Unless ministers take a slower, more iterative approach to T Levels, our analysis suggests many learners could be left without a course at all, writes David Hughes
The English qualification system is a complex beast, so reforming it is tricky.
There is a lot to consider and a lot at stake: the credibility and currency of thousands of qualifications run by hundreds of awarding organisations, the engagement of the teachers and education providers who deliver them and the trust and understanding of employers and HE providers.
And most importantly, the hopes and ambitions of the students who will take and use these qualifications is at stake.
There is also the challenge of maintaining integrity across time so that, for instance, ‘old’ qualifications are not debased because of new ones.
It’s a fragile balance which needs sensitive handling, clear communications and strong stakeholder management with a diverse range of people and institutions who ‘use’ qualifications – students, parents, employers, universities, colleges, schools, teachers, advisers etc.
In England, we are in the middle of several simultaneous reform programmes. One strand is the new T Levels and higher technical qualifications, based on a premise that we support at AoC: that England needs a coherent and respected set of technical qualifications that help to meet the aspirations of students and the needs of industry.
With the first cohort of T Level students soon to receive their results, it’s a good time to take stock of where we are and think about how the reform roadmap might need to be adjusted.
Ministers are understandably keen to see results quickly and yet we know that getting these reforms right will take many years.
Colleges are rightly setting entry requirements for T Levels
The current consultation on the first 160 existing qualifications for which funding will be removed because of ‘overlap’ with T Levels has heightened our concerns about the pace of reform. Our analysis suggests it could result in many thousands of students without a qualification to study.
Some current level 3 students will find T Levels very demanding, so colleges are rightly setting entry requirements to ensure students will be successful.
Some colleges and areas of the country might struggle to deliver all of the T Levels, particularly with the challenge of finding work placements in some sectors.
That’s why we believe the decision to cease funding for any qualifications that are deemed to overlap with the new T Levels is risky.
There are 52,920 college enrolments on the 160 qualifications in 2021/22. Of these, 44,796 are aged 16-18 and nearly all have the defunded qualification as their main aim. We do not believe that all these students would have been able to move straight on to a T Level.
And for adults, alternative qualifications might simply be unviable because of small numbers.
If our concern comes true, it will disproportionately affect students facing the greatest disadvantage, with more young people ending up not in education, employment or training (NEET). That’s why we are asking for a full impact assessment to be carried out urgently.
Today, we are publishing our analysis to support the wider debate about how we ensure that every young person has access to the motivating, stretching and relevant education they deserve.
We would like to see a more considered, iterative approach, with time for the T Levels to become established and to prove their worth. That way, the 160 pre-existing qualifications would simply wither on the vine and defunding would be simple.
We believe T Levels have the potential to be a long-term success, if introduced in the right way, but the pace at which qualifications might cease to be funded looks high risk. We want to see more young people achieve level 3 by age 19, but our fear is that these reforms might instead result in fewer. That should worry us all.
We want T Levels to be respected, widely understood and supported by employers with exciting placements, but the approach being taken risks too much in its haste to reach that point.
But the numbers for 16- and 17-year-olds not in education, employment or training is more of a concern.
FE Week has picked out the key findings from the latest stats.
16-year-old NEETs highest since 2012
The number of NEETs aged 16 in 2021 is 4.9 per cent, according to the DfE’s Thursday release.
That’s the highest it has been for nearly a decade – back in 2012 the 16-year-old level was 5.8 per cent.
In addition, NEETs aged 17 has also risen – 5.2 per cent last year compared to 4.6 per cent in 2020. The last time it was that high was in 2016 at 5.6 per cent.
Laura-Jane Rawlings, chief executive of Youth Employment UK, said it was “concerning” and saw a number of factors at play.
“The growing anxiety for those in education on what their future will hold and the inconsistency in support around key transition points could mean this is a growing trend,” she said.
“With a growing mental health emergency for our young people and a lack of support to make big decisions, inaction can feel like the safest option to young people.”
Rawlings said the Covid-19 pandemic and fluctuations in the economy and labour market meant teenagers have had to make decisions on their future during a period of uncertainty.
She added: “There is growing frustration from organisations struggling to recruit and a record number of vacancies – all the while young people remain convinced that there are no opportunities local to them. This shows that there is worrying disconnect between young people and opportunity, something Youth Employment UK work hard to address through our #CreateYourFuture campaign.”
Sam Avanzo Windett, deputy director at the Learning and Work Institute and co-chair of the Youth Employment Group, said: “The latest DfE measures show a record low rate of 18-year-olds NEETs, which is cause for celebration.
“However, we’re concerned by the continuing rise in economic inactivity among young people. In a labour market with record levels of job vacancies, there are a growing number of young people who are not engaged in the labour market and risk being locked out of these opportunities.”
Findings are soon to be published on the characteristics of NEET youngsters, which will highlight health issues and disparities, the institute said.
Record low for 18-year-old NEETs
18-year-olds appear to be helping bring the number of overall 16 to 18 NEETs down, as the DfE data shows a record-low of 9.3 per cent of 18s who are NEET.
It marks the first time that number has been below 10 per cent, and contributed to the overall NEET rate for 16 to 18s being 6.4 per cent. That is its lowest since 2017 when 6.4 per cent was also recorded.
A DfE spokesperson said: “It is great to see that despite the impact of Covid, the proportion of 16–18-year-olds not in education, employment, or training remains one of the lowest on record, with those aged 18 the lowest on record.
“Our ambitious education recovery programme is supporting pupils to catch up on lost learning through tuition, world class teaching, and extending time in schools and colleges.
“Alongside this, we’re continuing to work with employers to offer more apprenticeship opportunities, rolling out new T Level qualifications and have launched a campaign ‘Get the Jump’ to promote the full range of exciting opportunities available to young people.”
Boys still favour apprenticeships
According to the data, males are still opting for the apprenticeship route more than females.
Figures for apprenticeships and work-based learning last year was 3.5 per cent for females – below the 5.9 per cent recorded for males.
But it appears females still favour the full-time education pathway, as the 77.2 per cent figure for females in full time education remains well above the 70.1 per cent figure for males.
England’s largest apprenticeship provider is set to be slammed by Ofsted for failing to deliver high quality teaching and enough off-the-job training, FE Week can reveal.
Lifetime Training will be downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ in a critical report due to be published tomorrow by the education watchdog (full story here).
The firm has recruited more apprentices and secured more levy funding than any other provider in the country for several years, delivering to big-name employers including the NHS, KFC, McDonalds, Wetherspoons, B&Q and David Lloyd, as well as the civil service.
But Lifetime’s overall 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.
Lifetime’s most popular apprenticeship in 2018/19 was hospitality team member, delivered to 2,230 apprentices, and recorded a 34 per cent achievement rate.
FE Week understands that Ofsted sent around 30 inspectors to Lifetime Training in May for its first full inspection since 2012 and found a range of quality concerns, resulting in an overall grade 3.
The biggest issue was proving that at least 20 per cent off-the-job training was being delivered to apprentices mostly in the hospitality and care sectors.
FE Week understands that Lifetime Training requested and secured an extra day’s inspection after complaining that Ofsted’s sample of apprentices was not large enough to reflect the size of the company – a defence that was unsuccessfully used by Learndirect during its failed High Court battle with the inspectorate that attempted to overturn a grade 4 report in 2017.
Ofsted agreed to increase its sample size for Lifetime Training but stood by the grade 3.
A spokesperson for Lifetime Training told FE Week that Ofsted’s grade and the evidence used during the inspection was not appealed.
The report is due to be published in the same week that skills minister Alex Burghart and Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman raised concerns about the quality of apprenticeship training and poor achievement rates, which Spielman said are damaging the prestige and brand of apprenticeships.
Carl Cornish, Lifetime’s new chief operating officer, blamed the off-the-job issue on the pandemic.
“Due to the challenges brought by the pandemic, many of our employer partners have experienced increased staff turnover rates and high sickness and absence – particularly in the hospitality and care sectors,” he told FE Week.
“This has contributed to an unexpected number of apprentices not getting their entitlement to high-quality off-the-job training during working hours, which was one of the key areas identified by Ofsted.”
He claimed that despite the overall grading, “many positives” were identified through the inspection. A “highlight” was the “relationship between our learners and coaches and the impact our apprenticeship programmes have, with many apprentices making a positive contribution to their workplace through the skills they have developed, which our employer partners highly value”.
Lifetime Training has made several leadership changes in recent months. Geoff Russell (pictured above left), who used to head up the Skills Funding Agency, became the firm’s new chair in April. Since then, Lifetime’s long-serving chief executive Alex Khan, chief financial officer Peter Mitchell, and chief commercial officer Sean Cosgrove have left.
Jon Graham (pictured above right) is now Lifetime’s chief executive after joining from JTL Training.
Lifetime Training was put up for sale in 2019 by its private equity parent Silverfleet Capital. But the auction was put on ice during the pandemic.
The provider has sat top of the apprenticeship provider table when it comes to starts for a number of years. But recruitment has fallen significantly.
The provider recorded 20,170 starts in 2017/18, which grew to 23,020 a year later, before falling by more than a third to 14,980 in 2019/20. In 2020/21 Lifetime had 12,910 starts and figures for the first two quarters of 2021/22 show 6,990 starts. The falling starts numbers led to large-scale redundancies in 2020.
Cornish said Lifetime was “disappointed” with the Ofsted outcome, but insisted the provider has “already started working on a detailed improvement plan against the recommendations and progress against this plan will be our key focus”.
“The majority of the actions required to deliver these improvements are already in flight or at launch stage,” he added. “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.”
A new “method” for external quality assurance of integrated higher and degree-level apprenticeships has been launched today.
Thirty-eight standards, mostly delivered by universities, will be subject to the scrutiny delivered by the Designated Quality Body in England (DQB) on behalf of the Office for Students (OfS).
Site visits using the new EQA method will begin next month.
A new handbook outlining DQB’s new method has been published today (click here to read). It includes sections on readiness checks and approvals, as well as how the EQA monitoring process will work.
The handbook says DQB will undertake risk-based monitoring of each apprenticeship, confirming that the delivery of the EPA is “valid and compliant, delivering consistent and comparable results that are recognised by employers as delivering the right outcomes”.
DQB will also “confirm evidence and information that will be required from the EPAO, giving them the chance to comment on and agree reported information”, and “identify actions and recommendations to inform the EPAO’s action planning process”.
Rob Stroud, director of the DQB, said his organisation’s independent experts will check that providers and EPAOs are “delivering high-quality outcomes for apprentices, employers and all those involved in their delivery”.
Rob Nitsch, delivery director of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, said today’s announcement is an “important step forward for higher and degree-level apprenticeships”.
“It is vital that all assessment is consistent and of high quality, meeting the high expectations we have for all apprenticeships,” he said.
“It must match up to the rigor associated with higher level learning but also fully respect that this is an apprenticeship, so the focus must be on ensuring the apprentices are properly challenged to prove they can do the job they’ve trained for. I am confident that the new method will achieve this.”
DQB said it will host webinars on the new method for apprenticeship providers on July 12 and July 14.
A high-profile skills civil servant is set to leave the Department for Education to become the chief executive of a college.
Keith Smith will take the reins at HCUC, the merged college group for Harrow College and Uxbridge College, in November.
He will replace Darrell DeSouza who is retiring from the role after over 20 years at Uxbridge College and HCUC.
Smith began working in the then Skills Funding Agency in 2012 as director of funding and programmes before becoming director of apprenticeships in the Education and Skills Funding Agency in 2018, leading on the levy and funding reforms.
“It is a real privilege to be given the opportunity to lead HCUC,” Smith said. “I am really excited to work alongside such an amazing team and represent the outstanding work done at both Harrow College and Uxbridge College. We have an exciting future ahead.”
His move comes amid government plans to reduce the civil service headcount by 91,000 by 2025.
HCUC said Smith’s experience and background will “provide a new perspective for the role” at the college.
Nick Davies, HCUC chair, said: “I know all of HCUC’s staff and stakeholders will join me and the entire governing body in congratulating Mr Smith on his appointment, and we look forward to Keith taking up this new role later in the year.”
HCUC teaches almost 10,000 students, including programmes for young people, adults and apprentices.
The college was judged as ‘good’ by Ofsted in a report published last month.
Smith will join as Richmond upon Thames College merges with HCUC in the autumn. Richmond is currently engaged in a bitter dispute with University and College Union staff members, who are preparing to strike for three consecutive weeks at the beginning of the 2022/23 academic year.
Having access to detailed and up to the minute data is critical for successful colleges and education providers. Too many are still being held back by clunky, non-intuitive and restrictive systems that are not capable of delivering the information needed in a timely or practical fashion. There are a number of ways that shifting to a connected suite of digital solutions can transform processes and results.
Management data
Securing funding and maintaining funding streams can dominate the management and administration of education provision. Many stakeholders have already adopted new digital technologies that support efficient and effective data management and reporting and expect the same of the education providers they partner with. Colleges cannot afford to get left behind.
Using powerful data management solutions means the right information can be pulled together quickly and easily to create insightful reports to be shared with key stakeholders. They allow for more meaningful reporting that can focus on multiple datasets that can be repeated as often as needed – where once it might have taken days to go through spreadsheets and pull out the necessary information, now it can be done with not much more than the click of a few keyboard buttons.
This is invaluable for things like Ofsted inspections. Being able to produce meaningful and appropriate evidence, virtually to order, will drastically reduce the stress on staff during these high-pressure visits. Immediate access to information is critical for providers seeking to monitor their own KPIs and trends, helping with strategic decision-making.
It can also help drive further funding from new and existing stakeholders who are more likely to choose to work with the most professional and modern providers because they know they can get accurate and current reports that complement their own processes and decision-making.
Course data
Having access to data about course delivery and learner successes is key for managers in supporting teaching staff, helping them to understand what is and is not working for their students and enhance the way they shape their sessions to deliver the best learner outcomes.
Creativity and fresh new ideas can quickly dissolve when making them happen becomes too complicated and arduous. Good data empowers teachers to develop their lesson content and delivery and be the best they can be. Where the old processes were time-consuming, automation takes the grind out of necessary tasks and lets them concentrate on their core skillset.
Feeling more in control of one’s daily work-life and being more self-directed is good for staff morale. Happier staff contribute to an overall better working environment where positivity, mutual support and better outcomes can flourish. It also plays a key role in helping to increase employee retention, benefitting the provider with a more stable, experienced team of educators. This means less disruption for students and saves providers the significant costs and resources required for hiring and onboarding new teachers.
Course data is also valuable for college managers, giving them real time oversight of information such as attendance, that can help them shape future courses and provision. Strategies can be developed using accurate information that may be far more revealing than previous anecdotal evidence and reflective of actual rather than perceived changes in trends.
Individual learning journey
Ultimately, the day to day function of education delivery needs to be student-focused, with the experience of each individual learner a critical element in broader trends and outcomes. High quality data about individual learning journeys helps educators identify areas where a student may need more support or require a different approach in order to achieve their own particular goals.
Using accurate data is an essential tool for sharing information with students, as it represents honest and unbiased information. Teachers can use this to motivate, encourage and support better outcomes. When students can see that their learning experience is being recorded and evidenced in this way it can help with engagement, encouraging them to stick with their studies and achieve their goals. Supporting learner retention is not just important for the students, it’s a vital objective for providers to maintain income streams that correlate to learner numbers and course completion data.
Data security
Education providers hold lots of sensitive personal information, including student and employee contact details and addresses, employee bank details and identity documents. They also have detailed information about people’s learning, their backgrounds and special educational needs as well as records of their performance and achievements. This is the sort of data that can cause immense reputational damage if it falls into the wrong hands. Digital solutions reduce the need for paper files and significantly reduce the risk of things going astray, keeping everything in a ‘single’ secure place from the point of view of the end-user.
Cybercrime is a growing concern for organisations in all industries and sectors, which is why it makes sense to choose a digital solutions provider implementing the highest-level cybersecurity measures with built-in compliance around data security. Well designed digital solutions are automatically updated whenever guidelines or legal requirements change, ensuring that compliance is also automatic.
Case study
SPS Training Solutions is an education provider in the East of England that helps people acquire key skills in subjects like maths, English and IT; provides training for vocational skills in a wide range of industries; and runs short courses in subjects ranging from software packages to languages.
The provider implemented Advanced’s ProSuite in 2017, when it secured funding from the Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). Like many stakeholders, the ESFA required there to be a digital management system in place and offered the use of its own system. However, as SPS has contracts with other clients it made sense to set up its own solution that could effectively integrate all of its management and learning data into one place.
Director of funding, Ben Wise says: “We chose ProSuite because it was easy to use and it was critical that staff with little prior experience could input data and access it easily.” Each of the different solutions within the system addresses a specific pain point and are fully integrated with each other. As such they are perfect for users who want to start with one solution and build the suite over time. Advanced supports its clients with regular updates, new developments and built-in tools, making sure that they can access the most relevant and up to date solutions to operational challenges. SPS began with ProSolution, a student management information system and Ben estimates that using the Envelope feature combined with Web Enrolment has saved teams around 50% of previous admin time.
During the first lockdown ProSolution gave the provider a powerful tool to connect with and market themselves to previous students, as job centres were focusing on helping the growing numbers of unemployed people to access benefits instead of training. With no other income streams available at that time, Ben says: “We would not be here without ProSolution.” The facility to easily contact previous learners and enrol them remotely has now become standard practice. “It speeds up the process of enrolling unemployed adults who come for training and improves the experience for them too. Signing and returning documents digitally has streamlined entire the process, helping us to be a much more professional organisation.”
The scaleability of the entire suite was another critical factor in choice and SPS intends to add more solutions such as ProMetrics and ProMonitor in line with organisational growth and new funding.
Conclusions
At the end of the day, data is just information and it is only as useful as the processes put into place to access and measure it. Data becomes a hugely powerful tool for success when it is used correctly. Education providers amass large quantities of information and it is essential it is used to inform better decision-making and inspire new ways of doing things. Implementing a powerful suite of fully integrated solutions is the way to achieve optimum results. Systems that ‘talk’ to each other can also each contribute to a more detailed and in-depth collection of information that can help transform efficiencies. These provide an opportunity to select from a suite of solutions and add to these as the organisation grows and its needs change, to provide a truly scaleable solution.
Implementing any new system requires careful decision-making, particularly for managers in the Education sector. It makes sense to consider data management systems and services from a solutions provider with experience in the education sector, that understands the pain points, challenges and implications of the changing trends in education management and delivery. A well-resourced solutions company with longevity is more likely to be around and continue to supply developments and enhancements to their solutions in the long-term – a partner that can be counted upon to keep delivering the solutions and support that successful education providers need, now and into the future.
Achieve optimum results at every stage
Connected solutions, with connected data, can be the difference maker for colleges. Which is why Advanced are committed to offering the most comprehensive and integrated suite of digital solutions in the education space. Innovative software products that support you on every step of the journey. If you aspire to be an outstanding provider, we can help – with connected solutions covering MIS, ILR, LMS, ePortfolio, learner monitoring, functional skills, GCSE and much more.
Three powerful, class-leading education solutions – all from Advanced:
ProSuite for MIS, ILR and learner monitoring
Smart Apprentices for ePortfolio and LMS
bksb for functional skills and GCSE
For an informal chat about a more connected future for your organisation, please get in touch.
Discussions are underway for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers to return as co-owners of the Education and Training Foundation – four years after all ties were cut.
AELP dramatically walked away from the ETF in 2018 after claiming the foundation was ignoring independent training providers and was “no longer an organisation run by the FE sector for the sector”.
Two AELP trustees resigned from the ETF’s board, leaving the Association of Colleges and adult community education body Holex as the foundation’s remaining part-owners.
David Hughes, the AoC’s chief executive, revealed at today’s AELP national conference that he is now working with the AELP to return as an ETF member to increase collaboration in the sector.
He said the ETF has “lost sight of their true purpose” in recent years and that it is time to have a “fundamental review” of the foundation’s role and purpose.
AELP chief executive Jane Hickie (pictured) confirmed that “productive discussions” about their return to ETF co-ownership are taking place.
She told FE Week that this is a “critical time for the FE sector and our workforces” in the face of the cost-of-living crisis and inflation pressures, so “we need a collaborative approach to tackle the challenges with an ETF that represents the interests of the sector as a whole”.
She told FE Week the ETF wants AELP to be a member again because “we recognise how important it is to have the representation across the sector, in terms of all those different views”.
Established in October 2013 by former skills minister John Hayes, the ETF was mostly funded by the Department for Education and designed as a “sector-owned” support body, helping train the people who work in technical and vocational education.
Hughes, who was chair of the steering group which set up the ETF, told today’s conference that he was “really clear all the way along” that the foundation needed to be a “small organisation procured from the market” including colleges, private providers and adult education providers.
But instead “I think they’ve started to think well, actually, we need to survive as an institution” which resulted in the ETF venturing into delivery.
“I think that was a mistake and I said so at the time,” Hughes said, “so I’m really keen that we have a fundamental review of purpose and role, and that we work out what the relationship is between ETF and my organisation, and AELP, and HOLEX, and ITPs and colleges”.
In response, Jarvis said: “I think we’ve always had a clear core purpose and it’s always been linked to our charitable aims and objectives and articles, which is about post-14 and workforce development. That’s what we’re always here for and that it was what we will be doing.”
She added that the ETF has received around 4,000 responses as part of a “big listening exercise” to “make sure we’re meeting needs in this changing environment”.
Having become an MP in 1989, Lord Mike Watson has spent many years in frustrating opposition for the Labour Party. As he steps down as shadow education minister in the Lords, he offers words of advice for his successors
It’s not often you sit in a grand, wood-panelled room in the heart of Westminster, and the Lord sitting opposite you says: “I started out as a communist, you know.”
But that is where I find myself with the highly likeable Mike Watson, or Baron Watson of Invergowrie (which is his birthplace, a village on the east coast of Scotland). The shadow education minister for Labour in the House of Lords became an MP in 1989, was made a life peer by Tony Blair in 1997, and then got the education brief during Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure, in 2015.
He has worked with five shadow education secretaries, seen Labour education policies rise and fall, and had plenty to say in the recent debates in parliament on the then skills and post 16 education bill, now the skills and post 16 education act.
In 2005, he was even briefly kicked out of the party for setting fire to some curtains in a hotel while under the influence of alcohol, meaning his Wikipedia entry has to be one of the most colourful around (“Watson is a British Labour Party politician and arsonist.”) He tells me: “Both myself and the party have moved on, and I was very pleased to hold the education brief on the front bench in the Lords under two party leaders.”
But after seven years working hard at the education brief, he’s now stepping down and handing over to Baroness Jenny Chapman, former MP for Darlington, to spend more time with his family.
It was at university, he says, that he was “hit between the eyes with student politics”. He didn’t come from an especially political household – his father worked for a clothes trading company and his mother was a teacher – but at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh he came across Marxist theory while studying economics.
“In those days, student politics was really alive in a way it’s not now, and most weeks we’d be protesting the Vietnam war,” he says. “The debates were really rigorous. It wasn’t exactly preparation for real life, but it was a good preparation for debating in the chambers.”
But political reality soon hit home. He left university in 1974 and moved to Derbyshire to become a teacher with the Workers’ Educational Association, delivering adult education.
“It gave working-class people who had day jobs the opportunity to get the education they perhaps hadn’t got before,” he says approvingly. He taught multiple subjects and remains involved in the all-party parliamentary group on adult education to this day.
Labour Party conference Brighton, 1977
It was at this point he also decided the Communist Party had “good polemic” but little chance of power, and so, inspired by some of the Labour Party’s greatest figures, he switched to Labour.
Two of these influential figures were Scottish. Keir Hardie – a Lanarkshire man, like Watson – was one of the founders of the Labour Party in the late 19th century. Likewise, James Maxton was a Scot and former teacher who became a Glasgow MP in 1922 and was considered a powerful orator.
His other hero is democratic socialist the late Tony Benn. Watson grins as he recalls the story of Benn filling out a form including a section on his education, under which he simply wrote: “Ongoing.”
“These people were moving politics forward, and really improving people’s lives,” he says. “To me, that’s the purpose, to be in power and be able to change people’s lives.”
More soberly, he adds: “That’s why it’s been so disappointing to me that for so much of my active political life, Labour has been out of power.”
The party’s election history is indeed sobering: out of 28 general elections since 1918, the Conservatives have won 19 and Labour just nine. Watson admits that currently he “despairs” at the large Conservative majority, and the fact there is only one Labour MP in Scotland.
But he adds an important qualification: “I certainly think there’s a very good chance there will be a Labour-led government after the next election.” He’s not opposed to an SNP coalition, arguing the threat of a referendum is not as imminent as some may think.
So under a Labour-led government, what should FE policy look like?
First off, Watson breaks away from some in his party by voicing his support for the apprenticeship levy, a policy he clearly thinks merits continuation. “The levy has tended to be derided by some of my colleagues, but I’ve tended to me more supportive. Yes, the funding needs to be more carefully allocated […] but I think we should make the most of it. Bluntly, it’s a tax.”
If Labour had tried to introduce the levy, they would have been accused of hammering business
He adds the very interesting point: “If Labour had tried to introduce it, they would have been accused of hammering business. But the Tories can get away with it, and they have got away with it. So I wouldn’t look to junk it, I would look to revise and refocus it.”
Where he does have reservations is around the use of apprenticeship levy funding for degree apprenticeships. “I’m not anti-degree apprenticeships […] No debt, work experience, perhaps a guaranteed job – what’s not to like? But to call that an apprenticeship really is stretching it a bit, I think, and I don’t really want to see apprenticeship levy funds used for that.”
Watson also has little time for employers who complain about the 20 per cent off-the-job training requirement for apprenticeships (now dropped in favour of a minimum six-hour per week requirement). He points out “the historic record of British employers investing in training is appalling” compared with many northern European nations, adding “it’s such a short-sighted approach”.
His other calls are, like many in the sector, for the lifetime skills guarantee to be extended below level 3, and for funding for participants to do those qualifications, given the financial and caring responsibilities many are saddled with.
With Eddie Floyd (far left), Ben E King (centre) and fellow soul-loving MPs, House of Commons terrace, 1990
But as well as offering room for improvement on the bill, Watson gives credit where it’s due, too. “I’ve been less critical of the skills bill than some, because I do believe the government’s got its heart in the right place about boosting skills and lifetime learning.”
The other area he wants Labour to lead on is careers advice. Watson once started an apprenticeship in accountancy before quitting, and is frustrated “too many” schools aren’t promoting them and other routes into further education.
This is the key role of being in the Lords – providing a critical eye on the legislation of the day. But interestingly, Watson reveals Labour members in the Commons and the Lords don’t interact very much (the two houses even have different conventions: the politer Lords has ‘content’ and ‘not content’ votes, rather than ‘ayes’ and ‘noes’). For instance it was Angela Smith, Labour’s leader in the Lords, who handpicked Watson for the education brief in 2015, not Jeremy Corbyn himself.
Lord Watson, 1985
Only she and Roy Kennedy, the shadow chief whip, also sit on the shadow cabinet, providing “that direct link back” to Labour’s top team, says Watson. Similarly, the Lords only has a soft power over the government (the many rejected amendments to the skills bill being a case in point).
“But ministers will be told, ‘the feeling in the Lords was strong on this, you might want to tweak that’,” explains Watson. He adds that Baroness Barran, the government’s education minister in the Lords, was “very receptive” to concerns in the House.
Instead the real problem within the Lords is the lack of staff, continues Watson. Shadow cabinet members might have one member of staff to research policy issues, but the Lords usually have none. “It does hamper you when you’re up against ministers who have civil servants.”
The lack of staff does hamper you when you’re up against ministers
It means his key advice to Chapman, his replacement, is to “build relationships and contacts” with sector organisations and think tanks who can offer answers, including the Careers & Enterprise Company, education unions, children’s rights groups and parent groups such as More Than A Score.
Watson concludes with similar advice for Bridget Phillipson, the latest person to be shadow education secretary for his party. He points out the most impactful education secretaries such as David Blunkett and Michael Gove “spent three years preparing” for the role and could “take down a folder of policies ready to go” once in office. “It really helps to be prepared.”
From the Communist Party to wearing gowns in the Lords, Watson clearly feels the education brief has been one of his most rewarding stints in politics.
“Education is just something we can all identify with. It has issues of importance and great interest to everyone,” he says. “It’s just a brilliant portfolio.”
Staff at Richmond upon Thames College have announced another round of strikes over “fire and rehire” plans – this time for 14 consecutive days that clash with the first teaching week of the next academic year.
University and College Union members said they will down tools over a three-week period in August and September in response to management plans to “sack every teacher at the college and force them to reapply for their jobs on worse terms and conditions if they want to stay”.
The announcement comes as staff take a further day of strike action today aimed at disrupting an open day taking place at the college.
Richmond upon Thames College (RuTC) previously condemned the UCU’s action, which clashed with the busy exam period for students.
The college has urged the union to reconsider its latest strike action, which a spokesperson described as an “unacceptable tactic”.
The dispute has arisen over the college’s proposal to reduce the current 64 days per year of annual leave, including bank holidays and efficiency days, to what the college calls “a level in line with other FE colleges”.
UCU has claimed staff would lose 10 days of holiday – but the college said they are proposing a “net loss” of eight days of annual leave with full financial compensation.
“This is not a cost cutting exercise but one which in fact will compensate staff fully for the reduction in annual leave and thereby increase their salary during a time of cost-of-living rises,” a spokesperson for the college said.
But UCU said holiday entitlement is one of the few perks in RuTC, which allegedly pays qualified teachers “as little as £26,000”. The union claimed that teachers with over 13 years’ experience only earn around £37,000 – lower than at “most colleges in the surrounding area and teachers at local schools can earn up to £51,000”.
UCU regional official Adam Lincoln said: “Staff now fighting to save their jobs have dedicated themselves to supporting their students and the fact that management are trying to slash 10 days from their holiday entitlement is a mark of shame for the entire college, and one which will rightly shock current and prospective students as well as the wider community in the area.
“The announcement of further strike action shows staff are going absolutely nowhere and it is in the interests of college management to immediately remove the threat to people’s jobs, ditch these plans and treat staff properly.”
Striking staff will be picketing and holding a rally at RuTC’s Marsh Farm Lane entrance at 4pm today as prospective students and their parents visit the college. The protest will include a mobile billboard outlining the college’s fire and rehire plans.
Further strikes in the summer, which will hit enrolment, induction and the first week of teaching in 2022/23, will run from August 22 to September 9.
An RuTC spokesperson said: “These dates are clearly and cynically targeted at disrupting the enrolment process and start of teaching for new students joining the college in 2022/23, as well as prolonging the disruption to the learning experience for continuing students who have been impacted by the strike action carried out to date.
“We are aware that the ongoing dispute with UCU might reasonably give rise to concerns for prospective students and their parents/carers, as well as those already with us and continuing into 2022/23.
“Please be reassured that the college remains committed to providing all of our students with the best possible learning experience and opportunities to achieve, and we have already put in place strong and effective contingency plans to ensure that any disruption from further industrial action is minimised and our students’ learning experience is fully protected.”
The spokesperson added that management at RuTC “will not be intimidated by tactics that seek to coerce by means of threat of further disruption to our students’ learning and assessment experience”.
