The college breakfast programme tackling hunger and poverty

Every day, I see learners arriving at the college I lead unable to afford breakfast or basic equipment. For some time now, people have warned of a cost-of-living crisis. It is here now. It looms large in classrooms and on campuses across the country.

Hunger is a huge distraction from effective learning. It’s why we host a community college kitchen on site, supported by Kellogg’s. Through it, students benefit from access to food and vouchers they need to set them up for the day.

But there’s only so much we can do. We are part of a bigger picture.

When times are hard, benefits become even more crucial as a financial safety net for struggling families. That’s why the current public debate about whether and how to uprate benefits is understandable and important.

However, while the level benefits are paid at is undoubtedly of the utmost importance, before getting to that question we ought to be addressing the vital issue of whether families are receiving – and aware of – all that they are entitled to.

At Trafford College, a pilot scheme is highlighting the extent to which that is not happening – and the difference it can make to lives if people are helped to claim all they can.

Kellogg’s recently partnered with Greater Manchester Poverty Action (GMPA) and they came to me with a proposal. GMPA had identified that millions of pounds in benefits were remaining unclaimed across the city. Given our previous work with Kellogg’s, I was happy to support a pilot scheme centred on the community college kitchen to see if this was correct.

Colleges are often best placed to offer this kind of assistance

So it proved. Families were indeed going without benefits they were entitled to. Ours was one of four schools and colleges across our city taking part in the pilot, which has been running since the beginning of the current school term in September. The pilot has already helped dozens of families: on average each family has received an extra £1,000 to which they were entitled but were previously unaware they could access.

To most people, £1,000 is a colossal sum – the annual UK average for raising a child is, in fact, well over £1,000. With inflation skyrocketing, this additional cashflow is nothing short of lifechanging to parents, guardians and children.

That families had been missing out on funds they were entitled to speaks to poor communication, complicated bureaucratic processes and, most of all, families needlessly going without.

What’s more, missing out on welfare is more than just a numbers game. Financial insecurity and poverty are huge contributors to poor mental health – the consequences of which are all too frequently devastating on students, their future livelihoods cruelly stunted as a result.

That’s why it was so important to me that Trafford College took part in the pilot scheme. We’re a community-focused college – helping parents and guardians hit by the cost-of-living crisis to access more support came naturally to us.

In my experience, I’ve found that schools and colleges are often best placed to offer this kind of assistance. We know our families well, so we can offer them targeted advice.

I am confident our community college kitchen, like those at the other pilot sites across the city, will undoubtedly continue to make lives better for students and their families.

Aside from the success we’re already witnessing in Greater Manchester, the scheme has a strong track record. Last year, a similar pilot took place in Glasgow. Across four schools in the city, it helped families access £700,000 in unclaimed benefits. There is clear evidence to show that we can replicate that here in Greater Manchester.

For dozens of Mancunian families’ children, a platform like our community college kitchen is a strong start and adding benefits advice into that makes it stronger still. In the current economic climate, I would encourage all colleges to look to liaise with their local councils and supportive agencies such as Citizens Advice to offer this valuable service to their communities.

We are already working beyond the pilot to expand it across our group. Every college can do the same.

Competence and competition. But which will define the new DfE line-up?

Gavin Williamson’s resignation aside, this year’s political omnishambles has momentarily paused. Once again, we have a whole new Department for Education team.

The third prime minister of 2022, Rishi Sunak has already described skills as his “silver bullet”. Unfortunately for those looking for quick progress or a radical reform agenda, the skills and FE sector might find itself a long way behind a frankly terrifying raft of national and international crises on number 10’s to-do list.

With Downing Street distracted,  it might come as reassurance to some that the new ministerial team brings some much-welcome experience and, hopefully, competence. Most of the new line-up have worked in the DfE before, or have a background in education. They’ll certainly need this sector knowledge to deal with what could prove a massively challenging few months ahead. The team must navigate industrial action on pay, big budget cuts, the much-promised, but not yet confirmed, apprenticeship levy review, the ongoing T level roll-out, and the lifelong learning entitlement. 

Gillian Keegan’s appointment, as a former apprentice and apprenticeships minister, means that in particular there’s likely to be a big departmental focus on FE and skills. Given her business background, there might well also be a renewed focus on workplace training and upskilling, which have taken a backseat in recent years in favour of schools and higher education reforms.

She’s appointed as ministers of state two political heavyweights who, on paper, come from quite different sides of the education debate.

Nick Gibb returns to Sanctuary Buildings to retake his position as schools minister. A proud traditionalist, he’ll return with a strong drive behind high standards, including pushing for more focus on studying core academic subjects.

What remains to be seen is how long this collaboration lasts

Robert Halfon, formerly skills minister under Theresa May (remember her?) has spent the past five years holding Gibb and his other new colleagues to account as education select committee chair.  His new brief is enormous, covering skills, apprenticeships and higher education. His two favourite words – degree apprenticeships – align particularly well with Keegan’s interests.

But Halfon’s education worldview very much rejects the primacy of knowledge over skills – rather seeing both as crucially important. While Gibb would be happy for knowledge and academic subjects to dominate up to the age of 16, Halfon is a much stronger champion of skills-based technical education right through the education system and curriculum, with a particularly strong focus on education being suited to future work.

It’s therefore no surprise that Gibb and Halfon have had their fair share of heated exchanges in select committee hearings over the years on whether or not the curriculum should be focused on preparing pupils for work (including a particularly bizarre argument about the taxonomy of a fish).

Their competing views on education could come to a head on plans for a new British Baccalaureate. On the one hand, this might see a knowledge-rich focus on English and maths to 18 for all students. On the other, it could be a radical overhaul of academic and vocational routes that sees a boost to technical and vocational education, and an end to the political obsession with A levels. I’ll leave readers to work out which version might suit which minister best.

It’s worth pointing out that Halfon and Gibb appear, at least initially, to be more likely to work in the spirit of collaboration. In a joint op-ed supporting Sunak for The Times during the campaign, they both backed the new PM’s ambition to build on the education reforms the Conservatives have led since 2010. What remains to be seen is how long this lasts and, crucially, how the new secretary of state will manage her opinionated and experienced junior colleagues.

At best, we’ll see a strong team effort from the DfE with a shared vision for skills reform and the experience to make some progress, even if a skills revolution feels a long way off. At worst, we’ll see blue-on-blue ideological in-fighting that paralyses internal decision-making and distracts from the mission of future education reform.

Given recent months, I’ve given up making bets on what the future holds.

Ofsted to carry out review of careers guidance

Ofsted has launched a year-long review of careers guidance in schools and further education to help “improve practice”.

Government has asked the watchdog to carry out the thematic review in mainstream and specialist schools, as well as in further education and skills providers.

Ofsted will make “recommendations to improve practice” by identifying strengths and weaknesses in provision. Its report will be published next autumn.

The review will help to identify “potential developments” in inspector training and guidance, and help “share good practice and thinking across the inspectorate”.

In the review, inspectors will ask how education leaders fulfill their statutory duties to provide independent careers guidance and make sure it is high quality.

They will also look at how schools, colleges and providers engage with employers and careers networks, and how they ensure careers education contributes to local and national skills needs.

Ofsted will also probe how the curriculum helps students make “informed choices” about their future education, employment and training.

Inspectors will visit sample of providers

To do this, the watchdog will review existing inspection evidence and carry out research visits to a sample of schools, colleges and providers in spring and summer next year. It will also hold focus groups with employers and inspectors.

Ten years ago, Ofsted did a similar review which found provision in schools and colleges “was not sufficiently well coordinated or reviewed” to ensure each student received appropriate guidance.

The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) was established in 2014 to boost careers guidance in schools.

FE Week revealed in 2019 that the quango would continue to be reliant on government handouts after an ambition the company would become self-sustaining was dropped due to its “expanding role”.

At the time, the organisation had received around £92 million from the public purse. Since then, it has received an additional £50 million and is due up to £30.7 million this year, which would take the total public investment to over £172 million.

The Parliamentary education select committee is also holding an inquiry on the effectiveness of careers advice given to students.

Oli de Botton, CEC’s chief executive, will give evidence to MPs next week, alongside Roger Cotes, director of careers at the Department for Education.

Ofsted to inspect skills bootcamps after sounding quality alarm

Ofsted will be handed powers to inspect skills bootcamps next year, after a review of the flagship short course scheme found inconsistent quality of training and poor oversight.

The Department for Education has agreed for the watchdog to incorporate visits to providers of the 12-to-16-week courses into its regular inspection of further education and skills providers, beginning in April 2023.

The news follows the publication of a report by Ofsted this morning, which assessed wave two of the skills bootcamp programme which ran from July 2021 to March this year.

The report, commissioned by the DfE to understand how well bootcamps were delivering the skills training intended, said that most providers “organised the curriculum appropriately and used learning resources and materials of a high quality”.

However, Ofsted identified that “the quality of teaching was not consistently high and assessment practise was often weak”.

“Too many providers did not carry out rigorous initial assessments,” it added.

Worryingly, Ofsted also found that “too often” leaders were not ensuring learners had their guaranteed job interview – one of the biggest selling points of the course – because “they have not developed good enough relationships with employers”.

Elsewhere, programmes designed to be delivered wholly online with limited support from teachers resulted in a “poor experience” for many learners.

Skills bootcamps are flexible courses designed for adults to train in careers in areas of national skills shortage, such as construction, manufacturing and digital. The bootcamps, based around levels 3 to 5, also guarantee an interview with an employer.

They were first announced in September 2020 as a key pillar of the government’s national skills fund.

There were 36 providers of the second wave of bootcamps, 14 of which were sampled for Ofsted’s report.

Almost £50 million has already been spent on the scheme and the DfE has set a target of 16,000 people to start and complete the courses in 2021/22.

Over half a billion pounds has been committed for skills bootcamps from 2022 to 2025. Wave three commenced in September 2022.

The bootcamps can be delivered by various organisations, including FE colleges, private companies, independent learning providers, local enterprise partnerships, higher education establishments and local authorities.

They are also able to subcontract delivery of the programmes if they wish – a point raised by Ofsted which said that “too often the prime contractors do not maintain sufficient oversight of subcontractors’ and supply partners’ activity”.

That included checking the design of courses, how curriculum content was determined and liaison with employers.

In addition, it noted that while retention of learners was high, and some courses had proved popular, others – such as construction and engineering – had not hit recruitment targets.

Data for those recruitment targets was not provided, but the DfE’s aim is for 75 per cent of learners to secure a new job.

The DfE originally ruled that Ofsted was not needed to inspect skills bootcamp provision because the department monitors performance throughout the contract duration, and the providers have to provide evidence that training will be high quality for their bid to be successful.

Previous early research reports for skills bootcamps have flagged poor outcomes and data collection issues.

Chief inspector Amanda Spielman said: “These courses provide good opportunities for adults to learn new skills in sectors vital to our economy, but it is important that all courses are of high quality and that they lead to jobs.

“I welcome the DfE’s agreement for Ofsted to inspect skills bootcamps as part of our regular inspections. This will support the government’s approach to tackling skills shortages in England by ensuring that learners and employers benefit from well-planned and effective programmes.”

Skills, apprenticeships and higher education minister Robert Halfon said: “We welcome the findings of this report, which highlight the significant progress made to deliver high quality skills bootcamp courses, extending the ladder of opportunity to adults across the country.

“These free, flexible courses have supported thousands of people to gain in-demand skills and boost their earning potential, which is why we are now including them in Ofsted’s inspection remit to ensure the programme continues to deliver top notch training.”

As part of its recommendations, Ofsted has tasked the DfE with setting out expectations on addressing areas of concern, and how providers can develop relationships with employers, although it is not clear what those expectations may be.

It also asks the DfE to take “appropriate measures” to ensure providers guarantee good quality provision from subcontractors.

Ofsted has confirmed that the inspections coming in from April next year will be for all providers of skills bootcamps – even if they are currently outside of Ofsted inspections currently because they do not deliver any other government-funded education.

A spokesperson said those would be new providers.

A DfE spokesperson refused to say whether it would terminate contracts or suspend starts for providers rated ‘inadequate’ in a full inspection or ‘insufficient progress’ in a monitoring report.

But the department said its contracts with providers “set out the actions we will take, and the contracts include provision for performance improvement plans where appropriate”.

Paul Joyce, deputy director for FE and skills at Ofsted, said there could be some “logistical challenges” to inspecting bootcamps because of the short nature of those courses.

He said: “There is nothing better than inspecting when the course is running and we will endeavour to do that wherever we can. But the nature of those short courses may mean that some of the inspection activity is not first-hand observing these bootcamps.”

Bootcamp providers not registered with Ofsted that FE Week spoke to were not concerned about the prospect of inspectors visiting, saying they would help with transparency and accountability, as well as ensuring people know the training is of the highest standard.

Kate Burnett, general manager at DMA Talent from the Data & Marketing Association, which has been delivering digital marketing strategy bootcamps since September, said: “We do respect the decision to introduce Ofsted to this. They are publicly funded courses and I think it is really important that the standards are held at the highest level, otherwise faith
disappears in the concept of a bootcamp at all.”

Burnett added it was important for Ofsted to work with bootcamps providers ahead of inspections, such as providing inspection information at the contract tender stage.

A spokesperson from The Developer Academy, another digital bootcamp provider yet to be registered with Ofsted, said: “It’s not something we are concerned about. We have highly qualified and experienced ex-teachers and heads of education departments as instructors who train all of our instructors how to teach.”

Nicky Morgan joins Careers and Enterprise Company as chair

Former education secretary Nicky Morgan will chair the Careers and Enterprise Company, an organisation she set up while in government, it has emerged.

Baroness Morgan, now a Conservative peer, established the organisation in 2014 to boost careers guidance in schools and colleges.

It now presides over an extensive network of paid enterprise co-ordinators; trained professionals who develop career plans and make connections with businesses, and enterprise advisers; volunteers from the business world who work with individual schools and colleges.

It also oversees the government’s careers hubs, groups of between 20 and 40 secondary schools and colleges which work together to help each other meet the so-called Gatsby benchmarks of good careers education.

Morgan, who has been on the CEC’s board for two years, will replace Christine Hodgson, who had chaired the CEC since its inception, in December.

Company has received £172m of public money

It comes after FE Week revealed in 2019 that the quango would continue to be reliant on government handouts after an ambition set by Morgan that the company would become self-sustaining was dropped due to its “expanding role”.

At the time, the organisation had received around £92 million from the public purse. Since then, it has received an additional £50 million and is due up to £30.7 million this year, which would take the total public investment to over £172 million.

Morgan said she was “relishing the opportunity this vital role plays in supporting young people”.

“There are strong foundations in place and I am excited to build on the partnerships CEC has established with education and business, which have been so instrumental in our collective support for young people.”

But she said there was “more to do”, adding she wanted “more employers working with schools and colleges, creating meaningful opportunities for young people and also enriching their workforce”.

‘We want careers in the mainstream of school life’

“We want careers in the mainstream of school and college life, where the curriculum helps young people understand the real-world application of their learning as well as the opportunities available beyond the school gates.

“And we want to provide teachers with opportunities to engage with employers to help them understand the sectors, careers and pathways that their subject open up for young people.”

It also follows a change in leadership last year which saw Oli de Botton, the founder and headteacher of School 21 in east London, become the CEC’s chief executive.

He took over from Claudia Harris, a former adviser to Tony Blair, who stepped down in 2020 to run Makers, a form that supports mid-career switchers to train as software engineers.

The CEC also announced today that almost two thirds of all schools and colleges are now part of careers hubs, and the “impact of the model is now clear”.

Its research found providers in hubs achieved nearly twice the number of Gatsby benchmarks (5.6) as those not engaged with a hub.

“The more benchmarks met, the more likely young people are to be in a sustained destination post-16,” the company said. “This is particularly true for young people eligible for free school meals.”

Once-critical minister now describes ‘important role’

Halfon

The CEC has been criticised in the past over a perceived lack of impact despite the investment of large amounts of public money.

In May 2018, Harris and Hodgson were quizzed by MPs on the education select committee about the company’s £2 million research budget, its staffing structure and a lack of evidence that the organisation is making a difference.

The organisation was further criticised in November 2018, when the House of Commons youth select committee urged the government to commission an independent review into whether the CEC is doing a good job helping poorer students get work experience.

And later that month, the company was blasted for spending more than £200,000 on two conferences, with MPs demanding to know why private sponsorship was not sought.

Robert Halfon, the former chair of the education committee and one of the CEC’s most vocal critics, is now the minister responsible for overseeing the organisation.

He said this week it had an “important role in ensuring that young people in schools and colleges receive high quality careers support”.

“It is vital that our young people can make informed choices through good careers advice and can climb the ladder of opportunity.”

Inspire and prepare your learners to achieve more.  

Did you know… Around 1 in 4 learners in the UK enter higher education with a BTEC qualification – that’s over 100,000 learners a year (HESA)  

BTEC courses focus on skills-based learning and are designed around themed units. Rather than testing everything at the end, BTECs are tested throughout the course using assessments based on real-life scenarios.  

A BTEC qualification can open doors to university, an apprenticeship or an exciting new career; and is important for preparing young people and adults with the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed for the jobs of the future. 

In these times of economic fluctuation and uncertainty, BTEC qualifications give learners a balance of the skills and knowledge needed to progress into the careers they want.  It is this practical approach that allows learners to develop and apply the knowledge, traits and behaviours to real-life scenarios; ensuring they are uniquely prepared with a range of entrepreneurial and employability characteristics that employers and universities are looking for. 

They are also a powerful driver of social mobility that benefits employers, our economy and our communities.  

In turn, those skills enable learners to flourish in our competitive world of rapid technological change and aid them in enjoying a career fuelled by passion and purpose.

After 35 years of proven success, more and more Higher Education institutions and employers are choosing BTEC-qualified candidates for their practical knowledge and employability skills.

In fact, 300 employers & 75 professional bodies supported the development of the latest BTEC Level 3 Nationals, confirming BTEC qualifications provide learners with the specialist knowledge an capabilities that employers are seeking.

Below are a few more stats that solidify the effectiveness of BTECs:

  • 90% of BTEC students are employed full time after graduation (Progression Pathways, 2016)  
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  • 76% of BTEC students opted for BTEC because they could learn by doing, getting practical hands-on experience while studying (Pearson BTEC Learner Survey, 2019)  
  • 72% of UK employers believe BTEC candidates have an advantage over non-BTEC candidates (Perspectus Global, 2021)

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‘Voluntary exit’ scheme launched as DfE seeks to lose 10% of staff

Ministers have launched a voluntary exit payout scheme for Department for Education staff without the “skills the department needs for the future”, as it seeks to cut around 10 per cent of its workforce.

Staff were told about the “selective voluntary exit scheme” on Monday. In a message seen by FE Week’s sister publication Schools Week, the DfE said said it aimed to get staffing numbers “closer to” 2020 levels, when it employed around 7,000 people. 

The department will offer eligible staff three weeks’ salary per year of service to leave next May. Managers will “robust and fairly” assess civil servants’ applications to the scheme.

A voluntary exit scheme is not the same as voluntary redundancies, and as such can offer different terms. The DfE told staff it has no plans to make redundancies, but has also ruled out simply not replacing those who leave through “natural attrition”.

According to official figures, the DfE and its agency the Education and Skills Funding Agency employed 8,294 people as of September. In pre-pandemic February 2020, the two organisations had a joint headcount of 7,489.

If numbers are cut back to this level, this would mean a 10 per cent reduction on current levels, though the DfE today insisted it was not a target-driven scheme.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak recently axed plans to cut 91,000 civil service jobs over three years, saying he did not “believe that top-down targets” for headcount reductions are “the right way” to save money.

But he said the government would ask every department to look for “the most effective ways to secure value and maximise efficiency within budgets, so that we can use taxpayers’ money sustainably in the long term”. 

Union expresses fears over voluntary exit scheme

Helen Kenny, national officer at the FDA senior civil servants’ union, said her organisation was “concerned that there is no real waste to be cut and ministerial priorities still need to be delivered”. 

voluntary exit
Sunak

“We need to see concrete proposals regarding how the department will match commitments to resources – bluntly what work is not going to be done – otherwise our members’ health and wellbeing is being placed at risk.”

In documents sent to staff, the DfE’s leadership team said the department had “grown a lot” over the last few years, but its spending review settlement meant “we need to get a bit smaller again”. 

Last year’s spending review allocated £77 billion to the department for this financial year, an increase of almost £7 billion on 2021-22. However, the vast majority of the budget is distributed to schools, colleges and universities, leaving around £5 billion.

The DfE said it had ruled out losing staff only through natural attrition, where employees are not replaced when they leave, as this “would mean an extended period of slow and difficult recruitment constraints”. 

The exit scheme will allow the department to “move quickly, to be more confident that those who are leaving aren’t taking our best skills with them, and, when it is done, to operate with more freedom and flexibility than a long, slow attrition”.

The department said it would have a “robust and fair selection process”. But not everyone who wants to leave can take up the scheme, as it is only “for those who don’t have the skills the department needs for the future”. 

Managers could use a “range of factors” to assess the applicant, including their “core skills” and “future operating models”. DfE said it would be unlikely to support an application for someone with “hard-to-replace specialist skills” which they “continue to need”.

No staff should ‘feel pressured’ into applying

DfE insisted the scheme was “entirely voluntary” and “no one should feel pressurised into applying or taking a voluntary exit package”.

In the documents, the department said it had no plans to make voluntary or compulsory redundancies. 

Staff will have two weeks to apply later this year. If they accept the package of three weeks’s salary per year of service, they will leave in May next year. 

If a staff member leaves and is not replaced, the management team will “readdress priorities based on capacity and adjust workload accordingly”. 

It comes as ESFA staff have been moving over to the department as part of a reorganisation. 

In 2020, DfE had a total of 5,307 employees and ESFA had 2,182. In September, this had moved to 7,480 at DfE and just 814 at ESFA.

The DfE was approached for comment.

Raise profile of degree apprenticeships or see them falter, universities warn

Aspirations to ramp up degree apprenticeships in England will be stifled unless the government raises the profile of the courses, universities have warned.   

FE and HE minister Michelle Donelan told universities this week to set “ambitious targets” to boost the proportion of students studying degree apprenticeships, as part of an order to rewrite their plans around access and participation.   

Universities will need their plans signed off by the Office for Students’ new director for fair access and participation, John Blake, in order to be able to charge higher fees.   

The degree apprenticeship targets will be decided upon in conjunction with the OfS, although there will not be a one size fits all approach, the Department for Education confirmed.   

University representative bodies have welcomed the move, but warn of several challenges that could hinder the ambition.   

Rachel Hewitt, chief executive of MillionPlus, told FE Week a key issue for her members surrounds “a relative lack of student demand” for degree apprenticeships.   

“To address this, perhaps the place for the government to start would be on helping to raise the profile of these courses,” she said.   

“Moves to make the courses less bureaucratic, particularly around the end-point assessment, would also go some way to make degree apprenticeships more appealing to providers.”   

A spokesperson for Universities Alliance said: “To help ensure people access the provision that is right for them, the government should commit to practical initiatives in partnership with employers, apprenticeship providers and post-16 providers to raise the profile and benefits of higher and degree apprenticeships.”   

They added that the process for setting targets must acknowledge that apprenticeships are an employer-led system and take account of the local context, including current and future demand for higher-level skills in different sectors.   

“Targets should also not be set in a policy vacuum ̶ many universities will be delivering at least some of their apprenticeship provision at a loss, and several questions remain on apprenticeship funding, as well as the demand and financing for higher technical qualifications,” the spokesperson told FE Week.   

Degree apprenticeships’ popularity has soared since their launch in 2015. Data published by parliament shows there were around 1,000 starts recorded in that year, which increased to over 13,500 in 2018/19. This is, however, still much smaller than the number of undergraduates in England which stood at 455,000 at the time.   

Education select committee chair Robert Halfon challenged Donelan on the DfE’s work in this area during an accountability hearing last month, during which he said there should be a target of having 50 per cent of students doing degree apprenticeships.   

In response, Donelan said: “I share your passion on degree apprenticeships. We have come a long way but there is a long way to go. If we look at the stats, degree apprenticeships increased by 80 per cent despite the pandemic but it is not good enough. I want every university to be holding degree apprenticeships, not one or two.”   

She went on to say that her department was exploring whether to introduce financial incentives to entice more universities to offer degree apprenticeships.   

Cash incentives are absent from this week’s announcement, but Donelan insisted that all plans to widen participation in areas like degree apprenticeships must be drawn up with “needless complexity and bureaucracy cut out”.   

A Russell Group university spokesperson said over half of their members already deliver higher and degree apprenticeships and they “look forward to building on their existing work with colleges and businesses, offering a range of options to young people and supporting them through university and into the world of work”.   

Professor Steve West, president of Universities UK and vice-chancellor of UWE Bristol, added: “It is positive to see a focus on part-time courses, higher technical qualifications and degree apprenticeships and we look forward to working with government to boost demand for more diverse and flexible ways of learning.” 

No plans for new ‘elite’ technical colleges, skills minister suggests

There are no plans for brand new “elite” technical colleges, the new skills minister has suggested, claiming that prime minister Rishi Sunak is instead placing existing Institutes of Technology at the heart of his education plans.

Reports last month indicated that Sunak had been planning a new network of elite technical institutes to boost vocational training.

The Times reported that this would involve a new “network of ‘world-class’ technical institutions with links to industry and modelled on the Russell group of leading universities, offering T Levels and apprenticeships”.

Liz Truss had also unveiled plans for new “Voxbridge” colleges earlier this year during her brief stint as prime minister.

But addressing a House of Lords science and technology committee session this morning, new skills minister Robert Halfon claimed that Sunak was actually referring to the rollout of Institutes of Technology (IoT).

When asked to throw further light on the prime minister’s new “network of prestigious technical colleges,” Halfon told the committee: “We are increasing those. Those are the IoTs.

“So the IoTs are vocational colleges, predominantly focused on STEM and digital skills. We’re spending £290 million on them.

“There will be 21 overall, there are about 12 in place at the moment. Those IoTs are very much part of what you’re describing.”

Halfon, who had previously been a skills minister for a year in Theresa May’s government, explained that IoTs already exist in the further education sphere and have ties to colleges, universities and employers.

“So there isn’t going to be seven new institutions on a new framework?” Halfon was asked by committee.

He replied: “What I am aware of is the IoTs, that is what £290 million is being spent on, they’re still being rolled out and they are linked to FE colleges.”

IoTs work as collaborations between FE providers, universities and employers, and aim to deliver higher technical qualifications in areas like STEM and digital, as well as industries with skills shortages.

The government says that the first 12 IoTs comprise more than 40 FE providers, 60 employers and 18 universities, backed by £170 million of government funding to provide industry-standard facilities.

A fresh wave of nine further IoTs, backed by a further £120 million, was announced by the DfE in December last year.