Hard-to-reach learners won’t be helped by the programme if councils engage the same old providers, writes Ian Ross
It has become apparent from contacting numerous local councils that many are taking wildly different approaches to rolling out the Multiply programme.
As a quick reminder, the programme, part of the UK shared prosperity fund, is gearing up to support adults in improving their numeracy skills. Currently, half of the working-age population have entry-level everyday maths skills.
Multiply will help to boost confidence and assist individuals with career progression while supporting the government’s levelling-up mission to ensure that by 2030, the number of people successfully completing high-quality skills training will have increased.
Local authorities across England are finalising their investment plans, outlining how their proposed provision will meet the Multiply investment prospectus. Around £270 million is being allocated directly to 91 mayoral combined authorities and local councils.
Local councils are also finalising their delivery plans and how they are going to respond to rolling out Multiply. But after contacting just 14 local authorities, it’s clear there are inconsistent approaches.
Allocating funds directly to 91 bodies, namely mayoral combined authorities and local councils, comes with many hurdles. This presents a challenge to ensuring the funding helps those that Multiply is designed to support.
Although there are advantages to devolution and giving local bodies the autonomy to lead Multiply in their areas, some local councils are already struggling in drafting their investment plans. I have seen some councils send out their entire investment plan templates inviting external stakeholders to write it for them.
Some councils have written their plans behind closed doors
Other councils are running consultation events and co-producing their proposals with local stakeholders. But some have just written their investment plans internally behind closed doors.
I have also observed how advanced some councils are in drafting their plans, while others are only just starting to think about what interventions they might offer.
The risk is that those councils without the internal expertise or passion risk squandering an opportunity for their residents to access high-quality numeracy provision.
Then there are major discrepancies in how Multiply will be delivered in year one, which runs from April 2022 to March 2023.
Given that Multiply investment plans will not be approved by the Department for Education before August 2022, mayoral combined authorities and local councils will only have seven months to spend their year one allocations from September 2022.
Although this timescale is tight for commissioning delivery partners, some bodies have decided to just hand the money out to FE colleges or their existing adult community learning providers in year one. Meanwhile other councils are running short competitive grant application processes during July.
While I appreciate there may be capacity issues within local councils, handing money out to existing providers is unlikely to have the desired impact of finding hard-to-reach learners.
FE colleges and council adult community learning providers already have adult education budget funding to deliver maths qualifications and non-accredited numeracy provision. I question why they are not already reaching these target group of learners with their existing AEB funding?
So it is crucial those drafting their investment plans look beyond FE colleges and existing adult community learning providers.
There are many local providers, already working with hard-to-reach learners, who can bring innovation and add value to Multiply.
It is all well local councils reassuring the sector that new providers can get involved in year two but, as proved by West Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council, it is possible to roll out a short competitive grant process in year one if the drive and determination are there.
Let’s make sure Multiply has the impact it deserves, and we do not to waste a once-in-a-generation opportunity to drive up adult numeracy.
The resilience of FE will be tested in the year ahead. Here are five key takeaways from our recent national conference, writes Jane Hickie
AELP’s first in-person national conference in three years took place this week. Among the packed agenda, we learned a lot from the two-day event. Here’s five key takeaways from me:
1. There are huge challenges facing us in the year ahead
There are big challenges ahead. A common theme from providers was the impact rising costs are having on their ability to continue delivering high-quality training provision, linked with issues around recruiting and retaining good staff.
Level 2 and below qualification reform is also a major worry. These are important stepping stones, and we must be careful not to remove opportunities in the name of simplification.
And we heard support for our position from Jennifer Coupland of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.
2. Our resilience will be tested at times – but we will persevere
These challenges will test our resilience. This includes meeting the skills minister’s new ambition for an overall 67 per cent achievement rate on apprenticeship standards by 2025 ̶ this ambitious target will need proper funding and support from government.
It was great to have the minister with us, and I hope he heard our concerns loud and clear.
While the new achievement rate target is certainly very ambitious, I fear it won’t be achievable until the Department for Education irons out unhelpful nuances in the current qualification achievement rates methodology and finds a better way to measure success.
Nevertheless, I’ve really appreciated the minister’s engagement with AELP recently – particularly his commitment to helping more SMEs to engage with apprenticeships. However, we clearly still have more lobbying to do around functional skills and tackling inflation before we see further movement. Rome wasn’t built in a day – we will persist!
3. We will need more collaboration in the sector
Meeting these challenges means we need to collaborate more effectively – the whole FE sector must push in the same direction on the big issues.
The whole FE sector must push in the same direction on the big issues
David Hughes, of the Association of Colleges (AoC), focused on this by pointing out there are many areas in which we share common challenges and aims – so why wouldn’t we work together?
Strengthening the relationship between AoC, adult education provider body HOLEX and AELP will be good for the whole sector.
Speaking of collaboration, on Tuesday, we launched our joint report with ERSA on employability and skills provision. ‘Hiding The Join’ – rather fittingly – calls for more collaboration between government departments to ensure better alignment across employability and skills.
4. AELP plays a crucial role in the sector
National conference was an opportunity to reflect on the importance of AELP’s work for our members.
At a time when providers need support and a national voice more than ever, that sense of community is crucial. Membership is growing steadily and skills have never been higher on the government’s agenda.
Despite the challenges, we’ve also had some great wins over the past 12 months, including positive changes to the off-the-job training requirements, a re-set on the cap of ten starts for non-levy-paying employers, imminent changes to the law so that prisoners can undertake an apprenticeship, and additional skills funding in the multi-year spending review.
5. A modern economy needs ITPs
The role of independent training providers in delivering the skills our country needs continues to grow. As we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic, and our relationship with the European Union changes, there is even more demand for high-quality home-grown skills.
ITPs – given their ability to adapt and innovate – should play a prime role in making levelling up a success and shifting to a low-carbon economy.
That’s why ensuring there’s a level playing field between all types of providers has never been more vital.
Principal, Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education
Start date: June 2022
Previous Job: Deputy Principal, Bishop Burton College
Interesting fact: Rachel had lots of interesting jobs as a student, including working for the National Union Of Mineworkers, a famous ballerina, driving a forklift truck and frying fish and chips.
Danny Metters
Principal, East Riding College & Scarborough TEC, part of TEC Partnership
Start date: June 2022
Previous Job: Vice Principal, Riseholme College, part of Bishop Burton College
Interesting fact: Danny lives on a small-holding and has over 50 animals; including alpaca, horses, turkeys, peacocks, dogs and cats, most of which are rescues
Tom Bewick
Visiting Professor of Skills and Workforce Policy, Staffordshire University
Start date: July 2022
Concurrent Job: Chief Executive, Federation of Awarding Bodies
Interesting fact: In his 20s, Tom was a tech house DJ called Van Alen, living in Ibiza and Cape Town
Ofsted has raised concerns over issues of neglect, hygiene standards and a curriculum that is “uninspiring” and “unambitious” at a college for students with special education needs or disabilities (SEND) in Wigan.
My Life Learning was handed an ‘inadequate’ rating by the inspection watchdog in a report published today following a visit in early May.
The college, which is a part of the My Life charity, caters for learners aged 16 to 25 with SEND, including severe learning difficulties, autism, speech and communication needs and emotional difficulties.
Inspectors said learners “did not benefit from a curriculum that prepares them for their next steps,” and “are not provided with opportunities for work-experience placements that relate to their future ambitions”.
The report continued that the curriculum is “unambitious” and doesn’t consider the different abilities of learners, while the quality of education was branded “uninspiring”.
Elsewhere, the report said: “Learners making sandwiches to sell to college staff do not follow appropriate food hygiene standards.”
In addition, safeguarding arrangements were described as “not effective”, as potential issues around neglect were not identified.
Safeguarding concerns were raised at a previous monitoring visit in July 2021, with a November follow-up saying reasonable progress had been made.
Ofsted tasked the college to “as a matter of urgency, put in place effective safeguarding arrangements, including prompt identification, referral and monitoring of safeguarding concerns, and the implementation of robust risk assessments”.
The report said there are 26 learners at the Greater Manchester college, studying horticulture, animal care and equine in one of three groups.
The establishment said it “wholly accepts” the findings.
A statement from My Life Learning said: “We were asked by Wigan Council to set up My Life Learning in 2018 and have gradually built the provision to provide crucial independent specialist further education for 26 learners in our beautiful 84-acre site in Standish.
“When we received an Ofsted new provider monitoring report last year, we acted upon the recommendations and put in place a new leadership team, brought in experts in specialist further education to refine our curriculum, and made further teaching appointments.
“We’ve also taken the opportunity over the last 12 months to consult with families in terms of what they wanted to see from My Life Learning. Overwhelmingly, they asked for individualised pathways for the young people they care for and to that end our curriculum now reflects that desire.”
The college said it was pleased Ofsted recognised learners enjoyed college and felt supported, and added that governors were now “suitably experienced in the further education and SEND sectors”.
The spokesperson added: “We’re confident that we’ve involved all stakeholders in our mission to improve My Life Learning, and that changes to offer an ambitious, aspirational and challenging curriculum will be both obvious and immediate.
Cath Pealing, assistant director of education at Wigan Council, the local SEND authority, said: “We are aware of the inspection outcome of this provider and are working with them to look at how they can make improvements.
“We will review the current placements of our young people attending and will support them with the most appropriate plan moving forward.”
Further education industry leaders and experts gathered in Hammersmith this week for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ (AELP) national conference.
Among the speakers were Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman, who spoke about the impact the staffing crisis may have on quality of training, while Matthew Fell from the Confederation of British Industry outlined his wishes for apprenticeship levy review.
Elsewhere, Association of Colleges boss David Hughes spoke of the latest pay offer discussions with the University and College Union and what reclassification of college staff as public sector workers may mean.
In addition, Jennifer Coupland from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education updated the conference on the much-anticipated funding band review.
Here are the key takeaways from their speeches.
Ofsted: FE staffing crisis threatening quality of training
The FE staffing crisis is drawing leaders’ attention away from ensuring that quality education is delivered, Ofsted’s chief inspector has warned.
Amanda Spielman told conference this is a “significant concern” of hers, especially when it comes to specialist teachers and trainers in subjects like English and maths.
Both colleges and independent training providers recently told FE Week how soaring inflation and the cost-of-living crisis is forcing their staff to leave the profession in favour of better-paid jobs.
FE providers are also making parts of their workforce redundant in an effort to balance the books as funding rates continue at a level that does not reflect the true cost of delivery.
Amanda Spielman
Spielman told AELP’s annual conference: “Of significant concern are the staffing difficulties that many of you are having, especially in relation to recruiting and retaining specialist teachers and trainers, including in subjects like English and maths. We are also seeing fewer learners achieving revised functional skills qualifications.
“These and other matters are absorbing leaders’ time and drawing their attention and focus away from thinking longer term about the learner experience.”
She also used her speech to take aim at apprenticeship achievement and retention rates, warning that they could “diminish the prestige and brand” of apprenticeships.
“Some achievement rates are very low, on one apprenticeship standard as low as 16 per cent,” Spielman said.
“We often find that the apprentices who finish the course and take their end-point assessment do very well. But too often, too many leave before the end of their training.
“But why is this? It could be down to money, because in the current labour market, you may not need an apprenticeship to earn more. But it could be because of pressures at work that mean apprentices do not get enough learning opportunities. Or it could be because of poor quality provision.”
She continued: “Now, more than ever the answer to the why question is so important. Are apprentices going into better-paid roles in entirely different sectors? Are they getting new roles, thanks to their learning, for better pay, but ending their apprenticeships early? These may be great outcomes for apprentices, but what about the wider picture?
“There is a real danger that poor retention rates, low achievement rates and a lack of information to demonstrate the value of training programmes will undermine the value of apprenticeships and diminish the prestige of the brand.”
CBI: ‘Let’s unlock levy money that isn’t being used too productively’
The apprenticeship levy should only be reformed for sectors where it is being under-utilised, according to the Confederation of British Industry.
“We said to the Treasury that we think there’s a way of getting better bang for the buck out of this,” Fell said.
“Keep it as it is today for firms that it’s working brilliantly for, but then let’s unlock that money that isn’t being used as productively in some other firms and some other sectors for the skills that they need.”
The CBI would like to see the levy element ringfenced but able to be used for more flexible training, he explained.
“Some people might say, actually, I really like that to be spent on apprenticeships just as I’m using today, because it’s working fantastically,” he said. “Others would say, actually, you know what, I can only really utilise 30, 40, 50 per cent of that on an apprenticeship route, but I have some other really burning issue skills needs over here.”
Matt Fell
Fell said firms “should be stepping up and spending a lot more on training” but it was a difficult ask when the existing levy was under-utilised.
In addition, he told the conference that apprenticeships were best for getting people into work for the first time, but bitesize training was more suitable for existing workers needing training.
He said: “If you’re already in the world of work, there are elements of it that I don’t need to relearn ̶ how do I properly behave and treat myself, handle myself in the world of work?
“But what I’d absolutely need is then some of the skill elements of the apprenticeship to learn a new craft.
“If I’m in automotive, for example, and I spent the last decade or more learning how to build combustion engines and that’s what I do, how do I flip that across to electric vehicles?”
He added: “Taking the best bits of the apprenticeship levy and making it available to existing workers in a digestible format, as well as those people into the world of work ̶ if we can crack both of those things we think we can be on to something.”
AoC: Consultants will be the big winners from college reclassification
Consultants and auditors are set to cash in on any reclassification of colleges as public sector institutions in the future, the Association of Colleges boss has warned.
David Hughes told conference that the financial side will be among the biggest change in the sector if Office for National Statistics proposals to reclassify colleges as public instead of private organisations goes through.
“The biggest implication is around the college accounts that become public accounts. So DfE will have all the college accounts on its balance sheet,” he said.
“Anyone who’s got shares in an auditing or accountancy firm, you’re going to make loads of money because there’s just going to be loads of business for consultants working out how to make this work.”
He refused to be drawn on whether he supported any change in classification, but said there may be a risk of more interference.
Elsewhere, Hughes said VAT could be affected, while capital borrowing procedures may also change as they will be carried out through local government, rather than commercial means.
He added: “We’re pushing really hard, as you would expect, to get the National Insurance one per cent pay for colleges, because it was paid for all public sector. So if colleges become public sector in September, we’ll say, ‘Well, where’s the one per cent bit of extra money?’”
David Hughes
Hughes also spoke about the AoC’s latest 2.5 per cent pay offer to the University and College Union, which the UCU rejected last week. He admitted fewer colleges than usual may be in a position to accept the offer.
“Colleges don’t have to adhere to the pay award we recommend ̶ it is a recommendation,” he said. “Usually about two-thirds of colleges either made the recommendation or exceed it. I think that’s probably going to be slightly less this year, but I think more than half will.”
Hughes said pay in the sector isn’t good enough, with the combination of bills like gas and electricity rising, inflation hitting nine per cent and only “modest” increases in funding creating a “perfect storm”.
He added: “I think it’s going to be really tough. But what we all have to do as employers is just make our institutions or organisations more attractive to the people that are out there with more choice. So, holiday pay, CPD training, progression opportunities, flexible working ̶ all of those things become much, much more important.”
IfATE: ‘We’re not in a position to give everyone a funding band lift overnight’
The outcome of the apprenticeships funding rate review will not be published until February 2023 at the earliest, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has said.
And there will be no immediate changes to existing funding bands for apprenticeship standards upon conclusion of the review.
IfATE chief executive Jennifer Coupland was pressed for an update on the review during this week’s AELP conference. She explained that a pilot of the new funding model, which has been designed to better reflect the “true cost of delivery”, is ongoing.
Coupland said she understood the sector’s concerns about how skyrocketing inflation is resulting in higher costs for apprenticeship training delivery, but warned that the institute is “not in a position to give everyone a funding band lift overnight”.
She did not say when the IfATE would publish the final outcome of the review, but a spokesperson for the institute told FE Week it won’t be until the 12-month pilot, which started in January 2022, is complete.
The review will take into account the Department for Education’s eligible costs review, which is due for publication “shortly”, according to a document published in May alongside the draft apprenticeship funding rules for 2022/23.
Jennifer Coupland
There will not be an immediate change to existing funding bands for all apprenticeships following the conclusion of the pilot, the spokesperson said, although any funding band revisions will subsequently be managed through the new model.
Apprenticeship standards and their funding bands are reviewed periodically by IfATE, but may also need to be reviewed in other circumstances, such as lower than expected starts.
The institute’s revision process also allows trailblazers to request reviews of the apprenticeship funding bands after the apprenticeship has been approved for delivery for at least 12 months.
Coupland also used her conference speech to plug the IfATE’s plans to create a “fully integrated skills system” over the next five years.
She said there were over 14,000 different technical qualifications available last year, so it is “no wonder employers find it nigh on impossible to fathom which qualifications are any good”.
“Employers have been saying consistently and for so many years that the system is too complicated, they don’t understand it and it’s difficult for them to engage with,”, she added. “They’ve said that so much, so often, that it’s almost become the background music to the skills system.
“Educationalists sometimes try half-heartedly to justify it, but most of the time they just tune it out.”
Coupland continued: “But what if we actually started really listening to it – I mean really listening – and then acting on it?
“Working with you and employers, we plan to create a high-quality, streamlined system that employers can value and use easily.”
Ofsted has officially downgraded England’s largest apprenticeship provider to a grade 3, in a report published this morning that criticises the firm’s focus on financial performance and starts over quality.
Lifetime Training was also slated by inspectors for a lack of face-to-face teaching, off-the-job training, poor achievement rates and insufficient monitoring of delivery.
While some of the provider’s almost 20,000 learners are positive about their learning experience, others have become “disillusioned and demotivated”.
But Ofsted did identify good aspects of Lifetime Training’s offer, such as the relationship between most learners and coaches, a “valuable” collaborative approach with employers, and how apprentices make a positive contribution to their workplace through the skills they have developed.
FE Week revealed yesterday that the provider was set to go from a ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ rating overall following an inspection in May.
The report, published today, includes four ‘requires improvement’ judgements and two – for behaviour and attitudes and adult learning programmes – ‘good’ judgements.
Lifetime Training has recruited more apprentices and secured more levy funding than any other provider in the country for several years. With around 900 staff, the firm delivers to big-name employers mostly in hospitality and adult care including the NHS, KFC, McDonalds, Wetherspoons, B&Q and David Lloyd, as well as the civil service.
Most training and support sessions for learners currently take place online, but the company is gradually reintroducing face-to-face training following the pandemic.
Ofsted warned that too many apprentices find the mainly remote online learning approach “either difficult to access technically or too much like unsupported self-study”.
“They dislike the lack of face-to-face training. Too many of these apprentices have not had the continuity and consistency of support from coaching staff they have needed. Consequently, the rate and depth of these apprentices’ learning have been slowed.”
Ofsted also found that governance arrangements “are not wholly effective” because they are focused “primarily on monitoring aspects of the financial performance of the organisation, such as the number of new enrolments and those who have completed their learning”.
“Governors do not focus enough on challenging leaders to improve all aspects of the quality of provision,” today’s report added.
Inspectors said Lifetime’s newly appointed chair – Geoff Russell, who used who used to head up the Skills Funding Agency – has identified this weakness and has “firm plans to recruit more board-level expertise in quality improvement and to ensure leaders accord a higher priority to enacting whatever improvements are needed”.
Lifetime made several leadership changes just before Ofsted visited, including replacing the firm’s long-serving chief executive Alex Khan with Jon Graham who joined from JTL Training.
Ofsted found that leaders’ implementation of their curriculums “is not consistently good and does not sufficiently meet the needs of all apprentices”, while leaders have also “not been monitoring and evaluating the quality and impact of their provision with sufficient rigour or planning for improvement in ways that are specific and measurable”.
A minority of apprentices struggle to achieve functional skills qualifications in English or mathematics, which means they cannot start their end-of-course assessments.
Lifetime’s achievement rates have been falling steadily: in 2015/16 the provider recorded an overall apprenticeship achievement of 67.6 per cent, which declined to 55.3 per cent in the latest available provider-level achievement rate tables for 2018/19.
Ofsted said the provider’s leaders recognise that apprentices’ achievement rates have not been high enough in all apprenticeships, but so far, their actions to increase the proportion completing their qualifications “have had only a modest impact”.
Leaders had also “not until recently” recognised the “full extent to which apprentices have not all been getting the training they need in order to develop substantial new knowledge, skills and behaviours”.
One of the most concerning issues for Lifetime was proving that at least 20 per cent off-the-job training was being delivered to apprentices, which Cornish blamed on the pandemic.
Apprentices “too often” spend their own time completing their off-the-job training assignments at home outside of work hours, Ofsted found.
Cornish said: “We have already taken steps to address the feedback and are confident we will see a rapid and significant improvement in the areas identified during this inspection.”
Redundancies, slashing professional development budgets and merging classes are among lengths colleges have gone to in mitigating the impact of the controversial AEB clawback (adult education budget), an FE Week investigation has found.
The threshold proved divisive when it was announced in March last year, after being set at 68 per cent the year before as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns limiting in-person teaching. Colleges had argued that the pandemic had continued to impact teaching and finances during 2020/21 – particularly in areas which experienced local lockdowns as well as nationwide restrictions.
The ESFA had initially refused a business case process for colleges to explain why they should be given leniency for missing the 90 per cent target, but u-turned on that in July last year.
Following the recent publication of the ESFA’s AEB clawback data, most institutions have remained tight-lipped about the impact this has had, but an FE Week investigation has uncovered some of the struggles.
Derby College Group, which was among six colleges where more than £2 million was clawed back, confirmed it had been forced to make redundancies (24 voluntary and 22 compulsory) while 24 workers were redeployed within the organisation.
In its annual accounts for the year ending July 2021, the college said: “As a result of an announcement by the ESFA to only reduce the tolerance on the AEB funding stream to 90 per cent, significantly higher than the previous year, where there was a lesser impact on adult education for DCG, DCG undertook a major restricting [restructuring] exercise in the latter part of 2020/21 in order to compensate for the anticipated clawback of AEB funding.”
West Nottinghamshire College had just over £2.5 million clawed back, but said its favourable cash position from an in-year surplus meant ESFA advice indicated a business case wouldn’t be successful.
It made adjustments to its finances mid-year, which meant no staff reductions were needed, but it still had to make some changes.
The college confirmed it had limited recruitment of new staff, as well as use of its capital budget. Budgets for areas such as staff training and development were also reduced.
“Although it was reasonable that colleges were incentivised to deliver more AEB activity, the revised targets were too high and achieving them was always going to be immensely challenging, given the Covid-19 pandemic, with various lockdowns affecting the ability to deliver face-to-face provision,” a college spokesperson said.
“Mansfield and Ashfield had among the highest rates of Covid infections during the second wave in early 2021, which impacted upon us disproportionately. Furthermore, the college continued to incur staffing costs and did not access support through the government’s furlough scheme, which we feel should be recognised.”
RNN Group, which runs Rotherham, North Notts and Dearne Valley colleges, said it was unable to comment on the measures it had taken, but in board meeting minutes from October said it was “reviewing class sizes, and decisions may be taken to merge some to make them more efficient”, explaining that the AEB underachievement had been “significant”.
A spokesperson said: “The group recognises the need to apply appropriate performance management to public funding based upon evidenced impact and remains committed to ensuring value for money and high levels of quality in public funding.
“It is felt, however, that the significant impact of Covid-19 upon educational providers strongly focussed upon meeting the needs of both local communities and employers could have been given greater recognition.”
RNN secured the second highest amount in its business case, at just over £1.5 million, behind only Leicester College, which was allowed to keep £2.1 million.
Leicester had been a vocal opponent of the clawback back in March 2021, with its students’ union launching a petition with more than 5,000 signatures against the policy, albeit before the business case process had been allowed.
In a blog post on its website prior to the business case announcement, principal Verity Hancock said the college faced having to hand back around £4 million, warning of “serious consequences” for cashflow, capital programmes and future plans.
In the final figures Leicester had £701,000 to return. The college did not wish to comment further.
Chichester College also declined to comment, but in its report and financial statement for the year ending July 2021 it said that additional in-year enrolments in 2021/22 may be needed to offset the clawback.
Ruskin College had the second highest amount clawed back – £3.5 million, behind only Birmingham Metropolitan College’s £3.8 million – and cited ESFA clawbacks and Covid-19’s impact on student recruitment in its year-end financial report last July. A spokesperson from the University of West London, which acquired the college in August last year, said a strategic plan had helped move the college on to a break-even position this financial year.
Of the 103 institutions where some level of funding was returned, 19 had more than £1 million clawed back, which included two above £3 million and four between £1 million and £2 million.
Justifying its switch to the 90 per cent threshold back in March 2021, the ESFA said it acknowledged the situation was difficult for providers but 90 per cent was “a fair representation of grant-funded providers’ average delivery”.
It also cited the remote learning arrangements colleges were forced to develop at the start of the pandemic as an “effective contingency” to continue delivering learning.
In January, the Department for Education revealed that 78 providers had submitted a business case, 58 of which were from general further education colleges. Of those, 48 were successful.
Its criteria was for providers to demonstrate that “local circumstances made it impossible for the provider to deliver at or close to the 90 per cent level” or that “applying the full amount of AEB clawback would cause significant financial difficulties for the provider”.
Universities and higher education providers are being told by ministers to advertise subject drop-out and employment rates to stop students ending up “stuck on dead-end” courses.
Government said the plans aim to give students “genuine choice” about where to study and will “clearly identify courses with high drop-out rates and poor graduate outcomes”.
However, it will only be voluntary, non-statutory guidance. If take-up is “insufficient”, ministers may consider whether to make it mandatory.
All providers registered on the Office for Students register will be asked to comply. However, only full-time, first degree courses are in scope. It does not apply to foundation degrees, post-graduate degrees or degree level apprenticeship standards.
Critics say it risks “stigmatising” universities trying to help those who “aren’t academic superstars”.
A study by the Higher Education Policy Institute found that 59 per cent of students said they’d make the same choice of university and course again. This was 64 per cent in 2019, pre-pandemic.
Michelle Donelan, higher education minister, said the guidance will “ensure that just as every advert for a loan or credit card must include basic information like the APR, every university advert should include comparable data on drop-out rates and the progression rate of students into graduate jobs or further study”.
“Making such a significant investment in your time, money and future is not made any easier by bold university advertising, which often promises students a high-quality experience even when the statistics suggest they will be stuck on a dead-end course.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of school leaders’ union ASCL, said the matter is more complex than “dead-end courses” and that the move risks “stigmatising universities and courses which are actually trying to do the right thing for those who aren’t academic superstars”.
“Clearly, they have to make sure that they are putting the appropriate support in place for these young people to help reduce drop-out rates and ensure good outcomes. But this is a much harder job than it is with very confident and able young people.”
Bill Watkin, chief executive at the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said HE’s value “extends beyond its role in contributing to the employment market and future careers”.
The guidance says that while the data is already publicly available, it generally “requires some inside knowledge and a certain amount of persistence” to access it.
So the government wants universities to position the data “prominently” on all “institutional and subject-specific advertising”.
They suggest the font size should be the same as the main body of text, but it could be smaller than the headline.
It should apply to all new advertising, including on web pages, social media, TV and radio and influencers.
Nick Hillman, HEPI director, said “the decision will leave many vice-chancellors wondering whether their institutions are as autonomous as they thought they were”.
The Department for Education is now monitoring WiFi use to track attendance after ordering staff to return to in-person working at least four days a week.
Officials who do not physically attend an office for 30 days or more will be reported to their managers.
FE Week revealed in May how civil servants had been forced to work in corridors and canteens because the department has almost twice as many workers as desks.
The DfE confirmed this week it is tracking logins to its virtual private network (VPN) and local area network (LAN).
Headline data on attendance is shared with the Cabinet Office, where the mandate to return to the office originated. Individual data is passed to senior civil servants so they can have discussions with those not coming in.
Helen Kenny, a national officer at the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, said it was “very disappointing” the DfE “continues to waste time and energy tracking when staff are in the office, rather than accepting that the world of work has fundamentally changed”.
“FDA members have proven themselves to be just as, if not more, productive when working remotely, and government departments should move with the times. Work is what you do, not where you do it.”
Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, ordered staff to return to the office at least four days a week earlier this year. It followed a government-wide edict from efficiency minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, who visited departments and left notes for absent officials.
But the push backfired because the DfE, which encouraged flexible and hybrid working before the pandemic, has far more staff than desks.
Staff outnumber desks by almost two-to-one across the department’s 12 offices, figures seen by FE Week show. In Leeds, there are just 24 desks for 110 staff. Bristol has 95 desks for 299 people.
The order to leave resulted in queues in the stairwell and congestion on upper floors.
A DfE spokesperson said its approach “fits with the amount of desk space we have, gives us full and vibrant offices but also retains flexibility to work in different ways when needed.
“This is good for our business and staff – and good for the children and learners we serve every day.”
