One of England’s largest adult education providers has been awarded top Ofsted marks across the board.
The inspectorate heaped praise on the City Literary Institute’s highly qualified and passionate tutors and “exceptionally well-motivated” students in an ‘outstanding’ report published today.
The London-based adult education charity was last fully inspected in 2016, when it received a ‘good’ rating, a downgrade on the ‘outstanding’ judgement it received in 2011.
In its latest report that returns the provider to top marks, inspectors said leaders have created a “very well-considered curriculum” to meet varying needs of students and who go on to achieve “exceptionally well” results.
City Lit is one of the oldest colleges in England, established in 1919, and offers part-time courses and adult learning courses to around 24,000 adult students in London and beyond. The college offers online courses in modern foreign languages, humanities and creative writing, specialist programmes in speech therapy and programmes for students who have learning disabilities.
During its 2020 monitoring visit examining its Covid-19 teaching procedures, City Lit students reported positive experiences of online learning and inspectors found the college made safety a high priority.
The ‘outstanding’ rating comes after a tough year for the charity. Earlier in 2022, the FE commissioner stepped in to give financial notice to improve over City Lit’s “inadequate” finances.
Then in December, online lessons and enrolment were halted due to a ransomware attack causing a month-long IT outage.
During its recent full inspection, which took place in May, Ofsted found City Lit managers maintained a high quality of teaching through frequent classroom visits, effective feedback, and a variety of training.
“As a result, tutors are highly effective in their practice and teach courses that students enjoy and by which they are inspired,” the report said.
City Lit principal Mark Malcomson told FE Week that the college was “absolutely delighted” with the outstanding Ofsted report, which “acknowledges the hard work and dedication of our entire community”.
“This recognition by Ofsted is a testament to the unwavering commitment of the staff and the leadership of City Lit in delivering excellence in education. We also make sure our students are learning in a supportive environment, ensuring a comprehensive and holistic learning experience for our students,” he said.
Ofsted also praised the college’s engagement with industry professions and employers.
“Consequently, students acquire skills that are industry-relevant, and result in gaining commissions, working with agents or securing permanent employment,” inspectors said.
Inspectors added that the college’s governors “support and challenge” leaders, provide effective scrutiny and guide the development of the college.
“Governors are well informed about the college’s strengths and weaknesses. They provide effective scrutiny of the provision and challenge to the senior leadership team that ensures that students benefit from high-quality provision, whatever they study.”
As a result, City Lit students are “inspired to learn” from their tutors. Inspectors said students excel in their studies, they prosper from the “highly supportive and respectful environment”, and they become motivated to participate in their communities and wider public life as a result of taking City Lit courses.
“Students flourish because of the new knowledge and skills they learn, the social networks they develop and the positive impact attending college has on their well-being,” the report said.
Malcomson added: “We are immensely proud of our staff, students, governors, partners and the wider community for their continued support and collaboration. It is an honour that we have been recognised as an exceptional institution.”
Growing numbers of students are falling victim to domestic abuse and criminal exploitation as welfare services struggle to keep pace with demands for cost-of-living support, MPs have warned.
The all party parliamentary group for students has also found that as well as leaving courses early to work, students are prioritising courses that will quickly lead to job opportunities rather than progressing to further study.
The cross-party group of MPs heard that more college students are applying for supported housing as domestic abuse reports increase, while some colleges are also reporting an increase in criminal and sexual exploitation.
“The number of at risk learners is greater than ever,” the report warned.
But it also said “reduced capacity in external social and public services” means there are “limited options” when colleges look for additional support for their students.
Some colleges also reported “extreme financial destitution” has resulted in more students becoming victims of criminal or sexual exploitation or being involved with criminal gangs.
“Vulnerable students are often drawn into lawbreaking because of extreme financial destitution, which puts them at serious risk whilst also having a negative impact on their studies,” the APPG report said.
The APPG based its report on evidence from nearly 80 college staff and more than 700 students gathered through a survey by the Association of Colleges (AoC).
FE Week understands a “high percentage” of respondents raised concerns around safeguarding issues including poverty, wellbeing and housing issues.
The report also warned “extreme financial desperation” is increasing among students and their families, and that many colleges are “regularly” reporting cases of extreme student poverty.
College students were often seen wearing the same clothes every day for long periods of time, wearing workplace protective gear outside of college, or coming to college every day to keep warm, even when they had no classes.
Student bursaries have become “essential for family budgets” the report warned. Rather than using their transport bursaries themselves, students give them to their families and walk miles to college.
One of the respondents, Hartlepool College of Further Education, said there had been a 75 per cent increase in the number of 16-18-year-old students asking for help with food.
More than 90 per cent of the college’s students have also requested bursary support from the college, in comparison to 65 per cent last year.
The APPG has called on government to “consider the case” for extending free school meal eligibility, and for more college funding for bursaries. It also called for free or subsidised travel for those in FE aged between 16 and 19.
It wants government to increase the apprenticeship minimum wage, and allow providers to use bursary funds to support their apprentices. Local authorities should also provide providers with data to show who needs bursaries, as is done in schools.
Short term course decisions
Financial pressures are also pushing more students to drop out of further education in the past year, with colleges warning that keeping attendance up has been “one of their main challenges”.
At least twenty colleges mentioned the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on student retention and attendance, according to the APPG.
Due to rising costs, FE students are “struggling to prioritise their studies over maintaining jobs and working more hours to make ends meet”, which has led to more students dropping out.
The pressures are also affecting their decisions on what classes to take, with some students opting for shorter courses or those that will quickly lead to job opportunities, rather than progression to further learning.
“Rather than making longer-term career decisions and achieving their potential, students are having to think about what will allow them to best support themselves and their families in the short term, sacrificing longer-term educational goals,” the report said.
‘Severe’ impact on mental health
Financial pressures are having an impact on mental health, especially among 16-to-18-year-olds.
More than 90 per cent of colleges said there had been an increase in the number of those students disclosing mental health difficulties.
Eight in ten colleges said that they made a referral to A&E over student mental health in the last year, while more than nine in ten said they are aware of attempted suicides by students over the same period.
At the same time mental health provision is “much lower” in colleges than universities, the report warned.
Currently, 68 per cent of colleges employ their own counsellors.
The APPG called on colleges to research the jobs students take on alongside their studies and the impact of those jobs on engagement and attainment at college.
It also wants colleges to assess the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on mental health and address those issues through student support – and is calling on colleges to make sure FE provision meets the needs of the local area by listening to students and the wider community.
APPG for Students chair and MP for Sheffield Central Paul Blomfield said: “Further education should provide an opportunity for skills development and social mobility, however many of the young people and adults who might benefit most from further education and training are now – because of the cost-of-living crisis – less likely to take up opportunities to study, attend courses and achieve their potential.”
Bernadette Savage, vice-president for further education at the National Union of Students said it was “shocking” that students and apprentices are leaving education because they cannot afford it.
“We continually hear how students are the future workforce and how they will help to tackle the climate crisis and skills gap but how can we expect this from students who are arriving to class hungry , cold and exhausted?”
Savage called on government to increase the apprenticeship wage to the real living wage, and to “ensure students are given the means to be able to eat, heat their homes and get to classes safely”.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said it “recognise[s]” the impact inflation is having on families and that it is “committed to ensuring further education is financially sustainable”.
“That is why we have increased the 16-19 bursary fund by more than 12 per cent to over £152 million this academic year, helping disadvantaged students who couldn’t otherwise afford to participate in education with costs of books, equipment, and trips where needed.
“We have also increased overall funding for the sector with an extra £1.6billion in 2024-25, which is the biggest increase in 16-19 funding in a decade.”
The biggest losers in the government’s mission to boost apprenticeships are traditional crafts for whom the term “apprenticeship” was initially intended. We investigate how longstanding training going back to the Middle Ages is now under threat.
Crafts passed on since England’s original national apprenticeship scheme was introduced in 1563 are now considered too small in scale and specialist to conform to our standardised apprenticeships system. Only a quarter of the UK’s 259 heritage crafts have approved apprenticeship standards – and far fewer are being delivered.
But all is not lost. The popularity of TV shows such as BBC One’s The Repair Shop, “how to” crafting videos and heritage-themed films and festivals are breathing a new lease of life into some traditional skills.
Apprenticeships non-starters
Organ-building and watchmaking – skills passed down since the 1500s and now deemed “critically endangered” – have been available as apprenticeship standards for five years but have yet to enrol any recruits.
Stained glass-making, traced back to the 7th century, has recently been declared “endangered” by the charity Heritage Craft, which publishes an annual “red list”.
Its apprenticeship failed to attract any interest, a year after jumping the many hoops involved in getting approval from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s (IfATE).
Heritage Craft partly blames its demise on that of another craft, mouth-blown flat glass-making, deemed “extinct” after the only company making it, English Antique Glass, was forced to leave its Birmingham home because of redevelopment. This had a “knock-on effect” on stained glass restoration.
Other apprenticeships designed to keep traditional skills alive but which have failed to attract any apprentices include clockmaker, assistant puppetmaker, bookbinder and blacksmith, all because of a lack of ability to procure a training provider, an end-point assessor or, in the case of bookbinder, both.
The process of trying to get an apprenticeship off the ground has been particularly challenging for The Institute of British Organ Building (IBO).
It first got an apprenticeship standard over the line in 2017 (after eight years of trying), but it then took until 2021 to find a training provider, the Building Crafts College. In the meantime IfATE said the standard required a review – despite never being taught.
Its accrediting body NOCN does not employ organ-building assessors, so three people within IBO’s ranks were tasked with assessing its scheme under the NOCN umbrella. IBO’s Carol Leevey describes this as “quite ludicrous”.
Last year the standard was approved with maximum funding (£27,000), but the Building Crafts College can no longer commit to running the three-year course.
The college’s building manager, Joe Mercer, says it had concerns over organ-building being “viable over a long period of time”. “There is pent-up demand, but it is a very disparate industry. We want to know there would be subsequent cohorts.”
Meanwhile, organ-builders are continuing to retire. “The worry is firms close without a successor, because they couldn’t properly train anyone,” says Leevey.
Heritage Craft’s executive director, Daniel Carpenter, blames the lack of apprenticeship starts on training providers requiring “bums on seats”. “It’s just not economically viable for them to have such small cohorts. Increasingly, they’re pulling out from this provision.”
Leevey urges the government to recognise their apprenticeships model “doesn’t suit crafts with five new people a year”, and to “compensate providers to offset losses they incur in teaching smaller groups…to demonstrate the national heritage value these crafts have”.
IfATE’s chief executive, Jennifer Coupland, acknowledges the “particular challenges” heritage industries face.
“How small a number of apprentices do you need to make a cohort viable? That doesn’t mean those skills aren’t needed. It’s a balancing act.”
This year, IfATE is instead prioritising reviewing apprenticeships with “large numbers of apprentices, new and emerging technology or new regulatory requirements”.
Meanwhile, the government seems unaware of the problem. Skills minister Robert Halfon says he is “not quite clear why [heritage crafts] wouldn’t be suitable to apprenticeship standards”.
“If there are problems, of course I would look at it because I want to support these traditional paths wherever I possibly can.”
Daniel Carpenter of Heritage Crafts
Alternative solutions
Any government help may come too late as some heritage businesses have turned their backs on the apprenticeships system and found other means to train learners.
Adam Davison, from Durham, 22, sees himself as being on a three-year “apprenticeship” (but not an official one), with his employer, the organ builder Harrison & Harrison, dictating what he needs to learn.
After studying chemistry, maths and physics A Levels with the intention of going to university, he decided to be more “hands-on”. “I love being able to see the finished product.
“Having to explain to people what I do is the hardest thing – most people are surprised to hear the [organ-building] industry exists.”
Saddlery guilds have existed in England since the 12th century, but for Patrick Burns, the founder of the Walsall Leather Skills Centre, it was not financially viable to “jump through all the hoops” involved in offering saddlery apprenticeships.
Instead, his saddlers can undertake traditional-style, informal apprenticeships through saddlery companies. The cost of paying for courses “doesn’t put people off” – he gets about five enquiries a week. “My problem is finding tutors at a reasonable price that keeps courses affordable.”
Adam Davison, organ builder apprentice
Crafting themselves
Carpenter believes heritage crafts are “riding the wave” of a revived public interest, prompted by people “re-evaluating their lives after Covid” and “wanting to do something productive, where they can see the outputs of their labour”.
Creators sometimes teach themselves the traditional skills, with online help. Gordon Coe, a Suffolk college-trained fabricator and welder, specialises in handmade armour and pendants inspired by his love of Star Wars as well as history.
While a medieval blacksmith forging iron spent seven years “indentured” to a master craftsman, Coe works independently through his company Mendo Metalsmith. He forges steel and perfects his craftby “playing and experimenting” and watching blacksmiths’ TikTok videos.
These only provide “snippets of information”. “They never give you the full ‘how to’ – there’s always an element missing. That’s the fun of it, because you then go practise.”
Carpenter highlights how 98 per cent of heritage crafts are micro businesses of 10 or fewer employees, making it harder for craftsmen to “afford to step away from production to train somebody”.
That’s the case for Coe, who would not consider taking on an apprentice. “Trying to teach someone would be difficult when I need to be getting on with work to meet my deadlines.”
Carpenter believes some older makers do not pass their skills on because they believe young people are not interested in heritage crafts. “There’s a breakdown of communication between generations, they don’t know how to talk to each other about it.”
Metalsmith Gordon Coe
Reimagining old crafts
Both Coe and Nicola Hibbard, a historian who specialises in painting using plant-dye paint on papyrus paper, showcase their talents at historic fairs and festivals, which are gaining popularity, partly inspired by TV shows and films such Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and The Last Kingdom.
Hibbard, who paints in the same way as people did in Egyptian, Roman and medieval times, says her skill is “as much about chemistry as art” because of the time it takes to source her paints.
But although her historical research gives her some ideas, she’s learnt more through experimentation because of “deliberate inaccuracies” in the historic documents of the time.
“The trouble with teaching yourself these skills is that in the 14th century, the guilds wanted to maintain their market monopoly. Half the paint recipes are fakes…because they were concerned talented amateurs were cutting in on their business.”
Papyrus painter Nicola Hibbard
The future
Heritage crafts in England employed 210,000 people and contributed £4.4 billion a year to the economy, according to research commissioned by the government in 2012. But Carpenter laments the lack of “political will” to explore whether that is still the case.
The UK is one of only 12 countries in the world not to have ratified the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. “The rest of the world understands the importance of those skills, but sadly we don’t.”
But Carpenter is hopeful there is a solution that could solve some of the challenges holding craft apprenticeships back. An organisation with private sector backing is currently seeking to set up a residential heritage crafts training centre in the south of England to provide the classroom element of apprenticeship training.
There are challenges on the horizon too as technology is making items easy for anyone to mass produce. Coe is concerned about the future of metalcraft because 3D printers can now print wood and metal filaments. “One person can create a template file [online] and anyone can now go click and 3D print it.”
Carpenter believes heritage crafts can thrive alongside the digital world, pointing to heritage crafters who have gained sizeable online followings.
They include Denzel Currie, a former graphic designer whose rug tufting videos went viral over lockdown and who has since worked with big brands Jaguar and Nike, and Maise Matilda Jackson, an art historian who practises fore-edge painting on books, a technique from the 13th century.
A video of her painting the edges of a copy of The Lord of the Rings has been viewed more than 7.4 million times.
Carpenter warns those practising endangered crafts sometimes feel “pressure” upon “realising that the buck stops with them”. “If they don’t make it a go of it, the craft will die out. We’re hoping that doesn’t weigh too heavily on them.”
Jackson is well aware that her craft, now critically endangered, is “really unique to English artistic culture. It’s really important for me to keep it alive,” she says.
Denzel Currie, rug tufter and content creatorFore edge painter and content creator Maisie Matlida JacksonAn example of Maisie Matilda Jackson’s fore edge painting
Today, NHS England has launched the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
This is a historic moment, not just for our health service and for meeting the nation’s need for more skilled health workers, but also for colleges and vocational education.
The plan puts apprenticeships and skills training at the heart of the NHS’s workforce strategy, and this is great news for further education colleges and training providers.
In the 75th anniversary year of the NHS, we have announced plans for an unprecedented expansion in the training of doctors, nurses, dentists and other healthcare staff. This will help cut waiting times, clear the backlog, and boost standards of care nationwide.
We have a shortfall of 112,000 workers in the NHS but we have a plan to fill these gaps by training new staff.
Backed by over £2.4 billion of funding for the next five years, this represents a significant, long-term investment from the government.
While we have seen significant growth in NHS nursing apprenticeships in recent years, with nearly 3,000 in 2021/22, just 7 per cent of clinical staff currently train through apprenticeships. We are ramping this up across the NHS, enabling students to earn a wage whilst training and getting vital on-the-job experience.
By 2030, one in six NHS staff will be recruited by the apprenticeship route, a significant increase which will be good for learners, good for the sector, and good for all our healthcare needs.
Nursing and midwifery training places will nearly double under our plan, with more than 24,000 additional places growing by 34 per cent to 40,000 a year.
The first medical doctor apprentices will be starting their courses in September 2024, backed by government funding. By 2036/37, almost 2,000 doctors a year will enter the profession via an apprenticeship.
With doctors now able to learn their trade as an apprentice rather than via a university degree, this means more practical, on-the-job training for many of the next generation of top medics, and also greater esteem for further education.
This substantial investment in training the future NHS workforce is a fantastic opportunity for colleges and independent training providers.
The FE sector is already training thousands of apprentices in core healthcare roles such as dental nurse, healthcare support worker, pharmacy technician and pharmacy services assistant.
In future I want that to be many thousands more across an even wider range of apprenticeships.
I’ve often said that “degree” and “apprenticeship” are my two favourite words in the English language. There is now a wide range of medical and healthcare degree apprenticeships offering a ladder of opportunity to people who might not otherwise have been able to access these professions and gain a degree.
We are revolutionising the way that the NHS recruits and trains staff, and that is huge news for further education. The £40m that we are making available via the Office for Students over the next two years provides a fantastic opportunity for eligible colleges and providers to expand degree apprenticeships and contribute to this transformation of the NHS workforce.
We are also backing Higher Technical Qualifications in healthcare roles such as nursing associate and assistant practitioner. A range of courses are starting in September backed by up to £48 million of government funding.
You all know that we continue to roll out T Levels as the new gold standard in technical education. Over 10,000 new students started T Levels in 2022, students who will benefit from an up-to-date curriculum designed with employers and a 45-day industry placement.
The health & science T Level is supporting the NHS with an expanded talent pipeline of young people getting a valued qualification delivered by our brilliant colleges.
This plan is a win-win, boosting our medical training, ensuring a pipeline of quality healthcare qualifications and apprenticeship options for the thousands of people who want a ladder of opportunity to a career in healthcare.
Police are investigating a cyber-attack at England’s largest exam board AQA – the third board to be targeted.
FE Week revealed today how officers in Cambridgeshire had launched an investigation into a “data breach” at OCR and Pearson exam boards.
But Surrey Police has now confirmed it is also investigating an allegation of fraud and computer misuse “involving a data breach” at AQA. The board has an office based at the University of Surrey, in Guildford.
FE Week understands the incidents relate to a school’s email system being hacked and then used to request papers from the exam boards – before the exam was taken. It is not known which exams this relates to.
Surrey Police said the allegation was reported on June 16 and an investigation to “establish circumstances is ongoing”. No arrests have been made.
The individual exam boards refused to comment this week. Instead, they sent a joint statement from their membership organisation, the Joint Council of Qualifications.
A JCQ spokesperson said that “every year, awarding organisations investigate potential breaches of security. When investigations are complete, sanctions, which may be severe, are taken against any individuals found to be involved”.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency will miss its deadline to reveal the winners of its national adult education budget procurement just weeks before contracts are due to start.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) is now calling for existing contracts to be extended.
Training providers were initially told the results would be revealed in mid-June. That was then delayed to “before the end of June” in a notification to providers last Thursday.
A further update today confirmed that this deadline will once again be missed.
“Due to unforeseen delays in final clearances, we are unable to meet this expectation.
“We are committed to providing notification as soon as possible and do not expect this delay to be lengthy, and we will you keep you updated through the Jaggaer messaging system.”
The new adult education budget contracts are due to begin in just over four weeks, on August 1. The procurement was launched in February.
Today’s update suggested there could be mitigations that “take into account the impact these delays may have on successful bidders’ delivery of the contract, in terms of targets and associated KPI.”
There was no further detail on what those mitigations might look like.
Simon Ashworth, director of policy at AELP, said it was “extremely disappointing” that “yet again an ESFA procurement exercise fails to be delivered on time.”
“Existing contract holders have been left hanging when they have commitments for staff and premises and successful bidders will have a limited notice period to be ready for starting delivery from August” Ashworth said.
He added: “To mitigate this the ESFA should offer an extension to existing contract holders to support with the transition, whilst also ensuring performance management arrangements for new contracts holders allows for a slower start to delivery than would have been expected.”
The Agency appears to have not learned the lessons from the last national AEB procurement in 2021 which was also beset with delays. In that round, bid results were only released to providers two weeks before contracts were due to start.
The Department for Education was approached for comment. A spokesperson repeated:
“We are committed to providing a notification to bidders as soon as possible and do not expect this delay to be lengthy.
“Any impact of these delays will be taken into account in terms of targets and associated KPIs.”
The amount of NHS clinicians that the government plans to train through apprenticeships will more than double in the next five years, according to a long-awaited report into boosting the NHS workforce.
The NHS workforce plan, published today, sets out the government’s goals for the medical workforce in England, which will invest £2.4 billion into upskilling the national health service over the next five years.
Just 7 per cent of clinical staff training in the NHS is currently routed through apprenticeships.
The government aims to increase that to nearly one in six (16 per cent) by 2028/29, including over 850 medical doctor degree apprentices.
This will increase to over one in five (22 per cent) of all training for clinical staff to be done through apprenticeships by 2031/32.
“Apprenticeships will help widen access to opportunities for people from all backgrounds and in underserved areas to join the NHS,” the report said.
The plan also reveals ambitions to boost overall adult nursing training places by 92 per cent, taking the total number of places to nearly 38,000 by 2031/32, achieved by expanding places to over 44,000 by 2028/29.
By 2028/29, the NHS will have 20 per cent of registered nurses qualifying through apprenticeship routes compared to just 9 per cent now.
NHS Long Term Workforce Plan
Over one in ten doctors to qualify through apprenticeships
The report says it will “enable individuals from under-represented backgrounds” to start medical training who otherwise would not have done so through full-time higher education and training routes.
The medical degree apprenticeships standard was originally approved in July 2022. An FE Week investigation earlier this year revealed that some in the medical profession worry that pushing medic degrees was more about reducing the cost of training, rather than widening participation.
In five years’, the programme plans to offer more than 850 students the degree apprenticeship route. It aims that by 2031/32, 2,000 medical students will train via a degree apprenticeship.
The report added that there is “potential” to expand training via the apprenticeship route for pharmacy technicians and the government is considering bringing in a pharmacist degree apprenticeship.
Alongside apprenticeships, T Levels got a very brief nod in the report.
The report said next to initiatives like the lifelong loan entitlement, T Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications, “apprenticeships enable people to gain a qualification while earning a salary.”
It added that the education sector would need measures to increase its capacity to deliver “more visible NHS career routes from T Levels through to enhanced careers.”
The workforce plan entails three principles: “train, retain, and reform,” said prime minister Rishi Sunak in a speech today, adding that the long-term plan’s aim is to cut agency spending by £10 million and reduce the need for international recruitment.
“We’re going to drive the biggest ever expansion of apprenticeships and the NHS so that 1/5 of all clinical training will be offered through degree apprenticeships, helping to bring staff into the NHS from a much wider range of backgrounds and will give staff in the NHS more opportunities to progress such as becoming a nurse or a doctor, as well as making sure that the workforce of the future has the advanced knowledge they need to care for our ageing population,” Sunak added.
How will this be funded?
An additional £2.4 billion has been committed over the next six years to boost training places across the NHS workforce on top of existing training budgets.
The report outlines that NHS England will develop an apprenticeship funding approach to better supports employers with the cost of employing an apprentice.
This will entail working with NHS employers, integrated care systems (ICSs), providers and partners to develop a national policy framework that can be used locally. It will target apprenticeship schemes that would “have the greatest impact on patient outcomes.”
“NHS England will work jointly across government to ensure that any changes to NHS England’s apprenticeship funding approach are supported by, and align with, wider government apprenticeship funding policy,” the report said.
“For example, NHS England and DHSC will work with the Department for Education (DfE) to enable apprenticeship levy funds to be more easily transferred between employers in an ICS and ensure that data on the use of apprenticeship funding in the NHS is more visible to decision-makers at national and local level.”
A specialist college for 19-25-year-olds where learners are “encouraged to behave as independent adults” has been graded ‘outstanding’ in all areas by Ofsted.
This is the first full inspection for Skills for Independent and Employability Limited, trading as The Oaks Specialist College, since it opened its doors to ten learners in 2018.
Inspectors were impressed with the college’s “expertly” tailored curriculum and learners’ use of mobile apps to help them independently navigate through their education “and the world around them.”
At the time of the May inspection, the Kent-based college had 109 learners, most were on entry-level courses. There were 23 learners on pre-entry level provision and 18 were studying at levels 1 and 2. All learners have education, health and care plans.
The full inspection report, published today, explained that learners have a direct influence on the curriculum, which “helps them to explore their interests and talents and build their social and communication skills.”
All learners provide feedback to college leaders, with some “supported to represent their peers”.
The use of technology in teaching practical skills and enabling learners to live independently was a common theme in the report.
College principal Ros Leach said “This is a great place with huge ambition for our learners. We are also a Microsoft showcase college, the only specialist college to achieve such status, and we use technology to great effect to improve the lives and increase the opportunities for our learners when they leave.”
“Highly-skilled and qualified” teaching staff were praised for “seamlessly” meeting the complex needs of learners and for providing real-life scenarios, like travel and shopping, which all helps learners’ progress.
Simon Harris, chair of trustees, said, “The inspection was incredibly rigorous, over three days and with very experienced inspectors. That they were blown away by what the college does every day is a testament to the skills and experience of the staff and the incredible progress and amazing personal development our learners make here.”
Trustees properly challenge college leaders to maintain high educational standards which, in turn, leads to “appropriate and valuable” training so that staff can develop their own skills and knowledge, the report said.
Ofsted gave The Oaks top ‘outstanding’ judgments in all areas; quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and provision for learners with high needs.
Chief executive Gordon Tillman praised his staff’s “care and passion”.
“Whilst we don’t do what we do for Ofsted, this recognition from them is brilliant. It is a reflection of the hard work, commitment, care and passion that all of our team gives to develop our young adults in so many different ways. It is our staff that are exceptional.”
Senior officials from key agencies in education and training addressed the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ national conference in London this week, and here are the highlights.
The impact on further education of under-funding and the recruitment crisis is becoming more evident, a senior Ofsted director has admitted.
Ofsted’s deputy director for further education & skills, Paul Joyce, told delegates that the watchdog was aware that under-funding in the skills sector was having a negative impact on learners.
When questioned if Ofsted was concerned about the funding crisis in education and demoralised workforce, Joyce said there was “no doubt” funding is an issue in the sector and Ofsted inspectors were “seeing that impact” across the spectrum of its activities.
For example, Joyce said that the watchdog was aware of providers struggling to buy consumables, like construction materials, for use in training.
He added that the recruitment and retention crisis in FE was also filtering through to the quality of provision.
“We’re also seeing issues with workforce, with recruitment … The ability of providers to either retain their staff or to recruit new staff in areas like digital and construction,” he said.
He added that inspectors are starting to examine skills bootcamps, and from the first few reports, he said it was “really pleasing to see some good provision”.
Joyce repeated an earlier announcement that, from September, Ofsted will be increasing the inspection notice period it gives to the largest providers – defined as those with a £10 million plus contract value and operate in three or more government office regions – from up to two days to six days.
That means large providers could get a notification call on a Monday for an inspection the following Tuesday, he explained.
Inspectors will also “be encouraged” to provide more detail about the provider and the provision being inspected in their reports on large providers.
Joyce also revealed during the Q&A that Ofsted is finalising its report into T Levels that “will make an interesting read”. The report is due to be published in the “next few weeks”.
“Inspectors conducted a number of visits primarily to wave one subjects,” he said. “We looked at work placements, the way providers use their capital funding. We looked at the T Level transition programme and just took an early temperature check really on how things are.”
AELP chair demands debate on IfATE ‘role and remit’
The government’s apprenticeships quango’s role in determining apprenticeship funding needs to be revisited, the Association for Education and Learning Providers (AELP) chair has said.
Nichola Hay said there “needs to be a debate on the role and remit of IfATE [the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education] in the future skill system”.
Opening the AELP’s national conference for 2023 this week, Hay said IfATE has had an “ever expanding list” of responsibilities since it rebranded from being the Institute for Apprenticeships in 2019.
“Their expanded remit now encompasses T Levels, level two and level three qualifications along with higher level of technical qualifications,” Hay said.
Instead, IfATE’s role “should be working with employers focusing on content and curriculum”, she added.
“There is nothing in IfATE’s own mission about its role in funding … is IfATE is best placed to lead on assessment and funding aspects? I think that is an important debate.”
IfATE has a crucial role in apprenticeship funding, as it makes an official recommendation on funding bands to the education secretary. For that, IfATE gets funding evidence from trailblazer groups, groups of employers representing each apprenticeship which get their own evidence on funding needs from training providers.
The comments come after industry representatives have criticised IfATE for not listening to their funding recommendations.
Last month, Karen Bailey, the co-chair of the HGV, bus and coach standards trailblazer group said that “funding obstinacy” meant an HGV technician apprenticeship had received lower funding than it deserved, which meant it became loss-making and providers pulled out.
But Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of IfATE, said at the AELP conference that providing funding advice to the secretary of state was “one of the originating reasons that IfATE was created”.
Previously, those recommendations were made by the minister of state at the DfE, which Coupland said the then-minister of state, Nick Boles, found “extremely challenging, and obviously he was on the hook for absolutely every detailed decision that was being made”.
“So, part of the reason for IfATE was to have something independent of that process that could take the politics and take the lobbying out of it and look at it more in terms of the full facts of a case. That’s a core part of our remit and I wouldn’t want to give that up.”
Trust still lacking in the independent training sector
The independent training sector is “maturing”, but there isn’t yet enough trust to simplify the funding system, according to a senior ESFA director.
Andrew Thomas, the ESFA’s director of finance and oversight, spoke about “the real challenges across the sector where a small number of organisations can at times tarnish the reputations of fantastic organisations who are delivering and really putting learners first”.
Thomas recalled that the agency hears calls from training providers for greater simplification around audit and funding compliance across a growing number of central government and devolved funding streams.
“We do want to look at where we can make things simpler. But we still need ensure that there is no tension in terms of how we make sure that public funding is used as intended,” Thomas said.
Thomas compared the ITP sector to the academy sector, where he said there was a greater level of trust, thus enabling more simplification.
“The assurance we can give is greatest in school sector and most challenging in the ITP sector,” he said.
Elsewhere in his speech, Thomas outlined how, in the last three years, the ITP sector’s financial position has improved, with 40 per cent of providers now with ‘outstanding’ financial health, up from 30 per cent two years ago.
A new financial handbook for independent training providers is in the works, with a soft launch planned “towards the end of 2023”.
