week understands the number of learners in some sectors including care is down from where the provider assumed it would be and so now staffing needs to be adjusted.
The redundancy consultation also comes amid an Education and Skills Funding Agency audit that is exploring possible overclaimed funding, such as for additional learner support, which could result in clawback of over £13 million.
It also follows a recent switch in ownership: at the end of last year private equity firm Silverfleet Capital sold Lifetime Training to Alcentra – one of the provider’s lenders which specialises in credit management, private credit and structured credit strategies.
Lifetime Training chief executive Jon Graham told FE Week the provider’s strategic review of staffing costs is not linked to the ongoing ESFA audit, which has not yet concluded, nor does he anticipate any further redundancies going forward.
Graham said: “The review has assessed operational and support roles across the broader business to ensure we are directing our resources towards the areas of highest demand.
“The review will likely see c.5 per cent of roles impacted by redundancy, and staff will be redeployed wherever possible. We remain dedicated to supporting all affected employees during this transition and ensure we provide a seamless process for our valued team members.”
He added that because his provider is in period of collective consultation with those impacted, it would be “unfair to speculate on the exact number of jobs or the roles and sectors affected”.
The company expects “minimal disruption to the experience of our learners and employer partners during this transition”.
Lifetime Training, founded in 1995, has more than doubled its workforce over the past decade as it grew to being the largest provider of apprenticeships in the country, delivering to big-name employers including the NHS, KFC, McDonalds, Wetherspoons, B&Q and David Lloyd, as well as the civil service.
Covid-19 hit the company hard and forced it to make around 300 people redundant in 2020 due to falling apprenticeship starts caused by the pandemic and associated lockdowns.
Starts have been steadily recovering since then. The provider was delivering to around 20,000 apprentices when Ofsted visited in May 2022. But the resulting ‘requires improvement’ report criticised the firm’s focus on financial performance and starts over quality, as well as a lack of off-the-job training and poor achievement rates.
Lifetime Training has made several leadership changes over the past year, including bringing in Geoff Russell, who used to head up the Skills Funding Agency, as chair and Jon Graham as chief executive.
The firm’s latest accounts show that its turnover increased to £71.1 million compared to £59.9 million in 2020. But its EBITDAE (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and exceptional items) fell from £9.391 million in year ended July 31, 2020 to £2.249 million in the 18 month period ended January 31, 2022.
The accounts also reveal the company made a loss for the financial period of £9.2 million, compared to a profit of £6.8 million in 2020.
Graham said: “Lifetime remains a financially stable with a growing learner base. We are committed to delivering high-quality training and we continue to invest in key areas. The strategic review of our cost base ensures that we are directing our resources towards the areas of highest demand unlocking further growth.”
The Education and Training Foundation’s new chief executive Katerina Kolyva has taken the helm at a “pivotal moment”, guiding it to the future from turbulent times of late.
Kolyva, who joined the charity last month, knows it can no longer rely on clinching automatic government contracts. Her mission is not an easy one; she has to ensure it returns to the same “sector-first” roots it had when it was created in 2013, but also needs to seize on new commercial opportunities to secure its survival. And those might be overseas.
The ETF was initially funded by the then Department for Business, Innovation and Skills but “owned” by the Association of Colleges, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and the adult education provider network HOLEX.
AELP ditched its “ownership” in 2018, claiming it was “no longer an organisation run by the FE sector for the sector”, but has recently re-joined on the understanding that it returns to its original sector-first purpose.
“I think we’re clear now – I am clear, at least – that we are moving to a new era of working in partnership with the sector to deliver,” Kolyva says.
The recalibration comes partly from necessity. The ETF delivered a large surplus on its 2019-22 T Level professional development programme because Covid meant it was mostly delivered online (and therefore cost less), but then faced pressure from DfE officials to pay back up to £7.5 million. Kolyva admits it was a “very difficult discussion.” The contract requirements had already been delivered and the ETF sought legal advice, eventually agreeing to repay £6.2 million.
We have to compete as one of many players
Although she believes the foundation is now on “very good terms” with the DfE, she acknowledges that while the ETF used to get a government grant every year, it now has to shift to competing for contracts as “one of many players”.
Kolyva is new to the UK’s FE sector having spent much of her career working for the EU, mainly in education and research strategy. But what she lacks in FE know-how she makes up for in leadership expertise, having most recently spent six years as chief executive of the Council of Deans of Health, a UK-based membership organisation representing healthcare education and research.
She is currently in “listening mode” as she develops the ETF’s new strategy – and that means talking first and foremost to other organisations representing FE.
“It would be remissive of me to say I shouldn’t be talking to these organisations representing the sector [too]. Quite the opposite, I should be talking to them first.”
So far, she has been told the ETF’s leadership programmes are “very highly regarded”, but when it comes to some “processes” – Kolyva does not elaborate – the feedback is “you could do it better”.
In Paros Greece
We must understand the needs of the sector
Kolyva wants to use “all the mechanisms we have in our hands” to “understand what the needs of the sector are”. “Once we understand that, we deliver that. And if we need to influence government to prioritise what the sector needs, then we have that duty to the sector. That’s the narrative from now on…”
But there is also now a need for “income diversification”.
Quite aptly, the new chief executive – who is very much a citizen of the world – has her sights set on giving a new global outlook to an organisation that has been England-focused.
Kolyva is from Greece, speaks five languages, has lived in six EU countries and worked in more than 25 of them. And she writes travel blogs.
She believes the ETF “hasn’t even touched the surface of [global opportunities] yet . I’d like us to be a lot more outward-facing in terms of what’s happening globally, not just on our doorstep.”
On the doorstep, Kolyva perceives issues in England with “recruitment, retention, austerity – horrible things”. Globally, she sees “metaverse, sustainability and green skills”. She refers to a recent report stating how an individual might have 15 different careers, reflecting how the FE trainers of tomorrow will have to build up a more “agile” workforce.
Kolyva, 50, has had a fair few careers herself, including as a teacher, translator, researcher, evaluator, lecturer and academic, as well as chief executive.
After doing lots of travelling with her family as a child and attending a French private school, she studied languages in Greece but has not lived in her homeland since she was 24. She returns regularly to the “very beautiful” island of Paros where her parents live, and there are also regular holidays to Belgium, her husband’s home country.
EU network of nursing regulators in EU Parliament Brussels (Katerina on the far left)
I appreciate the privilege that I have had
Her multicultural experience and insights means she brings a “big focus on inclusion” to the ETF table.
But she is also quite upfront about her privileged background. While Kolyva often hears people identifying with a particular issue because of their working-class roots, she admits she has “never felt or lived in a state of poverty”, and believes conversely that is why she is “so passionately committed to social mobility in this sector”.
“I don’t have pain, so I suppose I appreciate the privilege that I have had. I almost look to others that I’ve come across in my education journey or my work. I’ve almost always worked in places that were non-elite perhaps because of that.”
Kolyva’s “big dream” as a young student was always to work for the EU, and after studying politics and international relations at the University of Kent she got her big break in Luxembourg, then Brussels. But she hated it.
She loved the “idea” of the EU – “the multicultural side, the vision and how countries together can do so much” – but it was “too bureaucratic” and she felt “part of a machine”. So she returned to Kent, and wrote a PhD about the “anthropology of bureaucrats”.
But her red-tape angst did not put her off from returning to the continent, first to Denmark then Belgium and Lithuania, partly to work on various EU education programmes.
And despite her disdain for EU red tape, she remain an ardent Europhile and hopes for “better collaboration” between the UK and the EU post Brexit, “particularly with education”. She’s also a huge fan of Eurovision (she’s betting on Sweden winning this year, but hurriedly adds that the British entry is “very good”).
Kolyva tells me of her love of France, Italy, Spain and especially Denmark, and when she describes returning to live in the UK in 2007, I can’t help but wonder why she chose our drizzly shores. She says she likes the way the UK does business – its “focus on delivery outcomes” and “not just faffing around”.
“I have been at European meetings where you’ve got people talking forever, going through a lot of context and background and I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, just get to the point!”
Speaking at the Education Select Committee
Her first job back here was for the Nursing and Midwifery Council where she quickly moved up to director level.
Her proudest achievement during her nine years there was helping to introduce revalidation, the process of renewal of professional development in nursing.
Whereas previously nurses were able to stay on their professional register indefinitely without requiring any checks on their expertise, Kolyva and her team introduced new rules requiring them to regularly prove they could still meet standards.
“It was about being proud of your professional development, so it was not a punitive thing, [although] the regulator at the time was seen very much as punitive,” she says. “It was all about sick pay policies, and disciplinary procedures whereas I was coming in from another angle – the improvement side. I’m proud of how we turned around some of the narrative of what the regulator was.”
As chief executive of the Council of the Deans of Health, she gained insights into how FE and FE interact in healthcare.
“I saw it from the other side, now [at ETF] I’m seeing it from this side which is fascinating,” she says.
The ETF has expanded from 75 staff in 2019-20 to 141 in 2020-21, and now to about 200, mainly due to the T Level programme but also to a “move to bring in high-level in-house expertise”.
But in light of changing market circumstances, Kolyva is “not complacent” about its growth.
“We are a charity in a very competitive market, we are in a sector that is depleted of funding. We have to behave smartly.”
A training programme to get prison leavers into work is to be expanded to include at least 17 more prisons in the next four years.
The government has launched a tender for contracts up to £1 million to bolster its ties with employers to deliver HMP Academies in prisons.
HMP Academies are work programmes delivered by employers to provide specialist or vocational training to prisoners with the aim of bolstering employment prospects on release.
A small number of the programmes are already running with employers such as Timpson, Halfords and Max Spiellman.
The Ministry of Justice has identified a further 17 provisional spaces in prisons across the country with hopes of more to follow.
The contract tender, open until the end of the month, has a planned start date of mid June with a four-year duration.
The contract tender said it was seeking partnerships with “a diverse range of businesses from across all sectors that can offer prisoners a second chance” and “smooth the path from prison to employment”.
According to the MoJ, employment leads to a fall in reoffending rates of up to 9 percentage points.
A prison service spokesperson said: “Getting offenders into work is a tried and tested way of cutting crime and protecting the public, while also boosting our economy by helping employers plug vital skills gaps.”
The programme is separate to the Future Skills Programme, which supports prisoners nearing the end of their sentence with bespoke training courses, and the Prisoner Education Service.
The structure of the academies is determined by the needs of the employers who run them and there is no requirement for formal qualifications to be included unless the firms deem it necessary.
The MoJ makes the spaces available in prison, provides some funding and pledges an interview for a vacancy for those who complete an academy for employment.
Jon Collins, chief executive of the Prisoners’ Education Trust, welcomed the plans but said the MoJ must also “radically improve” prison education to provide literacy and numeracy.
Halfords started its first programme, for male prisoners at HMP Onley near Daventry, in 2014. It now runs only one, at the women’s HMP Drake Hall prison near Stafford, which opened in 2017.
It has 12 women at a time in the workshop learning bicycle mechanics for a period of at least six months, working four-and-a-half days a week. When one prisoner completes the programme, another joins.
Those who complete the programme are guaranteed an interview and receive an internal cycle mechanic qualification.
Drake Hall is currently assessing whether a formal qualification can be achieved through the course, Halfords said.
About 100 men completed the programme at Onley and 15 women have so far completed a programme at Drake Hall.
Andy McBride, group head of resourcing and reward at Halfords, told FE Week: “The feedback is that it has been brilliant – they didn’t think they would ever get a job on release, they have learned loads, they feel much more confidence in the workplace. Even if they don’t end up joining us, I feel we have played our part if they then subsequently get a job somewhere else.”
McBride said it can be “a costly model” to set up workshops but added: “I absolutely support other businesses getting involved.
“We could see the business benefits as well as the society benefits. We sell a lot of bikes, we repair a lot of bikes and it’s a skills set that’s hard to find, so it gave us an opportunity to tap into other talent pools.”
Meanwhile, Timpson runs a number of academy programmes in prisons that are designed to mimic its high street stores.
The firm’s website said this enables prisoners to be trained in “all the services we provide” but the “only exception to this is key cutting, for obvious reasons”.
