Let T Level students study other quals at the same time, says new Ofqual chief

T Levels should be slimmed down so that students can study other qualifications, such as BTECs, alongside them, the new Ofqual boss has said.

Jo Saxton called for a “much more mixed offering” when it comes to post-16 qualifications during an interview with FE Week’s sister publication Schools Week.

She questioned a system that creates “division” between certain types of qualifications and welcomed the Department for Education’s new ministerial team’s recent reassurance that they do not want a binary choice of T Levels and A-levels when young people leave school.

“If I was in charge of T Level policy you would have a T Level that was equivalent to two A-levels so you could do a T Level and something else,” Saxton then said.

Her view is similar to that of education select committee chair Robert Halfon. His committee this week launched an inquiry into the “effectiveness” of post-16 qualifications such as A-levels, T Levels, BTECs and apprenticeships.

It will explore whether a new baccalaureate system that would “allow young people to study a greater blend of academic and vocational subjects” should be introduced in their place – an idea proposed by Halfon in 2019.

T Levels, which typically involve 1,800 teaching hours, including a 45-day work placement, are currently the equivalent to three A-levels. The government does not allow for other qualifications to be taken alongside them, whereas they do for A-levels.

The Department for Education is also in the midst of controversial reforms to level 3 qualifications, which are set to see the defunding of most BTECs and other applied general qualifications that overlap with T Levels and A-levels.

Ofqual regulates the technical qualification component of T Levels but overall policy design sits with the DfE and Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

Saxton admitted her regulator’s power over the make-up of T Levels is “quite limited” but said she would “definitely like to get more involved” in their development.

She added: “We want these high quality, innovative qualifications to be as accessible as possible to all learners. I’m thrilled to be leading Ofqual at a time when we will be regulating the technical qualification component of T Levels as they are introduced.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said there are “no plans to change T Levels” when asked if the DfE would consider Saxton’s proposal.

Saxton has taken over Ofqual at a time when regulation of vocational and technical qualifications is going through significant change.

One contentious reform is a proposal in the Skills Bill, which is currently making its way through parliament, to give the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education the ultimate sign-off power for the approval and regulation of technical qualifications in future.

Awarding bodies have claimed this is a “retrograde step” and would reverse the “gains” of independent regulation that parliament intended in 2009 when it set up Ofqual.

Unlike Ofqual, the institute is a non-departmental public body directly accountable to ministers, not parliament.

There is concern that IfATE’s new powers would therefore introduce a conflict of interest. Some also fear that having two regulators splitting responsibility for certain types of vocational and technical qualifications could also create a muddled and cumbersome two-tier system of regulation.

Saxton admitted the move is “slightly controversial” but believes it is “completely right” because IfATE has the expertise and time that Ofqual doesn’t to explore exactly what type of technical qualifications are needed by employers.

“The new powers mean IfATE gets to hold the kind of standard of what good technical qualification – in whatever discipline that is employer-related – looks like. We get to look at the assessment part of it.

“I think that separation is quite useful.”

She added: “I’ve heard already from a number of awarding organisations in vocational and technical sectors that they’re worried about this being the beginning of what they call ‘dual regulation’ and there are more hoops to jump through.

“But for me, I think it’s completely in the interests of learners. There is a legal requirement to keep an eye on regulatory burdens, and we’ve got to make sure that it doesn’t become inappropriate.”

Kickstart breaks down: NAO reports on massive underspend and ‘deadweight’ jobs

The country’s spending watchdog has found the government is oblivious to the quality, targeting and scale of “deadweight” Kickstart jobs.

A report by the National Audit Office has also revealed the flagship programme is set for a £650 million underspend, as officials now estimate they’ll only reach 168,000 starts compared to the 250,000 the chancellor Rishi Sunak was aiming for.

But at a cost of around £7,000 per participant, Kickstart has become the Department for Work and Pensions most expensive support scheme.

The department claimed its benefits to society will outweigh the costs by up to £1.65 for every £1 invested, but only if it is targeted “effectively at the right people and the jobs created would not have otherwise been funded by employers”.

The NAO found the DWP has “limited assurance” over this, because the department does not collect or monitor the necessary data.

Meg Hillier MP, chair of the public accounts committee, said the “jury is out” on whether Kickstart will end up being value for money and “whether it will actually help those groups of young people who truly need it”.

She expressed concern at the DWP’s “worryingly light-touch approach to setting targets or tracking performance”, considering the government pumped £1.9 billion into the scheme.

A government spokesperson said their officials acted “quickly and decisively to establish Kickstart at the start of the pandemic when it was feared unemployment levels would more than double – as this report acknowledges”.

Kickstart was launched in September 2020 in a bid to prevent a significant rise in youth unemployment in the face of Covid-19.

It offers six-month paid work placements to those aged 16 to 24 who are on Universal Credit and deemed to be at risk of long-term unemployment – with the government picking up their wage bill.

Employers were only supposed to benefit from the wage-subsidy if they could prove the jobs were “additional” and would not have existed without the funding provided.

Even before the scheme got under way, the DWP assumed that only 50 per cent of the economic output of Kickstart jobs would be additional, the NAO found.

The department calculated the figure could be as low as 30 per cent, but claimed the scheme would still have a positive social return if it “also has the intended employment impact”.

The NAO report states the DWP also “recognised the risk” that non-additionality could increase as the economy recovered and does not expect its evaluation, planned to be released in several years, to “achieve a robust estimate of Kickstart’s impact on the wider economy”.

Labour market conditions developed in unexpected ways that hampered the take-up and effectiveness of the scheme, according to the audit office.

It found the number of young people claiming Universal Credit and searching for work for more than a year has continued to increase, from 48,800 in February 2020 to 144,000 in September 2021 – a 195 per cent increase – despite Kickstart.

By summer 2021, the DWP acknowledged it was unrealistic to achieve its initial aim of 250,000 young people starting a Kickstart job by December 31, 2021 and is now planning on the basis of up to 168,000 starts by the end of March 2022, following the scheme’s extension.

Some 100,000 people have started jobs created by the scheme to date. DWP expects to spend £1.26 billion in total.

Wider issues with the scheme’s rollout are laid bare in today’s report.

As the DWP launched Kickstart at pace due to the pandemic, it experienced “a number of problems, leading to some criticism from stakeholders about unclear rules, a lack of published data on progress and short notice about changes”.

It has also “generally taken several months to fill the vacancies that have been filled”, with employers waiting an average of 62 days for the DWP to complete administrative checks on each application, according to the NAO.

This echoes the findings of a recent FE Week investigation, in which businesses slammed Kickstart as overly “complex, bureaucratic and slow”.

The NAO has told the DWP to start monitoring whether work coaches refer the right people to the scheme and assess why there are many people who, in principle, are eligible for the scheme but are not taking up the outstanding vacancies.

DWP should also “conduct routine inspections and monitoring of Kickstart employers to ensure that they are fulfilling the condition that these jobs are high quality and additional”.

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “DWP has limited assurance that Kickstart is having the positive impact intended. It does not know whether the jobs created are of high quality or whether they would have existed without the scheme.

“It could also do more to ensure the scheme is targeted at those who need it the most.”

Lords committee urges levy spending focus on the young and on lower level courses

Employers should be forced to spend two-thirds of their apprenticeship levy funds on young people at the lower levels, according to a House of Lords committee.

The House of Lords Youth Unemployment Committee also recommends, in a new report called Skills for Every Young Person, scrapping public funding for degree apprenticeships to ensure the levy system does not go bust.

This comes as further and higher education minister Michelle Donelan told university bosses in a speech this week to set “ambitious, measurable targets to significantly increase” degree apprenticeships.

The chair of the cross-party committee, Liberal Democrat peer John Shipley, told FE Week the government “should not be prior prioritising degree apprenticeships over young people getting on to the apprenticeship ladder at a lower level”.

Lord Shipley

While he does not find the “binary” choice between supporting either degree or lower level apprenticeships “helpful”, Shipley called it “a question of prioritisation”.

The committee counts former chancellor of the exchequer Ken Clarke and education secretary turned UTC founder Kenneth Baker among its members.

With 21.8 per cent of 18-year-olds not in education, work or training as of the second quarter of 2021, the report calls for the government to make employers spend at least two-thirds of apprenticeship levy funding on people who begin courses at levels 2 or 3 before the age of 25.

“What we’re trying to get at is that there are large numbers of young people who are leaving school, who are not getting career development with the skills they need, and the country needs,” says Shipley.

Apprenticeship levy could be overspent without changes, says Shipley

A maximum salary ceiling should also be introduced for levy-funded apprenticeships, today’s report recommends, an idea previously floated by the former skills minister Anne Milton.

For years, there have been warnings from the likes of the National Audit Office and the Department for Education itself that the apprenticeship budget could be overspent.

The NAO reported in 2019 on the “clear risk” the apprenticeship programme was not financially sustainable, after the average cost of training hit double the sum the government predicted in 2015.

Asked whether the committee fears that without their measures the apprenticeship system could go bust, Shipley said: “Well, the funding system isn’t working well. So the answer to your question is yes.

“Clearly, reform is going to be needed,” and this would have to be decided by government and employers as: “The apprenticeship system is terribly important for young people and social mobility.”

Government ‘cannot ignore the harm’ levy is doing to young people

The 389-report, based on evidence from sector experts, providers, employers and officials, also recommends lowering the threshold for paying the apprenticeship levy, so some small-to-medium enterprises would contribute.

The committee did not say what the threshold for the levy, currently paid by employers with a £3 million payroll, should be lowered to.

Founder of think tank EDSK Tom Richmond said the government “cannot continue the ignore” the harm the “well-intentioned” levy is doing to young people.

The government’s employer-led apprenticeship system “should not come at the expense of ensuring there is enough funding available” for training “aimed specifically at younger people”, he added.

He called the report’s proposal for a maximum salary for levy-funded apprenticeships “a novel way of ensuring young people looking to get started in their chosen career are prioritised in future”.

‘Employers shouldn’t pay for school failures’

University Vocational Awards Council chief executive Mandy Crawford-Lee said the report’s recommendations “drive a coach and horses through the social mobility agenda”.

While the proposals are “well intended as a response to the pandemic, it runs counter to the policy imperative to level-up access to higher education”.

Donelan’s announcement this week “highlighted the need to move away from the idea higher education was primarily for 18-to-24-years-old,” which Crawford-Lee “strongly welcomed”.

apprenticeships
Mandy Crawford-Lee

“Put bluntly, employers shouldn’t be forced to pay for the failure of the schools system. If an employer believes spending on a level 7 senior leader apprenticeship will have a greater impact on productivity than spending on 16-to-18-year-old apprentices, not only should they do so, but the apprenticeship system should support their decision.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said the government has “committed to improving the working of the levy” and defended level 6 and degree apprenticeships, saying they give employers “the opportunity to strengthen the skills of their workforce and allow people of all ages and backgrounds the chance to earn while they learn”.

The spokesperson also pointed out the department has taken action in the past when they deem there to be an inappropriate use of levy funds.

“We’ve already decided to not fund the MBA part of the highly popular level 7 senior leader apprenticeship, or to fund any level 8 [PHD level] apprenticeships, as we do not believe this represents good value for money,” they said.

The Queen recognises five colleges’ excellence in her Anniversary Prizes

Five colleges in England have been recognised by the Queen for demonstrating excellence and innovation and benefitting the wider world.

Chichester College Group, Exeter College, Grimsby Institute of Higher and Further Education, The Manchester College, and Warwickshire College have all won Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education 2020/2022.

The awards are the highest national honour available to universities and FE colleges across the UK and this year includes the highest number of FE recipients since the scheme began in 1994.

Chichester College Group was awarded for being a recognised national and international leader in craft skills. Chief executive Andrew Green called the award an “incredible honour” of which they are “exceptionally proud”.

The Queen grants the awards every two years, but entries are assessed by the Royal Anniversary Trust charity and recommendations for winners are made on the prime minister’s advice.

Exeter College has been awarded for an “outstanding” track record in digital skills, with principal John Laramy calling the award “the result of a lot of hard work,” and he thanked “everyone that has contributed”.

Becoming a national leader in digital curriculum and learning innovation, as well as delivering skills in a region where jobs are at “special risk”, won Grimsby Institute its award.

Chief executive of parent college group TEC Partnership Gill Alton said: “This award is a wonderful tribute to our staff and the exceptional work taking place here.”

Manchester principal Lisa O’Loughlin said the college, part of the LTE Group, is “proud and honoured” to receive the prize for its “exceptional range of partnerships” delivering on a “mission to improve young people’s aspirations and support social mobility with career-oriented training”.

Warwickshire College won its prize for being a “leading provider of engineering apprenticeships in the Midlands,” with WCG (Warwickshire College Group) chief executive Angela Joyce calling this “very proud moment” the “culmination of more than 25 years of tireless work to establish WCG as a leader in the delivery of engineering training”.

Other award winners include 15 universities and South West College in Northern Ireland.

Royal Anniversary Trust chair Damon Buffini said the colleges and universities being honoured “are testament to the rich and impactful work being done at our educational institutions day in, day out”. 

Digital functional skills: DfE backtrack after SEND exclusion warning

The Department for Education has backtracked on a proposal for new digital functional skills qualifications which could have excluded special educational needs learners.

Decisions on how the courses will be regulated, following a consultation which launched in 2019, have been published today alongside the launch of a new consultation covering awarding arrangements.

One of the department’s decisions is to not go ahead with prohibiting learners from taking their assessments on paper.

The DfE had argued making learners complete assessments on screen was necessary because access to paper copies could not be “effectively restricted”.

This proposal triggered a wave of protests from consultation respondents, with a majority disagreeing with prohibiting paper-based assessments.

This was because “a paper-based format may be required for some students with learning difficulties or disabilities who can’t use an on-screen assessment,” today’s decisions document reads.

Furthermore, not all centres would have reliable internet access or enough equipment, and students “would be discriminated against if this was the only way to access an on-demand assessment”.

On-demand assessments refer to those available for an extended time window.

Digital-based functional skills tests ‘risk making it difficult’ for students, DfE says

An equality impact assessment published earlier this month alongside subject content for the new qualifications revealed the DfE’s concerns the courses’ design and delivery would “negatively impact” learners with special educational needs.

Today, the department bowed to the pressure, with the decision document revealing: “In light of the feedback, we do not think that we should prohibit paper-based, on-demand assessments as it might risk making it difficult for some types of centres and students to access these qualifications.”

Students will still need to use digital devices to complete tasks and questions in the assessment and the department wants awarding organisations to explain how they will manage any risks from using paper assessments.

It will be expected that paper-based assessments will only be available in “limited circumstances,” the decision notice added.

Digital functional skills qualifications are set to roll out in 2023.

The consultation on arrangements including the weighting of marks and the number of assessments is running from today until 27 January 2022.

You can view and respond to it here.

Public sector apprenticeship target missed, and 4 other things we learned from today’s DfE data

The government’s public sector apprenticeship target has officially been missed, final year-end data for 2020/21 has revealed.

Figures published this morning by the Department for Education also show colleges accounted for only 18.5 per cent of apprenticeship starts last year, as well as the impact multiple lockdowns has had on adult education participation.

The department said “extra care” should be taken when comparing the stats to previous years because they cover the period affected by varying Covid-19 restrictions, which impacted on learning and provider reporting “behaviour”.

Here are five things we learned…

  1. Apprenticeship starts stay stagnant

Overall apprenticeship starts were down by 0.3 per cent to 321,400, compared to 322,500 reported for the same period in 2019/20.

The proportion of starts for young people under the age of 19 dropped from 23.6 per cent to 20.3 per cent, while starts for over 25s grew from 46.8 per cent to 50.3 per cent.

At the same time, the proportion of starts on level 2 apprenticeships shrunk from 30.8 per cent to 26.2 per cent, while starts at level 4 and above shot up from 25.6 per cent to 30.7 per cent.

  1. Colleges accounted for just 18.5% of apprenticeship starts

Out of the 321,400 starts in 2020/21, private providers had 64.4 per cent of the market.

Other public funded provider such as local authorities and higher education institutions accounted for 16.3 per cent, while schools, sixth form colleges and special colleges made up 0.8 per cent.

Concerningly for education secretary Nadhim Zahawi, general FE colleges only accounted for 18.5 per cent (59,500) starts.

The figures come a week after Zahawi issued a call to arms to college leaders to deliver more apprenticeships. Addressing the Association of Colleges conference, he said: “Currently around 30 per cent of apprenticeships are carried out in colleges, but if we really want to transform supply we will have to grow that number.

“I know colleges are more than capable of it.”

  1. 2.3% public sector target failure

Public sector bodies in England with 250 or more staff were set a target by government to employ an average of at least 2.3 per cent of their staff as new apprentice starts over the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2021.

Figures published for the first time today show an average of 1.7 per cent of employees started an apprenticeship over that period. This equated to a combined total of over 220,000 starts.

The armed forces performed the best, achieving an average of 7.9 per cent between 2017 and 2021, while schools were the worst at 1 per cent.

  1. Tripling traineeships target tanks

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Plan for Jobs provided £111 million for up to 36,700 additional traineeships in 2020/21, including paying employers £1,000 for providing work placements for trainees.

This would triple the number of starts on the pre-employment programme after 14,900 were achieved in 2019/20.

Final year-end data published today shows only 17,400 starts were achieved in 2020/21 – 47 per cent of the target.

Plans to rapidly grow traineeship numbers were scuppered by various delays to tenders intended to expand the provider-base.

  1. Adult participation takes another hit

Adult government-funded further education and skills participation decreased by 6 per cent to 1,640,300 compared to 1,745,800 in the same period in 2019/20.

Participation specifically for the adult education budget meanwhile dropped 11.2 per cent to 925,300 compared to 1,042,000.

And participation in community learning fell by 32 per cent to 243,700 in 2020/21, from 358,300. 

The number of learners taking out an advance learner loan dropped to its lowest since 2014. Numbers in that year sat at 75,400 and grew to a peak of 119,000 in 2017. Loans participation in 2020/21 sat at 86,200.

New director to lead ‘reboot’ of HE access

The higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), has today named John Blake as its new director for fair access and participation.

Blake, currently head of public affairs and engagement at Ark, the charity which operates multi academy trust Ark Schools will succeed Chris Millward whose four year term of office expires at the end of December 2021.

The director for fair access and participation is a statutory position, established in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 which also established the Office for Students. The £130k a year post is one of two executive positions reporting directly to the OfS board appointed by the secretary of state. The other being the chief executive.

Under the Act, Blake assumes a range of powers to approve, monitor, and report on higher education providers’ performance against their access and participation plans. Colleges that deliver higher education, as well as universities, are required to develop and publish these plans.

This appointment comes at the same time as higher and further education minister Michelle Donelan will, in a speech today, announce a “change of focus” in higher education widening participation efforts “towards positive graduate outcomes” and pre-18 attainment.

As the new director for fair access and participation, Blake will be charged with leading on this new strategy.

“I am delighted to be appointed as director for fair access and participation. I look forward to working with universities and colleges to ensure that young people from all backgrounds are able to access the education that is right for their achievements and aspirations” John Blake said.

“I am especially keen to see further development of partnerships between higher education providers and groups of schools to improve attainment for disadvantaged young people throughout their schooling, providing them the knowledge, skills and experiences they need to access higher education. 

“But attainment and access are only the first steps: they need to be matched by participation and success. It is crucial that students are able to study on high quality courses which meet their needs, and are then supported so they are ready to embark on rewarding lives and careers after graduating.”

Minister to demand universities set ‘ambitious’ degree apprenticeship targets

Universities will be ordered to set “ambitious targets” to boost the proportion of students studying degree apprenticeships by Michelle Donelan today.

The joint higher and further education minister will demand that universities rewrite their plans around access and participation to reduce drop-out rates, with “tough” goals also in the take-up of higher technical qualifications and part time courses.

A Department for Education spokesperson told FE Week there will be no one size fits all for universities, but the Office for Students will consult on the targets. The DfE will be looking for a figure to be outlined on the number of HE providers offering degree apprenticeships.

In a speech at a Times Higher Education event today, Donelan will also announce that universities will be required to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children by “driving up education standards in schools and colleges in the local community”, which could include providing activities like tutoring or running a summer school.

The minister is expected to say: “Gone will be the days where universities were recruiting students onto courses that lead to dropping out, frustration and unemployment. A student’s outcome after university needs to be as important to providers as a student’s grades before university. 

“We need to send a message to every disadvantaged young person thinking about higher education that they will have the support through school, college and university to get there and achieve a positive outcome for themselves.”

Degree apprenticeships’ popularity has soared since their launch in 2015. Data published by parliament shows there were around 1,000 starts recorded in that year, which increased to over 13,500 in 2018/19. This is, however, still much smaller than the number of undergraduates in England which stood at 455,000 in 2017/18.

Education select committee chair Robert Halfon challenged Donelan on the DfE’s work in this area during an accountability hearing last month, during which he said there should be a target of having 50 per cent of students doing degree apprenticeships.

In response, Donelan said: “I share your passion on degree apprenticeships. We have come a long way but there is a long way to go. If we look at the stats, degree apprenticeships increased by 80 per cent despite the pandemic. They were available in four universities in the last four years, but it is not good enough. I want every university to be holding degree apprenticeships, not one or two.”

She went on to say that her department was exploring whether to introduce financial incentives to entice more universities to offer degree apprenticeships.

Cash incentives are absent from today’s announcement, but Donelan insists that all plans to widen participation in areas like degree apprenticeships must be drawn up with “needless complexity and bureaucracy cut out”.

Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, welcomed the government’s move to force an increase in degree apprenticeships.

She said: “Employers tell us they are crying out for higher level technical skills and that degree apprenticeships are great for their organisations.

“So, these new targets can play an important part in growing the number of higher education institutions offering these opportunities so business and students can benefit.”

The DfE said the “reboot” of universities access and participation plans will play a “key role” in the government’s levelling up agenda and the national focus on improving the skills gap in disadvantaged areas.

The reform will be the first task for John Blake who today has been appointed as new director for fair access and participation at the Office for Students.

Blake said: “I look forward to working with universities and colleges to ensure that young people from all backgrounds are able to access the education that is right for their achievements and aspirations.”

Ofsted now inspects over 2,000 FE providers, and 5 other findings from latest inspection data

The number of further education providers in scope for Ofsted inspection has surpassed the 2,000-mark, new data released today has revealed.

And the proportion of providers judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ has slightly increased two percentage points to 83 per cent – but this is mainly due to poor performing providers losing their funding.

The stats were revealed by the watchdog in its published management information on inspections conducted in the 2020/21 academic year, which was heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here are the key findings…

Provider numbers continue to grow…

England has seen the number of providers publicly funded to deliver further education, training and/or apprenticeships rocket since the government apprenticeship reforms in 2018.

As of 31 August 2021, there were 2,053 further education and skills providers publicly funded. This is 181 more than on 31 August 2020 and 885 more than on 31 August 2017.

Between 31 August 2020 and 31 August 2021, an additional 307 providers started delivering FE provision, according to today’s Ofsted release.

Over the same period, the watchdog stopped reporting on 126 providers because they either merged, ceased to be funded or stopped delivering.

The additional 307 providers include 273 independent learning providers (including employer providers) and 26 higher education institutions. All but 25 of the independent learning providers are delivering apprenticeships. All of the additional higher education institutions are delivering level 6 and 7 apprenticeships, which Ofsted became responsible for inspecting on 1 April 2021.

Interestingly, of the 126 providers that stopped being subject to Ofsted inspection, 44 providers started and stopped receiving funding the inspectorate could carry out any form of inspection.

…but college numbers continue to fall

The number of general further education colleges has fallen further, and now sits at 163 – five less than in August 2020.

Ofsted said this is mainly due to established colleges merging to form new entities – which leads to their old inspection grades being wiped clean.

As previously revealed by FE Week, two national colleges have closed over the past 12 months and been taken over by other institutions.

Just 44 full inspections were carried out last year

During 2020/21, full inspections were only able to take place during the last three months, between June and August.

All of these were to independent learning providers, including employer providers, that had not previously been inspected.

Of these, four were judged ‘outstanding’, 26 were judged ‘good’, 12 received ‘requires improvement’ and two were judged ‘inadequate’.

But almost 230 new provider monitoring visits were conducted

In between the national lockdowns, Ofsted continued with new provider monitoring visits as these were “deemed to be the highest priority”.

Of the 229 visits carried out in 2020/21, just over three quarters (76 per cent) were judged to be making at least ‘reasonable progress’ in all themes. Ofsted said this was unchanged from 2019/20.

The watchdog judged 19 per cent to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one theme, however – a judgement which typically triggers the Education and Skills Funding Agency to suspend the provider from starting new apprentices.

Proportion of FE providers with the top 2 grades bumped up

On 31 August 2021, 52 per cent of the 2,053 further education and skills providers had received a full inspection.

Of these, 83 per cent were judged to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, an increase of two percentage points from 31 August 2020.

Ofsted said this increase is mainly as a result of providers judged ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ no longer being in scope for inspection.

Usually, this is because either the provider has lost its funding to deliver public education or has closed.

Apprenticeship quality slightly improves

On 31 August 2021, there were 1,598 providers funded and delivering apprenticeships in Ofsted’s systems.

Of these, 1,175 (74 per cent) had a judgement made on the quality of their apprenticeship provision at the time of their full inspection or new provider monitoring visit.

In total, 81 per cent of the 1,175 were judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ at their full inspection or were judged to be making at least ‘reasonable progress’ at their new provider monitoring visit – a two percentage point increase from the previous year.