FE still needs better links from classroom to career

Completing a qualification, however successfully, is inadequate preparation for students entering the world of work, writes Fredericka McFarlane

We all know the economy and employment landscape are changing rapidly, and that this is hugely relevant to what we teach to our students.

Yet a clear disconnect exists between the curriculum and the real-world application of this knowledge. 

Despite FE providers’ best efforts, the scope of career opportunities is not always fully explored within FE. The line of sight from classroom to career is often unclear. Students will often ask the question: “But how will this help me in the future?”

The general lack of high-quality careers guidance means young people will often opt for a route that may feel obvious, rather than one that could offer exciting and plentiful opportunities.

To put it bluntly, qualifications alone are rarely enough to secure fulfilling careers. We need to do more to point our learners in exciting and ambitious directions.

This is particularly true for those from deprived and challenging backgrounds. In my experience as a tutor at BMet College, we have students, including refugees, who have no family support and no access to the working world.

Yet these are the very people who arrived particularly hungry for knowledge and opportunity.

To do this, our learners need practical help and to make contacts within industry. FE colleges are well-placed to facilitate this.

But staff like myself need the space and encouragement from senior leadership teams to invest the extra time to help student access employment. And this is where employer-led projects are crucial.

We have been running the Amazon Web Services (AWS) digital project for the past six years. Working in teams, students are set a real-life challenge, to which they must come up with a technology solution over a 12-week period.

We have regular meetings (as a class), while the students also set up their own meetings to manage the project, as would be the case in ‘the real world’.

Students have been tasked with developing solutions to problems such as mental health, knife crime and social media using technology.

These have ranged from websites and mobile phone apps, and creative solutions such as installing booths at railway stations and direct telephone helplines for individuals who may be in crisis. 

They are judged on their teamwork, final solution and presentation before judges, both at college level and then at the AWS offices in London. Each team has a ten- to 15-minute slot to present, followed by a further five to ten minutes of ‘personal reflection’ to the panel of judges.

Working on an industry-set brief is invaluable in terms of skills development

Students involved in this project have gained work experience opportunities, internships and apprenticeships with AWS and the other employer partners.

All our level 3 and level 4 digital technology and media students are invited to participate every year. Over six years, more than 7,500 have been involved. 

Working on an industry-set brief is invaluable in terms of skills development. It goes way beyond what we can teach in the classroom and builds confidence in a way that can only come from ‘on the ground’ experience.

Our SLT has now gone a step further by launching a pioneering ‘CyberHub’. In partnership with the CyberHub Trust, sponsored by AWS and advised by the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, the new ‘Security Operations Centre’ is a real-life, working cyber-security facility. 

We have many extremely bright students who are able to carry out potentially negative ‘hacking’ type activity. Yet this initiative will enable them to hone their skills in a positive way and open up a world of highly lucrative and much in-demand job opportunities.

It is no longer enough for colleges to send students away at the end of their course with just a piece of paper, or qualification.

The ability to talk confidently, good timekeeping and being able to meet a deadline are skills that only come from real-life experience and exposure to employers. Tutors just need the time, space and support to deliver it.

London college group threatened with strikes over pay and ‘fire and rehire’ tactics

New City College is being threatened with strike action over a pay and workload dispute, as well as alleged plans to “fire and rehire” staff.

The University and College Union said their members will not “have a gun put to their head by their employer” after claiming that NCC is using fire and rehire tactics to threaten staff with compulsory dismissal by October if they do not accept changes to their contracts around sick leave.

UCU told FE Week that the group’s Hackney campus has various different aspects to the sick leave policy to the other campuses under the NCC umbrella. Management wants to standardise sick leave policies but to do this they are threatening staff with redundancy if they don’t sign up to the new contracts.

NCC declined to comment.

This is the second college in London to face strikes over fire rehire tactics in recent weeks, following Richmond upon Thames College.

As well as being balloted for strike action, UCU members at NCC are also voting on whether to take action short of a strike by working strictly to contract and not performing additional voluntary duties.

“Fire and rehire is a sickening tactic used by some of the UK’s worst employers and has no place in education,” UCU regional official Adam Lincoln said.

“We call on New City College management to rethink its approach, lift the threat of compulsory dismissals and treat staff with the respect they deserve. Staff have made it clear that they will not have a gun put to their head by their employer.”

“Our members are united behind our pay and conditions claim and will move forward by balloting for strike action and action short of a strike,” he added. 

UCU members at NCC are also being balloted for industrial action from today over “failures” to agree pay rises, level up holiday leave and agree action to reduce workload.

This ballot will run from June 17 until July 15. UCU said it could pave the wave for strike action at campuses across East London.

The union is calling on the college to implement a pay rise of 10 per cent across all campuses, as well as London weighting at its Epping Forest campus where staff are paid less than at the other campus sites.  

UCU also wants the college to agree measures to reduce workload, level up holidays and summer leave periods by five days and reach an agreement in relation to the Hackney College sickness absence policy.

Lincoln said that strike action is a last resort for UCU members but that they would not “stand by and see their pay held down while workload continues to increase”. 

“New City College must ensure a fair pay rise for staff, and commit to genuine measures to tackle unmanageable workload,” Lincoln added.

He called on the group to ensure a fair pay rise for staff, and commit to “genuine measures” to tackle staff workload.

Strike ballots at 33 other colleges also opened this week.

Donelan hints at more employer incentives for T Level placements

Cash incentives for employers offering industry placements for T Level students could be back on the cards, according to a senior education minister.

The house of commons education committee met on Wednesday to quiz the further and higher education minister Michelle Donelan.

Topics ranged from a shortage of vets, social mobility and student loans in a hearing which somehow lasted for nearly 100 minutes despite only four of the 11 members of the committee showing up. Only one was not a Conservative.

The committee’s questioning around FE and skills included T Levels and the Treasury-led review of the apprenticeship levy.

Here are FE Week’s highlights from the session:

Placement flexibility would be ‘damaging’ for T Levels…

Concerns raised by South Essex College prompted their local MP, education committee member Anna Firth, to ask the minister if there could be more flexibilities around the 45-day industry placement element of T Levels.

Delivering placements at volume is “very, very difficult, particularly for small employers to cope with”, Firth said in her call for more give from the government.

“I think that will be quite damaging,” Donelan told the committee. “One of the key USPs of T Levels is the 45-day placement… I think it’s really important that we protect those 45 days,” she said.

…but more to come on financial incentives for employers

Firth wanted to know how the government was going to help remove the financial barriers preventing businesses, particularly SMEs, from offering industry placements for T Level students.

Employers of T Level students with placements taking place between May 27, 2021 and July 31, 2022 can claim a £1,000 payment for their troubles. “No extension will be made to this date”, government guidance states.

However the minister appeared to suggest that an extension or successor scheme to the current employer incentives would soon be announced.

“We’ve had a financial award of £1,000 for employers that take T Level students,” Donelan said, “and the future of that we will be announcing shortly.”

“I can’t say any more at this stage, but it is important that we don’t price employers out of having T Level students”.

Donelan dodges questions on Treasury-led levy review

Back in March, the government announced that the apprenticeship levy was being looked at by the Treasury. The chancellor said at the time that he wanted to make sure the levy was “doing enough to incentivise businesses to invest in the right kinds of training”.

However, faced with strong opposition from officials at the Department for Education, according to FE Week sources, the Treasury denied there was a “formal” review of the levy, despite the chancellor’s statement just days before.

There’s been very little said in public about the review-that’s-not-a-review since then.

At Wednesday’s committee session, chair Robert Halfon broke the silence and pressed Donelan to reveal her thoughts on how the levy could be improved.

The levy should, Halfon asserted, be reformed to boost higher apprenticeships,  opportunities for young people and people from disadvantaged groups.

“Do you have any views?” Halfon pressed.

“I don’t really want to pre-empt the review,” Donelan dodged, only saying that the outcome of the Treasury’s review shouldn’t damage “the great progress that we’ve made on apprenticeships.”

The review is expected to conclude in time for the government’s budget statement this autumn.

Committee chair Robert Halfon presses Donelan for her views on levy reform

Halfon: force universities to offer degree apprenticeships

Committee chair, Robert Halfon, well known for his passion for apprenticeships, managed to catch the otherwise well-rehearsed minister off-guard by asking for the number of people on degree apprenticeships who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“I can write to you with that figure. It’s not good enough,” Donelan replied.

Halfon went on to make the case for a new government target for universities to recruit 50 per cent of new students on to degree apprenticeships in the next ten years. The proposal was intensely resisted.

“I think the state needs to stop telling people what’s in their best interests,” Donelan exclaimed. But “the state tells universities to do loads of things, like on access plans,” Halfon countered, keen to agitate on this further.

“That’s very different from interfering in their curriculum” Donelan bit back, defending institutional autonomy.

Ministers must consider boosting minimum apprentice pay

The cost of living crisis means the government must act quickly to tackle the barriers to apprenticeship uptake, writes Suzanne Straw

Apprenticeships are a key training route to help young people enter the labour market. They also have the potential to act as a vehicle for social mobility.

However, our latest research highlights myriad barriers that young people – particularly those who are the most disadvantaged – face in accessing intermediate (level 2) and advanced (level 3) apprenticeships.

As the current cost of living crisis will only amplify a number of these barriers, it is more important than ever that they are addressed effectively.

On the money

Drawing on 20 interviews with employers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), our research highlights that apprentice wages are a significant barrier to some young people undertaking and completing apprenticeships.

Even where employers pay above the minimum apprenticeship wage, they reported that this is insufficient for young people to survive on.

Employers gave examples of past apprentices who had struggled financially, undertaking additional jobs in the evening and at weekends.

This barrier disproportionally impacts young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are unlikely to be able to rely on families for financial support. In some cases they may be required to make an important contribution to their family’s finances.

This barrier will only be exacerbated by the current cost of living crisis. While the national minimum wage for apprentices was recently increased from £4.30 to £4.81, it remains very low and most of this increase is likely to be absorbed by current high levels of inflation.

In addition, as apprenticeship wages are considerably lower than those young people can earn elsewhere, this is likely to further deter young people from considering them.

Costs of travel

There are substantial geographic differences in the availability of apprenticeships, particularly in certain sectors.

So while it is possible to do a health and social care apprenticeship in most parts of England, apprenticeship opportunities in manufacturing technologies are much more localised.

This would mean young people seeking to work in this sector would have to reconsider their options, move to a new part of the country or travel considerable distances.

Again, this is likely to prevent young people, particularly those from disadvantaged groups, from accessing these opportunities.

A longer-term view

SMEs also said that young people’s poor awareness of the longer-term earning and career progression potential of apprenticeships can be a key barrier to recruitment.

Some employers felt this lack of awareness can lead young people into more highly paid, low-skilled jobs, rather than apprenticeships with greater prospects but which pay less in the short term.

To overcome this barrier, it is important that the long-term benefits of apprenticeships are highlighted to young people when they are considering their post-16 options.

Overcoming barriers

There are a number of actions that could be taken to support young people, particularly those who are most disadvantaged, to overcome these barriers. These include:

1.         Consider boosting apprentice pay

The government should revisit the appropriate level of the minimum apprenticeship wage and extend the 16-19 bursary fund so that it can be used to fund travel costs for apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds.

2.         Promote positive apprentice role models

Providing work experience and positive apprentice role models could encourage young people to consider apprenticeships, by highlighting the longer-term benefits of this route.

3.         Improve awareness of intermediate and advanced apprenticeships

Drawing on effective practice, the government could find ways of raising awareness of intermediate and advanced apprenticeships and promoting positive messages to young people, parents, carers and teaching staff.

While these solutions will not fix all of the challenges faced by disadvantaged young people, they constitute a necessary and important step towards helping more of them to access and complete apprenticeships.

Sixth-form students’ art exhibition explores challenges facing the environment 

More than 180 students from 64 colleges will display their artwork as part of a national exhibition that explores challenges facing the environment.  

The ‘Planet Future’ online exhibition is to be launched this Friday and will run until July 22.

The exhibition is being coordinated by the Sixth Form Colleges Association and all pictures can be viewed on the SFCA gallery website. 

“This online exhibition is a way of celebrating the arts and recognising excellence in sixth-form colleges,” said Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association. 

“The artwork ̶ all produced by 16-to-19-year-old students in sixth-form colleges across England ̶ indicates how young people are feeling about our climate and the environment, and how they view the wider sustainability agenda.  

“But the exhibition also offers an opportunity to celebrate the importance and power of art in education, as well as the artists’ quality, creativity and talent.” 

Skills minister Alex Burghart said that SFCA’s Planet Future exhibition highlights the “extraordinary artistic talent” in the sixth-form college sector.  

“My congratulations go to all the students involved. The sustainability agenda has never been more important, and the exhibition highlights students’ hopes and fears about the future, while also showcasing their enormous creativity and innovation,” he said.  

Student artists didn’t shy away from taking on difficult subjects, such as the war in Ukraine and finding a balance with nature is tackled by students. 

Nobody Wins a War by Arin Awojobi explores the human tragedy of the war in Ukraine. 

“This composition takes up the theme of the wandering traveller and introduces a semantic field of desolation,” said Awojobi.  

“It deals with feelings of present loneliness and future desolation, especially with the Russia-Ukraine conflict that started this year, and the realisation that nobody wins in a war. 

The children that become orphans have to keep fighting as everything crashes around them.” 

Existential themes about humanity’s survival were also explored by Trinity Fairman, who was studying a BTec level 3 art and design, with her work Finding a Balance (feature image).

“This piece is about Mother Nature versus mankind and reflects how the balance needs to be found to stop doing damage to our planet,” Fairman said.  

Other works include Wrapped by Angelika Specht, focussing on how the use of plastic is destroying the natural world, and challenges the viewer to look at themself and consider the effect they are having on the world.  

“The three-layer screen print was printed on a recyclable material to highlight that we must start using alternatives to save our planet,” Specht said.  

There were some slightly lighter pieces that took a more positive spin on the issues faced by humanity, such as Hope for the Future by Ruby Currie. 

“I chose to reflect on ideas I want to see in the future for the theme, the future that I would like to see and hope for, as a young person,” Currie said.  

“I thought especially about problems that have the potential to put our future in jeopardy. Instead of focusing on the scary side, I decided to create it as what we can do to change, rather than what will happen if we don’t.”

Soaring inflation wipes out skills budget boost

Unexpected spikes in inflation are set to wipe out up to £850 million of the government’s skills funding increases over the next three years, FE Week can reveal. 

Sector leaders have warned that student numbers could be massively reduced as a result, as colleges and training providers face increased staff shortages and cuts to course provision. 

Ministers have been urged to immediately add an extra £350 million a year in skills funding on top of planned rises to mitigate the impact or risk damaging their levelling-up agenda. 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged in his 2021 spending review to increase skills funding by 29 per cent in real terms over the next three years compared to 2019/20, predominantly driven by the rollout of the national skills fund and further growth in apprenticeship funding.

The chancellor said the investment would form the most “wide-ranging skills agenda this country has seen in decades”. 

However, since then, there have been significant rises in inflation, which have in part resulted from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Following these increases, the Office for Budget Responsibility updated its forecasts in March 2022 and the Bank of England did likewise in May 2022. 

New analysis by the Learning and Work Institute, shared exclusively with FE Week, said the upshot is that prices may be 4.3 to 8.6 per cent higher in 2024/25 than expected at the spending review. 

The research body predicted that the loss due to inflation over the next three years combined would be £850 million. Some £350 million is predicted to be lost in 2024/25 alone. 

Stephen Evans, chief executive of Learning and Work Institute, said that while it is good to see skills funding increasing after a decade of cuts, the bigger than expected spike in inflation is set to eat up a substantial amount of that increase. 

“We need greater investment to avoid that. Investment that will pay off given high-quality learning contributes to economic growth,” he said. 

L&W predicts that the adult education budget and national skills fund would be harder hit, with apprenticeship funding somewhat cushioned by higher-than-expected employment and growth in nominal earnings. 

The institute warned that the quality of learning, or up to 250,000 adult learning places, could be at risk over the next three years under Bank of England inflation forecasts. 

One of the government’s 12 levelling-up “missions”, as outlined in their flagship levelling-up white paper, is to increase the number of adults in training by 200,000 more people every year between now and 2030. 

L&W said that if funding rates per learner are not increased, providers will find it increasingly difficult to provide high-quality learning and that difficulties paying higher salaries and increases in “precarious work” could lead to staff shortages. 

“Larger class sizes might not work for some provision or some learners. Curriculum content could be limited. Some provision or learner support may be cut altogether. This could feed to lower-than-expected learner numbers and underspends in skills budgets,” L&W said. 

David Hughes, chief executive of the AoC, said the analysis “lays bare the glaring gap” between investment and what is needed for people and employers. 

“With the tightest labour market on record and skills shortages across the economy, investment in adult skills at all levels should be rising significantly. The government talks a good game on this, but the investment is sadly lacking,” he said. 

And the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said L&W’s research reflects the concerns that its members are raising on a daily basis. 

“Rising costs will put enormous pressure on our sector’s ability to deliver the high-quality training provision that our learners and employers sorely need,” Jane Hickie, chief executive of AELP told FE Week. 

High inflation puts ‘massive’ pressure on providers 

An investigation by FE Week revealed that independent providers and colleges are already coming under huge financial pressure because of inflation ̶ with some resorting to cutting courses.  

One provider who did not want to be named told FE Week that in the past two weeks they have made the decision to stop offering three courses (in HR support, healthcare assistant practitioner and associate project manager) mainly due to the cost of travel and matching staff salary expectations. 

There were around 200 students on these courses. 

The provider said that in addition to this they have reduced the amount of employers they are working with for adult care worker and lead adult worker training from 217 to just 20, which they said demonstrates a significant reduction in provision in a sector that has extremely high staff shortages because of financial viability. 

A spokesperson for the provider called the financial pressure caused by inflation “absolutely massive”. 

“We’ve gone from a reasonable margin to now, we have no margin. It is literally cancelled out. Half of our provision is around adult care. We had a conversation where we seriously considered just not doing any more care qualifications. 

“If you are in those lower funding bands, there is very little wriggle room… We’re going to see a lot of providers fold… and how many displaced students are we going to have to deal with?” they said. 

Mark Currie, chair of Greater Manchester Learning Provider Network and chief executive of the National Logistics Academy (a provider that teaches HGV drivers and wider logistics skills), explained that increases in the price of fuel have caused problems for his business. 

“Clearly, we’ve seen the price of fuel go from £1.30 a litre to £1.90 a litre, for diesel. Not far off going up by 50 per cent in less than six months…. Fuel in driver training is a very substantial 25 per cent part of the cost. It’s about half the labour cost. So, if 25 per cent of your cost goes up by 50 per cent, that is kind of critical,” he told FE Week. 

Colleges are also being impacted. Martin Harrison, executive director of finance at The Sheffield College, said they have been bit by rising costs for curriculum materials, particularly for construction. 

“We’ve seen costs of things like wood triple…  because that is coupled with the scarcity of supply, so all of these things are hitting us at once,” he said. 

The Sheffield College is planning for their utilities to increase significantly next year, probably around 50 per cent, according to Harrison.

He said another key area where inflation is having an impact is with the food, both in terms of curriculum (for culinary qualifications) and in-house catering services. 

“In the past we have worked on the basis that whatever we sell might cost us 50 per cent, give or take a little bit,” he said.

“That’s now costing us nearer to 60 per cent to 70 per cent… All of our prices that we are getting seem to be shooting up one month to the next. It makes it challenging in the sector, when you are trying to deliver college meals to students, who need that support.” 

Another concern is that the college has put in bids for capital works, which were made three months ago. Harrison said that the costs associated with those bids will have increased due to inflation, if the bids are successful. 

And Andrea Webb, managing director of Profile Development and Training Limited in Kent,  which specialises in education and training and early years sectors, said that between 2018/19 to 2021/22 her business running costs had gone up by 83 per cent. 

Funding rates haven’t changed in years 

AELP’s Jane Hickie said that funding rates for skills programmes need to be reviewed at least annually to reflect the true cost of delivery. 

She also called on the government to directly fund any necessary increases resulting from these reviews. 

“Fundamentally, if the government is serious about delivering a world-class skills system, they should reflect the true cost of delivery in funding made available for delivering skills programmes,” she added. 

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are targeting support where it is needed most, investing in high-quality training that is delivering the skilled workforce employers need to grow, while plugging skills gaps in our economy and helping more people into jobs.” 

Gdańsk to host EuroSkills 2023 following Russia suspension

WorldSkills leaders have selected Gdańsk, Poland to replace St Petersburg as the host city for the 2023 Euroskills competition, it has been announced. 

Germany and Luxembourg were also successful in their bid to co-host EuroSkills 2027, which will take place in Düsseldorf.

Next year’s European competition had originally been scheduled to take place in St Petersburg, Russia. However a decision was made to suspend Russia and Belarus from WorldSkills International Board back in March at emergency meeting citing Russia’s “enormous breach of the WorldSkills code of ethics and conduct” following its invasion of Ukraine.

“We applaud WorldSkills Poland for their courage and commitment to organise a EuroSkills Competition, especially at such short notice” said Teija Ripattila, chair of the WorldSkills Europe board, which met yesterday afternoon to ratify decisions on future host cities.

Next year’s competition will be the eighth EuroSkills competition, which take place every other year, with 600 young people from 31 countries expected to take part. Competitors will be battling it out for medals in up to 50 different skills areas. 

Organisers expect around 100,000 visitors to descent on the Polish city over the duration of the competition, scheduled to take place between September 5-9, 2023.

The UK has welcomed the move to Gdańsk.

Neil Bentley-Gockmann, the chief executive of WorldSkills UK, said: “There is no denying that the past few years have thrown up many challenges for young people selected to represent their country but unable to test their skills against the best of the rest.

“EuroSkills 2023 is a really important opportunity for our young professionals to benchmark their skills against the best in Europe.”

A ‘pipeline of international skills events for young professionals’

WorldSkills Europe’s board have also announced that Düsseldorf will host the 2027 EuroSkills competition today following a successful joint bid by WorldSkills Germany and WorldSkills Luxembourg. 

This completes a busy five-year calendar of skills events for UK competitors to test their skills against the best in Europe and the rest of the world.

“With EuroSkills 2023 confirmed in Gdańsk, WorldSkills Lyon taking place in 2024, EuroSkills 2025 in Hernig, Denmark and EuroSkills 2027 in Düsseldorf, it’s great to have a pipeline of international skills events for young professionals in the UK to aspire to” Bentley-Gockmann said.

International skills competitions have inevitably faced major disruptions due to Covid-19 restrictions over the last two years.

The global WorldSkills Shanghai competition was supposed to take place in 2021 but was postponed to October 2022 because of the pandemic. It was finally cancelled recently due to ongoing Covid-related controls and restrictions in China. 

£8m fund to expand degree apprenticeships announced

The government has pledged to invest an extra £8 million to help universities “rocket-boost” degree apprenticeships – but it appears officials are yet to flesh out what the funding can be used for.   

Joint FE and HE minister Michelle Donelan announced the fund on Twitter this week before telling MPs on the education select committee the pot is designed to incentivise greater numbers of degree apprenticeships.   

The minister revealed that the fund would help with “start-up costs” but failed to provide any further detail.   

The Office for Students, which will administer the fund, was unable to shed any further light at all on how the fund will be used specifically at the time of going to press.  

Donelan claimed there are now over 39,000 degree apprentices in England – which is double the number since she came into her ministerial position in the DfE in February 2020.   

Her ambition is for every university in England to offer the programmes.   

University representative organisations welcomed any additional funding to further grow degree apprenticeships but questioned how the £8 million would be dished out to effectively incentivise more of their members to offer the courses.   

They also warned that raising awareness of degree apprentices among prospective learners and encouraging more employers to offer the jobs need to be focused on in tandem with university capacity.   

MillionPlus chief executive Rachel Hewitt said: “While degree apprenticeships have seen steady growth in recent years, key challenges continue to hinder expansion, including excessive bureaucracy and a relative lack of student demand.  

“Efforts to address these issues need to go hand in hand with extra funding if the increased growth of degree apprenticeships that the government, providers and the public want to see is to be achieved.”   

University Vocational Awards Council chief executive Mandy Crawford-Lee said she is unclear what the DfE refers to when it talks about an unmet degree apprenticeships demand.   

“Do they mean particular types of standards? Is it actually gaps in the market where we need the creation of new potential work-based roots into some of the professions that have yet to be explored?”   

Crawford-Lee told FE Week that the “race has already started” for start-up costs as there are now almost 100 universities actively delivering apprenticeships.   

She said the fund should be used to support universities in diversifying their degree apprenticeship offer. “So moving into areas that potentially they haven’t moved into before, expanding their curriculum offer or their apprenticeship portfolio offer into new areas, new disciplines, new occupations, for example, and what that means in terms of building capacity.”   

Crawford-Lee said some degree apprenticeship programmes are more expensive than others to deliver, particularly in STEM subjects, where the funding bands on offer to universities from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education are unviable to match delivery costs.   

The government has also handed a further £8 million to the OfS in 2022/23 to encourage greater provision of level 4 and 5 qualifications.   

This is to be “allocated to providers with eligible learners on level 4 and 5 qualifications, through formula funding”, according to a letter from education secretary Nadhim Zahawi.   

“As part of the HE reform consultation we are seeking views from the sector on how to support growth of high-quality level 4 and 5 courses and the possible role of grant funding in this, and responses will inform the detail of any allocations in future academic years,” his letter added.   

No further information about the fund has been published yet. 

Apprentice feedback to trigger provider intervention

Apprentice feedback will soon be used to trigger intervention in training providers, the Education and Skills Funding Agency has confirmed.   

Views from apprentices about the quality of their training experience are set to be gathered through a new Tripadvisor-style review tool that was launched last week.   

The results will generate an overall star rating on the government’s Find Apprenticeship Training website and be used as a quality indicator under the ESFA’s new accountability framework that came into effect in April.   

Those with poor scores will be placed in a “needs improvement” category and become subject to “enhanced monitoring”, which could include management conversations with government officials, the development of “improvement plans” and potential referrals to Ofsted.   

The ESFA told FE Week that a quality threshold for apprentice feedback will be announced in due course, once the data has “sufficiently matured”.   

Employer feedback, gathered via a similar tool launched in 2018, currently triggers intervention if a provider’s average feedback is “less than 2.5” stars out of four.   

News that apprentice feedback will be used as an accountability measure has been welcomed by the National Society of Apprentices, which bemoaned the government’s “inherently unbalanced” apprenticeship system that “values the views of employers over the views of apprentices”. 

But Ian Pryce, chief executive of Bedford College, questioned the decision. He said he is not a fan of using feedback as a performance measure as it “distorts how we approach employers and apprentices”.   

“It becomes about the result, not the insight,” he told FE Week. “Also, it implies a simplistic view of learning as the sole responsibility of the provider, when apprentices and employers also have responsibilities. Education is not an Amazon purchase.”   

The ESFA’s digital service originally planned to launch the apprentice feedback tool in September 2018, with then-skills minister Anne Milton speaking in strong favour of its value over Ofsted inspections. However, it suffered a number of setbacks.   

In an update to the sector last week, the agency said apprentices can now give anonymous feedback from their ‘My Apprenticeship’ account. The results will appear on each training provider’s Find Apprenticeship Training webpage for employers and prospective learners to view once ten responses have been submitted.   

The apprentice will be asked to agree or disagree with 12 questions in the feedback survey before being asked to rate their training with one of four stars: very poor (1), poor (2), good (3) or excellent (4). An average of all the results is then calculated to generate a provider’s overall rating.   

The same process is used for employer feedback.   

However, the government does not publish or hold a central list of all training provider ratings for employers and apprentices to make comparisons.   

The ESFA told FE Week: “The apprenticeship service infrastructure is currently configured to process and present data at a summarised provider view in Find Apprenticeship Training. We do not therefore hold the data in a format that would allow comparison between providers outside of the service.”   

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said there is a place for feedback from learners and their employers when assessing the quality of apprenticeship training and agreed with the ESFA that this “should be measured as part of a framework that assesses a wide range of quality indicators”.   

However, she added, “As apprenticeship feedback is new, it is important that ESFA takes time to ensure any threshold linked to intervention is realistic and proportionate.”   

Ofsted also confirmed to FE Week that it will use apprentice and employer feedback as one data tool to inform inspections.