A film and media training provider has accused Ofsted of lacking the expertise to judge its apprenticeship provision after the company failed to overturn an ‘inadequate’ report.

The watchdog republished a grade four judgement for All Spring Media Ltd (ASM) this week after accidentally releasing the report temporarily in July amid a formal challenge from the provider.

Ofsted did not uphold the complaint and the provider faces being banned from delivering apprenticeships, in line with government funding rules.

ASM offers a range of standards-based film and media apprenticeships from levels 2 to 7 to more than 40 different employers across the country, including the BBC, Channel 4, ScreenSkills and Global Radio.

The inspectorate’s main criticism was that “most” apprentices do not benefit from training that is “planned carefully and sequenced around their different job roles so that they can develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours they need and apply them at work quickly”.

Ofsted’s report said many broadcast production assistant and junior content producer apprentices work in environments that “do not relate fully to the training they receive”. They feel “rightly frustrated that they take part in training sessions that pay little regard to what they are working on in their jobs in television studios or broadcasting”.

ASM’s managing director Martina Porter said Ofsted’s three-person inspection team had “no real understanding of our sector”, which is a predominantly freelance industry.

“Our apprentices are on contracts, so they fulfil the requirement of an apprenticeship but they often move around different productions. You have to take a slightly different approach to the training.”

Porter added: “In response to the industry needs, we adapted to a different model of delivery, which meant a lot of that training was upfront, which fits in with the flexi-job apprenticeship approach. So we had a very intense period from I’d say about February to June of upfront training for a number of different employers.”

Ofsted criticised ASM for rapidly recruiting apprentices while failing to recruit enough staff to train them.

The provider gained a direct funding contract for the first time in 2017 and was previously found to be making ‘reasonable progress’ in an early monitoring visit report in 2019.

But since then, ASM’s apprentice numbers have ballooned from 43 to 167. The provider also moved into the delivery of higher- and degree-level apprenticeships between Ofsted visits.

Inspectors claimed that leaders, managers and advisory board members have “not ensured that they have the necessary staffing capacity and expertise in place to cope with the recent growth in the number of apprentices they have recruited”.

“Leaders acknowledge that the increase in apprentice numbers, compounded by some staffing issues, has impacted negatively on their ability to keep up with functions such as quality assurance,” the report said.

“As a result, leaders and managers are not aware that the quality of the training they provide has declined and they have not got an accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their provision.”

While leaders have a “clear rationale” for their creative media apprenticeships, which provide a paid way for young and diverse talent to enter the film and media industries, they “do not have such a well-considered rationale for other apprenticeships they have recently introduced in response to employer demand”, such as assistant accountant and business administrator, the report added.

“Leaders struggled to recruit suitable and experienced staff and they acknowledge that curriculum planning and sequencing in these areas are not effective enough to provide high-quality teaching to apprentices,” Ofsted said.

Porter told FE Week that ASM grew in response to a “massive skills challenge” in the industry after the British Film Institute warned earlier this year that the sector has a deficit of 21,000 crew coming down the line in the next 18 months.

“So there was a very rapid rise [in our apprentice recruitment] and apprenticeship funding comes in retrospectively, so there always will be a challenge,” Porter said.

Porter said her training company will continue to deliver other forms of training to the industry if it is removed from the register of apprenticeship training providers, which is usually the case when private providers received a grade four from Ofsted.

A company continuing to illegally advertise apprenticeships, despite promising to stop last year, is facing fresh government action.

Train 2 Travel Ltd was set up by Michelle Van Sprang in 2020 and soon began advertising through social media, a website and a magazine that it can deliver apprenticeships which are 95 per cent funded by government.

But the firm has never gained a place on the government’s register of apprenticeship training providers and is therefore not allowed to deliver apprenticeships in any capacity.

Under the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, only statutory apprenticeships can be described as apprenticeships. If a provider does not receive funding for apprenticeships, it cannot advertise apprenticeships on its website or elsewhere.

The Department for Education told FE Week it was first alerted to Train 2 Travel’s illegal advertising of apprenticeships in October 2021 at which point it contacted the firm.

Following this contact, the company “agreed to stop advertising apprenticeships with immediate effect”, a DfE spokesperson said.

But evidence has emerged showing that Train 2 Travel has continued to advertise apprenticeships throughout 2022.

Numerous Facebook posts have been posted this year that celebrate “apprentices of the week” and include comments such as “we pride ourselves on delivering our apprenticeships in line with the ever evolving industry”.

One post on May 15 said one apprentice “began our junior content producer apprenticeship during the pandemic”. Another Train 2 Travel Facebook post from February 22 advertises a level 3 travel consultant “apprenticeship”, and tells prospective apprentices and employers to get in touch by calling the mobile number of Van Sprang.

The Facebook page has been taken down in the past few days.

Train 2 Travel also had a live website, which stated its mission was “excelling in the delivery of on-the-job training through apprenticeships”. The website, which listed eight apprenticeships it could supposedly deliver, also said the firm’s values included: “Integrity: we are honest and open with strong moral principles.”

The website was taken down after FE Week contacted Van Sprang. The owner denied that Train 2 Travel has ever delivered apprenticeships but refused to explain why her firm was advertising that it does.

The DfE said it will now write to Train 2 Travel about its repeat offence of advertising apprenticeships. The exact content of the letter is unclear, but the agency told FE Week that in these instances it will typically tell the firm to remove any adverts of apprenticeships. Further enforcement action may result in a referral to trading standards, an authority that investigates unfair trading and illegal business activity.

Train 2 Travel is expected to action the DfE’s request within 10 working days.

The company appears to have links with another training provider, called A S Training (International) Ltd, which is on the government’s register of apprenticeship training providers. But the nature of this relationship is unclear.

Numerous apprenticeship adverts posted by Train 2 Travel include an email address for A S Training (International) Ltd and link to the provider’s website.

FE Week contacted A S Training (International) Ltd’s owner Stephen Foster who declined to comment on the relationship his firm has with Train 2 Travel.

A S Training (International) Ltd is suspended from recruiting new apprentices following an early monitoring report from Ofsted which was published last month and found the company making ‘insufficient progress’ across the board.

Van Sprang declined to comment on her company’s relationship with A S Training (International) Ltd.

The prime minister has tasked education secretary Kit Malthouse with drawing up plans for two new vocational colleges in the north to rival Oxford and Cambridge.

Details of the new institutions, dubbed ‘Voxbridge’, are sparse but could be fleshed out as early as the spring, Malthouse told the Yorkshire Post during a visit to York College’s Institute of Technology on Wednesday. 

But college leaders have slammed the idea as a headline-grabbing and tokenistic political measure that should be dropped. Instead, they want ministers to fund established colleges properly after over a decade of cuts.

The idea for ‘Voxbridge’ colleges comes just months after the government outlined plans for new “elite” academic sixth forms to become the Etons of the north in areas that have weak educational outcomes.

Prime minister Liz Truss made a pledge to open new ‘Voxbridge’ colleges during her leadership campaign over the summer.

The policy was first tabled by Jake Berry, the then-chair of the Northern Research Group of Tory MPs, who is now Conservative party chair.

In a letter outlining his “Northern agenda” to Truss in July, which the now prime minister signed up to, Berry called for “two brand new vocational institutions in the North of England which will be the national vocational equivalents of Oxford and Cambridge – with a high-skilled, economic development corridor between them.

“We want to celebrate excellence by creating the best dual-track education system in the world – putting academic and vocational education on an equal footing,” the policy paper added.

New types of further education institutions have been rolled out over the past decade despite calls for ministers to focus funding on existing colleges. These include Institutes of Technology, University Technical Colleges and National Colleges. The latter two have been plagued with recruitment and quality issues.

Malthouse said ‘Voxbridge’ colleges are an “incredibly exciting idea”.

“Having centres of excellence, as there is with universities, I think, is a really great idea, so we’ll be taking that forward in developing the policy over the months to come,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said if Truss was serious about strengthening the UK’s vocational offer “then she should properly fund and support the brilliant institutions that already exist”.

“The government’s track record on establishing new institutions to deliver is not a good one, with both specialist colleges and many UTCs not faring well,” he told FE Week. “They have failed where they were not part of the system and where their contribution was not part of a coherent skills offer locally. I fear the same would happen with new institutions now, however well-intentioned, and however well-funded.”

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, echoed Hughes’ comments.

“Given the enormous financial pressure on colleges and the public purse, we would suggest that any additional investment should be targeted at existing providers to benefit all students,” he said.

“Sixth form colleges are centres of excellence, and they do an extraordinary job of helping students of all abilities to successfully complete academic, applied, and technical courses in order to reach a range of destinations. New investment, rather than new providers, is the key to raising standards and boosting the status of vocational education.”

The Department for Education confirmed that new ‘Voxbridge’ colleges are in the works but stressed the plans are in their infancy.

A spokesperson said proposals like these will “help to boost the profile of vocational education and get more people into apprenticeships, T Levels, degree apprenticeships and other qualifications”.

A deeply unpopular tax-rise that was estimated to cost the college sector an extra £30 million this year has been scrapped. 

The new chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced this afternoon that the 1.25 percentage point increase to national insurance, which came into force in April, will be reversed on November 6, 2022.

Colleges and training providers alike complained that the national insurance hike came at a time of unprecedented cost pressures, and college leaders were furious when they were excluded from a scheme which compensated schools and public sector organisations. 

The cut could provide an in-year saving of around £15 million for the college sector. 

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers estimated that the move will save training providers between £20-£25 million.

This comes a day after the government announced plans to help non-domestic energy users, including colleges and training organisations, with their energy bills this autumn. 

Kwarteng will publish the government’s ‘growth plan’ tomorrow which will include other measures designed to support business through growth policies and more tax cuts. 

Training providers welcomed the move but told FE Week that any savings would be swallowed up by rising inflation.

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “This tax cut will help individuals and businesses at a very challenging time. However, in the context of spiralling inflation, the savings made from cutting National Insurance alone will be a drop in the ocean for training providers.

“The Chancellor must go further and ensure that funding available for high quality training programmes matches the true cost of delivery” she said.

School and college leaders have demanded better-funded careers advice after official figures showed an uptick in the number of university applicants still without a place a month after results day.

Data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service shows 41,240 18-year-olds from England, Wales and Northern Ireland were still “free to be placed in clearing” as of September 15.

According to UCAS, this means they applied before June 30, but were not placed or holding an offer a month after A-level results day.

At the same point last year, 30,350 students were in the same position. This year’s figure represents a 35.9 per cent increase on 2021, and the highest level in at least 10 years.

A heads’ union warned the figures showed the impact of “severe disruption” during the pandemic.

But UCAS pointed to an increase in applications overall, and said the figures included around 12,000 students who have since found alternative places.

However, the remaining 29,000 students “either withdrew from or did not respond to an offer made during the main cycle”.

University applicants ‘hit by the effects of the pandemic’

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said many of those without places were “young people who have been hit by the effects of the pandemic which has caused severe disruption to their education over the past two years”.

“Too many young people appear to have been let down by a higher education system which should have done better for them.”

Writing for Wonkhe today, UCAS chief executive Clare Marchant said the students “had options available to them but, as consumers, chose not to follow this pathway”.

“This may be due to a change of mind or not securing the offer they wanted. Each cycle, 60,000 – 70,000 students, half of which are aged 19, reapply the following cycle – and our survey data suggests that next cycle some of these students will contribute to that.”

She added that choice “continues to exist” for students “whether they wish to find a place in clearing, apply next year or change pathways towards an apprenticeship – which is as expected and a feature of every cycle”.

Growing numbers will put ‘ever-more pressure’ on uni places

The number of applicants has risen every year since 2018, but that rise has steepened in recent years.

This year, applications from 18-year-olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland increased from around 289,000 to over 303,000. There were 18 per cent more applications this year than in 2019.

The 18-year-old population is expected to grow over the next few years, and Barton said this was “likely to put ever-more pressure on university places, particularly for the most selective universities and courses”.

He called for more government investment in independent careers advice and “information which schools and colleges can draw upon to help their students identify and secure the choices which best suit their needs”.

Although a “record number” of UK 18-year-olds secured a place at university or college after sitting exams, the entry rate 28 days after results day was 37.3 per cent, lower than the 37.9 per cent seen at the same point last year after teachers assessed grades.

However, this is still “notably higher” than the 33.8 per cent seen in 2019.

Unions representing education workers will take legal action against the government over a new law allowing agency workers to cover for striking staff.

Ministers changed the law in July in response to threats of widespread industrial action over pay. It was previously illegal to draft agency staff in to cover striking workers.

Teaching union NASUWT said it will this week lodge a judicial review of the decision, while support staff union Unison has already lodged papers for its own legal challenge.

The University and College Union as well as the National Education Union, the country’s largest education union, are also participating in a joint legal challenge with other unions, coordinated by the Trades Union Congress. Other unions involved in the judicial review include the GMB and Unite, which represent school and college support staff.

Unison said if both its action and the TUC’s were given permission to proceed, it was “likely all the arguments will be heard together”.

Ministers say law will maintain ‘crucial public services’

The government said in July that the law change would allow organisations “most impacted by industrial action to fill vital roles with temporary, skilled workers”.

The reforms would “help ensure crucial public services and people’s daily lives remain uninterrupted by staff strikes”.

But unions have accused the government of bringing in measures to “effectively break strikes”, and said today the new law violates “fundamental trade union rights, including the right to strike”.

“These regulations seek to further undermine and weaken the rights of all workers, including teachers, to take legitimate industrial action,” said Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of NASUWT.

“The government is seeking to prevent workers taking collective action to defend their jobs, pay and working conditions in direct contravention of its international commitments and obligations. The right to strike is enshrined in international law.”

He said the change in the law would have a “profound impact on supply teachers”.

Unions urge ministers to help solve pay disputes

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said ministers “should be rolling up their sleeves and helping solve disputes, not risking everyone’s safety by allowing the use of inexperienced agency workers”.

“Changing the law in such a hostile and unpleasant way makes it much harder for workers to stand up to dodgy employers. It also risks limiting the impact of any legal strike.”

It comes as the University and College Union prepares for “unprecedented” strike action against below-inflation pay offers in almost 30 colleges.

The new government also faces a potential triple whammy of industrial action this year from school teachers, support staff and even school leaders in response to ministers’ pay proposals.

The ASCL school leaders’ union is consulting its members on whether to ballot for industrial action for the first time in its 16-year history. The NAHT leaders’ union said it was not ruling “any action in or out”.

Teachers gear up for pay ballots

The National Education Union has promised the “largest teachers’ pay ballot in a generation” when it formally asks around 250,000 members in November if they want to go on strike. NASUWT has also consulted members on the pay proposals.

The GMB and Unison are consulting support staff members on whether to accept or reject their pay offer. Unite, which also represents some support staff, is balloting for strike action.

Announcing the law change earlier this year, the then business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “In light of militant trade union action threatening to bring vital public services to a standstill, we have moved at speed to repeal these burdensome,1970s – style restrictions.

“From today, businesses exposed to disruption caused by strike action will be able to tap into skilled, temporary workers to provide the services that allow honest, hardworking people to get on with their lives. That’s good news for our society and for our economy.”

The unions now need to wait to receive the permission of the High Court to proceed with their legal challenges.