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

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

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

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

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

WorldSkills 2022 special edition medal table

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

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

Bentley-Gockmann

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Team UK competitions and results (click to enlarge)

Team UK performance at WorldSkills 2022 special edition

Week 1: Team UK picks up first medals

October 4-7

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

Zmich and Whitby

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

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

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

Week 2: First GOLD for Team UK

Boyes (right)

October 10-16

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 3: BRONZE in car painting

October 17- 23

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

Craig Kennedy after winning Bronze

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next week will be quieter with only two competitions.

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

Week 4: Excellence in Restaurant Services

October 23 -26

Simona Federová

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

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

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

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

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

Ashleigh Hellowell

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

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

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

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

Week 5: More GOLD for Team UK

November 1 – 6

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

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

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

Ewan Payne

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Top Ofsted marks for online adult education provider

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WorldSkills 2022: Team UK win bronze in Industry 4.0

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Competitions continue this week

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

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

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

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

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

DfE drive to improve FE governance and staff retention

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 401

Amanda Winnick

Area Director – East, Association of Colleges

Start date: August 2022

Previous job: T Level transition programme manager, Association of Colleges

Interesting fact: Amanda started her career in education as a 3D design lecturer at a college in Suffolk and rose through the ranks to become director of creative arts, digital and science industries, before joining the AoC to lead the T Level transition programme project last year.

Philip Cunniffe

Vice Principal, Learning and Enterprise College Bexley

Start date: September 2022

Previous job: Assistant Principal – Student Success, Lambeth College

Interesting fact: Philip’s love of dogs led him to train as a dog groomer at the weekends in 2019. Later that year he set up a dog grooming salon with his fiancé. The salon is staffed by a small but dedicated team of qualified dog groomers and is growing year by year!

Team UK jet off for special WorldSkills competition

Teams of the UK’s most talented young trades people are being dispatched all over the world from this week to compete in a highly anticipated special version of Worldskills. 

The competition will see 61 finals take place in 15 countries such as the USA, Japan and Germany with more than 1,000 competitors over the next two months.

The UK is fielding 35 team members who will vie for gold, silver and bronze medals in 29 different skills including cyber security, mechatronics, cooking and jewellery.

This year’s multi-country international skills event, being referred to as the “WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition”, replaces the traditional biennial event usually held in one city, known as the “Skills Olympics”. WorldSkills was originally planned for October in Shanghai, China but was called off due to the pandemic. 

The competition will now take place in smaller events across the world, which kicked off in Stuttgart, Germany on October 4 and ends on November 26 in Salzburg, Austria.

The UK will be looking to improve on a 12th place finish at the 2019 international event in Kazan, Russia and climb back in to the top 10 medal table.

FE Week takes a look at some of the competitors representing the UK…

Kamil Zmich and Liam Whitby, both aged 24, will take on seven other countries this week in a bid to take home the top prize in the new Industry 4.0 category.  

Industry 4.0 is making its WorldSkills competition debut this year as a relatively new discipline. Described by Whitby as “digitising the modern world”, the category takes its name from “the fourth industrial revolution” and covers the rapid changes happening to technology.

As well as showing the judges how they can design and implement systems which look at huge organisational risks such as cyber security, they are also the people who can programme your smart kettle. 

Whitby said: “I am so ecstatic to have made it to Team UK and that all the hard work has paid off. I always want to be the best I can and to push myself and compete internationally is another opportunity for me to do just that.”

‘I enjoy the thrill and pressure of competing’

Zmich’s talent is evidenced by his medals, being one of the UK team’s most decorated members. He has won gold, silver and bronze in mechatronics in the UK’s national finals, enjoying the “thrill and pressure” of competing and performing against others. 

Abi Stansfield, 22, will travel from her home in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire to Leonberg, Germany to compete for gold to become the world’s best at CNC Milling on October 10 to 15.

Stansfield will be competing against 25 other countries, including Indonesia, South Korea, Sweden and Mexico. 

After undertaking an apprenticeship with BAE Systems, she settled on tool making as her speciality. She has always been interested in how things work and she knew she wanted to be an engineer. Since the age of 12 she has been a keen stock car racer and used to work on her own cars. 

In 2017 Stansfield was helping out at the BAE stand during the WorldSkills competition when she became inspired by what she saw. She came back the year after to compete herself, winning a bronze medal in 2019.

Portsmouth’s Lewis Newton, 22, will represent the UK against rivals from 24 countries in the web developer competitions in Goyang, South Korea from October 13 to 16. 

He said: I can’t really put into words just how happy I am or what this means to me. All that hard work and putting everything I have learnt into practice has really paid off.

While studying at Highbury College, Newton became inspired by his peer Dan Levings who took the same course as him and represented the UK internationally in Brazil in 2015.

Newton said that due to low self-esteem he didn’t think he would come close to qualifying for the national finals, but won the gold medal in 2017. Since this win he believes in himself more and says he is not as afraid to try new things even when they’re outside his comfort zone. 

Week two of the competition will also see Ross Fiori, 22 from Langley-on-Tyne in Northumberland, go for gold in joinery. 

The joinery competitions will go ahead in Basel, Switzerland from October 11-14. Fiori chose to defy career advisors at school as he didn’t fancy university and wanted to do something practical, working with his hands. 

He said he wants to do his best and hopefully make his mum proud who inspired his drive after his father passed away when he was 13.

Other UK entrants include Sai Putravu, agreed 19, a cyber security ace from Bristol who wants to get gold in the cyber security championships in Korea, between October 13 to 16, alongside 20-year-old Luke Jowett from Walsall College.

“I am so excited to have made it to Team UK and to be going out to Korea. I am nervous about the next steps, but I can’t wait to take this to the next level and go up against the best of the best from around the world.”

Elsewhere, Lavanya Hemanth, a young lab technician from London, is hoping to be crowned the world’s best young laboratory technician in Austria in November. 

Hemanth, aged 22, from Queen’s Park, West London, came to this country from Bangalore, South India, five years ago to get a “better education” and improve herself.

After studying at Middlesex University, she began work at Diagnostics 360, in Chiswick, and found herself coping in the biggest health crisis of a generation. She was on the frontline during the Covid-19 pandemic working night and day to ensure test results were processed accurately and swiftly.

“It was hard work, and it was a continual learning curve to ensure that we kept ourselves up to date with the very latest research and understanding about the virus,” Hemanth said.

She added. “When I first came to this country, I felt that maybe I had made the mistake of not thinking it through properly and missed my friends and family. Now that so much has happened and I have found my feet, and success at WorldSkills UK, I know that it has all been worthwhile.”

Having triumphed in regional and national finals, most Team UK members have been training for a shot at being crowned world’s best in their field since January 2020.

The competition will include knowledge on the vulnerability of computer programs and ICT systems and how to keep hackers at bay.

Winners for each category will be announced during closing ceremonies at the end of each competition, announcing winners for gold, silver and bronze medals. Competitors will be awarded a medallion of excellence if they are judged to have reached world-class standard in their skill.

Picket lines swell as college staff strike in bid for higher pay

Strike action at an Oxfordshire college was called off this week, but went ahead at more than 20 others as staff entered the second week of protests against low pay in the face of the cost-of-living crisis.

University and College Union (UCU) members at Abingdon and Witney College voted to accept an improved pay deal last Friday of 8 per cent more for the lowest paid, 5 per cent for middle earners, including lecturers, and 3 per cent for the highest earners within management.

Staff at Croydon College in south London also voted to accept an improved pay deal that also increased the lowest salaries by 8 per cent.

But a further 23 colleges are yet to negotiate pay deals, with strikes continuing this week and next.

Unions have called for a 10 per cent rise to help with the cost-of-living crisis. In June the UCU rejected an Association of Colleges offer of 2.5 per cent.

Many UCU members walked out this week, holding banners at picket lines to the sound of drums, singing and chanting.

‘Enough is enough’

 Staff at the Burnley College picket line in Lancashire waved placards reading: “Don’t make us choose between heating, eating or teaching.”

Another staff member held up a sign saying: “How many unpaid hours does it take? Enough is enough!”

 Members of a large picket line outside City College Plymouth held up banners stating: “We care for SEN, who cares for us?”

One staff member said: “My resolve to continue has grown as the college has refused to negotiate properly”, while another said: “I felt proud to strike, but anxious about backlash from management.”

 There were similar signs at Derby College’s picket line. One read: “I’d rather be teaching, but we can’t afford not to strike.”

 Lewisham College in south London had a huge turnout, with staff congregated on the college steps alongside drums and banners reading “enough is enough”. They were joined by a dog (see picture) who stood in support of the protesters.

 Chants of “we are fighting, for better wages, we want them now, now, now” could be heard.

Jo Grady, the general secretary of the UCU, joined the picket line, telling the crowd: “I really feel there is a moment in this country that working-class people are waking up to their power.”

Some activists hired protest vans to display messages. A van at Derby College had messages reading: “Principal’s package: £198,000 each year: GIVE US FAIR PAY” and “£3.15 million spent on buildings in just two years. Equal to a 16 per cent pay raise for staff.”

Oldham College also used a van to display protest messages, prompting a visit from the Greater Manchester Police.

Waving pink flags and wearing matching pink hats, Oldham staff sang “ain’t no rain gonna stop this claim!”

According to The Oldham Times, the police attended the picket line on Tuesday, but left after determining that there was no obstruction.

The strikes are set to continue for another two weeks as the UCU negotiates with individual colleges for higher pay.

Making it easier for SMEs to take on apprentices at top of skills minister’s agenda

Andrea Jenkyns has pledged to put making it easier for small businesses to take on apprentices at the top her agenda as skills minister – although she is yet to be party to departmental conversations about making this happen.

The minister was appointed to the skills brief, which involves responsibility for apprenticeships, in July in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle before he resigned as prime minister. Jenkyns was reappointed to the role last month by new leader Liz Truss.

Jenkyns told the Conservative party conference this week that her “big focus” is improving engagement with employers in apprenticeships. She said: “How can we make the process easier for employers, especially if you are a one-man band where you wear several hats, it can be a cumbersome process and it has got to be easy.”

Her comment came after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said that too often regulation and “stifling red tape” holds “business and Britain back”, adding that there are “too many rules for small business owners who want to take on an apprentice” in his keynote conference speech this week.

But Jenkyns said she had not been part of ministerial conversations about tackling this issue to date.

“Look, I can’t say what discussions the chancellor is having in his department. We do have bilateral meetings, you know with the education secretary [Kit Matlhouse], but I haven’t been party to those yet,” she told FE Week.

“But I know the department, speaking to not only the civil servants but Kit and the rest of the team, we do want to unshackle businesses to be able to really take on more apprentices. So I say watch this space. I know it’s a cliché saying that, but it’s something the secretary of state and myself are really passionate about because it’s vital. It’s a no brainer, we’ve got to make it easier for businesses to take on apprentices.”

Her comments come six months after the then-skills minister Alex Burghart committed to “reduce friction” for small employers using the apprenticeships system.

The digital apprenticeship service was launched in April 2017 but was only for levy-paying employers to manage and spend their apprenticeship funding.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) fully transitioned onto the service in April 2021, meaning that all apprenticeship starts must now go through the system rather than procured non-levy contracts held by training providers.

Burghart said this has been a “time of significant change” and recognised there are concerns that this “new way of working” has introduced some “additional administration, which has been burdensome for providers, and for particularly for SMEs”.

He revealed in March that he had asked his officials to run a “series of hackathons on the system” to “make sure that we can make it as effective as it can be and reduce as much friction as possible so that we can encourage more SMEs to get involved”.

Asked what progress had been made since this commitment, the Department for Education told FE Week: “We will continue to work with the sector and employers to explore ways to remove barriers to engagement for employers, apprentices and providers.”

Tina McKenzie, the policy and advocacy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said it is “refreshing to hear DfE ministers talking so directly about unshackling and incentivising businesses to take on more apprentices”.

She said that two-fifths of small businesses with apprentices say that recruiting and training costs “are on the up – so they could streamline some of the requirements, there”.

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said that too many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) find the apprenticeship system “too difficult to navigate – citing bureaucracy, cost, time, and administrative constraints”.

Recruitment, onboarding and navigating the funding rules are also raised most frequently by SMEs and the providers who support them.

Hickie said she the DfE “clearly recognise the scale of the problem and have committed to undertaking a simplification project – which is welcome”.

Other priorities Jenkyns listed off at the Conservative party conference included raising the “parity of esteem” between academic and technical education, continuing the rollout of T Levels, and introducing the lifelong loan entitlement in 2025.

Religious sixth form colleges to academise from 2023

Sixth form colleges with a religious character will be able to apply to become academies by the end of the year, the Department for Education has said.

Nearly all sixth form colleges (SFCs) have been able to convert to academy status, and in doing so enjoy the luxury of not paying VAT, since former chancellor George Osborne changed the rules in November 2015.

But a group of 13 SFCs which are Catholic-run have been prevented from doing so due to their religious character, which would not be maintained under government rules. If they converted, they would lose protections in areas of curriculum, acts of worship and governance.

The DfE finally found a solution to safeguard religious character through the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, which became law in April.

However, the regulations to enable SFCs with a religious character to convert to academy status are yet to come into force.

After updating its guidance for SFCs considering becoming a 16 to 19 academy to include those with religious character this week, the Department for Education told FE Week that they expect those regulations to come into force by the end of 2022, at which point applications can be submitted.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive, said: “We are delighted that Catholic sixth form colleges will soon be able to academise.”

He told FE Week that 29 SFCs have converted since 2017 and are “flourishing as 16 to 19 academies”, so it is only “right that Catholic colleges now have the opportunity to join them”.

Kewin added that “many” of the 13 SFCs with religious character have been exploring conversion ahead of the formal announcement and his association expects that at least three or four will begin the application process in 2023.