BTEC and CTEC result delays scrutinised by MPs: 6 things we learned

Awarding body bosses were grilled by MPs today on delays to BTEC and Cambridge Technical (CTEC) results that affected thousands of students this summer.

Officials from Pearson, OCR and Ofqual faced questions on the scale of the delays, the impact this had on learners and their university places, as well as what action is being taken to ensure the fiasco does not repeat itself next year.

Giving evidence was Mike Howells (pictured right), the president for workforce skills at Pearson UK which offers BTECs, Jill Duffy (pictured left), the chief executive of OCR that awards CTECs, as well as Ofqual chief regulator Jo Saxton (pictured centre right) and Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes (pictured centre left).

Here’s what we learned…

  1. Over 13,000 results were delayed – five times more than in a normal year

Pearson and OCR were accused of failing to be fully transparent about the scale of missing grades during the delays debacle.

Committee chair Robert Halfon described the process and communication as “shambolic” which “left vocational students yet again feeling like second class citizens”.

It was revealed today that there were 7,000 level 2 BTEC results delays, an additional 3,300 level 3 BTECs, and a further 3,200 CTECs.

A Pearson spokesperson said in August this number of delays was “typical for this stage in the awarding process and tracks against what we saw in pre-pandemic exam years”.

But Duffy told MPs today that the scale of late results was “probably four or five times what we would see in a normal year”.

Howells echoed Duffy’s comment and said the Pearson spokesperson at the time “was explaining that if you track historical trends in data, and in particular when we receive requests for grades from schools and colleges, and when we receive information to show students have completed their work… that data was showing ‘typical’ trends”.

Hughes said it was “disrespectful to those students not to come out immediately and apologise, immediately and give the numbers, immediately and tell people what they were going to do”.

Both Pearson and OCR bosses apologised for the added stress and anxiety the delays caused students, parents and colleges.

  1. Issues only came to light the day before results day

Committee chair Robert Halfon claimed that exam boards knew about the delays as early as July. But both Howells and Duffy revealed that their awarding bodies only became aware of the issues on August 17, the day before results day.

Duffy said: “What we were noticing was not more calls into our customer support centre but they were taking longer to resolve and this continued into results day.”

  1. Covid adaptations were the main cause for large-scale delays

Awarding bodies were allowed to include adaptations to vocational and technical qualifications to take into account the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, similar to GCSEs and A-levels.

Pearson and OCR said the adaptations added to the already complex nature of their vocational qualifications which led to more issues than normal.

Duffy said: “CTECs are unit-based qualifications so we rely on schools and colleges claiming for a unit. We had a range of pandemic adaptations this year that a school or college could apply for, such as a reduction in assessment, unit teacher assessed grades from previous years and assessed grades if students were unable to sit their exams in January.

“What all this meant was schools and colleges needed to tell us about all of this, tell us about these units, and then the qualification grade is automatically produced around results day. The issue we had here was pandemic adaptations we brought in for the very best of intentions, so it was more complex this year and we knew we had a problem the day before results day.”

Howells added: “It is essentially the same process for Pearson and we took the same steps as OCR.

  1. No students missed out on a university place, but one was delayed by six months

Both Howells and Duffy said they were not aware of any student that didn’t get their university place because of a delay to their results.

However, Howells said that Pearson did assist a couple of BTEC learners through clearing and one of them had their university place delayed by six months as a result of the delay.

  1. Chief regulator ‘shocked to the core’

Saxton, who became Ofqual chief regulator in September 2021, said the results delays “absolutely shocked me to the core”.

“On my watch I will do everything in my power to make sure that students are protected from similar stress again,” she told MPs.

Saxton said this is why she has commissioned the “widest scale review of its kind” including an “unprecedented call to both the sector and students to ask for a wider evidence picture” to fully understand their experiences “so that we can make recommendations to make changes”.

Ofqual is expected to publish the review before the end of 2022.

  1. OCR and Pearson conducting their own reviews

Duffy said OCR is conducting its own CTEC delay review, expected to conclude in November, while Howells said Pearson’s own review into BTEC delays will be completed before the end of 2022.

Both said they would share the findings with the education select committee, and both confirmed to FE Week their recommendations from the reviews will be made public.

Howells said there are three findings that have already emerged from Pearson’s review.

“The first is around communications and our support to schools and colleges, making sure the information and assistance we can and do provide to them is as effective as it can be in helping them manage some of the challenges they are going through,” he said.

“Secondly, the process and deadlines. I think we have shown too much flexibility particularly during the pandemic in supporting late submission of data. We need to improve and work on and look at different kinds of deadlines.

“And lastly, clarity around the data itself. One of the important things to remember about VTQs is that the idea of a results day is a relatively recent concept. People can roll on and roll off these qualifications at any point in the year, many students complete at a point of their choosing depending on their circumstances. One of the great successes of VTQs is producing a new route into higher education se we have worked very hard to make sure results are available for them to do that on results day. So reconciling those two different approaches in the data, working in partnership with schools and colleges, is something that we need to do.”

Duffy said OCR is also looking to improve on data sharing with schools and colleges to ensure they can track students’ progress throughout the year and so that OCR can identify those with issues at an earlier stage than results day.

She added that there should be an earlier results day for CTECs to give schools and colleges a “safety net to check they are getting their results”.

Duffy said: “We did have an earlier results day before the pandemic and then it was aligned with the general qualification results day during the pandemic. I think it is time to look at giving the results out a week earlier under embargo a week earlier for that safety net so that schools and colleges can check.”

T Level exams issues could be more widespread than first thought, Ofqual reveals

More T Level exam papers have been called into question by Ofqual.

The exams regulator published an enforceable ‘undertaking’ signed by awarding body NCFE today following issues reported in this summer’s health and science T Level core papers which impacted on 1,115 students and culminated in results being regraded.

Ofqual has now revealed that it wrote to NCFE in June 2022 about the education and childcare T Level the awarding body also offers, raising concerns about the targeting of assessment objectives in the November 2021 core exam papers.

The exams watchdog also warned that “given the range of issues identified in the health and science and education and childcare technical qualifications”, Ofqual “considers that there is a risk that similar issues may be present” in NCFE’s digital T Levels.

As a result, NCFE has promised to deliver an action plan and provide Ofqual with a copy of core exam papers and mark schemes within 24 hours of those exams being delivered.

In addition, it must provide Ofqual with an evidence statement of assurance for each of its T Levels confirming that actions in the plan have been delivered, and that issues raised in 2022 no longer remain in its papers.

Those statements must be provided before NCFE’s final sign-off and printing for each core exam paper.

The news comes during National T Level Week aimed at celebrating the flagship new government qualifications.

Each T Level is offered and awarded by a single exam board. NCFE scooped more contracts – nine – to deliver T Levels than any other awarding body. No T Levels offered by other awarding bodies have had issues raised by Ofqual.

A spokesperson from NCFE said: “NCFE has agreed an undertaking with Ofqual to review our T Level autumn 2022 series and to provide assurance that all assessments will be robust. We know how important it is that both providers and students are confident in the validity of the assessments.

“We have therefore reviewed existing processes to ensure that any issues with the papers are rectified, as well as rolling out a comprehensive package of targeted resources, developed closely with providers to support teaching staff in maximising successful outcomes for T Level students in their 2022/23 assessments.”

Many first year health and science students in the summer reported lower-than-expected grades, citing exam questions on topics they had not been taught and the textbook only being available a few weeks before the exam.

Angry students set-up a petition which gained more than 1,200 signatures.

A letter sent to colleges and students by the Department for Education last month following an Ofqual investigation said that issues included “question errors, inadequate mark schemes, and questions covering areas not explicitly in the specification”.

It added that “given the breadth and volume of issues, Ofqual has determined that the assessments do not secure a sufficiently valid or reliable measure of student performance,” which it dubbed a “significant finding and a serious matter”.

Ofqual’s written undertaking this week confirmed that “fundamental issues” were discovered in all six core papers in the health and science T Level, and meant the exams were “not fit for purpose”.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) is understood to be conducting a separate review on the health and science T Level exams investigating concerns that assessment criteria was too broad and too advanced for first-year students.

During an education select committee session on Wednesday morning, Ofqual chief regulator Jo Saxton told MPs that the DfE had signed off dummy papers for the health and science T Level, but that the final papers were “significantly different” and “actual material failed to live up to that standard”.

Less than an hour before Ofqual published NCFE’s undertaking, Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes warned that “the whole T Level reputation is at risk in this,” and added: “I am worried this is not the only T Level where this will happen.”

He continued: “It shows the risks of new qualifications, it shows the risks of defunding existing qualifications that OCR and Pearson deliver too quickly, because this isn’t the only time this is going to happen.”

Palvinder Singh, principal, Kirklees College

Pally Singh, principal at Kirklees College in West Yorkshire, has to juggle all the usual demands of college leadership – funding, regulations, rules. But the biggest job facing leaders is much more ambiguous than that, he tells Jess Staufenberg 

 As you walk down the hill from Huddersfield train station towards Kirklees College, the town unfolds in front of you like a map.  

There’s a canal at the bottom, and backed against the other side is a huge mill, long out of use. Staring at it from across the water is the college, a great modernist structure of glass and steel. Surrounded by Victorian buildings, the college looks straight into the future. 

Palvinder Singh, better known as Pally, couldn’t be a more fitting principal for the place. His mother, father and grandmother once worked long hours in the factory opposite. 

And he is a former Kirklees College student who has returned as principal and chief executive after stints at Barnsley College, Leeds City College and NCG. He took the reins in June last year, and takes my hand in a firm and welcoming handshake, ushering me into the café. 

Singh already strikes me as an unusual principal. I am used to emails being ignored by people too busy to speak to journalists. People too nervous to be interviewed are even harder to persuade. But Singh, like his college, has both eyes fixed on the future.  

So despite his busyness and nerves, he’s asked to talk. It’s a fascinating conversation over two hours, covering first the past, and then everything else. 

A montage of Huddersfield on the wall in the college café

Over chilli noodles cooked by catering students (delicious, by the way) we cover the first crucial topic. Journalism. 

Without attack or resentment, Singh says he wants to explain why he hasn’t wanted to be in a profile interview in FE Week. His complex answer, however, makes sense. 

“I’m very visible. I carry a burden, wherever I go. If I fail, my community fails. If I succeed, my community succeeds. That’s the knife edge I live.” 

The night before we speak Singh was at the Yorkshire Asian business awards in Bradford. The organiser badly wanted to introduce him to someone – her mum.  

“It’s because I came from her community”. In other words, it mattered to her that here was someone from her own community who was now the chief executive of a further education college. 

To put it another way, Singh explains that when he meets members of his community here and in India, he introduces himself as his grandparents’ grandson. That is how he is identified. 

So the thought of one day appearing in a negative FE Week story holds a particular horror. 

Singh feels coverage of financial issues at colleges led by black principals has been “very critical”. 

“It was horrible seeing a picture of a principal that looked like you on the front page,” Singh says.  

“So I am anxious talking to you. People say, keep your head down.” 

The importance of investigative journalism that holds to account those spending public money – and caring for learners – is clearly not in question.  

But Singh has an extremely important point about context and complexity. He is not interested in bite-sized, one-dimensional answers. 

Here we come to our second topic. Singh is deeply worried. Optimistic, but worried. 

“We live in a VUCA world,” he says.

VUCA? It’s a business and military term that stands for conditions that are volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The ubiquity of the internet and smartphones, the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid pandemic and Ukraine invasion all feed into it. 

Even Singh’s first message to his students in the college course guide notes the “uncertain time” they have faced. 

Kirklees College students

“It’s an unstable and frightening world. It’s so hard to communicate it in a few words.

“You can talk about inflation, and the energy crisis, and the staffing crisis, that’s easy. But I’m talking about ambiguous ambiguity.” 

Almost a year ago to the day, Singh was walking by the canal near college.

Ahead, he spotted a teacher talking to an upset student, who was clearly threatening to hurt someone who had annoyed him. Realising he couldn’t walk past, Singh stopped. 

“He was like every other student. Charismatic and confident. He could have sold anything to anyone.” 

Eventually, Singh and the student began to talk. Later, the young man emailed to apologise, having not realised Singh was the principal, and thanked him for their conversation.  

“I wrote back to say, ‘I’m looking forward to seeing how your time with us passes and I want you to come and see me at Christmas,’” Singh says, looking pained. 

Six weeks later, the young man took his own life. 

Singh rang other principals. Each told him that at least one student at their college had killed themselves in the past 18 months. His student had been in care, and when he rang the care authority, he says he couldn’t get data on suicides for that cohort. 

Then at the start of this term, a 15-year-old was stabbed to death in Huddersfield outside a school.  

“Why are young people carrying knives? Because they feel scared. And why do they feel scared? What demographic are they?” 

As we chat, the issues fall into two categories. On the inside, the education system; on the outside, the world. 

Many learners are leaving school feeling bad about themselves, with about 40 per cent not achieving English and maths, he explains (because of the comparable outcomes grading system).

T Levels students at the college this year

“No one tells a young person ‘you’re going to grow up to be a failure’. But the system tells you that.” 

At Kirklees 65 per cent of learners arrive on study programmes without passes in English and maths. On a second sitting, “at best, two in 10 are passing,” Singh grimaces. 

“So you overcompensate, by being other things. Being charismatic. But it can be ‘what’s the point’?” 

The problem then is that FE staff, who can make all the difference, are often overworked and undervalued because of regulations and funding decisions. At the same time students can seem anonymous in large colleges.

“Because of the size of FE, especially with area reviews following intervention, you’re losing that connection to the student.” 

Meanwhile, there is a lack of community in the outside world, he says. Without a strong family unit or mentor (as he had in his own community, which included his grandmother who was his role model), most people have little to fall back on. 

“The system is not designed for people from vulnerable households to achieve because we’re in an individualised society.” 

This devastating context is insufficiently recognised in the corridors of power, Singh says.  

“We as a society need to recognise this is a real issue – young people and suicide. It’s not being recognised. Unless you’re a middle-class parent and it affects you badly, then you don’t have the drive to lobby ministers. The vast majority don’t come from that background.” 

Official figures are hard to come by. A 2017 BBC feature reported that young people who left care between 2012 and 2016 were roughly seven times more likely to die aged 18 to 21. The student at Kirklees College was about to turn 18 when he died. 

I suggest that surely a psychiatrist is needed on every senior leadership team.  

“It’s a great idea. And I’ll tell you why I think it’s a great idea. Our pedagogy in FE is very new. Our teaching qualifications are only about 14 years old. Our standards are ours to write.” 

So his 2022-25 strategic plan calls for a “restorative, anti-racist, trauma aware college”. Two members of staff are not trained in trauma-informed practice and Singh wants more.  

The other solution is to anchor students more within their subject departments, so they build an identity as a chef, a nurse, an engineer, an early years’ practitioner, and have a community that way.  

Students can build up a sense of community as a chef or nurse, says Singh

But Singh knows more is needed.  

“How do I bridge all this as a leader? How can I lobby for change nationally? Work within the system regionally? And we’ve still got the regulators to please, Ofsted and the ESFA, and every requirement going. 

“But we’ve got a bigger job to do,” he tells me. 

He notes that former education secretary Gavin Williamson, for all his mistakes, did once say: “I can say without any hesitation that the future is further education.” 

After our long talk, I head out into the rain. Singh has cracked open several big conversations.  

He needs listening to, and quickly. 

NEU will ballot sixth form college teachers as 85% back strike

The National Education Union will formally ballot members in sixth form colleges for industrial action after 85 per cent of respondents to an indicative ballot backed strike action.

Turnout in the indicative poll of 4,100 members in 77 sixth form colleges was 76.6 per cent – well above the 50 per cent threshold for formal ballots required under tough union laws that came into force in 2016.

The 85 per cent support for a strike is also more than double the 40 per cent required, meaning if the results are repeated in the formal ballot, industrial action would go ahead.

Overall, 97 per cent of respondents backed calls for a pay rise to exceed RPI, which was 11.7 per cent when the pay claim was submitted.

The response represents the first proper indication of the school sector’s desire to take strike action in response to pay offers set out earlier this year. Unions have warned these are now well below the current rate of inflation.

A separate indicative ballot of teachers and support staff in schools is due to close on Friday. The NEU has given education secretary Kit Malthouse until noon that day to come up with a better pay and funding offer or face a formal ballot.

Teachers and staff in further education colleges, who are mostly represented by the University and College Union, have taken part in separate strike action this term.

Sixth form college teachers have their pay set differently to school teachers, so the union has to hold separate ballots on the different pay offers.

However, the NEU said the pay offer from the Sixth Form Colleges Association had essentially “mirrored” the pay offer for teachers, which amounts to an 8.9 per cent increase in starting salaries, but a 5 per cent rise for most teachers.

Joint general secretary Mary Bousted said sixth form college teachers had “suffered a real-terms pay cut in the region of 20 per cent since 2010”.

“In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, [they] are not prepared to see their income fall further.

‘No-one wants to take strike action’

“No one wants to take strike action, but year after year of below-inflation pay increases have now had a major impact on the value of their pay. Government needs to address what is now a serious problem for the sector.”

Graham Baird, director of HRservices at the SFCA said leaders “fully support the NEU’s call for a significant increase in teachers’ pay”.

“Despite receiving significantly less funding than schools, we have been able to match the STRB award for teachers in the school sector.

“This is at the very edge of affordability for our members, and it will require additional funding from the government to ensure that teachers in sixth form colleges receive the pay increase that they deserve.”

A DfE spokesperson said sixth form colleges were “independent of government and set their own pay”.

“To support colleges, we are investing an extra £1.6 billion in 2024/5 compared to 2021/22 so that more young people aged 16-19 can access high quality education and training.”

Provider censured after sexual harassment reports from construction apprentices

A training provider has been slated by Ofsted for serious failure to oversee a subcontractor after female construction apprentices reported experiencing harassment whilst studying.

Ofsted conducted a monitoring visit of Avant Partnership Limited in August after safeguarding concerns were raised about its only subcontractor, Orchard Training and Education Limited.

Inspectors dealt Avant the lowest possible judgement – ‘insufficient progress’ – in a report published today, which opens the prime provider up to possible government intervention which could be severe as removal from the apprenticeship training market.

Ofsted found that Avant has “limited oversight of the safeguarding arrangements” at Orchard, most concerningly that they have “not received training on protecting learners and apprentices from sexual abuse and harassment”.

The watchdog reported that female learners and apprentices in the construction curriculum area at Orchard are “in the minority”, and a small number of them “report that they have experienced harassment while studying there”.

Ofsted has placed a bigger focus on investigating sexual misconduct at schools, colleges and training providers following the Everyone’s Invited revelations of widespread sexual abuse in education settings, which came to prominence in spring 2020.

Since full inspections returned in September 2021, inspectors have been reviewing providers’ sexual abuse records and looking at how providers handle related incidents. Learners are also now spoken with in single-sex groups during inspections.

Changes made to the inspection handbook warned that if safeguarding is ineffective, including around addressing learners’ concerns about sexual abuse, “this is likely to lead to a judgement of inadequate leadership and management”.

Staff at Avant and Orchard were flagged by Ofsted for failing to take necessary steps to keep learners and apprentices safe. 

The watchdog also revealed that hardly any students wear any personal protective equipment or safety glasses in workshops, despite several accidents already happening involving mortar going into apprentice’s eyes. The report also drew on the low level of hygiene in workshops and toilets. 

Although much of the report highlights managerial and leadership shortfalls, the visit did find that learners and apprentices said they felt safe in surveys carried out by the providers, and told Ofsted they know how to report safeguarding concerns.

Latest government data shows that Orchard had subcontracts with Avant worth £662,000 as at January 2022. Orchard doesn’t appear to hold a subcontract with any other prime training providers.

According to the Education and Skills Funding Agency, if Ofsted has raised concerns about safeguarding in a monitoring visit report, the agency reserves the right to remove an organisation from the register and stop all apprenticeship delivery. 

Both Avant and Orchard were still listed on the ESFA’s register of apprenticeship training providers with no suspension on starts at the time of going to press.

Orchard and Avant did not respond to requests for comment. 

WorldSkills: ‘Phenomenal’ performance puts UK back into top 10

The UK has re-entered the global top 10 of the WorldSkills medal rankings following its “phenomenal” performance at the WorldSkills 2022 special edition competition.

Team UK brought home gold medals in cabinet making and aircraft maintenance, and a clutch of bronze medals in car painting, jewellery and Industry 4.0. These were complemented by 12 medallions for excellence. 

That success totalled 26 medal points for Team UK, landing a 10th place position on the global medal table, up two places from the last WorldSkills competition in 2019. Hot on the UK’s heels was India, which was just one medal point behind. 

Topping the table this year was China, which also scored the top spot in 2019, with a medal point score of 106. Korea came in second place, Chinese Taipei in third and Japan in fourth.

WorldSkills 2022 special edition medal table

The journey to compete on the world stage wasn’t an easy one for this year’s members of Team UK. The competition was originally planned to take place in 2021 but was postponed for a year because of Covid-19 restrictions.

Then, in May this year, WorldSkills International dramatically announced that the competition in Shanghai would be cancelled altogether due to ongoing Covid-19 in China. 

Bentley-Gockmann

However, 11 countries, including the UK, stepped up to host the finals which all took place over a period of six weeks throughout October and November.

Neil Bentley-Gockmann, chief executive at WorldSkills UK, was full of praise for UK competitors: “To climb back into the world’s top 10 is a phenomenal achievement from the young men and women in Team UK. Despite all the difficulties, distractions, and cancellations of the past few years, they have shown their true quality and real fortitude to achieve so much.” 

Former Moulton College student James Boyes was Team UK’s first gold medal winner this year, winning the top prize in cabinet making against 17 other countries at the international finals held in Basel, Switzerland.

Ewan Payne, who won gold in aircraft maintenance, told FE Week that he put his success down to his close relationship with his training manager Jimmy: “I did get very close with Jimmy and it was that bond which allowed us to be very honest and open about our goals and what we were hoping to achieve and look at the areas where I was weakest.”

On his medal win, Payne said: “It was three years of hard work and dedication and missing out on social events and working in my evenings practising. To have it all come to life and be worth it was such an amazing feeling. It’s one of those moments I will probably remember for the rest of my life.”

Bentley-Gockmann added: “Every member of Team UK has demonstrated excellence in their skill. We delivered the best ever performance for the UK in digital skills, positioning 4th in the world, ahead of countries including Singapore and Germany.

“Half of Team UK attained the world class standard in future skills, including cyber security and web technologies. This performance gives us a fantastic platform to raise standards in technical education and apprenticeships right across the UK.”

The next WorldSkills competition will take place in Lyon, France in 2024.

Team UK competitions and results (click to enlarge)

Team UK performance at WorldSkills 2022 special edition

Week 1: Team UK picks up first medals

October 4-7

Kamil Zmich and Liam Whitby have won Team UK’s first medals at this year’s “special edition” WorldSkills competition. The pair, both aged 24, represented the UK in the Industry 4.0 competition at the WorldSkills finals in Stuttgart, Germany.

Zmich and Whitby

Team UK took home a bronze medal, having finished in third place behind Germany, who achieved silver, and Switzerland, who achieved gold. A total of eight countries took part.

Zmich said: “Winning a medal is a huge achievement and I’m over the moon that all the hard work has finally paid off. The whole experience of being involved with WorldSkills – medals aside – has been brilliant and will be a massive boost to my career. I’d like to thank everyone who helped along the way and WorldSkills UK for the amazing opportunity.”

Elsewhere in the competition, Josh Sibley and Oliver Newdall, both from Toyota Manufacturing Ltd, took on 24 countries in the mechatronics final. They placed 18th, and were 50 points short of a medal. 

Week 2: First GOLD for Team UK

Boyes (right)

October 10-16

James Boyes has won the UK’s first gold medal at the WorldSkills special edition 2022 competition.

The 22 year-old competed against 17 other countries in the cabinet making finals, held in Basel, Switzerland. Boyes came joint first alongside Suil Kwon, representing Korea, and Dexin Li who represented China. 

Boyes studied at Moulton College in Northamptonshire. College principal Corrie Harris said she was “super proud” and tweeted using the hashtag “#MoultonMade”.

In jewellery, the UK was represented by 22 year-old George Schembri at the finals in Geneva, Switzerland, and won bronze. Schembri was just five points short of his nearest rival, Korea’s Minsung Sho, who won silver. Iran’s Raziyeh Jalili won gold.

WorldSkills UK described Schembri as the “shining jewel in Team UK’s crown”.

Elsewhere in the competition this week, Team UK narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in cyber security. Those finals were held in Goyang, Korea, with the home nation winning the gold medal. The UK was represented by Sai Putravu, 19, from Bradley Stoke in Gloucestershire, and Luke Jowett, 20, from Cannock. The pair came just 11 points behind the bronze medal winners, Iran, but were awarded the medallion for excellence which recognises displays of world-class technical standards.

Medallions for excellence were also won by Ross Fiori and George Hutchinson for their performance in joinery and 3D game art respectively.

Week 3: BRONZE in car painting

October 17- 23

The third week of the WorldSkills special edition 2022 competition saw Craig Kennedy take home a bronze medal in car painting.

Craig Kennedy after winning Bronze

The 22-year-old from Riverpark Training competed against 12 other countries in Silkeborg, Denmark. Kennedy was just five points behind joint gold medal winners Korea and France.

After hearing about the WorldSkills competitions whilst studying for his apprenticeship, he went on to win the UK car painting final in 2019.

Minahil Nawaz, William Hunt and Ellie Mumby all won medallions for excellence, which recognise displays of world-class technical standards.

Mumby came joint 5th in hairdressing with Jéssica Bastos from Portugal only four points away from fourth place.

Nawaz came 6th place in digital construction in Bordeaux France, only two points behind Austria in 5th place. Hunt earnt his medallion for excellence in welding after coming in 9th place, only 3 points behind Austria and Canada who came in joint 7th.

Elsewhere in the competition, Cameron Middleton and Adam Kirkpatrick came joint 7th with Hungary in robot systems integration in Luxembourg. The event saw Germany win gold and Chinese Taipei come in second place, with Poland come in third.

Next week will be quieter with only two competitions.

Ashleigh Hellowell is set to compete in cooking and Simona Federova will compete in restaurant services in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Week 4: Excellence in Restaurant Services

October 23 -26

Simona Federová

Simona Federová finished in fourth place in the Restaurant Services competition, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal by only six points.

France won gold in the same competition with 745 points. Chinese Taipei and Switzerland came in second and third at 739 and 736 points respectively.

The fourth week of the WordSkills special edition 2022 competition was much quieter for Team UK, with only two events happening.

Ashleigh Hellowell represented Team UK in the Cooking finals. She came 12th out of 30 competitors with 707 points.

Hellowell’s attempt won her a Medallion for Excellence, given to competitors judged to have reached a world class standard.

Ashleigh Hellowell

Canada, Portugal, and France all took home gold medals for the Cooking championships.

Australia’s Sabrina Rees came in fourth place, scoring 723 points alongside a Medallion for Excellence.

Next week’s competitions will be a bit busier, with some taking place closer to home in Cardiff and Wrexham in Wales.

Ewan Payne will compete in Aircaft Maintenance. George Denman, Michael Jones and Charles Samson will represent Team UK in the Manufacturing Team Challenge.

Week 5: More GOLD for Team UK

November 1 – 6

Ewan Payne won a gold medal at the WorldSkills aircraft maintenance final in Cardiff last week after four days of intense competition against rivals from 11 countries.

The RAF aircraft engineer from Oxfordshire has served in America, France and the Middle East said all the hard work and sacrifices were worth it.

Payne said: “I have trained extremely hard for this competition, giving up evenings, weekends and missing out on all sorts of events to ensure I was prepared.

Ewan Payne

“I am really proud to have represented my country and wanted to not only want to do well, but to be the best. Being presented with the gold medal at the end of it has made everything worthwhile and I am absolutely delighted.

“The whole experience has been amazing and I have really enjoyed the opportunity to develop new skills, as well as honing the exemplary training provided to me by the Royal Air Force. I want to thank everyone who has helped me along the way, in particular my training manager and my family, and WorldSkills UK for the incredible opportunity.”

His gold medal was Team UK’s second of this year’s WorldSkills competition.

The Cardiff final was the first time the UK had hosted international competition since London welcomed the world to the “skills olympics” in 2011. Wales also hosted the manufacturing team challenge final at Coleg Cambria in Wrexham last week.

Connor Cruden picked up a Medallion for Excellence in plumbing and heating after four days of competitions in Lahr, Germany.

Cruden came in joint 7th place, with Luca Herzog from Switzerland, out of 20 rival countries with 716 points.

Thomas Nowell will compete in painting & decorating, and Aaron Gillespie will compete in wall & floor tiling in Bozano, Italy from November 3 – 6.

Top Ofsted marks for online adult education provider

A training provider that teaches a range of lower-level online courses to over 350 adults, mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds, has been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

Antrec Training, a subsidiary of the Learning Curve Group (LCG), received the watchdog’s top grade in its first full inspection report published today.

The provider was awarded its first publicly funded contract for adult education in November 2017 and now delivers mostly level 2 provision through online, flexible courses including mental health first aid, understanding autism, counselling skills, tenant support for social housing and domestic violence.

Ofsted reported that learners “clearly benefit, both personally and professionally, from the diverse range of high-quality courses available to them”.

The inspectorate also said “learners, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds and have family and caring responsibilities, feel a great sense of accomplishment, often overcoming challenging personal circumstances to achieve their qualifications”.

Students “often progress to further qualifications or training as a result”, Ofsted added.

Antrec Training was taken over by LCG in March 2021, at which point the provider had received ‘reasonable progress’ judgements across the board from Ofsted following an early monitoring visit report that was published in June 2019.

LCG has seven other training providers in its group, four of which have received Ofsted visits over the past two years, each achieving ‘good’ ratings.

Chief executive of LCG Brenda McLeish said she was “delighted” with this latest result, adding that all of her group’s Ofsted grades “was the culmination of our amazing culture”.

“One of our key pieces of feedback from this inspection was that ‘learners often progress to further qualifications or training as a result’, which is extremely important to us as we strive to give people opportunities to transform their lives,” she added.

Ofsted praised leaders and managers at Antrec for having a “clear vision for the provision that they offer”.

“They provide flexible, online learning programmes to employed and unemployed adults to help with their career aspirations and personal circumstances,” inspectors said. “For example, line managers learn how to provide more effective support to their teams in the workplace and unemployed adults improve their prospects of gaining employment”.

Today’s report added that leaders have constructed a “rich curriculum that is relevant to local, regional and national employment priorities”.

WorldSkills 2022: Team UK win bronze in Industry 4.0

Kamil Zmich and Liam Whitby have won Team UK’s first medals at this year’s “special edition” WorldSkills competition.

The pair, both aged 24, represented the UK in the Industry 4.0 competition at the Worldskills finals in Stuttgart, Germany last week.

Team UK took home a bronze medal having finished in third place behind Germany, who achieved silver, and Switzerland, who achieved gold. Eight countries took part.

Zmich, from Toyota Manufacturing Ltd, and Whitby, from Gebhardt Intralogics Group, were awarded their medals on Friday.

Team UK’s mechatronics finalist Sibley (left) and Newdall (right) with their training manager Calum Knott (centre)

Elsewhere in the competition last week, Josh Sibley and Oliver Newdall, both from Toyota Manufacturing Ltd, took on 24 countries in the mechatronics final.

They placed 18th and were 50 points short of a medal.

Worldskills UK tweeted their congratulations to Sibley and Newdall: “Congratulations to Josh Sibley & Oliver Newdall who have done an incredible job representing #TeamUK in the #WorldSkills2022 #mechatronics competition in Stuttgart. To compete at such a high level in a discipline which helps define the UK’s future #SkillsEconomy is amazing.”

Competitions continue this week

Later this week Abigail Stansfield, from BAE Systems, will be flying the flag for Team UK in the CNC Milling final being held in Leonberg, Germany.

Three Team UK competitors will be facing fellow finalists from other countries in Switzerland.

James Boyes, from Monkeywood Kitchens, will be competing in cabinet making and Ross Fiori, from Carlisle College, will be competing in joinery. Both competitions are being held in Basel in the north west of Switzerland.

And in Lucerne, Switzerland, Ben Metcalfe, from Harrods, will be competing in the patisserie and confectionery final this week.

Finals are taking place all over the world up until November 26. The UK has 35 competitors in total.

DfE drive to improve FE governance and staff retention

Schemes to address governance and professional development commitments in the government’s Skills for Jobs white paper are in the works as part of efforts to bolster FE staff retention and drive-up leadership standards. 

The Department for Education this week published early notice of two contracts expected to go out for tender later this month – one worth £9.5 million on delivering a programme of continuous professional development (CPD) for leaders and governors, and a planned £1.2 million tender for a mentoring programme for new and inexperienced teachers. 

Both are linked to commitments in the DfE’s Skills for Jobs white paper, which voiced ambitions to improve governance standards and help retain sector staff. 

The DfE’s governance and leadership CPD notice said it aims to “strengthen leadership and governance capacity; equip FE governors, governance professionals and current/aspiring executive leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to successfully lead their corporations and colleges at a time of change; support the growth of a diverse leadership pipeline and aid the development of a self-improving sector”. 

That contract is set to start in February 2023 and end in March 2025. 

In the FE white paper, the government said there would be higher expectations of governance through clearer requirements, reviews and training, and “empower weaker colleges to address problems earlier”. 

The white paper, published in January 2021, also said it would expect college leaders and corporation board members to undergo training and support those with high potential, and wanted diversity of skills and backgrounds in governing boards. 

Poor leadership and governance has previously been cited by the FE Commissioner’s office as a key reason for some high-profile failures. One example was Hadlow College, which folded after entering education administration in November 2019 owing £40 million to more than 300 companies. 

The FE Commissioner’s report in the spring of 2019 said: “Governance at Hadlow College is complex, lacks transparency and is ineffective,” and added that governors had “belatedly, become aware of the extremely serious financial situation”. The group principal and deputy principal were found to have “regularly made decisions themselves outside of executive and any open discussion – and reacted strongly to questioning or challenge”. 

The DfE’s proposed mentoring contract, planned to run for two years from April 2023, aims to offer support and training to FE professionals to act as mentors for new and inexperienced teachers, and assist with wellbeing and mental health of newly appointed FE teachers to “aid their professional and personal development to become excellent teachers”.  

Retention of FE teachers has been an ongoing issue in the sector, with industry estimates that college teachers earn up to £9,000 less than school teachers. 

A University and College Union survey of 2,700 members published in the summer said that seven in ten were considering walking away from the sector as a result of low pay and escalating cost-of-living pressures. 

The white paper said that teachers and lecturers were not always able to take advantage of professional development opportunities that could help them progress in their career. It referenced a college staff survey from 2020 which reported that 52 per cent of those who left the sector said they would have been more likely to stay if more training and development opportunities were available.  

The contracts look set to add to existing governance and leadership programmes. 

The Education and Training Foundation offers several programmes, including a leadership mentoring scheme, a new to senior leadership course, governance development initiative, and mentoring and development programme for governance professionals. 

The Association of Colleges in the last few years secured ETF contracts to progress a governance development framework all about improving the skills of both new and existing governing board members and clerks.  

The early notice tenders appear to represent the latest measures around staffing in the government’s white paper. 

In January, the DfE launched the new Teach in FE campaign – a scheme encouraging skilled industry professionals to take up part-time teaching roles. 

Key industries in need of teachers include construction, engineering and manufacturing, legal, finance, accounting, digital, and health and social care. 

In addition, the DfE last year pumped £3 million into expanding the Taking Teaching Further scheme – another white paper commitment – with the ambition of bringing another 4,000 teachers into the sector. 

That project launched in 2018 with 50 places, expanding to 550 in 2020. The DfE said that had grown to 710 places in 2022/23. 

The government also pledged to introduce a new workforce industry exchange programme across a range of sectors in the white paper. 

“This will build the capacity of the further education workforce by supporting providers to engage in a sustainable, two-way exchange with industry, building up long-lasting networks with employers,” the document said, although no more details have emerged since then. 

The DfE said the latest measures represented a continuation of white paper commitments, and the teacher mentoring programme will include tax-free bursaries worth up to £26,000 each to support teacher training in priority subjects

It added that data on the Teach in FE campaign will be released next year, with future initiatives including a competency framework for governors.