Level 3 reform: Ministers must step back from the precipice

Cast your mind back to the 18th of July this year, when temperatures hit 40 degrees and ministerial jobs at the department for education were available on a seasonal basis.

In a sweltering Westminster Hall, then-skills minister, Andrea Jenkyns was responding to the parliamentary debate triggered by the Protect Student Choice: don’t scrap BTECs campaign petition which had secured 108,000 signatures.

After MPs from all parties had expressed deep concerns about the government’s proposals for level 3 qualifications, the minister implemented the department’s well-established standard operating procedure for this policy area:

  • Step 1: repeatedly restate the government’s proposals
  • Step 2: talk about technical qualifications rather than applied general qualifications
  • Step 3: most importantly, only provide answers to questions that have not actually been asked.

This week’s response to the letter signed by the leaders of the 29 organisations in the Protect Student Choice campaign – including FE Week – suggests that this standard operating procedure is still very much in place.

The campaign letter contained three practical proposals that could be implemented before the government launches its (now overdue) qualification approval process. First, exempt the 134 reformed applied general qualifications from the approval process. Second, exempt all health and science qualifications from both the overlap and approval process. And third, adapt the process to allow medium and large academic qualifications to be submitted for approval.

The department’s response did not address any of these proposals and could very easily have been written before the campaign letter had been sent.

A letter signed by the leaders of organisations that represent and support students, staff and leaders in schools, colleges and universities alongside a range of employer representative groups deserved a much better response. But copying and pasting a selection of platitudes rather than addressing the issues is symptomatic of the department-knows-best attitude that has characterised the review of level 3 qualifications.

Successive ministers have been badly advised on these reforms

This matters because we are approaching a pivotal moment in the review. If the qualification approval process is launched without the adaptations suggested in the Protect Student Choice campaign letter, many applied general qualifications will disappear. For example, as currently conceived, there is no mechanism for awarding organisations to submit medium-sized (2 A level-equivalent) academic qualifications, and large (3 A level-equivalent) qualifications will only be funded in subject areas where there is no T level.

Successive ministers have been badly advised on the reform of level 3 qualifications. It has not helped that the tenure of some recent ministers has barely exceeded the 45-day duration of a T level work placement.

The future of applied general qualifications and by extension the life chances of tens of thousands of young people are largely in the hands of the minister that actually signed this week’s response to the Protect Student Choice letter.

Robert Halfon was only re-appointed recently and has a broad brief that includes apprenticeships, higher education reform, college governance and lots more besides. We might optimistically assume that on his watch, the sort of response received by the campaign this week will soon become a thing of the past.

It is hard to believe that, with Halfon’s extensive knowledge of and passion for the sector, he will allow the approval process to continue as planned, given this would see many of the 134 recently reformed applied general qualifications disappear. During the skills bill debate last year, he described BTECs as “qualifications with good outcomes” and emphasised that “quality BTECs should remain for all students to access”.    

Unlike many of his predecessors, he also has the knowledge and experience to challenge the voices within DfE that believe most applied general qualifications must be removed for T levels to flourish.

As I wrote after that balmy evening back in July, students need genuine choice, not A levels, T levels and a very small group of applied general qualifications that are approved by exception.

Robert Halfon has a golden opportunity to make that a reality, to step back from the precipice and ensure no student is left behind through the level 3 review process. The Protect Student Choice coalition and the students, staff, leaders, employers and many other constituencies we represent all hope it is an opportunity he takes. 

£500m for schools and colleges to make buildings more energy efficient

Schools and colleges will get £500 million funding to “futureproof” buildings by making them more energy efficient.

This will work out, on average, as £42,000 per secondary school, £16,000 for a primary school and £290,000 for a futher education college.

Allocations for 183 colleges and designated institutions were published this morning and have been based on total ESFA revenue funding for 2021/22. This means NCG, Capital City College Group and New City College will each receive over £1 million.

The Department for Education said funding would be paid to colleges in January and can be spent over the next two financial years.

Improvements could include “installing better heating controls, insulation to reduce heat loss from pipes or switching to energy efficient lighting”, the government said.

However colleges have been given discretion to spend the funding on “other capital projects” if they deem efficiency projects to be “not appropriate based on local circumstances.”

New guidance was also be published today to “support schools to maximise energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and improve sustainability and resilience this winter and beyond”.

As expected, government confirmed the energy support for schools and colleges will end in the spring.

It’s not clear if the £500 million is new funding, or recycled from elsewhere.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan said: “We’re putting this cash in the hands of school and college leaders quickly, so they can decide what work is needed and so that our brilliant teachers can focus on teaching in a warm and safe environment.

“Education is rightly a top priority for this government and we will continue to strive to provide every child with a world-class education.”

But Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the investment will “not pay energy bills in the immediate future”.

“We are deeply concerned that the government intends to end the energy relief scheme that is currently in place to help schools and colleges meet rising costs at the end of March.

“Removing this support will expose them to massive increases in energy bills that are simply unaffordable, and this will necessitate cuts in educational provision. Funding for energy efficiency upgrades is a longer term undertaking and will not address the present crisis.”

Labour should bring colleges under local control, Gordon Brown suggests

The architect of Labour’s plans for a radical shake-up of government has suggested that control of England’s colleges should be given to local leaders.

Keir Starmer unveiled the party’s report ‘A new Britain: Renewing our democracy and rebuilding our economy’ at Leeds University this morning, which includes bold plans to scrap the House of Lords and form regional clusters of industry.

The report, penned by Labour’s Commission on the UK’s Future and led by former prime minister Gordon Brown, also proposes “new responsibilities for linking local employment needs to local skills training, including the devolution of the job centre network and freeing further education colleges from central control”.

There were 15 other members of the commission; four of whom were local authority leaders. The rest was made up of trade union leaders, former ministers and academics.

The report contains few details on the college proposals aside from further devolution of adult skills funding and local skills improvement plans, but at the launch event this morning Brown said: “To link the jobs people need to the companies who need them, we propose 638 job centres transferred from inflexible central control, down to local control.

“To match local skills with local employment needs, the devolution of 200 colleges of education to local control.”

However, there was no mention of devolving 16 to 19 and higher education funding in Brown’s speech or the report, so it is unclear exactly how much control over colleges Labour wants local leaders to have. FE Week has approached the party for more information.

While not formal manifesto pledges at this stage, the party said it would consult on the report before finalising its manifesto at a later date.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said it was “vital” colleges engaged with mayors and local government leaders, as well as employers and business groups, and said the AoC would engage to ensure Labour’s proposals “result in a more coherent, joined-up system with colleges at the heart”.

He said that the ambitions go “a lot further than current policy” in building on adult skills devolution and local skills improvement plans, but added: “Colleges will be nervous about any proposals which replace Whitehall bureaucracy and interfere with town hall versions of the same, but they will be keen on good devolution which recognises the need to stimulate demand for skills through economic growth and the need for an inclusive approach which offers the investment colleges need to meet demands.”

Labour’s announcement comes a week after colleges were reclassified by the Office for National Statistics as public sector organisations.

In 2017, Labour’s then-leader Jeremy Corbyn told FE Week at the Association of Colleges’ conference that he feared the independent status of colleges, following their incorporation in 1993, risked them drifting from local communities and the local education authorities, and spoke of forming a model that brings them closer together with that while maintaining a connection with local industry.

Jeremy Corbyn

A year later, then-shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden refused to rule out bringing colleges under local authority control – a desire echoed by the National Education Union in 2019.

Labour’s new report said that the current system is “highly fragmented” with “at least 49 national employment and skills related schemes or services managed by nine Whitehall departments and agencies”.

The party wants to consolidate various adult education funding streams, such as the adult education budget (AEB), Multiply project cash and Shared Prosperity Fund into one pot, and be fully devolved to current and future mayors and economic partnerships.

In addition, it said that development of local skills improvement plans – key documents which map out current and future skills needs – should be led by directly-elected mayors and combined authorities, rather than local chambers of commerce.

The National Careers Service should be co-commissioned by partnerships of local authorities, combined authorities and metro mayors, it added.

The ambitions come after the party published a report penned by former education secretary David Blunkett in October for a shake-up of the skills system. That included proposals to widen the apprenticeship levy for use on other forms of training too, introducing a skills tax credit for small and medium-sized enterprises, a review of Ofsted, and bringing back the education maintenance allowance among other plans.

Under that report, the party had already proposed an overhaul of the careers service to operate as regional or sub-regional hubs, and forming a national skills taskforce to simplify the local patchwork of bodies overseeing skills and facilitate devolution of those responsibilities.

Government steps up plans to improve prisoners’ literacy skills

Government plans to boost the literacy skills of prisoners have moved a step closer, with the launch of a new reading app and commissioning of “innovative solutions”.

The Ministry of Justice this week announced that 300 offenders in Kent, Surrey and Sussex will be in a pilot for a new reading app, called Turning Pages Digital, as part of a £20 million plan to help cut the cost of reoffending and address education attainment.

The app will allow those leaving prison to improve their reading skills with trained mentors and help boost their job prospects.

It comes as the government also launched a £360,000 contract opportunity for bids to the Literacy Innovation Fund – a pot of cash for schemes that will help learners read, particularly those who are harder to reach.

The government’s contract notice online said it was looking for “solutions which deliver English learning in an appealing and accessible way to prisoners (including those that may have additional learning needs) who are currently unable or unwilling to engage in the current education offer to improve their literacy skills”.

“We are particularly interested in approaches that support prisoners with a range of reading and writing needs, including decoding, word reading, reading fluency, vocabulary learning, spelling and reading/writing practice.”

Bidders will be able to apply for projects in five regions, although will only be awarded one. It is planned as a 25-month contract with an optional 24-month extension, beginning at the end of February 2023.

The Turning Pages Digital app has been funded through the £20 million Prison Leavers Project, which aims to cut the annual £18 billion cost of reoffending by tackling some of the key drivers of crime, such as unemployment, poor education standards and substance misuse.

An education select committee report published earlier this year called on the government to improve prison education, which it dubbed a “clunky, chaotic, disjointed system which does not value education as the key to rehabilitation”.

A report by Ofsted and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in March found some “serious systemic challenges”, adding that the curriculum was not focused on reading but practising for exams.

According to the government, offenders who engage in education are nine percentage points less likely to reoffend, but with more than half of them having the reading ability of a primary school child they can continue to struggle after release.

Turning Pages Digital has been developed by digital agency Yalla Cooperative and the Shannon Trust, a charity which helps those from disadvantaged backgrounds learn to read and works in 80 prisons already.

Pank Sethi, a Shannon Trust board member who was a reading mentor during his own time in prison, said: “I helped a learner read his five-year-old daughter’s note saying ‘I love you daddy’ for the first time, and have supported another who is now at university.

“It’s not just about education or getting a job, it’s about the positive impact that literacy has on an individual’s whole life and wider family.”

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 408

Tamara Pierce

Associate Director – Teaching and Learning, Middlesbrough College

Start date: November 2022

Previous job: Advanced Practitioner, Education Training Collective

Interesting fact: Tamara started her career as a history teacher and continues to be a keen historian. She is particularly interested in the development of women’s rights in the 20th Century.

Bernard Grenville-Jones

Managing Director, Activate Apprenticeships and Business School

Start date: November 2022

Concurrent job: Executive Director (Enterprise), Activate Learning Group

Interesting fact: Before becoming an executive, Bernard was one of Activate’s governors and founded Activate Apprenticeships and Business School. He is also a qualified tree surgeon, although doesn’t get much practice and thinks he would probably be far too slow to do it for a living.

Kiri Baxter

Head of Region – South West, WEA

Start date: November 2022

Previous job: Senior Education Manager, WEA

Interesting fact: Kiri is a keen sports fan and has travelled the world based on sporting events, as well as having played rugby at Twickenham. Kiri has also published on feminist theory and feminist methodologies.

Andrew Erwich

Operations Director, AELP

Start date: November 2022

Previous job: Director of Employment and Social Impact, QA Ltd

Interesting fact: Andy is a Force’s child and has moved regularly throughout his life, becoming an explorer at heart, be it travelling abroad and falling into a great book or ballet performance. He’d rather discover new things by getting lost than knowing where he’s going, except when driving!

Pilot targeting UC claimants scales back target numbers

A £5.2 million pilot to help those on Universal Credit into training for health and social care careers, that is informing future policy decisions, has been forced to significantly scale back target numbers.

Covid-19 disruption and numbers of staff walking away from the profession due to low levels of pay have hampered progress. But project bosses say social media is now helping drive recruitment as it enters its final four months.

City College Peterborough and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority launched the health and care sector work academy in March 2018 before the pandemic hit, as a Department for Work and Pensions pilot.

It aims to encourage people who were out of work or on low incomes and on Universal Credit to fill gaps in the health and care industry.

Courses have included the level 3 adult care diploma, a level 2 in health and social care, as well as a care certificate, and courses in preparing to work in adult social care, and dementia care.

City College Peterborough was designated the lead provider, with other further education providers also subcontracted.

But the strict regulations around health and care settings during the pandemic halted progress for the subcontractors commissioned pre-Covid, prompting a relaunch and fresh procurement with subcontractors in July this year.

But as contracts only began in the summer, many learners have only come on board in the autumn, a report to the combined authority’s skills committee earlier this month said.

As a result, targets have had to be significantly revised to be more realistic with what providers can achieve.

The five subcontractors had originally been eyed to deliver a total of 1,296 learners, but that has been reduced to 496. Even then, two providers have withdrawn because of struggles to attract learners.

City College Peterborough had a target of 1,220 learners and has hit 1,091 to date with a further 81 in the pipeline.

Ambitions were for 2,100 learners originally, meaning if everyone hits their targets it is still a shortfall of just over 400 learners.

The authority has admitted that there is a “significant risk” of underperformance which could impact on funding.

Spend to the end of July hit £2.7 million from a total £5.2 million pot, but forecast just under £2.4 million of spend for 2022/23.

The revised targets are part of efforts to mitigate the risk of underperformance, with the authority also having identified a further four potential subcontractors, which it is currently in negotiations with to address the shortfall.

Addressing the authority’s skills committee this month, City College Peterborough executive principal Pat Carrington said it was “really starting to take off” pre-pandemic but “what we hadn’t really realised is it would be a lot longer than just the end of the pandemic before the care sector started to accept outsiders back into their world again”.

She added: “That has now been hit with the cost-of-living crisis and the anecdotal feedback we are getting – and obviously when we have the academic evaluation of the project, we will see whether this is correct or not – is that one of our challenges is the pay in the sector. So, people are moving out of the sector as opposed to us attracting people into the sector.”

The pilot provides benefits to learners such as free meals during course time and free childcare to help address some of the potential barriers to take-up.

At the end of the scheme in March, it will be academically assessed over a six-month period.

Fliss Miller, interim associate skills director at the combined authority, said it would look at whether to expand the scheme beyond just those on Universal Credit to boost take-up, and stressed that there had been positive outcomes.

Some who joined the scheme after long periods of economic inactivity had even progressed into management level roles in in the industry, she said.

Miller added: “The attractiveness of the industry is of course a challenge for the country more generally, however, it is worth noting that there have been some examples of life-changing experiences from the academy, with people finding great careers in health and social care and setting themselves up for a better future with the skills they have learned. Changing public perception will be important in bringing more people into the sector.”

A spokesperson from the Department for Work and Pensions said: “The challenges of the pandemic were unprecedented, and we continue to work in partnership with City College Peterborough to promote this pilot.”

The spokesperson added that it remained committed to helping people find new opportunities in health and social care, including through tailored help or more face-to-face time with work coaches.

Leadership and management provider hit with Ofsted ‘inadequate’ for recruiting ‘without integrity’

Ofsted has criticised a leadership and management provider that delivers training mostly online for allegedly recruiting apprentices without “integrity”.

Libra Europe Consulting Limited (Libra) was judged ‘inadequate’ by the education watchdog in its first full inspection report that was published yesterday. The provider, which only started delivering apprenticeships in 2019, now faces having its funding contract terminated by the government.

Ofsted reported that “too many” of the company’s 155 apprentices are “not motivated to complete the work that coaches set” and a “substantially high proportion” leave their programme early.

Inspectors found that too often apprentices’ job roles “do not align with the requirements of the apprenticeship” they are recruited into, which are mainly leadership and management programmes from levels 2 to 5.

Ofsted warned: “These apprentices are unable to produce the correct level and standard of work that is required of the apprenticeship.”

The inspectorate also found that Libra’s leaders and managers continued to recruit apprentices throughout the pandemic “despite knowing that many employers were unable to release apprentices to complete their training”.

Ofsted has placed a much bigger focus on the “integrity” of learner recruitment since the introduction of its education and inspection framework in 2019.

Bob Heward, managing partner at Libra, said his company “wholeheartedly disagreed” with Ofsted’s view that apprenticeship recruitment was done without integrity, but his firm did not challenge the inspectorate.

He told FE Week: “We don’t necessarily agree with them but it’s pretty pointless arguing. We’d say there’s a huge amount of subjectivity. Ofsted talked about having a lack of integrity with regard to onboarding learners and something I disagree with wholeheartedly. Our view and the reality of what that learner is doing is very different. It just feels the cards are stacked against us.”

Ofsted’s report said those in charge at Libra have now implemented new processes to improve the recruitment of apprentices but it is “too early to see the full impact of these changes”.

Heward confirmed his company will now exit the apprenticeships space.

He said there has “not been a lot of support” for a new apprenticeship provider, especially for one that entered the market just months before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

“We have done everything we can to stick by our learners even when funding was being exhausted. We tried everything we could to get them through,” he added.

Ofsted did find during its inspection that most apprentices enjoy their training sessions and demonstrate respect and courtesy for their coaches and colleagues.

Leaders and managers were also praised for having a clear rationale for the curriculum that they offer, in response to local and national employers’ skills needs, and for recruiting staff who have the appropriate industry expertise and qualifications to teach apprentices.

Cornwall secures adult education and skills powers in £360m devolution deal

A £360 million devolution deal has been announced by the government this morning which will see Cornwall local leaders given powers over skills and the adult education budget among other responsibilities.

The announcement, teased in the chancellor’s autumn statement, is set to be signed today between the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Cornwall Council.

The area will get an elected mayor, and among its powers will be control over the adult education budget (AEB) and where it is commissioned, as well as involvement in skills provision through avenues such as local skills improvement plans (LSIPs).

The AEB for Cornwall will be fully devolved by 2025.

According to the government, nearly half of England is to be covered by devolution deals as a result of today’s news.

Mark Duddridge, chair of the Cornwall and Isle of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “The devolution of the adult education budget from central government to Cornwall Council is welcomed as it will enable more tailored support to be provided to thousands of Cornwall’s residents every year to develop the skills they need for life and work.

“That will also allow employers to access a better skilled workforce they need for businesses to grow and thrive, particularly in Cornwall’s foundation and growth sectors.”

The deal being signed today at Cornwall Spaceport is subject to a local consultation beginning next week, as well as agreement from the council and parliamentary approval.

Other responsibilities in the deal will be around transport, housing, tourism and culture and heritage.

Levelling Up minister Dehenna Davison said the deal would “spread opportunity ad unleash this great area’s full economic potential,” while Cornwall Council leader Linda Taylor said the deal “provides clarity in uncertain times and would allow us to make future plans with confidence”.

The deal follows the announcement in the summer that York and North Yorkshire will get devolved powers, before a deal covering Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire was confirmed in the autumn.

The chancellor in his autumn statement announced a deal for Suffolk, although more details have yet to be unveiled for that, and said the government is in advanced negotiations with leaders in Norfolk.

Other county deal areas under negotiation are Devon, Plymouth and Torbay; Durham; Hull and East Yorkshire; and Leicestershire.

The government said that all parts of England that want a devolution deal will be able to negotiate one by 2030.

Apprenticeship underspend shrinks to £11m in 2021/22

The amount of apprenticeship funding handed back to the Treasury shrunk to just £11 million last year, reigniting fears that the apprenticeship budget could go bust soon.

FE Week last month revealed that more than £2 billion of apprenticeship levy funding had been returned to the Treasury unspent in the four years after the levy’s launch in 2017, with £604 million alone in 2020/21.

In response to a written parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney, skills minister Robert Halfon this week provided figures for 2021/22 for the first time, which revealed that £11 million of the £2.4 billion ringfenced budget was unspent last year.

This is despite government data showing that starts in 2021/22 were 11 per cent down on 2018/19 – the year before the pandemic hit when a near-£500 million underspend was recorded.

A much lower underspend appears to have been recorded in 2021/22 despite starts dipping overall because of soaring numbers of higher-level apprenticeship starts, which are expensive to deliver. Government data shows 31,000 more level 4 and above starts were recorded in 2021/22 than the 75,000 in 2018/19. These higher-level apprenticeships now account for around one in three apprenticeship starts overall.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education first warned that the apprenticeships budget was heading for an overspend back in 2018. A National Audit Office report a year later said there was a “clear risk” the programme was not financially sustainable under current arrangements, and costs of training apprentices were around double what was expected in 2015.

But pressure was eased when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 and numbers of new starters fell.

Responding to the shrinking underspend, Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said her organisation has “long warned that the apprenticeship levy risks running dry in the near future”.

She explained that last year’s spending included an additional £219 million for enhanced employer incentives, but strong demand from learners and employers had resulted in increased starts – demand AELP expects to continue.

She said a Treasury commitment to top-up the future apprenticeship programme budget by nearly £200 million by 2024/25 was now “vital”.

In 2019, a Public Accounts Committee meeting heard from the Department for Education’s then-permanent secretary Jonathan Slater, who warned of hard choices to be made if demand on the pot did spill over, suggesting a need to potentially prioritise some apprenticeships.

Then-skills minister Anne Milton later said one of the most palatable solutions would be a “pre-apprenticeship salary limit” to make high earners ineligible and ensure the levy was being used to fund genuine training where needed.

Since then, the sector has fought for greater transparency over the levy underspend. It culminated in the DfE finally being forced to reveal the numbers last month following Freedom of Information requests by FE Week.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of Learning and Work Institute, said: “I think what we are seeing is particularly the impact of the growth of higher apprenticeships which are more expensive per person and last for several years.”

He warned that “if we are going to run out of money it will be small firms and younger people that get squeezed, and we definitely don’t want that”.

Evans explained that one of three things needed to happen – accept if larger firms spend more on higher apprenticeships there will be less for smaller firms; introduce a cap on the amount that can be spent by a business on higher apprenticeships; or bankroll further funding by upping the levy contribution or pumping in more government cash.

He added that staying close to the budget “is a good thing, because the budget is there for a reason,” but added: “We need a bit more transparency from the Department for Education about how much is being spent and also what their projections are based on current levels of demand, otherwise we are having this discussion in a bit of a vacuum.”

Halfon reiterated the department’s commitment to increase apprenticeship funding from £2.5 billion to £2.7 billion by 2024/25, and added: “It is encouraging to see last year’s strong recovery in apprenticeship starts. Supported by the incentive payments for employers and training flexibilities, employers had the confidence to offer new apprenticeships and to deliver them in the way that works best for their business.”