Students ‘disempowered’ as ministers dig in over BTEC defunding

Students face a “period of great uncertainty” after ministers rejected calls to withdraw applied general qualifications like BTECs from their defunding plans, or even delay the “damaging” reforms by a year.

The Department for Education will publish a list of new qualifications that will replace the current suite of applied generals in July 2024, for schools and colleges to start delivering in September 2025.

The expectation is that most level 3 alternatives to T Levels and A-levels, which must now go through a new strict approvals process, will be refused funding from this point forward.

Ministers have already made the “conscious choice” to exclude “certain” large academic qualifications, including in health and social care, applied science, and law, from this process.

The Sixth Form Colleges Association, which leads the Protect Student Choice campaign, mapped the list of qualifications that will be eligible for funding against the 134 recently reformed applied general qualifications currently available to young people and found an “astonishing” 75 will be ineligible.

In a letter to education secretary Gillian Keegan, 360 school and college leaders described the timescale as “simply not credible,” and urged her to push back the plans by at least a year. They also called on her to exclude the 134 AGQs from the reforms.

Schools and colleges that signed the letter pointed out that prospectuses and marketing materials for courses starting in September 2025 will already have been finalised by July 2024, and engagement work with students will be well underway.

They went on to write that “it will be very difficult to provide effective information, advice and guidance to young people if we do not know what qualifications we can deliver until the end of July 2024”.

Six peers, including two former education secretaries and two ex-universities minister, sent a similar letter to the DfE at the same time warning that scrapping “popular” alternatives to A-levels and T Levels would have a damaging impact on social mobility, economic growth and public services.

Skills, apprenticeships and HE minister Robert Halfon replied to the school and college leaders this week to confirm there will be no delay to the defunding timeline.

He simply said: “We understand that this is significant change, but we believe that the long-term benefits are what is needed”.

Halfon goes on to rule out removing the 134 AGQs from the scope of the review but offers no explanation as to why.

He believes that young people will not be left without a pathway once the reforms are complete. He said: “Our reforms will provide high-quality opportunities for all, and I do not agree that young people will fall out of the system”.

College leaders disagree

Altaf Hussein, principal of Luton Sixth Form College, said: “The proposed changes to defund most BTECS are short-sighted and likely to have a massive impact on the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds who go on to HE and good jobs in key sectors like the NHS.”

Scott McKeown, head of New Bridge College and Future Finders Employability College, added that the removal of “these reputable qualifications” will present “further barriers for SEND students aiming to progress onto skilled employment or continue their learning journey through higher education, ultimately, disempowering them from reaching their academic potential or restricting them from entering their career of choice”.

Meanwhile, Alex Pett principal of Logic Studio School, pointed out that his technical school for 14-to-19-year-olds have “always found securing even one week work placements challenging”, let alone 45-day placements that T Levels require.

He told FE Week: “If all of our students were to move to T Levels, not only would they be narrowing their breadth of study, we would simply not be able to find sufficient, meaningful work placements for all of them. BTECs allow students to gain skills and recognition against specific and segmented assignments, more closely replicating their future experience in the workplace.”

Laranya Caslin, principal of St. George’s Academy in Lincolnshire, said the T Level model “seems to be suited to large cities and simply does not translate to the countryside”.

She explained that large employers across a range of industry sectors are “few and far between in our locality, and many of our students live in outlying villages with next to no public transport”.

Caslin added: “Surely every 16-yearold, no matter where they live, should be able to access a level 3 qualification in an area of genuine interest to them. If the availability of AGQs is substantially reduced, that chance will be under threat for well over 50 per cent of my ‘secondary modern’ sixth form intake.”

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the SFCA, criticised Halfon’s letter.

“This response does not address any of the practical concerns raised by the 360 school and college leaders that signed the letter to the secretary of state. A one-year delay would have minimised the disruption to young people’s education caused by the implementation of the government’s flawed plan to scrap most BTECs,” he said.

“Instead, we will now move into a period of great uncertainty for students, staff and institutions.”

DfE scraps apprentice cap for small businesses

A cap on apprentice numbers for small businesses that had caused employers to turn away new starts has finally been scrapped by the skills minister.

Robert Halfon confirmed in a letter to the sector on Thursday that small businesses which don’t pay the apprenticeship levy will no longer be limited to a maximum of 10 apprenticeship starts from April 3, 2023.

In the letter, the minister said businesses will be able to recruit “as many high-quality apprentices as their business needs”, and added: “We want to give smaller employers certainty over funding, and ensure they have access to the apprenticeships they need to meet their ambitions, fill their skills gaps, and grow their businesses.”

The cap has been a point of contention in the sector, with some employers saying they had been forced to turn away new apprentice starts because of it.

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said she was “absolutely delighted” the cap is being abolished.

“Each year this causes big issues for smaller employers who wish to take on more apprentices and there is always a lack of transparency over whether the cap will reset or not,” Hickie said.

“This then leads to employers being unable to plan for the future effectively. Last year it took a huge amount of lobbying from AELP and its members to ensure the minister intervened to reset the cap.”

The cap was originally introduced in January 2020 with a limit of three new apprenticeship starts, before it was lifted to ten in summer 2020.

Small businesses that do not pay the apprenticeship levy receive 95 per cent of training costs from the apprenticeship budget, funded by levy paying businesses.

The rationale of the cap had been that it would prevent the overall apprenticeships budget from being overspent.

In April 2021 the DfE reset the cap so that non-levy paying businesses could start up to 10 new apprentices regardless of however many they already had.

Mounting pressure from the sector again last year resulted in the cap being reset once again in June 2022. The DfE at the time confirmed it would keep the cap under review.

To date, small employers who hit the cap had been forced to go down the avenue of requesting levy transfers from larger employers which weren’t using some of their levy funds, as levy transfer funded apprentices did not count towards the cap.

Since taking on the skills, apprenticeships and further education brief for a second time in October, Halfon has made growing apprenticeship starts one of his priorities, in particular pushing for more degree apprenticeship learners.

He told this week’s Apprenticeship Ambassador Network conference that “rules will be removed where we don’t need them” to help SMEs recruit apprentices.

He told the conference that a redesigned registration process will make it “simpler and quicker” for SMEs to take on their first apprentices, with employers able to ask training providers to assist with more of the account administration.

In addition, he voiced ambitions for an easier levy transfer system and plans to double the number of starts on the pathway to accelerated apprenticeship skills bootcamps, so that SMEs could recruit directly off those bootcamps at no cost.

Nottingham provider ‘taken by surprise’ over Ofsted ‘inadequate’ report

An independent training provider in Nottingham has voiced its surprise after Ofsted published an ‘inadequate’ report while it was still challenging the findings.

Voluntary and Community Sector Learning and Skills Consortium, which trades as Enable, said it had challenged the grade four rating it received from the education watchdog in a report published on Wednesday, following a visit in January.

It had previously been rated ‘good’.

Teresa Cullen, chair of the board, said the organisation was “taken by surprise when it was published”.

“We were expecting to hear something further from them, it’s been a very difficult process really,” Cullen said.

“We didn’t expect to be inadequate, we haven’t been inadequate before. We feel very strongly that Ofsted haven’t taken into account the unique challenges of an organisation like ours.”

Cullen said it “feels very much like they had already decided before they arrived,” explaining that “the report doesn’t reflect the feedback they gave us on site”. She added that the impact of Covid-19 recovery wasn’t taken into consideration, and felt inspectors “didn’t understand” the provider’s niche in the market.

Cullen acknowledged there was “a lot at stake” given Education and Skills Funding Agency guidance dictates that ‘inadequate’ providers will have their ESFA funding withdrawn.

The organisation confirmed that it is currently in negotiations with the ESFA.

However, Cullen said that withdrawal of funding could put the jobs at risk for around half of the provider’s 27-strong team, and could have an impact on the 11 subcontractors it works with too, some of which are third sector organisations.

At the time of the inspection, Enable had 330 learners and apprentices, the majority of whom were on employability, English and maths courses for adults.

The report said tutors did not identify what apprentices could do at the start of their courses, or use assessments to plan individualised programmes as a result.

It found that “too often” tutors were not aware of learners’ additional needs or know how to support them.

Inspectors reported that too many learners didn’t attend lessons often enough, while the “vast majority” of learners didn’t benefit from activities beyond their vocational training.

Ofsted said that leaders, managers and trustees “do not have an accurate oversight or understand the quality of the teaching they provide, including that of subcontractors”.

The organisation works with 11 subcontractors, whom Ofsted found received “no guidance or support to develop and improve the quality of the courses they provide, beyond checks of their compliance documentation.”

The report continued that Enable’s self-assessment report is “overly positive” while weaknesses previously identified still remained and “performance has declined significantly”.

It said that learners’ targets were too generic, apprentices didn’t receive frequent reviews and were poorly prepared for their end point assessment.

Elsewhere, teaching was dubbed “ineffective” with teachers not readily available due to other teaching commitments and teaching resources were outdated.

More than 100 students were on access to HE courses. Ofsted found learners were expected to work independently on with no input from tutors unless there were problems.

Inspectors said that safeguarding measures were not effective, as leaders and managers didn’t ensure staff are suitable to work with learners and apprentices and did not carry out due diligence checks on tutors.

Apprenticeship achievements drop leaves most providers in scope for intervention

Three in ten training providers will flag as “at risk” as new figures reveal tumbling apprenticeship achievement rates.

Combined with 25 per cent falling in the “needs improvement” category of the government’s apprenticeship accountability framework, 54 per cent of training providers fall in scope for some form of intervention.

This has prompted calls from the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, which represents apprenticeship training providers, to call for an “overhaul” of the “out of date” achievement rate model of measuring apprenticeship quality.

Overall apprenticeship achievement rates dropped last year, new figures reveal, leaving the sector even further away from the government’s 67 per cent target.

National statistics for 2021/22 show that the overall achievement rate for apprenticeships fell to 53.4 per cent, a drop of 4.3 percentage points on the year before and eleven percentage points lower than pre-Covid levels in 2018/19.

There were 263,550 leavers in 2021/22, which is just under 12,000 below 2020/21. Of those, 85 per cent were training towards apprenticeship standards. Only 39,450 apprentice leavers were on frameworks, which are being phased out.

The achievement rate for standards in 2021/22 was 51.4 per cent, down 0.4 percentage points on the year before, and for frameworks the rate was 64.9 per cent, down 4 percentage points.

Skills minister Robert Halfon, in a letter to the apprenticeships sector, said: “I know that there is much more for us to do collectively to raise the annual apprenticeship achievement rate, currently standing at 51 per cent for apprenticeship standards.

“While not all the reasons for non-achievement are within the gift of providers or employers, I know that, like me, you want to see this figure improve.”

The letter stated a range of government initiatives aimed at improving quality, including the ETF workforce development programme and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s consultation on mandatory qualifications and end point assessments.

Provider data

This is the first time data on individual providers has been published since 2018/19. Ministers cancelled the publication of provider level performance data for 2019/20 and 2020/21 due to the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic and lockdown measures. 

Under the government’s apprenticeship accountability framework, training providers are considered “at risk” if their overall apprenticeship achievement rate is less than 50 per cent and “needs improvement” if it is between 50 per cent and 60 per cent.

Achievement rates are one of a number of measures used by the Department for Education to hold apprenticeship training providers to account.

Today’s data shows that 309 training providers, 29 per cent of the total, flag as “at risk” and 267 (25 per cent) as “needs improvement”. This means, combined, over half of all apprenticeship training providers, 54 per cent, could be in line for “management conversations” with DfE managers and enhanced performance monitoring. 

According to the statistics, 85,250 apprentices trained with providers that scored an overall achievement rate of below 50 per cent, which represents around a third of the total.

And 789 providers, three quarters, are currently below the government’s target of 67 per cent by 2025.

Skills minister Robert Halfon recently confirmed to FE Week that the 67 per cent achievement rate target introduced by one of his predecessors, Alex Burghart, was still in place and that he is “working very hard to try and improve that”.

Providers in scope for additional monitoring can face new contract conditions, restrictions on subcontracting and, ultimately, contract termination.

Training body wants change

Training provider body AELP has said measuring apprenticeship quality using achievement rates is no longer fit for purpose.

It pointed out that the reduced overall achievement rate reflects “the residual impact of the Covid 19 pandemic” on the labour market, and said the “methodology still counts learners who left years ago based on their planned end dates alongside the impact breaks-in-learning has had.”

Chief executive Jane Hickie said: “The way in which apprenticeship achievement rates are calculated is out of date, and represents a regime prior to the introduction of an employer led system.

“We should be far more focused on outcomes, not outputs, including for those who don’t complete their apprenticeship.”

Hickie suggests “tracking learner progression and earnings following an apprenticeship” as a more effective measure of apprenticeship quality.

Low pay and high turnover of college teachers uncovered

Fuelled by an 18 per cent real terms pay cut, college teachers are leaving the profession at a faster rate than other public sector occupations, a new report has found.

Economic think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies has also laid bare the growing gap between what teachers in colleges are paid compared to teachers in schools.

The research investigated how college teacher pay has changed in the last decade and looks at the college sector’s staff turnover rate compared to other public sectors.

This comes as FE unions issued their demand for an inflation-plus pay award for the next academic year. 

Unlike school teachers, college teacher pay isn’t set nationally. Instead, individual colleges are free to set their own pay for teachers. 

College bosses are aided by an annual recommendation on pay rises from the Association of Colleges, but it is only a recommendation.

The IFS compared those AoC pay recommendations for college teachers with pay awards granted to school teachers. They found that while school teacher pay has fallen between 5 and 13 per cent in real terms, recommended pay of college teachers has declined by 18 per cent in the last decade. 

The median salary for a school teacher is now around £41,500 and for college teachers it is £34,500. 

Adjusted to today’s prices, school teachers were earning £48,000 in 2010 and college teachers £42,500. This proves that while teacher pay in the round has declined significantly, teachers in colleges have borne the brunt, with a 19 per cent fall in real earnings compared to 14 per cent for their school counterparts.

The gap between teacher pay in schools and colleges is well documented and has been one of the AoC’s core arguments for increased funding for FE in recent years. 

However that 18 per cent headline figure could mask a larger fall in college teacher pay. Using freedom of information data obtained by UCU, researchers found that in the three academic years between 2018/19 and 2020/21, a majority of colleges made pay awards at or below the AoC’s recommendation.

UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, said the report highlights college leaders’ “refusal” to “properly uplift pay”.

She said: “The staffing crisis in our colleges is real and has been driven by over a decade of austerity which has held down pay and cut college resources.

“The sad reality, though, is that the pay cut faced by college teachers is higher than the 18 per cent cited by the IFS, with most colleges refusing to implement pay recommendations made by the employer body. In this scenario, staff are denied binding national bargaining agreements and failed by local college employers who refuse to properly uplift pay or address shocking workloads.”

Meanwhile school teaching unions have been successful in securing an offer of a £1,000 one-off payment for school teachers this year and a 4.3 per cent pay rise for most school teachers in 2023/24.

Teacher turnover

College teachers are much more likely to leave the profession than other public sector occupations, the IFS found. 

According to the report, 16 per cent of college teachers leave the profession each year. That figure is 10 per cent for school teachers, between 10 and 11 per cent in most NHS occupations and 7 to 8 per cent in the civil service. 

Worryingly, the report finds that it’s the more experienced college teachers that are most likely to leave. 

The IFS reports that around a quarter of college teachers leave after one year and almost half leave after three years. In schools, 15 per cent leave after one year and around 25 per cent leave after three years.

After ten years, less than a quarter of college teachers remain in teaching, compared with over 60 per cent of school teachers.

Source: Institute for Fiscal Studies

This was one of the most concerning findings according to one of the report authors. 

Imran Tahir, IFS research economist and an author of the report, told FE Week: “I think this was actually one of the most shocking things we found in this research, the fact that college teachers don’t stay around for long in their in their profession. Anecdotally, we’d heard that it’s very difficult for college leaders to retain their staff. But I think just the level of turnover in the workforce has been what I personally have found it shocking.”

Anne Murdoch, senior adviser in college leadership at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is simply not sustainable to have nearly half of all teachers leaving after three years. The fact that just one quarter remain in the profession after 10 years should also be a source of great concern. Colleges need to be able to retain and develop staff with a wide range of specialist and technical skills.”

The future is ‘gloomy’

The report highlights that between 2010/11 and 2019/20, public spending per 16-19 year old fell by 14 per cent and spending on classroom-based adult education has halved. 

Despite this, college and union leaders have to date been unsuccessful in lobbying for extra funding to close the teacher pay gap and make college teaching competitive not only with schools, but with industry. 

According to David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, the exodus of college teachers is already causing course closures.

“This staffing crisis in colleges, means that courses are having to be withdrawn or restricted. The irony of this is profound, because fewer courses means the skills shortages in the labour market will get worse, making it even more likely that college lecturers will leave their teaching roles. The impact will be fewer trained builders, health workers and technicians and a brake on the UK’s economy.” Hughes said.

Pay negotiations between unions and the AoC for the 2023/24 academic year are set to begin on April 19. The National Joint Forum, made up of unions UCU, NEU, GMB and Unite, have set out their demands for a pay increase worth 15.4 per cent, which is January’s inflation (RPI) figure plus two per cent. 

Last year’s AoC pay recommendation was for a 2.5 per cent pay rise with a £500 or £750 non-consolidated cost of living bonus.

Cost pressures on further education providers, like colleges, were ignored in the recent spring budget, so any pay awards for 2023/24 will need to be found from already stretched budgets. 

Without extra support, “the immediate future for the college workforce appears gloomy” the report concludes.

Catholic sixth form college retains ‘outstanding’ after 14-year Ofsted respite

A Catholic sixth form college has been judged to be ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted – 14 years on from its last inspection.

Cardinal Newman College, in Lancashire, was handed top marks across the board in a report published today following a visit in February.

The college teaches more than 4,200 young people on a mix of level 3 A-level and vocational programmes.

Inspectors found students who were “overwhelmingly positive about the education that they receive and the care and support that staff give them during their time at college”, adding that students “thrive in the supportive and nurturing environment that leaders and staff have created”.

Teachers were praised for promoting and advocating the “Newman mindset”, which includes “high expectations and aspirations for future life beyond college”.

Teachers also plan students’ learning “meticulously so that they gain a deep knowledge of the content but also develop high levels of transferable skills such as critical-thinking, problem-solving and data analysis”.

Leaders were lauded for providing “an ambitious, focused and high-quality curriculum offer”, as well as a “broad variety of A-level and vocational programmes to provide progression to university, apprenticeships or employment”.

Inspectors also found that leaders “provide a highly effective foundation learning programme for young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) that helps them to achieve in line with their peers and prepares them for their next steps in independence, further training or employment”.

This was Cardinal Newman College’s first inspection since 2009, at which point the college was also judged ‘outstanding’.

Since the last visit Ofsted has introduced an enhanced inspection framework, meaning inspections place less emphasis on exam results and more on the quality of teaching and curriculum, as well as the skills inspection element which assesses how well it is meeting the needs in the area.

Principal Nick Burnham said: “Cardinal Newman College is proud to have been rated as outstanding by Ofsted once again.

“The outcome of the report is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our wonderful staff, students and the wider Newman community, who always go above and beyond.”

College student suicide risk on the rise, ‘stark’ report reveals

Urgent calls have been made by colleges for more resources to support student mental health after a new survey found nine in ten colleges reported attempted suicide by learners in the last year.

The Association of Colleges’ 2023 mental health survey found that more than 80 per cent of colleges had referred a learner to A&E as a result of mental health needs, as 95 per cent of colleges say they have seen an increase in mental health disclosures among their 16 to 18 students.

The report said that colleges face a “tsunami of need” as demand for wellbeing services soared, but praised the efforts of the sector to bolster measures in recent years with more mental health policies, boosted training for staff and counselling provision for learners.

The survey published this week gathered views from 82 general FE colleges, 13 sixth form colleges, six specialist colleges and four from academies and independent specialist colleges. It found that nine in ten colleges were aware of a learner or learners who had attempted suicide in the last 12 months.

It reported that 70 per cent of the 79 respondents to that question had seen an increase in attempts, which totalled 1,357 in the last year.

The report said it demonstrated the need to expand suicide first aid training, with only 61 per cent of colleges citing that as part of their staff development programme and a third of colleges not being engaged in the local suicide prevention plan.

Elsewhere, eight in ten colleges had made an A&E referral for a learner’s mental health in the last year – 560 in total, or nine referrals per provider average.

It comes amid a backdrop of increasing mental health concerns as 95 per cent reported a slight or significant increase in 16 to 18 learners disclosing a mental health need and 82 per cent of colleges saying a significant number of students were experiencing mental health needs without a formal disclosure.

According to the survey, the biggest drivers of student mental health difficulties were circumstances at home (90 per cent), Covid-19 (85 per cent), social media (77 per cent) and gender identity (72 per cent).

Other reasons reported included exam stress, cost of living, money worries, employment, and drugs and alcohol.

Olly Parker, head of external affairs at mental health charity YoungMinds, said: “It is concerning that so many students are struggling with their mental health and that there has been an increase in those reaching crisis. We know from speaking to young people that the last year has been one of the most challenging for this age group, emerging from the pandemic to more limited prospects for their futures, an increase in academic pressure to catch up on lost learning, and a cost of living crisis.”

The organisation has called on the government to commit to a four-week waiting time to ensure young people do not get worse while waiting for help.

The AoC’s report, however, found that despite tight finances in the sector, colleges had been making huge efforts to provide support.

It said that 90 per cent had appointed senior mental health leads, three quarters had dedicated mental health policies for students and staff, 100 per cent were running wellbeing sessions for students, 86 per cent had delivered general mental health awareness training for staff and 96 per cent had trained mental health first aiders.

The findings said that 68 per cent of respondents were now employing their own counsellors (on average two part time and one full time counsellor per provider) while a further 36 per cent bought in counselling support from external organisations.

Stuart Rimmer, chief executive of East Coast College and chair of the AoC’s mental health and wellbeing policy group, said: “It does paint a stark picture of the position of colleges right now, and in the context of that the underfunding of the broad aspects of the public sector.

“The issues presenting to colleges are increasing in volume and the issues are becoming more acute for colleges. The reality is that this is now sucking a huge amount of resource in colleges which fundamentally we are not paid for.”

Rimmer said ringfenced funding for mental health measures would be helpful, but praised the efforts of colleges.

He added: “If colleges did not do this work, there would be cause to worry gravely for the mental health outcomes of many displaced or forgotten sections of society now supported by their local college.”

Jen Hope, mental health policy lead at the AoC, said: “Faced with huge disruption, budget restraints and massive uncertainty, colleges have worked hard during these challenging times to support students with their mental health and wellbeing.”

In addition, staff mental health concerns were raised as 62 per cent of colleges reported an increase in staff accessing mental health services. Recurrence of existing mental health issues and high workloads were the two biggest reasons given for those, with others including Covid-19, caring duties, cost of living fears and job uncertainty.

The report said there was a lack of specialist support and timely access to it in both colleges and the wider community health services, while the lack of funding was impacting the overall effectiveness of support measures.

The report referenced the government’s announcement in January that it would pump £150 million by April 2025 into 150 new urgent and emergency mental health facilities, but said that while this will help it “does not go far enough”.

The AoC’s commitments in the report included dedicated research on learner mental health, regular reporting on emerging issues, helping champion and resource staff development opportunities, and developing dedicated resources and peer-networking.

That is set to include “a suite of resources, lesson plans, workshops and awareness campaigns aimed at learners”.

It has called on government to ensure funding reaches further education providers and continued review of data around the impacts of key concerns such as Covid-19 and cost of living worries.

Colleges have been urged to conduct regular surveys of staff and learners to build an evidence base, broaden staff development to include areas such as suicide awareness training, sign the AoC’s mental health charter and engage with local health services.

Dr Nihara Krause, consultant clinical psychologist and chief executive and founder of youth mental health charity stem4 said that only a third of young people were able to access early intervention support, meaning that often by the time students reach college their difficulties are more severe.

Krause said that colleges “should be applauded for making mental health and wellbeing a priority,” and added: “If we really want to turn the tide of mental ill health in this young generation, urgent action is needed in the form of more effective evidence-based early mental health interventions. 

“And this requires meaningful investment in secondary care and access to effective mental health support in every school, college, and university across the UK, as well as specialist mental health practitioners supporting primary care providers.”

The Samaritans are available 365 days a year day or night. Call them for free on 116123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit www.samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.

Unions submit 15% college pay demand to AoC

Unions have demanded an inflation-busting 15 per cent pay increase for college staff next year.

The 2023/24 pay claim request put forward jointly by the National Joint Forum collective of five unions to the Association of Colleges has demanded a retail price index increase (13.4 per cent) plus 2 per cent on all pay points – 15.4 per cent in total – as well as calls for all colleges to pay the national living wage – currently £10.42 for those aged 23 and above.

The request is above the 10.4 per cent consumer price index or 13.8 per cent retail price index inflation rate reported last month and well above the 2.5 per cent offer the AoC put forward to colleges last year.

In addition, the unions call for “significant movement” towards “meaningful national agreements to address workload in colleges,” and sector-wide agreement on a new national bargaining framework for a new national contract for FE staff.

The unions also want a commission to be formed to address climate change, looking at sustainability, new skills, climate justice and a road map to the sector becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

The five unions making the demands, which would be for introduction from August, are the University and College Union (UCU), Unison, the National Education Union (NEU), GMB and Unite.

Their submission said: “In recent years staff in FE in England have seen their pay, working conditions and professionalism undermined. The annual cycle of NJF negotiations has not resulted in meaningful and tangible outcomes that benefit staff.

“This year the joint trade unions claim seeks change. We want the outcomes of these negotiations to result in a pay rise linked to inflation and meaningful and binding agreements leading to real action to address excessive workloads and a commission to start to tackle climate change.”

It pointed out that the rise in prices workers were facing was at a 40-year high, and said that sector pay had fallen behind inflation by more than 35 per cent since 2009/10.

In response to the government negotiations with unions over school teacher pay, the AoC said that “college unions, staff and college leaders all stand on the side lines looking in, with no mechanism to negotiate”.

The association added: “Pay in colleges is just as important, particularly now that colleges are part of the public sector. With college lecturers paid around £8,000 to £10,000 less than their counterparts in schools, a better pay award for schools will widen what is already an unacceptable gap.

“Poor pay is now holding back colleges from offering training and skills because they cannot recruit and retain people to teach.”

The AoC last year proposed 2.25 per cent initially, upping its offer to 2.5 per cent. But the UCU condemned it as “beyond insulting” as the cost-of-living crisis worsened, as it fell short of its 10 per cent pay demand.

At the time, AoC chief executive David Hughes said that “the money is simply not there”, describing it as “both inadequate compared with inflation but also on the cusp of what is affordable for most colleges”.

The first meeting for negotiations between the unions and AoC is due to be held on April 19.

Keegan resists calls to rethink BTEC defunding plan

Ministers have doubled down on the timeline for defunding qualifications that overlap with T Levels, despite fierce criticism of the “dogmatic” approach.  

Some of the T Levels due to launch this autumn have been delayed but the government has insisted that funding for other level 3 qualifications, such as BTECs, will continue only if they meet strict criteria and do not overlap with the new provision. 

The government has pursued a revised 16 to 19 education landscape for 2025, pushing students to study A-levels, a T Level or an apprenticeship. 

The Department for Education will publish a list of new qualifications that will replace the current suite of BTECs and other applied generals in July 2024, for schools and colleges to start delivering in September 2025. 

In a letter last week to Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, 360 school and college leaders described the timescale as “simply not credible,” and urged her to push back the plans by at least a year. 

The delay to four of September’s new T Levels prompted further questions over whether the timeline for defunding BTEC and other applied general qualifications would change too. 

However, in a written parliamentary response this week, Keegan said: “Qualifications that overlap with the three T Levels moved back to 2024 were already due to have funding removed in 2025 and this will not change; there will still be dual running for one year.” 

“We will confirm implications for qualifications that overlap with the catering T Level when we provide an update on the timetable for introduction,” she added.  

David Hughes, the Association of Colleges chief, said the T Level delay “highlights the risks involved in implementing new qualifications”. He called for at least two full cohorts to complete each T Level before any decision on defunding other qualifications. 

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association said it “makes absolutely no sense” to press on with axing existing level 3s. 

Last summer, when health and science T Level exams were regraded based on other assessments after they were deemed an inadequate measure of students’ performance, the cull of overlapping levels 3s was paused. 

“It is astonishing that DfE has not at least taken the same approach with these wave 4 T Levels. The government’s dogmatic approach to level 3 reform will leave many young people without a viable pathway to higher education or employment,” Kewin said.