Colleges and training providers can claim back the cost of extra invigilators for this term’s vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) exams, the government has said.
An extension to the Department for Education’s exam support service (ESS) has been announced to support colleges, schools and training providers that have been hit particularly hard by staff absences during exam time.
The scheme was introduced last year but initially just to allow centres to claim back some of the costs of running exams in the autumn for students who opted to resit rather than accept their teacher assessed grades.
This included some reprieve for autumn exam fees, training costs for new invigilators and extra venues.
Some of these costs can still be claimed, such as for VTQ exams taking place this term which are still considered resits for students that received a teacher assessed grade in 2021.
The DfE has now said that they will extend the scheme to cover centres running exams and assessments for VTQs from this month until the end of March, even if they are not part of last year’s autumn series.
Around 300,000 students will be sitting exams that could be eligible under this extension.
However, the extended scheme will only cover the costs of additional invigilators that have been recruited by centres due to staff absence.
DfE staffing attendance data estimated that one in 25 FE college teachers and leaders were off on January 6 because of Covid. Despite this, no major disruption has been reported, with colleges telling FE Week that staffing reallocations and emergency planning was so far proving effective.
To access the exam support service, DfE guidance sets out that centres should “retain evidence of additional invigilation costs” and will expect to see evidence of why extra invigilators were needed.
A college previously accused of safeguarding failures has regained its ‘good’ rating from Ofsted less than two years after it was branded ‘inadequate’ by the inspectorate.
Shrewsbury Colleges Group was praised for creating “an inclusive culture where students, apprentices, and staff feel safe and welcome” in a report published today.
The sixth form college was given the lowest possible grade overall in March 2020 after inspectors expressed concerns that “not all students feel safe” and that some staff “did not feel equipped to deal with” these challenges.
The college contested Ofsted’s report at the time but failed to overturn the decision.
Commenting on the turnaround today, principal James Staniforth said: “The college team are truly fantastic, working incredibly hard on a daily basis to help our students achieve their goals, regardless of the very challenging circumstances we have all faced over the last two years.
“It is very pleasing to see this work being recognised by the education standards office.”
Today’s report shows Shrewsbury Colleges Group was ‘good’ in seven of the eight categories assessed, and deemed ‘outstanding’ for “behaviour and attitudes”.
Ofsted said students show high levels of respect for each other, staff, and visiting adults. They also “enjoy being at college with their peers following the disruption to their previous education and lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Students also gain valuable knowledge and skills in their subjects in high-quality facilities, and are “rightly proud of the work they produce”.
Ofsted praised teachers at the college for having high levels of subject expertise and experience and for helping students to secure their “knowledge and understanding through the effective support they provide in lessons”.
The inspectorate also judged that the college delivers a broad and rich curriculum that meets the needs of students, apprentices, employers, and local communities “very well”, while student services work with external agencies to provide guidance to learners across a range of areas, including mental health, preparation for independent living and finance.
Roger Wilson, chair of Shrewsbury Colleges Group, said he was “delighted” with the outcome.
“The experienced Ofsted team, which was drawn from across the country, completed a thorough and rigorous inspection of the college and we’re extremely pleased with the outcome that they have reached,” he added.
“The last 18 months have been particularly challenging in the educational sector with the Covid pandemic and therefore, I’m particularly gratified that the work of the college staff and students have been recognised.”
Sport is often forgotten in discussions of FE. But with Ofsted looking hard at ‘personal development’, the award-winning PE team at New College Pontefract appear to have backed the right horse
It seems fitting for a feature about fitness that when I visit New College Pontefract, I do an awful lot of exercise (compared to a usual news day, anyway).
First off, I take a wrong turn. Striding up one hill, the first two shops I come across in the Yorkshire town are a Chinese takeaway and the largest Haribo sweets shop I’ve ever seen (the factory nearby is one of the big employers in the area).
There’s a lovely market town square, but it’s not exactly the healthiest start. Then, having reached the top, I spot the college on a different hill.
Setting off up that hill instead, I reach the sixth-form college, which is even more impressive up close. A girls’ grammar school before becoming a college in 1987, it is flanked by spanking new astroturf football pitches on its lower slopes, and a rugby pitch on its upper slope.
A poster by reception proclaims it has a grade 1 Ofsted (but, I note with approval, the date of inspection is included for transparency: 2014).
Inside, huge numbers of teaching awards and silver sporting trophies bedeck the entrance. A giant map on the wall pinpoints all the schools whose students have chosen to study with New College Pontefract. The message is clear: we are popular, we are successful, and we are proud.
At the end of last year, the PE department won the ‘FE team of the year’ at the Pearson teaching awards. When I ask one staff member why they won, I’m told with typical, grinning Yorkshire self-effacement that “our grant writer is really good” – but it’s clear the team are playing themselves down.
Sport here is hugely valued, in a way that FE perhaps does not always deliver on.
Girls’ football
Josh Buxton, a PE teacher and sports coach, explains why PE is particularly special to an education setting, and different to many other subjects. It allows for a sense of community and close rapport with students, he explains.
“It’s something 90 per cent of the population can engage with – it’s an interest for so many people. It gives you something to have a conversation about. My students all know I support Liverpool football club, for example, so if they’ve lost, there’s that two minutes’ grief at the start of the lesson,” he grins.
Staff may even support, or play in, the same local teams as students outside of college life. Not many subject departments are so closely linked to their students’ interests and activities.
Cricket at the college
Sport also plays a special role in pastoral work, continues Buxton.
“For students struggling with motivation or confidence, the practical side is a chance to relieve stress, make friends. It’s so good for physical and mental wellbeing. Some subjects can offer that more than others, and PE is one of those.”
We’re standing on the edge of the astroturf football pitch now: myself, Buxton and director of sport Tom Shepherd. Buxton’s point about the community-building nature of sport is evident, as students cheer their peers from the sidelines.
“You get that instant result with sport,” says Shepherd later. “You see the crowd of students watching – they’re making friends, they’re making memories. It’s because sports is visible. Other subjects have their eureka moments too, but ours is in your face.” It’s a very good point.
It’s about making friends, making memories
Shepherd is, true to his name, herding me around the many facilities students have at their disposal, which appears to involve walking around half of Pontefract.
It’s partly because I’ve handily arrived on a Wednesday, which is competitive sports afternoon, and so everyone is out: there’s boys’ and girls’ rugby, boys’ and girls’ football, netball, basketball and cricket, as well as golf, badminton, table tennis, athletics, tennis and swimming.
That’s before you get on to the additional enrichment activities (all students must choose at least one when they start college), which include volleyball, wheelchair basketball and boccia (an ingenious sport like boules that allows disabled and able-bodied students to play together).
Learning boccia
But it turns out we’re also trekking about because the college does not have many facilities at its own location. The old grammar school site means space is limited and there is one modest sports hall and the rugby pitch. To offer such a variety of activities, the PE team have had to hustle.
Chelsea Branson, vice principal and a PE teacher, explains: “What we’ve got is links with the community.” The college rents the astroturf pitches and the swimming pool from Wakefield Council, for example, and also managed to secure subsidised local gym rates for students, and use of Pontefract’s squash and leisure centre too. “We’ve got a great relationship with that squash club and they’re really supportive of community activities,” says Branson.
Wheelchair basketball for both disabled and able bodied students
Shepherd takes me to all these sites, and by sheer luck the college’s team appears to have won whenever we turn up. The only one we don’t visit (over yet another hill) is the golf club, which the PE team recently got permission for students to use too.
“That’s really good for students learning about skill acquisition for the A-level paper,” explains Shepherd. “It’s a sport most of them will never have done, so they can study how you learn something from scratch.”
So rather than having the perfect site, the college has worked skillfully to make the local offer work.
The PE team also has the support of local families, says Branson. “I think the wider community puts a strong value on sport, and as a college we are reflecting that wider community,” she says.
Parts of Pontefract are in the top ten per cent most deprived areas of the UK, so having a good sports offer is not taken for granted by the community, adds Shepherd.
Josh Buxton, PE teacher and football coach with the sports trophy cabinet
It also helps to have the senior leadership team on board, he continues. The college is part of the New Collaborative Learning trust, whose chief executive, Richard Fletcher, came from the PE department, is into rugby, and is fully signed up.
Meanwhile, college principal Vicky Marks says staff who are sports coaches are paid, rather than expected to just add it to their other tasks (as is often the case in schools): “That gives it status.”
She is also a strong believer in “rich provision… College is not just about the classroom, it’s about the whole experience,” she says. “It’s not just about the interests students have when they arrive, it’s about inspiring them to try something new.”
The trick is to develop the very best sporting students but also to have plenty of sporting offers for those who may be intimidated by sport, says Shepherd.
“It’s the sport development pyramid. You’ve got to see to the best sports performers in the college. Students are impressionable, and there’s a portion who will follow them more than they will follow you. If you lose that top group, you lose the rest.
“But you also have to offer lots to people who think they might not be sporty. Everyone likes winning, and everyone likes celebrating a point.” That’s why it’s important to offer social netball as well as competitive netball, he explains.
Girls’ netball in the leisure centre
It’s nearing the end of my walk, and Shepherd takes me on a final tour to show me what he means. First, we walk down a corridor lined with sports shirts and leotards that have been signed by former students who progressed to national level, world championships and even the Olympics.
They were all supported through TASS – the national Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme. The scheme helps colleges to support athletically talented students with bespoke timetables, special guest speakers and peer support groups, so they can compete.
Tom Shepherd, director of sport, with the shirts of former high-flying sports students
Next, we poke our heads into the sports hall, where a chaotic game of volleyball is taking place.
“I don’t know what it is about mixed volleyball, but we’ve had so many students get involved who don’t like other sport,” grins Shepherd. “It’s great!”
The college’s competition manager, Andy Green, is integral to making these extra activities happen, he adds.
In FE conversations about policy or funding these days, sport seems to be rarely mentioned. The Association of Colleges runs its successful sports national championships, but the wider policy conversation around the importance of sport feels quiet.
There’s an old New Labour policy document on “the role of further and higher education in delivering the government’s plan for sport”, but little noise since then (even as schools continue to get sports premium funding).
But the team at New College Pontefract have backed the right horse: in 2019, Ofsted made ‘personal development’ a key area. It wants to know how a “provider’s wider work supports learners to develop their character […] and helps them know how to keep physically and mentally healthy.”
“We welcome that change of direction,” smiles Marks. “It matches our ethos.”
Students should be able to study what interests them, instead of the subjects the system prefers them to pursue, writes Aaliyah Kennedy
Further education is a huge player in so many lives. Every young person must stay in education or training until they are 18 years old, and what they do here contributes hugely to what they may progress to.
I have a confession. I long for there to be more choice of subjects in FE. As a former FE student, I know that a large breadth of options allows future generations like mine to widen their experience and minds.
A broad choice of courses allows learners to explore who they want to be, rather than what the system wants them to be.
But sometimes students like me aren’t able to continue studying a modern foreign language at college, or can’t access the international baccalaureate, which I was lucky enough to do but isn’t widely available in FE.
I think the limit on subjects is partly due to government cuts. Funding per student aged 16 to 18 fell by 14 per cent in real terms between 2010 and 2019. Even with the money announced at the recent spending review, college spending per student in 2024 will still be around ten per cent lower than in 2010.
Only since 2020/21 has the rate increased to £4,188 for full-time students. But this is not enough. The Association of School and College Leaders is calling for the funding rate to be increased to at least £4,760 per student so that it is in line with inflation. For 16- and 17-year-olds, it is due to rise to £4,542 from August.
I’m on a mission to improve education across England with my campaign called Reshaping OUR Education. We completely agree with ASCL’s statement.
For myself, I think proper funding would allow FE institutions to offer more of the subjects I would like to have learned. For me, this included French and law, which weren’t on offer at my college.
I could have developed my French from GCSE, alongside my other college courses which were an international baccalaureate in global politics and also in history, a WJEC diploma in criminology and a BTEC in business. The availability of French especially would have allowed me to develop more of my interests before considering higher education.
I couldn’t continue French at my college
From my personal experience, the international baccalaureate is amazing. It contributed to the confidence, resilience and skills I now have. I did the international baccalaureate careers-related program (IBCP), and there is also the IB diploma programme and partial IB.
The IB allows you to explore a subject in real depth and prepares you for life post-18. It includes aspects that fit well with further education; for example, I learnt how to work independently and as a team through project work and charity events.
In terms of studying a subject further, the global politics IB especially helps you understand the real world better. Whereas the normal A-level politics focuses more on British politics, this was a much broader curriculum of the study of power and sovereignty which is more applicable to the international world we live in.
You also deliver a project on an issue that you care about, which is where Reshaping OUR Education stemmed from! This was the engagement activity in the IB that takes students outside of the classroom.
I wish more FE colleges offered the IB, and I wish I’d been able to study French and law at college too. It would have connected my courses closer together and it might have made me consider a career as a human rights lawyer.
More FE colleges should consider the IB as a model as it opens up pathways for learners. I know that Bridgwater & Taunton College in Somerset offers the IB; but not many colleges offer it in comparison to the total number of colleges.
Cuts have meant many FE institutions have been unable to provide more of a variety of courses, or in some cases courses have also been withdrawn.
I really hope that in future more FE colleges can offer a wide and diverse set of subjects.
A career in tech isn’t all about coding – there are multiple other roles for young people too, writes Sukvinder Kathuria
I am proud to say that I teach a diverse group of skilled people. Among my college students are young adults who are also holding down jobs, who are carers, young mothers and adults who may think mainstream education is not for them.
But there is still lots more to be done to get more women and people from minority backgrounds into careers in technology, my specialist area of expertise. This issue is especially relevant, with the announcement just before Christmas of new skills bootcamps, many of which focus on digital skills.
On December 22 we were told four new areas will have access to the bootcamps: Lancashire, Hull and East Yorkshire, Tees Valley and North of Tyne. The prime minister has previously said the bootcamps are “where you can learn IT, whatever your age”.
However, we also know from FE Week’sreporting a year ago that many of the skills bootcamps were dominated by men, and the government’s equalities impact assessment had lots of recommendations to bring in more female and minority ethnic learners.
So how can the gender imbalance be changed?
Well, we must first dispel the idea of what a career in digital looks like. You don’t need to sit in a dark room all night every night coding, be male, and wear glasses, a checked shirt and jeans in order to work in technology. People in tech come from all walks of life.
One student I worked with even changed her A-levels to STEM subjects after being inspired to follow a career in tech and is currently completing an apprenticeship in a well-known multinational professional services company.
We also need to challenge the perception that tech is just about coding. I would argue that isn’t true: there are many roles in tech that don’t require coding as a skill. This includes helping with digital transformation within a company, product design and project management roles. Junior level salaries within these roles can reach close to £30,000.
Instead, we need to make it clear to students that projects start at a conceptual level, and that this requires creative thinking, teamwork, the ability to meet deadlines and other transferable skills.
The tech industry is a fast-moving and exciting place to be, where your thinking skills are as important – if not more important – as your technical skills at the outset.
Your thinking skills are as important – if not more – than your technical skills
Just like any other industry, if you are committed, you can succeed in this space.
To increase the number of women entering the industry, we cannot wait for people to come to us. Community within the industry is vitally important.
For those who have been successful in the industry, it is so important that they help those just starting out. I can say first-hand that companies are reaching out to diversify and support women and girls to begin their journey and stay in the technology pipeline.
Meanwhile, colleges like ours must continue making a concerted effort to engage people in all communities to give them opportunities in technology. The college prides itself on engaging people from under-represented and diverse backgrounds. The companies we work with share our mission to improve representation within tech roles.
To those who think it always will be like this, think of pioneers such as English mathematician Ada Lovelace, and computer and rocket scientist Annie Easley.
Or electrical engineer Kimberly Bryant, founder of Black Girls CODE; Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code; and finally Liane Agbi, CEO and founder of lifestyle website BAUCE.
They each took the opportunity to work in technology and flourished. There are more to come, and I cannot wait to add more names to this list.
There is a talent pool of diverse young digital-savvy individuals out there. If they cannot make it in technology, we as a sector have failed them.
City of Portsmouth College has announced Katy Quinn as its first permanent principal and chief executive.
Quinn will join the college this summer from Strode College in Somerset, where she has served as principal since 2017.
City of Portsmouth College formed in August 2021 from a merger between Highbury College and Portsmouth College. It is currently being led by interim chief executive Graham Morley.
“City of Portsmouth College is a remarkable organisation, with many unique strengths, a big heart and a fantastic future,” Morley said, adding: “I am delighted that Katy will be leading the college on the next phase of its journey.”
This role will see Quinn return to college leadership in the south-east, having held senior roles at Eastleigh College and Canterbury College prior to Strode.
“I am very excited to be joining City of Portsmouth College at the dawn of a new era. I can’t wait to get started and work with students, staff and governors as together we strive to make the City of Portsmouth College one of the best FE colleges in the country,” she said.
In addition to her college role, Quinn is also a trustee at the awarding organisation VTCT, a member of the AoC’s curriculum development policy group and the Heart of the South West LEP’s skills advisory panel.
Chair of governors, Paul Quigley, said that Quinn’s “wide-ranging skills, experience and enthusiasm for further education were evident to us all and will prove invaluable to drive our ambitious plans during this exciting period of development, building on the enormous progress that has been made so far”.
For this academic year, Highbury and Portsmouth will continue to operate under their separate identities but will come together under one brand in September 2022.
On the recommendation of the FE Commissioner following historic leadership and governance issues, Highbury College has been in ‘supervised status’ since November 2019.
However, recent board minutes state that the Education and Skills Funding Agency no longer believes it is necessary to attend the college’s corporation meetings as “they believe the college now has a strong board and an effective management team”.
Colleges are reporting more suicides and eating disorders – they need better support now, writes Richard Caulfield
Over a year ago we published our mental health survey, with stark results. Now, all the feedback we have from the first term of 2021-22 is that the challenge is increasing. It’s driven by more learners presenting with mental health problems and the complexity of the issues they are facing.
Anecdotally we are hearing from a number of colleges that more students are attempting suicide, and that eating disorders are on the rise. The NHS is now struggling to meet demand for eating disorder services.
With over 190 colleges signed up to the AoC mental health charter there is strong commitment within the sector to support the mental health and wellbeing of learners and staff.
But there is a limit to the resource that colleges can allocate to deal with the volume of issues, and a limit to employing enough staff with the expertise to support the most complex needs.
Colleges such as South Thames College group have been quick to praise the partnership and support from the trailblazer. But this support will only reach 35 per cent of schools and colleges under the current plans. What does this mean for the 65 per cent of settings who miss out?
We need to ensure all settings have access to these additional resources.
Other areas have focused on further education too. In Greater Manchester, where health monies are devolved, there has been a significant investment in mental health over the past three years, allowing colleges to develop services to test new ideas.
In the first year of the project, Hopwood Hall and Bolton College both set about becoming trauma-informed colleges. Another six have now started to implement a trauma-informed approach, including the specialist college, Bridge College. The feedback has been hugely positive.
Other work has included a successful partnership with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapists (BACP) to develop a programme of training in supervision skills. This is so that staff dealing with the growing number of safeguarding issues can be supported appropriately.
What about the 65% of settings missing out?
Of course, prevention is better than cure and colleges are increasingly looking for support that can help students and staff to manage their own mental health and wellbeing too, as well as support services.
I am looking forward to seeing what we can learn from tools such as the Fika app (which supports student mental fitness) that many colleges, supported by NCFE, have been implementing this year. Like other initiatives, it will not be a golden bullet, rather another tool in the box for colleges to utilise.
We are also seeing a growing interest in social prescribing, which is where individuals are referred to social support in the community, rather than, or alongside, medical intervention. The Office for Students has recently funded a social prescribing project in Merseyside and Lancashire, and several other colleges are going down this route with local partners.
There is also synergy with this approach with Good For Me, Good For FE, the volunteering projectled by London South East Colleges, Loughborough College and East Coast College, aiming to boost mental health. This has huge potential if we can increase engagement from NHS-funded link workers with colleges.
Capacity remains the biggest challenge. Through AoC, we can help colleges access lots of support from the Charlie Waller Trust and elsewhere. However, many of the initiatives I’ve mentioned cannot be implemented without the capacity.
As we begin 2022, and government and policymakers plan the next phases of education recovery, mental health support must be at the heart of any post-16 strategy. Colleges must be funded to provide the support students and staff deserve and need.
Researchers have called for more tailored support for students with BTECs at university as a new study finds that they are almost twice as likely to drop out than undergraduates with A-levels.
The study, published on Wednesday, also found that while 60 per cent of graduating BTEC students complete their university studies with a least a 2:1, they were typically 1.4 times less likely to do so than A-level students.
Funded by education charity the Nuffield Foundation, the report, titled Educational choices at 16-19 and university outcomes looked at how students’ backgrounds, entry qualifications and entry subjects impacted on their educational experience at university.
It is hoped, the Nuffield Foundation says, that a better understanding of the differences in the experiences of students with BTECs and A-levels will reduce educational disadvantages faced by students from lower socio-economic groups while at university.
Researchers found that even after accounting for a “rich set” of demographic and prior attainment data, the likelihood of a BTEC student dropping out of university was 11.4 per cent, compared to six per cent for a similar A-level student.
As well as looking at who dropped out of university, the study also looked at the entry qualifications of students who repeated their first year. While fewer students repeat than drop out (just 4.3 per cent probability overall, compared to eight per cent), researchers found a similar pattern. Student with BTECs were found to be 1.7 times more likely to repeat their first year than those with A-levels.
Despite BTECs being accepted university entry qualifications for some time, and millions of pounds having been invested in widening participation, researchers report that students with BTECs have a 24.9 per cent chance at achieving a degree classification below 2:1, compared to 17.7 per cent for A-level students. That gap is larger for students at the lower socio-economic levels.
Drop-out rates are low in the UK compared to other countries, as is the number of students who repeat their first year. The report also highlights that BTECs are a highly effective route to a degree for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
Cohorts of students that researchers studied for this work pre-dated reformed BTECs. This means that it is not known what those performance gaps would look like for more recent generations of undergraduates, who would have experienced more external assessment as part of their BTEC.
Differences found in academic performance while at university, explored by using results of modules, are believed to be a big part of the explanation for the differences in the educational experience of university students arriving with BTECs compared to those with A-levels.
The report states “for the one university for which we have data on assessment method by first year module, we find that the performance gap between students with A-levels and BTECs is larger for modules assessed as least in part by written examination, compared with modules assessed by coursework only”.
Schools, colleges and universities should be more mindful of the differences between A-level and BTEC teaching and assessment when giving advice about post-18 options, the report argues. Further, tailoring courses to try and close these gaps, which disproportionately affect students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, rather than just focussing on recruiting them, should be integral to universities’ widening participation.
The report’s findings provide some challenge to the government’s current approach to level 3 qualifications reform, the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) has said. James Kewin, deputy chief executive at the SFCA, told FE Week: “This welcome research from the Nuffield Foundation shows that the vast majority complete their studies and most graduate with at least a 2:1. The report provides further evidence that scrapping the majority of BTEC qualifications will stop many disadvantaged young people from progressing to university in the future – a key concern of the Protect Student Choice coalition.
“If ministers are serious about making evidence-based decisions on the future of these qualifications, they should respond to the concerns set out in this report by pausing the defunding process until data on reformed BTECs is available and then look at the evidence in the round, rather than focusing exclusively on comparing outcomes between A-level and BTEC students.”
‘Conditionality’ rules are forcing people to give up their training courses, writes Peter Aldous
Like all MPs, I am regularly contacted by constituents struggling to access the training they need to secure fulfilling and meaningful work. I also speak to employers about the severe skills shortages they face in key areas across the local economy. This is replicated nationally and finding a solution is central to levelling up.
Resolving this issue is complicated and something that governments of all stripes have tried to answer.
There is one area where further education colleges play a key role ̶ supporting unemployed people to train and retrain.
Modest changes to the way the current welfare system operates provide the opportunity to make access to this support from colleges much easier and fairer. I and many other MPs support these changes.
For many, the key obstacle they face is the rigid and complex rules around studying and claiming universal credit at the same time. As those who work in colleges know all too well, recipients of universal credit considered able to work face strict requirements, known as ‘conditionality’.
Typically, they must spend up to 35 hours per week looking for work, provide evidence of their work search to their Jobcentre Plus work coach and be available to meet with them and attend interviews.
Claimants must also be prepared to give up their training course if they are offered suitable work.
This leaves many in a Catch-22 situation, where they may secure employment in the short term, but are prevented from developing skills that would allow them to get into higher quality, more stable and better-paid employment.
Claimants are left in a Catch-22 situation
The high employment rate in the 2010s should not disguise the fact that some people have moved from job to job with little chance to train or retrain for more meaningful and sustainable employment with prospects for progression.
Most claimants have a certain number of hours they can study per week and are typically limited to 12 weeks of full-time education and training (with 16 weeks for skills bootcamps), which restricts the options available. Extension to the amount of study time is at the discretion of work coaches, leaving scope for inconsistency and unfairness.
Claimants can be required to take part in Department for Work and Pensions’ courses that take them out of college courses. Otherwise, they risk sacrificing payments.
I welcome the steps the government has taken to address the disjointed education and welfare policies in recent years, including skills bootcamps. But unfortunately these are too temporary, creating instability and complexity in the system. This is challenging for people, some of whom already have educational disadvantages, and for colleges to navigate.
At the meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on further education and lifelong learning last summer, we heard about the important role that colleges play in supporting unemployed people into work through working with the local Jobcentre Plus (as captured in the Association of Colleges’ Let Them Learn report).
To empower colleges to do even more, the report called for the government to reform universal credit rules, removing existing barriers. I wrote to the-then skills minister Gillian Keegan, alongside a cross-party group of parliamentarians, encouraging her to take action.
The Skills Bill currently progressing through parliament is a unique opportunity for the government to commit to reviewing conditionality rules.
A review would enable a better understanding of the barriers to training that claimants are facing. It could show where flexibilities are needed in pursuit of a benefits system that encourages, not prohibits, education and training.
I intend to bring forward an amendment to the bill that would bring about this review with support from MPs across the House. While it may not make it on to the face of the bill, I’m confident that a constructive dialogue with government has been established and positive steps forward can be made.
The cost of taking no action will ultimately be fewer people in stable and meaningful employment, slower economic growth and bigger tax burdens.
