This budget delivers for FE learners and the sector

Age should not be a barrier to upskilling or retraining and getting the job you want. The Budget highlighted our efforts to build a skills and apprenticeships nation and get more people into rewarding work, including removing barriers for older workers.

As a 53-year-old myself, I know the value of experience in the workplace. In the modern economy, we need skills and real-world experience more than ever before.

That is why we we’ve launched our new ‘returnerships’ initiative to encourage workers over 50 to get back into work and embark on exciting new career ventures.

As well as apprenticeships, many of which are a great fit for more experienced workers, this will be backed by a £34 million boost to our successful skills bootcamps scheme. These provide fully-funded, intensive courses in skills for in-demand sectors like digital and green technology, and we’ve already invested £550 million between 2022 and 2025.

This is fantastic news for adult learners, with 8,000 set to benefit from these transformational courses. We’re bringing together existing skills offers to encourage them to get back into work via a training course. This is about supporting older people with a recognisable path back into work, making sure our existing skills programmes are accessible and provide the skills and support needed to thrive in a job and continue to climb the ladder of opportunity.

This is also great news for the sector. Skills bootcamps, and other adult learning programmes like our free courses for jobs, enable FE providers to broaden their learner base to people who might not otherwise engage with FE.

The Budget also announced an expansion of the Department for Work and Pensions’ sector-based work academy programme (known as SWAP). This is about identifying skills needs in a local area and allocating resources to get people receiving unemployment benefits trained up to fill them.

Work placements arranged through the scheme help businesses to recruit talented workers and get people into rewarding work. 

In the Budget, we have also launched a refocussed investment zones programme, aimed at boosting productivity and growth in key areas. Coupled with the huge expansion of free childcare to support parents and enable more of them to return to work, we really are delivering for hard working people across the country.

Our wider skills agenda also continues at pace alongside existing commitments. Earlier in March, I was proud to publish our response on the lifelong loan entitlement (LLE) which will be introduced from 2025. The LLE will transform the student finance system, empowering more people to study throughout their life, even if they have other commitments like childcare, caring or work.

I also recognise that the FE sector is facing financial challenges, and we have made changes to increase the sector’s funding. In the 2021 Spending Review we announced a £1.6 billion uplift in funding for 16-19 provision in 2024-25, compared to 2021-22. Likewise, in the adult education budget we are increasing earnings for providers in non-devolved areas.

We’ve given an additional £53 million of capital funding to FE colleges in 2022/23 to support them to improve their energy efficiency, and a further £150 million to support colleges making adjustments following the ONS reclassification of the sector.

This is on top of the £2.8 billion investment in skills capital that was announced at the last Spending Review to improve the FE estate and support the rollout of Institutes of Technology and new qualifications such as T Levels, with a 10 per cent uplift to T Level funding for the next academic year, as well as £12 million to help deliver crucial industry placements for learners. 

I want to reassure the sector that these funding commitments remain in place. This financial support helps the sector to deliver its vital services and I will continue to work with you to understand how we can support you in building a skills and apprenticeships nation.

Labour pledges review of functional skills rules

A Labour government will review functional skills requirements in apprenticeships, the shadow skills minister has said.

However, the party won’t commit to reversing the government’s removal of funding from level 3 qualifications, like BTECs, that overlap with T Levels.

Department for Education rules state that apprentices without a GCSE grade 4 or above in English and/or maths must reach that level 2 standard to achieve their apprenticeship.

Training providers have long complained that the generic curriculum, exam-based assessment and poor funding of the English and maths functional skills courses contribute to the low achievement rate of apprenticeships.

FE Week reported last March that apprentices on standards hit a 51.8 per cent achievement rate in 2020/21, prompting the then skills minister Alex Burghart to announce a new target achievement rate of 67 per cent by 2025.

In an interview with FE Week following his keynote speech at the Annual Apprenticeship Conference earlier this week, Labour’s shadow skills minister, Toby Perkins, said that he shared training providers’ concerns and committed to a review of functional skills if his party wins the next general election.

He said: “Functional skills should be precisely what it says on the tin. It is my view that maths and English skills are very important, but I don’t believe the current functional skills arrangements work. I think they are a reason why there are low completion rates. We will be reviewing the way that works.”

Perkins said reversing or maintaining the Conservative’s policy of defunding BTECs and other level 3 qualifications that overlap with T Levels “just depends on what is going to happen between now and the next election”.

He added that Labour is “not hostile” to T Levels and is “100 per cent in favour” of choice at level 3 for young people. If Labour was in power, Perkins said, it would not be defunding overlapping qualifications.

If Labour does win the next election, which must take place by January 24, 2025, Perkins said his position will be informed by how providers have responded to the level 3 reforms, rather than expecting providers to anticipate Labour’s policy.

If Perkins does become the skills minister in January 2025 (although the election is widely expected to happen sooner) he will not have long before at-risk qualifications lose their funding that September.

“We’re absolutely clear that the path the government is pursuing right now is a mistake. Now, if in 18 months’ time, or in a couple of years, things have gone through and lots of providers have got rid of their BTEC qualifications and people are doing T Levels then obviously we’ll be in a different place to where we are today.

“If we’re proved correct, and that the move purely to T Levels means that lots of students who could be excluded, then, you know, we wouldn’t tolerate that situation carrying on. But it is just difficult to know, given the direction governments are taking, what will the landscape look like by the end of 2024, potentially 2025. You have to look at what you’re inheriting. And I just don’t think that’s knowable at this moment,” he said.

Labour’s skills and growth levy

Last summer, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer announced that he would replace the current apprenticeship levy with a “skills and growth levy”. It would ringfence half of funds raised through the levy for employers to choose to spend on other forms of skills training.

The policy was criticised for being unclear about apprenticeships for smaller businesses, which are currently funded by larger employers not spending their full levy.

Calls to allow for courses other than apprenticeships to be funded through the levy have grown. Even prominent Conservatives like former education ministers Jo Johnson, Anne Milton and Justine Greening have made the case for change. 

Johnson has gone on to suggest that the amount employers pay into the levy should be doubled to address chronic underinvestment in training by employers.

Perkins is lukewarm to Johnson’s suggestion to increase employers’ levy bills.

“I’m always enthusiastic about more money for investment in the next generation of skills. Having said that, I’m also very conscious that there are many businesses who are feeling the pinch right now.

“The changes we are proposing at this stage are about flexibility. But in terms of increasing the tax level tax burdens on business, this moment in time, that is not that is not on the on the agenda.”

While the door is closed on generating more revenue from employers, for now, Perkins does want to address falling numbers of apprenticeships at lower levels and to see more opportunities go to younger workers.

“We want to see more levy being spent on entry level apprenticeships. We’re committed to degree apprenticeships, but we want to make sure that there’s an increase in the number of young people doing levels two and three.

“I think there will be further announcements from us in this space.”

End point assessment data will finally be public, watchdog says

Outcomes from apprenticeship end-point assessments (EPA) will feature in official government statistics for the first time from this summer, Ofqual has said, but there will be limits to what is published.

Speaking at the Annual Apprenticeships Conference this week, the regulator’s executive director for vocational and technical qualifications, Catherine Large, told delegates that new data on EPA outcomes will finally be made public.

“Later this year, you’ll see the EPA outcomes data included in our quarterly VTQ statistical release for the first time,” Large said from the main stage.

She used her speech to describe a “healthy market” of over 140 regulated end-point assessment organisations and said the body has completed the transition of external quality assurance (EQA) for 428 apprenticeship standards from other EQA providers, bringing their total to 588. EQA for remaining standards sit with the Office for Students and IfATE, Large said.

“Together we are achieving full market coverage and a new quality bar has been set,” she said.

The marketplace for end-point assessment organisations has grown but it has not yet been possible for apprentices and employers to compare the outcomes of the apprenticeship standards they assess. Ofqual has been collecting this data for four years.

Steve Walker, Ofqual’s associate director for apprenticeships and external quality assurance, gave more detail at the conference on what to expect from the first publication of EPA outcomes data.

The stats release, which is scheduled for “between June and July” will report “end-point assessment delivery figures and outcomes distributions”.

It is anticipated that the data will show how grade profiles for apprenticeship standards vary across different assessment organisations. Users should also be able to use the data to compare outcomes by assessment methods, for example computer-based assessments, paper-based, remote or face to face.

FE Week has since learned that there will be limits on what Ofqual will publish this summer. 

Ofqual has said that it will only publish outcome distributions where an apprenticeship standard has five or more end point assessment organisations, and 500 or more total EPAs in one year. This is because “statistics could be misleading if computed for small groups of outcomes”.

This leaves open the possibility that smaller EPA organisations and those where there are only a few delivering against a standard, will have their outcomes data missing from public view.

Ofqual told FE Week that they will “provide different breakdowns of the figures” but was unable to elaborate further at the time FE Week went to press.

Pension reform benefits wealthy bosses as FE overlooked (again)

High-earners with fat pension pots will benefit from a multi-billion-pound tax giveaway from this week’s budget, as calls for cash to tackle FE teacher shortages were ignored.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the exchequer, delivered the blow on Wednesday in his first Spring budget. It is also the first since FE and sixth form colleges were reclassified as part of the public sector.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Once again college leaders will be rightly dismayed that the sector has been overlooked by the chancellor and are wondering why Jeremy Hunt continues to ignore the central role colleges play in delivering the enterprising, highly skilled, high-growth country he wants to see.”

Hunt told the House of Commons that his economic growth plan would tackle labour shortages. However apart from small boosts to promote bootcamps and work academies to lure the over-50s back to employment, he provided no extra funding for skills budgets.

Other enticements for older people included scrapping the lifetime allowance which, from April 2024, will mean people with pension pots worth over £1 million will no longer be heavily taxed on what they draw down on retirement. Labour pledged to reverse the move if it wins the next election and said the “massive tax break” will only benefit the top 1 per cent of pension savers. Among them will be highly paid and long-serving principals, heads and chief executives.  

Hunt wants 80,000 more sector-based work academies (SWAPs) across 2023/24 and 2024/25 and an extra 64,000 skills bootcamp places from 2024/25. About £40 million has been allocated to SWAPs over those two years and an extra £40 million will be spent on bootcamps per year.

Extra places on skills programmes are expected to be badged under the government’s “returnerships” scheme (see page 6).

Stephen Evans, chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute, said that the latest inflation forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) show that even though inflation is coming down, government spending on skills in England will still be £1 billion lower by 2025 than in 2010.

“Higher inflation than expected at the 2021 spending review wipes out £200 million of planned [spending] rises in real terms,” he said.

L&W analysis of FE and skills spending
L&W analysis of skills spending

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “Additional funding for SWAPs and expanding supported internships are welcome, although relatively modest. While we’re pleased to see investment in extra skills bootcamps, it’s disappointing that this does not start for another 18 months.

“Ultimately, we’re disappointed at the lack of detailed plan to meet the chancellor’s aim to get more people back into work and achieve the stated aim of skills being the catalyst for economic growth.”

Investment zones cash can be spent on skills

Rather than invest in skills through increasing funding rates directly, Hunt’s plan is to allocate funding for local areas to spend in un-ringfenced pots, such as through the new single budgets for West Midlands and Greater Manchester (see page 7) and 12 new “investment zones”.

Dubbed “potential Canary Wharfs”, these zones will have access to “flexible grant funding” worth £80 million over five years 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, and West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.

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 for “intensive English language courses and employment support” for up to 10,000 people.

Further details, including additional groups who may be eligible for this support, will be published “in due course”.

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 to 12 weeks.

This is extended to 16 weeks in certain subject areas which have skills bootcamps.

The flexibility has been extended again to April 2025.

Additional £3m for supported internships

Hunt also announced that the Department for Education will 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.

Labour’s Ofsted plans ‘logical evolution’, says Spielman

Labour’s plans to ditch Ofsted grades in favour of a report card could be the “logical evolution” of how school and college performance is communicated, Amanda Spielman has said.

The chief inspector told FE Week it was “completely rational for a potential alternative government to be thinking about things like this”, after shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson set out her reform proposals at the weekend.

Labour has said it will consult on scrapping the current system of four grades, opting instead for a report card that shows what schools, colleges and training providers do well and what they need to do to improve.

The party has not said what metrics will feature on the card.

Quizzed on the proposals this week, Spielman said it sounded “mainly presentational”, putting information in a different way.

“It sounds like a sort of logical evolution of everything that gets drawn together in performance tables at the moment.”

Spielman said she “constantly talks” about the purposes of inspection “and that how both the inspection that you design – and how you report it – depends on what those policy purposes are”.

“It’s completely rational for a potential alternative government to be thinking about things like this. I don’t think anybody has the slightest discomfort about that.”

But she said “we have overall judgments because of the different purposes that inspection is serving”.

“There’s been… a strong perception that parents want the simplicity and clarity of an overall judgment in schools, for example, and that governments want handles to justify both incentives…and legitimacy for interventions with poor performers in FE.

“I’m sure that Labour will be thinking about how they would want those to work in a new system. But there are many aspects of inspection that are determined by those policy purposes. So it is rightly for ministers to determine what those policy purposes are.”

Spielman leaves the watchdog at the end of this year after seven years at the helm.

Labour’s proposed changes will therefore be left to another chief inspector to implement, but Spielman said she was glad to see education issues debated.

“I feel we’ve had so many years when, between Brexit and Covid and cost of living, there’s been little space for people to think and talk about moving education forward.”

Labour has long pledged to re-assess how education providers are graded with Ofsted expected to turn its focus to improvement under a Labour government. The length and frequency of inspections is also expected to be up for review.

Announcing the party’s proposals at the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leders in Birmingham at the weekend, Phillipson said Labour would “bring a wind of change … and drive forward reform of education and of childcare as part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity”.

She said Labour would consult “very quickly” on the changes if it formed the next government.

Single awarding body model for T Levels to stay

Ministers have doubled down on a contentious decision to use a single awarding body for each T Level, FE Week can reveal.

Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, told this publication that following discussions about the model, it will be taken forward in the re-procurement for the first wave of the qualifications set to take place this year.

Using a single awarding organisation (AO) per T Level was a recommendation by Lord Sainsbury in his review of technical education, which the Department for Education agreed to take forward. However, its own researchers warned that with no alternative to step in if problems arose with a contracted body, there was a “risk of system failure”.

Exams regulator Ofqual also “advised on the risks related to the single provider model” ahead of their launch.

Last week, education secretary Gillian Keegan announced a one-year delay in the rollout of three T Levels to be offered by awarding body NCFE from September 2023 in hair, beauty and aesthetics, in craft and design, and in media broadcast and production.

Another in catering, being developed by awarding body Highfield, has been delayed to 2025 at the earliest.

Keegan said quality issues needed to be addressed.

Last year, problems with the health and science T Level, also awarded by NCFE, led to results for over 1,000 students being regraded.

During an interview with FE Week at this week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference, Coupland said the idea of using a single body, which differs from the multi-AO policy for A-levels, was to “ensure quality in the system”.

The first T Levels that were launched in 2020 – education and childcare delivered by NCFE, and Pearson’s design, surveying and planning, and digital production, design and development – are up for re-procurement in the coming months.

Coupland told FE Week: “Those contracts are coming up for review again, and that is going to continue to run a single licencing model, following discussions with the department on the policy. They [DfE] want to continue that approach.”

The complexity of T Level design and accountability has come under the spotlight in recent months amid the health and science delays.

Coupland said the delivery system for the flagship qualifications is “complex”.

“We’ve got a range of organisations with responsibilities with different aspects of delivery. So, at IfATE we contract with the awarding organisations, they draft the qualification, Ofqual is the regulator of those awarding organisations, Department for Education has got responsibility for industry placements, and for the workforce elements and providers.

“When you understand the system, you can see all how these organisations have got a specific role to play that plays to their strengths. But for someone looking in, it does look complex.”

Coupland rejected the idea that the number of organisations that have a role to play was a “contributing factor” in last week’s decision to delay some T Levels, or the health and science problems last year. “It was slightly more complex than that,” she said.

Hunt’s ‘returnerships’ are just marketing, DfE admits

The chancellor’s “returnerships” scheme has been slammed as “all spin and no substance” after the government confirmed it will only be a marketing brand to signpost older workers to existing courses.

Jeremy Hunt told the House of Commons during Wednesday’s budget that 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 bootcamps and sector-based work academies,” he added.

However, Treasury documents indicated that rather than offering a new course, “returnerships will promote accelerated apprenticeships, sector-based work academy programme (SWAP) placements and skills bootcamps” – programmes which have been available for years.

The Department for Education confirmed to FE Week that “returnerships” will simply be the term used, through its Skills for Life marketing campaign, to encourage over-50s to take up existing courses.

Accelerated apprenticeships are shorter (by at least three months) than the typical duration of the standard, based on the apprentice’s prior learning. Minimum requirements of an apprenticeship must still be met, including the legal 12-month minimum duration rule.

Skills bootcamps offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks with a job interview at the end, while SWAPs are administered by Jobcentre Plus and involve pre-employment training, a guaranteed job interview and a work placement to help prepare those receiving unemployment benefits for new jobs.

Shadow minster for further education and skills Toby Perkins said: “The government’s announcement on ‘returnerships’ is typical of their approach to skills: it’s all spin and no substance.

“Our country needs a coherent, joined-up skills system which enables all individuals to make the best use of their talents.”

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, added: “Ultimately, we’re disappointed at the lack of detailed plan to meet the chancellor’s aim to get more people back into work and achieve the stated aim of skills being the catalyst for economic growth.

“If the government are serious about supporting more over-50s and those in receipt of universal credit back into work, this will need significantly more investment in skills training.

“A rebranding and promotion of accelerated apprenticeship under the guise of ‘returnerships’ won’t cut it. If this is a budget for growth, it’s a budget for growth without skills.”

Ofqual’s new deadlines to avoid repeat of BTEC results delays debacle

Ofqual has set stringent results deadlines for level 3 vocational and technical education awarding bodies in an effort to avoid a repeat of last summer’s delays.

Awarding organisations must also have a senior designated contact for exams at every school and college to quickly resolve issues.

The regulator told awarding organisations in guidance issued on Thursday that they must have agreed with schools and colleges by May 26 which students expect to receive grades on level 3 results day in the summer.

June 23 is the latest date awarding bodies must agree with school and colleges what remaining evidence or information is needed for each student.

The deadline for issuing VTQ results to schools and colleges is August 14 – three days before the level 3 results day when thousands of students find out their A-level, T Level and other level 3 results like BTECs.

In December, Ofqual said it would introduce a checkpoint midway through the summer term to check up on missing units, which is the June 23 deadline, and said it envisaged that final results would be issued to centres about a week before level 3 results day.

Ofqual has also said that awarding organisations must collect and maintain details of senior contacts responsible for delivering exams in schools and colleges, so that errors, issues or clarifications can be addressed as quickly as possible.

It is unclear how many awarding bodies already had this provision.

Awarding bodies will also be required to work with the university admissions service UCAS to track students applying for higher education courses to ensure a smooth transition.

Ofqual said it will shortly launch a VTQ “information hub”, which will bring together key information – including the new deadline dates – in one place.

An Ofqual spokesperson said: “The chief regulator, Jo Saxton, came to this post committed to parity of esteem between general and vocational and technical qualifications, and with students as her compass. The deadlines announced today provide key milestones towards delivering this.

In August last year, around 21,000 BTEC and Cambridge Technicals (CTEC) results were issued late, leaving students in limbo.

Ofqual figures published in December revealed that 12,346 level 3 results were affected, and 8,573 level 2 results.

Affected students received blank results slips, triggering a barrage of calls to the awarding bodies.

The regulator launched an investigation and shortly before Christmas published an action plan to avoid a repeat of the failures. They included a hard deadline for VTQ results and a taskforce of senior sector leaders to work on new requirements and refine existing processes.

Ofqual’s action plan also set out provision for bespoke training for exams officers, administration and academic staff.

Pearson, the awarding body for the BTECs, and OCR for the CTECs were members of that taskforce but also published their own internal investigations into the summer results failure.

The reviews found that most delays came from missing or incomplete data from colleges and schools on students’ coursework or exams that had not been spotted earlier, as well as more complicated administration processes as a result of adaptations from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Also published in the latest guidance is a list of 14 awarding bodies which have pledged their commitment to the new rules.

According to Ofqual, all awarding organisations delivering high stakes performance table qualifications that attract UCAS points and operate claims-based systems have signed up to the deadlines.

Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies – one of the taskforce members – said that he welcomed the action plan and Ofqual’s announcement on the deadlines.

“Inevitably it means some significant changes to ways of working but we’re confident the plan being put in place is one of ensuring expectations are managed properly; there is clarity about what is required, by whom and by when; and that AOs are able to communicate with centres and stakeholders in a manner that will ensure every student who is eligible for a result is able to receive one without delay,” he said.

Bewick added that in addition to Ofqual’s work, the federation and Joint Council for Qualifications had set up an operational communications group of awarding bodies involved in the summer results to ensure that communications processes were aligned.

York College closed after suspicious object investigation

York College remains closed today after its campus had to be evacuated last night over reports of a suspicious object – but normal service is set to resume on Friday.

North Yorkshire Police were called shortly after 4pm on Wednesday to the college in response to reports of a possible suspicious object on the campus.

Officers and college staff evacuated the area and closed Tadcaster Road to put a cordon in place, advising members of the public to avoid the area.

The force said that a search of the campus was completed and nothing was found.

Officers re-opened the road at 7.15pm and the cordon to campus was lifted shortly after 9.30pm.

Police said that an investigation is underway to establish the full circumstances, which the college confirmed it was supporting them with.

The college confirmed that it remains closed today but expects to re-open as normal tomorrow.

In a statement issued on Twitter, the college said: “Having worked closely with the emergency services, we can confirm that the incident concluded late last night, and the building was cleared for safe occupation.

“After a thorough search, no items of concern were found. Any information circulating to the contrary is untrue.

“Our incident response arrangements kicked in swiftly, and we worked with relevant emergency services to resolve the matter quickly and efficiently. We elected to close our campus today as a precautionary measures but are pleased to confirm that we will be open as usual tomorrow.”

While the college was closed today, students were able to attend to pick up any personal belongings. It confirmed that the college day will run as timetabled tomorrow with normal attendance expected.