A Nottinghamshire independent specialist college providing vocational courses for high needs students has been hailed for its “highly inclusive and supportive” education in an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted report.
The education watchdog visited Portland College near Sherwood Forest in January, giving the top rating in all areas in a report published on Thursday and improving on the college’s ‘good’ rating from 2017.
The college had 216 learners aged 16 to 25 at the time of the visit, all of whom have high needs or education health and care plans (EHCPs), as well as four learners on supported internship programmes.
Inspectors said learners are greeted by “kind and caring staff”, praising the close working of teaching, support and therapy staff to create a “calm, nurturing and exciting place to learn”.
The report found staff developed an “excellent rapport” with learners with a “compassionate approach” which taught students to manage their behaviour and feelings positively, highlighting their “unwavering commitment” to students’ personal development.
It found the college taught students well about the risks they may experience in the world, including from extremist groups praying on vulnerable learners and on social media, as well as other wider topics such as sexual health, law, cultural diversity and self-esteem.
Staff were given specialist training in areas such as sign language, mental health and neurodiversity, and by getting to know students well teaching staff were able to identify areas for learners to develop.
Elsewhere, Ofsted said the college’s strategy “links strongly to the preparation for adulthood agenda” with health and wellbeing “at the heart of the strategic plan”.
The report continued that targets were closely linked to learners’ EHCPs, and “as a result, learners benefit from a highly personalised and ambitious curriculum and make excellent progress to achieve their learning goals.”
Ofsted found that the majority of students moved on to positive post-college destinations, such as adult day services, supported living, employment or further study.
Governor oversight of the college was found to be “highly effective”, the report added.
College principal and chief executive Dr Mark Dale said he was “delighted” with the findings, adding: “We work really hard every day to ensure our learners have access to the best specialist education and facilities, supported by an excellent multi-disciplinary team to meet their individual needs.”
Going back before all the skills reforms which started 10 years ago, we had around half a million apprenticeship starts. Many of these were young people commencing their careers in SMEs at level 2, and some at level 3.
One of the principle aims of the government’s apprenticeship reforms was to increase the number of starts to 600,000 per year and offer all young people the opportunity of a higher-quality apprenticeship.
Ten years on, it is great to see the increase in level 4-and-above apprenticeships; this should help towards increasing productivity. Policy improvements such as flexi-apprenticeships, accelerated apprenticeships and occupational traineeships, now integrated into study programmes, are also welcome developments.
However, the number of apprenticeship starts in the past 12 months was just 349,200, of which only 77,520 were by young people aged 19 years and under. This is a long way from the ambition set out for these reforms. Just as worrying is the decline in level 2 starts, when there are still 9 million jobs (28 per cent of the total) in the economy at level 2 or below. Many of these are crucial sectors in the context of the challenges we face as a country on net zero and social care.
Then there is the non-completion rate, which is just as concerning as the reduction in starts. This drop-out rate at level 2 is high across all sectors; over just a few years, construction level 2 achievements have declined by nearly 50 per cent and in health and care to one-third of where they were when the levy came in.
Red lights for green skills
To achieve net zero, every job will change and 60 or more new occupations will be developed, among them construction for new assets such as non-fossil fuel power stations and retrofit of domestic and commercial property. Yet a recent NAO report, Decarbonising the Power Sector says the government has not yet established a delivery plan, and therefore we cannot be confident that net zero is achievable.
Our skills system is just not suitable for our dynamic and ever-changing situation
Key to the implementation is green skills, and some international comparisons indicate that we are falling behind on these. While we have access to good, high-level technical skills and are starting to see the innovation come through in design and manufacturing, the problem is that the construction workforce that will build and install net zero assets and retrofit our 29 million properties is the level 2 workforce.
In construction in 2021/22, only 4,680 completed level 2 apprenticeships against an average demand of some 30,000 annually. Meanwhile, the alternative qualification route could be at risk from the DfE’s funding reform of level 2-and-below qualifications. Alarm bells should be ringing!
Our skills system, which is designed for larger programmes such as apprenticeships and T levels, is just not suitable for the dynamic and ever-changing situation of greens skills and digital innovation. We need a skills system that can flex, like the more agile systems based upon modularisation and micro-credentials happening in Europe, USA and the Far-East.
An aging system
We face similar problems in our response to an aging population. Most informed views describe our social care system as ‘broken’.
In a sector with 1.65 million jobs, over half of employees have no relevant qualification, and 21 per cent are qualified at level 2 or below. These are arguably poorly-paid jobs, and on any given day there are over 165,000 vacancies, which is only forecast to get worse. Turnover rates are 29 per cent on average and as high as 50 per cent for younger workers. Despite this high demand, only 9,430 level 2 achievements were recorded in 2021/22.
It’s the same problem with social care as with net zero: a failure to properly invest in skills for a level 2 workforce. Worryingly, policy is only heading further away from facing up to this.
We do not need to start again with the skills system, but we must urgently consider properly funded modularisation so it can support dynamic developments in new sectors and upskill some 30 million employees in the existing workforce.
The levy and our qualifications are simply not designed to meet the biggest challenges we face.
Currently the two have ownership of their regions’ adult education budgets (AEB) and involvement in local skills improvement plans, but the pair had been pushing for further skills and education powers such as co-commissioning powers for courses like T Levels and overseeing careers provision.
But the plans published today have only added a small number of developments, with the main flexibilities around skills bootcamps and the free courses for jobs scheme – free full level 3 courses for those without a level 3 qualification or who earn below the national living wage.
Under the trailblazer deals, the two regions will be able to spend up to half of their free courses for jobs budget on any adult level 3 qualification they feel is necessary to meet local skills need.
The government said it plans to remove the ringfencing of cash on the programme in the next spending review period (the current spending review period runs from 2022/23 to 2024/25).
On skills bootcamps, the deals say that from 2023/24 the authorities can use up to 30 per cent of their bootcamp budget on developing new bootcamps needed to meet local need, rising to 100 per cent from 2024/25.
The government plans single capital and revenue funding settlements for the trailblazers in the next spending review period, with a memorandum of understanding set to be published in January 2024 outlining more details of that. However, it is expected adult skills – including free courses for jobs and bootcamps – will be in that settlement.
Those are expected to be multi-year funding settlements.
Elsewhere, Greater Manchester and West Midlands will become the “central convenor” of careers provision in their regions, with the aim of better joining up existing careers provision such as the National Careers Service and local careers hubs by tailoring provision to local needs.
The documents say that will be carried out by the authorities with government to shape the design of those, while a new strategic fund pilot is also planned for responding to careers priorities for young people in the two areas.
Details of how much those pilots will be worth or what they will entail have not yet been made clear.
Another pilot scheme, called the Further Education Innovation Fund, will provide funding to colleges to “pursue innovation activities,” although no further details have been released on that other than the work will happen with the regions, government and Innovate UK.
Under the devolution deal, the two regions will also form their own joint governance boards bringing together commissioners, providers, and designated employer representative bodies to “provide oversight of post-16 technical education and skills”.
The report said these boards will “utilise all available levers and resources to secure a post-16 technical and vocational offer that is aligned to local skills needs”.
Only a few details of what the boards will be involved in have been published as the government says it envisages those boards will evolve over time, but details so far include involvement in linking education to real-time labour market data, developing the all-age careers strategy, signing off the local skills improvement plan from the lead college, and improved data sharing responsibilities.
According to the deals, the two regions will be subject to additional accountability that could include mayor’s question times and appearances at parliamentary select committees.
Details on what the two authorities had been pushing for had been scant as negotiations were held behind closed doors, but today’s announcement appears to fall short of some of the asks, such as requests for a partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions to influence job centre operations and co-commissioning of T Levels which Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham had been seeking.
Despite that, the Labour mayor said: “We’ve worked hard to secure this deal and have achieved a significant breakthrough by gaining greater control over post-16 technical education, setting us firmly on the path to become the UK’s first technical education city-region.”
Greater Manchester Combined Authority said that the deal was not just about powers surrounding existing programmes or funding streams, but establishes a principle that any new functions are integrated into the region’s adult skills landscape in a more responsive manner.
It added that the oversight functions will be determined as part of the interpretation and implementation of the deal and laid out in the terms of reference the authority and government will draw up together.
Andy Street, mayor of West Midlands (pictured main), added that it was a “major step forward for the West Midlands with significant new powers and funding secured”.
But skills consultant Aidan Relf on social media said that it was “a bit of a damp squib” saying that the Department for Education has “fought hard”.
Anne Dawe, chair of GM Colleges and principal at Wigan and Leigh College said the deal will build on the “excellent partnerships” already at work in Greater Manchester, adding that it would “create a highly skilled workforce with a curriculum that meets the need for the rapidly changing world of work.”
Greater Manchester elected its first directly-elected metro mayor in 2014 and has an annual AEB allocation of around £96 million. West Midlands secured its first devolution deal in November 2015, with an AEB around £130 million, according to its trailblazer document.
So, the ninth Annual Apprenticeship Conference has drawn to a close. And what a conference it was! As the co-chair, it was great to see the energy and the right topics being discussed.
All of us were clear: it’s our time to act now to reshape the system for the future. At best, the apprenticeship system needs some tweaks and at worst a complete overhaul. We know that’s not what this government want to hear but it’s plain and simple fact.
There is a rising chorus of employer voices demanding change. With a general election looming and pencils being sharpened for manifestos that will shape our future, many are waiting with bated breath to ask, what next?
During the conference, IFATE CEO Jennifer Coupland talked to the need for us to all be confident and positive about the apprenticeships brand, and there were no arguments with that. We all believe in their transformative power and want them to succeed.
It’s precisely because we care so deeply that we are calling for change. None of us want to see the apprenticeship system fail, but we can’t ignore the facts. Employers are telling us that the system doesn’t work properly for them. They are voting with their feet, as evidenced by the significant drop in apprenticeship starts since the levy was introduced. It is a dereliction of duty to ignore this.
Another case for change was in the excellent debate with leaders from the hospitality sector. They detailed the enormous challenges they are facing in filling job vacancies and the significant impact this is having on their sector. They called out, as employers from across many sectors have also done, for a broader skills levy that allows them to spend their money on shorter courses, alongside much valued apprenticeships. The message was clear, we need other skills interventions alongside apprenticeships now to cope with damaging labour and skills shortages.
In the months and years ahead, we need to address this so we can create a skills system that totally lives up to its potential and that allows employers to get the skilled people they need and supports people to get the skills to thrive and contribute throughout their lifelong careers.
Our hospitality speakers also expressed significant concern about the fact that level 2 apprenticeships were at risk, as they form a critical pathway into careers in their sector leading to careers as chefs, baristas, brewers and hotel managers – to name just a few. As we all know, level 2 apprenticeships support social mobility, allowing people who might not have achieved in school to access opportunities that can allow them to succeed in the future. Let’s hope that the employer voices are listened to, and these important apprenticeships are retained in the future.
Another common theme linked to social mobility this year were the many calls to amend the requirement to pass functional skills maths and English. Training providers were clear about what a huge barrier this is to many people completing apprenticeships and puts large numbers of people off taking them in the first place. I also heard employers’ express doubts about the validity of these requirements for older workers retraining and ask whether the skills requirements of the apprenticeship could be better matched to the job at hand.
These themes were also some of the hot topics discussed at an employer roundtable lunch I co-hosted with Anthony Impey, chair of DfE’s apprenticeship stakeholder board, during the conference to allow us to really get under the skin of employer thinking. One more radical idea was a skills minister with responsibility across the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education, and Department for Business and Trade to provide a much more cohesive approach to skills development going forward. We also talked about how beneficial it would be to have a UK wide skills system in the future.
And finally, the awards gala dinner was a real celebration of all that is good and great about our apprenticeship employers and providers. Well done again to all the winners!
One thing is for certain, in the current climate we are at a pivotal moment to shape policy that could have an impact on millions of lives and secure the long-term future of great apprenticeships.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his spring budget today and confirmed the government’s intention to introduce a shorter “kind of” apprenticeship for the over-50s called “returnerships”.
There were little other major announcements for the FE and skills sector, but some important policy areas, including a universal credit training flexibility, have been extended.
Here’s what the budget announced for further education:
‘Returnerships’ for over-50s – but when and how?
Over the weekend, Hunt trailed the idea of a new training programme for out-of-work older people. Today during his speech at the dispatch box, he confirmed the education secretary Gillian Keegan “will introduce a new kind of apprenticeship targeted at the over 50s who want to return to work.
“They will be called returnerships, an offering alongside skills boot camps and sector-based work academies.”
Hunt said returnerships will “bring together our existing skills programmes to make them more appealing for older workers focusing on flexibility and previous experience to reduce training length”.
This programme of work will be backed with £63 million of additional funding.
But there is no timeline for when returnerships are expected to roll out.
Apprenticeships also have a legal 12-month minimum duration requirement. It is unclear whether new legislation will be required for returnerships.
While Hunt suggested in his speech that returnerships will be a new course, the Treasury’s budget documents cast doubt over this.
The documents state: “Returnerships are a new offer targeted at the over 50s, which bring together the government’s existing skills programmes, focusing on flexibility and previous experience to reduce training length. Returnerships will promote accelerated apprenticeships, sector-based work academy programme placements and skills bootcamps to the over 50s.”
The documents add that this will be “supported by £63 million for an additional 8,000 skills bootcamps places in 2024-25 in England, and 40,000 new sector-based work academy programme placements across 2023-24 and 2024-25 in England and Scotland”.
FE Week is seeking further information from the government.
Universal credit training flexibility extended again
The government’s “train and progress” policy, originally announced as a six-month pilot in March 2021, increases the amount of time universal credit claimants can study full-time, work-focused courses while still receiving benefits from eight weeks to 12 weeks.
This is extended to 16 weeks in certain subject areas which have skills bootcamps.
This flexibility has been extended again to April 2025.
Additional £3m for supported internships
Supported internships, introduced a decade ago, are structured programmes for SEND students aged 16 to 24 who have an education health and care plan (EHCP) to get into sustained employment, with placements lasting for six months to a year.
Hunt announced today that the Department for Education will now invest an additional £3 million over the next two years to pilot an expansion of the supported internships programme to young people entitled to SEND support who do not have an EHCP.
Intensive English language courses for Ukrainians
In an extension of the support for Ukrainians fleeing the war who have arrived in the UK under the Ukraine visa schemes, the government is providing £11.5 million to offer “intensive English language courses and employment support” to up to 10,000 individuals.
This new funding is expected to “boost the number of Ukrainians entering the labour market for the first time, as well as helping those already employed into higher-skilled roles”.
Further details, including additional groups who may be eligible for this support, will be published “in due course”.
Investment zones cash can be spent on skills
Hunt announced the launch of 12 new “investment zones” in England, dubbed “potential Canary Wharf’s”, which will have access to interventions worth £80 million over five years.
The zones will have access to “flexible grant funding” to “support skills and incentivise apprenticeships, provide specialist business support and improve local infrastructure, dependent on local requirements”.
The 12 zones are: the proposed East Midlands Mayoral Combined County Authority; Greater Manchester Mayoral Combined Authority; Liverpool City Region Mayoral Combined Authority; the proposed North East Mayoral Combined Authority; South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority; Tees Valley Mayoral Combined Authority; West Midlands Mayoral Combined Authority; West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
Deeper devolution deals signed
In the levelling up white paper, the government committed to negotiate trailblazer deeper devolution deals with the Greater Manchester and West Midlands Combined Authorities to “set the blueprint for deeper devolution across the rest of England”.
Those deals have been signed today and include “a greater role in simplifying and integrating ticketing in local transport systems; devolution of the majority of 19+ adult skills funding to mayors; a long-term commitment to local authorities retaining 100 per cent of their business rates; and, for the first time outside of London, local leaders will now be able to set the strategic direction over the Affordable Housing Programme in their areas,” according to Treasury documents.
The new deals also pave the way for multi-year funding settlements for Greater Manchester and the West Midlands from the next spending review. The chancellor said he hopes to roll this out to other areas in the future, though didn’t specify a timescale.
The documents for the deals themselves show no major change for skills funding in those areas, which already control the adult education budget. But there is more flexibility on how they can use free courses for jobs funding, skills bootcamps and introduces a “central convenor of careers provision in the city region”.
Ofsted is looking for a leader with “significant experience” at a senior level in schools or trusts and a “high degree of personal integrity” to become its next chief inspector.
Amanda Spielman will leave the role at the end of this year after seven years in the hot seat.
A job advert to find her £165,000 successor is now live.
A foreword for the role written by education secretary Gillian Keegan states government wants a chief inspector “with significant experience in the school and trust sector, but who can command respect across all the sectors” within Ofsted’s remit.
Experience in at least one of the other areas within Ofsted’s inspection and regulatory remit, such as further education, early years and children’s social care, is labelled as “desirable criteria”.
Keegan said it was an “important time” to lead the watchdog, with hopefuls able to demonstrate the ability to “embed” and “take forward, build on and improve” the “relatively new” inspection framework.
They must do so while “maintaining and enhancing a strong organisational reputation for valid, reliable, objective and fair judgements”.
They must also be able to “adapt to the changing education” landscape with the “increasing importance” of academy trusts and social care reform marking a “considering period of organisational change” for the watchdog, Keegan added.
Candidates must also show “excellent judgement under pressure and a high degree of personal integrity, including experience of taking difficult, independent, calls in a senior position with high profile”.
Trust body boss on adviser panel
An advisory assessment panel will carry out interviews and recommend candidates to the education secretary, who makes the final decision.
The panel is made up of Ofsted chair Dame Christine Ryan, Ofqual chief regulator Dr Jo Saxton, a senior Department for Education official and Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the academy trust body CST.
One issue could be a potential change of government should Labour win the next election, scheduled to take place by January 2025 at the latest.
Last week, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson set out the party’s intention to reform the watchdog.
The deadline for applications is April 6, with the successful candidate taking office on 1 January 2024.
Once the government has chosen its preferred candidate, they will appear before the education select committee who decide whether to back the decision.
However government can ignore this, as then education secretary Nicky Morgan did when appointing Spielman in 2016.
The committee was concerned Spielman, who had worked in the finance sector before holding a senior position at Ark Schools and later chairing Ofqual, had not been a teacher.
Skills, apprenticeships and HE minister Robert Halfon delivered the closing keynote speech at this year’s ninth Annual Apprenticeships Conference in Birmingham.
In a video message to assembled delegates, Halfon outlined his work with the Department for Education to elevate the role of apprenticeships, and explained the five rungs of his much-talked-about ladder of opportunity.
Here’s his speech in full.
Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP speech to AAC.
“Hello, everyone. I’m sorry that I can’t be with you this afternoon at the end of an extraordinary programme of speakers and events.
“I have been a champion of apprenticeships since my earliest days in Parliament, and I’m really pleased to be back as the minister for this remarkable, life-changing programme.
“I hope I find you fizzing with enthusiasm after the last two days, and looking forward to the crowning event of the conference: the gala dinner and AAC awards this evening.
“For anyone flagging after all those accountability framework and funding model discussions, unlikely I know, the previous speaker will have been an important breath of fresh air. Ayo Sokale challenged you to think about how you recruit and work with neurodiverse apprentices and employees. This is an area of strong interest for me, part of the broader picture of providing the apprenticeships ladder of opportunity to everyone, whatever their background, disadvantage or learning style.
“Sometimes, they may have struggled to be accommodated in traditional education. I’m always alive to new suggestions of how we can better habilitate all types of talent within the programme.
“Apprenticeships are incredibly diverse, so apprentices must be too. I will go on to say more about what we’ve been doing later.
“I know some of the best representatives of apprenticeship provision are here today. I want to thank you for all the brilliant work you’re doing to support apprentices, apprenticeship provision and the wider programme. Your work is powering the government skill revolution along with T Levels and higher technical qualifications, apprenticeships together, we are bringing forward the skilled workers that companies are crying out for, helping people climb the ladder of opportunity to get those fulfilling career building jobs.
“As a government we are matching your work with big investment with apprenticeship funding, reaching £2.7 billion by 2025.
“I want to briefly frame our current activity using the ladder of opportunity. For those who aren’t familiar, it’s a way of thinking about what we need as a country to get to where we want to go. With the right thinking systems and infrastructure in place, we can raise the skills level of the nation to boost economic growth.
“The ladder has two crucial pillars that hold it up – these are social justice and strengthening further and higher education.
“Giving all young people access to opportunities that lead to a good job is fundamental to me. To every young person I meet my message is that no matter who you are, or where you’re from, or whatever career you want to do, an apprenticeship will open doors for you.
“Social justice means ensuring disadvantage of any kind is no bar to these opportunities. We’ve recently seen more apprentices declaring a learning difficulty or disability, 14% of starts in 2021/22 compared to 12.4% the previous year. We want this trend to continue and are working to adapt the system to make it welcoming and accessible to these candidates.
“On the ‘find an apprenticeship’ search there’s now a filter so candidates can easily locate opportunities with disability-confident employers. We’ve also launched a disabled apprentice network in partnership with Disability Rights UK to build insight on how to attract and retain disabled candidates.
“And from August we will increase the apprenticeship care leavers bursary to £3,000. This means young people leaving care can consider an apprenticeship confident they can cover their costs.
“Strengthening higher and further education means improving the post-16 system for everyone so that the full range of choice is visible. All options should lead to respected attainment and good jobs.
“The first step onto the ladder is careers empowerment. I’m determined that all school careers information should include work experience and skills based options.
“We are exploring how to quality assure the delivery of comprehensive career guidance, because advice given at this stage, for good or ill, often has long lasting effects. This includes looking at how schools are fulfilling their Baker Clause statutory duties. In the meantime, our ASK Programme backed by £3.2 million of annual funding is raising pupils’ awareness of the benefits of apprenticeships.
“Our broader vision is to eventually develop a one-stop shop where citizens can explore all their career and training options at any point in their lives.
“The second rung of the ladder is about championing the apprenticeships and skills that employers need, which is important for students’ career progression and for the economy. On a broader level, this means making sure there is support for apprenticeships in every area of the economy, from green energy to the creative industries. My officials at the Department for Education and I are collaborating across government with all relevant departments to bring the benefits of apprenticeships to every industry.
“I often say degree apprenticeships are my two favourite words in the English language. This is because they combine the best of vocational and academic education, allowing young people to earn while they learn and remain free of student debt.
“We’ve seen some big employers design these courses in collaboration with excellent universities but many more are needed to meet demand. We’re working with higher education institutions to increase supply and have made up to £8 million available during this financial year to help them grow their degree apprenticeships offer.
“We’re aware that one size does not fit all in business, so we’re continuing to adjust the programme to suit different sectors. We’ve created flexible training models like accelerated apprenticeships, which enable those progressing from other skills programmes or prior industry experience to complete more quickly, and the improved transfer system will make it easier for levy paying employers to find others who wish to take on a new apprentice with transfer funds.
“The third rung of the ladder is about the quality of skills education. This is now part of apprenticeships’ DNA. The 600-plus apprenticeship standards were designed to be rigorous and challenging to meet employers’ needs and build industry respect for the programme.
“Our objective remains that every apprentice should have a high quality experience, including excellent training from their provider.
“To drive up quality provision, we have refined the entry criteria and conditions of acceptance for the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers. This included requiring all providers to reapply to join the register by the end of 2022.
“We are continuing to strengthen accountability in the marketplace with Ofsted inspecting all providers by 2025. We know there is more to do to increase not just the number of people starting apprenticeships, but also the achievement or completion rate.
“We’ve set an ambition for the achievement rate to reach 67 per cent by the end of the 2024/25 academic year. There’s a comprehensive plan in place to reach that aspiration, including significant investment in development support for the sector workforce, we’re doing more to iron out issues and help employers deliver high quality training.
“At the same time we’re supporting apprenticeships with better guidance every stage of their apprenticeship journey using new digital support services and careers advice.
“The fourth rung is lifelong learning. We need to give people the opportunity to train, retrain and upskill throughout their lives to respond to the changing demands of the economy.
“Apprenticeships provide a great opportunity for those seeking to switch track after secondary education, earning while they learn new skills. We want to complement this route by offering a more flexible student finance system for other types of study.
“We recently published our response to last year’s consultation on the lifelong learning entitlement which will unify higher and further education finance under a single system.
“From 2025, the financial support offered will be equivalent to four years of post-18 education, £37,000 in today’s fees, for individuals to use over their working lives. Apprenticeships will continue to be funded through the employers apprenticeship levy so will not be directly affected.
“However, we believe that giving people a greater choice in how and when they study will create a cultural shift in how vocational education is perceived and accessed. Learning and paying for technical education in a modular way will help those unable to commit to an apprenticeship to gain buildable qualifications and consider subsequent steps.
“Under the new lifelong loan entitlement, each learner’s personal account will not only display their remaining student finance balance, but give them access to information, guidance and courses to guide their learning pathway. Like getting on and off a train, they’ll be able to alight and board their post-school education when it suits them, rather than being confined to a single ticket.
“Progression is as much about building skills incrementally as it is completing a prestigious degree level apprenticeship. What matters is that choice and financial support are clear from the outset so that everyone can plot a path towards the career that’s right for them.
“The fifth rung at the very top of the ladder is job security and prosperity. The skills system must support people into secure, sustained and well-paid employment and provide opportunities for them to progress in their careers.
“The idea is that if all the rungs leading up to this point are robust, this is where citizens can expect to thrive.
“As some of you here may have experienced first-hand, I travelled up and down the country during National Apprenticeship Week visiting colleges, universities and businesses and providers. I don’t think you’d believe me if I proclaimed I’d walked 500 miles, although I did travel nearly 900 miles, to spread the word about apprenticeships. That journey demonstrated to me once again the tremendous enthusiasm out there for what these opportunities can bring to businesses, apprentices and the economy.
“My priority has remained to boost the numbers of people starting and achieving apprenticeships from level 2s to degree apprenticeships enrolment. We must amplify these opportunities to bring out real social justice in society.
“No one should feel that their circumstances leave them unable to improve their skills and employment prospects.
“I hope you feel renewed by what you heard in Birmingham this week and that we continue to work together to make our apprenticeships programme the best in the world.”
Only half of the 20 apprenticeships in the government’s “exceptional” funding uplift review will go through the accelerated process.
Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), revealed today that employer-led trailblazer groups for 10 of those in scope have opted out.
The decision has left some training providers, who were not consulted, “hugely disappointed” as they struggle to offer the programmes because of high costs.
Those that have declined the offer include trailblazer groups for apprenticeships in painting and decorating, carpentry and joinery and engineering technician (see table for full list).
Coupland also couldn’t commit to meeting the May 1 deadline for introducing the new funding bands for those standards that are going through the process. She expressed her own “disappointment” that more apprenticeships wouldn’t benefit from the policy.
In November the Education and Skills Funding Agency announced plans to quickly increase funding bands in the hardest hit sectors to recognise the impact of soaring inflation on training delivery, with an ambition to unveil details of the process at the end of that month.
The IfATE announced in January that this “exceptional funding band review” would only apply to 20 “high-volume apprenticeships in skills shortage occupations and priority sectors”.
The chosen standards represent about 20 per cent of all apprenticeships starts. Evidence for an uplift was needed by early March and the new funding bands had planned to be implemented by May 1.
IfATE said the exceptional review will not include the full apprenticeship content or end-point assessment review that the ordinary revisions process includes, to help speed up the process.
But Coupland told today’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference that she could not “sit here and say that it will be May 1 when they will go through”.
She said the institute received “different responses” from the 20 trailblazer groups that were identified for the review, where “one didn’t want to go for it and another clutch said they would prefer to go through the usual funding band process, because they actually wanted us to review their end-point assessment, the content of the apprenticeship as well as the funding”.
Coupland added: “We were disappointed that we couldn’t extend the exceptional funding band process.
“We’ve had to prioritise because that’s the thing you do when you’ve got an affordability question.”
Brenda McLeish, chief executive of The Learning Curve Group, was angered by the announcement.
“If we can only get half of the 20 reviewed there is clearly an issue with the process and infrastructure around how the reviews happen,” she said.
“In the meantime, providers are opting out of delivering a lot of these standards which are high priority from an employer skills perspective because they just cannot afford to deliver them. IfATE needs to stand up and take responsibility for that.”
Sector leaders previously complained that the exceptional funding band review would only apply to new starters and would not address the challenges of training current apprentices.
Challenged on this by FE Week after her speech, Coupland said: “It has always been the case that if a funding band changes, it applies to new starters only. That is the situation that we have got for any of these exceptional funding band cases. We need to have it in line with policy and also because of affordability considerations.”
McLeish said that the institute should backdate the new funding rates for the 10 going through the exceptional process to the beginning of the academic year. “It would be a small little victory in the midst of all this mess,” she added.
Twenty winners have been awarded gongs in the 2023 Annual Apprenticeship Conference Awards in Birmingham this evening.
The special black tie event at the end of the ninth annual AAC saw individuals, training providers, employers, universities and colleges recognised for their efforts in the apprenticeship world.
The sixth awards ceremony, delivered in partnership with City and Guilds, attracted a record 375 nominations across the 19 categories, with 20 winners being announced and five organisations recognised as highly commended.
Among the winners of the prestigious trophies were Paragon Skills, which was named apprenticeship provider of the year, and the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, which fought off stiff competition to reap the apprentice employer of the year award.
Elsewhere, providers in sectors such as digital, construction, agriculture and hospitality were handed gongs for their exceptional efforts in developing apprentices.
The evening culminated with the special recognition award for sector stalwart John Hyde, founder and executive director of HIT Training who has recently retired from 20 years of involvement with the Association of Employment and Learning Providers having joined its board when it was first established as the Association of Learning Providers in 2002.
Shane Mann, managing director of FE Week’s publisher Lsect and AAC awards co-host, said: “As chair of the judging panel, I can confirm we were once again overwhelmed by the number and quality of the nominations we received.
“Great apprenticeships don’t happen by accident. Our winners demonstrate that excellence happens when dedicated professionals in employers and training providers work in tandem with the apprentice experience at the heart of everything they do.
“Tonight we’re proud to show off the very best the apprenticeships sector has to offer. Congratulations to all the winners and thank our team of amazing judges, sponsors and partners. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
