Bidding has opened for the next round of adult education budget (AEB) procurement by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
Up to £63 million has been made available for qualification based AEB for 2023/24 with a further £12 million up for grabs for the free courses for jobs scheme (FCFJ), both serving non-devolved areas of England.
Tender documents state that contracts can, at the ESFA’s discretion, be extended annually by up to the three years.
As with previous procurements, most bidders will be subjected to checks on their financial health. Colleges must have a financial health rating of at least ‘requires improvement’ and other providers must be rated at least ‘satisfactory’.
The Agency has said procurement outcomes will be communicated to providers in mid-June ahead of the service start date of August 1.
Overall maximum annual contract values have been reduced in this tender round.
The lowest amount that will be awarded will be £150,000, but the maximum contract value has been reduced from £3 million to £2.5 million for existing providers.
Four of the 88 successful bidders in the last procurement round secured contracts worth more than £2.5 million.
The tender cap for existing sub-contractors has been reduced from £2 million to £1.5 million and the cap for new providers is now £750,000, down from £1 million.
Another key difference is that the delivery of non-qualification provision will not be included in the AEB contract.
Successful contractors will be subjected to “more robust contract management”, according to ESFA tender documents, seen by FE Week.
This includes a “new mechanism” which could see the Agency remove or reallocate funding from an under-performing provider mid-year.
Delivery performance forms part of ten key performance indicators monitored by the agency, with measures in the contract covering expenditure, courses delivered and unique learner starts.
Monitoring of a new “social value” measure will be more subjective.
Bidders will be asked to provide their own social value statement on “tackling economic inequality” which will be worth up to 10 per cent of their overall bid score.
They will also need to suggest their own method for measuring social value, which will in turn form part of their contractual KPIs the Agency will measure.
Past procurement controversy
The last procurement round took place in 2021 and was steeped in controversy.
Delays mired the process and bid results were only released to providers two weeks before contracts were due to start.
An FE Week freedom of information request revealed that, of the 581 providers that submitted bids, only 88 were awarded contracts – a 60 per cent decrease in the number of contracted providers at that time.
Providers accused the agency of a ‘hidden agenda’ to shrink the market because of the drastic reduction in the number of providers awarded contracts. FE Week heard numerous criticisms of “infuriating” reasons for bid rejections from some long-standing AEB providers.
Bidders have until 10am on March 6 to submit their tenders.
Skills bootcamps were a rapid-fire response to shortages in key industries. Jason Noble shines a light on HGV driver training to find out whether the approach is working, and what it means for apprenticeships…
Back in the summer and autumn of 2021, with Covid-19 an ever-present threat, the chronic shortage of lorry drivers was making headlines.
It was just one of multiple industries facing a dire skills shortage. However a perfect storm of lockdowns, a boom in online shopping and a post-Brexit exodus of EU drivers, saw it become one of the most high-profile.
Supermarket shelves emptied as lorry logjams grew. At the time, the Road Haulage Association (RHA) estimated a shortfall of 100,000 drivers, prompting haulage firms to offer generous wages and four-figure sign-on bonuses.
Its target was for 3,000 new drivers on those 12-to-16-week courses, with a further 1,000 drivers trained through the adult education budget. Almost £50 million has been invested so far.
So, 18 months on, has it worked?
Department for Education data seems to suggest so. Figures for April 2021 to March 2022 indicated 4,740 people began HGV bootcamps, although figures have not been published for completers.
HGV driving test numbers also shot up to just under 96,000 in 2021/22 compared to the 72,654 average in the five years prior to the pandemic.
Industry bosses say the situation has improved but the aging workforce, with many drivers in their 50s and 60s, means a shortage remains.
Sally Gilson
“When you look at the numbers, you see record numbers of people training and getting their licence, which is fantastic. We always said if the correct training programme was available people would do it, and lo and behold, that is exactly what has happened,” said Sally Gilson, policy lead for skills and drivers at the RHA.
“It has not fully gone away… so we have got one eye on the fact that every year a substantial number of drivers retire, so we do need to keep the new blood coming in every year, which is why we really want to see the bootcamps not just talked about for this year or next year, we want that a long term programme,” Gilson said.
While bootcamps have delivered the drivers needed, some skills providers have reported falling apprenticeship starts in HGV driving.
South Essex College reported 219 learners across its three HGV driving bootcamps with 224 on apprenticeships in 2021/22, although a large employer moved 50 of those apprentices across to the bootcamp programme.
This year, it has just 15 apprentices. Jayne Sheehan, vice principal for the college’s centre for innovation said that it wasn’t necessarily all down to the bootcamps and the cost-of living crisis meant some drivers haven’t retired.
Flexibility and the relative speed of bootcamps make them attractive for learners. While an apprenticeship programme lasts for at least 12 months, a HGV licence can be secured in 16 weeks at a bootcamp.
Learners are also not required to do the maths and English functional skills elements of an apprenticeship, something that can deter those who have had a bad experience of education in the past or for whom English is not their first language.
Tony Higgins, managing director of System People, which has about 600 learners on bootcamps and 300 on apprenticeships, said: “Our apprenticeship programme isn’t growing anymore and it was on a vast upward projectile.
“The bootcamp has been largely responsible for that, but it really is not surprising because it is a more flexible programme.
“We are probably a couple of hundred apprentices down than we would be if there wasn’t the bootcamp at this point in time, maybe more than that. I am not complaining about the bootcamp in any way, it’s just the way things are.”
HGV bootcamps were introduced in 2021
Bootcamps can provide employers with drivers more quickly, and bootcamp providers don’t need to be on the register of apprenticeship training providers, but there are financial implications to consider too.
Sheehan said: “For the big levy-paying companies it is better for them to use their levy to pay for the apprenticeship because they are not paying anything out. If they are doing the bootcamp they have to pay a 30 per cent contribution so it does cost them where the apprenticeship didn’t.
“The bootcamp allowed people who wanted to become lorry drivers an opportunity without actually having an employer. That is good in one way because it allowed those people to get training for free where normally it would cost them £3,000, possibly more depending on the licence they wanted.”
But the bootcamps have also had another benefit.
“When the bootcamp was launched the infrastructure for driver testing just wasn’t there,” Higgins explained, referencing the bottlenecks in getting tests.
“For providers it’s been a really hard journey, although ultimately beneficial and ultimately successful. Bootcamps have had the knock-on effect of getting that infrastructure in place.”
The RHA delivers apprenticeships but not the bootcamps because its infrastructure is set up to deliver local programmes rather than a national one. But Gilson said the 12 month structure for the apprenticeship was “just not a natural fit, and the bootcamps have just really highlighted that” for a role like HGV driving – despite acknowledging the apprenticeship is a “gold standard” for drivers.
The RHA would like to see flexibility in the apprenticeship levy to use on other training like skills bootcamps too. It produced a lobby paper in August last year explaining that providers need confidence bootcamps will be available long term in order to invest in them, which levy reform could help with.
It would also aid smaller haulage firms which struggle to release apprentices for their off-the-job training.
Gilson added: “I think there is certainly the option of doing a six month apprenticeship – why does every apprenticeship have to be a minimum of 12 months? We are stuck in such a regimental feel when it comes to training. We have got so many different skills shortages – this is going to be the biggest thing over the next few years.”
Sheehan said that more flexibility in the adult education budget could also help.
“In devolved areas you can do HGV driving via AEB but you can’t in non-devolved areas, if you were able to use AEB funding I don’t think as a college we would need the bootcamp,” she explained.
Kevin Birch
But far from bootcamps meaning there is no place for apprenticeships for HGV drivers, all the providers FE Week spoke to said it was crucial apprenticeships were not eradicated by the bootcamps.
Kevin Birch, director at TRS Training Ltd which is delivering around 200 bootcamps and 450 apprenticeships, said that the training is “a lot more in depth” on the apprenticeship.
“The apprenticeship also includes mentoring training so once they pass their test they go out with one of the employers’ trainers or mentors and they physically drive the vehicle under supervision from the mentor in live deliveries. That is really important and isn’t part of a bootcamp,” he said.
In addition, those on the apprenticeship route are “more rounded” drivers at the end of their course compared to the end of the bootcamp, as bootcamp completers “to all intents and purposes they are still a novice driver until they get that mentor training,” he explained.
Higgins added: “The apprenticeships are still our preferred route. I think especially because it’s a level 2 occupation there is possibly a threat from shorter programmes, and that might become the preferred route, the normal route, and I think we will lose something if that happens.
“Having said that, it’s good to have a diverse route into the industry because it is less exclusive and it has definitely provided more opportunity because those people wouldn’t have been able to enter via the apprenticeship route or afford to enter themselves.”
Time will tell how long the bootcamps will last, but in the HGV driver sector the short courses appear to have provided a much-needed surge in new drivers.
Bootcamps and apprenticeships have, so far co-existed, but sector chiefs will no doubt be paying close attention to the numbers over the next few years to ensure apprenticeships still retain their “gold standard” in training.
WorldSkills UK has named a shortlist of 94 students and apprentices as candidates for the official team that will compete against the rest of the world at WorldSkills Lyon next year.
Young people have been selected from regional and national finals across 27 different skills to form Squad UK. They will now begin an 18-month intensive training programme to prepare them for selection for the ‘skills olympics’ in 2024.
Those showing exceptional promise will be announced as official members of Team UK in spring 2024 and will head to Lyon to compete in September of that year.
The squad announced today, full list below, will be guided through their training by a team of highly skilled trainers, industry experts, former medal winners and performance coaches to help them prepare for the pressure of competing at such a high level.
Next year’s competition will be a return to a single host country, as last year’s competition was hosted in 11 nations following the cancellation of WorldSkills Shanhai 2022 due to ongoing Covid restrictions.
Despite the change in venue, Team UK finished in tenth place last year, as well as securing a best ever fourth-place finish in digital skills where they finished above Germany and China.
WorldSkills UK Deputy CEO Ben Blackledge says this is a life-changing moment for the 94 Squad members, who now face months of intensive training that will take their skills to a whole new level.
He said, “They have done so well to get to this stage and are fantastic examples of the very best of our further education system, but the hard work really starts now as they have an international competition to prepare for.”
Meet the squad
Anastasiya Kovtun, age 20 and originally from Ukraine but who grew up in Northern Ireland, secured her place in the 2024 UK squad in the recent laboratory technician national finals.
She says she was so happy when she got the message from WordSkills UK saying she had made it through as it would be the best opportunity to gain more chemistry knowledge and different techniques in the laboratory.
Despite thinking she had forgotten a vital formula during the national competition, Kovtun still managed to make it through.
“It was so funny. I wrote the formula down and asked one of the judges ‘is this the right formula’… It was the second day, in the morning, and I was so tired I just started to cry. I came back and was like yeah that is the formula and laughed at myself.”
She explains “It was so stressful! In the moment you’re sitting there like why I am doing this to myself but after you’re like its fine it’s worth it.”
Mikhaela Rain Roy, who is studying robotics at Middlesex University, told FE Week that her head of department encouraged her class to go for the WorldSkills UK competition, but mostly just advertised automation and mechatronics because that had been what had been done so far.
However, Mikhaela challenged herself to go for Industry 4.0, and successfully made it to Squad UK alongside team-mates Simonas Brasas and Yeeba Astha, both from Barking and Dagenham College.
Grace Burton, age 19 and who works for Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, is studying at Loughborough College. She explains that she is also extremely proud to have made it onto the health and social care team.
“Finding out I had made the squad for Lyon 2024 was some of the most amazing news ever. To know my hard work had paid off with the national competition, and I would get to join a squad with many other talented individuals is fabulous.”
“I performed to the best of my ability and tried my hardest and was really happy with how I did. The feedback I received, as well as the training and advice from the judges and fellow competitors, was great.”
When asked what she will do to prepare, Burton explains, “Much of my training is based on my day-to-day experiences of being a carer for my severely disabled brother. I will continue to draw on this to develop the different aspects – both mental and physical – needed to excel in the competition.”
Babcock International, the defence infrastructure giant, has sold a sizeable portion of its training business in a “portfolio alignment programme” which completed yesterday.
Its end point assessment business, Babcock Assessment Limited, is also “under review”.
The firm announced in September that it had sold parts of its civil training division, which includes thousands of apprenticeships, to investment firm Inspirit Capital but it will retain contracts close to its “core business”.
Babcock International held apprenticeships and training contracts through subsidiary companies including Babcock Training Limited and Babcock Skills Development and Training Limited. Both were graded ‘good’ by Ofsted in the last year.
Provision within the former has been retained by the group to continue to deliver major training contracts with the Metropolitan Police, the London Fire Brigade and the Ministry of Defence. The group kept these contracts as they more closely align with its core business in the defence and emergency service sectors.
Training in non-core sectors like automotive and service industries was sold to Inspirit, with apprenticeships now being delivered through new provider Inspiro, which launched yesterday.
Inspiro have said they “stand on the firmest of foundations with over 30 years’ experience, a team of 500-strong and over 5,000 apprentices in active learning”.
Chief executive of Inspiro Stuart Wilson said: “We are excited to set our direction as an independent business with many opportunities for growth in both our existing services and complementary sectors.”
At the time of the sale, Babcock reported that its end-point assessment arm, Babcock Assessments Limited would be part of the sale. However this has not happened and the assessment business has been retained as a subsidiary of Babcock Training Limited.
FE Week understands that Babcock is now stopping its end-point assessment work, though the firm would not confirm this at the time of going to press, only saying it was under review.
Babcock Assessment Limited is still listed on January 2023’s register of end-point assessment organisation against 15 apprenticeship standards including adult care worker, retail manager and chef de partie. It is currently listed as the sole end point assessment organisation for the funeral director and funeral team member standards.
A spokesperson for Babcock International did not comment on why the sale of its assessment business didn’t materialise but told FE Week: “Having now ceased to support training in the workplace learning & skills, automotive, energy, engineering, and the service sectors, we are reviewing activities of Babcock Assessment Limited, which was not part of the sale to Inspirit.”
Since this article was published, Babcock Assessment Limited’s website has been taken down.
West Yorkshire Combined Authority has agreed to raise its adult education budget in line with inflation to address “genuine concern” from providers over soaring costs.
The boost follows a 3.5 per cent increase for Greater London to adult learning at GCSE level and below, while the West Midlands Combined Authority announced in December a 10 per cent uplift to its adult education budget (AEB) for this year.
West Yorkshire Combined Authority agreed the 10 per cent rise for its formula-funded AEB, applied retrospectively for all enrolments at level 2 and below for 2022/23.
Tracy Brabin, the authority’s Labour mayor, said: “Without this uplift in funding rates, providers report a genuine concern they would have had to reduce their offer to learners in West Yorkshire, reducing hours of courses, increasing class sizes and reducing teaching assistant support. Some providers may even have had to stop provision which is no longer viable.
“This is clearly not a situation we could have accepted as it would have reduced the quality of adult education provision in West Yorkshire.”
The current West Yorkshire AEB budget for 2022/23 is £66.4 million, according to the authority’s report.
It helped support 43,000 individuals in 2021/22 – the first year it took control of the AEB pot – with key priorities that year including boosting digital skills, increasing level 3 qualifications and tackling areas of skills shortages.
The authority’s report said that frozen funding rates over the last decade, exacerbated by inflation and rising costs, meant providers were struggling to recruit qualified staff.
It also warned that a rate rise will likely mean a reduction in the number of people supported, estimated to be around 10 per cent fewer learners as a result of a 10 per cent uplift in funding.
“A rate increase for providers means that the same value of funding spreads across fewer learners. We cannot afford to increase provider allocation in line with the rate increase,” the authority said.
However, that is not expected to impact community learning numbers as that uses a different funding methodology.
The authority has also pledged to continue lobbying the government for an increase in devolved adult educating funding.
Many further education colleges are facing difficulties in maintaining and growing income in the face of unprecedented challenges for the sector. Working in partnership with Mindful Education helps colleges to overcome some of the most significant obstacles currently faced by the FE sector:
Staffing shortages and the difficulty of recruiting tutors across professional qualifications
The threat of distance learning and the ongoing impact on college revenue
The need to meet employer and learner demand for hybrid apprenticeships
About Mindful Education
Mindful Education is an education technology company that specialises in blended learning, creating flexible courses and apprenticeships in accounting, management, law, business and human resources.Delivered in partnership with colleges, employers and training providers across the UK, Mindful Education’s innovative, media-rich courses are highly flexible, allowing learners to choose how, when and where they want to study.
Watch the video below to hear what colleges and employers say about working in partnership with Mindful Education
Staffing shortages and the difficulty recruiting tutors across professional qualifications
With a market size of more than £350m per year, professional apprenticeships in areas such as accounting, management, business, law and HR are an essential part of college provision. These professional skills are needed across all industries and regions of the UK, so they should form part of every college’s skills agenda.
At the same time, colleges face increasing challenges to recruit and retain staff to deliver professional qualifications. The AoC report, ‘College Staffing Challenges in 2022’, highlighted that there were 6,000+ total job vacancies in England’s colleges – the highest total in over twenty years.
Working in partnership with Mindful Education makes delivering professional qualifications easier for colleges. Our Online and On Campus blended learning model frees up staff time, enabling delivery teams to focus on the areas where they can make the most impact for learners.
Case Study: Westminster Adult Education Services (WAES) is an adult education college based in Central London. The service has traditionally focused on classroom-based learning, but has recently started to deliver blended learning courses to meet the demands of their students. They currently deliver AAT Level 2 and Level 3, using Mindful Education’s Online and On Campus delivery model.
Alison Muggridge, Assistant Principal Curriculum and Quality, said:
“Working with Mindful Education has been brilliant. We’ve found right from the offset they’ve been very open and flexible in the way that they approach things, they’ve provided a great deal of support for the tutors and the team when we first started onboarding. They’ve also helped out with some of our marketing as well in terms of branding the programmes, and outreach to get new learners on board.”
Samantha Carnegie, Accounting Tutor at WAES went on to say:
“The development and the support that I’ve had from Mindful Education exceeds all my expectations. Mindful are always there to support me, it’s online as well or I can request a face-to-face meeting. I’m having a wonderful time with it, it makes my life a lot easier!
Coming from where we used to have to build our own resources, have the lessons, get them ready, I would recommend the Online and On Campus approach because it gives the tutor and the learner an opportunity to develop and succeed.”
The threat of distance learning and the ongoing impact on college revenue
Further Education colleges lost £5m in revenue to distance learning providers (DLPs) for AAT courses alone between 2018-19 and 2020-21. There are many factors at play here, not least the marketing tactics of DLPs who offer low cost courses with attractive payment plans, plus the impact of improved online technology and 5G availability, and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. Colleges can counter this threat by offering high-quality blended learning provision, with focused marketing messages around strong achievement rates, the value of being part of a class that meets regularly with a college tutor, and the funding support available to learners.
Mindful Education partners with colleges to deliver award-winning blended learning courses and apprenticeships, helping our college partners to market effectively and ensure the right learner is on the right course.
Alison explains that working with Mindful Education has allowed WAES to increase student numbers by offering an attractive, flexible solution to learners in the local community:
“Mindful Education has enabled us to grow our provision to meet learner demand, and what we’ve seen is, because we do now have a flexible option that allows people to gain qualifications whilst they’re working, we’ve seen a growth especially in our level 3 – we’ve seen a doubling in demand for that provision.
“All in all, we’ve found it a very easy organisation to get to work with, and our learners feed back that they’re really enjoying the platforms as well.”
The need to meet employer and learner demand for hybrid apprenticeships
It’s clear that hybrid working patterns are now here to stay, with an August 2022 BBC report finding that UK workers are going into the office for an average of just 1.5 days a week. As a result, an increasing number of employers are seeking hybrid apprenticeships and work-based training to match the needs of their workforce. As well as demanding flexibility, employers are looking for online solutions that are high-quality, engaging and accessible. Employers expect apprenticeship delivery to fit to their needs, making hybrid delivery essential rather than a “nice to have”. It is this market shift that colleges need to respond and adapt to – both to win and retain apprenticeship work.
Working in partnership with Mindful Education enables colleges to offer a high quality blended learning solution that is attractive to employers and apprentices.
Case Study: Ambitions Academies Trust is a large education provider, based on the south coast of England. They employ a number of apprentices across the organisation, and were seeking a flexible way to deliver training that suited the needs of their business, as well as their apprentices.
Using Strode College as their training provider, Ambitions Academies Trust is training accounting and finance staff through Mindful Education’s Online and On Campus accounting apprenticeships.
Emma Hart, Deputy HR Director at Ambitions Academies Trust, explains what led to her to choose Mindful Education’s Online and On Campus hybrid model:
“When I first looked at a package, I wanted an online platform that would enable apprentices to pick up and stop when they wanted to, and plenty of questions and answers that they could work through to test their knowledge.
“They’ve found the Mindful Education platform really useful. They have their core learning, and then they have additional material they can use to revise or practice to make sure they’re progressing. They also appreciate having that touchpoint with Strode College, where they do some face-to-face learning with a tutor, so they have a good mixture of both.”
Micha, an accounting apprentice at Ambitions Academies Trust, goes on to say:
“Having the Online and On Campus approach for my apprenticeship has been perfect for me. Doing an apprenticeship as an adult, having a family and a full time job, is quite difficult to manage. Having the flexibility to incorporate the study within my working week is absolutely fantastic.”
Suzie Drew, Business Development Manager at Strode College, explains why employers are increasingly seeking hybrid delivery to train staff:
“Employers like the Online and On Campus blended approach to teaching as it gives a lot more flexibility to their staff. The flexibility of Mindful Education is second to none.
Emma went on to say:
“It enables us, within the work environment, to schedule when key things have to be done, and how work is managed, to make sure that deadlines are still met, while the allocation of time to study is still guaranteed for the individual. We’ve also used it to upskill our workforce which is really where the big wins are for us as an organisation.
“The blended option will always be the preferred option. It offers flexibility to all parties involved, and we’d look to be doing that with the majority of apprentices going forward.”
Working in Partnership
For more information about how working in partnership with Mindful Education can help your college meet the changing demands of part-time adult learners and employers by adopting a blended delivery model, contact Mindful Education: partnerships@mindful-education.co.uk
An embattled college has been handed another tranche of bailout cash to stay afloat as its journey to a long-awaited merger nears its conclusion.
City College Southampton received an additional £3.76 million in emergency funding in 2021/22, according to its recently published accounts, taking the total amount of lifeline financial support to £11.67 million since 2017.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency has also agreed to provide more emergency funding during the current academic year to ensure it can continue operation until its merger, which is planned to take effect from August 2023.
Terms of the grant agreement create a “low probability of conversion to a loan in the future”, the accounts state.
But the college is having to repay £522,000 of its adult education budget after failing to deliver a quarter of its allocation in 2021/22.
City College Southampton’s accounts also reveal that an audit has identified “compliance issues” in relation to apprenticeship funding.
According to the financial statements, action “has been taken” and the issues addressed by the college through “investment in additional and specialist staff as well as system resources and an additional funding advisory audit to review progress and compliance”.
The college told FE Week the audit was not part of an ESFA investigation and claimed the compliance issues have not resulted in the agency clawing back any funds.
Due to the continued injection of ESFA bailout funding the college “believes it will be able to continue in operation and meet its liabilities over the period ahead of the planned merger”, the accounts added.
And while it breached bank covenants in 2021/22, Santander “is continuing to be supportive”. The college’s ESFA financial rating continues to be ‘inadequate’.
City College Southampton, which has 4,000 students and 220 staff, is currently being led by deputy FE Commissioner Martin Sim as it heads towards a merger with Eastleigh College and Fareham College.
Multiple previous merger attempts involving City College Southampton – one of which included Eastleigh College – have been rejected since 2016 when the FE Commissioner said City College is not sustainable as a standalone college.
This is the second three-way merger proposal on the table for City College Southampton – the previous plan was to join with both Itchen Sixth Form College and Richard Taunton Sixth Form but this was abandoned in 2020.
It is hoped that a three-way merger between City College, Eastleigh College and Fareham College will create a financially strong network of college campuses.
The proposal forms the outcome of the Department for Education City-wide Solution (CWS) project Southampton, which got underway in late 2020 and concluded in May 2022.
A spokesperson for the colleges said: “Subject to due diligence, public consultation, and securing necessary funding, City College, Eastleigh College and Fareham College remain confident that the three colleges will merge in August 2023 as currently planned.”
The government is “urgently” investigating its “over-censorious” apprenticeship website that rejects vacancies for including words such as “stripper”, “man” and “head”.
Sector insiders told FE Week that the “bizarre” algorithm was hindering firms that want to post vacancies online.
The development comes as education chiefs are desperately trying to boost apprenticeship starts in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The “recruit an apprentice” gov.uk website allows providers and employers to post and manage apprenticeship vacancies, with candidates able to apply on the “find an apprenticeship” page.
However Jenny Bicknell, director of education solutions at GetMyFirstJob, said that her firm had hosted roundtable sessions on the “recruit an apprentice system” during which employers revealed their vacancies were being rejected for innocuous words.
She raised the issue on social media and soon generated a flurry of responses.
Among some of the rejections was a post on the Isle of Man for use of the word “man”, a head chef role being blocked for the word “head” and the word “drive” halting another vacancy.
“Stripper” stopped a vehicle stripper apprenticeship from being advertised, while “run”, “family” and “children” were other examples flagged to Bicknell.
Those attempting to post vacancies have reported having to change words on their posts to get them on the portal. Some vacancies FE Week found on the site did include some of the flagged words, such as “head” and “children” but it is not clear how they circumvented the red flag.
Government guidance for creating an apprenticeship vacancy states that officials will check the vacancy and let employers and providers know if any edits are needed within 24 hours, but there is no reference to potential rejections for use of certain words.
There was however a new funding rule introduced this year to “improve usage”, after the Education and Skills Funding Agency found that about a quarter of active providers were not using the site, which “causes issues for candidates looking for central repository of all opportunities”.
The rule states that while it is not mandatory for employers to use recruit an apprentice, it is a “condition of funding for all main providers to offer this service where applicable”.
And where an employer has declined the use of recruit an apprentice, providers “must record the reason for this”.
Bicknell suspects that the government has introduced changes to “recruit an apprentice” that is causing the issue.
She told FE Week: “The recent changes to recruit an apprentice have majorly affected our customers’ apprenticeship recruitment. The bizarre rejection reasons slow fill time and dampen the service they are offering to their employers as well as pushing more admin resource onto the recruiters.”
She added that “words such as ‘run’, ‘family’, ‘children’ and ‘drive’ are fundamental to our customers’ opportunities and the employers they work with”.
Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said it was “another silly example of computer says no”.
“Of course, there’s a place for artificial intelligence but we need to remember that these online bots are ultimately programmed by humans. It’s disturbing to read that some over-censorious zealots may have been at it again, determined it would seem, to find offence in everyday common words and usage,” he added.
Bewick said the algorithm needed a sensible override function.
A spokesperson from the DfE said: “The team are aware of the issue and looking into it urgently.”
A college is under fire for failing to publish accounts for the fourth year in a row.
The “unusual” situation at Brooklands College comes amid a £20 million clawback dispute with the government following an apprenticeship subcontracting scandal, which was uncovered in 2018 but remains unresolved.
A union has criticised the “lack of transparency” which amounts to a breach of the college’s funding agreement with the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
The Surrey-based college recently announced plans to sell a historic building and land in a deal understood to be in the region of £45 million to help balance the books. Stakeholders who fear they are being kept in the dark about the scale of financial problems, have called for the college to open its books.
A Brooklands College employee who did not wish to be named told FE Week that staff were keen to know when the accounts would finally be published but they have received “radio silence” from management. The source added: “They keep the finances very close to their chest.”
University and College Union regional official Michael Moran said: “It beggars belief that Brooklands College has failed to publish its accounts for four years running, despite recent financial scandals. Staff, students and the wider public have every right to be concerned about the lack of transparency at the college and we call on management to open up its books as soon as possible.”
Colleges must publish their audited accounts in an easily accessible location on their website to “maximise transparency and to support accountability” by January 31 in line with ESFA requirements.
The agency’s rules state that stakeholders have a “right to expect information on the financial performance and results of a corporation to be published on their website” and failure to do so is a “breach of the corporation’s funding agreement with ESFA”.
Brooklands College’s last filed accounts are for the year ending July 2018.
An FE Week investigation later exposed how the college subcontracted out almost £20 million to a small private training provider called SCL Security Ltd in just three years.
The ESFA, FE Commissioner and Ofsted stepped in to investigate the private provider, headed by Andrew Merritt, was subsequently kicked out of the apprenticeships market.
Among other findings, the agency discovered that apprenticeship funding was being used to pay the wages for the 16-to-18-year-olds, which is strictly against the funding rules.
SCL Security Ltd filed for insolvency in October 2020.
The ESFA demanded Brooklands College pays up to £20 million back to the government after the scandal came to light.
However, a liquidators’ statement of receipts and payments for SCL Security was published on January 4, 2023, and revealed colleges and the ESFA have submitted claims worth £22.5 million to the company.
The claim is a result of the ESFA’s review “in respect of monies paid by a number of colleges and agencies to the company, which have been challenged for various breaches”, the statement said.
“Consequently, colleges have written to us claiming full recovery of all monies previously paid to the company.”
The statement continued: “The claims of the colleges, due to the basis on which they have been calculated as damages claims for breach of contract, are complex and the formal process of adjudicating the claims will involve further work and, in all likelihood, further information will be required to adjudicate the claims, individual creditors will be contacted with such requests.
“Due to the quantum and nature of the claims received the joint liquidators instructors lawyers from Andrew Jackson solicitors to provide legal advice in relation to these claims.”
Auditors that spoke to FE Week described Brooklands College’s failure to publish accounts for four years as “unusual”, but added the ESFA isn’t known for penalising colleges for being late on their accounts as they are usually aware of the reasons behind this.
A spokesperson for the college’s leadership team said: “We are aware of the ESFA requirements for the publication of our annual report and financial statements and it is our intention to publish these early this year. The college is in regular communication with the EFSA who are fully aware of the college’s position and plans.”
The ESFA confirmed it was aware of Brooklands College’s accounts issue and said officials continue to meet regularly with leaders to resolve matters.
