Conflicting principal views on Eton’s elite sixth form plans

A college principal and government social mobility adviser has welcomed the idea of Eton opening an elite sixth form on his doorstep – but the prospect concerns his counterparts in other affected areas of the country. 

Three towns – Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham – have been picked by the all-boys public school to open selective sixth forms in partnership with multi-academy trust Star Academies. 

Announced last week, the colleges will be designed to give disadvantaged young people who “have done well in their GCSEs the opportunity to achieve the A-levels they need to go to Oxbridge and other elite universities”. 

Eton claimed that the colleges’ small size will allow them to target a “very specific academic education” and will ensure that they “do not disrupt the existing pattern of local post-16 education” – a statement challenged by education experts. 

But Oldham College boss Alun Francis, who is also the vice chair of the government’s social mobility commission, told FE Week he was supportive of the plans. 

He said they would provide “elite routes” for those growing up in Oldham who want “to move out to move on” of the area while education providers like his “focus on routes to high skills for those who stay here”. 

“Oldham needs excellent provision of both kinds,” he told FE Week. 

However, a group of principals in Middlesbrough, and the surrounding area, warned they are already facing high levels of post-16 competition and called for more investment in existing providers. 

The news of Eton’s sixth forms comes after sector leaders expressed concerns that government plans to introduce “elite” sixth forms as part of its levelling-up agenda into areas with “weak” education outcomes could put pressure on existing provision. 

Francis said Oldham needs organisations like Eton who see their core business as part of a “bigger jigsaw puzzle and who are willing to engage in the wider challenges of levelling up”. 

Eton College and Star Academies intend to bid in the next wave of the Department for Education’s free schools programme, with a view to welcoming their first students as soon as 2025. 

The colleges would admit 240 students per year and will offer many of the educational and co-curricular opportunities available at Eton, including “knowledge-rich teaching from subject-specialists; access to talks, academic essay prizes and debate clubs; Oxbridge-style tutorial sessions and the chance to learn Latin”. 

A spokesperson from Eton told FE Week that should their bids be successful, the new colleges will not be highly selective. 

“They will be sixth form colleges, which are, by their very nature, selective. They will be 16-to-19 colleges with specific criteria for admission – just like pretty much all 16-to19 colleges and sixth forms in the country. 

“The admissions policies at these new colleges will not be designed to be exclusionary – they will be designed to ensure that the young people we admit are suited to the kind of academic curriculum and pedagogy we are designing.” 

The spokesperson confirmed that students would not be required to take special entry examinations. 

Putting pressure on existing providers 

While Eton claimed its new sixth forms would not disrupt the existing pattern of local post-16 education, a group of principals of colleges including Stockton Sixth Form, Prior Pursglove Colleges, Middlesbrough College, Hartlepool College, Darlington College, Stockton Riverside College and Redcar and Cleveland College issued a joint statement to FE Week expressing some concern at the plans. 

“We are aware that Star Academies and Eton College plan to bid through the ‘free school’ process to develop a new sixth form in Middlesbrough,” the principals said. 

“We would hope that the free school assessment process will take into account the quality and high progression rates of existing post-16 providers as well as the conclusions of the local area review carried out in 2016 which highlighted poor key stage 4 outcomes and high levels of post-16 competition already in existence across the Tees Valley.” 

The principals cited the fact that 19 school sixth forms and seven colleges were highlighted as offering A-levels to a population of less than 700,000. 

“We would collectively welcome any additional investment in the existing A-level provider network across the Tees Valley to support our current ‘raising aspirations’ programmes as part of the levelling-up agenda,” they said. 

A spokesperson for Dudley College of Technology said the college is waiting for discussions with elected officers at the council and Star Academies to “fully understand the proposition and to gauge its impact on the communities the college serves”. 

The idea that Eton’s new colleges would not disrupt the existing pattern of local post-16 education was challenged by Sam Freedman, an ex-government adviser now at Ark Schools. 

He told FE Week that if you open a selective institution at any age group, anywhere, you will “suck out the young people who have got the best grades from other institutions”. 

“That just has to happen by definition. And it will have a negative effect on those institutions,” he said. 

“It’s great to have Eton contributing more to the state sector. They’ve got a lot of expertise and a lot of money. But I’d much rather see them try and run a sixth form or a school that was inclusive.”

Tactical subcontracting deal abandoned in mayoral combined authority

An education charity has pulled a tactical subcontracting deal worth up to £350,000 of adult education funding after a mayoral combined authority intervened.   

According to a tender published on the government’s contracts finder website last week, the WEA was seeking subcontractors to deliver almost a quarter of its £1.5 million adult education budget (AEB) allocation in West Yorkshire for the last four months of the 2021/22 academic year.   

Bids had to be submitted by March 18 for the contract, which would run from April 4 to July 31.   

The short duration and last-minute nature of the tender suggests it was a tactical move to use up unspent funding from the AEB.   

West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) funding rules are in line with those for the national AEB administered by the Education and Skills Funding and state that providers “must not subcontract to meet short-term funding objectives”.   

The WYCA has a three per cent tolerance threshold in its AEB – meaning providers will need to use up at least 97 per cent of their allocation to avoid funds being clawed back.   

On Monday, the same day FE Week enquired about the tactical nature of the subcontracting opportunity, the combined authority contacted the WEA and informed the grant-funded provider that it is not allowed to continue with the proposed subcontract.   

However, the WEA claims this was only because the charity is technically classified as an “out of area” provider.   

A WEA spokesperson said the combined authority had provisionally signed off on the subcontract during a previous meeting – despite it appearing to be a breach of funding rules.   

“We had proposed subcontracting to WYCA in a recent partnership meeting and the procurement was actioned after this meeting,” the spokesperson said.   

“The WEA does work in partnership with other charities, local employers and community organisations to gain specialist expertise and connections into local jobs and hard-to-reach communities. Normally these are long-standing partnerships to achieve common goals, and this was a model we were hoping to replicate in West Yorkshire.   

“However, WYCA have been in touch to clarify that, as we are classified as an ‘out of area’ provider, despite our long-held footprint in region, their rules do not permit us to subcontract. As such, we are in the process of rescinding the procurement and finding alternative ways to deliver the specialised reach intended.”   

The WYCA refused to comment on why it allegedly signed off on the tactical subcontracting deal initially and later rescinded its approval.   

A spokesperson would only say: “We monitor subcontracting closely with regards to our adult education budget and providers who have to get our permission to make changes.    

“Changes will be considered if there is a strategic rationale which is aligned to the West Yorkshire AEB strategy and our priorities.”   

The ESFA has attempted to stamp out tactical subcontracting for many years. It launched a fresh crackdown on subcontracting overall in 2020 which made clear that “entering into subcontracting arrangements for financial gain” would not be acceptable.   

Mayoral combined authorities that have control of the AEB for their area mostly follow ESFA funding rules including for subcontracting, but they have the power to make their own amendments. 

Ofsted downgrades new provider after ESFA apprentice pay tip-off

Ofsted has downgraded a new provider following a surprise follow-up visit after the Education and Skills Funding Agency tipped the watchdog off about alleged illegal apprentice wages.   

The case, believed to be the first time the inspectorate has policed apprentice pay, has raised questions about which government arm is responsible for audits. The membership body for private providers has called for clarity on this “inconsistent” approach.   

London-based charity Uganda Community Relief Association (UCRA) is challenging Ofsted after its monitoring visit report resulted in ‘insufficient progress’ judgments in two areas – an outcome that has led to a suspension on new starts.   

The watchdog claimed the provider’s 27 junior content producer apprentices “are not in suitable employment, are not paid an apprenticeship wage and too many do not receive monthly pay”.   

However, the provider claims an original monitoring visit took place in early December that resulted in ‘reasonable progress’ provisional judgments across the board, and involved no questions about apprentice pay.   

UCRA told FE Week that Ofsted returned to re-inspect the provider unexpectedly, with a different inspection team, in mid-January at the request of the ESFA after the draft report was shared with the agency.   

The ESFA began conducting its own investigation into the provider in November after one of its employers submitted a request for apprenticeship incentive payments in which financial information was shared.   

UCRA told FE Week the employer in question, which has been denied the cash incentives, was unable to pay its employees, including the apprentices, in October following a downturn. But this issue has since been resolved and all payments have been made, UCRA claimed.   

The provider also denies that the apprentices are paid anything less than the apprenticeship minimum wage and insists evidence of this has been shared with the ESFA and Ofsted.   

“This is a very confusing and frustrating situation,” an UCRA spokesperson said. “Ofsted was very happy with what they saw during their first inspection in December – the feedback was so good it blows your mind. They spoke to the learners and were so impressed.”   

The spokesperson questioned why Ofsted was made to effectively audit their provider – a job that typically lies with the ESFA.   

“Is this Ofsted’s writing or is it the ESFA’s? They are supposed to be two separate bodies. The ESFA audits, not Ofsted,” they said.   

“I am 100 per cent sure apprentices are paid the minimum wage because I have seen their payslips and have given them to the ESFA.   

“Ofsted looks at the quality of education, not apprentices’ payslips. This is the ESFA talking.”   

Apprentice pay is not an issue that Ofsted usually reports on, and nowhere in the inspection handbook does it say this source of information could be used during inspections.   

But a spokesperson for the watchdog told FE Week that inspectors do not rule out “the different sources of evidence we might need to gather at different times to carry out an inspection effectively”.   

They added that any concerns from providers should be raised through Ofsted’s complaints process.   

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers said it was not aware of Ofsted auditing apprentice pay before and called for a more consistent approach.   

Director of policy Simon Ashworth said: “AELP strongly believes in provider accountability. There must be strong measures in place to protect and safeguard the interests of apprentices, regardless of how any concerns are raised. We would, however, ask that a consistent approach is taken, so that in future providers understand what the respective responsibilities of ESFA and Ofsted are.”   

The ESFA said it would not comment on individual cases.   

UCRA, established in 1984, has previous experience of providing training as a subcontractor. It also offers a range of other services to the community, including immigration advice and casework and guidance on how to operate a foodbank.   

The charity began teaching its own apprenticeships to adults in August 2020 and has been delivering adult education courses since January 2021. It currently has 32 adult learners, as well as 21 traineeship students. All training is taught online.   

Ofsted’s report is full of praise for all of the provider’s courses, barring the junior content apprentices.   

Of the four judgments, two were judged as ‘reasonable progress’ in the final report.   

“Leaders and managers have a clear rationale for the curriculum they offer,” Ofsted said, for example.   

UCRA told FE Week it is now challenging the report and wants to stay in the apprenticeship delivery market despite this setback. 

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.