Level 3 reform: Keegan is about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity is ‘repeating the same mistakes over and over again, expecting to get different results.’ At the Department for Education it appears ministers and senior officials might now be backtracking on solemn qualification reform commitments made to a cross-party group of peers, at the time of the skills bill deliberations. 

Ministers accused of level 3 backtrack

Two former education secretaries – true titans of the post-war era – joined forces in the upper house during the passage of the legislation. 

Conservative, Lord Baker and Labour’s Lord Blunkett, pointed out that England won’t be able to build a genuinely world-class secondary education system by trashing many existing, perfectly good qualifications in the process. 

A change of ministers at Sanctuary Buildings helped ensure a rather more delicate consensus emerged. 

It included the notion that alongside A-levels and T Levels, 16-19 year olds in England, in future, would still be able to pursue tried and tested qualifications like BTECs and other applied general qualifications. 

That didn’t mean the culling of all qualifications at level 3 and below would cease. Quals that overlap directly with government-owned qualifications are already being removed. 

But it did represent a breakthrough in the idea that government was seriously listening and responding to heartfelt concerns about learner choice.

This tentative cross-party agreement is now seriously under strain. 

It means an incoming Labour government, riding high in the polls, could decide to break cover and openly oppose many of the post-16 reforms.

Dogma over delivery

Taking fright from any major political escalation, those in the FE delivery ecosystem could simply decide to go slow, effectively strangling the reforms, via a thousand tardy excuses as to why rollouts can’t go ahead as planned. 

The fact the whole qualifications reform timetable straddles the febrile general election period should make senior officials wary of being seen to be too servile in their desire to please incumbent political masters. 

We all know what happened to 14-19 Diplomas in 2010, when an incoming government applied the kibosh. Public money was wasted. Thousands of learners were issued with certificates which are now worthless in the labour market. 

It’s why newly promoted to the cabinet, Gillian Keegan, is in danger of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. 

As skills minister, Keegan developed a reputation for placing dogma over delivery; ideological purity, over the inevitable pragmatism of what is required in high-office, particularly when government launches a controversial set of reforms. 

I still have confidence that the education secretary will not renege on the letter from her predecessor to Parliamentarians, sent on the eve of the Skills Bill becoming law. 

Any politician with an eye on their legacy is not going to crudely rip up what amounted in July 2022 to an important shift in level 3 policy. 

Not least because history is never kind to politicians who engage in what Lord Baker called at the time, “educational vandalism”. 

Voters won’t forgive education reform done badly

The experience of T Levels last summer and its ongoing fallout should be enough to caution ministers that, in the end, parents and learners will decide the fate of these reforms. 

One misstep could bring the whole reform crashing down. 

Already we’re hearing stories from FE providers of students transferring from the first year of T levels onto other courses. 

The government may think the easy answer is to hunker down and carry on regardless. 

They would be mistaken to put too much faith in a bureaucratic qualification approvals process at level 3 that is designed to manipulate the quals marketplace so egregiously, that it will leave students – particularly disadvantaged students – with nowhere to go.  

Voters have memory. Everyone has an opinion about education because it is the one common shared experience that shapes us all. 

People are not going to let go of vocational qualifications that their brothers, sisters, aunties and nieces have taken for decades. No more than we can expect Middle England to suddenly give up on A-levels, around since 1951. 

In 533 Parliamentary constituencies across England, voters will want to know why a Conservative government has obliterated course choices and educational opportunity for young people. 

On the doorstep, voters will ask why local sixth form colleges are operating a system of educational apartheid, with students forced to choose either an academic or the new technical routes. 

The 1944 Education Act ultimately failed because society moved on. The comprehensive principle replaced learner segregation.

History tells us that education reform is only lasting when everyone comes together in the national interest, rather than pursuing some narrow agenda built on outdated dogma. 

‘Shorter type’ of apprenticeship for over-50s eyed by chancellor in economic growth plans

A “slightly shorter type” of apprenticeship could be explored to help get over-50s to retrain or back into work, the chancellor suggested today.

Jeremy Hunt voiced ambitions for conversations with education secretary Gillian Keegan on that idea to address out-of-work adults and aid the government’s economic growth plans.

Speaking at Bloomberg this morning, the chancellor said that education would be one of the four pillars of his economic growth plans, admitting that “we don’t do nearly as well for the 50 per cent of school leavers who do not go to university as we do for those that do”.

Hunt also said that there were around nine million adults with low basic literacy or maths skills and more than 100,000 school leavers each year who had not reached required standards in maths or English, which made it difficult for those people when they may need to train for several different occupations over the course of their lives.

He continued that the government had “made progress with T Levels, bootcamps and apprenticeships” as part of its reforms, explaining that “we want to ensure our young people have the skills they would get in Switzerland or Singapore”.

The chancellor said that encouraging older workers back into the workforce or helping them to retrain is one of the issues to help growth, issuing a rallying call to the more than five million working age adults who are economically inactive that “Britain needs you”.

Hunt said that would include looking at more occupational health support to help prevent those with mental health needs, back problems and other health conditions from leaving work.

But apprenticeships, which have a legal 12-month minimum duration requirement, could also be in scope for those plans.

“When it comes to apprenticeships, there is a sense that apprenticeships are for young people, but there are lots of people who are ready and willing to consider a new career in their early 50s,” he said following his speech.

“They are expecting to work potentially for another 20 years, and they might need a slightly different type of apprenticeship, a slightly shorter type of apprenticeship, and I think that could be very good.”

He added that it is “a dialogue with Gillian Keegan we very much hope to pursue”.

Economic inactivity among over-50s has hit the headlines in recent months, with work and pensions secretary Mel Stride telling MPs in November that he was looking for “quick wins” to get over-50s who have had health issues back into work.

The skills bootcamps programme was one such scheme set-up to deliver quick skills training in sectors where shortages are at their most acute, such as in lorry driving, digital and construction.

The 12-to-16-week courses are available for those aged 19 and above, and guarantee an interview with an employer at the end of the course.

Data published last month revealed that the government had exceeded its target for skills bootcamps between April 2021 and March 2022, securing 16,120 starts against a planned 16,000 for the short courses.

Data on number of completers for that period was not released, however.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 413

Debbie Torjussen

Director of Finance and Corporate Services, Newcastle Stafford Colleges Group

Start date: January 2023

Previous Job: Director of Finance and Operations, The Grange School

Interesting fact: Debbie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, visiting new cities and running. She hopes in the near future to start running with her 18 month old, 43kg Rhodesian Ridgeback dog called Simba who she is busy training currently

Carly Sidebottom

Director of Employability, Learning Curve Group

Start date: January 2023

Previous Job: Head of ESF and AEB, Ixion

Interesting fact: Carly is a keen snowboarder and goes every year with
her family. Her daughter has been on the snow since she was three and is now a
better boarder than Carly (she is only 9 and leaves and her father for dust)


‘Even if Ofsted didn’t exist, I don’t think we’d do things differently’

Exeter College has become the first college to retain its ‘outstanding’ grade and achieve top marks in the new skills contribution measure from Ofsted. Tallulah Taylor finds out how they did it.

An unexpected influence on John Laramy, the principal of Exeter College, is Terry Leahy, who was chief executive of Tesco in the supermarket giant’s prime in the late 1990s.

Despite needing to make huge profits every year, Laramy explains that Leahy would spend half a day each week in stores, talking to customers and learning what it was like to shop there.

Being in touch with students and staff is therefore a big part of Laramy’s leadership approach, which this week delivered Exeter’s second ‘outstanding’ Ofsted result in 10 years.

The first result, in 2014, came under the leadership of Richard Atkins, Laramy’s predecessor who, after retiring as principal in 2016, became the FE Commissioner.

At that time, then education secretary Michael Gove introduced a rule that exempted schools and FE providers judged ‘outstanding’ from further inspections. The exemption survived until September 2021, when concerns were raised about providers going 10-plus years without scrutiny.

Of the 35 previously ‘outstanding’ FE providers to have been inspected since then, 22 have declined by at least one grade.

Higher Education Graduation at Exeter Cathedral 2022

Laramy has led Exeter for the past seven years through the turbulence of policy change, funding restraints and, of course, the Covid 19 pandemic – all of which have been blamed by other providers who have struggled to get top marks from Ofsted inspectors.

The Exeter report refers to the “nurturing and supportive environment”, with high-performing students taught by staff who act as “exemplary role models” to the learners.

Laramy tells FE Week: “The senior leadership team and I, alongside the governors, work really hard to listen to students and apprentices so that we know what it’s like to be a student or an apprentice here. I think that sort of culture really does have an impact across the college.”

Exeter received ‘outstanding’ judgements for every category inspected, apart from in their provision for learners with high needs, for which the college was graded ‘good’.

Top marks were also awarded for the new skills contribution measure which was introduced in September, making them the first both to retain an ‘outstanding’ grade and be judged ‘strong’ in meeting local skills needs.

Praise for the curriculum, sequencing, dedicated support and extra-curricular activities – among many other qualities – is scattered throughout the report, indicative of a caring and safe culture across the college campuses.

“Our teachers are absolutely amazing and go above and beyond”

Their high-achieving culture starts at the top, Laramy says. The college governors set high expectations of the senior leadership team which are then replicated across the college.

The vision is for the college to be exceptional, something which Laramy thinks reflects the standards they expect from their students, many of whom travel considerable distances to attend.

Vice principal Jade Otty supports this idea. She says that, when you work somewhere that is aspirational, alongside enough other people with similar aspirations, “you get into a positive spiral of this kind of culture”.

The report praises teachers and staff for valuing all members of the college community and describes them as “exceptional role models”.

“Our teachers are absolutely amazing and go above and beyond,” Otty says. “They will put on bespoke sessions for students, whether that’s revision or catching up.

“They are really good at assessing their curriculum and their delivery and asking, ‘how am I doing’ and ‘what do we need to have extra support’ in this and that.”

This attitude is part of the established teaching practice at Exeter College, Otty believes.

“You don’t just teach things in a particular order at a particular time because that’s what you thought you were going to do a few weeks ago or a few months ago.

“They’re dealing with human beings. They look at how their learners are getting on and change their curriculum accordingly.”

Laramy meets all his staff from right across the college four times a year to find out what they are doing brilliantly what they could do better. And he thanks any that are doing a fantastic job. They also have staff award celebrations and a similar model for students.

Principal, John Laramy and chair of governors, Bindu Arjoon

Meeting skills needs through the community

The college fares “exceptionally well” in how they identify and meet the local skills needs of employers, according to the inspectors.

Deputy chief executive Rob Bosworth explains that “exceptional colleges shape the landscape with the community. It didn’t happen because of one conversation. It has been built over time.”

Bosworth has been building these partnership relationships over 20 years through speaking with employers as well as to local community members and industry groups like the chamber of commerce.

“The way we do it is we live and breathe everything in the community. Colleges are there to serve the needs of the community. To do that at an amazing level, they have got to be embedded into the community on a day-to-day basis.”

He works with Otty on teaching and learning, which is a “purpose-driven curriculum strategy” that has a line of sight to industry and next-step progression.

Every piece of the curriculum is co-designed with an employer or partner stakeholder to ensure they are shaping the landscape alongside the different industries.

But it is not all about the hard skills needs that you read about in skills plans or economic strategies. Exeter’s work with Devon County Council to meet the needs of non-English speaking residents of the area also won praise in the report.

Inspectors emphasised how leaders quickly recognised the challenges for Ukrainian refugees and created courses “to support this community and help them become active citizens”.

The college’s relationship with stakeholders is notably successful in improving opportunities for those who are the most disadvantaged in the community.

Bosworth explains that they used their community learning budget to create an urban Learning Academy with partners who helped to design the curriculum to re-engage those that are furthest away from learning.

“So, we’ve done everything from sitting in the library playing Monopoly for adults that struggle with GCSE maths. We’ve done courses in bibliotherapy, where parents that are struggling to read to their children can come into a course and learn how to teach their children to read.”

Students celebrate graduating from the Michael Caines Academy with a special dinner

High needs ‘particularly challenging’

The only area in which the college did not achieve ‘outstanding’ was in the provision for learners with high needs.

Ofsted found that the specific courses designed for these learners was not sufficiently challenging and ambitious and was not sufficiently personalised to meet each learner’s needs.

Why doesn’t the high expectations culture set at the top seem to reach those with additional needs?

Laramy responds that they are in the throes of opening a new building to accommodate high-needs learners, and that getting ‘good’ at this point for high needs provision is a “pretty stellar grade” when “you read what’s going on out there”.

“High-needs provision is a particularly challenging area now, which is well publicised nationally, the challenges with funding and so forth behind the students… We are not a – and cannot be – a specialist high-needs college… 

“I think one of the areas that the government is thinking about carefully is investing in additional specific high-needs providers. Because, as I understand it, there’s quite a shortage of high-needs places across the country. So, I think we are part of the solution to that, but not the total solution.”

Despite offering help with the cost of living, training and offering professional development to teachers, one of Laramy’s main challenges is attracting and retaining his staff.

“It’s my job to ensure we pay them as much as we can afford,” he says. “But it’s not just about paying. It’s making sure they feel that it’s a supportive workplace, that they get developed, that they get to teach in a great space.”

Exeter College lifts the trophy for Engagement with Employers at prestigious Beacon Awards

T Levels are not part of that challenge. Laramy enthusiastically says the college has outstanding T Level provision, and he wished they were assessed this year.

Asked if they will need to do make any changes to achieve another ‘outstanding’, Laramy says that, although they had been out of scope for an inspection for many years, they did not actually do anything differently then.

He refutes the idea that ‘outstanding’ colleges know how to work the system to keep the inspectors happy.

“That’s the thing I’ve reflected on, having Ofsted come to visit. Even if they didn’t exist, I don’t think we would do much different as a college. And I think that is probably what the report reflects.”

Ministers accused of level 3 backtrack

Ministers are under fire for reneging on their promise to axe a “small” proportion of BTECs and other applied general qualifications, as new analysis reveals that more than half will be scrapped by government edict.

A cross-party group of peers led by Lord Blunkett has vowed to confront education secretary Gillian Keegan on the issue. “This, at best, is an act of considerable bad faith and, at worst,  an indication that the government’s word isn’t worth the paper it was written on,” Blunkett said.

College leaders have warned the “ideologically driven” reform could cause “significant chaos”, as the plans would wipe out provision currently offered to almost two-thirds of sixth-form college students and almost a third of courses available in general FE colleges.

‘A clear reversal of the undertakings given last year’

The Department for Education is working to introduce a streamlined system for students finishing their GCSEs that pushes them to study either A-levels, their new technical equivalent T Levels, or an apprenticeship.

Officials have already announced that 106 alternative technical level 3 courses will have their funding removed from 2024 because they “overlap” with the first few T Level courses. Others face the chop in future years as more T Levels roll out to allow the qualifications to “flourish”.

The DfE launched the next phase of its level 3 review earlier this month, which involves a new strict approvals process that all “alternative” technical and academic applied general qualifications, such as Pearson’s popular BTECs, must pass to retain their funding.

But a guide published this month states that ministers have made the “conscious choice” to exclude “certain” academic qualifications from this process, either because the subject is “more suited to a technical qualification or because there is an associated A level”.

When the list of qualifications eligible for funding is mapped against the 134 recently reformed applied general qualifications currently available to young people and included in the DfE’s performance league tables, an “astonishing” 75 are found to be ineligible.

Source: Protect Student Choice Campaign

It means well-established qualifications, such as BTECs in health and social care, applied science, and law will disappear from 2025.

Experts also predict that many of the eligible courses will fail to gain approval through the new process.

The analysis, shared exclusively with FE Week by the Sixth Form Colleges Association that leads the Protect Student Choice campaign, shows that 62 per cent of applied general students in the sixth-form college sector are currently enrolled on qualifications that will be scrapped before the approval process begins.

This comes despite then education secretary Nadhim Zahawi promising the sector and Parliament through the passage of the skills and post-16 education bill that “only a small proportion of the total level 3 BTEC and other applied general style qualification offer – significantly less than half” would be removed.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, criticised the government for their decision not to run a “transparent and impartial approval process”.

He also criticised officials for not being clear about what evidence was used to draw up the list of subjects that will be funded in the future, describing their decisions as “indefensible and entirely unnecessary”.

Blunkett hit out at ministers for a “clear reversal of the undertakings given last year” after promising the Lords “in writing and from the despatch box that only a minority of advanced qualifications would cease to be funded”.

He told FE Week: “This is either a mistake that can be easily rectified, or a deliberate and calculated U-turn.

“A range of peers from all parties have agreed to take this matter up with education secretary Gillian Keegan, and I feel sure that she will want to demonstrate her honesty and integrity and act accordingly.”

Toby Perkins MP, Labour’s shadow skills minister, said the government’s reassurances on level 3 choice “have been shown to be hollow” and called on officials to “work with the sector and think again before pursuing this approach”.

A DfE spokesperson said: “Our reforms are intended to help more people to progress into work, an apprenticeship or on to further study, so it’s vital that the qualifications on offer are of the highest possible standard.

“We have already introduced T Levels as the new gold standard technical qualification and the changes we are making through our review will make sure only qualifications that are necessary, lead to good outcomes for students and meet the skills needs of businesses are approved for public funding.”

‘Reforms could cause significant chaos’

College principals have warned that the government’s plans create more problems than they solve.

A quarter of Oldham Sixth Form College’s 2,300 students are currently studying applied generals that face the chop in years to come, mostly extended BTEC diplomas in health and social care and applied science.

Associate principal Suzannah Reeves told FE Week that both “highly valued” courses are “incredibly successful, with many students progressing onto university, locally and nationally, into science, nursing and early childhood jobs”.

Her college is particularly concerned at losing health and science BTECs because of the major issues with their T Level counterparts last summer, which led to results for over 1,000 students being regraded. Many dropped out of the course after this debacle and transferred to a BTEC instead.

Reeves said her college now has “little confidence in the quality assurance of awarding, of the examination design and of coursework aspects of the T Level”.

She added that applied science BTEC is also vital for students who did not achieve a grade 4 or above at GCSE but want to pursue a career in the field.

“A-levels are not easily accessible for these students because of the content they have covered at school, usually on the foundation pathway,” she said.

“For those students wanting to take the BTEC applied science from 2025, they would have to go on to A-level single sciences or a combination of single diplomas and A-levels. I think their educational experience would potentially be poorer as a result.”

Graham Pennington, principal of Sandwell College in the West Midlands, said around half of his 4,000 level 3 students would be impacted by the DfE’s reforms. Of those, about 80 per cent would not have an “obvious and clear” alternative to transfer onto.

He said he sees T Levels as a positive step in technical education but warns the new qualifications are not suitable for many disadvantaged learners.

Pennington echoed Watkin’s concern that ministers have failed to evidence their decisions to date. “There’s a lot of assumptions as you listen to the narrative but not evidence-based assertions,” he said.

“Everyone wants to see the new qualifications succeed, but not by removing choice and opportunity.”

Reeves added: “It feels like this reform has been ideologically driven, and it has the potential to cause significant chaos.”

Provider’s contract terminated after another failed legal battle

An apprenticeship provider has had its funding contract terminated by the government after another failed legal challenge against a grade four Ofsted report.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s decision to kick The Opportunity Group out of the apprenticeships market comes seven months after inspectors visited the Newcastle-based provider.

After receiving the lowest possible rating, The Opportunity Group instructed Lester Aldridge Solicitors – a law firm retained by numerous providers in a similar position in recent years – to appeal against the “unfairness” of the report.

The ESFA held off on ending the provider’s contract while representations were made and until after Ofsted had conducted a follow-up monitoring visit, the report for which was published this month. It resulted in three ‘reasonable’ judgements but one of ‘insufficient’ progress.

Agency officials contacted The Opportunity Group’s owners last week to confirm they would go ahead with contract termination, in line with funding rules for apprenticeship provider’s judged ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.

The company will continue to deliver commercial rather than government-funded training, but jobs will be lost as a result.

Co-founder Kate Temple-Brown said: “We are saddened by the decision the ESFA has made to terminate our contract despite us providing clear examples and reasons as to why we disagreed with the judgements and gradings in our full inspection. 

“We have exhausted our ability to continue legal action due to the high costs involved and the likelihood of us succeeding against the ESFA. We have also seen the sad outcome for other training providers who have had their contracts terminated, despite legal challenge.”

Training providers have long complained about the regime adopted by the ESFA whereby an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted report leads to automatic contract termination. Many firms threaten legal action where they feel the judgement is unreasonable, but they rarely follow this through due to the significant costs involved.

Two providers failed in high court bids to overturn ‘inadequate’ judgements and contract termination last month. Like The Opportunity Group, both firms argued against alleged factual inaccuracies and disproportionate Ofsted judgements, including that inspectors had failed to take into consideration the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Temple-Brown said she hopes that, through the “collective power of independent training providers” that policy “will change, so that this removal of funding, based on the current system of inspection, doesn’t continue to happen unjustly to other providers”.

The Opportunity Group was delivering training to over 600 apprentices mostly on leadership and management programmes at level 3 and above at the time of Ofsted’s full inspection in June 2022 – nearly triple the number it had during a monitoring visit from Ofsted in early 2020.

In the report, Ofsted criticised the provider for allegedly putting adults on to unsuitable apprenticeships – an issue that led to large numbers dropping out and too many apprenticeships running significantly beyond their planned end date.

The watchdog also found that, in too many cases, apprentices were not receiving sufficient time to complete their apprenticeship during working hours or attending off-the-job training.

The provider claimed these issues were a consequence of delivering apprenticeships throughout the pandemic.

Treasury recoups £230m in unspent traineeships cash in last two years

Just a third of the government’s traineeships budget was spent during the past two years – with education chiefs handing back nearly £230 million to the Treasury, shocking new figures reveal.

The Department for Education last month announced it was axing the flagship pre-employment programme, and instead said it would be “integrated” into existing 16 to 19 programmes and adult education provision from August 2023.

Years of low take-up were to blame for the decision, with starts reaching just half and two-thirds of their respective targets in 2020/21 and 2021/22 despite huge additional investment aimed at helping young people to enter the jobs market during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fresh figures published in response to a parliamentary written question from Toby Perkins, Labour’s shadow skills minister, have now revealed the extent of the flop.

In total, just £119 million of the £348 million allocated for the past two years was spent – 34.1 per cent. Breaking this down by individual years, the data shows that £127 million of the allocated £189 million went unspent in 2021/22 and £102 million of £159 million was unused in 2020/21.

Last year the government reported that a £65 million underspend had been handed back to Treasury officials in 2020/21. FE Week asked the DfE to clarify the discrepancy between that number and the £102 million underspend figure it has now reported for the same year, but the department refused to comment.

The DfE did however confirm that all unspent money on traineeships was returned to the Treasury’s coffers, rather than reinvested in other programmes.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) criticised last month’s decision to scrap the scheme, dubbing it “disastrous” and “short-sighted”. It called on the government to tackle the reasons for the low uptake rather than stripping away a programme that offered a vital opportunity to disadvantaged learners.

AELP’s director of policy Simon Ashworth said the underspend “should have been used to offer trainees a training allowance, which would have made traineeships much more attractive to young people”.

Ashworth said it was fortunate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on youth unemployment was not as bad as anticipated, while the Kickstart scheme – the government’s paid job opportunities programme for 16 to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit – had been more appealing.

He added: “We are in discussion with the Department for Education on how we can mitigate the impact of this decision on learners, providers and communities. To retain expertise and capacity, we are clear that those providers with a standalone 16 to 18 traineeship contract should be able to access 16 to 19 funding and as a result some flexibility from government is required to allow that to happen.”

Traineeships were introduced in 2013 to deliver pre-employment training and unpaid work experience for eligible 16 to 24-year-olds. They can last between six weeks and one year, although most do not exceed six months.

The DfE said it had encouraged the growth of traineeships by introducing occupation-specific routes, employer incentives and promotion through its Get the Jump campaign, but starts still remained low.

Figures published in November revealed that just 15,500 traineeship starts were recorded in 2021/22, compared with a target of 43,000.

A high of 24,100 was recorded in 2015/16 while just 17,400 starts against a planned 36,700 were recorded for 2020/21.

Data published this week on traineeship starts between August and October 2022 – just weeks before the programme was axed – indicated just 4,600 enrolments – a fall of 17 per cent on the same period last year.

In May 2022, education chiefs gave the programme a final chance by pleading with employers to rapidly boost their starts. The Education and Skills Funding Agency reminded local authorities of their statutory duty to help 16 and 17-year-olds who were NEET (not in employment, education or training).

The ESFA also provided £1,000 cash sweeteners to employers for each learner they took on through the programme from 2020 up to July 2022.

From August 2023, traineeships can be incorporated into existing 16 to 19 programmes and non-devolved adult education budgets, while mayoral combined authorities, which oversee their own AEBs, can decide what is best in their areas.

During last month’s announcement about the ending of the flagship scheme, skills minister Robert Halfon said it was right to focus on mainstream provision and highlighted “great alternatives” such as T Levels and the T Level transition programme, skills bootcamps and apprenticeships.

Demand doubles for free courses for jobs

Data released this morning by the Department for Education gives us a first look at adult learner participation in further education and skills courses this academic year. 

Here’s what we learned from the first quarter (August 2022 – October 2022):

Level 2 decline

There were 1,056,530 learners recorded this quarter, up 4 per cent, on the same period last year. Most of the extra 43,380 learners so far this year are taking courses at level 4 and above (up 11 per cent) and below level 2 excluding basic skills (up 7 per cent). 

However, the number of learners on full level 2 and 3 programmes fell by 9 per cent and 5 per cent respectively, representing nearly 23,000 learners.

A quarterly comparison of ESOL learners show there were just over 20,000 more in 2022/23 so far than for the same period in 2020/21. Most of that growth came from entry level courses.

There was also a small overall rise in community learning participation, with a 4 per cent bump to 119,180 learners. Figures reported growth in all areas of community learning, but the largest increase in learner participation was in family English, maths and language programmes.

Free courses for jobs demand rises

The number of adults that have started a course under the free course for jobs offer is double what it was for the same period last year.

In-year statistics for the first quarter of this academic year show that 10,670 enrolments were funded under the scheme, which fully subsidises the course fees of certain level 3 courses. 

There were 5,080 enrolments for the same period last year. 

Figures also reveal that the decision to extend eligibility criteria last year boosted enrolments by nearly 2,000. 

A major criticism of the free courses for jobs scheme was that it would only subsidise courses for learners that didn’t already have any level 3 qualifications. A small change was made in April which allowed level 3 qualified learners to access the scheme but only if there earned below the national living wage.

In its first full year, the scheme achieved just under 25,000 enrolments.

Free courses for jobs enrolments

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly compared figures for participation of learners aged over 50 for quarter 1 of 2022/23 with full year figures for 2021/22. That section of the story has been removed.

Apprenticeship starts fall 6% in first quarter of 2022/23

Apprenticeship starts in England dropped by 6 per cent in the first quarter of 2022/23 while traineeship starts fell 17 per cent, new government figures show.

Provisional in-year Department for Education data states there were 122,290 apprenticeship starts recorded from August to October compared to 130,240 for the same period in 2021/22.

The apprenticeship starts recorded for the first quarter of 2022/23 are also 3 per cent down on the 125,800 reported for same period in 2019 before the pandemic struck.

While starts are down overall, take up of higher apprenticeships has continued to grow – rising by 10 per cent from 38,230 in 2021/22 to 42,060 in 2022/23.

Starts at level 6 and 7 increased by 14 per cent to 22,060, which now represents 18 per cent of all starts reported to date for 2022/23.

The biggest drop was seen at level 2 – falling 18 per cent from 35,740 to 29,150. Starts at level 3 dropped 9 per cent from 56,270 to 51,080.

Starts for young people aged 16 to 18 dropped by 4 per cent from 40,130 to 38,480, while starts for those aged 19 and above fell 7 per cent from 90,110 to 83,810.

Today’s data provides further evidence as to why the government has decided to scrap traineeships.

Despite investing hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding to ramp up the pre-employment programme after the pandemic, starts were down by 17 per cent to 4,600 in the first quarter of 2022/23 compared to 5,600 reported for the same period in the previous year.

There were 5,700 traineeship starts in the same period in 2019.