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DfE finally finds chair for new Skills Reform Board

A former Deloitte partner has been appointed as the first chair of the Department for Education’s Skills Reform Board, ending a wrought-out search for the new board’s leader.

Rebecca George OBE, who led accounting giant Deloitte’s public service practice until May this year, has been appointed chair of the board for a three-year term starting on October 19, 2021.

FE Week previously reported the DfE had to extend the application window for the role from May to June 2021.

This was so they could “ensure that we have the best possible selection of candidates available,” a spokesperson said.

Skills reform chair comes with £400 a day remuneration for expenses

The board, created last March, is made up of civil servants and provides oversight of the delivery of commitments made in the Skills for Jobs white paper, which is currently being put into law by the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill.

It assures the delivery of key aims and advises on decisions which cannot be resolved between civil servants.

Until George was appointed by the education secretary, the board had been chaired on an interim basis by the DfE’s lead non-executive board member, former Co-Operative Group chief executive Richard Pennycook.

The DfE described George’s role as “voluntary, with expenses remuneration of £400 a day for an estimated time commitment of 12 days a year”.

Prior to her 15 years at Deloitte, she spent 20 years at IBM and was previously non-executive chair of the DfE’s T Level Reform Programme Board and was a member of the education secretary’s business engagement forum.

She was made an OBE in 2006 for work she did for the government on sustainable communities.

Level 2 business admin apprenticeship replacement ‘some distance off’, warns quango chief

The proposal for a level 2 business administration replacement is “some distance off” the quality bar for apprenticeships, a senior Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education official has said.

Chief operating officer Robert Nitsch told today’s Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ autumn conference he would not commit to giving the proposed standard a “rubber stamp at all”.

The institute has “had a look” at the proposal and while his quango is “not casting off” the trailblazer group, they will need to change it substantially to meet the quality threshold.

Following his speech, a spokesperson for the trailblazer group said it was “very disappointing” to hear Nitsch’s comments as “our direct contacts within IFATE have been nothing but supportive”.

They added that they “welcome the opportunity to continue working with them on this vitally important entry level standard”.

A “public sector organisation administrative assistant” standard at level 2 was put forward by a group of employers, including the NHS, earlier this year. It came after repeated bids for a level 2 business administration apprenticeship standard to replace the old-style framework were rejected.

Nitsch said today: “We’ve had a look at it and think there are some challenges with the proposition against the criteria we apply to an apprenticeship.

“We’ve suggested to the trailblazer that if they want it to come into the portfolio of apprenticeships it needs to be revisited.”

Challenged on whether the institute should meet the trailblazer in the middle considering the decline in 16 to 18 apprenticeships and level 2, Nitsch hit back: “I completely disagree with the pretext of that question.

“The idea is that there is a quality bar at which the apprenticeship entry starts and I do not think it is a question of meeting in the middle, that is the quality bar and any delivery needs to be above that.

“I think it is really important that we ensure there is a threshold at which quality marks out our apprenticeship system. Were we not in a place a few years ago where that eroded and fell away to the complete detriment to everybody in the system?”

Asked how much off the quality bar the trailblazer group was and what was specifically holding them back, the institute’s official said: “I think we’re some distance off.

“The first thing is there needs to be a clear occupation not a mismatch of things that people do. And I think there’s also got to be a sophistication in that occupation, that it is delivering at level two.”

There is a level 3 business administrator standard available, but employers have warned this is not the right entry point for many apprentices.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency previously highlighted the level 2 customer service practitioner standard as a potential replacement for the level 2 business admin framework, but admitted this will not fit all apprentices’ needs.

A spokesperson for the trailblazer told FE Week their next steps will be to work in partnership with the trailblazer group for the business admin level 3, as “we look to shape both standards to show a clear need for both, and a route for career progression”.

“The level 3 is not the right first step for those apprentices living in areas of deprivation who have been failed by our education system, or for those with challenging lives,” they added.

“The level 2 will provide social mobility, will help to diminish health inequalities and provide a real springboard for progression.”

It was Nitsch’s boss and IfATE’s chief executive Jennifer Coupland who drove the final nail into the level 2 business administration standard’s coffin in 2020, ahead of the framework being switched off in July that year.

At a last-chance meeting with employers in February 2020, Coupland said the employers’ proposal did not meet the requirements for an apprenticeship, namely the minimum 12-month duration rule.

Plans to replace the apprenticeship with an alternative began in October 2020.

City & Guilds appoints first female chair

Awarding body City & Guilds has announced veteran sector leader Ann Limb as its first female chair in its 143-year history.

The current chair John Armitt, who has served nine years in the role, stepped down last month.

Limb’s 25 years in further education includes ten years as principal of Milton Keynes College. When she was appointed in 1987, age 34, she was the youngest ever college principal.

She then took over Cambridge Regional College and later spent five years as chief executive of training provider Learndirect.

Limb has also served as chair of the Scouts and deputy lieutenant of Buckinghamshire.

City & Guilds made her a fellow of the organisation 20 years ago, during which time she served as vice chair of trustees.

Limb said the organisation has been “part of my DNA for over two decades,” so she was “delighted” to be taking over and “breaking barriers as the first woman chair”.

The awarding organisation – which has won contracts to develop T Levels for rollout this year, next year and 2023 on top of its over 500 vocational qualifications – “has never felt more vital,” following Brexit and Covid, Limb added.

“I look forward to bringing my experience to the organisation as it focuses on supporting people into their first jobs and helping them to retrain and reskill to remain employable throughout their working lives.”

Avoid ‘complex language’ and stereotypes to make exams accessible, says draft guidance

Exam papers should not use “complex language” when it’s not needed and avoid “stereotypical representations” to make them more accessible, according to new draft statutory guidance.

Regulator Ofqual has today launched a 12-week consultation for exam boards on designing and developing “accessible assessment”. It had been delayed because of the pandemic.

Although the regulator said its current accessibility rules were “fit for purpose”, some boards have said they would “welcome additional guidance” on how to comply with the rulebook.

Ofqual said learners who were most likely to be “unfairly disadvantaged by irrelevant features” in exams, which “can stop them demonstrating the full extent of their knowledge skills and understanding”, included deaf, blind, autistic or dyslexic students, or those whose first language is not English.

Both the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD) and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) reviewed past GCSE exam papers to suggest improvements.

Ofqual also held workshops and looked at responses to the 2020 and 2021 consultations for teacher-assessed grades.

Instructions should be ‘unambiguous’

The guidance said instructions on how to complete the assessment should be “clear and unambiguous”. These should not make students hold “large amounts of information in their working memory”, unless the assessment means they have to.

It also said that more demanding tasks at the beginning of exams could demotivate some students, so boards should think about the impact of task sequencing.

Exams should not include complex language if the task only aims to assess basic numerical skills. Also, boards should use straightforward language, for example “with” rather than “in conjunction with”.

Unless needed, boards should avoid uncommon words with unusual or irregular spellings, or words that have more than one meaning, like “draw”, “present” or “sound”.

“Figurative language, including colloquialisms, idioms, metaphors and sarcasm” should also be avoided, the guidance reads.

Source material should not be “longer than necessary” nor advantage or disadvantage any group of learners.

For instance, “if the source text relates disproportionately and in a way that is not relevant to the assessment construct to a particular socioeconomic context”.

It should also not have “unnecessary negative, narrow or stereotypical representations of particular groups”.

Exam boards should also use “the most accessible” type of image available, such as a clear diagram or line drawing, which could be more user-friendly than a photograph or a 3D effect drawing.

Students urged to respond to consultation

Boards should also consider whether a reasonable adjustment request could raise accessibility issues for a task. For example, how images would be provided in alternative formats, or how screen-reading software would “read” a table of data.

It follows research earlier this year which found that some exam papers didn’t work well with assistive technology, causing “frustration” for teachers and students.

Ofqual chief regulator Dr Jo Saxton said it was “crucial” that assessments were “as accessible as possible for all students”.

“We regulate so that assessments enable every student to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do – without unnecessary barriers.”

Although the guidance is for boards, Ofqual is urging students and those who represent them to respond to the consultation. It closes on January 24, with the final guidance expected in spring.

Universities could be incentivised to run degree apprenticeships, minister suggests

Financial incentives are being considered as a way to encourage universities to run degree apprenticeships, further and higher education minister Michelle Donelan has told MPs.

Speaking to the Commons Education Committee on Wednesday, the minister was pressed by chair Robert Halfon on what was being done to promote apprenticeships at levels 6 and 7.

Donelan said she wanted “every university to be running degree apprenticeships,” and suggested: “We can incentivise universities.”

When asked by Halfon whether this included financial incentives, she replied: “I am looking at that, genuinely looking.”

‘Significant’ rethink of RoATP and promotion of degree apprenticeships also needed

Multiple higher education bodies have welcomed the idea of incentives, but highlighted other parts of the apprenticeship system which they think need to be addressed as well.

University Vocational Awards Council chief executive Mandy Crawford-Lee said incentives, “must enable organisations to fully utilise degree apprenticeships to raise productivity and deliver skills training in key public sector occupations”.

But she said there also needed to be “a significant rethink of the register of apprenticeship training providers, as at present it is discouraging new provide applications”.

Currently, only training providers which fulfil a training need or have been named as a preferred provider in an employer business case can be invited to join the register.

Admission to the register, which enables a provider to run publicly funded apprenticeships, was restricted during the coronavirus pandemic and was only opened back up to new entries in August.

Rachel Hewitt, chief executive of university representative organisation MillionPlus welcomed “government initiatives to boost the growth of this provision”.

However, one of the “key challenges remains a lack of student demand,” Hewitt argued, so she suggested government could start by “helping raise the profile of these courses”.

Higher education body GuildHE believes financial incentives “are part of the challenge,” but policy officer Matthew Guest said the “main challenge is the regulatory burden.

“You need to involve the employers, the industry bodies and now also comply with the Office for Students, Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and Ofsted.”

Since April 2021, Ofsted has been responsible for inspecting level 6 and 7 apprenticeships, while IfATE launched a consultation over the summer on how degree apprenticeships are created, run and examined.

Minister wants to ensure school students know about level 6 and 7 apprenticeships

In her evidence to MPs, Donelan said the institute was “trying to remove some of the bureaucracy,” and she wanted to ensure school students can access the courses.

“I met a group of apprentices either day, and not one of them had been encouraged to go on and do a degree apprenticeship by their teachers, not one of them had heard about them in their school.

“In fact, some of them had been encouraged not to and instead go to university and that’s what we need to be giving that information to our young people.”

The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, currently being considered by MPs, includes legislation to toughen up the Baker Clause, which requires schools to allow colleges and training providers to discuss education options with pupils.

Donelan said degree apprenticeships are available in 94 universities.

Developing excellence in teaching and training CPD

Continuing professional development is very much part of educators’ lives. Identifying what kind of CPD is needed in line with personal and organisational objectives and then sourcing it can be difficult. We have created a comprehensive high-quality online CPD programme for FE TVET tutors and training providers. This brand-new programme ‘Developing excellence in teaching and training’ developed in partnership with the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) takes place online on 24-25 November. Registration for this content-packed and free to access programme is already open.

WorldSkills UK is an independent charity and a partnership between employers, education, and governments. Together, we are using international best practice to raise standards in apprenticeships and technical education so more young people and employers succeed. We are sharing our knowledge and experience based on our international benchmarking of skills and best practice exchanges and unique development tools to help educators in the FE sector reach standards of excellence in their teaching practice.

There are over 11 hours of sessions designed to have practical outcomes for delegates with expert panellists drawn from the FE sector, business, government and around the WorldSkills global network. As well as lively debate from interactive expert panel sessions, the main focus of the event will be practical workshops and insights fuelled by both expertise from our global network and our extensive experience from years of developing world-class, high-quality skills training and development which has enabled students and apprentices to compete in our skills competitions both nationally and on the international stage against their peers from over 80 countries.

Based around four key themes tailored to the modern teaching environment and changing societal influences and their challenges and opportunities, our CPD sessions offer exciting and varied content in standalone workshops and discussions of 45 minutes length, with 10 technical masterclasses of up to 3.5 hours. It’s an essential event for teachers and trainers who want to stay at the top of their professions. There will be insights and resources that cannot be sourced from anywhere else and are gauged to reflect the changing challenges and thinking affecting educators, students and apprentices today.

There will be lots of opportunities for delegates to raise questions during the live broadcast to really get into what matters most about skills training to FE educators today, so please do make sure you don’t miss out on what promises to be a uniquely inspirational and valuable event. Delegates can join for the whole programme or select individual sessions which are most relevant. Make sure you reserve your place for ‘Developing excellence in teaching and training’ CPD programme and join your peers in leading the way towards a skills-driven economy.

Four pathways to excellence

WorldSkills UK Way: The art of teaching and training is based on over 65 years of constant evolution keeping pace with the changing needs of education and business, we have designed these workshops and discussions to introduce innovatory thinking in teaching to mainstream excellence:

Competence to excellence: Raising standards in teaching and learning. This workshop guides the journey towards achieving excellence that is achievable for everyone
Effective technical teaching: Bringing learning to life are two separate sessions especially created for new teachers and more experienced teachers respectively, to explore the characteristics of excellence in technical teaching, along with recommendations, effective practice examples and resources
Enhancing teaching practice through skills competition development programmes to raise aspirations and outcomes will demonstrate the importance of raising the games of students at all levels. Aside from technical skills, competitions help develop soft skills that employers say they value including communication, self-performance management, reliability and teamwork to develop role models that can help boost peers’ own performance in the workplace
The olympian mindset: Embedding, transformational coaching skills for teaching and training, takes lessons from elite athlete training which help educators undertake approaches that result in a measurable difference in the performance of their students. The session goes beyond the technical skills to enhance attitudes and perceptions to create literally, a winning mindset, which combined with technical attributes drives up standards and improves resilience, making excellence the norm
The olympian mindset: Applying transformational coaching skills to inspire high aspirations in learners of all abilities covers how to raise the level of outcomes for your students.

On demand content

Developing learners’ fine motor skills for practical and technical learning sees our experts share their insights and experience of developing students to high levels of motor and cognitive skills, essential for technical learning and the world of work
Building commitment to motivate and inspire students and apprentices explores the challenge of maintaining student engagement and commitment to their learning and development
Introducing lean principles to curricula planning and delivery is a highly informative session helping educators to develop efficiencies in their work, organisation and management for increased productivity based around the five values of: defining value; mapping the value stream; creating flow; using a pull system and pursuing perfection.

Education 4.0

These sessions will showcase emerging technologies, how technology can support teaching methods and improve social mobility as well as future skills needed in industry and services.

Skills for the future: Bringing employer needs into your teaching and learning will help you create relationships which will benefit your students in education and beyond into employment and ultimately, help UK business to grow and compete more effectively from a sustainable base. Learning outcomes from this session will include, identifying concepts of education for sustainable development (ESD), recognition of practices which develop ESD in a range of subjects, exploring different ways to inspire new learners and develop their skills, reviewing resources and tools to support approaches in teaching practice
Skills for the future: Educator approaches to developing green skills explores how three very different education providers bring education on sustainability development into their teaching practice
Emerging technologies to support future assessment will help educators consider how existing and emerging technologies are starting to play a greater role in changing assessment
Technology to support social mobility looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed both teaching and learning and what this could mean for the future modes of delivery
Technology to support teaching methods is for educators to learn about existing and new productivity tools to support learners in their everyday learning environments.

Live technical masterclasses

This is an opportunity to engage with our training managers who are leaders in their fields to get the very latest insights into current and emerging skills that the UK needs to develop to compete locally and internationally. Themes covered are:

Automotive Skills: Automotive body repair showcases adhesive joining and comment from educators who have successfully embedded these skills techniques and practices into their own teaching
Automotive skills: Automotive refinishing looks at ways to help educators embed best practice into the curriculum inviting international experts to talk about their own countries’ educational systems
Automotive Skills: Automotive technology covers diagnostic processes and associated self and system evaluative processes and principles. The session will discuss how to use mindset to develop strategies to solve complex faults in vehicle systems
Digital construction and manufacturing: Digital construction shows how to digitalise your teaching and empower students and apprentices for careers in digital construction
Digital construction and manufacturing: CAD highlights the skillset needed and explains the nature of performance excellence
Network engineering: Cyber security This is an informative overview of encryption techniques, application and content identification using Palo Alto NGFW and other techniques drawn from our work in international standard-setting
Network engineering: IT networking focuses on delivery of Linux in education, themes covered include quality of delivery and how to achieve excellence with advances in IT networking
Industrial automation: Mechatronics and industry 4.0 aims to support educators in involving PLC programming with practical examples to make learning more attractive. Advanced programming methods including an example of web-based SCADA system will be covered, plus transferring data using the OPC UA protocol
Manufacturing and engineering: industrial electronics explains how to embed Autodesk Eagle within the curriculum, with a focus on project-based learning to advance technical teaching to develop learners to a world-class standard
Manufacturing and engineering: CNC milling and turning discusses the journey to excellence that our training managers have taken by using their experience of sharing best practice with international counterparts.

Equity, diversity and inclusion

Ensuring all young people have the opportunity to excel regardless of their ethnicity or background is a constant challenge for the FE and training sectors. This set of sessions gives expert guidance on how to understand the complexities facing both teachers and learners. A session on confronting perceptions, what young people face personally and professionally sets the scene and is complemented by sessions on overcoming learner barriers and understanding how to support learners.

A discussion on the subject of, ‘Is mental fitness a necessary part of education?’ will help educators understand what mental fitness is and why it should be a formal part of education. Learn what Fika the mental fitness and skills development platform and the leading awarding body NCFE have done to close the mental fitness education gap and get guidance on how educators can support learners’ wellbeing through developing mental fitness.

Overcoming learner barriers shares best practice, tools and resources to support educators with understanding barriers their learners may be facing and how to support them effectively
Is mental fitness a necessary part of education? This session will provide educators with an understanding of mental fitness and the importance of developing it with their learners
Confronting perceptions delegateswill hear directly from existing and previous learners and gain insight into the perceptions they experienced. They will share advice on how educators can support their learners to overcome perceptions
Inclusion in apprenticeships shares best practice to help employers, apprenticeship providers and colleges be more inclusive with their learners.

On demand content

Adapting curriculum for special educational needs and disability (SEND) learners supports educators with their curriculum delivery to SEND students. These resources have been provided by The Education and Training Foundation, The Careers & Enterprise Company, Natspec and WorldSkills UK
Safeguarding learners with The Education and Training Foundation supports and increases awareness of safeguarding policies and principles. It will enable educators to identify some of the digital safeguarding risks and improve knowledge of the subject as a whole.

Register for your free place at the: Developing excellence in teaching and training CPD programme

The spending review only partly reverses historical cuts

There was a distinct ‘Back to the Future’ feel to the spending review, writes Luke Sibieta

This week’s spending review had been trailed as representing a “skills revolution.”

It included an increase of £1.6 billion in funding for 16-19 year olds. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak promised that spending on skills will increase by £3.8 billion by 2024-25.

But how far does this spending go in rolling back the large cuts seen over the previous decade? And in meeting future challenges?

‘Only reverses a third of college cuts’

The extra £1.6 billion for 16-19 education represents a 17 per cent real-terms increase in total funding between 2021-22 and 2024-25.

But once you factor in the expected growth of 10 per cent in student numbers over this period, this only becomes a six per cent real-terms increase in spending per student.

This is an improvement compared with the 15 per cent real-terms cuts in spending per student for colleges between 2010-11 and 2021-22, and even larger cuts of 28 per cent for school sixth forms.

But because of the depth of those cuts, the extra £1.6 billion only reverses about one third of past cuts for colleges. And in school sixth forms, the money only reverses 20 per cent of past cuts.

The £1.6 billion is also intended to deliver greater numbers of teaching hours as part of the shift to T-levels.

So it’s likely that more of the money will go to further education colleges than sixth forms.

‘Only reverses a third of adult education cuts’

At the 2019 general election, the Conservatives committed to a national skills fund of £2.5 billion over this parliament.

Since then, the government has announced various allocations from this fund.

This includes funding for first full level 3 qualifications for adults in some subjects and other priorities, such as digital bootcamps.

In the spending review yesterday, the government announced an extra £550 million from this existing fund for 2024-25.

This means a 30 per cent real-terms increase in adult education funding between 2019-20 and 2024-25. This sounds substantial.

But it is also a measure of just how far it has fallen over the previous decade.

Between 2009-10 and 2019-20, total spending on adult education fell by 50 per cent in real-terms.

So the £550 million increase between 2019-20 and 2024-25 will only reverse about one third of the cuts to adult education over the last decade.

‘Challenge to delivering funding on apprenticeships’

On top of this, the government announced an extra £170 million for apprenticeship funding, taking total funding for apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024-25.

But delivery of this extra funding could be challenging. During the pandemic, the number of apprenticeships fell due to economic uncertainty and the challenges of social distancing. It is not clear how quickly demand and supply of apprenticeships will recover.

‘A reminder that education is devolved…’

As well as increasing spending on existing skills programme, the government also announced a new UK-wide programme to improve numeracy skills called ‘Multiply’.

In all, £560 million or about £190 million per year for the next three years will be spent on Multiply over the course of the parliament.

This is reminiscent of previous basic skills programmes. It is also quite curious because it is UK-wide, and education is a devolved matter.

‘A return to some former policies’

Finally, the government plans include £2.8 billion of capital spending over the next three years. This includes existing plans of £1.5 billion to improve the college estate up to 2025-26, as set out in the 2020 spending review.

Finally, and interestingly, there is also a return to full funding for first level 3 qualifications for adults (in some subjects) and to funding for basic skills.

In this sense, there is a distinct ‘Back to Future’ feel to this spending review.

All things considered, the Spending Review certainly represents a change of pace for spending on further education and skills.

Total planned spending on further education and skills, including both day-to-day and capital spending, will increase by £3.8 billion between 2019-20 and 2024-25 in cash-terms.

But the increases only go part of the way to reversing past cuts to spending per student in 16-19 education and to adult education.

Spending review: FE & sixth form funding still ‘well below’ 2010 levels, IFS confirm

Per student spending in further education and sixth form colleges will be ten per cent lower than when the Conservatives entered government, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Analysis of yesterday’s autumn budget and spending review by the IFS revealed funding levels will be at around £6,500 by 2023-24 compared to over £7,000 in 2009-10.

The institute’s director Paul Johnson this morning called the lack of spending on education, which is set to rise by two per cent a year until 2024-25, compared to four per cent on health, “the most striking contrast”.

Spending per student in FE and sixth form colleges will “remain well below” 2010 levels, which Johnson said is “not a set of priorities which looks consistent with a long-term growth strategy or levelling up.”

“For the chancellor to have felt it appropriate to draw attention to the fact that per pupil spending in schools will have returned to 2010 levels by 2024 is perhaps a statement of a remarkable lack of priority afforded to the education system since 2010. A decade and a half with no growth in spending despite, albeit insipid, economic growth is unprecedented.”

This is despite chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak promising to MPs yesterday the budget “invests in the most wide-ranging skills agenda this country has seen in decades”.

His commitments included £2.8 billion capital investment to, for example, improve colleges and build 20 institutes of technology, as well as £324 million in 2024-25 for “additional learning hours” for 16- to 19-year-olds, and £1.6 billion to maintain per student funding rates in real terms.

Much of the funding appears to have been announced already though, upon which FE Week is seeking clarity from the Treasury.

‘Plenty more’ spending announcements needed to undo 2010s cuts

Following the budget, Learning and Work Institute chief executive Stephen Evans warned another £750 million would be needed to return investment in skills to 2010 levels.

Speaking today about this week’s “once in a decade” fiscal event, which laid out government spending until 2024-25, IFS research economist Ben Zaranko said Sunak will need “plenty more events like this to undo the cuts of the 2010s”.

Johnson also joined in criticisms of the government for briefing several funding announcements in the days before the budget, which he said: “Served only to obfuscate”.

The briefings by the Treasury, including about boosts for college funding and for T Level teaching hours, “revealed less than nothing,” according to Johnson.

Spending review: Government criticised for ‘warm words’ on skills investment

FE leaders have been left frustrated by the lack of clarity surrounding the government’s spending review commitments for skills.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak promised today that “total spending on skills will increase over the parliament by £3.8 billion by 2024-25, equivalent to a cash increase of 42 per cent (26 per cent in real terms) compared to 2019-20”.

But much of the investment, which includes funding for capital projects, adult education, the 16 to 19 base rate and apprenticeships appears to be a rehash of previous funding announcements.

FE Week is seeking clarity from the Treasury but the issue has not escaped the sector’s leaders, who have cautiously welcomed today’s spending review.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of think tank the Learning and Work Institute, said: “It’s good to see investment in skills rising again after a lost decade of cuts. However, it looks like this only restores some of the previous cuts and so won’t be enough to transform Britain into a skills superpower.

“The spending review is light on details, but we estimate another £750 million is needed to return investment to 2010 levels and how we invest and what we achieve is as important as levels of investment.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “It’s clear that the chancellor and this government recognise that more investment in skills is vital for economic growth and their levelling up ambitions. So it is disappointing that despite lots of warm words about the importance of skills, and a long list of separate funding pots, overall investment does not look like it is going up by much at all

“A world class skills system needs more investment than this after more than a decade of cuts. Good rhetoric about skills will not level up the country – colleges will do that with the right investment.”

He added: “Government’s consistent refusal to increase the funding per student post-16 is baffling. The funding per adult will not have gone up in 14 years by the end of 2024/25, unlike in schools where per pupil funding will match 2010/11 levels in real terms.”

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “We asked three things of the Chancellor in this year’s spending review: boost capital funding for providers of 16 to 19 education that wish to expand, make a long-term commitment to the increases in revenue funding announced in 2019, and raise the rate of core funding for every sixth form student.

“On capital, it is our understanding that the post-16 capacity fund – currently a one-year scheme – will be extended for a further 3 years through the additional funding announced today. That is excellent news, and will benefit colleges that are currently oversubscribed and help to accommodate the thousands of additional 16- to 19-year-olds that will participate in education in the coming years.

“We are also pleased that the government has committed to maintaining the funding gains made in 2019 and to protecting revenue funding in real terms. However, at this stage, it is too early to say what the new funding rate will be or how funding 40 additional hours of learning per student, per year, will work in practice. We look forward to working through the details of this with officials in the days and weeks ahead.”

Kirstie Donnelly, chief executive of City & Guilds Group, said: “Whilst we welcome the chancellor’s spending package for professional and technical education, we need more clarity over whether the chancellor’s commitments to the sector are new, or merely a rehash of funding that was already allocated and sold to us as something ‘new’.

“With a million jobs left unfilled (along with our supermarket shelves and petrol tanks) there is too much at stake to get this wrong.”

Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said: “From the perspective of government wanting to get more money into FE colleges; secure extra capital to deliver on the department’s own technical education reforms; as well as find additional resource for flagship schemes like Bootcamps, DfE ministers can claim some sort of victory.

“In that sense, l would argue that they’ve found more money to invest in the things that are perhaps important to them; and not necessarily the long term investment and policies needed to tackle the great skills and adult education divide that exists in our country.

“Indeed, what this budget and spending review absolutely doesn’t do is fully reverse over a decade of austerity in FE. England’s investment in technical education per head will still fall well below that of our major competitors; and crucially, today’s budget fails to tackle the huge intergenerational divide, since the burden of higher taxes and the cost of living squeeze will continue to fall disproportionately on the young, renters and those in work on average earnings.”

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “I particularly welcome investment in apprenticeships, traineeships and employability programmes. This focus on vocational learning will help get people of all ages and at every level into good quality training and work.

“However, it is clear there remains a real lack of parity in treatment of different FE provider types. Independent training providers have been left out of education catch-up funding and capital investment, both of which are only available to schools and colleges. This is disappointing, given the important role independent training providers play in supporting employers and learners.”

Simon Parkinson, chief executive of the WEA, said: “It is remarkable to hear a chancellor highlight lifelong learning in a budget speech and we are pleased that there is a new programme, Multiply, to tackle the long standing challenge of poor numeracy.

“However, maths is only one part of the challenge and the nation also needs to tackle other essential skills such as literacy and digital skills. The Multiply programme will be delivered through the Shared Prosperity Fund so it will be separate to the Department for Education’s support of adult learning generally. We look to the detail behind the Budget speech for reassurance that community learning budgets are at least maintained and that the Multiply programme is additional to government spending on essential skills through DfE.”

Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical education, said: “We welcome the chancellor’s spending review announcement today which was full of great news for technical education.

“The extra financial support for apprenticeships, T Levels and colleges will be hugely beneficial. The Institute has championed the interests of small businesses within the apprenticeships programme, so it is great to see measures that will help more of them recruit and train apprentices.

“We will work with employers and the FE sector to ensure we capitalise on this timely boost and do better than ever at filling skills gaps, keeping pace with technological advances, supporting the green-agenda, and driving the national recovery.”