Earlier FE choices could transform life chances for many

As a college with a long history of 14-16 provision, we have always recognised the value of offering high-quality vocational choices to younger students. We know from experience that some people are much better suited to more practical styles of learning.

As Professor Alison Wolf highlighted in her review of vocational education in 2013, studying a vocational pathway can also improve academic achievement for some learners – which is something we see evidenced in our college.   

Many young people achieve success at college after years of perceived failure. The wholly academic and exam-focused nature of schools does not suit every learner and defining “success”within these narrow parameters means that many will fall outside them.    

Offering alternative routes at 14 can allow some young learners to view success differently from an earlier age, increasing their self-confidence, self-belief and aspiration.   

We were one of the first to apply when FE colleges were given the opportunity in 2013 to directly recruit and enrol this age group.    

We set up London’s first hospitality career college as well as a full-time 14-16 provision, which offered several vocational specialties alongside core academic GCSEs.

Our vision for 14-16 direct-entry provision was an aspirational vocational hub for young people who were motivated by practical learning and focused on a career pathway into a specific industry.   

The reality, however, was that it became a provision for children who would otherwise have faced exclusion, or an alternative to home schooling before reaching the point of exclusion.    

Studying a vocational pathway can also improve academic achievement

This meant a disproportionate number of young people were coming to us with learning and behavioural issues and we were having to operate more like one of our alternative provisions. Although we have experience in this area, we didn’t want it to be the primary purpose of our 14-16 centre. 

But what was clear was the positive effect that this practical model of education was having on many of the students. Their motivation for learning increased and their confidence grew as they recognised their abilities in different areas and progressed on to higher levels.   

So, while our ambition for a high-achieving provision that competed with mainstream schools in the league tables wasn’t realised, what was clear was the importance of such alternative routes for some 14- to 16-year-olds.   

We therefore had to adapt and re-focus. The result has been to revert to a hybrid model, more like the old “increased flexibility programmes”, but working as a form of outreach in close partnership with local mainstream schools.   

Fourteen- to 16-year-olds attend our alternative curriculum college two days a week to study vocational programmes, including hair and beauty, multi-skills and motor vehicle. Their other three days are spent at their schools studying for key GCSEs.   

We are seeing success in real terms. Students know they must attend well to keep their place, and engagement is high. Last year 96 per cent of year 11 learners progressed on to full-time courses at college, 30 per cent of which were apprenticeships.    

Overall outcomes are better with the school being able to focus on core GCSE, while we deliver the vocational aspects – rather than us having to do it all in two short years.  

This model has also reduced mainstream exclusions and reflects the benefits that come from genuine partnership working between schools and colleges.   

Reaching this point hasn’t been straightforward, but we’ve learned from experience. This provision is now absolutely meeting the needs of these specific learners.   

I therefore welcome the Association of Colleges/University College London research project that will explore 14-16 provision in FE. It is essential to build up a better picture of what motivates these young people and how we can all work together to improve their outcomes.   

Hey Rishi! FE needs more than golden oldies and remixes

With real-terms college funding rates back to 2004 levels and more pain ahead, the Department for Education seems otherwise obsessed with the shiny and new – a magpie mentality coupled with a goldfish memory.

And so Rishi Sunak’s first press release on education focused on new “elite technical institutes” and a British Baccalaureate as the keys to future success. His diagnosis is spot on; we need to improve technical and vocational education and broaden the academic post-16 curriculum (including longer study of maths and English). However, his prescription misfires as badly as Timo Werner did for my beloved Chelsea last season.

Elite-ness cannot be mandated. It comes from the bottom up over a long period and survives cyclical changes in performance. Crucially, it requires sustained and usually high investment. It is no coincidence that our most elite institutions are all well funded. Would Eton produce so many prime ministers if spending was restricted to £5,000 for each pupil?

Elite institutions are also usually small. Oxford and Cambridge are not large universities; Eton is small; Michaela is small. We know we need good technical and vocationally educated people. But we also know FE students do not travel. A small network of new elite institutes will not deliver what we need. If anything, it will make matters worse by sucking away staff from existing colleges to work in a less productive way.

And elite institutions don’t scale. How can we propose another iteration of national colleges, institutes of technology, career colleges, UTCs and studio schools –  all of which have either failed outright or failed to bring about systemic change?

A Voxbridge for advanced sparkies or chippies is a laughable non-starter

We already have a network of 228 colleges. They have satisfaction ratings as high as the NHS. They are the most popular choice for post-16 study, enrolling more young people than does the very long tail of 3,000 or so school sixth forms.

Colleges have also proved effective at delivery. The two most transformative post-16 achievements of the past 20 years have been a massive shift in educational participation and an equally massive shift in the number of 16 to 18-year-olds studying maths and English.

These both resulted from bold decisions in 2014, but they happened only because colleges expanded and developed an army of new maths and English teachers from scratch. We are the only real mass-education resource that can deliver quickly at scale.

The prescription we need is simple, if boring: Invest in existing colleges.

Likewise, betting on yet another new academic product – a British Baccalaureate – sounds risky.  A-levels have 70 years of history and recognition. It is government policy that is largely responsible for their lack of breadth. Students now study three A-levels rather than start four subjects as they did with AS-levels. And the maths and English condition is not universal, so the most academic is the only group that doesn’t continue studying these subjects. 

Sunak is profoundly committed to his father-in-law’s mantra: “in God we trust, everyone else bring data”. The data says that real people want to do their technical and vocational education at their local, properly funded college. Real people wanting an academic education vote overwhelmingly for A-levels. 

The lesson of education history is that people get what they want and shun what they don’t. The country doesn’t need a small force of elite electricians but a battalion of good ones. A Voxbridge for advanced sparkies or chippies is a laughable non-starter.

Most importantly, we need our ministers to see FE (and colleges in particular) as a system. At present, our funding arrangements are not holistic and ignore institutions. The Ney Review and David Russell’s work at Oxford’s Said Business School provide a glimpse of how FE could work.  Building on this would be helpful.

I count Joni Mitchell as an elite artist. With a looming financial crisis for our sector, we need a change of prescription. Otherwise, her lament that “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone” could become our epitaph.

City & Guilds buys third training provider

Education giant City & Guilds has acquired its third training provider.

Trade Skills 4U, which delivers electrical engineering training including through skills bootcamps and apprenticeships, has joined from private equity firm Palatine for an undisclosed fee.

It becomes the third training provider to join City & Guilds. Intertrain, a large provider for the railway industry, was acquired in 2019 after Gen2, which claims to be the largest training provider to the UK civil nuclear industry, joined in May 2017.

Andy Moss, managing director at City & Guilds said investing in Trade Skills 4U “further strengthens our training delivery offer by extending our reach in the electrical engineering market”.

“By investing in the business, we will build on the great foundations already in place to accelerate our combined growth in electrical training,” he added.

Established in 2005, Trade Skills 4U claims to have helped train and retrain over 90,000 individuals through a range of commercial courses in its training centres across the country, including Gatwick, Leeds, Coventry and Warrington, as well as online programmes.

It began delivering apprenticeships last year and also delivers the government’s new skills bootcamps in partnership with Intertrain.

Ofsted is yet to publish a report on Trade Skills 4U, but City & Guilds told FE Week the provider received an early monitoring visit in August which resulted in a mix of ‘reasonable’ and ‘significant’ progress judgements. 

Kirstie Donnelly, chief executive of City & Guilds, said Trade Skills 4U joins her group at a “critical time as the UK grapples with severe skills shortages”.

Carl Bennett, founder and chief executive of Trade Skills 4U, added: “Together with City & Guilds it is our mission to support the delivery of electrical training in the UK. The data on skills shortages expected in coming years is alarming. So, as we rely more on our digital capability and the electrical system that powers it, we must make electrical training provision a priority.”    

Palatine backed Trade Skills 4U in 2017. Matt Coles, impact fund investment director at the private equity company, said City & Guilds “represents a natural home for Trade Skills 4U to continue to grow its scale and impact and we look forward to following the business’ future journey”.

Labour skills: A political will and a way forward (at last)

“Where’s there’s a will, there’s a way.” How the FE and skills sector has held on to that proverb in the past decade. But as Lord Blunkett and his Labour skills advisers launched their learning and skills report last week, he was upbeat in tone.

He talked about the report’s “practical policies” to tackle immediate challenges – mounting job vacancies, failing apprenticeships, stagnant productivity, decline in investment in skills and in adult learning. He spoke too about the future – the rapid expansion in digital skills and AI, the needs of the NHS and social care, net zero – and was passionate on the central role of skills in economic recovery and “liberating the talents of individuals”.

The standout FE recommendation was “a substantially enhanced role … reinforcing collaboration and a seamless link with higher education, apprenticeships and progression within work”. There was also a pledge to reintroduce education maintenance allowances for 16 to 19-year-olds and support for apprentices in the same age group. Practical stuff to boost learner outcomes and enrolment.

FE would be part of a national skills taskforce with “an integral role to play in local and regional economic growth”. The taskforce would devolve more powers and funding to metro mayors and combined authorities. Such models of local co-operation will be welcomed by a sector wearied by Whitehall micro-management.

This report favours joined-up strategic thinking, not this government ‘s failing short-termism (Kickstart, Restart and skills boot camps). Rather than the barrage of centralised supply contributing to stark falls in apprenticeship starts and a 40 per cent drop-out rate since 2019, the report envisages a system led by local demand. Hence its plan to transform the failing apprenticeship levy into a flexible “apprenticeship and learning levy”.

FE is wearied by Whitehall micro-management

The government needs to get learners to level 3 qualifications to make their lifetime skills guarantee and lifelong learning entitlement (due in 2025) work. Yet with six million adults with no level 2 qualifications, its assaults on BTECs and bonfire of entry-level up to level 2 qualifications risk throttling the pipelines.

The report is clear: funding for LLE needs reinventing. Its plans for individual learning accounts, bursaries and levy contributions will need fleshing out, but they are the right thing to do.

The proposed shake-up in the careers service is crucial. The adult tutoring programme could open up opportunities for learners, FE, as well as the WEA and, I would add, the OU. It should include the self-employed, gig economy workers and co-ops.

The report is scathing on the DfE’s “very limited lifetime skills guarantee for adults”. As a Blackpool MP, I saw constituents ineligible with their obsolete level 3 qualifications. The proposed “right to retrain” – with free courses for level 2 and access to fresh level 3 qualifications – should help end that.

The report analyses disadvantaged groups such as poorer outcomes for BAME apprentices and inequality affecting women and people with disabilities. Other categories will need teasing out, like the seven to eight  million without basic skills, 800,000 NEETs and others.

The report’s “partnership and collaboration” section wisely embraces other departments working alongside the DfE, with a proposal for people to study while on benefits a particularly encouraging recommendation.

Boosting digital skills up to level 2, emphasising “enabling skills”, modular learning, learning passports and microcredits – all are pointers to a 21st century lifelong learning vision at last come of age.

The report is multigenerational too. Its other proposals for early years, childcare and school enrichment could spur parents into lifelong learning. Like the female constituent I met three times in the 2000s, who went to a Sure Start centre for help with her children and ended up training as a primary school assistant.

This report shows there’s “a will” and that there are several pathways. Now, it’s up to the sector to engage with its signposts.

Online apprenticeship provider lauded as ‘outstanding’ in first inspection

An online apprenticeship provider is celebrating after securing an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating in its first ever full inspection.

Apprentify Ltd, headquartered in Cheshire, has almost 300 apprentices mostly studying content production or digital marketing level three apprenticeships. 

In a grade one Ofsted report published today, apprentices are described as “enthusiastic” and “motivated to succeed” in an environment where staff encourage apprentices to develop a “lifelong love of learning”.

The watchdog reported that all apprentices who had come to the end of their apprenticeship had passed, with most achieving distinction grades. 

Leaders and managers were praised for their specialised career guidance which prepared learners “extremely well” for their next steps. 

Apprentices also benefit from industry-specialist mentors who support them into employment opportunities.

Development coaches provide information on higher level apprenticeships, university courses and career development allowing apprentices to negotiate new workplace positions.

The report noted that most apprentices move into promoted posts or take on greater responsibility at the end of their apprenticeship. 

Ofsted praised leaders and board members knowledge of the quality of education which enables them to provide support and challenge to their managers. 

The report also drew on an “ambitious” and “well structured” curriculum with specialised training. For example, IT technical salesperson apprentices participated in coaching sessions to improve their presentation skills. 

Jonathan Fitchew

Apprentify Ltd was incorporated in 2016 and started offering apprenticeships in 2018. This was the provider’s first full inspection from Ofsted.

Jonathan Fitchew, Apprentify’s group chief executive, said: “To achieve an outstanding rating in our first ever inspection is testament to the hard work and dedication we put into helping both apprentices and businesses to flourish through skills development.”

He explained that the students’ choice of course sets the tone for the rest of their development, where they are then supported to find a programme which matches their personality and ambitions in their digital assessment centres. 

“From there, we deliver outstanding learning opportunities through industry and sector experts who have a true passion for teaching, to create pathways to mastery, forging fantastic futures.”

Online provider bites back at Ofsted after scathing report

A new provider that delivers healthcare apprenticeships wholly online has hit out at Ofsted’s conduct and expertise after inspectors claimed to have found a series of funding rule breaches.

The watchdog said apprentices at Care Int Limited, who mostly work for staff agencies and are on zero hours contracts, are not in appropriate employment and fail to work the hours required for an apprenticeship.

Ofsted even allegedly found cases where people do not recognise that they are on an apprenticeship programme with the London-based training provider.

The vast majority of apprentices also “complete their studies in their own time”, contrary to funding rules.

Inspectors said too many apprentices are unsure when they started, when they will complete or what level of programme they are on.

Ofsted judged the provider to be making ‘insufficient progress’ across the board in an early monitoring visit report published yesterday. The provider has now been suspended from starting new apprentices by the Department for Education.

‘They were shouting. It was so dramatic.’

But Care Int Limited disputed the watchdog’s findings. Speaking to FE Week, the provider’s department head of apprenticeships Nikky Emelike said she was “shocked” that Ofsted reported apprentices completing their studies in their own time – saying this was a “miscommunication”.

She also claimed that the provider’s apprentices are in appropriate employment and that while they work with agencies that do employ people on zero hour contracts, the apprentices themselves are not.

Emelike also complained about the conduct of Ofsted’s visit, claiming that inspectors were “shouting” and throwing “temper tantrums”.

Care Int Limited was established a decade ago and also acts as a recruitment agency for the health and social care sector. It first gained a direct contract to teach apprenticeships in March 2020.

The provider was delivering online-only provision to almost 70 apprentices in the health and social care sector across eight different apprenticeship standards.

Ofsted said that leaders and managers do not complete “adequate checks” on the quality of the programme, and do not use their systems effectively to check that apprentices have received the required online learning to contribute to their off-the-job training.

The watchdog also raised issues about unreliable commitment statements and poor safeguarding policies.

Ofsted rejected Care Int Limited’s challenge.

‘It was a terrible experience for a new training provider’

Emelike’s said she was “disappointed” with this decision and the final report, but her main grievance was the behaviour of inspectors.

She told FE Week: “We are just a small organisation, the first time being visited by them, so we thought there was going to be more assistance, but what we got were temper tantrums. It was a terrible experience for a new training provider. We made our point clear about everything, we have been doing quality training, we have been doing everything to adhere to the apprenticeship guidelines.

“The main issue was the attitude – they were shouting, we were shocked by what we got from them. It was so dramatic. We had to stop and say ‘okay, thank for you coming’ because it ended up being so bad.”

Hopwood Hall College staff win another significant pay rise

Staff at Hopwood Hall College have secured another significant pay rise – this time of 9.2 per cent for most lecturers.

The award for 2022/23, announced today by the University and College Union, comes just months after staff at the college in Rochdale secured an increase of up to 7.5 per cent for the 2021/22 academic year.

Staff at Hopwood Hall called off strike action earlier this year due to “meaningful” pay negotiations taking place, the UCU said.

This year’s deal will be back dated to August. It is worth 9.2 per cent for most lecturers. For new lecturers who are at the “bottom of the spine and for skills development coaches” the deal is worth 20.25 per cent, over £5,000, according to the union.

Hopwood Hall College’s latest accounts, for the year ending July 2021, show a health financial position after it achieved an underlying group operating surplus of £1.7 million and cash reserves of £16.1 million.

The new pay deal also includes a “commitment to creating a joint workload agreement with UCU before the end of the academic year”.

Elsewhere, more than 30 colleges across England have seen up to 10 days of strike action over the past two months over pay, in what the UCU said has been the biggest wave of industrial action England’s colleges have ever seen.

The UCU rejected a 2.5 per cent offer from the Association of Colleges in June, describing it as “totally unacceptable”. That had been increased from first 1 per cent and then 2.25 per cent.

Staff across the country are calling for a 10 per cent rise with a minimum uplift of £2,000 to help them cope with the cost-of-living crisis.

Many college leaders have argued that significant pay increases, even of 2.5 per cent, are “simply unaffordable” due to inflationary pressures on budgets and a decade of funding cuts.

Commenting on the Hopwood Hall deal, UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “This is a huge win for our members at Hopwood Hall and will mean staff have more money in their pockets to deal with the cost of living crisis and soaring energy bills.

“If other colleges want to avoid any more strike action over the coming months then they also need to make pay offers that address these issues. Otherwise, they will face further disruption.”

Hopwood Hall College declined to comment on the offer.

NUS sacks president Shaima Dallali after antisemitism investigation

The National Union of Students has sacked its president Shaima Dallali after an independent investigation into allegations of antisemitism.

Dallali was elected as NUS president in March but was suspended from her role at the end of August and has now been dismissed after she was found to have “significantly breached” the union’s policies.

Since her election, the Department for Education and its quangos have cut ties with the union.

In a statement, the student union said: “Following the independent KC-led investigation into allegations of antisemitism, specifically into the then-president elect under the NUS Code of Conduct, an independent panel has found that significant breaches of NUS’ policies have taken place. As per this finding, we have terminated the president’s contract.”

The union said it will not be sharing any further details on the investigation into Dallali, who can appeal the decision.

“We are sorry for the harm that has been caused and we hope to rebuild the NUS in an inclusive way – fighting for all students as we have done for the past 100 years,” the NUS added.

DfE minister Robert Halfon said: “We welcome the verdict to this initial investigation and look forward to seeing the outcome of the next stage, which will provide more detail on National Union of Students’ plans to address antisemitism within the organisation.”

Dallali’s sacking is the outcome in the first of two investigations in to NUS, the second of which has not yet concluded and will look at the organisation as a whole.

The DfE previously said that it would want to see antisemitism addressed across the organisation as a whole before deciding whether to reengage with them.

Dallali said she is considering “all available legal remedies” following her dismissal, and has hired Carter-Ruck – one of the UK’s best-known law firms – to fight her case.

A statement from the law firm said Dallali rejects the findings of the disciplinary panel, and she considers the process to have “constituted discriminatory treatment of her as a black Muslim woman and her beliefs concerning the plight of the Palestinian people”.

Earlier this year, Lord Mann, the government’s antisemitism adviser, called for action against the NUS in response to “escalating revelations about the continuing poor treatment of Jewish students and the lack of leadership on anti-Jewish racism from the union”.

Jewish students had expressed concerns after it emerged that Dallali had made anti-Semitic posts on social media ten years ago.

Dallali wrote in 2012 on social media: “Khaybar Khaybar O Jews … Muhammad’s army will return #Gaza” – a reference to a massacre of Jews in 628. She later apologised for the post, calling it “unacceptable”.

Chloe Field, the vice president of higher education will now step up as acting chair of the NUS UK board.

She said: “As the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, I will continue to hold the government to account and push for greater support for students. As students and apprentices reach breaking point, at NUS we have developed a series of clear recommendations for the government and education institutions to ease the burden on students, and I look forward to championing them during my time at NUS.”

Ofsted plans ‘shadow nominee’ for training providers during inspections

Ofsted has announced it will allow training providers to provide a second nominee during inspections, after lobbying by sector leaders.

Currently, training providers must nominate one person in their organisation to be the link between the provider and the inspector at the time of inspections.

Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills Paul Joyce revealed this morning at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ autumn conference that from January 2023, a second nominee – known as a “shadow” nominee – can also be put forward by the provider.

Full details and a briefing by Ofsted will be presented before the rollout in the New Year, but the shadow nominee is expected to only have an observational capacity, with the primary nominee still being the point of liaison.

Joyce, who announced the measure to applause from the conference, said: “Our current practice is to usually only allow one nominee as the link between the provider and the inspector, but increasingly as providers have got larger, as the stakes on inspection have increased, and, particularly with large and complex providers where there is geographic spread, where there are lots of sector subject areas, or where there are many learners, we do appreciate a lot of responsibility rests on one person’s shoulders.

“We are wanting to ease that burden, and we also want to help the sector with succession planning.”

When asked by FE Week whether that was because of any concerns from the sector around the way inspections have been carried out, Joyce said that was not the case, but more around professional development and easing the burden on one person.

Colleges already put forward two nominees, but that is because of the nature of their “enhanced inspections”, according to Joyce. For colleges, the role of the primary nominee stays the same, but the second nominee looks at the skills needs of a college as part of the enhanced inspection.

Joyce said the protocol is being put together so that at the planning call, which acts as the notification of upcoming inspection, the training provider can put forward their nominee and decide if they want a shadow nominee.

Joyce said that the shadow nominee role is as an observer and “won’t expect that nominee to contribute during team meetings or to ask questions, but they are there to take notes and support your nominee”.

Jane Hickie, chief executive of AELP, said: “I am really pleased that Ofsted will adopt AELP’s shadow nominee proposal, as of January 1 2023.

“One of the key challenges for providers is to ensure appropriate succession planning for the next generation of inspection nominees. An experienced nominee can often make the difference to a training provider having a positive inspection experience.”

Hickie said that while nominee training is widely available, there was a lack of practical exposure to the role, which the shadow nominee plans will help address, adding that it will ensure a “high-quality and well-informed inspection” for both the provider and Ofsted.