A team of education and business leaders have been assembled to drive the use of skills in “levelling up” and attracting investment to the UK economy.
The Skills Taskforce for Global Britain, commissioned and supported by but independent of WorldSkills UK and accountancy firm EY, is being launched at the former organisation’s virtual International Skills Summit today.
Chaired by former Confederation of British Industry director general John Cridland, the 11-strong taskforce will also include EY’s lead partner for learning and skills in the UK Josie Cluer, DfE non-executive director Ruby MacGregor-Smith, and skills sector leader Ann Limb. WorldSkills UK chief executive Neil Bentley-Gockmann will oversee the committee. (The full list of members is below.)
Taskforce will highlight ‘crucial role’ of high-quality skills
At the summit, hosted by Dudley College of Technology and sponsored by NCFE, Bentley-Gockmann is expected to say the taskforce will “highlight the crucial role of high-quality skills for employers in internationally traded sectors to attract inward investment to all parts of the UK – and help level up our economy.
Neil Bentley-Gockmann
“Bolstering our ability to attract international investment will bring huge benefits in terms of jobs, technology and innovation – not just in big multi-national firms, but in clusters of smaller firms and supply chains across the towns, cities, regions and nations.”
The taskforce will be preparing a ‘Roadmap to 2030’ which will set out how, by the end of this decade, the skills of the UK’s young people will be recognised as attracting investment in the UK.
Questions the roadmap will seek to answer include how our skills compares with competitor countries, what are international investors looking for in terms of skills in the UK, and are all parts of the UK able to attract inward investment.
Cridland said the taskforce “has much work to do,” as: “With global competition for inward investment getting fiercer every year, the UK must be able to add world-class skills to its international calling card.”
The taskforce will build on the work of the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence, a three-year pilot project using WorldSkills UK skills coaches to train up teaching staff. Applications for the centre’s second wave opened on Monday.
What’s happening at the International Skills Summit?
Today’s summit will also feature speeches by shadow education secretary Kate Green, director of The Social Market Foundation James Kirkup, and Dudley College’s principal Neil Thomas.
Baroness Ruby MacGregor-Smith CBE (President British Chambers of Commerce, non-exec Board Member Department of Education)
Neil Rami (Chief Executive West Midlands Growth Company)
Chris Sutton (Welsh Government’s Ministerial Advisory Board for the Economy, former Chair CBI Wales)
Linda Urquhart OBE (Non-executive Director Coutts and Edinburgh Airport)
Stephen Burgin (Board Director, Offshore Wind Growth Partnership, Chair of Governors, South Staffordshire College, Former Vice President GE Power Europe, Pro Chancellor Staffordshire University)
Andrew Hodgson OBE (Former Chair of North East Local Enterprise Partnership, Airbus and BAE Systems)
Dr Ann Limb CBE (Independent Business Chair of the UK Innovation Corridor
Marie-Therese McGivern (Strategic Investment Board Northern Ireland, Skills Advisory Board Belfast Region City Deal, Chair Belfast Maritime Board)
Dr Adam Marshall (Adviser, CMI and Flint Global, former DG British Chambers of Commerce)
Fears that university-goers will choose to do apprenticeships instead and “squeeze out” those from disadvantaged backgrounds are still rife in Whitehall, the skills minister has said.
Gillian Keegan told the House of Commons education select committee this displacement is a particular worry when it comes to degree apprenticeships.
Her concern comes three years after her predecessor Anne Milton admitted that fears of a “middle-class grab” on apprenticeships are “valid” following a steep rise in starts at degree levels while the lower levels dropped off.
After being asked how she plans to boost degree apprenticeships, Keegan told MPs today: “There is a growth in degree apprenticeships, but the very important point is how we make them more accessible to more disadvantaged groups.
“What we are fearful of is that a lot of people will suddenly see that degree apprenticeships are a very good option and people who would have gone to university anyway would just choose that route and squeeze out people like me, sat in a comprehensive school at 16, with nowhere to go thinking ‘how do I get on in life?’.”
Degree apprenticeships were first launched in September 2015 and have soared in popularity.
FE Week analysis of official Department for Education data shows starts at level 4 and above have increased threefold and gone from 4 per cent to 26 per cent of all starts since then.
At the same time level 2 has shrunk from accounting for 60 per cent of all starts in 2014/15 to just 31 per cent in 2019/20.
‘You often get unintended consequences when government intervenes’
Education select committee chair Robert Halfon pressed Keegan on what her department could do to increase the take-up of degree apprenticeships even further, but the skills minister warned of “unintended consequences” that could come with any tinkering.
“Many employers are switching from graduate programmes to degree apprenticeships because they have seen they get better results. You quite often get unintended consequences when the government intervenes in various bits of this system,” Keegan said.
“This is about getting a system that transforms technical education in this country, that makes sure it is accessible to everybody no matter where they are in the country, no matter their background, no matter their ethnicity and whatever their journey is.”
The three key measures being introduced in today’s Bill will involve: local skills improvement plans; greater intervention powers for the education secretary; and a new lifelong loan entitlement.
FE Week was first to reveal government plans to take greater control over colleges after the white paper was announced in early 2020. But the extent of these powers has so far remained unknown.
Ahead of today’s Bill, the Department for Education said the new powers will enable the education secretary to “intervene when colleges are failing to deliver good outcomes for the communities they serve, and to direct structural change where needed to ensure colleges improve”.
In a blog leading up to the Bill, Association of Colleges deputy chief executive Julian Gravatt said he will be reading these clauses “with interest” but expects there “may be a new duty on colleges to obey directions from the education secretary or a power to ask the chair of governors to resign”.
But he did question what other intervention mechanisms could be introduced considering it is only four years since parliament approved the Technical and Further Education Act 2017 and gave DfE powers to trigger a college insolvency.
Gravatt said he has also advised officials to “be careful about trampling over employment law” when it comes to action against principals of colleges in trouble.
Elsewhere, the Bill will put employer ownership over new local skills improvement plans on a statutory footing.
The DfE said they will make it a “legal requirement that employers and colleges collaborate to develop skills plans so that the training on offer meets the need of local areas, and so people no longer have to leave their home-towns to find great jobs”.
And the lifelong loan entitlement, which is still yet to be consulted on, will “transform the current student loans system” by giving “every adult access to a flexible loan for higher-level education and training at university or college, useable at any point in their lives”.
‘The Bill marks a significant milestone in our journey to transform the skills’
Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “Talent is everywhere in our country and the Skills and post-16 Education Bill marks a significant milestone in our journey to transform the skills, training and post-16 education landscape and level up opportunities across the country.
“This legislation will be vital so we can make sure everyone can gain the skills they need to get a great job locally and businesses have access to the qualified employees they need to thrive.”
The Bill is expected to be available from around 12.30pm today.
Debates will be scheduled for the Bill in the Houses of Commons and Lords in the coming months which could prompt amendments.
The Bill is not expected to gain Royal Assent for another six months.
As Northern College fights for survival, FE Week asks – is the government overlooking a big opportunity to ‘level up’?
Lee Hughes was 29 years old when he signed up to Northern College, one of just a few adult residential providers in the country, hidden away in expansive grounds in Barnsley. “It’s a bit of a story,” he begins. “It were quite rough at my school and I thought, if I just play the fool, I’ll get by, which I did. But I left school with no qualifications whatsoever.”
Aged 16, Hughes was living alone. “I got a job in a warehouse, and that was it, I was just drifting. I got into drugs. One of my hang-ups was that I’d not tried my best – that I’d let an opportunity slip through my fingers.” He’d done electrical engineering for a year at the nearby general further education institution, Barnsley College, but left. “I was just doing it because everyone else was.”
He then got a job in a call centre, but he “kept getting disciplinaries for reading books, history books. I was on my final warning at work, and my manager said, ‘You’re wasted in this work. Go and do something with yourself.’ It was a really key moment in my life.”
Hughes turned up at Barnsley College once again. “But as soon as I walked in the door, it was just kids. Some of them weren’t much older than my son.” He’d also been recently made homeless and so the receptionist, hearing his circumstances, told him about Northern College. Like 95 per cent of learners there, Hughes qualified for a means-tested free place.
Lee Hughes, former Northern College student
The Ofsted grade 1 college offers two- or three-day short courses, an adult educator training route, maths and English GCSEs and functional and digital skills courses.
It also offers two main access routes into higher education: a humanities and social sciences route, and a computing route. A criminal investigations route, leading into police work, is launching this year and a healthcare access route is in development.
Hughes took the humanities route.
“I did well, really, really well, I were absolutely flying,” he smiles.
Hughes became the student union president at the college, got a distinction in his course, and was accepted on to a history BA at Sheffield Hallam University.
He went on to a research masters, and is now applying to PhD positions, aged 36. “If I hadn’t had the opportunity to move into Northern College, I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you right now.”
Adult education is already under huge pressure due to government cuts. Funding has nearly halved since 2009 and adult education participation rates have fallen by 49 per cent since 2004. An estimated £1.3 billion will be needed to reverse the cuts of the past decade.
Hidden within this straining sector is adult education residential provision, which has relatively tiny numbers compared to higher education residential provision. Northern College has about 4,000 enrolments each year, of which about 70 learners are on access to HE routes, and 35 of those are on residential placements. Meanwhile, about 80 per cent of learners on short courses are residential. There are 75 bedrooms on site.
There used to be more such provision, explains Alan Tuckett, who formerly led the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education and is now emeritus professor of education at Wolverhampton University.
After the Second World War, residential education was encouraged and both long- and short-term-stay colleges sprang up. By the 1960s the long-term adult education residential providers included Fircroft College in Birmingham, Ruskin College in Oxford and Hillcroft College in London.
In 1973 a government inquiry into adult education recommended “the establishment of one further college in the northern half of England”, and Northern College opened in 1978 on the site of an old teacher training college. All four were intended for vulnerable and working-class adults and have historically close links to community groups and trade unions.
Together, the four are known as the residential Institutes of Adult Learning.
When incorporation arrived in 1992, they were registered as “specialist designated institutions”, because they differed from other FE colleges in being independent charities, regulated by their own trust deeds, while publicly funded.
All four institutions retain that category on government websites. But experts warn only two truly remain in their original form.
“Now there’s really only two left, Northern College and Fircroft College, that still have their own distinct centres,” says Tuckett. “The failure to distinguish the needs of these institutions has crippled them. The argument is, they’d be better off amalgamated with a general FE college. No – we will lose what is special about their offer.”
Now the two providers are locked into a legal battle with the Department for Education. Last year the DfE told the four “specialist designated institutions” it was carrying out a review of their residential funding.
A bedroom at Northern College
Since then, Northern College has been told it made “errors” worth £1.2 million over the past two years by applying an agreed uplift for residential funding to each course rather than to each learner. Like other adult education providers, Northern College is also facing a clawback on the adult education budget after under-recruiting because of the pandemic.
But changes to the uplift is the more serious worry.
Worth 4.7 times the base funding rate, the uplift was set in the late 1990s by education secretary David Blunkett, says Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive at the Association of Colleges. It does not apply outside of the four specialist designated institutions, such as for adult residencies in land-based or high-needs specialist colleges, which are funded according to different calculations.
Yultan Mellor, chief executive, Northern College
The latest accounts for Fircroft College show a similar story. They reveal the ESFA is seeking between £309,000-£350,000 back from the uplift funding, but “no evidence has been provided that the ESFA’s position is legally valid”, say the accounts.
Fircroft College, like Northern College, has engaged lawyers.
The situation is a “triple whammy”, says Sue Pember, chief executive of adult education membership body HOLEX.
“Nobody has properly understood the learner operating model for these institutions and how to fund them. They are really adult institutions, and they should have been considered alongside higher education, with the residential element treated in the same way,” she says.
The 4.7 uplift is “not as much as it sounds”, since it “recognises the cost of upkeep of an old building and the wraparound support these learners need, like childcare and extra tuition for English and maths”.
“Key to what we do is the residential work, for those adults who haven’t got homes, or have really chaotic home lives,” says Yultan Mellor, chief executive at Northern College. “We can take them out of that life. We call it an immersive learning experience.”
Bryn Middleton and Abe Crabb on site at Northern College
The college is open 48 weeks of the year, 24 hours a day, with the library open until 10pm, and counselling and pastoral services on site.
“If the uplift disappeared, we couldn’t offer the residential provision,” continues Mellor. “What I keep trying to explain to funders is many of our learners would end up being publicly funded by the state in other ways. Actually, this is such a positive way to help them.”
The children’s centre at the college has already had to close this year.
Natalie Gorton, a former student now on a PhD at Huddersfield University, says she “could never have re-educated myself without that children’s centre”.
She adds: “There’s so many mums in Barnsley who would never be able to do it otherwise. It’s like a family in there. If they remove the residential bit, I would find that incredibly upsetting. It would be devastating for Barnsley.”
Natalie Gorton, former Northern College student
Bryn Middleton, aged 19, and Abraham Crabb, aged 21, are equally emphatic. Both are on the computing access course, and have places at Aberdeen University and Manchester University.
“If I was at home, I wouldn’t have a study space,” says Crabb. “When you’re making a big change in life, you need your environment to change with you.”
Middleton adds: “I’d be quite upset if the residential part goes. If I didn’t have this option, I’d still be working in a café. I’d never had my independence before, never looked after myself, so I was worried about going to university. This way I’ve prepared myself.”
There is clearly a case for a wide-ranging, constructive review with open consultation on residential adult education, say Gravatt, Tuckett and Pember. The different rates for residential placements in different kinds of colleges could be considered and fitted into an ambitious future plan knitting together bootcamps, Institutes of Technology and the level 3 skills drive.
A DfE spokesperson gives little away. “The secretary of state requested a review of adult residential funding. Should there be any changes, these will not take effect until August 2022.”
“It is reasonable and sensible for DfE to periodically review all parts of FE funding […] but I’m not sure these have been clearly set out,” warns Gravatt.
Gorton puts it more bluntly. “You know when Boris talks about levelling up? This is how to do it.”
Spoken from the heart of its new “red wall” region, the government may wish to think again – and possibly ponder an adult education residential provider for every region.
However, independent training providers and school sixth forms have been excluded.
Only sixth form colleges, 16 to 19 academies, 16 to 19 free schools such as university technical colleges, and general FE colleges are in scope.
Announcing the launch of the fund today, the Department for Education said: “Providers are invited to bid for a share of the fund, which will support projects to create more space for areas where there is due to be a demographic increase in 16–19-year-olds in the 2022/23 academic year.
“This could include building more classroom space or technical teaching facilities, so providers can continue to offer places to every young person who needs one.”
It is separate to the £1.5 billion FE capital fund that is being run over the course of this parliament.
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said he was “delighted” to see the launch of the capacity fund as his organisation has been making the case for one since 2018.
“Our members have been eagerly awaiting the detail since then, and we expect a significant number to submit a bid to expand their estate in order to create more student places,” he added.
“This is an important first step to accommodating the 260,000 additional 16- to 19-year-olds that will participate in education in the coming years.”
He also said that although the £83 million announced today is only for one year, the SFCA hopes a “longer-term deal can be struck in the forthcoming spending review”.
Commenting on the exclusion of private training providers, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Jane Hickie said: “The capacity fund would be welcome if it’s enabling parity for school leavers and other learners, for example living on the same housing estate, regardless of where they choose to access their opportunity.
“There is a clear need for ensuring these opportunities are aligned with both classroom and work-based provision. Levelling up requires recognition that post-16 classroom opportunities are not easily accessible everywhere.”
The DfE said independent providers are not eligible as the funding is “aimed at providing sustainable investment in long term educational assets”.
They added that for school sixth forms, which are also excluded, there remains an element of the Condition Improvement Fund that is for expansions.
The flagship national college for HS2 has been officially closed by ministers after facing insolvency, and relaunched as a subsidiary of a university.
The National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NCATI), which has campuses in Birmingham and Doncaster, today announced its FE corporation dissolved on 29 April.
It has now been reformed as a new institution, part of the University of Birmingham.
NCATI is the second of England’s five national colleges to dissolve since their launch in 2016.
Ian Fitzpatrick (left) with Tim Jones, university provost
A new principal, Ian Fitzpatrick, has been appointed after Sue Dare took charge on an interim basis in March 2020. He said he is “extremely proud to be joining NCATI and to have the opportunity to work with a great team on its next phase.
“I am looking forward to continuing to build the reputation of the college so that it is the focal point for skills development in the sector; as well as creating and delivering an innovative high-quality provision that is ambitious and inclusive.”
The college said it is now also back on the register of apprenticeship training providers, meaning it can start recruiting apprentices again, after losing its place following an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted report last year.
It will be starting new apprentices “in the coming months,” the university promised.
‘Fantastic to have agreed partnership,’ says minister
This announcement follows a public consultation on the proposals, and has been signed off by the Department for Education.
Apprenticeship and skills minister Gillian Keegan said it was “fantastic to have agreed a new partnership between the University of Birmingham and the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure”.
NCATI, formerly known as the National College for High Speed Rail, has close links with HS2 Ltd, which is building England’s new high-speed rail link: Its former chair Alison Munro was formerly chief executive of HS2 Ltd, and former principal Clair Mowbray also worked on the HS2 project.
HS2 Ltd’s head of skills Kate Myers said the new national college “will play a crucial role in upskilling students”.
“We look forward to working collaboratively with NCATI to ensure HS2 fulfils its aim of leaving a lasting legacy in skills and engineering in the UK.”
National college had faced ‘potential insolvency’
The college took £4.55 million from the Department for Education to sign off its 2017-18 accounts and was placed in formal intervention in December 2019.
The FE Commissioner revealed in a report published in February 2020 how NCATI’s board had been advised on how to operate while facing a “potential insolvency” and that “radical change” was “urgently required”.
The report also found NCATI needed a commitment of 12 months of continued emergency funding for the board to sign off their 2018-19 financial statements as a going concern.
Following the publication of the report, NCATI was placed into supervised status by the DfE and a structure and prospects appraisal started to look for partners for the college.
The college has been receiving “minimum funding based on need to protect and maintain learner provision” in the run-up to the college transferring to the university, according to its 2019-20 accounts. Both institutions have declined to reveal how much funding was provided for this purpose.
NCATI was kicked off RoATP after an Ofsted inspection in November 2019 rated the college as ‘inadequate’ both overall and for its apprenticeship provision.
The college cited being removed from RoATP as one of the reasons “it has been unable to secure the growth in income that it needed to be sustainable”.
The bailouts and interventions marked a dramatic fall from grace for the college, which was opened by then-education secretary Justine Greening in 2017.
NCATI now follows in the footsteps of the National College for Creative Industries, which dissolved and reset itself as a limited company which licensed its provision to Access Creative College and South Essex College.
A third of FE and school staff felt “undue pressure” on their professional judgment when issuing exam grades in 2020, according to an Ofqual survey.
The exams regulator has published a report on a survey and interviews conducted with FE and school staff after the grading process in 2020, which it said were used to inform guidance on teacher assessment in 2021.
The views were gathered before the government’s decision to abandon its standardisation process and issue centre-assessed grades (CAGs) instead.
In total, 1,234 people responded to the survey, and 54 teaching staff were interviewed in further detail.
Here are six key findings.
1. One in three staff felt ‘undue pressure’, with some blaming leaders
In Ofqual’s survey, 31 per cent of 762 respondents said they felt “undue pressure” on their “professional judgment” when issuing grades in 2020.
Of the 29 per cent that gave more detail, half referred to the pressure they felt to meet the centre’s grade distributions from previous years.
The system is different this year, but teachers have still been asked to consider results between 2017 and 2019 when making their judgments.
Around 20 respondents said they felt pressure from parents and senior leadership teams last year.
Some mentioned individual cases where pressure had been applied to increase grades for specific students by leaders, and Ofqual said the “threat” of senior management lowering grades provided by staff “was strongly felt and not popular”.
But 65 per cent said they felt effective steps were taken to protect staff against “external influences”.
This year, Ofqual has told heads to keep records of parental pressure over exam grades.
2. Mock exams ‘most important’ grade evidence
This year, teachers have been asked to consider a range of evidence, including mock results, coursework and performance in optional externally-set assessment tasks when determining their grades.
Ofqual’s survey asked respondents rate the weighting given to different types of evidence used in reaching grades in 2020 on a scale of 0 to 100.
For GCSE and A-level grades, mock exams were seen as the most important, with a mean rating of 81.8.
Class tests came second (59.2), then how students achieved in previous years (53.1), class work (52.8), assignments (44.5) and evidence on students’ ability to perform in exams (44.3).
Evidence on students’ attitudes and attendance was also used, but to a lesser extent.
Last year, colleges and schools were asked to issue grades based on how a student would have performed in an exam taken in the summer.
This year students will be assessed only on what they have be taught so far.
In the interviews conducted by Ofqual last year, a “very common opinion” was that students were much more likely to under-perform in an exam than over-perform.
Cath Jadhav, Ofqual’s director of standards and comparability, said in a blog today that increases in 2020 results were “not because teachers were more generous” in their judgments about the standard required for a grade.
Instead, she said it was because they “could not know which of their students might have had a bad day in the exams and therefore they assumed all students would get the grade they might get on a good day”.
4. Staff reported high confidence in their grades…
Staff were asked to rate on a scale of 0 to 100 their overall confidence in their judgments for their classes.
The overall mean confidence was 85.5, with a median value of 90.
Asked about the final grades submitted to exam boards, this dropped to 78.9 mean and 88 median.
However, respondents with more seniority in their college or school had greater confidence in final grades.
For example, heads of centres had a mean confidence of 84.5, whereas teachers had a rating of 74.
5. …but some staff had difficulty getting evidence
Nearly 120 out of 798 (15 per cent) said they had difficulty accessing information or evidence about students they wanted to use to support CAGs.
Ofqual did not follow this up in detail, but said it was “probably related to centres being closed”, leading to logistical difficulties in accessing materials.
6. Bias against poorer and SEN students ‘common findings’
Ofqual has also published a literature review, conducted to better understand how teacher bias could impact teacher assessments.
The paper reviewed studies from abroad and of SATs in England.
It found there was a “slight bias” in favour of girls, but evidence in relation to ethnicity was “mixed”.
But there is “less mixed” evidence of bias against poorer children and those with special educational needs. Evidence of bias against these groups were a “common finding” in Ofqual’s research, the regulator said.
A technical report published by Ofqual last autumn found “no evidence” that the system for awarding GCSEs and A-levels in 2020 systematically disadvantaged poorer students or those with protected characteristics.
However, the regulator said today its literature review findings showed it was “so important” that arrangements are in place to mitigate the risk of bias this year.
According to Stephen R Covey in his renowned book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, beginning with the end in mind means you should understand your destination before starting your journey. This is important as it’s only when you know where you’re going and understand where you are now, that can you take steps in the right direction to arrive at your destination.
Profound stuff but it holds true for so many things in life. Including matching student apprentices to the right employer to kickstart a rewarding career for them.
One person who knows this to be true is Lynsey Whitehead, NCG Director of Apprenticeship Operations at Newcastle College. “You might think as a teaching provider that we would start with our students but, in fact, we start with our employers because if we don’t engage them at the front end, we simply won’t get the right outcome for our apprentices,” says Lynsey. “By understanding what our local employers want, we can then match our apprentices and tailor their learning to meet the employer’s needs. That way, when the apprentice completes their training, they’ll find themselves in a job they are fully capable of doing while meeting the needs of their employer.”
While she puts the employer conversation first, Lynsey and her team are highly selective. “We can be quite choosy and are not afraid to turn away employers who don’t share our ethos or who can’t provide what we expect for our students,” she says.
Rewarding outcome
The most rewarding outcome for any college running apprenticeships is to see students safely into work. Colleges value apprenticeships as a fully guided route into the workplace but for Newcastle College, as well as the other colleges within NCG, it’s not just about having a job at the end of the process, it’s about having a career. Likewise, the employer shouldn’t simply be looking to fill a job vacancy when hiring an apprentice: they should be looking at how strategically their apprenticeship programme supports their workforce.
“Workforce development has never been so important and apprenticeships have a key role to play,” says Tad Chapman, Head of End-point Assessment at Active IQ, the awarding body that oversees the leisure sector apprenticeships at Newcastle College. “Apprenticeships not only offer an excellent route into an industry, they also provide a fantastic career pathway that will future proof workforce development by retaining – as well as training – the best talent in an organisation.”
The approach taken by Newcastle College bears this out. “We have employers return to us year after year both looking for new apprentices and to send us back staff who previously trained with us to take them to the next level,” says Lynsey. “It’s not unusual for students to be with us for a number of years as they continue their training and develop their career over time. We’ve seen quite a few enter the workplace at Level 2 or Level 3 working on the gym floor or as a PT and then achieve management roles a few years later. It’s very rewarding to witness.”
Clear and focused delivery
Key to Newcastle College’s success within its sports department is keeping things simple and clear. “We essentially offer two apprenticeships to start with: the Level 3 Personal Trainer and Level 2 Community Activator Coach,” says Lynsey. “We purposefully avoid having too broad an offering at the outset. Concentrating on these two apprenticeship standards enables us to hone our expertise for our students. Also, we know these two apprenticeships will fulfil local job roles and that’s what we set out to do for our students.”
The recently updated apprenticeship programmes in the leisure sector have really played to the strengths at Newcastle College by offering a broader scope of learning. “The content in the new standards has improved considerably by being more closely linked to the real world,” says Mark Urwin, Skills Trainer at Newcastle College. “The new spec includes modules such as how to create a business and making sales as well as producing your own website and marketing skills. This is really helpful for apprentices looking to set up their own business and also gives them a wider appreciation of how their employer’s business operates.”
Mark navigated the changes from the old apprenticeship frameworks to the new standards with relative ease, despite a four-month ‘transition period’ where he had some students completing the old-style apprenticeship while training a fresh cohort on the new standards.
Making his life much easier was Gavin Baxter and his team at Active IQ who expertly supported his transition to the new-style frameworks and End-point Assessment process. Returning to the ‘begin with the end in mind’ analogy, students and their teachers need to understand what is expected of them in their final End-point Assessment before mapping out the steps to achieve this standard.
Expert partnership
Working in partnership with Active IQ, colleges can confidently navigate the entire process. With unmatched expertise as one of the first End-point Assessment Organisations to be approved on the Register of End-point Assessment Organisations, Active IQ excels in ensuring apprentices are regularly appraised and absolutely ready for their assessment. Combining high-quality printed and digital support resources with direct access to a designated Active IQ account manager keeps colleges and students completely on track.
“Gavin is really accessible to us and is highly responsive,” says Mark. “He’s quick to answer questions and offer help, gives us full support and provides plenty of feedback to our students. Active IQ has some excellent support resources including a full toolkit and a wealth of online materials, but they don’t just expect us to plough our way through these,” says Mark. “They complement these resources by being there in person and on the phone addressing any particular queries or issues that we may have.
“When it came to delivering the new standards, Active IQ really helped us manage the new segments of business acumen and professionalism which I hadn’t taught before. With their help we managed to incorporate these new elements with ease.”
Finally, in order to help apprentices prepare for the all-important assessments, Active IQ provides videos to show students exactly what is expected of them in terms of the practical observation, presentation observation and interview. Intermittent checking of students’ work by Gavin and his team ensure each apprentice stays nicely on track and gives them confidence going into the End-point assessment.
Teaching the teachers
A minor challenge facing Mark was the need for him to upskill before training his students on some elements of the updated apprenticeship. Areas such as social media and Facebook marketing were new to him. Again, Active IQ stepped up to help by giving Mark access to the CPD training via its online Skills Hub resource.
“We have a great structure at the college whereby all staff are required to complete a set amount of CPD training,” says Lynsey. “They are actively encouraged to upskill and the Active IQ Skills Hub is the perfect route for this.”
Mark relishes the opportunity to add to his skillset. “As a qualified PT and former manager of a gym, I really enjoy learning new leisure sector skills and have recently qualified in TRX and kettlebell training with Active IQ. Skills Hub also has a wide range of podcasts and webinars that keep me up-to-date on the industry news and views which is essential in order to inspire and educate my students.”
Another way Mark keeps abreast of the fast-moving leisure sector is by undertaking regular industry placements to keep up with the current trends and methods being used. He has just finished a six-week three-hours-a-week placement at a body transformation gym. “My role usually involves shadowing others which gives me a great insight into the rapidly changing market where are our apprentices are headed,” says Mark. “I really like being in that environment and working alongside fitness professionals. There’s always something new to learn and by joining people working day-to-day in the industry, it ensures I stay alert to how things are evolving,” says Mark who believes it’s vitally important for teachers to have first-hand experience of the industry for which they’re training students.
Match making
Active IQ fully supports Newcastle College’s free programme that matches employers with apprentices and helps to select the right modules to fully prepare the apprentice for their work.
“The flexibility of the apprenticeship to be tailored to a certain job role is what makes it stand head and shoulders above a generic vocational qualification’” says Gavin. “By working closely with the college and employer, we can establish exactly what both parties need and then ensure the right modules are studied to achieve this outcome.”
Mark agrees: “I’ve sat with employers and asked what they would like included in the delivery of the apprenticeship. Experience tells me that if you get things right from the outset, the progression opportunities for the apprentice are fantastic and both they and the employer will return to us as they look to upskill and achieve their next level together.”
Rewarding careers
Many rewarding careers have resulted for Newcastle College students from setting the right people on the right path with the right employer. It’s not unusual for one of Mark’s students to start out as Level 2 Gym Instructor at a gym, then progress to a Level 3 Personal Trainer and a few years later return to college to train as a Leisure Manager. As well as building the career for students, the apprenticeship scheme enables businesses to base their growth on the high-quality, work-ready apprentices who join them.
As we emerge from over a year of lockdown and disrupted learning and employment, having such a clearly mapped out route for learners and employers feels like a gift.
“I believe the leisure industry will continue to grow and offer excellent career opportunities to people,” says Mark. “It may look different as processes and expectations have changed since the pandemic but provided we all keep talking and understand what those new needs and wants are, I’m confident our students will do well in this sector.”
Tad echoes Mark’s sentiment. “The beauty of our apprenticeships is their versatility which we can use to ensure learners are fully prepared for the world of work – even if that world has changed. Liaising closely with both the college and the employer is vital to ensure the training is valid and valuable. By the time a learner reaches their End-point Assessment with us, we know they are absolutely ready to achieve the required standard and start work with confidence.”
Active IQ is one of the first End-point Assessment Organisations (EPAOs) to be approved on the Register of End-point Assessment Organisations. With unmatched expertise, it offers 15 End-point Assessments (EPAs) for the new apprenticeship standards including these most popular with FE colleges:
To have a hope of meeting the government’s green goals, education for sustainable development needs to be embedded in apprenticeships and staff training, writes Charlotte Bonner
To meet the UK’s ambitious decarbonisation plans, we’ll need specialist expertise: in renewable energy systems and batteries, sustainable agriculture and food system, circular economy principles, zero-carbon construction and so on.
As well as these specialist occupations, we must remember that all jobs can and should be green jobs. We need people across all industries to be knowledgeable and ready to make sustainability the norm – from healthcare to project management to marketing to catering.
With this in mind, if we’re going to fully equip our learners for their future jobs and careers, all learners can and should be green learners.
IfATE’s sustainability framework recognises this. It uses a “shades of green” spectrum to identify that all apprenticeships are affected by the sustainability agenda but in different ways.
The framework also supports trailblazer groups to build appropriate sustainability outcomes into the apprenticeship development and revisions process.
In addition to the framework, IfATE has established a green apprenticeship advisory panel.
This panel will help ensure the portfolio of occupational standards reflects the roles needed to achieve sustainability goals.
This approach is a signal of how the further education and training sector is moving towards greater uptake of education for sustainable development (ESD). It is particularly welcome as it could be the key that unlocks one of the biggest barriers FE educators face in bringing more ESD to their work.
The ETF will soon publish research with responses from nearly 850 members of the FE workforce.
There is a lack of relevant content in the curriculum and occupational standards
Our research will show that a lack of relevant content in the curriculum and occupational standards is the greatest factor preventing them from including sustainability issues in their teaching and work.
IfATE’s framework use is currently advisory rather than obligatory. If embraced by trailblazer groups, it could ensure new and future curricula used by apprenticeship providers will enable the inclusion of sustainability issues. As such, educators and other sector professionals should no longer face this barrier.
Meanwhile, new curricula need to be accompanied by investment in educators so they have the competency, capacity and confidence to embed education for sustainable development across the apprentice’s learning experience.
That’s why at the ETF, as the expert body for professional development and standards in FE, we’re working with other sector bodies to develop our ESD strategy.
We want to design, develop and deliver continuous professional development for staff in different roles from across the sector to support ESD uptake.
We’re introducing ESD modules into our existing portfolio of professional development – from our governance and leadership programmes to our practitioner research programmes.
We’re developing new specialist ESD CPD, including an online course, curriculum mapping tools and resources for practitioners from different subject specialisms.
Those in our membership body, the Society for Education and Training, can access an on-demand webinar, which I ran with teaching methods expert Geoff Petty on effective teaching practice for ESD.
Education is an enabler. It can be a lever to help achieve sustainability goals. Apprentices need to be developing relevant knowledge, skills, values and agency as core competencies so they can create positive change in their lives and their work whether they go on to be sustainability specialists or not.
There’s growing recognition of this and a groundswell of interest from practitioners and providers across the country. To support these practitioners and providers, and achieve FE’s full ESD potential, sector bodies will need to embed ESD in their work too.
The FE sector has a vital role to play in combating climate change and achieving sustainability and social justice both nationally and globally.
Initiatives such as IFATE’s show that central leadership can incentivise and enable uptake of education for sustainable development, by supporting those involved. Hopefully, others will follow.
