Investigation: Why care training is in crisis, and the solutions are falling short

The social care system is at breaking point with more than 165,000 vacancies. The government wants more apprentices to fill the gaps but, as Jessica Hill reports, it’s a tough market for providers

The severely disabled man who has no one to cook him dinner.

The daughter who can’t get respite from her father’s dementia.

These are the victims of the 165,000 vacancies in our broken social care system, which the government promised to fix two years ago with a £500 million workforce plan. But in April that was slashed to £250 million and the government is still yet to commit to a long-term workforce plan to meet the needs of our growing elderly population.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is championing apprenticeships as the way forward. Its 2021 white paper on social care reform pledged to “support apprenticeship growth, address barriers and increase quality”, promising “hundreds of thousands of training places” in care.

But there are grave doubts over the viability of the current funding model, as two of the biggest providers of adult care worker standards have recently gone bust while others face mounting challenges.

The government also pledged to promote work academy programmes and the Towns Fund and Levelling Up Fund is helping to pay for new “care academies” provided by colleges. But FE Week has found some of those already operating are not recruiting enough learners.

Apprenticeship angst

Social care is a notoriously tough market for apprenticeship providers to conquer, and it’s only getting harder.

The two biggest providers of adult care worker apprenticeship courses by leaver numbers, Qube Learning and Quest Vocational Training, both ceased trading in recent months.

Quest Vocational Training, which appointed liquidators in December, was formed in 2012 to provide apprenticeships for the health and social care sector, and was training almost 700 apprentices when it folded.

Its demise has real-life consequences for people needing care. The company was based in Dorset, where a report last year found 22 per cent of all social care beds were empty because of staffing shortages.

Another big provider, GP Strategies Training, also closed its UK apprenticeship provision earlier this year. The company had about 2,700 adult care apprentices when Ofsted inspected it in August 2022 and deemed it ‘inadequate’.

Part of the problem has been low learner recruitment. Although the two adult care apprenticeships, one at level 2 and one at level 3, were the fourth and fifth most popular apprenticeship standards in England in 2021-22, the number of starts on these courses dropped 19 per cent on the previous year.

Cathie Williams, the joint chief executive of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), says it is “really disappointing” to see fewer people taking these apprenticeships.

“We urgently need to improve pay and conditions to attract the right people to the job and value them properly for doing this highly skilled, sensitive work.”

However, the biggest problem is not recruitment, but retention with a drop-out rate of about 60 per cent last year.

This is partly linked to high levels of staff turnover, which Skills for Care puts at 30 per cent last year.

In children’s care, the apprenticeship drop out rate is even higher, at 73 per cent for the level 4 children, young people and families practitioner standard.

The three providers with the highest number of leavers on the course in 2021-22 – The Child Care Company, TRN (Train) and BCTG – had drop-out rates of 59 per cent, 64 per cent and 70 per cent respectively. 

‘Frustration across the entire sector’

Tony Holloway, a former director at Qube, claims the problem is that funding bands, approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, are “very out of kilter” with what is required.

The £3,000 band for the two adult care apprenticeships has not budged since reforms were put in place in 2018. But while the level 2 adult care worker standard must take at least 12 months to complete, the level 3 lead adult care worker requires at least 18 months. “How can you have a six-month difference but apply the same funding band?” Holloway asks.

There are other challenges too. Apprentices are required to have 20 per cent off-the-job training, but Holloway believes that in a sector with “massive staffing shortages” and operating on “extremely low margins”, employers are reluctant to give staff time away from the frontline.

Holloway says another obstacle is that carers tend to “start with a much lower starting point in terms of their functional skills ability”, with a high proportion of ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) learners.

There are also mandatory diploma qualifications, with up to £400 of extra costs involved in registering, invigilating and assessing apprentices on top of £600 for end-point assessments and about £200 for administration costs.

“Providers were probably getting £1,800-£1,900 per student five or six years ago, but we’ve had massive inflation. We’re getting so much less now,” he says. “But the bar has been raised higher and higher in terms of what Ofsted expects.”

On top of this, an “exceptional funding band review” by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, intended to provide an uplift for new starters on a small number of apprenticeships – including adult care workers – has been delayed.

The uplift was intended to be in place from May 1. Jane Hickie, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, says there is “no prospect” of announcement “any time soon.

Holloway warns by the time the money comes it will be “too late”, with other large providers in the sector now at breaking point.

“Why is a poultry worker apprentice [on a £5,000 level 6 funding band] getting better funding looking after chickens than someone caring for people in their dying days? That doesn’t make sense.”

Jane Hickie

Government row-back

In its 2021 white paper on adult social care reform, the DHSC pledged “at least £500 million over the next three years” to “begin to transform the way we support the social care workforce”. But last month it slashed that amount by half, partly because its proposed social care reforms, which would have required more social workers to deliver, have been pushed back to beyond the next election.

But the government still claims it will use the remaining £250 million to deliver a “care workforce pathway and funding for hundreds of thousands of training places”.

Holloway does not believe those places will emerge, as some providers are planning to reduce their current health and social care provision because it is “no longer viable for them”.

Ian Hall, ADASS’s senior policy officer, criticises the DHSC’s “mixed messages” in claiming that plugging gaps in the social care workforce is a national priority, then halving the funding. “It speaks to how the sector is valued.”

The original white paper also pledged to “invest in new training routes” for social workers and “improve the overall pre- and post-qualification landscape”, but there was scant mention of that in the department’s latest update.

It is, however, still aiming to standardise the care certificates that form part of the induction of new care workers through a new government-funded level 2 qualification so they do not need to repeat the certificate when moving between roles.

Hall welcomes the move, which he says is intended to “professionalise a care career”.

Meanwhile in children’s social work, the Department for Education recently pledged to “strengthen the apprenticeship route” by supporting councils to “recruit up to 500 additional child and family social worker apprentices nationally” within two years. About 220 apprentices have qualified since the route started in 2018.

But the biggest challenge councils face is apprentices completing the programme then leaving to work for an agency, where they can earn more and enjoy more flexible conditions. In 2021, 9 per cent left local authority social work for agencies, a rise of 7 per cent on the previous year.

A disabled child in a wheelchair being cared for by a care worker.

New academies struggling to attract interest

Across the country, new social care academies are springing up in an attempt to plug worker shortages. But some are struggling to attract learners.

The Health and Care Sector Work Academy, based at City College Peterborough, was forced last year to scale back target numbers.

The academy was launched in March 2018 as a Department for Work and Pensions pilot to encourage those on Universal Credit to fill gaps in the health and care industry.

The skills board of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, which is overseeing the academy’s delivery, heard it had “proved difficult to get take up”.

Five subcontractors had originally been eyed to deliver a total of 1,296 learners, but that was reduced to 496 and two providers withdrew because of the recruitment struggles.

Fliss Miller, the combined authority’s interim skills director, cites Covid’s impact on numbers, but adds it had “endeavoured to make improvements…such as by bringing more providers on board to offer courses”.

Another new health and social care academy, which opened with much fanfare last November in Sunderland, is not currently offering any health and social care courses until September. It is instead offering a childcare qualification but did not respond to FE Week’s request for comment.

The academy, which aims to help disadvantaged young people, was funded by Sunderland Football Club’s official charity Foundation of Light and a local entrepreneur, Helen McArdle.

But it is not all bad news. Miller says there have been “some examples of life-changing experiences”, with “people finding great careers in health and social care”.

The pilot will also feed into how similar future projects are funded and set up in the future, including whether they should be expanded to cater not just for those on benefits.

 And there are more academies in the pipeline. In Hartlepool, £25 million from the government’s Towns Fund is being used to open a social care skills academy for 3,000 learners a year, in partnership with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and Hartlepool College of Further Education.

And £20 million of levelling up funding will build a training centre for social care in Bridgwater in Somerset, with a satellite site in Minehead.

The government has shown that it’s not afraid of bringing in emergency skills measures in times of crisis. DfE’s skills bootcamps have been rolled out in “priority” sectors, though not in care, including the rapid introduction of HGV bootcamps in response to driver shortages. But the care sector has enjoyed no such sense of urgency; caught in the cross-fire of post-Brexit migration policy, pared-back political support and government bureaucracy.

The DHSC was approached for comment.

Quiche and karaoke: Colleges hail the King

As the nation prepares to mark the historic occasion of the King’s coronation this weekend, colleges up and down the country have put on royal displays of their own to celebrate Charles III’s accession to the throne.

And it didn’t come any more royal than at City of Wolverhampton College on Tuesday, where the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh joined students, staff and 100 guests from the community for a big lunch and indoor street party.

Leeds City College’s big lunch celebration

The royal couple spent around an hour chatting to guests and learners, before enjoying a musical showcase by performing arts students.

Louise Fall, deputy principal, said: “It was a really exciting day and a fantastic atmosphere during the lunch – and we hope that we were able to demonstrate to our royal guests that we are a college that is at the heart of the community and welcomes everyone.”

Academy Transformation Trust FE College (ATTFE) hosted more than 1,000 primary school pupils at Sherwood Forest on Wednesday and Sutton Lawn on Thursday.

The lifelong learning provider welcomed deputy lord lieutenant Alex Peace-Gadsby for the “remarkable two days” and featured 16 to 19 students gaining work experience opportunities as event stewards while adult learners volunteered.

Professional culinary arts students at Reading College, part of Activate Learning, served canapes to dignitaries for its event. Herb plants adorned the college foyer, in honour of the King’s interest in wellbeing and alternative therapies, with some of those herbs being planted at the college for a wellbeing garden and others being distributed to the training kitchens at Activate Learning’s other sites which include Banbury and Bicester College, City of Oxford College and Guildford College.

Warwickshire lord lieutenant with catering students at Royal Leamington Spa College

Gary Headland, chief executive of Activate Learning said: “We are proud to serve His Majesty and all the British Royal Family, and we wish them all the very best as they embark on this new chapter. God save the King.”

Royal Leamington Spa College was among a number of Warwickshire College Group colleges to mark the big day this week, serving a coronation lunch to those affected by brain injuries and supported by Headway Coventry on Wednesday.

A roast pork lunch was laid on by supported learning catering students in the college’s bunting-bedecked bistro, as health and social care students laid on the party activities.

Elsewhere, its Rugby College campus hosted 40 guests from nearby residential homes for a big lunch served by level 1 and 2 professional cookery students, while Pershore College’s afternoon tea was delivered by supported learning students.

Leeds City College was another with a big lunch celebration that included arts and crafts, karaoke and cake decorating, while Learning and Enterprise College Bexley planted a tree in the college grounds to symbolise new beginnings.

Crown decorating and afternoon tea at Sense College Loughborough

Students at Sense College Loughborough proved to be the kings and queens of crafts as they decorated a series of crowns with gems and sequins, worn at a red, white and blue afternoon tea party.

Sutton College’s coffee, cake and coronation morning raised cash for mental health charity MIND, while Burton and South Derbyshire College’s big tea on Wednesday afternoon celebrated the work of good causes locally.

Catering students laid on the sandwiches, savoury bites and sweet treats, before performing arts students gave a song and dance spectacular on the theme of wellbeing, happiness and friendship.

Coffee, cake and coronation morning at Sutton College

Sir John Crabtree, lord lieutenant for the West Midlands, said: “The colleges are a great example of the outstanding community spirit we are seeing across the region and how young people are making such a positive difference to others. It is heart-warming to know that so many are doing wonderful events and including those that might not be able to take part in other coronation activities.”

The Coronation Quiche has been chosen by the King and Queen Consort as the signature dish for this year, with Calderdale College serving the recipe with new potatoes and a trifle bowl of coronation salad in homage to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Ofqual deletes key T Level results dates

Ofqual has removed key dates for T Level results from its new information hub for vocational qualifications – just a week after MPs demanded more transparency on data for the new technical courses.

The regulator began publishing key dates for its timeline of awarding vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) results this year as part of an action plan to avoid a repeat of issues that led to 21,000 BTEC and CTEC delayed results last summer.

The hub includes specific dates for checkpoints, latest submissions of assessments, qualification claim dates, submissions for evidence and latest release of certificates to centres, among other stringent deadlines for individual awarding bodies.

However, guidance updated this week has removed the transparency data for T Levels which had previously been included.

A spokesperson from Ofqual said this was a correction because T Levels are not a part of its “VTQ action plan”.

“The technical qualifications (TQs) within T Levels are not part of the VTQ action plan because these results were not delivered late in 2022, and their timelines were not intended to be published on this page,” the spokesperson said.

“Ofqual is, however, considering whether to extend data on the hub page to include other VTQs, including TQs, in future.”

It is understood that the T Level deadlines previously published on the page were not complete and one date was incorrect.

The removal comes a week after MPs on the education select committee published a report into the government’s Level 3 qualifications reforms, in which it said that publishing of data on T Levels should be improved, particularly around student destinations, progression and transition programme outcomes.

Last August, around 21,000 BTEC and Cambridge Technical results were issued late, leaving students in limbo.

Data from December revealed that 12,346 Level 3 results and 8,573 Level 2 results were delayed, with affected students receiving blank results slips which prompted a flurry of calls to the awarding bodies demanding answers.

An investigation by the regulator and internal investigations by the two awarding bodies late in 2022 revealed that complex adaptations due to Covid-19, an influx of inexperienced exams officers, and poor communication were behind the problems.

Ofqual has mandated that this summer every school and college must have a designated senior exams contact available in case of problems, and set a series of stringent deadlines in the run-up to level 3 results day on August 17.

That includes agreement between AOs and schools or colleges which students are due to receive results by May 26, what remaining evidence is needed for each student by June 23, and a final deadline to issue results to centres on August 14 – three days before results day itself.

HIT Training becomes employee-owned after share transfer

Shareholders of one of the country’s largest training providers have handed a majority share of the company to its employees.

HIT Training has joined the likes of John Lewis Partnership in becoming an employee-owned company, one of the first to make the move in the independent training provider sector. 

Jill Whittaker, chief executive of HIT Training, said: “This is a decision which allows us to empower all our employers. By selling a significant shareholding to our staff, it means they will be even more incentivised to deliver amazing work which, in turn, benefits our clients and partners.”

To become employee owned, companies place most of their shares in a trust representing its staff. Staff can then take a share of the profits as a bonus, up to £3,600 per year tax free.

Tax benefits also extend to shareholders. Those selling their shares to an employee-owned trust don’t have to pay capital gains tax so long as the trust acquires a majority share.

HIT’s employee ownership trust will own 61 per cent of the business on behalf of their staff.

Whittaker told FE Week that all shareholders were given the option to sell a percentage of their shares to the trust.

One such shareholder was John Hyde, HIT Training’s co-founder and executive chairman, who will shortly be retiring after 40 years with the business.

He said: “As I wind down my involvement with HIT Training Ltd, I’m incredibly proud to see the company it has grown to become. It is so gratifying to think of the many people we have supported with education, helping to further careers and upskill businesses with talented employees – in the hospitality industry and beyond.

“It is fantastic that the employee ownership trust will see all our hard-working employees benefit from this company’s success for years to come, a lasting legacy I am honoured to leave.”

All employees are eligible to participate from day one of employment, with part time staff in line for pro-rata benefits. The business had 432 staff according to its 2021-22 accounts but did not pay a dividend.

Another training company, Seetec Business Technology Centre, is also employee owned, with 51 per cent of its shared held in an employee-owned trust.

Advocates of employee ownership point to the rapid growth of the business model in recent years and the improved service and business performance it brings.

According to the White Rose Employee Ownership Centre, the number of employee-owned business has doubled since 2020 and now totals over 1,030.

Colleges lambast ‘disastrous’ changes to financial year

College leaders have branded plans to bring their financial year in line with the public sector as “disastrous” amid fears the move would wreak havoc on their finances.

Colleges currently manage their budgets along the same timescales as the academic year, with the financial year and the academic year both beginning on August 1 and ending on July 31.

But FE Week understands this could all change as government officials draw up plans to force colleges to adopt a public sector financial year, which begins on April 1 and ends March 31. 

This follows the reclassification of colleges to the public sector which requires college accounts to be consolidated into the accounts of the Department for Education and the rest of the government.

The year-end change from July to March has been described as an “unnecessary distraction” by the College Finance Directors Group, which has voiced its concerns in an 11-page letter, seen by FE Week, to Education and Skills Funding Agency chief executive, David Withey.

As it stands, the college financial year runs in parallel with the academic year, the latter also being the timescale for most funding contracts held with the ESFA, combined authorities and other agencies.

The change would mean that the college financial year would awkwardly straddle two academic years, causing a huge amount of increased administration and raises the risk of weaker oversight and monitoring of college finances by governors and regulators.

For a financial year that begins in April, college boards would have to approve their budget in March at the latest. The knock-on effect is that college managers would have to estimate learners, and therefore income, at least six months before learners start (or don’t start) their courses.

“Curriculum plans for the next academic year will not be available in February, so income forecasting will be a best guess, not based on a plan,” the letter states.

Management accounts would need to change so managers, governors and regulators can monitor perforce around a financial year end which is different from most of their funding agreements.

This would make managing in-year financial performance “unbelievably difficult”, according to the finance directors, who go on to warn of expensive audit costs and weaker oversight.

Graeme Lavery, chair of the College Finance Directors Group and vice principal at Reaseheath College, told FE Week: “The level of complexities of delivering FE are becoming significantly more, and we need to find a way of decluttering and not putting more clutter in so that we are putting as much funding as we can do to support learners.”

When colleges were reclassified to the public sector in November, skills minister Robert Halfon told principals: “The department will eventually be required to consolidate the accounts for all FE colleges into one.”

FE Week understands officials have floated working towards implementing the new financial year end in 2025/26, with an eight-month financial year running from August 2025 to March 2026.

A similar move was attempted in Scotland but was quickly abandoned when the Scottish Government realised it was a “mess”, according to a college CFO working in a Scottish college at the time. The change meant an eight-month financial year in 2013/14 to accommodate the change, then a 16-month financial year between April 2014 and July 2015 for the backtrack, leading to several years of “meaningless” financial data.

Both the finance directors’ group and the Association of Colleges point to academies as they have managed to retain their August financial year end despite some pressure from the National Audit Office on the Department for Education to “resolve the assurance gap arising from the non-coterminous year end”.

The complexities of college finances compared to academies make a compelling case to retain the July year end, according to Lavery.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, raised his concerns with the chairs of three House of Commons committees, the public accounts committee, education committee and treasury committee, last week.

“Changing the year-end for colleges would be a disastrous move for the management of public funds because it would take the accounting year out of line with the academic year, staffing and DfE funding cycle; make it impossible for colleges to close their accounts precisely, resulting in audit qualifications; and require an upsurge in college spending on accountants to minimise the consequences,” he said.

Hughes argued that a year-end shift would only work if college funding moved to two-to-three-year cycles, a sector-wide project to update accounting, audit and IT systems, and an implementation date, for schools and colleges, of 2029.

Concerns are shared by the Sixth Form Colleges Association. Deputy chief executive James Kewin told FE Week, “If you set out to design a policy that wasted a lot of busy people’s time while delivering no tangible benefits, you’d struggle to come up with a more effective one than changing the financial year end of colleges.

“This is an exercise in futility that will distract already overstretched colleges from dealing with issues that actually benefit students. The government should abandon this unnecessary tidying up exercise and focus on reducing the bureaucratic burden on colleges, rather than finding new ways to add to it”.

The Department for Education told FE Week it “recognises the challenges that this may create for FE colleges and is working with HM Treasury to explore all available options to address these requirements considering the context and arrangements in the FE sector.

“We have been consulting the sector to understand the implications of a change to the financial year and working with Treasury to address risks and concerns. No decision has yet been made on whether any changes will be necessary and therefore we are not working towards any set timetable.”

£2m set aside for lifelong loan awareness campaign

The Department for Education has set aside £2 million for a communications campaign to build awareness of the incoming lifelong loan entitlement (LLE).

Due to be rolled out in 2025, the LLE will provide individuals with the equivalent of four years of post-18 education to use over their lifetime.

Funding will be available to study at levels 4 to 6, for both modular and full-time study at colleges, universities, and other providers registered with the Office for Students.

While legislation for the policy works its way through parliament, officials in the DfE are turning their attention to efforts to spread the word to the public.

Commercial pipeline data for 2023/24 recently published by the DfE, which provides a forward look of potential commercial activity, shows that a 24-month communications campaign is in the works.

Scheduled to start from September 2023, the document shows £2 million has been earmarked for the project. However, little other information is currently available.

A DfE spokesperson told FE Week it is “too early to provide details of what the campaign will entail at this stage”, adding that the department is “undertaking initial research and development during this financial year to help us determine the nature of the campaign”.

A targeted communications campaign for the LLE was a recommendation in a research report from think tank Phoenix Insights last year. It explored the challenges people face to retrain throughout their life, and found that a big reason is because adults do not want to take on more debt.

A key finding that DfE officials may want to bear in mind was that the term “lifelong loan” was found to be unappealing to potential learners, with researchers calling for the language and branding of the scheme to be reframed.

Degree-level apprenticeship spending hit half a billion last year

Spending on degree-level apprenticeships has hit the half-a-billion-pound mark in a single year for the first time, and now accounts for over a fifth of England’s annual apprenticeship budget.

Figures also suggest level 6 and 7 apprenticeships will take an even bigger slice of the levy pie this year, as costly courses for accountancy/taxation professionals, senior leaders and chartered managers continue to soar in popularity.

Experts warn that while degree-level apprenticeships have potential to boost social mobility, the rapid rise in their share of the market is squeezing out opportunities for younger workers and threatens the sustainability of the apprenticeship budget.

‘Precious funding wasted on senior staff executive training courses’

Since the levy was introduced, spending on level 6 and 7 apprenticeships has risen from £44 million in 2017/18 to £506 million in 2021/22 – hitting £1.325 billion in total over that period, according to new government figures released in a parliamentary written answer by skills minister Robert Halfon.

FE Week analysis of the data shows the degree-level programmes made up 21 per cent of the Department for Education’s apprenticeship budget in 2021/22, up from 16 per cent the year before.

There have been almost 180,000 starts on the courses – which are mostly taken by older workers – since their introduction in 2015. There were 10,870 in 2017/18 – 2.9 per cent of all starts that year – rising by almost 300 per cent to 43,230 in 2021/22, and hitting a high of 12.3 per cent of all starts.

By far the most popular degree-level apprenticeship is the level 7 accountancy/taxation professional, which racked up 9,470 starts in 2021/22 and 41,370 in total since 2017. With an upper funding band of £21,000, this standard could use up to a whopping £870 million of the levy pot from the starts already recorded.

The second most popular degree-level apprenticeship is the level 7 senior leader standard, which has 25,200 starts in total since 2017/18. With an initial funding band of £18,000 before being cut to £14,000, it means that up to £420 million could be used to fund this training.

However, starts for this particular apprenticeship have started to plummet since the government removed its controversial MBA component from the scope of levy funding. Starts fell almost 40 per cent from 8,050 in 2020/21 to 4,880 in 2021/22. Business schools and universities can continue to offer the MBA as an optional extra, but the cost of it must be funded by their employer, an option that some have chosen to take up, as reported by FE Week three years ago.

Spending data for other apprenticeship levels have not been published by the government, but starts figures suggest less and less funding is being used to fund lower-level programmes mostly taken by young people.

For example, starts on level 2 apprenticeships dropped by 53 per cent from 374,400 in 2017/18 to 175,400 in 2021/22, while starts at level 3 fell by 11 per cent from 372,400 to 330,400 over the same period.

Tom Richmond, director of think tank EDSK, and a former advisor to government skills ministers, said: “When employers and training providers are allowed to completely ignore the interests of younger learners, it is unsurprising that new recruits are increasingly being excluded from our apprenticeship system irrespective of the long-term ‘scarring’ effects associated with youth unemployment.

“Precious apprenticeship funding continues to be wasted on sending senior staff on these executive training courses instead of supporting young people in the aftermath of the pandemic.”

Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said the figures showed the government’s approach to skills is “broken”.

“Apprenticeships are a great way for young people to learn the skills our economy needs. But under the Conservatives, the number of apprenticeships for young people has fallen while more and more money is being spent subsidising higher-level qualifications. That’s not right,” Wilson told FE Week.

In response to critics, a DfE spokesperson claimed “it is wrong to suggest a rise in degree-level apprenticeships is taking opportunities from younger workers”.

They added: “70 per cent of people starting an apprenticeship do so at a lower-level and under-25s make up more than 50 per cent of all starts. We continue to encourage young people to consider degree apprenticeships, which blend the very best of academic education with hands-on, paid workplace experience.”

What the DfE chose not to point out is that starts for young people aged under 19 dropped 27 per cent between the levy’s introduction in 2017/18 to 2021/22, while starts for those aged 19 to 24 dropped 6 per cent, and starts over 25s increased 6 per cent over the same period.

Apprenticeship budget sustainability risk

Boosting the number of degree-level apprenticeships is one of skills minister Robert Halfon’s top priorities.

In his answer to the level 6 and 7 parliamentary question, which was tabled by shadow skills minister Toby Perkins, Halfon said that take up of the apprenticeships has grown again this year and represented 16.2 per cent of all starts (33,180) between August 2022 and January 2023.

Rising degree-level starts will heap pressure onto the DfE’s apprenticeship budget, which was 99.6 per cent spent in 2021/22.

The government’s apprenticeships quango and the National Audit Office previously warned that apprenticeships were costing around double what was expected, and that the system was heading for a potential “overspend in future”.

But pressure was eased when the pandemic hit.

The Treasury boosted the DfE’s apprenticeships budget from £2.466 billion in 2021/22 to £2.554 billion in 2022/23, and plans to increase it further to £2.7 billion by 2024/25. But experts have warned the government is now back on track towards an overspend, mainly because of the rise in degree-level apprenticeships.

Despite this, ministers have repeatedly played down apprenticeship overspend concern during interviews with FE Week over the past year.

Richmond said: “That the popularity of expensive higher-level courses is now likely to threaten the sustainability of the apprenticeships budget makes the exclusion of young people even more concerning.”

Social mobility challenges

Halfon’s parliamentary answer said degree-level apprenticeships are “important in supporting productivity, social mobility, and widening participation in higher education and employment”, pointing out that they are available for midwifes, doctors and construction quantity surveyors.

DfE data shows that degree-level apprenticeships for police constables, registered nurses and teachers have also proved popular.

But experts say the skills system has created imbalances leading to a “middle-class” grab on degree-level apprenticeships.

Emily Jones, deputy director at Learning and Work Institute, said: “Level 6 and 7 apprenticeships offer an alternative route to higher level training and have the potential to boost social mobility, but only if access to them is widened.

“Our research shows that the current system can reinforce inequalities, with employers tending to spend the apprenticeship levy on upskilling existing staff on higher level and more expensive apprenticeships, with younger people from disadvantaged backgrounds losing out. Higher level apprenticeships have great value but shouldn’t be at the expense of young people and programmes at level 2 and 3.”

Research from social mobility charity the Sutton Trust also previously found fewer degree apprentices were eligible for free school meals and from lower income areas than those on traditional university courses.

Carl Cullinane, director of research and policy at the Sutton Trust, said: “Given that young people overwhelmingly undertake lower-level apprenticeships it is a worry that they are being squeezed out. There is a balance to be struck in offering good quality opportunities at a variety of levels that will benefit both young people and employers.

“Apprenticeships should not be used as a band-aid for a decade of cuts to adult education, at the expense of opportunities for the next generation.”

DfE’s £32m higher technical skills injection fund shrinks by a third

Around £11 million of cash to bolster higher technical education provision has been withheld in the Department for Education’s coffers, officials have admitted.

In March the DfE announced that 63 providers had won a slice of the £32 million higher technical education skills injection fund, designed to help providers invest in equipment, resources and training for delivering the qualifications.

But in an update this week, the DfE said that just £21 million through the skills injection fund is supporting around 85 providers this financial year, focusing on levelling up areas.

The DfE said that the number of organisations to receive funding was different as some had applied as a consortium, but confirmed there was an £11 million underspend which will remain in the DfE’s central pot.

The DfE said that while the announcement was made in the 2022/23 financial year, the payments are actually made in the 2023/24 financial year.

Last summer, the DfE said that £22 million of the £32 million pot will be used for capital costs, such as perpetual software licenses, specialist equipment and refurbishing existing facilities, but could not be used on new build facilities.

The remaining £10 million of the fund was to be allocated for resources such as upskilling staff, learner recruitment events or curriculum planning.

It is not yet clear how much of the £11 million underspend comes from the capital allocation and how much is from the resource side.

DfE guidance last year said that the cash is to support providers to deliver or grow level 4 and 5 technical qualifications recognised by Ofqual or the Office for Students.

The fund can be used for providers in already-approved level 4 and 5 qualifications, as well as newly approved routes in digital, construction and heath and science being introduced for September this year or January 2024.

Applications were also eligible for courses launching in September 2024 or January 2025, including in business and administration, education and childcare, engineering and manufacturing, and legal, finance and accounting.

In its updated guidance this week, the DfE said the £21 million is part of a wider package to support providers grow level 4 and 5 provision, which also includes £10 million to help providers upscale provision in under-served areas, £14 million split across 100 providers in the growth fund in 2021/22 and £8 million in strategic priorities grant funding.

Ministers clear lifelong learning loan laws in the Commons

Ministers have fought off attempts by MPs for greater parliamentary oversight of the lifelong learning loan entitlement as key legislation passes its House of Commons stages.

The lifelong learning (higher education fee limits) bill had both its report stage and third reading in the House of Commons on Wednesday in a debate lasting just 50 minutes.

Opposition MPs have been trounced at every turn in their attempts to amend the bill, with the government using its majority on the public bill committee and in the commons chamber to defeat them. 

The bill was introduced by education secretary Gillian Keegan in February to lay the statutory groundwork for the lifelong loan entitlement (LLE), a flagship policy which, from 2025, will give some people access to student loans worth up to £37,000 for flexible courses at levels 4 to 6.

Under the LLE, which will promote short and modular courses for learners to upskill and retrain, the fees that education providers can charge will be based on a new system of credits. Proposed new laws gives the secretary of state powers to make a range of regulations setting out how credits will be funded in a year for different courses. 

The government has faced criticism for bringing forward legislation which is so light on detail (it’s just nine pages long) and which hands ministers a host of new powers to make decisions without full scrutiny in parliament. 

Earlier this year the government bowed to pressure from MPs to release more detail on the LLE by publishing their response to a consultation on the policy earlier than planned.

Defeated amendments yesterday would have required ministers to publish an annual review of the LLE and force the secretary of state to make a statement to parliament before using their new powers to set LLE regulations.

Matt Western, Labour’s shadow higher education minister, said an annual review should report on LLE learner uptake and was important because “accelerated courses were once poised to be the next big thing but never really materialised”. He added: “Recent policy announcements suggest the need for an enormous communications campaign, a large investment of resources and a clear understanding of the barriers to [learner] uptake.”

Responding for the government, skills minister Robert Halfon argued that an annual review was “neither necessary nor appropriate” before the policy had “sufficient time to bed in”. 

Halfon also committed the government to “endeavour” to publish ministerial statements on regulations relating to LLE credits and fees, and pointed out that many of the regulations in the bill require both houses of parliament to agree.

Concluding the debate, Halfon said: “With this bill, we are transforming lifelong learning in this country. People will now be on a train journey with an end stop at which they get their qualification, but they will be able to start and stop at various points in their life through flexible and modular learning. This bill will be transformational, and I commend it to the house.”

Following yesterday’s short debate in the Commons, the DfE’s minister in the House of Lords, Baroness Barran, tabled the bill in the Lords for its first reading. A date for the bill’s second reading in the Lords has not yet been set.