Last week, the DfE published its latest statistics on the number of apprenticeships being started. These fell by 69 per cent between 2015/16 and 2021/22, primarily due to reforms to the apprenticeship system coupled with disruption created by the Covid pandemic. So what does the latest data tell us about the extent of the recovery?
A bumpy ride
The Government introduced a raft of reforms to the apprenticeship system in the past decade. These were aimed at addressing concerns about the quality, length and content of apprenticeships and were intended to improve their responsiveness to employer needs.
However, NFER research has shown that these reforms have had a substantial impact on the number of apprenticeships being started, particularly among young people.
We know from tracking the data that total new apprenticeships starts fell from 509,000 in 2015/16 to 393,000 in 2018/19. They then fell further to around 320,000 over the following two years, primarily due to the pandemic, before recovering in 2021/22 to 349,000.
We also know that this overall trend masks substantial differences between apprenticeship levels. The pattern for intermediate (Level 2) and advanced (Level 3) apprenticeships starts have the same downward trend as for total starts. Meanwhile, higher (Level 4+) apprenticeships have grown sharply. There are almost four times as many higher apprenticeship starts than in 2015/16, albeit from a low base, and they have now surpassed intermediate starts.
A post-pandemic bounce-back?
In short, the initial evidence from DfE’s recent statistics is that the post-pandemic rebound has not been sustained. These statistics, which provide data about apprenticeship starts during the first quarter of the 2022/23 academic year (for August-October 2022, so not full-year figures), show total starts were down by 6.1 per cent compared to the same period in the previous year.
This may be a temporary blip as starts could pick up in the remaining quarters. However, one possible reason for the decline is the withdrawal of the £3,000 incentive payment scheme in March 2022 that the government had introduced during the pandemic to encourage employers to take on new apprentices.
The recent statistics also show starts vary significantly by type of apprenticeship. After strongly bouncing back post-Covid, intermediate apprenticeship starts have been worst affected, falling by nearly one-fifth (18.4 per cent) from Q1 of 2021/22 and Q1 of 2022/23. Advanced apprenticeships are also down by nearly one-tenth (9.2 per cent) over the same time period. However, higher level start numbers march on, increasing by 10 per cent across the time period.
This data therefore suggests that apprenticeship starts are returning to the long-term trends seen before the post-pandemic bounce-back, with intermediate and advanced apprenticeship starts continuing their decline while higher level apprenticeships flourish.
As highlighted in previous NFER research, the reasons for this are complex and multi-faceted. Potential solutions include looking at the current funding system, the qualification offering at intermediate level and improving access to apprenticeships.
Apprenticeship starts by age
With regard to longer-term trends in apprenticeship starts by age, we find that all age groups broadly follow the same decline trend described above for total apprenticeship starts. Among them, under 19s have been particularly affected, falling to half the level of 2015/16 starts in 2020/21, before recovering slightly.
Looking at DfE’s most recent statistics, these show that starts for the 19- to 24-year-old group has fallen sharply by 11.4 per cent between Q1 of 2021/22 and the same point this year. Conversely, starts for under 19s have dropped by 4.1 per cent while starts for the 25+ group fell by 3.5 per cent.
As apprenticeships take centre stage in the government’s strategy to upskill and reskill the workforce to meet skills shortages, these new statistics serve as a reminder that improvements are urgently required. This is particularly the case for the recruitment of under 19s onto intermediate and advanced apprenticeships, to ensure that there is a clear and effective pathway for young people to progress into higher-level training or employment.
Young care leavers starting an apprenticeship from August 2023 will receive a £3,000 bursary – triple the amount that is currently on offer.
The government has also pledged to support local authorities to recruit up to 500 new child and family social worker apprentices.
The commitments are part of a new £200 million package announced today and to be spent over the next two years to improve a “fragmented, siloed and struggling” care system.
It is part of an overhaul of children’s social care after last year’s landmark MacAlister review into the tragic murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson.
The bursary available to care leavers undertaking apprenticeships will increase from the current allowance of £1,000 to £3,000.
Almost 1,250 bursaries have been paid to young care leaver apprentices since the scheme’s introduction in 2018.
It is a one-off £1,000 payment for care leavers aged 16 to 24 intended to help them with the extra barriers they face in the transition to the world of work.
Under current rules the cash, which comes from the DfE’s existing apprenticeships budget, is paid “once to each care leaver in the eligible age range” via their training provider.
Employers are also given a £1,000 bursary to take on a care leaver apprentice.
The DfE said today that it will aid local authorities to recruit up to 500 new “child and family social worker” apprentices and there will be consultation on proposals to reduce over-reliance on agency social workers.
Skills, apprenticeships and higher education minister Robert Halfon said: “As a long-term champion for social mobility, I am thrilled we can offer this extra support for those leaving care, extending the ladder of opportunity to help more young people gain greater access to sustainable work and higher wages.”
“Employers and training providers will continue to get £1,000 in funding for every care leaver they take on and, on top of this, we are tripling the bursary which care leavers get from £1,000 to £3,000 from August to support more care leavers start paid work and get world class skills as apprentices.”
The DfE has also said it will extend pupil premium plus funding.
The pupil premium is grant funding provided to schools to support the attainment of disadvantaged pupils from reception to year 11. Pupil premium plus is for the same age range specifically for pupils who are looked after or leaving local authority care.
Officials said today they will extend the “post-16 pupil premium plus style of funding” with a further £24 million between 2023 and 2025 to “address the cliff edge in educational support that children in care and care leavers face in 16- to 19-year-old education”.
Sixth form colleges with a religious character can finally apply to become an academy.
Nearly all sixth form colleges (SFCs) have been able to convert to academy status, and in doing so enjoy the luxury of not paying VAT, since former chancellor George Osborne changed the rules in November 2015.
But a group of 13 SFCs which are Catholic-run have been prevented from doing so due to their religious character, which would not be maintained under government rules. If they converted, they would lose protections in areas of curriculum, acts of worship and governance.
Regulations that enable SFCs with a religious character to convert to academy status came into force on December 28, 2022.
The DfE updated guidance today that outlines the process they have to follow.
It states that SFC’s with a religious character will need to liaise with their DfE academy delivery officer to “apply for an order to designate the new 16 to 19 academy with a religious character”.
The SFCs will also need to “arrange for a separate order to be made, to enable them to lawfully give preference in admissions to those of a particular religion or belief”.
When submitting an application the colleges will need to provide the religious denomination of the 16 to 19 academy as well as details of any representations made by any religious body regarding the designation application.
The DfE said SFCs should be aware that the education secretary can “consult the relevant religious body if necessary, so it is important that sixth form colleges that are considering conversion ensure they engage with the relevant religious body at the earliest opportunity”.
James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “We are very pleased to see the publication of this guidance as it means our 13 Catholic sixth form colleges are now able to academise. We believe that all sixth form colleges should have the option to academise, even if they ultimately choose not to do so.”
He added that there are at least three Catholic SFCs already weighing up whether to follow the 29 sixth form colleges that have converted since 2017 and “are now flourishing as 16 to 19 academies”.
Department for Education staff criticised real-terms pay cuts, with one claiming “morale is at an all-time low”, as they joined teachers in the biggest strike for a decade today.
Around a dozen staff and union representatives gathered at a Public and Commercial Services union picket outside the DfE’s London office. Staff held banners and were handing out leaflets to colleagues heading to work.
It follows an 88 per cent vote in favour of industrial action, with PCS calling for a 10 per cent pay rise, “pensions justice”, job security and no cuts to redundancy terms across government.
PCS has 1,816 members at the DfE, marking around a quarter of the workforce. Ofsted officials also walked out today, but not Ofqual, after a ballot failed to meet government turnout thresholds.
Some staff ‘can’t afford’ to strike
Owen Mooney
Owen Mooney, who works in the DfE’s strategy group on disadvantage, said he had only worked there for just over a year but had “already had a real-terms pay cut”.
“The cost of everything is going up. Everyone is feeling it at the moment.”
For lower-paid staff it will be “impossible”, he said – with some colleagues saying they can’t afford to strike.
“It’s important those who can afford to lose a day’s pay do strike. You can’t run public services unless you fund them properly. Morale is at an all-time low.”
Civil servants are “just as important” as staff working in schools and colleges , he added.
Another DfE civil servant, Jack Hampton, said issues had been “building up” for years, including not only pay but pensions and increased outsourcing of lower-paid staff.
Jack Hampton
“You hear arguments about a wage-price spiral – but they don’t work as people don’t pay for public services.”
He said he used to save £350 a month, but with his rent rising and a below-inflation pay rise he now only saves £150 a month. If he couldn’t split the £1,100-a-month rent bill for a room in a house share with his girlfriend it would be “abysmal”.
Hampton said he was not among the lowest-paid at the department, but an inflation-matching pay rise would have helped him save for his own property.
Rachel, a member of the DfE’s skills team on the picket line, said: “It’s really good the unions are all aligned. I’ve been a member of PCS since I started.
“It’s about the right pay for the work that we do, which keeps government and FE rolling. It’s about a real-terms pay cut. For lots of my colleagues, it’s about being able to put food on the table, and have a life.
“It’s about retention of staff too – everyone’s leaving. The best retention method is pay.”
ESFA chief declined to comment
Education and Skills Funding Agency chief executive David Withey was among the civil servants passing the picket line on their way to work. He declined to comment.
Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak visited the picket line to offer striking staff his support.
He said civil servants get treated as “back room staff who don’t make any difference”, but this “couldn’t be further from the truth.”
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka also told a union rally later in the day civil servants were seen as “bowler-hatted Sir Humphreys”, but thousands were claiming benefits and using foodbanks.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan faced criticism on social media for criticising striking teachers this morning, when her own departmental staff were also taking action. The minister has said little publicly about the civil service dispute.
New laws which will stop providers over-charging for higher education courses funded through the new lifelong loan entitlement (LLE) have been laid in Parliament.
The lifelong learning (higher education fee limits) bill legislates for a new method of calculating the maximum fees providers can charge students for eligible flexible courses when the lifelong loan entitlement comes online in 2025.
It aims to make the cost of studying modules and short courses at levels 4 to 6 proportionate to the fee cap for full undergraduate study, currently £9,250 per year.
The bill follows the skills and post-16 education act, passed last year, which amended the definition of a ‘higher education course’ to include shorter, modular courses.
New laws are now needed to give ministers powers to set tuition fee limits for those courses.
Ministers are pinning their hopes on arresting the decline of flexible and part time students studying higher level courses and boosting higher technical training with the lifelong loan entitlement. From 2025, it’ll give individuals an entitlement to a loan worth “four years of post-18 study”, currently valued at £37,000.
However the Department for Education admits that there are still too many unknowns to properly assess the impact of the policy on equalities and on public spending.
The government is yet to respond to a public consultation on the loan entitlement, which closed in May 2022, and so is still unable to answer questions on the fundamentals of the policy – primarily, who and what will be eligible.
Another missing piece of the puzzle is access to maintenance support as the LLE only covers tuition costs.
Yet the government claims the LLE entitlement will make higher level courses more accessible to people who are too “debt averse” to take out a full student loan.
They hope the lower fees charged for smaller and more flexible courses will open the doors to older learners, learners with jobs, ethnic minority learners, women and people from lower socio-economic groups.
Researchers at Public First found last year that, while the idea of lifelong learning was popular, the idea of a lifelong loan was not, casting doubt on the premise of the policy.
Today’s bill creates a new system of credits to measure “learning time” and gives the secretary of state powers to set fee limits for those credits. It also legislates for a “course year” so learners’ access to funding isn’t restricted to the academic calendar.
‘Ambiguous’ lifelong loan impact on providers
An impact assessment published today suggests that providers that most successfully “target and expand into this market” could see increased revenue.
But it also explains that it is still unknown how learners and potential learners will respond. For example, universities that don’t adapt could lose out if learners start to reject longer HE courses in favour of more flexible provision under the LLE at other providers.
A HE short course trial is under way, but early signs showed uptake was low.
Great news! Our Lifelong Learning Bill has been introduced in Parliament, paving the way for more flexible higher and further education courses, so more people can climb the ladder of opportunity and learn in a way that suits them. Read more here 👇 https://t.co/Isgva0D89Lpic.twitter.com/90wwU6dEhE
Skills and higher apprenticeships minister Robert Halfon said the bill will be “transformational in helping students to climb the education and skills ladder”.
“Rather than having to be confined to just traditional full degree courses, it will also be offered for new modular funding, and allow them to build up credits to get both the qualification and training they need for jobs,” he said.
Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies said: “This Bill can help make the learning system genuinely cradle to grave, with individuals able to access the financial support they need, when it is most relevant to them.
“It will take a cross-party consensus to realise the full potential of the legislation, including acceptance that learning loans are not right for everyone. Grants and maintenance support will also be required. As will reform of the Universal Credit system.”
MPs will get their first opportunity to debate the bill at its second reading. A date has not yet been announced.
A global food and facilities company that also delivers apprenticeships to UK prison officers is facing a suspension on new starts after Ofsted found poor quality training.
Sodexo Ltd, which operates five prisons in the UK, received two ‘insufficient’ and one ‘reasonable’ progress judgements from the education watchdog in a new provider monitoring report published today following a visit in November.
According to the report, the firm had 80 apprentices on the level 3 custody and detention officer programme at the time of inspection – 42 based at HMP Bronzefield and 38 at HMP Northumberland.
The report said that the governing board didn’t challenge the leadership team enough, or have enough oversight of safeguarding.
Inspectors found that “too many learners do not pass vital examinations quickly enough to achieve their qualifications and to enable them to progress to end point assessment” because leaders didn’t intervene quickly enough to help learners when the fell behind.
In addition, feedback from learning coaches did not help apprentices improve the quality of their work quickly enough.
While inspectors noted that the curriculum was in logical order, and initial training prepared them to work supervised in a prison within nine weeks, they found that leaders and managers “do not ensure that apprentices benefit from an assessment of their work or useful feedback on how to develop their skills over time”.
It reported that coaches did not correct spelling and punctuation mistakes in learners’ work and made spelling and punctuation errors in their own feedback on apprentices’ work.
The report continued that line managers were not aware of their apprentice’s progress because they did not always attend progress reviews, and apprentices didn’t receive training to improve their maths or English because the firm had been “too slow” to recruit staff for functional skills.
Apprentices were not prepared well enough for EPA, the report added.
Safeguarding arrangements were given a ‘reasonable progress’ judgement.
The government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency typically places a temporary ban on apprentice recruitment at new providers that receive at least one ‘insufficient progress’ judgement in a new provider monitoring visit. The suspension is lifted if the provider achieves at least a ‘requires improvement’ rating when Ofsted conducts a full inspection.
A Sodexo spokesperson said the firm took on board the feedback from inspectors and was pleased with its safeguarding feedback.
“However, we also acknowledge that we have areas of improvement and have been working prior to and since the inspection to develop and implement an action plan which builds on progress to date and addresses any areas of opportunity to be strengthened,” the spokesperson said.
They stressed that governance has “already been strengthened at all levels,” and had included a new delivery lead. In addition it has partnered with a specialist provider for maths and English functional skills to improve that provision, the firm said.
Sodexo operates in 50 countries with 400,000 employees, and joined the register of apprenticeship training providers (RoATP) in January 2018. However, it spent a few years as a subcontractor before starting its own apprenticeship training in September 2021 despite being on RoATP.
It had been the subcontractor to PTS Training Academy’s level 3 custody and detention officer apprenticeship prior to September 2021.
In July 2021, Sodexo said that the subcontracting arrangement provided a “low risk stepping stone” to gather knowledge and experience of the standard, as well as get to know quality assurance requirements and the processes for the ESFA, before it embarked on its own apprenticeship provision.
Sodexo’s contract with PTS was terminated for new starters in September 2019. FE Week later revealed that PTS had its own ESFA contract terminated after the agency found hundreds of apprentices were unemployed.
A college has slammed Ofsted for publishing an inspection report while leaders’ complaint against the grade is still pending.
Eastleigh College was downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ last week, but the college has hit back saying it has “multiple areas of concern”.
After the inspection, which was conducted in October, the college followed the education watchdog’s complaints procedure but has found this to “not be fit for purpose”.
Last week the inspectorate published and took down two “incorrect” reports. The college said it continues to pursue “legitimate and evidence-based concerns about the inspection and post inspection process”.
Despite the live complaint, Ofsted published Eastleigh College’s report on January 25.
A spokesperson for the college, which teaches almost 4,500 students and apprentices, said: “Regrettably in publishing a college report with a known stage three internal review request pending, Ofsted have confirmed that introducing new recommendations, new evidence post inspection, and publishing two incorrect reports is ‘normal’.”
It comes just weeks after FE Week revealed Ofsted’s senior leaders had admitted their complaints policy “is not working” and is under review.
Several other FE providers have protested against the watchdog’s judgements and subsequent handling of their complaints in recent months.
Eastleigh College’s spokesperson said: “The college has experienced similar (if not enhanced) shortcomings to those reported across the sector, and has also experienced the shortcomings (again if not enhanced) to those admitted to by Ofsted as recently stated in sector press.”
The grade three comes as Eastleigh College prepares to step in to help bolster struggling City College Southampton through a merger. The merger, planned to take effect from August 2023, will also include Fareham College, which currently holds a grade one from Ofsted.
Ofsted said it “swiftly corrected” and apologised to Eastleigh College for the two incorrectly published reports. A spokesperson added that the latest published report “contained no new evidence or recommendations”.
Eastleigh College’s report included six ‘good’ judgements, including for quality of education, but its overall grade was dragged down by ‘requires improvement’ judgements in leadership and management and apprenticeships.
Since the college’s last ‘good’ Ofsted judgement in 2019, leaders have embarked on a remodelling exercise to significantly reduce subcontracted provision to comply with Department for Education’s reforms.
The college was working with 34 subcontractors in 2018/19 but now only works with six.
A spokesperson for the college said leaders presented a “unique ‘big picture’ for the inspection team” in light of the move from subcontracted to direct delivery of apprenticeships post-pandemic.
But Ofsted’s report criticised the college’s teachers for “not ensuring apprentices gain the skills quickly enough to achieve the apprenticeship within the expected time period”.
Inspectors also claimed that managers and teachers “do not ensure all employers are routinely involved in apprentices’ progress reviews”, that apprentices are “not always aware of the progress they are making”, and “not all apprentices have the support they require to make expected and sustained progress”.
The only other criticism in the report was leaders’ and managers’ oversight of the whereabouts and well-being of children looked after and care leavers, which Ofsted claimed was “limited at the time of the inspection”.
The rest of Eastleigh College’s report was wholly positive.
Inspectors found that school leaver learners on full-time programmes benefit from well-planned opportunities with employers.
They also confirmed that learners and apprentices benefit from a professional learning environment, and that learners and apprentices feel safe at college, and in the workplace.
The report also said refugees from Afghanistan and the Ukraine were able to access the services and support they need through the additional courses offered by the college.
Meanwhile, leaders and managers were praised for having a clear and carefully considered strategy for the college’s curriculum offer.
Inspectors said the college makes a “reasonable contribution” to meeting skills needs as leaders, managers and governors “know their region extremely well”.
Commenting on Ofsted’s criticism of apprenticeships, Eastleigh College’s spokesperson said: “Whilst there is still more to be done the recruitment of subject specialist trainers with significantly reduced caseloads, working alongside high-quality teachers was seen to be working well in many areas. This investment and commitment to apprenticeship excellence will continue at pace.”
The spokesperson added: “The college is proud of every colleague who delivers opportunity and excellence on a daily basis. Commitment to our 2020-24 ‘more learners, more successful, more often’ strategy will continue unabated.”
A series of “bite-size guides” have been published by the Department for Education to help colleges meet their new requirements since being reclassified as public sector organisations.
Guides for five areas were published on Tuesday morning, covering senior pay controls, write-offs and losses, severance packages, indemnity guarantees and novel transactions.
In November last year the Office for National Statistics reclassified colleges as public sector organisations, which subjects them to certain public sector spending requirements.
Here is what you need to know from each of the guides.
Public sector rules mean that government approval must be sought for senior pay of public sector workers above £150,000 and bonuses in excess of £17,500.
That will apply to senior college staff from May 2023, with today’s guidance explaining that colleges will be required to submit one form for each clearance request.
From May, appointments newly advertised above the £150,000 threshold and £17,500 bonus must already have secured clearance from the DfE and Treasury – including for both new roles and new appointments to existing roles.
For those already earning at or above the threshold, approval will be required for pay awards above 9 per cent from May, as will those earning below the threshold currently where a pay rise of 9 per cent or more will take them over the £150,000.
Colleges will need to provide justification for the proposed pay, and applications should consider the type and size of provider as well as other pay in the region in their applications.
A formal deadline hasn’t been issued, but applications will be accepted from February 1 and a minimum of two months should be allowed for clearance.
The latest college accounts show that 78 college principals had salaries over the threshold and four received eligible bonuses in 2020/21.
The Treasury’s managing public money framework now applies to FE colleges and says that losses and write-offs come under additional controls.
Colleges are told that they should only accept write-offs and losses after considering whether “all reasonable action has been taken to effect recovery,” and are “satisfied that there is no feasible alternative”.
College bosses will be required to clearly document the circumstances of the financial situation, the rationale for a proposed write-off, and the cost effectiveness of any recovery action.
In addition, the guidance says that recipients who acted in good faith can use that in their defence but is not sufficient alone to result in non-recovery of public cash. Money recovery should always be pursued where recipients have acted in bad faith, it said, such as actively hiding necessary facts, or failing to give accurate or timely information.
Suspected fraud and internal controls must also be considered, and colleges have been told they should keep up-to-date records of losses and recovery attempts.
Colleges will be allowed to write-off relatively small amounts, but DfE approval must be sought where it exceeds either £45,000 or 1 per cent of annual income, or where write-off takes the college’s total write-offs for the year beyond £250,000 or 5 per cent of income (whichever is smaller).
However, colleges should seek approval if the write-offs are novel, might create a precedent in other colleges, arise because of ambiguous central instructions, or raise ”important questions of principle”.
Special payments include severance pay for staff, compensation payments which go beyond contractual or statutory entitlement, or ex-gratia payments.
DfE approval will be needed for severance payments of £50,000 or more before tax, if it is equivalent to three months’ salary, where they earn £150,000 or more, or where an exit package exceeds £100,000.
Severance payments of any amount that are linked to non-disclosure agreements will also need DfE sign-off.
Guidance says that special severance should not be used as a “soft option” to avoid management action or disciplinary proceedings, or paid to poor performing staff.
Colleges will need to document legal and HR advice, and consider appropriate levels of pay out. In addition, any confidentiality clauses cannot prevent the individual’s right to whistleblowing in the public interest.
For compensation pay outs, such as injury cases, colleges get delegated authority for amounts up to £50,000.
The DfE says indemnity contracts in colleges could include contracts around catering, data-sharing, utilities, commercial IT or land transfers.
Guidance says that college leaders should assess their contracts to determine whether the indemnities they hold are within the normal course of business, and maintain a contract register.
Caution should also be used on issuing letters of comfort as they may bring about liabilities, the DfE warned.
No government approval is needed if indemnity contracts are in the ordinary course of business, but approval is needed for those not considered ordinary and for letters of comfort or guarantees where the case exceeds 1 per cent of annual income or £45,000 individually, or takes the total contingent liabilities beyond 5 per cent of annual income or £250,000 (whichever is lower).
Governors are expected to challenge and provide oversight to make sure up-to-date records are kept.
The DfE says that transactions considered novel, contentious or repercussive will always require DfE sign-off before being made, but doesn’t necessarily mean they are forbidden.
Requests can be referred to the Treasury too, so colleges are advised to allow plenty of time for them to be considered.
The government considers novel transactions to be those outside of a college’s normal business or which it has no experience of, while contentious transactions are those which could attract criticism from Parliament, the public or media. Repercussive transactions are those which may set a precedent or have wider financial impact in the sector.
No threshold for those deals have been set as all will require DfE approval.
The DfE says reputational risk, value for money, financial exposure and propriety will be considered, and colleges should set out their requests as a business case outlining the risks and opportunities, benefits and drawbacks.
With a landmark new devolution deal due any day, West Midlands mayor Andy Street tells what he plans to do with more skills powers
Andy Street is poised to sign a devolution deal that will make him the most powerful Tory mayor in England.
It will add to a string of achievements for the former president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and managing director of John Lewis before he became the West Midlands’ first mayor in 2017.
But he candidly reveals his career “would have been thwarted” had he had to study maths until 18, as the prime minister is hoping all youngsters will.
“My own experience would have been horrific, I couldn’t give it up soon enough!” he says with a smile. “But I get where [Rishi] is coming from.”
Street admits the idea of doing maths to 18 provokes a “notion of doing advanced maths and physics” which “fills you with horror”.
But he is supportive of the DfE-funded Multiply programme of free numeracy courses for adults without maths GCSE, which is now being rolled out in local areas.
“For the jobs of the future, a good mathematical understanding is basic,” he says.
Film skills bootcamps at Solihull College
Devolution discussions kick off at last
Street reveals he and his team are now “in the trenches” with ministers thrashing out a landmark skills devolution deal that will make him the most powerful Tory mayor in England.
The trailblazer negotiations, which include Street’s counterpart in Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, have been a long time in the making. In February 2022, the Levelling Up White Paper committed to “deepen” devolution to the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, with an eye to later rolling out those blueprints to other mayoral areas.
But talks were hampered by ministerial revolving doors and an emergency Budget absorbing civil service capacity.
But Michael Gove, who returned as levelling up secretary in October, is “determined to get this done relatively quickly”. Last week meetings finally took place with his devolution minister Dehenna Davison.
“To be really clear, we have not had a face-to-face with DfE ministers yet. That’s all being done by officials. But overall, it’s absolutely game on and Michael is determined we achieve a genuinely stretching trailblazer deal as soon as possible.”
DfE ministers in the past have shown themselves wary to relinquish powers to devolved mayors. Last year, then-skills minister Andrea Jenkyns said she was “not a proponent of elected mayors”, while former education secretary Gavin Williamson was known for his lack of engagement with them.
Street’s aims will be to convince the DfE he can leverage proposed new powers to tackle his region’s low skills; 83 per cent of its residents are only qualified to level 1, compared with 88 per cent nationally, with 54 per cent skilled to level 3 compared with 61 per cent nationally.
The West Midlands Combined Authority’s (WMCA) levelling up growth prospectus, which sets out its devolution proposals, does not hold back from heaping criticism on the National Careers Service (NCS). The WMCA has been “hampered by a lack of local engagement” from them, with young people not in education or work having “suffered from a lack of support”.
Street says NCS provision “tends to be relatively fragmented and is very, very much dependent on the hyper-local ability”.
Street wants to address this with a “co-ordination of the careers offer across the West Midlands”. This means the WMCA working with and through existing contracts with the NCS as well as the Careers and Enterprise Company, to “bring together one standard across the region, bringing everyone up to the best”.
Street compares his careers proposals to what the combined authority already does in overseeing adult education, in how it works with different regional providers. “We would have responsibility frankly to be almost the kitemark of what is being provided.”
HS2 with a degree apprentice
Vision to co-ordinate LSIP response
Street is also eyeing a new role for the WMCA in “coordinating the response” to the regional Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), which sets out skills provision needed to meet labour market needs.
West Midlands wants the LSIP to provide “greater responsibility for technical and vocational training in the region” to “drive up higher-level skills”, which can only mean a boost for FE.
Calls for devolved mayors to take control of LSIPs were defeated when the skills and post-16 education act was going through parliament in 2021, despite concerns LSIPs would undermine mayors’ own skills plans.
Although Street expresses no regret that mayors were not tasked with LSIPs, he believes they should be the “guiding mind” behind the response to it.
“I’ve got no difficulty that one employers’ organisation provides the guts of the LSIP, and we input into all that. But what does that induce? That’s where you need a guiding mind. At the moment, that isn’t there.”
Street claims the West Midlands has some “outstanding” provision, citing Walsall College whose principal Jatinder Sharma has just been awarded a CBE for services to further education.
But away from glowing highlights, there is not enough focus on the “total offer provided across the region” as a “holistic response” to skills shortages.
As Street’s team has responsibility for the region’s economic growth plan and a view as to the skills areas required to deliver it, it is “in a position to be able to do that”.
Street is “totally supportive” of the FE sector, but denies it has been treated unfairly in the recent budget in which schools were given a funding uplift of £2.3 billion for 2023 and 2024 while funding rates for 16 to 18-year-olds remained 11 per cent lower than in 2010.
Street points to the government’s “consistent” commitment to institutes of technology, adding that the University of Wolverhampton’s newly opened National Brownfield Institute, which received some funding from the government’s Towns Fund and Getting Building Fund, is an “outstanding example”.
Andy with Commonwealth Games Volunteers (skills for life)
Fewer adult learners to offset rates rise
After remaining static for 10 years, the funding rates paid to colleges and independent training providers for adult education budget provision in the West Midlands will be boosted by 10 per cent this year.
Other mayoral combined authorities have also recently announced a 10 per cent uplift, with the Greater London Authority raising its rates by 13.5 per cent.
But the WMCA’s adult education budget shrank from £133.5 million in 2021-22 to £131.8 million this year and is due to go up by only 6.7 per cent, to £140.6 million next year – still well below inflation.
Therefore, the rates rise is being paid for by having “slightly fewer learners”.
“Our bootcamps and free courses for jobs help to compensate and more than maintain total learning provision,” the WMCA explains.
Street believes decisions taken locally and “really close working” with providers has resulted in better outcomes since the West Midlands devolved.
The WMCA boasts it has “turned around a failing skills system”, citing a 66 per cent increase in new digital courses and £7.3 million spent on construction training compared with £4.8 million pre-devolution.
Street points to how the adult education budget is being deployed for “level 3 development”, rather than “relatively undistinguished programmes” – with a 6 per cent rise in adults qualified to level 3 and above since 2018.
“We know where the new jobs are to be created in this region, therefore it is appropriate that [work] is almost hand in glove with technical and vocational training,” he says.
Jobs Fair in Birmingham
‘Staccato funding decisions’
Street wants the West Midlands to be a pioneer in retrofitting to help meet its aims of hitting net zero by 2041. But doing so will require more than 294,000 homes to be retrofitted by 2026, and it has a long way to go. The region is currently running two government-funded retrofit schemes targeting nearly 1,000 low income households, which Street hopes to “turbocharge” in the future.
While finding people to teach retrofitting and other construction courses is a “huge challenge”, student interest is the more pressing problem.
While those courses have had “100 per cent success” when it comes to students moving into jobs after completion, the courses across “a number of different colleges” have been “under subscribed”.
Street blames stop-start government funding, most notably, the £2 billion green homes grant voucher scheme, which was discontinued after three months.
“One of the challenges is helping young people see these areas of the future as really good life choices,” he says. “That’s hard if you’ve got staccato funding decisions, and people are not therefore seeing it long-term making the market.”
Digital skills gaps
While Street does not perceive there to be a particular problem in placing apprentices in the West Midlands and getting demand from SMEs for them, he gets “literally in my ear from employers every day” concerns about the digital skills gap – particularly an acute shortage of software engineers.
But this is not all bad news for Street. “It talks to how the economy is changing shape here.”
The West Midlands was the first area to introduce digital bootcamps in 2019, and has just clinched £15.2 million in government funding to continue providing them until at least 2024, securing more than 4,000 spaces.
“These camps are oversubscribed – I could fill them many times over.”
The free camps are intended to help learners access jobs in areas such as coding, cybersecurity and digital marketing, and the WMCA plans to use the additional funding to “evolve the programme into upskilling residents in retrofit, green and sustainability and healthcare”.
