College staffing crisis hits two-decade high, claims AoC

Colleges are calling on government to boost their funding to help improve staff pay after a survey found there are around 6,000 job vacancies in the sector.  

According to the Association of Colleges (AoC), which carried out the research, this is the highest number of vacancies seen in “two decades” – a claim that is based on assumptions from experienced senior leaders since there is a lack of comparable data. 

High levels of persistent vacancies were found in government priority areas such as construction, engineering, health and social care and science and maths. 

The AoC has now called for a “concerted national push to tackle the recruitment and retention problem before it worsens”, namely by increasing funding rates which have been cut over the past ten years. 

Their concerns about the “staffing crisis” have been echoed by staff unions, including the University and College Union (UCU) and Unison.  

“The issue for colleges around recruiting and retaining staff has been building for some time. It is a symptom of the decision to freeze or reduce colleges’ funding for over a decade and has left the sector struggling to keep pace on pay,” said Kirsti Lord, deputy chief executive of AoC.  

 “In relation to schools, college pay doesn’t even come close, and when potential staff can earn far more in their specific industry, it makes it increasingly difficult for colleges to attract the people they desperately need.” 

The survey of college HR directors was carried out in December 2021 and had responses from 48 per cent of all colleges.  

The colleges that responded reported 3,293 vacancies. The report said this implies a total of 6,000 vacancies across the sector, a vacancy rate of 5.5 per cent.  

It found that the average number of vacancies per college was 30, with one reporting 162 vacancies.  

Some 1,853 of these vacancies were in support areas, with high levels of persistent vacancies in learning support roles, student services and facilities and estates roles.  

The current level of vacancies is creating increased pressure on existing staff according to 96 per cent of survey respondents. 

And 61 per cent said that vacancies were having a significant impact on the amount they are having to spend on agency fees. 

Speaking on the reasons for the high numbers of vacancies, the AoC noted that the sector had been hit by a “decade of cuts and endless reform”. 

“As it stands, teachers in schools are currently paid over £9,000 more than college lecturers on average, despite many college lecturers being more specialist and having brought real-life industry experience to their roles,” the organisation said in a statement. 

The AoC is also now calling on the government to take “important short-term actions, including adjustments to the 2021/22 adult education performance rules and providing sufficient flexibility in 16-18 funding for 2022/23”. 

They also want the government to commit to action on whole-college funding, including increases and reform, action to reduce external bureaucracy and improvements to teacher training routes. 

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “This report clearly demonstrates the consequences of underfunding the college sector with 6,000 posts lying empty and a yawning chasm in pay remaining between those who teach in our colleges and school teachers.” 

However, Grady argued that college leaders are “not blameless in all of this” and had repeatedly used a lack of government funding as an excuse to hold down staff pay. “Employers can and must pay staff more, and the government must ensure increases in funding are sustained and not one-offs,” Grady said. 

“Failure to do so will leave the blame for the continued recruitment and retention crisis at the feet of both college leadership and government.” 

Unison head of education Mike Short said colleges have had to axe thousands of jobs in the absence of sufficient government cash. “Ministers must invest in further education or young people won’t get the education they deserve. The economy will also miss out on the skilled workers it craves,” he said.  

Jerry White, deputy principal of City College Norwich, told FE Week: “Across the sector we are all struggling with the levels of funding that we receive and have received over the last decade to pay rates that are, in many cases, competitive to the sectors you are trying to recruit people from.” 

A Department for Education spokesperson said that FE teachers are needed across many subject areas. “That is why we have launched a national campaign to encourage industry professionals, particularly those in priority sectors such as construction and engineering, to teach in FE,” the department told FE Week. 

“We will be investing an extra £1.6 billion in 16-to-19 education and training by 2024/25, compared with the 2021/22 financial year, which includes funding for colleges. This includes an up-front cash boost which will see the rate of funding per student boosted by over eight per cent in 2022/23.” 

Former education secretary Gavin Williamson knighted

The former education secretary Gavin Williamson has been knighted, the government has announced.

It comes less than a year after he was unceremoniously sacked in a reshuffle by prime minister Boris Johnson.

Williamson – also a former chief whip and defence secretary – had faced heavy criticism for his handling of the pandemic’s impact on education providers, most notably 2020’s exams fiasco.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said leaders and parents alike would be “surprised” by the decision. Williamson’s tenure was “one of endless muddle, inevitable U-turns, and even threats of legal action to override local decisions”.

Sam Freedman, a former DfE adviser, accused the government of “waiting for a major war to sneak out the knighthood” because of their embarrassment.

Honour shows ‘contempt’ for children and staff

Williamson’s dismissal also followed criticism over chaotic school, college and provider closure and reopening plans, as well as the BTECs debacle.

Lib Dem education spokesperson Munira Wilson said people would be “outraged”, adding: “The only award Gavin Williamson should be given is the one for worst education secretary in history.”

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the honour showed “utter contempt” for students and staff.

Last year Williamson was accused of endangering the health of hundreds of thousands of pupils by scientists, who warned fully reopening schools, colleges and providers without robust mitigation measures” was “reckless”.

Knighthood was left out of new year’s honours

Williamson’s name was conspicuous in its absence from the new year’s honours list, having been tipped for a knighthood in 2021.

The Telegraph reported that a government source said it was due then but delayed over the Sue Gray report, before being approved once police decided against investigating a DfE gathering.

A brief statement released by Downing Street today said the Queen was “pleased to approve that the honour of knighthood be conferred” upon Williamson.

Anyone can nominate individuals for honours, but who receives one and which honour they receive is typically decided by committees of civil servants and independent members.

These recommendations go to the prime minister, who then recommends them to the Queen.

A new system of awarding of honours for parliamentary and political service was only introduced relatively recently under the Conservatives in 2012.

A House of Commons Library report in 2017 noted it was a “controversial part of the honours system”, because of public suspicion it could be dished out for political support – or for “just doing the day job”.

Chief government and opposition whips serve on the parliamentary and political service committee – meaning its former members include Williamson himself.

Barton said problems under Williamson’s tenure as education secretary were “not all Williamson’s fault”, however, with Downing Street partly at fault. Covid would have been “challenging for any education secretary”.

Colleges warned as cyber threat from Russia increases

Colleges are being warned to brace themselves for possible cyber-attacks amid a heightened threat from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

The Association of Colleges has already informed members about “unusual activity” on its jobs website and provided advice to mitigate possible threats.

There are no known cyber-attacks on individual colleges from Russia in recent weeks as yet, but they have been warned they are particularly vulnerable institutions likely to be targeted following the West’s sanctions against Russia.

Henry Hughes, director of security at education technology experts Jisc, said: “Education and research are likely targets, alongside other sectors, and reporting indicates that the chances of Russian state-sponsored action, including via social engineering, have increased significantly.

“Ensuring that fundamental protections are in place and are functioning correctly is the most important priority. This applies in normal circumstances but is now critical.”

Known Russian groups currently being monitored for attacks include Turla, Wizard Spider, Mummy Spider, TA505, LockBit and REvil.

Leveraging crypto currency monetary platforms has become a focus for Putin and the Russian government

The National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, said it is not currently aware of any specific cyber threats to UK organisations in relation to the Russian invasion but “strongly encourages organisations to follow our guidance on steps to take when the cyber threat is heightened”.

However, KryptoKloud, a cyber security solutions company with over 100 clients, including 12 colleges, told FE Week it has seen a 212 per cent increase in targeted “spear phishing attacks” in the past 14 days compared with early January and February – with some coming from Russia.

Chief executive Paul Burrows said: “To date, KryptoKloud has seen several new ransomware and malicious behavioural activity for the new HermeticWiper, WhisperGate and SaintBot malware families, while correlations for the Buhtrap activity have also been implemented into our cyber-protection capabilities.

“These new cyber-attacks are particularly nasty and seem to be more destructive in nature than previous attacks.”

He told FE Week that Russia has also significantly ramped up its traditional ransomware as a service operation and since the sanctions placed on the Russian banking sector by the West, leveraging crypto currency monetary platforms has “become a focus for Putin and the Russian government”.

Burrows warned that Russia will continue to look for easy targets – such as the education sector – and all FE providers “should ensure they are resilient to these attacks and ensure that they have the necessary processes and controls in place to ensure they can remail cyber and digital secure”.

Cyber-attacks affecting colleges, which have included doctored emails from principals and hoax terror attacks, have been on the rise in recent years and saw a spike during the pandemic following the switch to online learning.

South and City College Birmingham was forced to shut its eight campuses following a “major” ransomware attack that disabled its core IT systems last year. And Lincoln College was hit by a similar attack in 2020, which KryptoKloud stepped in to help fix, which came from Russia.

In a message to members on Wednesday, the AoC said: “Since the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have seen some unusual activity on AoC Jobs. Although our systems can cope with this so far, we wanted to make you aware of some changes that will affect you using the system and some additional precautions you can take as users of the system. 

“We are also adding an additional level of security [such as blocking unknown IP addresses] and potential mitigating risk access points, to ensure that the recruiter portal of AoC Jobs remains as secure as it can be.”

Jisc has issued the following checklist that it advises colleges to follow:

  • Ensure critical assets are patched and up to date, and that appropriate compensating controls are in place where they are not.
  • Review account management practices, and ensure that only those who need it have admin rights to services.
  • Ensure antivirus protections on both servers and workstations are up to date and are being monitored.
  • Review firewall rules and remove/disable any redundant rules that could allow a threat actor access.
  • Make sure back-ups and recovery processes are following the backup 3-2-1 methodologies and have been tested.
  • Ensure all critical services are being monitored.
  • Update the incident response plan and test it, to ensure the organisation is prepared in the event of a security incident.
  • Revisit phishing awareness training, as this is a common threat route for most advanced persistent threat groups.

Ofsted rates sixth form college ‘outstanding’ again – 13 years on from last inspection

A sixth form college has retained an ‘outstanding’ grade from Ofsted 13 years after its last inspection.

Blackpool Sixth Form College was lauded by inspectors for creating a “truly aspirational place to learn” in a report published today that resulted in grade ones across the board.

Principal Jill Gray said she was “absolutely thrilled” with the result, which is a “real testament to the staff who work tirelessly for our students”.

She added: “It has been a challenging few years so to have Ofsted come in and tell us what we’re doing is great is just so rewarding. I’m so delighted for the students, for the community and for Blackpool.”

‘Outstanding’ schools and colleges began to be inspected last term for the first time since 2010, after an exemption was removed last year.

Blackpool Sixth Form College was last inspected in 2009.

Ofsted praised the “calm, professional and inclusive learning environment where students feel safe and can flourish” at the college in today’s report.

Inspectors judged the college’s curriculum to be “high-quality, comprehensive and ambitious” supporting students “to make substantial progress throughout their learning programmes”.

They were impressed with the expertise of teaching staff who “create a range of stimulating learning activities” and also noted the progression of students to further study and careers, supported by “a very strong programme of ongoing careers advice while on their courses”.

At the time of the inspection, there were 2,205 students attending the college, almost all of whom were studying level 3 full-time education programmes, such as A-levels and applied general qualifications, for young people.

Ofsted pointed out that the proportion of young people who leave school with five GCSEs in the Blackpool area, including in English and mathematics at grades 9 to 4, is significantly below the national average. There are also “pockets of significant deprivation across the area that the college serves”.

Inspectors highlighted opportunities for personal development beyond the students’ classroom learning as a key feature of the college. It was noted that “staff provide extensive enrichment activities that they purposefully, skilfully and seamlessly integrate into every student’s curriculum”.

Support for students with additional needs was judged to be exemplary, with staff implementing “support strategies to help them to achieve at least as well as their peers”.

The inspectors also highlighted the way in which the college creates “a culture where respect for others and diversity are celebrated” for example through the college’s LGBT+ group, and they noted that students are encouraged to help their local communities through activities such as charity fundraising.

DfE reveals plan to scrap thousands of level 2 and below qualifications

Thousands of level 2 and below qualifications face the chop under government plans announced today to “streamline” the system.

Sector leaders have called the proposals “devastating” and a “full-frontal assault on the very idea of lifelong learning” which “fly in the face of the ambition to level up the country”.

A consultation on reforms to technical and academic qualifications at level 2 and below, excluding GCSEs, functional skills and essential digital skills qualifications, has been launched by the Department for Education.

Officials claim the current landscape is “confusing” with around 8,000 qualifications available at these levels, many of which cover the same or similar subjects. For example, there are more than 650 building and construction qualifications at these levels, and nearly 560 in health and social care.

That figure includes nearly 3,700 qualifications at level 2 and below that have already been identified for funding removal because they have low or no enrolments, or on the list of excluded qualifications above.

It leaves around 3,200 ‘in-scope’ qualifications which have just under 600,000 enrolments in this review.

An impact assessment report from the DfE shows it estimates that 72 per cent (c.1,530) of ‘in-scope’ level 2 qualifications for 16- to 19-year-olds, 61 per cent (c.1,290) of ‘in-scope’ level 2 qualifications for adults, and 57 per cent (c.640) of ‘in scope’ level 1 and entry qualifications face being axed.

Today’s consultation follows a separate contentious review of level 3 qualifications which proposes to remove funding for most courses – including Pearson’s popular BTECs – that overlap with T Levels and A-levels from 2024.

The level 2 and below consultation does not set out exactly what qualifications are set to lose their funding, but it does shows new “groups” that qualifications will need to fit into in order to survive (see images below). 

The DfE said it expects the process for deciding which level 2 and below qualifications will remain to be done in a phased way from 2024 to 2027, starting with reform to qualifications in the construction route at level 2, followed by other level 2 qualifications and finally, in 2027, level 1, entry level, ESOL and PSE qualifications.

Qualifications that may not fit into the proposed landscape include “the smallest qualifications, where they are unlikely to be able to provide a student with the knowledge, skills and behaviours contained in a relevant employer-led standard, or to provide them with broad content relevant to an occupational route”, the impact assessment report said.

The DfE propose not to fund qualifications that are “too narrowly focused only on certain skills, such as plumbing or bricklaying, and do not provide a broad enough introduction to the occupational route, such as construction, to support progression to level 2”.

Qualifications that aim to provide entry into an occupation but where there is “no relevant employer-led standard at level 2″ will also be affected.

The DfE estimates that for seven awarding organisations, 80 per cent or more of their public funded enrolments at level 2 and below are likely to be affected by the withdrawal of funding approval.

Of these, five had more than 1,000 enrolments at these levels. This is out of more than 120 awarding bodies that are offering government-funded qualifications at level 2 and below.

Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, slammed the government for its plans.

“Only a top-down Whitehall technocratic exercise would come up with the idea that people can be fitted neatly into three boxes called qualification types,” he said.

“Of course, we’ve always recognised that some rationalisation would be necessary. No qualification is set in stone. But the government has simply got the scale and scope of this policy wrong. The reforms will deny opportunity to thousands of people – young and old.”

He added that the process of approving qualifications for funding and aligning them with “bureaucratic” standards that will apply in England only, is going to be “hugely cumbersome and costly for taxpayers” and FE providers.

Bewick predicts many providers will be forced to go out of business and student choice will be “adversely affected”.

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, also condemned the plans.

She said: “The proposals in the government’s consultation on level 2 and below will have a devastating impact on social mobility.

“As well as having a damaging impact on training providers, these plans will increase the adult skills gap and mean employers struggle to find the right people they need to fill employee vacancies. The proposals fly in the face of the government’s ambition to level up the country.”

But defending the reforms, skills minister Alex Burghart said: “We are delivering qualifications designed with employers that give students the skills the economy needs. The consultation we are launching today is the next step in making that change a reality. 

“We are already rolling out T Levels and reviewing thousands of technical qualifications to make sure they are fit for purpose. We want to make sure all qualifications are high-quality and help people progress in life and work.”

In a previous call for evidence the DfE consulted on proposals to remove post-16 funding from level 2 ICT user qualifications and level 2 ICT functional skills qualifications.

The department confirmed today that it would proceed with this proposal and will remove funding for new starters from August 2022. The full list of those being defunded can be found here.

A deadline of April 27 has been set for responses to the level 2 and below consultation.

Proposed level 2 qualifications landscape

Proposed level 1 qualifications landscape

Proposed entry level qualifications landscape

The Countdown for the BTEC Awards nominations is on

With just a few weeks to go before the nominations for this year’s BTEC Awards close, the countdown is on. Nominating is easy, you can nominate multiple times and there is plenty to be won.

The annual event, now in its 12th year, recognises and celebrates the hard work and dedication of BTEC learners, tutors, and colleges from all around the globe. 

Why not give someone at your college some well-earned recognition?

The Awards are an opportunity to honour exceptional vocational learning and teaching. There are awards for Tutor of the Year and College of the Year – as well as many learner sector awards and overall Young and Adult Learner of the year. 

The Awards are being held in central London this summer. Gold winners and their guests will be invited, along with their nominator, for an afternoon filled with inspiring stories that celebrate the triumphs and achievements of learners, educators and providers within the BTEC community. 

We want to hear from all the colleges that have excelled during this extraordinary year, through their resilience, enthusiasm, and community spirit. If this sounds like your college, why not nominate your team for a BTEC College of the Year Award?

Previous BTEC Awards winners have benefited from nationwide publicity for their college staff and learners through regional and national press coverage. Many BTEC College of the Year winners have gone on to become BTEC ambassadors, featuring in Pearson BTEC advertising campaigns and in the press.

To nominate and find out more about the BTEC Awards and enter, visit: btec.co.uk/awards 

Please see the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBQz-KE0fVE&t=2s

Submit your entries by Friday 25 March at 5pm (GMT)

Governors ‘lack urgency’ on financial issues at struggling land-based college, says FE Commissioner

Governors of a land-based college have been criticised by the FE Commissioner for a “lack of urgency” in addressing financial issues which have resurfaced multiple times since 2015.

Kingston Maurward College in Dorset has been placed in early intervention three times over the past seven years, most recently in December 2020, due to deteriorating financial performance. 

A report published by the FE Commissioner yesterday detailed the results of a November 2021 visit. The report said that while the current leadership had stabilised prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, “financial risks are accumulating”. 

Risks include a “substantial” Education and Skills Funding Agency clawback following an apprenticeships audit, repayment of a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) loan, two large grant-funded capital projects, bank covenants being broken, and limited cash reserves particularly during the February and March low points.

The report said governors are now aware they are “facing several difficult and critical strategic decisions regarding the future financial viability and sustainability of the college”.

Despite this, the FE Commissioner’s team warned that there “continues to be a lack of urgency” among governors, and “too willing an acceptance of reasons for the lack of pace and progress in addressing issues – particularly in relation to overall planning, process improvement, assessment and analysis related to financial planning and efficiency improvements”.

The report also accused leaders of the college for being “overly optimistic about student growth potential in a sub-region with a flat demographic”. 

Responding to the report, Luke Rake, principal of Kingston Maurward College, told FE Week that he did not believe there is a lack of urgency. 

“But the FE commissioners are entirely entitled to their view and we respect it,” he said. 

“The FE Commissioner’s team have been very supportive in helping the board focus on key metrics and areas of improvement.”

Rake explained that the pandemic has made things more challenging for the college with a larger than usual commercial component that, due to government-imposed restrictions on trade, had meant a significant loss of income in the last two years. 

One issue raised by the report is that there is still a “danger” that governors and senior leaders are overly optimistic about student growth potential. 

Rake told FE Week that current recruitment data is strong and the college has grown student numbers for the last three years. 

“We will not know until enrolment whether we are overly optimistic, but at the moment feel our current levels of optimism may be justified based upon the data we have,” he said.  

“Recent funding allocations for the next financial year show significant growth in funding due to not only student number growth, but also improvements to retention as well. 

“There is always a risk we have been too optimistic. There is similarly a possibility we haven’t been optimistic enough. We shall see in September,” Rake added. 

A key financial risk highlighted by the report is that the college faces a “substantial ESFA clawback”. 

Since the FE Commissioner’s visit in November 2021, Rake said that the college has successfully argued a business case for the adult education budget clawback, after his college only spent 51 per cent of its allocation in 2020/21.

However, Rake said the college has an ongoing audit which has highlighted a “potential risk around apprenticeships”. This has “yet to complete and any final figures are yet to be determined”, he added.

EuroSkills 2023 moved from St Petersburg as WorldSkills suspends Russia and Belarus amid invasion of Ukraine

Russia and Belarus have been suspended from WorldSkills competitions and the EuroSkills 2023 event will no longer be held in St Petersburg following the invasion of Ukraine.

WorldSkills Europe board members this morning announced the decision to relocate next year’s event to an as yet unnamed other country following an emergency meeting.

At the same time, WorldSkills International announced that it has also cancelled WorldSkills Russia’s participation in WorldSkills Shanghai 2022. Belarus has also been kicked out due to its “active support” of Russia’s invasion.

Both countries have had their WorldSkills International memberships suspended with immediate effect.

In a statement, WorldSkills International said: “WorldSkills is politically and denominationally neutral. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a clear and enormous breach of our code of ethics and conduct. Belarus, by its active support of Russia’s invasion, has also breached our code of ethics and conduct.

“The Russian government has made choices that forfeit its access to participate in events and activities organized by WorldSkills and its members.”

EuroSkills 2023 had been set to take place in St Petersburg from August 16 to 20, 2023.

WorldSkills Shangahi is currently scheduled to run from October 12 to 17, 2022.

WorldSkills UK chief executive, Neil Bentley-Gockmann, welcomed today’s “swift and decisive” actions.

“We have ceased all our bilateral work with WorldSkills Russia, including suspending our international partnership,” he added.

“We will continue to work with our peers across the rest of the world as we move towards supporting and delivering a successful WorldSkills Shanghai 2022 in October this year.”

Martin Dunford, chair, Association of Employment and Learning Providers

Martin Dunford, chair and a co-founder of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, is retiring from the role. He reflects on the many policy shifts AELP has achieved over the years

“So one day I got this fax through. It was a fax to the ten largest training providers to say, ‘Why don’t we have a meeting?’ – and it was because none of us knew anything about each other.” 

Martin Dunford is stepping down after an astonishing 18 years as the chair of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), which represents independent apprenticeship and work-based training providers in further education.

If some of the public – and many ministers – can be hazy about what colleges offer (if they’ve gone through the schools system), then it’s fair to say independent training providers are even more of a mystery to many outside FE. AELP has spent two decades trying to change that.  

And with Dunford as chair since 2004, it’s little wonder AELP’s leaders said his departure this week marks “the end of an era”. 

Dunford explains that back in about 2000, when he got that fax through, staff in the different providers never met up, let alone had any profile outside the sector.

The fax was from John Hyde, then chief executive of Hospitality Plus, a hospitality and catering training provider (he’s now chair at HIT Training).  

“So we went along to this meeting, and we said, ‘What do you do, that’s interesting, this is what I do,” Dunford smiles.

Others in attendance included Stewart Segal, chief executive of Spring Skills, the largest training provider in sectors such as retail and customer services, and Hugh Pitman, who founded vocational and employment training provider JHP Group.  

This tentatively interested group then got in touch with another organisation already in existence, the National Training Foundation, run by Neil Bates, who is now chair of The Edge Foundation, and the late Frank McMahon, managing director of YH Training, who would later become AELP’s treasurer.

“We met up with them, and we said, why don’t we create something?” says Dunford. It worked: AELP was launched in 2002.

“We all put some money in to get it going. We started with nothing, no staff, no money, one chief executive and a handful of members.” 

We all met up and we said, ‘Why don’t we create something?’

Dunford had been invited to the table because he was managing director of The Training and Business Group, a role he got at just 38 years old in 1995.

He’d grown up on the Wood Farm housing estate, based around factory work in Oxfordshire, and had always set his sights high. 

“Everyone who lived on these estates worked at the factories – most of our dads worked there,” says Dunford.

Another child on the same estate as Dunford is a familiar name: Frances O’Grady, now general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.

She attended the local girls’ grammar, just as Dunford went to the boys’ grammar, but they only realised the connection in their backgrounds later on as their profiles increased. Going to grammar school with “Oxford dons’ sons” gave him confidence, but Dunford is clear: “That system is unfair.” 

Dunford as a school pupil in 1967

After school, he studied a biological sciences degree at Leicester University, before taking up a teaching job at a “crammer” – a private A-levels college in Oxford. But he wanted to go to London to try to become a general manager or a CEO.

He recalls meeting business leaders later on in life, when studying an MBA at Hendon Business School at Middlesex University. “I’d be meeting the MD of BP, or Saatchi, and you just realise, everyone is the same. It’s just what you want to achieve.”

First off, he took a job selling high-end technology to the pharmaceutical sector in the UK, becoming field sales manager by age 27. He was headhunted to join a biotechnology start-up called Oros Instruments.

Not long after that he studied his MBA and applied for a general manager advert in the Sunday Times at Training Business Ltd. He became managing director, and changed the name. He’d entered FE, and was here to stay. 

Dunford’s student railcard in 1974

AELP’s very first chief executive for a decade was Graham Hoyle, who had been on the Gloucestershire training and enterprise council – one of the 72 councils introduced under the Thatcher government. Dunford’s company worked closely with it to deliver provision.

“Graham had been in the civil service, and so he did a great job of getting us on the map. What you have to understand is we didn’t know who each other were!”

As the word got out, to Dunford’s surprise about 40 colleges with their own ITPs as separate companies quickly joined as members.

It was unexpected as they already belonged to the Association of Colleges. “They weren’t anti-AoC but they clearly did think there was a gap.” 

Dunford graduating in 1977

This touches on a tension in the early years of AELP, nods Dunford. “It was fairly adversarial with AoC in those days. Or they just ignored us.” He grins, adding: “There’s good co-operation there now.”

Under Dunford, AELP has recruited its chief executives from both ITPs and colleges, with Stewart Segal following Hoyle, then Mark Dawe, who was a college principal and former senior civil servant at the Department for Education.

AELP’s current chief executive, Jane Hickie, is from a training company background and was AELP’s former chief operating officer.

The most “forward-thinking colleges” tend to work closely with AELP, notes Dunford. 

Dunford felt it was occasionally a struggle to make the voice of ITPs heard. “It’s changed now, but it was so different back then,” he says.

The attitude towards work-based learning and apprenticeships verged on snobbish sometimes.

Dunford recalls being in a meeting with Charles Clarke and suggesting that the New Labour education secretary get an apprentice.

“You should have seen the jaws drop on the civil servants in the room. I’m not saying they’re all Oxbridge, but there was a whiff of that.” 

So AELP began lobbying ̶ and if there is one thing Dunford is proud to leave behind him, it’s a legacy of doing so effectively.

He remembers telling it straight to then-prime minister Tony Blair during a reception at Number 10. 

“I said, ‘Your policy is great, but your implementation is achingly slow.’ So he called over his education special adviser and the next day, we were having a meeting with him.  

“They learned a lot through engaging with us about what was going on on the ground,” he adds. “They’d say, ‘We love meeting with you, because you tell us what’s going on in our agencies!’” 

Dunford meeting the Queen to receive his OBE in 2010

The upshot of engaging closely with government is “we regularly deliver small, incremental policy wins”. 

One example is traineeships, says Dunford. “We lobbied and persuaded the government to introduce traineeships.

We didn’t give it that title but that’s what we were recommending.” Dunford’s current company, where he is chief executive, Skills Training UK, delivers traineeships now (he moved over in 2008), and overall, 56 per cent of traineeships are now delivered by ITPs. 

“A lot of people box ITPs as apprenticeship providers, but traineeships are largely delivered by us, and we do BTECs through study programmes.”

He adds that Nadhim Zahawi, the relatively new education secretary, is “also encouraging a wider supply of T Levels”, and Dunford thinks “there will be more ITPs [doing T Levels] in future”. 

Other areas where AELP have met with lobbying success is the apprenticeship levy, he says. “We didn’t argue for the levy, but for years, we argued for a demand-led system, rather than a contract-led system.”

For years, we argued for a demand-led system, rather than a contract-led system

Another example is prison apprenticeships. “We’ve been lobbying on that, along with other people, since 2016.”  

Not quite achieved yet is individual learner accounts. “A really good system of choice, that could include individual skills accounts, with Ofsted-accredited training providers.”

(When they were last introduced in the early 2000s, fraudulent abuse caused them to be ended after just one year). “That’s something we know we’re not going to win in the short term. But we’ll keep lobbying.” 

Dunford sums up his view: “It should all be based on who can produce the results.” 

Yet there’s still a tendency for ministers, however friendly towards AELP, to slip into the assumption that colleges should be the go-to providers, says Dunford.

He says he can recall former skills minister Nick Boles, whom he respected, “doing a speech at AoC in which he basically said, ‘Don’t let these guys steal your lunch’”, referring to ITPs.

Zahawi, whom again, Dunford is pleased to have in post, has also called for colleges to be doing a larger proportion of apprenticeships. 

“And you have to think, well, why? I don’t think it’s necessarily anti-ITP – it’s a clumsy way of encouraging colleges to be more employer-focused.”

But Dunford is clear: ministers should look at what’s working.

“If that’s a college, absolutely fine. If it’s a group of ITPs, they should be encouraging that.” 

AELP is continuing to make its case. Just last week, it published a report called Excellence for Learners, Value for Employers: How independent training providers can deliver the workforce of the future.

It points out the 1,200 ITPs are “the most common type of post-16 provider” in the country; that 80 per cent are judged grade 1 or 2 by Ofsted; and more than 50 per cent of all learners who got their functional skills level 2 qualifications in 2019-20 did so with an ITP. 

Succeeding Dunford as chair is Nichola Hay: “Nicki is forward-thinking and strong,” grins Dunford. “I’m delighted she’s got the gig.”

He reflects on where AELP has got to under his chairmanship.

“There’s now a decent balance sheet and over 800 members. People assume we’ve been there for ever. But we started from nothing.”