Providers shelve courses as students shun T Levels

More than a fifth of wave two T Level providers deferred or cancelled courses because they could not recruit enough students.

Of the 62 colleges, schools and private providers due to begin delivery of the flagship courses from September 2021, 14 deferred or cancelled a route that they intended to deliver.

A government evaluation report of the T Level Professional Development programme, delivered by the Education and Training Foundation, revealed the finding today. 

The research stated that deferrals or cancellations were mostly due to challenges with learner recruitment as students preferred other courses such as BTECs, as well staffing issues, a general lack of awareness, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Students with lower attainment than eligibility criteria, the inability to adequately resource provision, late or occasionally inadequate preparation material from some awarding bodies, too few employer placements and insufficient employer engagement were all also cited as issues. 

The majority of the 62 providers interviewed for the research stated that low learner demand was the primary reason for cancelling or deferring T Level delivery.

There were multiple courses that received fewer than five applications, and in one case a science course received no applicants.

The report noted that a “a common, spontaneous view emerged from the interviews” that the T Level Transition Programme will not achieve its primary objective of providing a flow of learners onto T Level courses.

FE Week revealed last May that just one in seven of the first students who studied the T Level Transition Programme chose to progress on to a full T Level.

The research found that new courses were seen as risky, progression pathways were unclear, and there was uncertainty over the willingness of universities to accept T Levels.

The report also noted that recruiting sufficient staff with the right subject knowledge and good pedagogic practice “is a challenge for the whole FE sector, and this was no different for T Level providers”.

Most providers managed this by allocating T Level delivery to their more experienced and skilled staff. However in two instances, an inability to recruit staff with the required specialist knowledge meant that courses could not be delivered.

 The report’s authors said: “Continuing to raise the profile of T Levels amongst learners, parents and schools is evidently key to create sufficient demand from learners for courses to be viable.”

 The report did not investigate how many providers in wave three of the T Level rollout deferred on cancelled courses, but it does say that the fieldwork “suggested that learner recruitment had been more buoyant for September 2022”.

WorldSkills UK reveals 2023 equity, diversity and inclusion heroes

Organisations and individuals who go above and beyond to promote equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in technical education and in the workplace have been honoured at the fourth WorldSkills UK EDI heroes awards. 

Winners included an audit analyst apprentice who, in her spare time, busts apprenticeship myths in local schools and developed a three-week financial literacy course for members of her community from deprived backgrounds.

Aiman Naseer, now a level 7 degree apprentice in internal audit management at Lloyds Banking Group, works with young people from a range of cultures to promote apprenticeships.

She was described as “exceptional” by her nominators, who said: “Her passion for apprenticeships and supporting financial literacy to less affluent areas of UK has now seen the programme she trailblazed being rolled out nationally which is a massive personal achievement.”

Award winner Nav Ahmed

This year’s prize for inclusive skills development was awarded to Nav Ahmed, a principal lecturer at Arden University’s Institute of Foundation Studies. Using data on student demographics, Ahmed, a former FE business lecturer, his work to redesign and tailor the curriculum and student experience impressed the judges. 

Ahmed identified that students on blended learning programmes tended to be older and from ethnic minority backgrounds and found that students on distance learning courses were more likely to have a disability.

His achievements include rewriting modules with more inclusive learning materials and assessment methods which have improved progression rates and student satisfaction. 

“One of the things I was conscious of when I was studying, was that diversity would be seen as barrier, rather than seeing it as a strength and for me that is something I want to pass onto my students in order to be a positive role model.  What has inspired me to do what I do in my job, is to ensure every student has the best opportunity to achieve the best that they can” Ahmed said.

WorldSkills UK’s EDI heroes winners were revealed today in a virtual ceremony in partnership with Skills and Education Group. The ceremony was hosted by journalist and broadcaster Marverine Cole. 

Neil Bentley-Gockmann, chief executive of WorldSkills UK, said the number and quality of nominations showed “the importance the sector is placing on addressing inclusion and diversity.”

“We have been so inspired by the people and stories behind the nominations and are pleased that we can celebrate those who are leading the way in the technical education sector” he said. 

Joanne Manship, head of digital, creative and performing arts at Oldham College was named skills competition diversity champion for increasing numbers of under-represented students taking part in skills competitions. 

Manship’s work has delivered results in competition performance as well as participation. 

In November 2022, the college won a gold medal for foundation health & social care in the WorldSkills UK national finals. 

And London South East Colleges’ programme of grant-funding student and staff led EDI projects has won them this year’s initiative of the year award. 

The college group has committed to a ten year programme of investment which has so far awarded £78,000 for a range of projects that impact positively on EDI within the college and in the community. The programme is evidence-led in terms of what gets funded, but also in measuring each project’s outcomes. 

Projects funded through the scheme so far include mentoring programmes for young people from ethnic minorities and SEND students, LGBTQ+ education events and a programme to empower ethnic minority students through curriculum activities. 

Full list of winners below (click to enlarge):

Colleges ask for extra £400m as ‘perfect financial storm’ hits

Cash-strapped colleges are pleading with ministers to stump up an additional £400 million as they face unpalatable choices including large-scale redundancies, increased class sizes, and campus closures to stay solvent.

Demands have also been made for the recently introduced ban on college borrowing to be suspended to ensure capital projects are not abandoned.

The Association of Colleges has today written to education secretary Gillian Keegan warning of a “perfect financial storm” faced by the sector, which involves lower than expected enrolments, high inflation, rocketing energy costs, and staff pay pressures.

Around £400 million is needed for the 2023/24 academic year, according to the AoC, based on increasing funding rates for 16 to 19 provision and the adult education budget to match inflation of 10 per cent.

The DfE is planning to increase 16 to 19 funding rates next year, but only by 2.2 per cent. AEB rates are also set to rise, but not until 2024/25.

AoC chief executive David Hughes warned that without a big cash injection, colleges, which have “already been cut to the bone”, will need to make decisions this year “which will damage their capacity to deliver the skills needed for the economic growth and levelling up your government wants to see”.

He has called on Keegan to publish the DfE’s own analysis of the financial position of colleges to help the sector make “more informed strategic decisions”.

David Hughes

The AoC also wants the DfE to publish a college pay analysis – a sister document to the School Teachers’ Review Body – “recognising that inadequate pay and the pay gap to schools and industry has led to even tougher recruitment and retention problems for colleges than for schools”.

It comes as the AoC prepares to enter negotiations with the University and College Union over next year’s pay recommendation. A wave of strikes hit colleges across the country last year after the AoC recommended a 2.5 per cent pay increase in the face of a decade of government funding cuts.

Hughes warned that colleges will have to continue to restrict pay awards to levels which will further widen the gap to schoolteacher and industry pay without additional funding.

He said that following the Office for National Statistics reclassification of colleges to the public sector, colleges now have “few places to turn other than to DfE as its funder, lender and regulator”.

The letter states that colleges have struggled to meet their student recruitment targets this year because of a “continuing preference for academic courses and for going into jobs rather than education”. There are also “considerable doubts” about autumn 2023 enrolments due to labour market pull remaining strong, T Level implementation issues, uncertainty over the apprenticeship budget, and the impact of inflation on people’s decision to study.

There are also additional costs and wasted expenditure for a “significant group” of colleges who have been trapped by the mid-year decision to require government approval for any borrowing.

The AoC told the Financial Times this week that colleges have made 55 loan applications to the DfE since the ban on borrowing cam into effect on November 29, of which 22 were refused and 10 are pending. The 23 applications that had been approved were all for short-term loans.

AoC wants the DfE to suspend the new controls on borrowing to allow time for officials to develop the policy and process for the promised DfE loan scheme, including the recruitment of “sufficient” staff to administer a new approval process with a view to introducing a new system with effect from 1 August 2023.

Other calls include for the DfE to act as guarantor for colleges in the local government pension scheme to help bring down contribution rates, and for a restructuring fund to assist colleges with the upfront costs of large-scale redundancies, campus closures or mergers.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We recognise that colleges are facing significant financial pressure and that’s why we are supporting colleges to continue to deliver for their learners through an additional £150 million to improve conditions this year, bringing forward £300 million of payments to improve cash-flow, and making significant funding increases for young people to ensure access to high-quality education.

“We will continue to look at how best to support the further education sector in its critical role and will provide an update on further support soon.”

Half of colleges report increase in hungry students

More than half of colleges have reported an increase in students coming into college hungry since September, a new survey has found.

Student mental health, funding, staff pay and rising energy bills have also topped ongoing concerns with more than nine in ten college respondents citing those fears too.

The Department for Education published data on Thursday morning from November’s School and College Panel survey – a regular online check-in with school and college leaders and staff on a range of topics.

The November survey responses featured answers from 35 college leaders and 93 members of staff from colleges.

Here are the key findings.

Hungry students

More than half of colleges – 56 per cent – said the number of students arriving hungry at college had increased since the start of the academic year in September, while 28 per cent report it had stayed the same and 6 per cent saying it had gone down.

Within that, more than four in five had reported that they had seen a rise in students struggling to get to college (84 per cent) and missing lessons or attending less frequently to do part time work (81 per cent) as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.

More than half reported increases in students not being able to pay for trips, not buying all the books or equipment needed for their course and applying for Free School Meals.

On upcoming challenges colleges will face as a result of the rising cost of living, colleges were most likely to report mental health concerns among students and parents (97 per cent), a lack of funding for the college (94 per cent), pay freezes or inadequate pay for staff, and increased energy bills (both 91 per cent).

More than three quarters also reported mental health concerns for staff, staff leaving the profession and increased food poverty among students as worries.

Sexual harassment/abuse on the rise

Around a third of colleges (34 per cent) said they had seen an increase in the number of reports of sexual harassment or abuse in the last 12 months, with 50 per cent saying there had been no change.

In June 2021, Ofsted conducted a review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges, which found the prevalence of sexual harassment and online sexual abuse for young people was “widespread”, and tasked schools and colleges with a number of measures. Those included routine record-keeping of sexual harassment and violence to identify patterns of abuse and intervene early, and provide training for staff to spot the signs quickly.

The survey found 89 per cent of college leaders and 67 per cent of tutors were aware of the review. Nine in ten colleges had changed their policies as a result of the review, with a further 3 per cent planning to make changes.

Almost all – 95 per cent – reported they were confident in knowing what to say to a student reporting sexual abuse or harassment.

Post-16 SEND barriers

Three quarters of colleges said they felt they could effectively support students aged 16-to-25 who have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

However, 84 per cent of colleges felt that they currently faced barriers to providing effective support for those students.

The most common barrier reported was a lack of access to specialist services or professionals, while 55 per cent of college teachers felt they do not have enough time to provide additional support for SEND learners.

In addition, three quarters of colleges felt they could effectively support SEND leaners in their transition to work or higher education but 88 per cent said there were barriers to doing so.

A lack of suitable destinations and access to suitable specialist support were citied as the top reasons for that.

OfS proposes register of ‘personal relationships’ between staff and students

Universities and colleges will need to hold a register of personal relationships between staff and students, and fire any employees who keep the relationship a secret, under plans announced by the higher education regulator today.

The Office for Students is also proposing a ban on the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases of harassment and sexual misconduct, including prohibiting any enforcement of existing non-disclosure agreements.

Both actions form part of a consultation on regulating harassment and sexual misconduct in higher education, including mandatory training for students and staff, as well as “bystander training” for potential witnesses.

Susan Lapworth, chief executive of the OfS, said the “important proposals” are needed because progress to tackle the issue across the sector has been “too slow and too patchy”.

The plans would “ensure that victims of harassment and sexual misconduct are appropriately supported, and that universities and colleges make significant progress to reduce these incidents”, she added.

Over 150 colleges are currently registered providers of higher education with the OfS and would need to adhere to the new rules, if implemented, as a condition of registration.

Power imbalance in personal relationships

In April 2021, the OfS published seven “expectations” which set out how universities and colleges should prevent and respond to incidents of harassment and sexual misconduct, after 50,000 accounts of sexual violence were published on the website Everyone’s Invited.

An independent evaluation of these expectations last year found that there were serious shortfalls in how colleges and universities were tackling sexual violence.

The OfS is now proposing to introduce a “relationships register” which would apply to “certain personal relationships” in circumstances where a staff member has particular responsibilities towards a student, such as where a teacher is responsible for assessing a student’s work.

Under the proposal, any academic not disclosing such a personal relationship would be liable for dismissal. The register is the OfS’s preferred option, but the regulator is also considering an outright ban of such personal relationships – a rule that is already adopted by some higher education providers.

The OfS said the register could have to explain the point at which a personal relationship is considered to have commenced, which is “the point at which one or more of the following occurs: physical intimacy, including isolated or repeated sexual activity; romantic or emotional intimacy; or financial dependency”.

Staff and the students would need to report their personal relationship to the university or college within three weeks of it beginning.

Lapworth said the majority of those working in higher education “behave appropriately” towards their students, but added the OfS recognises that there can be a “power imbalance” in personal relationships that could be “exploited by unscrupulous staff to subject students to harassment or sexual misconduct”.

Susan Lapworth

“That’s why we’re proposing that certain types of personal relationships should be disclosed, with staff dismissed if they fail to do so,” she said.

The OfS also wants to stamp out the use of NDAs or confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements in harassment and sexual misconduct allegations, which the regulator said has “long been a cause of controversy”.

Its consultation said NDAs can “prevent students who experience harassment or sexual misconduct from speaking about their experiences, including how their provider has dealt with any allegations they have made”, and may also “serve to protect the reputations of perpetrators and allow them to continue inappropriate behaviour at the same or at a different provider”.

In January 2022, the then minister for higher and further education, Michelle Donelan, asked providers to commit to not using NDAs in cases of sexual harassment and misconduct. But only 80 higher education providers, out of over 400 in England, have signed this pledge to date.

The OfS is now proposing an outright ban the use of NDAs in harassment and sexual misconduct case as a condition of registration.

Nehaal Bajwa, vice president for liberation and equality at the National Union of Students, said her union backs the call for all universities and colleges to stop the use of NDAs as a way of “silencing sexual harassment and abuse complainants”.

The consultation closes on May 4, 2023.

Safeguarding our colleges from cyber threats is a matter of education

Research published by the DfE found that 39 percent of UK businesses had identified breaches or cyberattacks in the past 12 months. However, when it came to education and training institutions the numbers were much higher: 70 per cent for secondary schools, 88 per cent of further education colleges and 92 per cent of higher education institutions have fallen prey to such attacks. 

Colleges and other FE providers store large amounts of sensitive data, including student and staff information, which makes them prime targets for cyber criminals. If left unprotected, this data could be exploited for financial gain or other malicious purposes.

Cyber criminals use social engineering to convince people to open attachments or click on links. No matter what technology you put in place, some users will still fall victim. In essence, this means that the biggest cyber security threat within any organisation is its own staff.

Colleges and training providers often invest in the latest technology to combat cyber criminals, but at Kirklees College, we felt that we needed to go further and significantly reduce the chance of falling victim to a breach.

We decided to offer cyber security continuous professional development (CPD) to all staff and cyber security qualifications to our adult students, which we started to roll out in June 2022. 

It’s important to recognise that cyber security is not just a concern for the IT department, but for everyone within the college; from 16- to 18-year-old students who spend a significant amount of time online to adult students who may be less tech-savvy, it is essential to educate and prepare our community for the risks they face.

We chose Gateway Qualifications because their cyber security qualifications are fully resourced, which is important: lecturers and support staff are often time-poor and cyber security may not be their specialist subject.

Students were encouraged to take up the qualification and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Many have found that their brand-new knowledge has been implementable in both their personal and professional lives, such as recognising potential bank fraud and spotting suspicious email addresses.

The biggest cyber threat to any organisation is its own staff

Every day, we are exposed to phishing scams, identity theft, unsecured Wi-Fi networks, unsafe devices, viruses, unsecured websites and social engineering, as well as the challenges of cyberbullying and online radicalisation. Learners and staff need support in navigating these risks.

By implementing cyber security training and qualifications for both staff and students, we are equipping our community with the necessary skills and knowledge to stay safe online and I would recommend this to any organisation.

While I appreciate that not every organisation will be able to implement training across the board like we have, it’s important to recognise that as the world becomes increasingly digital with more people working from home and more sensitive services like banking and health going online, individuals need to be proactive in protecting themselves from cyber threats. Education is central to building cyber security best practices.

There are numerous resources available to individuals looking to learn more about cyber security. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) offers a wealth of resources and advice. Their Cyber Aware campaign is a great starting point for individuals looking to improve their cyber security knowledge. 

Having said that, cyber security should be a priority for all training and education institutions and I am proud to be a part of a college that takes it seriously. 

Recently, we worked closely with Ofsted inspectors in a consultancy capacity, and they were very interested in our cyber security practices. They were reflective and highly praised our efforts in the area. It was a great validation of the hard work we have done to prioritise the safety and security of our students and staff.

Education is our best bet when it comes to cyber security. As educators, it is not enough to rely solely on technology to protect us. By investing more in the thing we do best, we can bring education to bear on this growing threat. Cyber security training is key to empowering our students and staff to take proactive steps to protect themselves, their data and our organisations.  

How ChatGPT could reduce and transform teacher workload

Since its launch in November, there has been a lot of interest in ChatGPT from educators with a lot of focus on how it could be used by students. What gets less attention and could be more transformative is how teachers could use the artificial intelligence (AI) tool and others like it to save time and reduce their workload.

If you’ve been on the moon for the past few months, ChatGPT is a research tool powered by AI. It generates text in response to questions and prompts that you provide it. On using it for the first time, the most surprising aspect is the speed at which it gathers and creates its responses. You simply enter your request including any specific parameters and within a few seconds, it starts generating a written response.

Thinking about the tasks that take up most of a teacher’s time away from classroom delivery, I identified the following areas to try with ChatGPT:

  • Planning a module
  • Creating a presentation for a lesson
  • Creating multi-choice quizzes
  • Writing student feedback

I started with planning and asked it to create a 6-week plan to teach a specific unit. The sequencing of the topics to be covered was logical; it started with the basics before moving onto more advanced techniques. It identified three areas per week to be covered and suggested accompanying practical activities.

It would need further refining to add specific activities and how the learning was to be assessed, but the time saved was already substantial. I was particularly interested in the note that appeared at the end: “This is just a suggestion that can be adapted to meet the specific needs and levels of the students.”

It was a similar story when I asked it to create a presentation. The content was logically sequenced and split across the number of slides I suggested. The content would have benefited from being presented over a larger number of slides so as not to overload each one, but all I needed to do there was change the parameters to hone the result.

There are ethical considerations but the potential is tremendous

Where I found it most successful was in the creation of multiple-choice quizzes. I always struggle when it comes to generating multiple answers without making it as easy as a breakfast TV giveaway. The questions were appropriate for the topic and the suggested answers were appropriately challenging.

I am not sure how much time would be saved on the assessment feedback task, as you have to read students’ submissions and identify what grade they achieved before bringing ChatGPT on board. But the text it generated identified what the student had done well, areas for development and constantly referenced the specification. It still needed to be personalised, and of course there are ethical considerations to using AI-generated feedback, but the potential is tremendous.

In sum, teachers should approach the use of AI-powered tools as a starting point, an initial draft they can refine to meet their specific needs. Do not expect it to generate finished artifacts that are ready to be published. The tool won’t replace teachers, but as an addition to the teacher toolkit it works well.

If I were new to delivering a particular unit or new to teaching, I would find it incredibly useful to have that initial draft with its suggested sequencing and chunking to refine rather than a blank slate to fill and potentially worry about. We know workload is as much about perception of the quality of time we invest as it is about the number of hours we put in. On both fronts, AI tools have great potential for teachers.

Others see this potential, and a market is steadily growing to offer time-saving services to teachers. A number of sites are already launching which provide additional scaffolding using prompts to assist teachers in creating a range of different content including handouts, quizzes, presentations and schemes of learning.

The quality of AI-generated output will only getting better as it evolves. As teachers learn how to provide the correct prompts to get the most appropriate output, the burden of workload will be transformed.

International benchmarking is vital in raising standards in UK skills

Teaching technical skills to global industry standards is vital to the UK’s economic success so our employers can better compete internationally. But with no global league table for vocational education standards, unlike like the OECD’s PISA evaluation of school performance internationally, it is WorldSkills that provides a valuable mechanism for benchmarking the quality of skills. Through its competitions-based assessment of young people’s skills against global industry standards, we can compare UK standards against those in the rest of the world and importantly bring that international best practice back to the UK.  

In our report, International benchmarking and insights: bringing world-class skills to the UK, we have identified a number of insights for educators, businesses and government in efforts to turbo-charge technical education and apprenticeship standards as a source of economic competitiveness. These were gathered at WorldSkills Special Edition 2022, where the UK’s performance placed tenth in the world overall and finished fourth in digital skills. Three significant insights stand out.

Employability is key

The UK skills system is performing well in equipping young people with wider employability skills required by industry. Across all areas, technical skills are built on a bedrock of strong technical knowledge, and complemented by educators’ emphasis on problem solving, creative thinking and independent reasoning. This is reinforcing resilience in the mindsets of young people, empowering them to thrive in a commercial setting.

Consolidating these strengths can assist UK businesses, great or small, to navigate challenging times and the technological changes we know lie ahead. 

Collaboration is vital

The pace of these technological changes require deeper collaboration between education and business as global industry standards are getting higher and higher, year on year. The impact and pace of increased automation and digitisation can be seen in WorldSkills standards, which are reviewed every two years, in areas from robot systems integration to digital construction, where leading countries are acting in lockstep with global firms to ensure training and educator skillsets keep pace.

Systemic collaboration between industry, education, and government is vital and takes time to build, but countries like Japan and South Korea illustrate what can be made possible through collaboration, co-investment, and co-creation of training in sectors key to success. For UK national standards to compete with those in Asian economies, we need more focus on embedding collaboration between industry and education. Failure to do so means we will at best stand still, which actually means we will fall further behind.

This requires a relentless focus on investing in upskilling educators and a commitment to nurture innovation and cross-fertilise expertise within the skills eco-system. Be it the Austrian business-led ‘training network’ model or the Japanese ‘cross appointment’ system, strategic collaboration within and across public and private sectors is enabling all parties to benefit and underpin economic performance through world-leading standards.

The Institute of Technology model being rolled out across England also presents further opportunities to emulate this success and meet growing industry demand for higher technical skills evident in areas as diverse as welding, mechatronics and web technologies. 

Curriculum must evolve

Across all skill areas, high-performing countries are incorporating project-based training at key stages of the curriculum. This is helping to couple the acquisition of core technical knowledge with the honing of first-rate technical skills, eliminating “skills fade” from young people’s education journey and creating a cycle of continuous improvement. It is also renewing the enthusiasm and experimentation of educators – challenging them to innovate their methods and pursue excellence. This is enabling countries like Switzerland and Portugal to remain closely connected to the needs of the economy and labour market in high-growth industries.

We will be working with partners across the UK skills systems to disseminate these insights as part of our ongoing programmes which include the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence. Run in partnership with NCFE, the Centre of Excellence supports the development of educators in using international benchmarking to upskill more young people to reach the higher standards employers need.

Refreshing and updating these global insights will be key to our preparation for and participation in WorldSkills Lyon 2024, because keeping pace with global industry standards is essential to helping young people, educators and employers succeed, create jobs and drive economic growth.  

College provision for 14-16 can no longer be overlooked

Around 10,000 14- to 16-year-olds study in further education colleges, yet this cohort is too often overlooked. Since its inception in 2013, provision for these learners has occupied a grey area between secondary and further education, meaning they have routinely been underrepresented in government policy and funding. Being measured against the Progress 8 framework is just one example of how these provisions are unfairly judged.

This lack of awareness is particularly problematic given the vulnerability of the young people who access these provisions. There is a huge misconception among educators and the public that such services are simply for those who are badly behaved, when in reality many of these young people are struggling as a result of complex situations, such as poor mental health or bullying.

These situations can create barriers to learning, which often result in young people failing to gain the essential numeracy and literacy skills they require for later life. The long-term consequences for young people without these competencies are significant, ranging from reduced employment opportunities to an increased risk of physical and mental health complications.

Ultimately, it’s our fear as educators that young people who do not find support outside of a mainstream school environment are vulnerable to becoming NEET – not in employment, education or training.

But the possibility of negative outcomes for this cohort only serves to highlight the importance of a sound educational infrastructure that properly supports their needs.

Research is key

Last year, the Association of Colleges (AoC) announced that, for the first time, they will be undertaking research that will explore outcomes for thousands of 14- to 16-year-olds in colleges across the country. This is something we have been desperate for. The hope is that this research will create a better understanding of what it means to run a 14-16 provision and the positive outcomes that learners can experience as a result.

In response to the research launch, we produced a video sharing staff, student and parent experiences of direct-entry college provision. Through sharing their stories, those at the very heart of the system make a passionate plea to policymakers to invest in a model that is working.

This research comes at a critical time for provisions such as ours. When a young person or parent is seeking an alternative environment to mainstream school, we know that they are already at risk of dropping out of education completely.

The problem is that there simply isn’t the capacity to deal with the current demand for these services, meaning that not every young person gets access to the help they need.

An alternative educational setting

Our students have gone on to achieve great things, whether that’s in employment or continued education, and this success is due to the model of education we have developed.

Our curriculum is designed specifically to support young people who have become disenfranchised with mainstream school, and our bespoke approach to how we work and engage with our young people is set up to remove potential barriers to learning and to cultivate an environment where students feel accepted and welcome. We’ve also partnered with local NHS service MindMate to integrate mental health support and mindfulness within the curriculum.

This approach to learning and engaging with others fosters a sense of security and mutual respect, providing a strong foundation to give young people the life skills they need to progress positively in life. Students and parents have also praised how the balance of core subject learning, vocational training and pastoral support has given learners a ‘head start’ and restored their passion for learning.

The issue we have now is that we need more funding so we can offer the same positive outcomes for more learners, in Leeds and nationally.

As chair of the 14-16 Special Interest Group, I am delighted that the AoC is leading this vital project in unearthing and informing the next steps for 14-16 provision in further education. We know there is a growing demand for something different to mainstream environments and we believe this model is it.