Making it easier for SMEs to take on apprentices at top of skills minister’s agenda

Andrea Jenkyns has pledged to put making it easier for small businesses to take on apprentices at the top her agenda as skills minister – although she is yet to be party to departmental conversations about making this happen.

The minister was appointed to the skills brief, which involves responsibility for apprenticeships, in July in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle before he resigned as prime minister. Jenkyns was reappointed to the role last month by new leader Liz Truss.

Jenkyns told the Conservative party conference this week that her “big focus” is improving engagement with employers in apprenticeships. She said: “How can we make the process easier for employers, especially if you are a one-man band where you wear several hats, it can be a cumbersome process and it has got to be easy.”

Her comment came after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said that too often regulation and “stifling red tape” holds “business and Britain back”, adding that there are “too many rules for small business owners who want to take on an apprentice” in his keynote conference speech this week.

But Jenkyns said she had not been part of ministerial conversations about tackling this issue to date.

“Look, I can’t say what discussions the chancellor is having in his department. We do have bilateral meetings, you know with the education secretary [Kit Matlhouse], but I haven’t been party to those yet,” she told FE Week.

“But I know the department, speaking to not only the civil servants but Kit and the rest of the team, we do want to unshackle businesses to be able to really take on more apprentices. So I say watch this space. I know it’s a cliché saying that, but it’s something the secretary of state and myself are really passionate about because it’s vital. It’s a no brainer, we’ve got to make it easier for businesses to take on apprentices.”

Her comments come six months after the then-skills minister Alex Burghart committed to “reduce friction” for small employers using the apprenticeships system.

The digital apprenticeship service was launched in April 2017 but was only for levy-paying employers to manage and spend their apprenticeship funding.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) fully transitioned onto the service in April 2021, meaning that all apprenticeship starts must now go through the system rather than procured non-levy contracts held by training providers.

Burghart said this has been a “time of significant change” and recognised there are concerns that this “new way of working” has introduced some “additional administration, which has been burdensome for providers, and for particularly for SMEs”.

He revealed in March that he had asked his officials to run a “series of hackathons on the system” to “make sure that we can make it as effective as it can be and reduce as much friction as possible so that we can encourage more SMEs to get involved”.

Asked what progress had been made since this commitment, the Department for Education told FE Week: “We will continue to work with the sector and employers to explore ways to remove barriers to engagement for employers, apprentices and providers.”

Tina McKenzie, the policy and advocacy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said it is “refreshing to hear DfE ministers talking so directly about unshackling and incentivising businesses to take on more apprentices”.

She said that two-fifths of small businesses with apprentices say that recruiting and training costs “are on the up – so they could streamline some of the requirements, there”.

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said that too many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) find the apprenticeship system “too difficult to navigate – citing bureaucracy, cost, time, and administrative constraints”.

Recruitment, onboarding and navigating the funding rules are also raised most frequently by SMEs and the providers who support them.

Hickie said she the DfE “clearly recognise the scale of the problem and have committed to undertaking a simplification project – which is welcome”.

Other priorities Jenkyns listed off at the Conservative party conference included raising the “parity of esteem” between academic and technical education, continuing the rollout of T Levels, and introducing the lifelong loan entitlement in 2025.

Religious sixth form colleges to academise from 2023

Sixth form colleges with a religious character will be able to apply to become academies by the end of the year, the Department for Education has said.

Nearly all sixth form colleges (SFCs) have been able to convert to academy status, and in doing so enjoy the luxury of not paying VAT, since former chancellor George Osborne changed the rules in November 2015.

But a group of 13 SFCs which are Catholic-run have been prevented from doing so due to their religious character, which would not be maintained under government rules. If they converted, they would lose protections in areas of curriculum, acts of worship and governance.

The DfE finally found a solution to safeguard religious character through the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, which became law in April.

However, the regulations to enable SFCs with a religious character to convert to academy status are yet to come into force.

After updating its guidance for SFCs considering becoming a 16 to 19 academy to include those with religious character this week, the Department for Education told FE Week that they expect those regulations to come into force by the end of 2022, at which point applications can be submitted.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive, said: “We are delighted that Catholic sixth form colleges will soon be able to academise.”

He told FE Week that 29 SFCs have converted since 2017 and are “flourishing as 16 to 19 academies”, so it is only “right that Catholic colleges now have the opportunity to join them”.

Kewin added that “many” of the 13 SFCs with religious character have been exploring conversion ahead of the formal announcement and his association expects that at least three or four will begin the application process in 2023.

WorldSkills: Driving growth with and for young people

Competing in skills competitions across the world can help drive up standards and growth at home, writes Neil Bentley-Gockmann

After the delays and difficulties of the past couple of years, 35 young women and men from all four UK nations are off to take on the best of the rest of the world in the WorldSkills international competitions.

The team is competing in 29 different skills in October and November, from cutting-edge disciplines such as web technology and cyber security in South Korea, to welding and construction metalwork in the United States, to industry 4.0 and mechatronics in Germany. We are immensely proud of them all for their dedication to training and their commitment to flying the flag for UK skills on the world stage.

As well as sending Team UK members off around the world, we are hosting the aircraft maintenance and the manufacturing team challenge competitions, bringing WorldSkills International to the UK for the first time since 2011. 

This gives us an amazing opportunity to raise the profile and prestige of UK skills and show how competition-based training can literally transform young people’s lives. Research conducted by Frontier Economics finds that young people who had participated in our competition-based training programmes earn more than those who have not. According to the research, WorldSkills UK alumni earnings are 63 per cent higher than the average earnings of their peers who had not taken part in our programmes.

This year we are looking to get even more out of our participation in the global competition so that even more young people can benefit from our work. By learning from competing against other leading countries in priority sectors of the economy, such as advanced manufacturing, we can capture and share those insights to help to drive up training standards.

This is vital against a challenging outlook for the economy because we know that a world-class skills base can help to give businesses confidence to invest, create jobs and hire talented young people. This could be pivotal for the government’s new investment zones and to improve prosperity.

Over the next two months we will be forensic in gathering insights on the latest global industry requirements, in technical precision as well as how skills are developed in a pressurised environment. And we will be sharing what we learn with our partners across the UK through our Centre of Excellence, in partnership with NCFE, as well as our innovation network.

I hope you will join me in wishing every member of Team UK the very best of luck.

Researchers to explore 14-16 college provision for first time

Further education chiefs have launched a research project that will assess the outcomes of thousands of 14 to 16-year-olds in college across England for the first time.

Around 10,000 students aged 14 to 16 learn in colleges rather than mainstream schools, with more than 100 of England’s 228 colleges catering for those learners, according to the Association of Colleges.

Now, the AoC and IOE, University College London’s faculty of education and society, have teamed up to research the outcomes of those learners and inform future policy.

Running until 2024, the Nuffield Foundation-funded research is set to assess the trajectory of those learners, with project bosses saying that the high likelihood of those learners to become NEET – not in employment, education or training – has been recognised but not researched to date.

David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said: “This is a ground-breaking project which will strengthen our collective understanding of a cohort of thousands of students which policymakers know little about.”

Those behind the research said it would represent the first in-depth study into “direct entry” learners and would help policymakers in their decision making in future.

Catherine Sezen, the AoC’s senior policy manager and principal investigator for the project, said: “This group of students is among the most vulnerable in further education, and building a deeper awareness of them and their outcomes will help the sector improve its provision for this cohort.”

Colleges have been able to deliver 14 to 16 courses since 2013, often catering for students who find mainstream school does not meet their needs.

Direct entry has, however, proved problematic for colleges as they are included in the government’s national league tables for Progress 8 – a score that tracks students’ progress over time from ages 11 to 16 and compares them to students of similar ability.

Latest Progress 8 scores were published in 2019 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and showed an average of -2.10 at 16 FE colleges with provision for 14- to 16-year-olds.

That was the lowest of any type of educational establishment, with the benchmark no lower than -0.5. The figure for all state-funded schools that year was -0.03.

In 2018, FE leaders called for colleges to be excluded from the government’s Progress 8 data, arguing that because colleges could only take on learners from age 14, they had less opportunity than mainstream schools to achieve better progression as they only had students for two of the five years Progress 8 scores measure.

Two big college groups – London South East Colleges and NCG – walked away from delivering direct entry provision that year and said that the misleading figures were negatively impacting reputations because national newspapers would list them as one of “the worst schools in the country” based on their Progress 8 scores.

The issue had also impacted on Ofsted inspections, with South Devon College complaining in December 2017 that it had been marked down in its inspection for its 14 to 16 provision.

Leeds City College in 2018 ended up in the bizarre scenario of being listed as one of “the worst schools in the country” by national newspapers because of its low Progress 8 score, but had an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating for its 14 to 16 provision.

Lynne Rogers, co-director of the centre for post-14 education and work at IOE and co-investigator for the new research said: “It is scandalous that so little is known about these young people. Given the evidenced vulnerability of this cohort and the longer-term consequences for young adults who fail to gain essential literacy and numeracy skills and drop out of education, there is an imperative to understand the role of FE provision in supporting these young people to achieve positive educational outcomes.”

Ofsted leaves a bitter taste for online-only dental school

A dental training school that recently moved into the apprenticeships market by training learners solely online has received a scathing Ofsted verdict.

Lotus Education Ltd, which also goes by the name Lotus Dental School, has been running commercial training courses since 2012, but began delivering Level 3 dental nursing apprenticeships in 2021.

It claims on its website to offer “a great course that changes the lives of our students”.

But Ofsted inspectors carrying out an early monitoring visit found a catalogue of issues, determining that the provider was making ‘insufficient progress’ across the board in a report published this week.

The report said that most apprentices – 33 at the time of the inspection and mostly aged 19 and above – were in dental practices in the east of England, but “apprenticeship training is provided wholly online”.

Inspectors reported that “no apprentices will complete their apprenticeship in the time planned” at Lotus, and said that few reviews of their skills training had taken place so far.

The report said that apprentices used recordings of lessons to consolidate their learning, but “assessors accept apprentices catching up on missed lessons as off-the-job learning”.

In addition, inspectors found that staff did not have “appropriate expertise to provide a programme of training that meets the requirements of an apprenticeship”, such as English and maths training.

Ofsted has voiced concerns over online-only teaching in the past. In its latest education recovery research published in July, the watchdog said: “Unless there are clear benefits for learners and their curriculum, remote learning narrows opportunities for skills acquisition and rehearsal, and limits social engagement.”

In the same paper it added that learners are “unable to learn practical skills remotely”.

Chief inspector Amanda Spielman addressing the Annual Apprenticeship Conference in 2021 said that “remote apprenticeships are very much the second-best option, reserved for crises such as the pandemic”.

She added: “Face-to-face training for apprentices is still the gold standard for most industries.”

Lotus’ Ofsted report said that managers had not yet ensured that apprentices had received their off-the-job training entitlement, and managers did not identify which aspects of the training were good and which needed improving.

It added that tutors did not use assessment effectively to inform ongoing learning, or mark written work promptly, as well as failing to provide feedback that helped apprentices improve.

Inspectors noted that the staff turnover was high, which had negatively impacted on learning. “A significant proportion of apprentices have left their apprenticeship early,” as a result of losing motivation, the report added.

Employers, the report said, were not invited to be involved in planning training or progress reviews, but noted that employers themselves were fully involved in the learning of apprentices at work.

Basic expectations of keeping apprentices safe were also not covered, the watchdog found.

The provider now faces a suspension on starts until Ofsted identifies improvements, in line with government funding rules.

Ofsted guidance states that a provider receiving an insufficient progress judgment in a monitoring visit will likely receive a full inspection within six-to-12 months of their monitoring report being published.

Lotus did not respond to requests for comment.

Prisoner apprenticeships: The start of a new policy paradigm

This week saw a monumental change in the justice sector. Just three days after legislation was changed to allow prisoners to become apprentices while completing their sentences, the first offenders have already started their apprenticeships.

It is difficult to understate how transformative this change is for prison education – and the justice sector more broadly. It will provide a fresh start for many offenders by offering a high-quality technical pathway for them to gain the skills that are so essential to securing stable employment upon their release. This is a critical part of breaking the cycle of reoffending.

At LTE Group, we are fortunate to bring together experts from the full spectrum of the FE and skills sector, from further and higher education to apprenticeships and prison education. Over the past 12 months, we have used this unique position to play a leading role in putting this policy change into practice. This has led to offender learning specialists, Novus, and independent training provider, Total People, working hand in hand to deliver one of the very first prisoner apprenticeships in partnership with the Timpson Group, with the support of HMP Thorn Cross. 

The benefits

In our minds, there are two core benefits to changing legislation to enable offenders proper access to apprenticeships (including allowing those in open prisons approaching the end of their sentences to leave custody to undertake on-the-job training).

First, given that many offenders have low literacy levels, providing them with a hands-on alternative has the power to engage offenders in skills and learning in a way that they might struggle to access in a classroom. This more practical pathway will enable more offenders to make the most of their time in prison, and ensure as many as possible can gain skills and prepare for a career at the end of their sentence. This not only ensures that sentences are more productive but also benefits society more broadly, as research shows that prison education can significantly reduce reoffending rates.

Second, we passionately believe that high-quality skills and training are key to solving skills gaps in the economy. That includes equipping prisoners with the skills needed to support the economy upon their release from custody. With many sectors having more vacancies than available skilled workers, it is vital every source of potential talent is tapped. We believe that equipping offenders with skills is an important part of the solution. 

A blueprint for innovation

In May, LTE Group held a roundtable that brought senior officials from the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice together with experts from Novus and across the sector to discuss how we could collectively make apprenticeships a reality for prisoners. We are delighted that, this week, that vision has come to pass.  Not only is it a positive and progressive policy that has transformative powers for offenders, but it also demonstrates the power of collaborative working within the sector and across government.

This change would not have been possible were it not for organisations from different parts of the FE and skills sector working together and with central government. We are hopeful that the powerful impact of this approach in prison education will provide a blueprint for engineering further policy changes in the future with the potential to unleash impactful innovations.

When viewed in the context of a UK economy at close to full employment and a growing number of vacancies in the jobs market – coupled with skills gaps in numerous sectors and a shortage of the highly skilled workers employers need – it is clear such collaboration and innovation is essential if the FE and skills sector is to play its full part in meeting the challenges faced by UK plc.

Can FE ever really be more than just a qualification?

Every year, thousands of learners navigate their way through the tumultuous landscape of further education in England. The question I often find myself asking is: what motivates these people to attend, work hard and develop relationships with staff and peers alike?

The obvious answer is that learners simply want to gain whatever qualifications they find themselves studying towards. On an individual and subjective level, this is surely the most important thing in the learner’s educational life. So, the relationships they develop along the way must merely be vehicles for progress and attainment – pure working relationships with a means to an end, to get the learner to the next stage of their journey. 

However, in light of the pandemic, the subsequent crisis of motivation and achievement, and the constant pressure from centralised bodies to ‘add value’ and develop the ‘hidden curriculum’, surely we owe it to these individuals to give them more?

At The City of Liverpool College, we have a focus on the cultural and hidden curriculum. We have created a personal development programme for all learners who walk through our doors, which stays with them for their entire time with us. It even refreshes if they spend more than one year studying with us.

We want the learner to be aware of the world around them: sustainability initiatives; social connections; digital skills; and what we ultimately describe as ‘The Liverpool Way’. We work hard as teachers to identify gaps in qualification specifications that can be filled with lifelong skills and experiences. For example, I try as much as possible to take groups to local areas of natural beauty, to the Crown Court to watch live trials, and to educate them on local history through the array of museums on our doorstep. And I try to develop their skills for work too, like the ability to present information, to work in a team and generally to communicate effectively. I do this on top of any specification requirements, but I link it back in where relevant and appropriate. 

Learners’ experiences can be enriched almost without their knowledge

But do the learners want this? In fact, I think if they were surveyed the instant response would be ‘no’. I am not sure whether learners can link the kind of experiences listed above with positive outcomes or destinations. And because their time is valuable to them, most would probably prefer for us to just get on with teaching them what they need to pass the course.

This is where the trick and nuance of the hidden curriculum comes into play. Through a series of well-planned, well-defined tasks and activities, learners’ experiences can be enriched almost without their knowledge. They will leave as more and better prepared individuals, ready for industry and for civic life.

One of my hardest post-pandemic challenges has been embedding resilience into the curriculum. Resilience is a key life skill that we all use every day, but exposing a learner to scenarios where they hone it seems unfair even at the best of times. After all, we can’t fail a learner in the name of making them more resilient. However, we can look for clever ways to push learners out of their comfort zone. Delivering a small presentation, participating in a fitness test or even pairing disconnected learners together for small tasks have been effective solutions in our curriculum and working group. 

Ultimately, it is probably best to not sweat my titular question. Perhaps college is just a means to an end for the learners we enrol – but as colleges and as teachers it is our responsibility and duty to provide more than this.

We must do this with the understanding that we may never get to see the fruits of our labour. But are we there for thanks and gratitude, or are we there to do our best for those who find themselves sitting in our classrooms?

How to support learners with SEND into employment 

For many learners with special needs and/or disabilities (SEND), approaching the end of their full-time education is a daunting time. National outcomes for gaining employment are far lower for them than for people without learning disabilities, and they face many perceived (and indeed real) barriers to securing a paid job. 

However, our experience shows that these young adults have huge potential to be successful members of a workforce – and of real value to employers and businesses. Our outcomes reflect this, as does being designated a SEND Centre of Excellence by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF).

This year, more than 80 per cent of learners on our supported internship programmes were given offers of employment – with destinations including supermarkets, a cinema, a football club, garden centre and Princess Royal University Hospital. 

This remarkable success rate of getting learners with SEND into employment demonstrates just what’s possible with the right partnerships and support in place. 

Vocational profiling 

Vocational profiling is an essential step to successful employment for learners with SEND. Discovering where someone’s talents and interests lie enables the personalisation of their placement. The right progression pathways can then be developed and suitable placements identified. 

Dedicated supported internship advisers work with our students to see what experience and skills they might already have, and help uncover their aspirations. To support this process, visual aids are used, if needed, and the student’s family are involved to ensure aims are realistic yet aspirational. 

Progression pathways 

Once a learner’s vocational profile has been established, the next step is to support them to become work-ready and equipped with the skills needed for employment, including English and maths.

Internal work experience is a valuable starting point; we have a dedicated student-run restaurant, a horticulture polytunnel, a shop and a construction workshop. These facilities help students learn and practise skills such as handling money and customer service, building confidence and preparing them for a real-life working environment. 

Travel training is vital. Many local authorities provide additional training to support the work done in colleges. It is a crucial part of many learners’ journey to employment. 

Employers and partnerships 

For colleges, finding supportive employers can be a challenge. Using a third party to broker some of these relationships can be useful.

For example, we have worked with Mencap for many years. The charity assists us in finding placements to suit our learners’ needs and aspirations. 

The most successful placements are those where the employer is supported alongside the student – with an understanding that this might be a new and different undertaking for every party. Employing a young person with a learning disability helps create a rich culture of diversity and inclusivity. 

Waitrose, Co-op, Aramark, Vue Cinemas and Crystal Palace Football Club are examples of excellent employers we work with, which provide successful placements and paid jobs for our learners. 

In partnership with a local NHS Trust and our local authority, we recently piloted a supported internship programme for seven autistic learners. Six of these young people secured permanent paid employment in different areas of the hospital. This was a fantastic result, clearly demonstrating the positive impact of true collaborative working. 

Sustaining employment 

Sustaining long-term employment is crucial to their lives and those of their families. So, in partnership with Mencap, we ensure our learners are supported for up to six months upon leaving college and moving into work. This involves a dedicated mentor making regular visits to see the learner in their work environment, providing any support or advice that might be needed. 

For example, one learner was struggling with stock rotation and sell-by dates in his role at a supermarket – but this was picked up and the support he received ensured his employment could continue successfully. 

Learners with SEND are undoubtedly an untapped resource for businesses. With the right support and joined-up approach, many more people could access employment and the benefits of truly inclusive workforces could be realised.

Growth, growth, growth. But what about education?

This year’s Conservative Party conference took place against the backdrop of economic turbulence and an opposition party racing ahead in the polls. The decision to announce two U-turns (on the 45p tax rate cut and to bring forward the date for the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast) did nothing to raise the spirits of gloomy conference-goers or mutinous MPs. A worry for the new prime minister, who should have been enjoying her ‘honeymoon’ conference.

The economy and the repeated refrain of “growth, growth, growth” dominated conversations. Yet for a country facing an immediate cost-of-living crisis and low trust in the current administration, this mantra felt strangely out of touch and long-term.

And where will this growth come from? From public sector services? For education, cuts cannot be an option. The education sector has already been woefully underfunded for years and we are seeing the damaging effects through a teacher retention and recruitment crisis, serious underfunding in the further education sector, and anecdotal evidence of parents having to reach into their pockets to fund school swimming lessons and libraries or being unable to afford adequate lunches.

Given the scale of the crisis, we sadly saw little mention of education. And when we did, there was little cause for celebration. Kit Malthouse announced that he would look to lift the ban on grammar schools, and that he would be even more assertive about intervention and standards. How about we trust our teachers and school and college leaders, and allow them to get on with the joy of teaching for a change?

For a government obsessed with growth (and a new PM who at one stage hoped to be the “education prime minister”), it was a wasted opportunity not to put education and training at the heart of discussions. Investment in education is an investment in human capital and future talent. It can help to restore a sustainable upward trajectory in productivity. And education needs our help now. Teachers and students need our help now. We cannot simply wait for trickle-down economics to deliver changes. Young lives and teacher welfare depend on immediate action.  

Yet there was minimal discussion on the topic of skills and further education. Our ‘Skills for the Future’ fringe event sought to address this with a panel made up of Sir Charlie Mayfield, NFER’S Carole Willis and Jude Hillary, Shaun Bailey MP, UK Youth CEO Ndidi Okezie, and myself. We all highlighted that the gap between education and what the world of work wants continues to widen.

Apart from the newly secured Skills and Post-16 Education Act, there has been a sense of government inertia for too long. We now need cross-party action with a sense of urgency to deliver fundamental changes to the skills system.

After all, there are well-researched solutions for the challenges the sector faces. Our open letter to the secretary of state set some of these out and called for:

  1. A long-term education strategy
  2. Prioritising skills as well as knowledge
  3. Evidencing a wider portfolio of talents
  4. Turning the tide on technical education
  5. Developing balanced school and college evaluations

We sincerely hope these recommendations are taken on board and look forward to working with politicians and civil servants to turn them into reality.

We face turbulent times and not just from the cost-of-living crisis. Concerns about climate change and the fallout of Brexit are also important challenges for which further education can be part of the solution.

Yet the sector and the nation have been lurching from one policy change, one heated political debate, one scandal to the next. This has resulted in a febrile atmosphere surrounding politics. But worse, it has embedded a strange lack of policy memory.

If the government now wants to move forward with no distractions, we must restore public trust in politics and policy making. For education, this can begin with an open and continuous dialogue with the teachers, young people, policy makers, employers and parents who are willing and ready for change.

That’s one U-turn that could win hearts and minds. And votes.