DfE’s ‘bizarre’ BAME apprenticeships strategy

The Department for Education will strengthen ethnic minority representation in campaign imagery and make use of “influencers” to tackle low numbers of diverse young people taking apprenticeships.   

But experts have warned the action does not go far enough, with one group saying it is “simply bizarre” to think that racism and inequality will be fixed by just running a better advertising campaign.   

The government included the commitments today in its response to the Sewell report on race and ethnic disparities, which was published last year and shone a spotlight on the low number of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) young people in apprenticeships.   

The commission claimed that “prejudice and ignorance” within ethnic minority families led to a low take-up of apprenticeship starts in their communities.   

FE Week analysis shows that ethnic minority 16-to-18-year-old apprentices made up 7.8 per cent of starts in 2018/19, 7.7 per cent in 2019/20, and 8.1 per cent in 2020/21. BAME people made up 14.3 per cent of apprenticeships starts for all ages in 2020/21.   

The Office for National Statistics said in 2019, 84.8 per cent of people in England and Wales were white.   

All three of the government actions pledged in the response to the apprenticeship concerns in Sewell’s report are based on previous announcements by ministers and focus on raising awareness of apprenticeships among ethnic minority communities – in line with what was recommended by the commission.   

Since November 2021, for example, the DfE has worked with the Department for Work and Pensions to use a “range of mechanisms to attract more ethnic minority starts identified in the commission’s report, such as events in schools with strong minority representation, relatable role models, employer testimonies, data on potential earnings and career progression”.   

The departments will also explore the impact of factors that influence a young person’s career choices, today’s response said.   

And in January the DfE launched a “major” communications campaign Get the Jump: Skills for Life, which will target young people aged 14 to 19 about the full range of options available.   

“It will help to tackle disparities by featuring a diverse range of young people in the campaign imagery, through case studies, influencers and through media targeting,” the government said, adding that the DfE will continue to measure and publish participation levels of people from ethnic minorities, including a breakdown by age.   

Jeremy Crook, chief executive of Action for Race Equality (formerly known as the Black Training and Enterprise Group), said the real barrier to increasing BAME representation in apprenticeships is employers’ “poor recruitment practices, especially in the ICT, construction and engineering sectors”.   

This was echoed by Imani Brown and Le’Shaé Woodstock from the National Society of Apprentices, who in a joint statement said “racism, endemic low pay in apprenticeships and a consistent base of bad employer behaviour around off-the-job training are simply ignored”.   

The pair added: “It’s simply bizarre to think that racism and inequality will be fixed by just running a better advertising campaign. Where is the action on pay gaps, on what we learn and how we learn it?”   

Under-representation of BAME people in apprenticeships is by no means a new revelation. But the DfE’s public attempts to redress low ethnic minority take-up haven’t gone well in the past.

Former education secretary Justine Greening was accused of being “all talk” in 2017 after telling the education select committee that the government had a “big focus” on encouraging “a higher proportion of BAME young people going into apprenticeships” with little to show for it.   

Andy Forbes, a former college principal and now head of development at think tank ResPublica, said the biggest weakness in the DfE’s strategy is the lack of clear targets for recruitment of ethnic minority apprentices.   

“In my view, there should be an overall target and targets for each occupational area and level, from intermediate to degree apprenticeships,” he told FE Week.   

“The measurable progress of employers and training providers in attracting and recruiting ethnic minority applicants should be a factor in evaluating their quality in Ofsted reports and added in to the standard reporting of employers in relation to race pay gaps.”   

Crook said that despite the Black Lives Matter protests, there are “still too many employers reluctant to address race equality in their companies.   

“It’s time for the government to use its levers, such as public procurement, to increase the pace of change,” he added. 

New Challenges need New Skills

COP26 is receding in the rear-view mirror. Two weeks of high-level talks between world leaders has resulted in statements of national commitment to reduce carbon emissions. While much will continue to be debated about whether it was a ‘success’ and whether commitments are ‘enough,’ we should see the outcomes as one part of an ongoing process to address climate change.

For the construction industry, there is a need to recognise that the sector plays a key role in helping nations address the climate crisis. In the UK for example, construction contributes about 40% of the CO2 emissions, 10% from construction processes and 30% from the operation of buildings themselves. For the developed economies of the world to bring CO2 levels down by 2050, the construction industry will need to take radical steps to address the impact of new construction, the retrofitting of existing buildings and integrating technologies that will reduce emissions throughout the lifecycle of buildings.

The Global Alliance for Building and Construction has calculated that current renovation rates are only about 1% of the construction work that takes place annually.[1] This needs to be 3% each year to meet 2050 targets.  Why is this shift in renovation rates necessary? Can’t we just build better new buildings? The reality is we must do both. The UK Green Building Council has estimated that we already have 80% of the building stock that will exist by 2050.[2] So, we must ensure that the 20% of ‘new build’ is driving toward or exceeding net zero and we must ensure that there is an increase in renovation to ensure that existing buildings are made more efficient.

We are now approaching the 6-year anniversary of Mark Farmer’s report into the UK Construction Labour Model.[3] When it was published in 2016, many saw it as the herald for a new approach to construction that would see the sector embrace new technologies, construction practices and methods. Although some firms have invested in robotics, factories, and off-site systems, this is still a very small minority.

The UK construction industry, and the global construction sector, also faces a skills shortage. Within many economies the construction workforce is largely comprised of an ageing workforce and there is a struggle to attract new recruits. While this is not wholly the reality, the image persists of men in hard hats, hi-viz tabards and boots working on a muddy building site. Further, the sector has often been seen as the place you “end up” if you aren’t good academically.

But the future of the sector, and existing demand, is rapidly shifting to more advanced technical roles. We also know that 72% of respondents to Pearson’s Global Learner Survey last year on ‘The Climate Education Gap’[4] believe career opportunities in green jobs will increase over the next 10 years. For some time, industry reports have projected that lower-skilled roles will decline in demand as more and more of the construction process relies on digitisation, automation, and higher-technical skills. But here again, we have a challenge. To meet the needs of these roles we need to educate and train people in more specialised roles.

Welcome to the Higher Technical Qualifications in Construction

One of the key features of the UK government’s response to the “Reforming Higher Technical Education” consultation (completed in July 2020) was the call for Higher Technical Qualifications. These would be qualifications that have been approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE). The approval criteria call upon awarding organisations, colleges, and universities to show that their qualifications meet the knowledge, skills, and behaviours (KSB) defined within specific Occupational Standards. Further, approval requires that the qualification has been developed in collaboration with employers and proves industry relevance.

Pearson are pleased to be among the first awarding organisations to have had a suite of construction qualifications approved by IfATE as HTQs. As part of the process of developing a new suite of Higher National HTQs in Construction, we have sought to ensure that the content of the qualifications embeds sustainability throughout; with some units fully designed around sustainability while others integrate issues of sustainability within a broader curriculum. The Higher Nationals in Construction Suite; including, HN Construction Management, HN Quantity Surveying and HN Architectural Technology, all integrate key issues associated with the drive toward net zero.

These new Higher Nationals qualifications, approved as HTQs, continue to support the government’s initiatives to improve the quality and availability of technical education in the UK. Providing progression from the T-Levels in Design, Surveying and Planning, Building Services Engineering, and Onsite Construction (in addition to other educational routes), the HTQs provide a key stage in supporting employers to secure the future with graduates that are prepared for higher technical and professional roles.  These qualifications will be available for ‘first teaching’ in September of 2023.

Pearson are also one of the first awarding organisations to develop a qualification specifically addressing the challenges of automation, offsite construction, and modularisation; through their new Higher Nationals in Modern Methods of Construction. Developed in collaboration with George Clark’s MOBIE (www.mobie.org.uk), this qualification addresses many of the challenges the sector faces and aims to develop graduates that are prepared for the higher technical roles that the industry needs today and into the future. Pearson has a clear purpose – adding life to a lifetime of learning – that links naturally to our potential to make a significant positive impact on our society and our planet.

Achieving net zero, while maintaining construction industry and economic growth, requires the sector to embrace new methods and new processes. These, in turn, require a new approach to education and skills. With the HTQ approval of the BTEC Higher Nationals in Construction Suite of qualifications, Pearson is supporting the industry and education to make the change.

Find out more about Pearson’s HTQs in Construction

[1]           Every Building on the Planet Must Be ‘Net Zero Carbon’ by 2050 to Keep Global Warming Below 2°C – New Report, https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/every-building-planet-must-be-%E2%80%98net-zero-carbon%E2%80%99-2050-keep-global-warming-below-2%C2%B0c-new

[2]           Net Zero in Construction – A Significant Driver of Change, https://www.wrighthassall.co.uk/knowledge-base/net-zero-in-construction-a-significant-driver-of-change

[3]           The Farmer Review of the UK Construction Labour Model, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/construction-labour-market-in-the-uk-farmer-review

[4] Pearson (2021), The Climate Education Gap, https://plc.pearson.com/en-GB/future-learning/global-learner-survey

New national leaders announced but diversity concerns remain

The Department for Education has refreshed its roster of national FE leaders following its latest recruitment round, but has been unsuccessful in making the teams more diverse.

Five new national leaders of further education (NLFE) and two new national leaders of governance (NLG) have been appointed from high-performing institutions to step in and support colleges in need of improvement. 

Sector commentators have been critical in recent years of the lack of diversity among DfE’s top teams of FE specialists; including the FE commissioner’s team of deputies and advisers as well as the national leaders of governance and national leaders of further education. 

In an FE Week interview last year, new FE commissioner, Shelagh Legrave, regretfully insisted that this was “reflective of the small number of BAME leaders in the sector”.

“I think it’s really sad that we haven’t got as diverse in our leadership in FE as we should have. And I will certainly work with everybody to try and ensure that there is a greater diversity,” she told us in November.

There remains no non-white national leaders of further education. The group was gender balanced, but now has three more men than women. One member of the national leaders of governance team is from a BAME background.

The national leaders programme sits alongside the further education commissioner’s office as part of the government’s support and intervention regime for colleges. NLFE’s work with senior leaders to provide strategic mentoring and advise on the development and delivery of improvement plans. 

To be eligible to become an NLFE, applicants need to have clocked up at least five years as principal or chief executive and have achieved at least ‘good’ judgements in overall effectiveness, leadership and management and teaching, learning and assessment at their most recent inspection. 

The roles are unpaid, but an NLFE’s college receives a £10,000 per year bursary to cover costs for travel, staff cover and professional development. According to the latest annual report from the FE commissioner, the NLFEs and NLGs were working with 40 colleges in academic year 2020/21, down from 50 in the previous year. 

Leaders that were appointed to NLFE roles this week are:

Ian Pryce, principal and chief executive, Bedford College Group

Gill Worgan, principal, West Herts College

John Laramy, principal and chief executive, Exeter College

Ellen Thinnesen, chief executive, Education Partnership North East

Kate Roe, principal and chief executive, Darlington College

Four college leaders have stepped down as NLFEs, including former TEC Partnership chief executive Gill Alton, who retired earlier this year, Tyne Coast College’s Lindsey Whiterod, Huddersfield New College’s Angela Williams and Nelson and Colne’s Amanda Melton.

The Department’s latest NLG appointments increase the total of governance experts from eight to ten. David Wright, chair at Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College, and Charles Buchanan, chair at EKC Group join the existing members of the team. 

As with NLFE’s, the NLG group was gender-balanced before this latest round of appointments.

NLG’s receive a day-rate of £350 for their work and must be a serving chair of governors, governor or governance professional from a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ college. They are typically appointed for two-year terms.

Applicants are subjected to a “rigorous” assessment process, according to DfE guidance, including scenario-based exercise and a formal interview.

New apprenticeship provider jumps from ‘insufficient’ to Ofsted ‘outstanding’

An apprenticeships firm hit with a damaging ‘insufficient progress’ judgement from Ofsted in 2019 has been rated ‘outstanding’ after its first full inspection – a feat no other new provider has achieved.

Wiser Academy Ltd was on the verge of collapse after it was suspended from recruiting apprentices following an early monitoring visit in July 2019 which resulted in two ‘insufficient progress’ judgments.

During Covid-19, the provider’s leaders expressed frustration after Ofsted paused inspections – something that meant their inability to take on apprentices was prolonged.

However, they were able to turn the company’s fortunes around, with their latest inspection resulting in ‘outstanding’ judgements in four out of five categories.

“I’m absolutely over the moon,” Wiser Academy’s director Crescens George told FE Week.

“Considering in 2019 when we had our first visit, of course we couldn’t recruit learners, and then come 2020 March lockdown in the pandemic, the business couldn’t grow.

“We were still in the lockdown, so trying to transform a business to get it to a ‘good’ rating is itself challenging… Amidst all the challenges we all faced, getting an ‘outstanding’ is really something we are proud of as a team.

“Going from the verge of the business going bust to an ‘outstanding’ is an incredible feat,” he added.

Wiser Academy is based in Hampshire but trains apprentices in the insurance and financial services sector across the country.

The provider offers insurance-based apprenticeship standards at levels 3, 4 and 6 nationally. At the time of its inspection there were 97 apprentices in learning.

Under current government rules, providers that are new to apprenticeship delivery receive an early monitoring visit from Ofsted within 24 months of being funded.

If they score ‘insufficient progress’ in one or more themes they are temporarily banned from recruiting apprentices until they can score at least ‘requires improvement’ in a full inspection.

Wiser Academy was expecting a re-inspection by March 2020, but this was postponed due to the pandemic, something that put significant financial pressure on the company.  

“Basically [we] were on a journey towards diminishing cash flow. Towards the later part of the year, we had to dip into our reserves to support the learners and ensure they were still supported,” George told FE Week.

Ofsted eventually came to do a second monitoring visit in October 2020 – where Wiser Academy was judged to have made ‘reasonable progress’ in all three themes.

Around a year and half later, the provider was rated ‘outstanding’ by the regulator.

An analysis of Ofsted data by FE Week found that no other new provider has made such a jump.

In a report published today, inspectors said that Wiser Academy provides “high-quality, highly personalised training”.

“Leaders have made it their mission to train the apprentices so that they are the highest qualified insurance specialists,” the report said.

This contrasted sharply with the provider’s initial report where Ofsted found that leaders and managers did not plan the apprentices’ training programmes well enough.

George told FE Week how he managed to achieve such an impressive turn around.

“We stripped everything back and started rebuilding everything from scratch – in terms of our ethos, our values, team processes, systems, engagement strategies… everything.

“We had about four key areas that we were prioritising… what we first did was change our delivery model. We went from the typical once a month touch point interaction to a weekly interaction with all our learners.

“Our training method is not the typical apprenticeship delivery where you meet with your assessor once every four weeks or eight weeks or whatever.”

He explained that all of Wiser Academy’s learners have weekly face to face or live virtual training sessions. Each apprentice has at least two and a half hours of training time with their trainer.

“The core message that I give my team is ‘don’t worry too much about the paperwork, the bureaucracy, the tick-box exercises’. Our mantra was, focus on the learners and everything else will follow,” George added.

ESFA to seek bids for national strategic development fund rollout

Colleges in every area of England will soon be invited to submit bids to another round of the new strategic development fund (SDF), the Education and Skills Funding Agency has announced. 

Colleges have today been given advanced warning of the upcoming opportunity that will be worth £85 million in total next year. They will however only have, at best, nine months to spend the money.

In an update released today, the agency said that applications will open on April 1 for SDF bids for the 2022-23 financial year. The agency “anticipates” that funding will be confirmed by June but says it must be spent by March 31, 2023.

A £65 million pilot for the SDF comes to and end this month and will be replaced by a national £85 million programme. About 60 per cent, £50 million, will be set aside for capital, and the remaining £35 million for revenue.

To be successful for this year’s round of funding, bids must “include or be endorsed” by every FE college within the bid’s defined geographic area. 

The SDF was introduced last year as part of the ‘skills accelerator’ package, which invited applications for the first local skills improvement plans. It provides capital and revenue funding so providers in a local area can better align their provision to local skills priorities. 

Applications to the £85 million SDF must be based on analysis of local skills needs, including the emerging plans being developed by the local skills improvement plan trailblazers in 2021/22, and mayoral combined authority or local enterprise partnership analysis of local skills needs, the ESFA said.

Unlike last year, where it was left to employer representative bodies to determine appropriate geographies, the ESFA said it expects this year’s bids to align to mayoral combined authority or local enterprise partnership boundaries. 

As well as the support of every college, employer representative bodies must also be on board. The education secretary is seeking powers through the skills and post 16 education bill to officially designate employer representative bodies. That legislation is likely to receive royal assent in the coming weeks.

Independent training providers, sixth form colleges, institutes of technology and universities can be included in the SDF bids, and can receive funding, but they can not lead an application. Nor can colleges without a grade one or two overall effectiveness judgement from Ofsted.

Bids will open on April 1 and will close on May 13, 2022. 

Universal credit training flexibility extended again

A flexibility allowing universal credit claimants to undertake training for up to 16 weeks has been extended for a second time.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency announced today that the flexibility will now last until April 28, 2023. It had been set to end next month.

The flexibility, originally announced as a six-month pilot in March 2021, increased the amount of time claimants could study full-time, work-focused courses will still receiving benefits from eight weeks to 12 weeks.

This then went up to 16 weeks if the claimant was on a skills bootcamp and now applies to all types of work-related training if the person is in the “intensive work search group” for universal credit.

“Universal credit claimants in the intensive work search group will be able to attend full-time, work-related training opportunities lasting up to 16 weeks across Great Britain as part of their work search activity. This flexibility has now been extended until 28 April 2023,” an update from the ESFA said.

“This is a great opportunity for FE providers to work with their local jobcentre plus and partnership managers to offer full-time, work-related training courses.”

Universal credit claimants will need to get agreement from their work coach to “ensure this is the right support for them and appropriate for the local labour market”.

The previous eight-week universal credit rule was heavily criticised by the FE and skills sector. In June 2021, the Association of Colleges published a report saying the rule meant claimants are “prevented from developing skills that would allow them to get into better-quality, more stable, better paid employment over the longer term”.

Latest Department for Work and Pensions data shows 5.6 million people were receiving universal credit in January 2022.

Introducing SQA Advanced Qualifications

Why deliver?

SQA Advanced Qualifications were developed in partnership with colleges, universities and industry and specifically designed to meet the requirements of education professionals and the skills needs of employers.

SQA Advanced Certificates and Diplomas are education pathways at levels 4 and 5, enabling students to progress on to further study or directly into employment.

Advanced Qualifications are recognised and valued by a network of university progression partners in the UK and beyond, allowing progression to a related undergraduate degree.

How do SQA Advanced Qualifications work?

SQA Advanced Certificates and SQA Advanced Diplomas are made up of unit credits (one credit represents approximately 40 hours of timetabled learning and 40 hours of self-guided learning and study):

• SQA Advanced Certificates are made up of 96 SCQF credit points, at SCQF level 7, and usually take one year to complete.

• SQA Advanced Diplomas are made up of 240 SCQF credit points, at SCQF level 8, and usually take two years to complete.

Who are they for?

SQA Advanced Qualifications are suitable for a wide range of learners:

• school leavers
• adult returners to education
• employees who wish to enhance their career prospects
• people who wish to start their own business.

Courses

Centres can choose from a wide range of subjects, with over 45 qualifications in 15 sectors, to meet local skills requirements or complement their existing provision. Subjects available include Business, Engineering, Computing and Finance.

Designed for delivery

Designed with industry to robust standards, SQA Advanced Qualifications allow flexible delivery and assessment, to meet local skills needs and prepare learners for their next step.

Supporting local skills needs

As well as a wide range of subject areas to cover a wide set of skills requirements, these qualifications have been developed with industry and employers. Learners get the practical skills needed to do a job and the theoretical knowledge an employer will expect them to have.

In addition to being industry relevant, some are also recognised by leading professional associations, including ACCA, CIMA, CIOB and IET.

A pathway to university

The Certificate/Diploma is a trusted, short-cycle higher education qualification equivalent to the first and second year of a university degree. SQA Advanced Qualifications enable advanced entry into many undergraduate degree programmes in SQA’s partner universities and higher education institutions.

SQA’s Diploma to Degree programme is a proven route for students to progress on to the second or third year of an undergraduate degree, following successful completion of an SQA Advanced Diploma. We have over 50 university partners in the UK and around the world who recognise the SQA Advanced Diploma for advanced entry and provide students with a quality learning experience.

Progression partners include Middlesex University London, Liverpool Hope University, Auckland Institute of Studies (New Zealand) and Northern Arizona University, providing learners with the opportunity to learn locally and study globally.

Learn more

You can find out more about SQA’s Advanced Qualifications offer, including viewing a full course list, by downloading a copy of the prospectus at: www.sqa.org.uk/advanced

Discover More & Download Prospectus

What providers need to know about applying to deliver T Levels from 2024

The Department for Education has today launched the registration process for providers to deliver T Levels from 2024 – the final year of the flagship qualification’s rollout.

Here are the key things you need to know before applying.

ALL 16-19 providers can apply

2024 will be the fifth and final year of T Level rollout and will from this point become part of the mainstream offer for all students aged 16, 17 and 18.

The DfE confirmed today that all providers currently funded to deliver 16 to 19 study programmes will be eligible to deliver all of the available T Levels from September 2024.

Providers who have a contract to deliver apprenticeships or adult provision only, are not eligible to apply.

In previous years, strict criteria around Ofsted grades and financial health had applied to prospective T Level providers. These restrictions have now been lifted.

Providers have over a year to apply but get extra support if they’re quick

Providers may submit their registration form from now and up to July 31, 2023. This is the final date to register and be eligible to receive an up-front funding allocation for T Level delivery for 2024/25.

After July 2023, the DfE said any unregistered T Level delivery will be funded through the in-year growth process applicable in 2024/25, subject to affordability, so long as this is correctly coded on the individualised learner record or school census.

The DfE said it encourages providers to register as early as possible “so that they can take advantage of the support that will be offered to providers”.

If providers register by July 29, 2022 they can access a range support to assist their delivery preparations such as conversations with the DfE’s T Level support team, guidance on capital funding, access to up-front funding for additional T Level delivery hours and industry placements.

Full suite of T Levels available

There are 23 T Levels, across 11 T Level routes that will be available for delivery in 2024/25.

They encompass 81 different occupational specialisms between them.

The 11 routes are: agricultural, environmental and animal care; business and administration; catering and hospitality; construction; creative and design; digital; education and childcare; engineering and manufacturing; hair and beauty; health and science; and legal, finance and accounting.

What you need to register

Through a registration form, providers will be asked about any recent structural changes or whether they have converted to academy status.

Providers will also need to list the T Levels they plan to deliver in 2024/25 along with planned student numbers.

Whether the provider is also interested in delivering the T Level transition programme will be another question.

‘Deteriorated’ finances on the mend at large adult education college, FE Commissioner finds

A well-known adult education charity has insisted it is on the road to recovery after the FE Commissioner warned of deteriorating finances caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The City Literary Institute said it was the first-ever college to produce more than half of its income through enrolment fees in 2018/19 – a feat which was short lived when multiple lockdowns caused a significant reduction.

The charity, which is the largest provider of community learning in Europe, saw its fee income drop by 27 per cent, falling from £10.1 million prior to the pandemic to £7.4 million in 2020/21.

As a result, City Lit has today received a financial notice to improve from the Education and Skills Funding Agency due to ‘inadequate’ finances.

In a report also published today, the FE Commissioner said in its team’s opinion, the college’s financial recovery plan is based on “sound analysis” which will see fee income recover to pre-pandemic levels of around 30,000 enrolments by 2023/24.

The report also points out that City Lit has no long-term debt and is asset rich because it owns its main campus in London’s Covent Garden, meaning the college is “not insolvent”.

Speaking to FE Week, City Lit’s principal Mark Malcomson said his college is “far from” becoming financially unviable and insisted that “things are slowly getting better” for both daytime and evening courses.

He explained that his provider’s 5,000-odd courses were all delivered face-to-face prior to the pandemic and the switch to online learning was impossible for some areas, particularly practical subjects such as performing arts.

But around 1,300 courses were successfully transferred online, predominantly provision for languages, humanities, creative writing, wellbeing and even music, once the pandemic struck.

Successive lockdowns continued to disrupt enrolments and led to some tough decisions around restricting staff and provision. Malcomson said his staff base has fallen by between 10 and 15 per cent since the pandemic, while an external “interpreting service” function offered by the college has had to close.

The FE Commissioner’s report is however full of praise for governance and leadership at City Lit. It said: “City Lit has been proactive and flexible in adapting its curriculum offer and delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and challenges that have predominated since March 2020.

“The college has remained firmly committed to promoting and maintaining the engagement and participation of its learners, with the rapid development of online learning providing a viable alternative to face-to-face delivery for many programmes.”

The report also applauded the college’s quality of provision, giving the example that achievement outcomes on accredited programmes “improved substantially” in 2020/21, with “further improvements” likely in 2021/22.

Today’s report makes clear that the impact on fee income through the pandemic has been the “primary factor” in the “deterioration of the college finances”, which has reported two years of “significant operating deficits and are likely to see a third year of this in 2021/22”.

Malcomson said he was “proud” of the way his college has responded to the unprecedented challenge of the pandemic and is “happy” with the “supportive” approach taken by the ESFA and FE Commissioner.