Traineeships are getting good outcomes but are being crowded out by other subsidised programmes, writes Jane Hickie
As we enter 2022 with sluggish economic growth, rising inflation and stubborn rates of youth unemployment, it’s more vital than ever that we equip our young people with the skills employers need.
All evidence shows that traineeships have fantastic outcomes. Young people undertaking a traineeship are far more likely to have positive outcomes than those that don’t.
But with such a crowded field of training and employability programmes, traineeships often get overlooked. That’s why the government should be paying young people to do them.
If the government is to reach its ambition of trebling the number of participants on traineeships, now is the time to incentivise learners.
What are the benefits?
Traineeships are intended for people aged 16 to 24 who aren’t in employment and have had little work experience. They offer work experience with relevant on-the-job training; and offer support to improve English, maths and key digital skills, too.
They’re also great for employers. Traineeships are flexible and designed to allow providers and employers to tailor them to the needs of local employers. They are shorter programmes than apprenticeships, so can be easier for smaller employers to commit to.
Employers need to be able to offer at least 70 hours of safe, meaningful and high-quality work experience. There is a £1,000 incentive per traineeship, and employers can claim for up to ten placements in each region they operate in. These incentives ensure taking on trainees is an attractive proposition for employers.
Around three-quarters of all trainees have successful outcomes (either taking on work, starting an apprenticeship or further study) within 12 months. This compares to fewer than half of all non-trainees.
Government research on traineeships shows that trainees are over six times more likely to take on an apprenticeship than non-trainees.
What are the challenges?
In 2020 the Treasury made a significant financial commitment to re-energise the traineeship programme. This commitment included increasing the core funding, as well as increased participation funding and a new employer work placement incentive payment – in place until July 2022.
However, the progress of the traineeship programme has been hamstrung by traineeship referrals remaining lower than expected. Too many young people are being automatically referred by Jobcentre Plus work coaches to competing provision run by the Department for Work and Pensions, such as Kickstart and now Restart.
At £7,000 per participant, the cost of Kickstart is more than twice that of the next most expensive employment support scheme. The obsession with referring all young people to Kickstart might help to meet internal departmental government targets, but it won’t necessarily offer the best outcomes for individuals. What matters most is the right pathway for the learner.
It would be too simplistic to look at low learner demand and suggest traineeships have no future. Quite the opposite: traineeships still produce exceptional outcomes ̶ whether that’s trainees moving on to apprenticeships, jobs or further study. This means that stimulating more demand from young people should be an immediate priority.
How can we solve this?
Given the pandemic, it is vital to ensure that the DWP and the Department for Education have a coherent and integrated employment and skills strategy.
However, there are concerns that the wage subsidy incentives for Kickstart participants – currently the national minimum wage for 25 hours per week for six months, as well as national insurance and pension contributions – causes other opportunities to be crowded out.
Limiting traineeships to those willing to take on an unpaid placement risks them being a last resort for our young people.
So a government-funded subsidy – perhaps similar to the apprenticeship rate, which is £4.30 per hour – for trainees would be a godsend for them.
It would also be a strong signal that traineeships are a viable way to move quickly into a job, further study or an apprenticeship.
It’s time to give trainees the support they deserve. Let’s give traineeships a fair chance to succeed by paying participants.
Over 80 per cent of college and adult learning providers that were set to be stung by an adult education budget clawback have had some reprieve.
Providers in receipt of AEB grants in 2020/21 were told that they would only receive their full funding if they could prove they had delivered at least 90 per cent of their allocation for that year.
This sparked fury at the time, with affected colleges arguing that the pandemic had meant students stayed at home and classes couldn’t run.
Fuelling discontent was the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s refusal to budge, telling the sector in March last year that “there will not be a business case process” for providers to challenge the clawback and that their decision “will not be subject to change”.
After months of protests, the agency finally agreed to accept business cases from colleges where the clawback could be “destabilising” and that could prove funding for “eligible costs” should be retained.
Delayed outcomes of those business cases were finally communicated to colleges and providers in December.
In response to a parliamentary question from the shadow apprenticeships and lifelong learning minister, Toby Perkins, the Department for Education revealed that 78 providers had submitted a business case.
Of those, 58 had come from general further education colleges and of those, 48 were successful.
The remaining 20 submissions came from other grant-funded providers, of which 17 were successful.
Leicester College, which challenged the agency’s 90 per cent threshold, had its business case supported, which was “good news for stability ̶ demand for adult education in Leicester remains high”, deputy principal Shabir Ismail told FE Week.
But the threat of the clawback and the delay in decisions around business cases, “forced us to make some strategic decisions to protect our financial position,” Ismail added. “We had to massively scale back our plans for T Level capital investment and put a hold on staff recruitment.”
The ten colleges and three other adult providers whose business cases were unsuccessful were able to appeal before the Christmas break.
The outcomes of those appeals are expected to be confirmed by the end of this month, DfE told FE Week, with final funding claims due to be published at the end of March.
One college currently awaiting the results of its appeal, which did not wish to be named, told FE Week that planning has been “extremely difficult.
“We will, of course, work with the agency on a resolution, but we believe our business case stands up. This is a process that should have been over months ago. Going into another term with a big question mark over last year’s budget has made planning extremely difficult.”
Marion Plant, chief executive at North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, sits on almost every board going. She tells Jess Staufenberg why linking up the education system is so important
For one moment, I wonder if I’ve accidentally video-called Mrs Claus at the North Pole, rather than Marion Plant, chief executive at North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College.
She is beaming a huge smile at me from inside a log cabin, with dark pine trees covered in deep snow visible outside the windows. Dismissing the North Pole theory and wondering how I’ve missed the biggest story of 2022 (is there any bigger news than snow news?), Plant corrects me: “I’m in Sweden! I love cross-country skiing.”
She exudes energy, but presumably much like Mrs Claus, Plant is currently taking a break from a very intensive period. It turns out she’s not had a proper holiday in a couple of years, and I’m not surprised: the breadth of her roles is extraordinary.
Aside from leading her college, Plant is also chief executive of the Midland Academies Trust, deputy chair at WorldSkills UK, a board member of both Coventry and Warwickshire LEP and Leicester and Leicestershire LEP, a board member of Coventry University and a trustee of the Church of England’s education board.
Meanwhile, she has set up a technology institute and even sat on the Department for Education’s board for three years. According to her Association of Colleges’ profile page, the FE commissioner once said hers was “the fastest college in and out of intervention”.
Plant and her husband John cross-country skiing in Sweden
It may sound undoable, but it makes sense given Plant’s biggest motivation: deep-level collaboration across the education system. Time and again, she has taken on roles in order to knit different sectors closer together. This was a key reason for joining the DfE board, she says: “It was a fascinating insight. It showed me the connection between developing policy, and then going back to college and implementing it.
“Sometimes you can feel cross with the DfE and ESFA, and done unto by them, but I saw the other side. I think it helped me understand that many people really were trying to do their best for FE, and they were trying to juggle all these competing pressures and demands.” It didn’t stop her banging on about underfunding “like a stuck needle”, she adds.
Taking responsibility for bringing people together is in Plant’s hardwiring. She’s the oldest of a big family of five children, and unusually, she and two of her siblings were adopted, with the family growing up together in Africa. Her parents first took her to Sierra Leone when she was two, and then Zambia when she was seven (her father was an engineering academic and her mother a teacher). Plant remembers sailing over on a boat, and returning to the UK every two years.
“For each of the first two visits, we took another child back,” she smiles. “I’ve always been very open about being adopted, it’s always something I’ve valued. My parents always said they had the perfect family, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
The childhood was “full of freedom”, with no television and almost constantly outdoors, attending local schools and learning African history – but there was political upheaval too. Freedom fighters from neighbouring Zimbabwe, which was gaining independence, would pass through Zambia, says Plant. “I remember a military plane hitting the top of the tree in our garden,” she reveals.
“At the time I chose to take on a lot of responsibility for my siblings, and that’s continued.” With her parents having passed away, Plant says she is now “the glue that holds the family together”.
The experience of a big, loving family seems reflected in Plant’s approach to leadership. She quickly shot up the ranks in England, having trained as a nurse and midwife, and discovering a love for lecturing healthcare students (despite a nerve-wracking first-ever lesson on contraception) at Birmingham’s Handsworth College – now South & City College Birmingham.
Plant with former prime minister Theresa May
She was soon acting deputy principal at North Birmingham College, and moved over to join North Warwickshire & Hinckley College as vice principal. By 2003 she was principal, and has “loved it from that day to this”.
When I ask what she’s proudest of, she describes a family scene.
“It’s the ethos of my college. Every Christmas, we open on Christmas day, and we do Christmas brunch for students, with crackers and presents.” She’s attended almost every brunch, usually with about 20 students. “There were students who might not have had a happy Christmas without it.”
A strong emphasis on community seems particularly important across a college with six separate campuses (the college merged with South Leicestershire College in 2016). Plant herself is motivated by her Christian faith, and she says there is a “strong chaplaincy” in the college which contributes to the pastoral team. She’s recently appointed another chaplain for the Midland Academies Trust: however, she is very firm about not proselytising to anyone.
“I live my Christian faith, but I don’t talk about it. A college is a very diverse place, and all people need to feel valued equally. It’s not Marion the Christian principal, it’s Marion the person, and behind that person is the fabric of what I believe.”
Plant and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury
It’s well put. Plant continues that for her, good leadership is less about grand ideals than about truly being oneself. “I’m not a theoretical leader and I hate using clichés – but you have got to be an authentic leader. I wouldn’t expect anyone to do anything I wouldn’t do.”
She laughs, adding: “I find administration boring, to be honest – luckily I have a fantastic PA. I’m hands on and visible, and I’m honest when I’m finding things challenging too.”
Believing in her own authentic voice helped Plant get through FE commissioner intervention in 2018, when the college found itself in a tight financial position following the costly merger. “Some colleges get a lot of help with college costs, but we had no help at all,” she notes. “I’m not grumpy about it! But there were several strains on our finances.” The college had delivered £1 million of unfunded teaching in 2017-18, the finance director said at the time.
You have to hold your nerve
“I won’t pretend that being in intervention is easy, it’s the reputation and the noise around that,” continues Plant. “You have to hold your nerve. It took me a while to trust my own judgment – that someone else out there doesn’t have the answer. You have to remain confident. Otherwise it could topple you.” By cutting back but “without mass redundancies”, Plant quickly got the college out of intervention.
Since then, she has been able to focus on the three major cross-sector projects close to her heart. The first is the Mira Technology Institute focused on the automotive industry, including electric vehicles. Plant notes with a smile this project is really the original Institute of Technology, before the government announced its own.
Unlike many IoTs, however, this has a spanking new physical building, with students from both the college and schools able to work with industry experts to get qualifications “from level 2 up to a PhD”. She thought up the idea with the chief executive of the Motor Industry Research Association, the project’s industry partner, and she pulled in three university partners too: Leicester, Loughborough and Coventry.
Plant and the project management team in front of the Mira Technology Institute near Coventry
Here, Plant’s bridge-building abilities become clear. She sits on the board at Coventry University, and it was the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership that provided the £9.5 million grant for the Institute to open in 2018. “Being on the LEP board means I get lots of intelligence about the skills sectors!”
But she isn’t done yet. In 2010 the college opened the Midland Academies Trust, sponsoring its four schools. “I persuaded our governors this was the right thing to do,” says Plant, who was concerned by the number of 16-year-olds arriving unprepared for college life. “It was so obvious when I was on the DfE board that education is in so many different pockets.”
Two studio schools under the trust had to be closed in 2015 due to under-recruiting pupils – a national problem for the vocationally focused schools – but the four academies continue, with two ‘good’ and two ‘requires improvement’ Ofsted outcomes. For Plant, it’s yet another opportunity to bring sectors together to better serve learners, including allowing more students to take part in WorldSkills UK, the international competition she adores and where she is deputy chair.
“I’m not sure how in vogue colleges are as academy sponsors ̶ it’s more universities,” she muses. “But if it offers opportunities for young people and it’s right for the area, it’s got to be a good thing.” She adds that her “vision” of a knitted-up curriculum across schools and colleges is not fulfilled – “just yet”.
Plant’s triumph appears to be as a deeply embedded local leader. Just as with her extended family, she holds multiple links and connections across areas and sectors – a sort of complex human bridge. “Collaboration around education on all fronts is the way forward,” she says firmly. “Not competition.”
And with that, I let her get back to a well-deserved break in the snow.
Writing off stranded learners’ debts is a good start, but there’s more to be done on access to adult education, writes Gordon Marsden
It is great news that the #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign, which I was proud to support at its parliamentary launch in February 2017, has had a fruitful aftermath, showing 500 debt write-offs worth almost £1.5 million for the learners concerned.
I think this campaign succeeded because of four things. It was a broad-based campaign ̶ backed by adult and community groups, and others, as well as the FE community. It spoke to common sense and natural justice ̶ that learners should not have to repay a loan for a course when providers, for whatever reason, failed to fulfil their obligation.
It also had the human factor. Around 200 people packed into a Commons committee room on the day of the campaign’s launch. Asim Shaheen, a man in his 40s who was deprived of completing his level 3 hospitality course but left with an £8,000 debt, confronted Robert Halfon, then skills minister, about that injustice. And we all kept it going, with questions in and outside of parliament, and lobbying, until two years later, Robert’s successor, Anne Milton (and all credit to her) announced in July 2019 that government would act on write-off debts.
This campaign must be seen, of course, in the context of the overall problems that advanced learning loans have had since they were introduced to replace grant funding. I visited learning providers and colleges and I spoke to adult learners (many of them women) who had got level 3s with grants, as well as to other people who were contemplating starting them on the new loans system. It became clear to me that taking on debt when they have complex obligations (supporting their own children beyond school, and older family members, for example) worried them more than the traditional cohorts of 16-21-year-olds.
That has been borne out as year after year statistics have shown (and as FE Week, myself and others have consistently pointed out) that at least half of the funding allocation for advanced learner loans has not been taken up. That’s hundreds of millions of pounds ̶ which could have helped fuel so many life chances and opportunities.
The challenges for adult education in the 2020s (of which FE is a vital and central part) have been turbocharged by the consequences of Brexit and the Covid pandemic. There need to be huge new initiatives to support new skills and retraining. This is not just to replace gaps in the service sectors from EU citizens who have left the UK, but also millions of other adults needing new skills, jobs and careers because their current ones have become obsolete or have evolved with the demands of the green economy.
That is why Right To Learn, the group I and others from the Lifelong Learning Commission set up just over a year ago, is campaigning so that government ensures that low-skilled workers don’t just get full protection when they take out advanced learning loans. Government must also make it a top priority for them to be able to get Level 3 and above apprenticeships, and other qualifications, in the first place.
That requires an urgent concentration on promoting levels 1 and 2, as well as traineeships, to disadvantaged adult groups and individuals. This must also include the estimated nine million people lacking basic skills. That needs to happen not just for maths (where the Chancellor made a modest start with the ‘Multiply’ initiative in his October budget) but also for spoken and written English and digital skills.
Such adult learner initiatives would give FE providers major new and life-changing markets and a sense of achievement, as well as contributing to a fairer, healthier and more proactive society. They might even want to try pilot schemes for grants, in which enterprising elected local mayors could participate.
Who knows? It might be an idea for another broad-based and successful campaign for the sector to get involved with in 2022 ̶ #SaveOurAdultEducation 2.0.
Almost 600 victims of an FE loans scandal have had £1.5 million worth of debt written off following an FE Week campaign.
For years, adult learners were being forced to repay thousands of pounds for a course they had never completed after their training provider went bust.
Ministers refused to write off their advance learner loans, even if the students couldn’t move on to alternative providers.
New figures obtained by FE Week through a freedom of information request show that since the law change, 585 learners advanced learner loans at a value of £1,438,767 have been written off.
The students spanned 32 different providers, most of which suddenly went out of business, including John Frank Training, Edudo, MiddletonMurray Group and Progress to Excellence.
One of the victims was Grzegorz Bogdanski, who was being forced to repay almost £6,000. The 37-year-old painter and decorator claimed he was duped into the loan by Edudo, which was subcontracting from West London College before it went into voluntary liquidation in November 2016.
He described the debt as a “stone tied to your leg that you’re dragging all the time” and while he said it was a “massive relief” when his loan was written off, he questioned how the government ever let the situation occur.
“It is disappointing how the government and college dealt with the issue. Nobody wanted to help , even though I contacted them many times. There was no accountability.”
He added: “How can the government hand over this money so easily to the provider when they’re not qualified to do it. The situation was bizarre how easily we could be defrauded.
“I’m just very appreciative and will always be grateful to FE Week for stepping in.”
The saga also resulted in the Education and Skills Funding Agency reviewing its audit framework for loans-only providers and changes were made, including the banning of subcontracting for these providers.
Carpenter Lukasz Pacuk, 38, said he and his family had suffered four years of “never ending” stress as he faced a £4,000 debt with nothing to show for it, as did fellow carpenter Marcin Tryka, 40, who had a £4,500 loan.
Tryka told FE Week of how the government would send him monthly reminder letters that he owed the money. “They were happy to chase us for the money but would not offer us any help,” he said. “It was like someone was stealing from me.”
He said he was stuck in a “vicious cycle” of not being able to gain his qualification or a job as a result.
Tryka added: “I can’t imagine what my life would be like right now if it wasn’t for your newspaper. When we were individual people calling, nobody cared; but as soon as you stepped in the battlefield, it ended so quick. You saved the day, so thank you.”
A DfE spokesperson did not respond to the criticism but said: “No learner should be disadvantaged when issues with their education provider mean they can no longer undertake their course.”
Robert Halfon was skills minister at the time the scandal came to light and backed FE Week’s campaign after he left the post in July 2017.
Reacting to the news that almost 600 people have saved £1.5 million since the law change, the now chair of the education select committee said: “Whilst it was very troubling that hundreds of FE students were unfortunately caught up in this difficult situation, with huge uncertainty about their money, education and future careers, it is fantastic that they are now being released from these debts.
“Congratulations are owed to FE Week for pursuing their campaign and for their contribution to this great outcome.”
Labour’s former shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden was a strong supporter of #SaveOurAdultEducation and hosted its launch event in parliament. He said: “It is great news that #SaveOurAdultEducation has had a fruitful aftermath.” (Read his full article on the debacle here.)
A union has called on college leaders to “guarantee” that the latest FE base rate funding increase will result in a substantial staff pay rise next year.
Just before the Christmas break the Department for Education announced that the national funding rate for full-time students aged 16 and 17 will rise by 8.4 per cent from August 2022.
It means colleges will receive £4,542 instead of £4,188 for each young learner. Most of the increase will pay for 40 additional teaching hours that officials say they now “expect” to be delivered and have promised to “monitor”.
The DfE also announced rises to its high-value course premium; programme weighting factors in five sector subject areas; disadvantage premiums; and enhanced funding rates for T Level students.
The funding boost, part of the extra £1.6 billion the Treasury’s spending review pledged to invest in 16-to-19 education by 2024/25, was revealed a day after the Association of Colleges recommended its members give staff a one per cent pay rise despite demands by unions for a more significant hike.
University and College Union head of further education Andrew Harden said colleges have repeatedly used a lack of government funding as an excuse to hold down staff pay. He told FE Week that this latest funding announcement coupled with 2020/21’s £400 million boost means “there can be no excuses for holding down staff pay.
“The one per cent pay increase offered before Christmas was a kick in the teeth for staff, and employers must guarantee that increases in funding for colleges will result in increases in pay for their staff,” he added.
A recent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report showed that even after the government’s planned three years of increases in 16-to-18 investment, the funding per student in 2024/25 will still be ten per cent lower than in 2010.
Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive of the AoC, said the department’s 16-to-18 funding announcement “contains some good news” for college staff and students but warned “we don’t know all the details.
“Funding for FE colleges comes from several budgets and it seems there will be no increases at all to apprenticeship, adult or higher education rates despite rising inflation,” he pointed out.
Gravatt pressed that addressing staff pay is a “priority” for colleges and AoC would “of course want to be able to put forward a more meaningful pay award, and hope to do so”.
However, he added, the “financial outlook for 2022/23 is still extremely challenging and we won’t know until the spring what might be possible for next year”.
While the AoC recommends a pay increase to its members, general FE colleges are independent and make final decision on pay themselves.
The process for staff pay in sixth-form colleges differs. Bill Watkin, the Sixth Form Colleges Association’s chief executive, explained pay awards are nationally negotiated and agreed with trade unions NASUWT and the National Education Union.
He said last year they agreed a 2.4 per cent in-year pay increase for teaching staff.
IFS analysis shows that FE colleges receive around £1,500 per student more than sixth-form colleges.
On the base rate increase, Watkin said: “We are pleased that the government has raised the rate – not to the level it should be, but enough to make a material difference to the education of many students.”
He added that sixth-form colleges will “step up to the challenge” of delivering an extra 40 hours per student next year but warned that in doing so they should not be subject to any “additional bureaucratic demands” from DfE.
The Sixth Form Colleges Association’s Raise the Rate campaign has fought for the FE base rate to go up to £4,760; while the Association of Colleges has campaigned for as much as £5,000.
The Department for Education has set out the evidence behind its decision to temporarily reintroduce face masks in school, college and providers’ classrooms.
The move, communicated to education leaders this weekend, is a particularly sensitive one.
Ministers have faced a backlash from Covid restriction sceptics, with former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith claiming that the data showing imposing face coverings in classrooms was “premature”.
But they have also faced sustained pressure from others, such as staff and unions, to reintroduce face coverings to make classrooms and teaching spaces safer.
Today the DfE has published a summary of the evidence behind its decision. FE Week takes a look …
DfE study suggests positive impact – but data ‘limited’
A DfE study in October found the Covid absence rate across schools using face coverings fell quicker compared to those who were not using masks.
However, the data has limitations. It is based on data sent by schools to the DfE through the education settings form.
It looks at 123 schools and is pre-Omicron, which is more infectious than the previous Delta variant.
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi claimed on talkRADIO that these schools had “face mask policies in the classroom”. He claimed he was the “evidence-led secretary of state”.
But DfE’s report says the data “does not differentiate between whether face coverings were used in classrooms or communal areas”.
The preliminary analysis found that education providers not using masks saw their average absence rate fall by 1.7 percentage points from 5.3 per cent on October 1, to 3.6 per cent three weeks later.
In providers that did use face coverings, absence fell by 2.3 percentage points from 5.3 per cent to 3 per cent.
DfE accepts there is a “level of statistical uncertainty around the result” and that “further work should be done”.
Professor Stephen Gorard, director of the Durham University evidence centre for education, said the analysis was “good enough” to support the use of facemasks in classrooms and was “explicit about its necessary limitations”.
He added the analysis suggested a “small effect size on infections from wearing masks” which “might save some lives as well as absences”.
DfE said it is working to make the underlying data and analysis available to an external peer reviewer for independent replication of results.
Questions around US masks study
DfE says there are scientific studies which look at the link between Covid and the use of face coverings in education settings, but they are “not conclusive”.
It cites several United States studies which “generally find higher rates of Covid-19 in schools without mask requirements, compared to those with mask requirements”.
One study in Arizona published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that education settings without mask requirements were 3.5 times more likely to have outbreaks between July and August last year.
The CDC has recommended that all children ages 2 and above should wear coverings indoors at school – different to the UK’s response.
A second study showed US counties where schools required masks also had less transmission of the virus in the community.
In November 2020, the UK Health and Security Agency looked at mask evidence in education and summer camp settings.
DfE said these three studies were “observational” and had “limitations” so the results “provide less direct evidence of effectiveness of face coverings than randomised control trials”.
Results were “mixed” but “taken together” they supported “the conclusion that the use of face coverings in schools can contribute to reducing” transmission.
In the run up to Christmas, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) told the government it may be necessary to consider the wearing of face coverings in primary school classrooms, where “the balance of risks and benefits did not previously support it”.
But the government decided to keep primary pupils exempt, citing other measures to reduce transmission such as staff testing and improved ventilation.
Education leaders’ communication concerns
The DfE said it will work with the UKHSA to “carefully monitor the data and the evidence” and continue to “strike a balance” between managing transmission risk and reducing disruption to education.
Back in April, when face masks were used in the classroom after lockdown, a DfE survey found that almost all leaders and teachers – 94 per cent – thought wearing face coverings made communication with students more difficult.
Of these, 59 per cent said it made it “a lot more” difficult.
The World Health Organisation said for children with hearing loss, mask wearing may present learning barriers and could miss learning.
The DfE said it is “therefore important” to continue to offer flexibility to schools either not to use face coverings or to use transparent face coverings.
Zahawi told MPs today he has commissioned DfE staff to further research “the negative impacts of face coverings on education”.
He said masks were “distracting for children at a time when they should be concentrating or listening to their teachers”.
But overall he said they are a “sensible, pragmatic and proportionate thing to do” and hopes “that data will allow us to ditch masks in class” from January 26.
Up to 2,000 apprentices are to be recruited to an 18-month long pilot of flexi-job apprenticeships.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has said today that they are looking for 40 training providers to take part in the pilot, which could also involve thousands of employers.
Boris Johnson first revealed the government’s intention for “portable” apprenticeships in a speech on skills reforms at Exeter College in September 2020. He said: “Suppose you are in a small start-up making videos for Youtube, and the project ends – so you’ve got to move to another such small company. Under our plans, you will be able to take that apprenticeship to your new employer and it won’t die with the end of the contract.”
Policymakers hope that the flexi-job model will enable more people to do apprenticeships in industries which typically employ people on shorter term contracts, or where self-employment is common. The apprenticeship standards chosen for this pilot all fall within the creative, digital and construction industries (full list below).
The pilot will start this April and will run until run until December 2023. There will be a review point in January 2023 where, if the pilot is proving successful, more standards will be added.
Apprentices recruited on the pilot will, with the help of their provider, be responsible for sourcing employment contracts of at least three months, up to the minimum set duration of their standard.
For example, a flexi-job apprentice on the ‘software developer’ standard could in theory have eight employers over the course of their 24 month apprenticeship.
If an apprentice is between jobs for longer than 30 days, they will be placed on a break in learning, which remain unfunded. Only the time spent in employment will count towards the duration of the apprenticeship.
Members of the leadership team* of the National Society of Apprentices (NSoA), who are apprentices themselves, warned that not giving providers taking part in the pilot more funding was a “tall ask… what do they cut, compared to someone who stays with a single employer?” they said.
An apprenticeship with multiple employers comes with other risks, NSoA leaders told us. “It’s tough finding a good employer as an apprentice. If you’re jumping from employer to employer, how do you know? At least with an apprenticeship training agency (ATA) they get to build relationships with local employers over time, seeing who’s good and who to avoid. That responsibility must sit with the training provider, not the apprentice.
“We get one shot at our apprenticeship” they added.
Training providers successfully recruited on to the pilot programme will not receive any extra funding, but will have a number of extra responsibilities. Providers will be required to conduct progress reviews and update training plans with the apprentice between each employer, process breaks in learning between employers (if the gap is over 30 days) and be responsible for recording off-the-job training hours with each employment contract.
Expression of interest documents, seen by FE Week, stress that providers must be confident they can meet their starts targets and state that half of planned starts should begin within the first 6-9 months of the pilot.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) welcomed the pilot as a way to “address challenges in working patterns, which would otherwise prevent people in many industries from undertaking an apprenticeship”.
AELP’s chief executive, Jane Hickie, told FE Week that one of the main issues that needed to be addressed in the pilot was the way providers are held to account because “the success rate methodology unfairly penalises providers when an apprentice changes employer with an employment gap of over 30 days.
“Providers should also not face any additional administrative costs in delivering the programme,” Hickie said.
This pilot model, where apprentices find their own series of employers, is one of two delivery models for flexi-job apprenticeships. The other involves new ‘flexi-job apprenticeship agencies’ which will act as the employer and arrange placements with host businesses for the apprentice. A £7 million development fund was launched in August to set up these new agencies however DfE have missed their own deadline, December, to reveal the successful bidders.
Providers that are currently on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers have until January 28 to apply.
*The members of the National Society of Apprentices leadership team are Sarah Tatler, Annabel May, Simon Phip and Tony Scannell.
List of apprenticeship standards that are part of the flexi-job apprenticeships pilot.
Students should wear face coverings in classrooms and teaching spaces in light of rising cases of the Omicron variant of Covid 19, the government is recommending.
New measures are now being introduced to combat spiralling Covid 19 cases, which is expected to cause significant disruption to staffing in colleges and FE providers at the start of the new term.
Today’s new advice is due to be reviewed on January 26. Pupils and students in year 7 and above are in scope.
In mid-December, the Department for Education issued a rallying cry to ex-teachers to get back to the classroom to help “boost supply capacity” in an anticipation of a possible avalanche of staff absences.
DfE also say that colleges will be able to request an inspection deferral if they are experiencing high levels of staff absence due to Covid 19.
FE Week understands that other FE providers, such as adult and community education providers and independent training providers will also be able to make a deferral request.
Ministers are also pledging to provide 7,000 more air purifiers to schools and colleges for “areas where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible” although the roll-out will not start until next month.
The education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, has said that he will do “everything in his power” to keep schools and colleges open for face to face teaching this January.
“There is no doubt that the Omicron variant presents challenges but the entire education sector has responded with a Herculean effort, and for that I thank each and every one of you” Zahawi has said.
“The Prime Minister and I have been clear that education is our number one priority. These measures will bolster our support for schools as we do everything in our power to minimise disruption.”
Ofsted will also confirm today that any school or college leaders that serve as inspectors will be temporarily stood down from their inspection duties to focus on leading their institutions.
The National Education Union’s joint general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, said that face coverings in classrooms was “overdue” and “should be a requirement”.
“Finally, the government have been forced to recognise, and react to, the scale of the Omicron variant and its potential impact on education” she said.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC) welcomed today’s guidance. “With rising cases and infection rates, it is helpful for colleges to be given additional guidance ahead of the new term. They will also need support to be flexible as circumstances require – they know their staff, their students, and their facilities best and will always strive to do their best to support learning and training in a safe environment.
“With over 300,000 students taking assessments and exams in January and February, we all need to focus on giving them the certainty, support and confidence they need to perform to their best” Hughes said.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) supported today’s extra measures. On face coverings being recommended in classrooms its general secretary, Geoff Barton, said that students “are used to their use and we are sure the reintroduction is something that schools and colleges will take in their stride.”
However, Barton warns of possible disruption for colleges despite the measures being announced today.
“The biggest problem they face is the likelihood of high levels of staff absence caused by the prevalence of the Omicron variant.
“While schools and colleges will do their very best to minimise the impact on pupils and students, as they always do, there is a possibility that this will mean that some classes and year groups have to be sent home for short periods of time to learn remotely.”
