Joe Docherty: Labour peer quit college role over ‘inappropriate conduct’

One of Sir Keir Starmer’s new peers has been suspended by Labour after it emerged that he resigned from a college group after conducting sexual liaisons during working hours.

Joe Docherty became Lord Docherty of Milngavie last month after being nominated by the prime minister. He was stripped of the party whip on Saturday, pending an investigation.

Another of Starmer’s nominees, Baroness Limb, an education expert, has said she will not take her seat in the House of Lords after The Sunday Times revealed that she lied about having a PhD.

The Sunday Times and FE Week discovered that Docherty, 57, resigned as chief executive of NCG, formerly Newcastle College Group, days after being confronted with allegations of inappropriate conduct in October 2018. At the time NCG was the country’s largest sixth form and further education group.

Docherty had exchanged more than 50 sexual messages on the same day as an Ofsted inspection and met partners at hotels paid for by NCG during working hours. On one occasion he had a sexual liaison when he was scheduled to be attending a meeting.

The investigation found one message in which Docherty told a partner: “My work scheduled a conference call for 10.30am tomorrow but I’ve given my apologies so we can meet.”

The alleged wrongdoing concerned Docherty’s conduct at a time when Ofsted had issued “requires improvement” ratings after finding serious issues with the management and leadership of NCG. The group, which has sixth forms and further education colleges in London, Carlisle and Kidderminster as well as Newcastle, was also facing serious financial difficulties. 

Docherty quit two weeks after an internal inquiry recommended formal disciplinary proceedings. He did not dispute the underlying evidence but took issue with the way it had been interpreted. He denied his actions had the potential to bring NCG into disrepute and also claimed they were “being brought into question because of his sexuality”. He said he “offered to apologise to anyone who may have been offended”.

The circumstances of his departure were withheld from public view and he continued as chairman of the governing body of Durham University for more than half a decade.

It appears that Docherty did not mention the controversy during the vetting process before joining the House of Lords.

Another of Starmer’s appointments, his former spokesman Lord Doyle, was stripped of the party whip after The Sunday Times revealed his support for a paedophile. Limb, an education expert, not only lied about her PhD but also oversaw the sale of an historic charity’s assets to a foreign buyer in a controversial transaction which led to seven-figure bonuses for two executives.

The Labour Party said on Saturday: “[We expect] the highest standards from our members. All complaints are thoroughly assessed in line with our rules and procedures.”

Docherty said: “I fully accept that whether as a member of the House of Lords or as a senior executive, accountability is paramount and I welcome legitimate scrutiny. However, I am also entitled to a private life. The apparent leaking of a version of a confidential internal HR report and The Sunday Times’s reliance upon such a document is disgraceful.

“The claims being made were robustly disputed at the time and would have been vigorously challenged had the matter proceeded to a disciplinary hearing, which it did not.”

He accused the investigator of bias, which he said his lawyer had raised directly with her. He added: “It is grossly unjust that the paper should rely upon such an inadequate and disputed piece of work.”

Docherty was investigated by NCG after he gave his work phone to the IT department for repairs. According to the investigation, a colleague was concerned by the “very explicit nature and content of the photos and messages” it contained, and the fact that “some of the messages referred to the CEO cancelling work meetings”. They raised the matter with management. 

NCG asked an external human resources consultant to investigate three matters: “alleged use of [a] mobile phone in a manner” that breached company policy, “potential abuse of time” in which “NCG business could and should have been taking place”, and concerns that Docherty’s conduct “exposed NCG to risk of damage to institutional reputation”.

The consultant identified four incidents when Docherty’s “accommodation had been booked and paid for by NCG”, with evidence indicating “sexual liaisons that took place … whilst [he] was working away from home over an extended period between October 2017 and August 2018”. 

The events took place “broadly between the hours of 8am and 4pm on weekdays”. The hotels included the Megaro and the Pullman in the capital, and the Townhouse in Manchester.

On May 21, 2018, Docherty exchanged dozens of lurid messages. His diary for the day confirmed he had several work meetings and that NCG was being inspected by Ofsted. On another date, Docherty had “cancelled and given apologies” for a work meeting so he could go on a date, the investigation found.

Docherty was interviewed as part of the investigation. It found that he “did not deny that the messages consisted of correspondence he had engaged in during visits to London and Manchester”. Nor did he “deny that the meetings these threads referenced had taken place or that he had authored the content [of the explicit texts”.

The investigation found he “reluctantly accepts that his conduct appears to be in contravention of [IT] policy [but] positions this as an ‘honest mistake’”. He also claimed “his CEO role [was] one that could not be defined by working hours”. He said he “did not regard his actions” as ones that “had the potential to bring the organisation into disrepute”, claiming they were brought into question “because of his sexuality” and as such “the act of querying his conduct is discriminatory”. He offered to “apologise to anyone who may have been offended”.

The external consultant dismissed Docherty’s arguments, saying on September 27, 2018, that evidence indicated he had committed all three breaches and should face formal disciplinary proceedings. Docherty resigned with immediate effect two weeks later on October 10. The former banker left with a settlement of £57,000, described in accounts as “payment in lieu of notice”, with a further £1,800 paid towards legal fees. He had been on a total annual package of £278,000.

Sir Peter Lauener, then the NCG chairman, did not make any public statement and those involved were made to sign non-disclosure agreements. Lauener is due to leave his current role as chairman of the Student Loans Company next month.

It is unclear if any of the organisations with which Docherty was affiliated — including Durham University — were notified. At the time, Docherty was already chairman of Durham’s governing council and continued in the role for six years. 

Docherty makes no reference to his time at NCG in the “experience” section of his page on the House of Lords website.

Peers are required to comply with the Nolan principles of public life, including honesty, openness and integrity.

Docherty, who was raised in Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire, became a member of the Labour Party in 1994 and was seconded to work for Tony Blair’s government on regional development three years later. 

He was ceremonially introduced to the upper chamber by Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top, a Blair-era minister, and Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay, the former Sunderland Central MP.

Liz Bromley, NCG’s current chief executive, said the matters at hand predated her appointment in 2019, meaning she was unable to comment on specifics. “Since my appointment, NCG has regained Ofsted good [ratings] across all aspects of the curriculum, we are financially strong, and we have a very positive culture across all our seven colleges, based on strong, shared values,” she said.

Second LLE short course trial falls short on recruitment

A £5 million degree level short course trial hit a fifth of its student recruitment target, an interim evaluation has found, raising further questions about demand for the upcoming lifelong learning entitlement.

Between April 2024 and July 2025, enrolments on the Department for Education’s modular acceleration programme totalled 352 – about 80 per cent short of the 1,800 learners anticipated by colleges delivering the courses.

Students on the programme took individual modules of higher education courses in areas such as business, construction and digital skills that are “stackable” into a full level 4 or 5 higher technical qualification.

The concept of offering learners short, modular HE courses is central to the government’s “transformational” plans to reform the student loan system into the lifelong learning entitlement (LLE).

According to an interim evaluation, the programme was challenged by “low levels of understanding” from employers, getting interest from students was a “major challenge”, and providers found the rules on gaining approval for modules “burdensome and inflexible”.

However, learners were “very positive” about the being able to take short modules of HE courses, with most reporting that the content and delivery of the course was as expected.

The £5 million available in funding covered learners’ full tuition fees and grants of up to £20,000 per provider. However, the tuition fee cost per learner will be subtracted from their future LLE.

This week’s report, by government social researchers, is the second to show that trials of short HE level courses have struggled to recruit students.

An OfS-funded evaluation of a higher education short course trial that ran in 2022-23 found that just 125 students enrolled out of an expected 2,400.

It comes ahead of the launch of the LLE in September 2026, with courses starting in January 2027.

The report has also been released at a time of intense scrutiny of the student loans system, with the government facing calls to reduce interest rates and reform repayment terms.

Low awareness causes low enrolments

The LLE will be a single post-18 student finance system that will offer loans of up to £38,140, or the equivalent of four years of undergraduate tuition fees, for full level 4 to 6 courses such as degrees or technical qualifications, or modules of some HE qualifications.

First announced by the Conservatives in 2020, the new loan system is an attempt to shift England’s higher education system to a more flexible format that already exists in countries such as the United States.

The latest trial evaluation found that by July last year, around half of the 108 proposed modules had begun delivery, at 18 out of the 25 approved providers.

All but one, University College Birmingham, of the providers delivering courses were general FE colleges.

The highest enrolments were Herefordshire, Ludlow & North Shropshire College, Shrewsbury College and TEC Partnership, with 69, 49 and 43 students respectively.

About half of senior leaders shared “some dissatisfaction” with the number of learners achieved.

The report said: “While some felt they did the best they could with the funding available for demand raising, others said, on reflection, they would do more or approach recruitment differently in the future to generate more engagement in modules.”

Reasons for low enrolment were low awareness and engagement from employers, and learner apprehension.

Providers also reported frustration with adapting short courses due to the “rigidity” of higher technical qualification frameworks.

Higher technical qualifications are a government kitemark awarded to a set of 280 existing level 4 and 5 courses due to their quality and alignment with employer needs.

The report said: “Validation processes, especially when involving external universities, were often described as administratively burdensome and inflexible, making it difficult to adapt assessments or delivery methods.”

The Department for Education was approached for comment.

Nostalgia is not a strategy to navigate assessment evolution

The further education and skills sector is facing one of the most significant shifts in its recent history. 

The move from end-point assessment towards a new, principles-driven apprenticeship assessment model is more than a technical tweak, it is a fundamental change to how we think about quality, assurance and trust.

In a recent speech at Davos, Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, reminded global leaders that “nostalgia is not a strategy”. 

That phrase has stayed with me because it resonates so strongly with where our sector now stands. 

It is understandable to look back at what felt familiar and certain, but the reality is the old model is not coming back.

The question is not whether change will happen, but how we will choose to respond to it.

This new assessment landscape brings big challenges. It asks training providers and awarding organisations to rethink delivery models, build new capability and have confidence in different approaches to assessment and marking.

And, at the heart of this reform sits a non-negotiable responsibility, protecting the integrity of occupational competence. 

In the STEM and digital sectors SIAS supports, the industry voice has been clear and consistent that reform cannot come at the expense of rigour.  

Employers rely on apprenticeship standards as a mark of readiness and they need confidence. Trust is hard won but easily lost. 

But acknowledging the challenges should not make us cautious about change. It should sharpen our focus on getting this right!  

Within that responsibility sit significant opportunities to design assessments that are better aligned to learning, more responsive to employers, and more embedded within programmes rather than bolted on at the end.

We need to shift from a defensive posture

To make this work, mindset matters. We need to shift from a defensive posture to a constructive one; from seeing change as something being done to us, to recognising it as something we can actively shape.

We must all lean into this moment, and I know the awarding sector is driven by a simple principle: putting providers, learners and employers at the heart of our approach.  

Greater provider involvement in assessment can strengthen relevance and responsiveness, and it can co-exist within a system that protects quality and standards.

Awarding organisations that design dual assessment strategies flexible enough to support greater provider ownership, while still offering awarding organisation-led delivery where needed, are enabling genuine choice.  

They recognise a simple reality: providers are starting from different places. Some are ready to take on more control, while others face structural, regulatory or capability constraints as they navigate transition. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work.

I believe our role as awarding organisations, therefore, is not to dictate the model but to create a framework that allows for collaboration, progression and confidence over time.

If we approach this transition with discipline as well as ambition, then we have the opportunity to build a model that combines flexibility with credibility, that supports innovation while safeguarding standards. An approach that earns the continued trust of employers, regulators and, most importantly, learners.

Leadership at this moment is about stepping forward with clarity, positivity and purpose. 

We need to let go of legacy positions. Nostalgia is not a strategy. What is required now is deliberate evolution, grounded in standards but responsive to the future.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 524

Sarah Broadhurst

Executive Director for Service Growth, National Star

Start date: January 2026

Previous Job: CEO, The Autism Education Trust

Interesting fact: As a chartered psychologist, mental health is important to Sarah, so she meditates daily with her dog, a maltipoo named Wedge

Carly Sidebottom

Assistant Principal, Partnerships and Adults, Leeds College of Building

Start date: January 2026

Previous Job: Director of Business Strategy & Compliance, Total Training Provision

Interesting fact: A keen snowboarder since 2011, Carly also enjoys a good après-ski, but admits that learning the sport as an adult was challenging

Level 3 clear-out: Hundreds of courses get fewer than 10 students

Simplifying post-16 study options by introducing V Levels will involve cutting funding for hundreds of qualifications with hardly any enrolments, data shows.

During a consultation into the new vocational qualifications, officials said having almost 900 level 3 vocational courses available to 16 to 19-year-olds was “confusing”.

But until now it was not known how unpopular some of these courses were.

In response to a freedom of information request, the Department for Education revealed to FE Week that 409 level 3 courses from a total of 872 attracted fewer than 10 students.

A further 321 courses attracted between 10 and 999 students during the 2022-23 academic year.

And just 96 of the 872 attracted between 1,000 and 40,000 enrolments each, which accounted for 85 per cent of the total.

The DfE also listed 46 qualifications that had no students, though 26 were alternative academic qualifications (AAQs) and technical occupation qualifications (TOQs), which had no enrolments because they were approved in the last two years.

AAQs and TOQs will also be defunded when V Levels are rolled out – despite their recent introduction.

Simplify the system

Reacting to the data, college leaders said they were doubtful that students were confused by the existence of 872 level 3 courses because each college only offers a “relatively small number” of qualifications.

And they added that the government’s plan to scrap “hugely popular” level 3 courses was more concerning.

In a consultation launched in October, ministers said they would simplify the system by removing funding for all existing diploma and extended diploma-sized qualifications of 720 guided learning hours and over in T Level subject areas during this year and 2027.

Skills minister Jacqui Smith has said the government’s consultation response, due in the coming weeks, would include a “plan about how we transition to an end state”.

She told FE Week: “We know that the number of post-16 qualifications on offer means lots of the available courses are not being widely taken up by students.

“The structure of the current system and limited comparability between qualifications also contributes to poorer outcomes for students and confusion for learners, parents and employers.

“As we announced in the skills white paper, we are committed to reforming the entire system to improve outcomes for young people, and drive quality and standards in post-16 education.”

The bigger picture

Concerns about the level 3 reforms have focused on a small group of 14 “popular, well-respected” qualifications studied by nearly 70,000 young people each year, which are due to be defunded by 2027 due to a T Level overlap.

St Charles Sixth Form principal Martin Twist told FE Week that the DfE’s apparent concern about the nearly 900 courses available “doesn’t reflect how the system actually operates”.

He said: “Colleges are not offering hundreds of courses to students. In practice, each college runs a relatively small number of vocational programmes with significant enrolments.

“The risk the government ought to be addressing is not how confusing the vocational curriculum is, it is how they will avoid creating a significant gap in provision whilst working to sensibly reform vocational provision.”

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association which leads the Protect Student Choice campaign, accepted there was a need to “rationalise” the qualifications landscape.

However, he said it was “vital” to maintain funding for popular courses ahead of the launch of V Levels in 2027.

He added: “In practice, the choices that young people make are based on the qualifications offered by colleges and schools in their local area rather than the much bigger list of funded qualifications on the DfE website.”

‘Rich and varied’ options

Qualifications on the DfE’s list range from popular business and criminology courses to more niche certificates for skills such as equine management, food safety and cybersecurity.

WJEC’s applied diploma in criminology had the highest uptake, at 40,000 enrolments, while fewer than nine people signed up to any of the three yoga teaching qualifications available from awarding bodies YMCA, VTCT Skills and Focus Awards.

Awarding organisations told FE Week that some of the qualifications attracting only low enrolments had been designed in response to regional needs or specific industries such as maritime or logistics.

Heather Akehurst, chief executive of Open Awards, said the qualification market’s responsiveness meant the landscape is “rich and varied” but courses can fall out of favour.

She added: “Some qualifications are developed for very specific needs and that will mean they have low numbers but still add value.”

Hope of more cash to re-engage hard-to-reach youth

Cash to help students with additional needs find work could be handed to councils again after ministers suggested extending an employment training pilot programme for another year.

Long-awaited reforms to the SEND system this week revealed the government “intends” to continue the local authority pilot dedicated to helping 16 to 24-year-olds with complex needs but no EHCP into work.

The pilot is a strand of the Department for Education’s ‘Internships Work’ project, which launched in 2022 to improve access to employment for young people with SEND. 

The contract to run the project, worth £7.5 million in total, expires in March. But the SEND reform consultation hailed its “positive outcomes” and spoke of a 12-month extension.

Multiple local authorities had called for the scheme to be embedded into SEND education after exceeding their recruitment targets of young people at risk of becoming NEET.

The programme links young people with high needs with job coaches, structured support and unpaid work placements to transition them into paid employment, or other positive outcomes such as volunteering or further education.

Just under half (47 per cent) of the 240 participating young people found a paid job after completing the programme last year.

Enrolments more than doubled this year to 573, according to delivery organisation the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI).

Supported internships for SEND learners aged 16 to 24 with EHCPs had previously prompted concerns after FE Week revealed just one in four participants remained in employment one year after their placement.

NDTI handed out DfE-funded grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds each to 12 local authorities during the first two years of the pilot, expanding to 16 this year.

The money pays for job coaches, learning support assistants and related provider costs. Several councils added literacy, numeracy and social skills support classes after finding most recruits were NEET before starting the programme.

Jasmine West, post-16 education and skills lead at Barnet Council, said: “These learners can be employable, but a lot have social, emotional, health problems and a lot of anxiety. Many haven’t left their bedrooms for months, even years.”

She added that the pilot filled a gap for young people who did not have a formal disability diagnosis but required help with employability, social and mental health skills.

Barnet Council only got involved in October and has funding until July to recruit 25 people, but West said demand was “already there” to exceed the target.

Colleges face new legal duties through SEND overhaul

Chester West and Chester Council has had 87 starts on programme since October, surpassing its 60-person target. Four in 10 have been placed into paid work, while a fifth have re-engaged with education.

The council launched a gym-based pilot, where qualified personal trainers mentored the interns and delivered employability skills in a gym setting to target disengaged young people. 

“We’ve proven we can get those hard-to-reach people engaging,” said Jennifer Matthews, non-EHCP pilot lead at the council.

“I know we could support 200-plus with an extension. There needs to be something concrete because temporary funding allows for you to plan for that period of time and then all of a sudden you’ve got people left unsupported.”

Somerset Council used its £603,000 grant funding for the past three years to get young people onto existing supported internship programmes.

“There is huge demand for NEET re-engagement work for SEND young people without an EHCP,” a council spokesperson said.

Somerset Council admitted it had low numbers initially – seven in year one – until it switched up its marketing tactics and rolled out digital supported internships, which attracted neurodiverse students. It recruited 12 people the following year and 29 this year.

The DfE was contacted for comment.

Level 2 admin apprenticeship sign off delayed again

The long-awaited level 2 administration assistant apprenticeship has been pushed back again – possibly until August.

FE Week understands the standard has been assigned a funding band of £4,000 and is awaiting final approval from work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden.

The apprenticeship was initially allocated an indicative £6,000 funding band after being signed off by a government route panel last year, with employers behind its design expecting it to be available for delivery from August 2025.

It is understood the revised funding decision and ongoing affordability concerns in the wider apprenticeship system delayed the start date.

Employers told FE Week they were “at a loss to understand why Skills England is not providing any definitive updates or timelines”.

Minister signals importance for young people

An August 2026 launch would come six years after the level 2 business administration apprenticeship framework was closed to new starts in 2020.

It was one of the most popular apprenticeships across the country under the old-style framework system – hitting around 30,000 starts annually, 83 per cent of which were for under-19s.

The absence of a direct replacement at level 2 under the new-style standards system has been a source of frustration for employers and training providers, who argue this apprenticeship would help address the rising number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).

The administration assistant standard has been the subject of a lengthy employer-led campaign for approval, including public sector bodies such as councils and the NHS.

A source close to the trailblazer group said: “After over five years of lobbying, we were advised in December that the standard was finally being approved, so the continued delay in publishing this vital standard is incredibly frustrating. 

“With all the rhetoric around NEETS and the decline in young people on apprenticeships, and the fact we know there is huge demand from the over 900 employers who supported the trailblazer group from all sectors, we are at a loss to understand why Skills England is not providing any definitive updates or timelines. 

“Unofficial sources have said August 2026, and if this is the case then this needs to be confirmed so employers can plan and providers are ready to deliver.”

FE Week asked skills minister Jacqui Smith about the apprenticeship’s launch in a recent interview for National Apprenticeship Week.

While she did not confirm a specific date, Smith emphasised that apprenticeships of this kind would play an important role in supporting young people into training.

“I don’t know the exact detail about the timing, but certainly that type of apprenticeship, alongside foundation apprenticeships, alongside thinking about other ways in which we can encourage young people into training, will be a really important way in which we both pivot to young people and we use apprenticeships and skills to address the NEETs issue, which is an enormous priority for Pat and the team,” the minister said.

Budget pressures contribute to delay

Last year’s apprenticeship budget overspent for the first time, and £43 million has been added in-year to this year’s pot, which now stands at £3.118 billion.

Ministers are streamlining the apprenticeship system to cut costs, including by defunding level 7 apprenticeships for people aged over 21, and are working up plans for potential cuts to management apprenticeships.

A level 3 business administration standard has been live since 2017 and is consistently one of the top five most popular apprenticeships with around 12,000 annual starts.

The addition of a level 2 administration assistant apprenticeship is likely to prove popular and therefore expensive, even with a £4,000 funding band.

The Department for Work and Pensions told FE Week that officials would share an update on this apprenticeship “in due course”.

Minister moves to tighten grip on FE teacher training

Tighter scrutiny of FE teacher training to root out poor-quality courses has been put before MPs.

From April, providers of further education initial teacher training (ITT) must register with the government, submit mandatory student data and follow guidance on curriculum and delivery.

Skills minister Jacqui Smith said ITT providers needed more government scrutiny after finding “persistent” poor-quality provision. 

Ofsted previously warned that some FE teacher trainees were being taught outdated concepts that lacked “evidence-based approaches”.

In a letter to the House of Commons education committee, Smith said the quality of teacher training in FE was subject to “much less direct scrutiny from government” compared to equivalent provision for schools. 

The Further Education (initial teacher training) Regulations 2026 have now been presented to MPs, with a date for a vote yet to be set. 

It follows a public consultation and commitments in the post-16 white paper to evidence-based training for budding FE teachers.

Statutory standards

FE teacher trainee figures and course provision are currently unregulated. Smith said the proposed legislation was the first step towards a clear regulatory framework for FE teacher training.

Once Parliament approves the changes, dozens of ITT providers delivering level 5, 6 and 7 courses will have to comply with statutory curriculum guidance and delivery standards.

The curriculum guidance outlines the professional behaviours, subject expertise and student progression that trainee teachers should learn and receive.

Providers should consider the advice “seriously”, and any organisation designing content contrary to the guidance would have to justify the reasons why.

FE employers, such as colleges, that recruit in-house trainees and pre-service FE ITT providers, must also ensure learners reach minimum standards in English, maths and digital skills and teach for at least 250 hours on placements.

Providers will also have to collect and report data on trainee outcomes and employment destinations with the Department for Education within six months of a learner’s completion.

“There have been unquestionably pockets of excellent practice in the FE teacher training sector,” Smith’s letter says.

“But there have also been instances where poor-quality provision has been allowed to persist, to the considerable detriment of both trainee teachers and their potential employers and students in the FE sector.”

The regulations will also require ministers to publish an annual report on FE ITT compliance, plus a list of appropriate courses and providers for students.

Evidence for high-quality teacher training

Officials have spent recent years seeking evidence to root out low-quality providers.

The government signalled incoming legislation in October when it opened a call for evidence of “relevant, high-quality theory and knowledge” to inform early career training for FE teachers.

The evidence was considered by an ITT expert advisory group chaired by Wigan and Leigh College principal Anna Dawe, who went on to recommend the proposed statutory guidance for FE teaching programmes.

Officials also launched a consultation in 2023 seeking to block funding for private teacher training providers that lacked partnerships with higher education providers.

The DfE said there was no evidence they delivered high-quality provision, or that they supplied “significant” numbers of FE teachers to the sector.

The proposal indicated 13 independent training providers would lose around £27 million in fee income and could affect nearly 4,500 students, according to 2022-23 student loans company data.

Meanwhile, ongoing FE teacher recruitment concerns were addressed in a teacher training policy document published alongside the schools white paper this week, which detailed strategies to boost secondary, special school and college teacher numbers by 6,500.

The DfE said it was “exploring” how the future high-potential ITT scheme – currently run by Teach First in schools – could give opportunities to trainees to gain experience in FE colleges.

Stop relying on day release to achieve apprenticeship growth

Apprenticeship growth remains a constant topic of discussion among senior leadership teams, largely because it is not constrained by lag funding and is one of the most effective ways to increase in-year funding.

Yet, in my experience of delivering apprenticeships over many years, true and sustainable growth rarely comes from traditional day-release models in which the apprentice spends one day a week with the provider and the remainder at work.

Instead, it flourishes when providers adopt a well-designed ‘block-release’ approach, of a one or two-week duration.

While day release certainly has its place, it comes with an inherent limitation: geography. Learners can only travel so far for sessions, which restricts the recruitment demographic. Block release overcomes this, but only when it is implemented with intention and precision. Simply re-timetabling classes is not enough.

I first saw the transformative impact of block release many years ago, when I was head of motor vehicle at Bridgwater College. At the time, we delivered a solid day-release programme with around 30 apprentices per year.

The senior team challenged us to grow numbers, so I designed a block release model informed by strong existing practice, especially in main dealer programmes with brands like Ford and Volkswagen.

The design followed a clear blueprint, with absolute consistency on dates once agreed with employers.

It ran for seven weeks a year, equivalent to the 35 days delivered through day release, each beginning at midday Monday and ending midday Friday, thus allowing for travel. We made the time up through evening delivery on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

We organised structured social activities, like bowling or go-karting, on Thursday evenings to foster group cohesion and give apprentices a positive end-of-week experience.

Employers received progress updates each Friday to set out the on-the-job tasks and learning their apprentices needed to complete before the next block.

This framework was remarkably successful. By my final year at Bridgwater College, the programme had grown to 55 block release groups with around 850 apprentices from across the country and with many diverse backgrounds.

Of course, the challenge posed by block release is always apprentice accommodation and related costs. But what the Bridgwater experience taught me was, if you get the product right, people will travel and pay for quality education.

Employers happily paid more as they could see the difference the training made in their workplace.

Whether you utilise existing student accommodation or create a list of trusted B&Bs, the safeguarding process needs to be the same. We appointed an accommodation officer to oversee this process. The accommodation income alone was circa £600,000 in my final year.

Twenty-five years later, shortly before stepping down as principal from my last college, we were discussing the future of the agricultural engineering apprenticeship programme.

With small numbers split across two campuses 90 minutes apart, delivery was costly and viability repeatedly questioned. Yet the level 3 agricultural engineering standard is generously funded at £27,000 per apprentice, making it a significant opportunity if delivered effectively.

Drawing on the proven model, we consolidated delivery onto one campus and shifted entirely to block release. We adopted the same core structure, but added a new wow factor: a sector-leading agriculture engineering interactive diagnostic lab, delivered through a partnership with Electude.

For around £84,000 investment, the workshops were significantly revamped and Electude provided both software and hardware, enabling apprentices and employers to access learning through an app potentially 24 hours a day. This reduced reliance on class-based teaching time and related costs.

On paper, it was a risky investment. In practice, it was well calculated because when the product and delivery model are right, block release works.

The programme grew from an average of 15 apprenticeship starts a year to 55 the following September, with 64 expected the next year. Financially, that represented an annual income uplift of £360,000 with no additional delivery cost.

If you want to broaden your reach, improve employer engagement, increase income and create a transformational learner experience, I’ve found block release wins every time.