Insolvency Service to take no action against directors of collapsed provider 3aaa

The government’s insolvency watchdog will take “no further action” against the ex-directors of former apprenticeship giant Aspire Achieve Advance (3aaa) following an inquiry.

The Insolvency Service began investigating the company’s directors’ conduct following its collapse in 2018, in line with usual procedure when a firm enters compulsory liquidation.

A spokesperson for the government agency said this week the official receiver for the case has now concluded their enquiries and decided not to impose any sanctions.

3aaa was one of the largest apprenticeship providers in the country. Its downfall came after the government terminated its multi-million-pound skills-funding contracts following a five-month investigation into alleged inflated achievement rates and funding overclaims. The case was then passed to the police through Action Fraud.

This was the DfE’s second investigation into the provider in two years.

Derbyshire Constabulary took on the case but decided in January 2020 not to pursue any further action.

A spokesperson for the ESFA said at the time it would “not hesitate to take swift and decisive action against those who attempt to break, or manipulate, the rules, regardless of whether the relevant authorities take forward criminal proceedings”.

The provider went bust following the ESFA’s investigation and the High Court placed 3aaa into compulsory liquidation in late October 2018. Anthony Hannon was then made the official receiver handling the insolvency.

The Insolvency Service has three years from the date of the company winding-up order to launch enforcement action “if it was to determine doing so was in the public interest in the light of any investigation findings”.

Sanctions imposed by the official receiver, if they uncover unfit director conduct, include director disqualification of between two and 15 years.

3aaa had 4,200 learners and 500 staff on its books when it went bust.

The firm was holding £16.5 million in ESFA contracts and received more than £31 million in government funding the year before its collapse.

3aaa was co-founded by former Derby County Football Club owner Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson in 2008. They both stepped down in September 2018 in the midst of the ESFA’s investigation.

Neither Marples nor McEvoy-Robinson had responded to requests for comment at the time of our going to press.

College pleads for lifting of apprenticeship ban

A college is pleading with the government to lift its long-lasting ban on recruiting apprentices, saying the sanction does not reflect recent performance.

Stanmore College, rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, has been suspended from taking on new apprentices since May 2020 but the penalty only appeared on the register of apprenticeship training providers this term.

A spokesperson told FE Week the restriction was imposed due to a “legacy” issue for a “minimal” number of apprentices in 2017/18 who did not complete their programme “due to changing roles or leaving their employer”.

They refused to further explain why this issue led to a ban or say whether this brought the college below the government’s minimum standard. Qualification achievement rate tables published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency have excluded Stanmore since 2017.

The college claims their achievement rates have improved, reaching 72 per cent in 2020/21, and warned it is now being hindered from serving its local employers.

Stanmore is one of 33 apprenticeship providers currently suspending from taking on new apprentices.

Providers are typically only suspended from recruitment following an ‘inadequate’ full Ofsted inspection or ‘insufficient’ new provider monitoring visit.

Two other providers are currently banned from taking on new apprentices despite never receiving a low judgment from the education watchdog: Luton International College Ltd, and Nebula Consultancy Services Ltd. Both providers did not respond to requests for comment about their suspension at the time of going to press.

The ESFA said it is unable to comment on the specific circumstances of an individual case.

Stanmore College received its grade two from Ofsted in 2017, the report for which praised its apprenticeship programme. At the time the college was teaching 1,800 students, 33 of which were apprentices.

Its spokesperson said the majority of their 2017/18 apprentices who either switched roles or left their employer “did successfully complete their apprenticeship programme during the following year.

“Stanmore College has been actively working with the ESFA colleagues to remove the suspension as it does not reflect recent achievement levels for apprenticeships,” they added.

“An imminent return to delivery of a full apprenticeship programme is anticipated, in order for the college to deliver the skills and knowledge that employers require in the region.”

The spokesperson said its finances have not been impacted in “any way”. The college’s latest accounts show a £157,000 surplus in 2019/20 and reserves of £7.5 million.

Ministers play down BTECs cull

Ministers have begun playing down the Department for Education’s plans to cull most BTECs, in the face of mounting opposition.

They have gone as far as to blame the media for fuelling a belief there will be a binary choice between A-levels and T Levels, despite the DfE’s own consultation stating that the two “should in future be the programmes of choice for 16-to-19-year-olds taking level 3 qualifications”.

A DfE policy paper on their reforms even asserts that applied general qualifications such as BTECs “will be rare”, but ministers now insist “many produce excellent outcomes” and they “won’t get rid of quality BTECs”.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, which is spearheading the #ProtectStudentChoice campaign, said he has noticed a “change in tone from ministers” since Boris Johnson’s reshuffle.

He told FE Week this new DfE ministerial team “has shown it is willing to actually listen to the sector on this issue” which has “not always been the case” with their predecessors.

The DfE embarked on a highly contentious two-stage level 3 and below qualifications review in March 2019 to consider the 12,000 applied general qualifications, including Pearson’s popular BTEC courses.

The final outcome was published in July. At the time the DfE said the reforms would involve stripping public funding from “poor-quality” qualifications that duplicate or overlap with T Levels or A-levels, with then-education secretary Gavin Williamson warning: “There can be no room in our education system for second-rate qualifications.”

At the time the DfE did say that some BTECs would survive the government’s bonfire of level 3 qualifications if they can demonstrate there is a “real need” for them, or if they are in an area that T Levels do not cover, such as performing arts.

But when challenged on the issue during an education questions session in September, former skills minister Gillian Keegan told MPs: “Poor-quality qualifications benefit nobody, least of all those who are disadvantaged.

“I will tell the House what is a tragedy – a tragedy is having young people not able to get on in the workplace because they have spent two or three years studying something that does not offer the value that employers need in this high-tech economy.”

Michelle Donelan, who took on a joint HE and FE brief following September’s reshuffle, appeared to water down the agenda last week during an education select committee hearing.

Michelle Donelan

She said: “I would like to bust a myth here, because the media has sold a story that we are abolishing all BTECs and there will be a binary choice between A-levels and T Levels, which is certainly not the direction of travel.

“We know that many BTECs produce excellent outcomes for young people and for people later on in life. However, there have been various studies, including the welfare review, which showed that some of them are not of a good enough quality; the quality that we would want our own children or our own constituents to be taking. It is right that we take stock of it and we review it.”

During Monday’s education questions, new education secretary Nadhim Zahawi weighed in on the issue. “I want to just squash that misrepresentation: we are not withdrawing funding from BTECs,” he said.

“BTECs that are of high quality and are valued will continue, but it is only right that we look at the landscape and see where quality lies and how we can increase the ladders of opportunity, not take them away from people.”

And during an accountability hearing with the education select committee on Wednesday, he added: “We won’t get rid of quality BTECs. I want to squash that narrative that has somehow built up I don’t know where from. We will be evidence-led.”

A policy statement published by the DfE following the outcome of its level 3 qualifications consultation, made clear: “From 2024, T Levels and A-levels will be the qualifications of choice for classroom-based study.”

Kewin said: “We are encouraged by the change of tone from ministers and some of the more positive messages we have heard in recent weeks. All we ask is that decisions on the future of these qualifications are based on evidence rather than anecdote, and that ministers appreciate that BTECs can happily co-exist alongside A-levels and T Levels.”

Festive foodbank campaign relaunches as part of Good For Me, Good for FE

Colleges are getting in the Christmas spirit with the relaunch of #FestiveFEFoodbankFriday, donating items to local foodbanks facing “high demand”. 

The FE sector’s foodbank drive was started by London South East Colleges during lockdown and collected 20,000 items and raised £47,000 between March and December 2020. 

It has now been brought under the umbrella of the Good for Me, Good for FE volunteering campaign, which has 120 colleges signed up. 

The campaign’s joint leader, Sam Parrett, LSEC’s group principal, said foodbanks are “continuing to experience high demand. Encouraging our partner colleges to support these is an important part of our campaign. Christmas is a difficult time for many, and we are delighted that so many colleges are re-launching their festive foodbanks.”  

‘Vital’ colleges play leading role in helping foodbanks

volunteering
Sam Parrett

Colleges will be encouraging staff and students to donate single items or create hampers for people in need. 

There will be a series of other fundraising activities taking place in 50 days until Christmas to support the campaign, including Santa Dash running events and Christmas lunches for care leavers. 

Parrett’s fellow joint leader, Loughborough College principal Jo Maher said it was “vital” colleges play a “leading role in helping vulnerable local families and people in need this Christmas”. 

She was “pleased” the campaign was relaunching the drive, so “we can continue providing that incredible support to people who need it the most. 

“It never fails to amaze me how generous and selfless staff and students in our sector are.” 

Her sentiment was echoed by the campaign’s other joint leader, East Coast College principal Stuart Rimmer, who said: “It will be wonderful to see every college getting involved and using our sector’s collective power to support a happier Christmas in all our communities.”  

Campaign has produced nearly £100k in social value

volunteering

Good for Me, Good for FE has a goal of raising £1 million in social value – which involves colleges recording how much volunteering staff and students undertake. 

This is then put through a “social value calculator” to figure out how many volunteering hours have been contributed in monetary terms to social goals, such as increasing access to employment and skills, helping the environment and growing businesses. 

The campaign says, so far, nearly £100,000 of social value has been generated. 

T Level placements CAN be done remotely, DfE announces

Students who started a T Level in 2020 and 2021 can complete a chunk of their industry placement remotely, the government has announced today.

Ministers and sector leaders have become increasing worried about convincing enough businesses to host students for the 315-hour or 45-day placements, a concern exacerbated by Covid-19.

A Department for Education spokesperson said officials have waited “as long as possible” to see if the impacts the pandemic has had on employers’ working practices “resolve themselves” in time to enable all students in the first cohorts to have a “100 per cent in person placement”.

But recent feedback has shown that providers are still experiencing difficulties in securing placements in some areas.

Several temporary flexibilities have now been applied to the first two waves of learners studying the flagship new post-16 technical qualifications.

For 2020 starters, students can spend a maximum of 40 per cent of their placement hours remotely, new guidance published today has revealed.

Learners starting in 2021 will be allowed to spend a maximum of 25 per cent of their placement hours not in the workplace.

This approach can be applied to students taking T Levels in the digital, construction and health and science routes, but not education and childcare.

The DfE said this was because education and childcare “cannot be delivered in a blended way and must continue as 100 per cent in person to reflect the level of competence in knowledge and skills that students need to be demonstrate in the workplace, to meet the early years educator criteria”.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said this new flexibility “allows colleges some space to ensure that every placement is a high-quality experience” in the face of “changes in working practices”.

The DfE said the remote element must take place at either the provider’s site, a training centre or simulated working environment run by the employer.

Students should not complete this remote working element of their placement at home, the guidance adds.

It continues: “Providers and employers will need to agree which elements of the placement and which learning objectives can be realistically achieved remotely.”

Additionally, students who are studying the health, healthcare science and science T Levels will be able to complete a placement at “pathway level if a placement at specialism level can’t be sourced”.

Around 1,300 young people started T Levels last year. Figures for this year’s enrolments have not yet been released.

Providers of the early years educator T Level told FE Week last January they had postponed placements to keep students and the workplaces safe.

In response, the DfE cut the minimum hours for placements for level 3 early educator qualifications, including the T Level, from 750 hours to 415 because of the pandemic during 2020.

The department has now extended this flexibility to education and childcare students starting in 2021.

Providers have been told to continue to plan to deliver placements of 750 hours for education and childcare students who started their T Levels in 2021, but “in situations where they are not able to do this, students can still complete their placement if they do a minimum of 415 hours and are able to demonstrate competence against the early years educator criteria”.

Today’s flexibilities come after the DfE announced in May it would temporarily increase the cash incentives for employers running T Level industry placements to £1,000.

Employers running placements in 2020/21, the first year of the flagship qualifications’ roll-out, were gifted £750 for every student they placed, up to a maximum of ten students.

Firms are now able to claim for a new maximum of 20 students on T Level programmes until July 2022.

Three T Levels were rolled out last September, and a further seven started this autumn.

UCU claims victory over staff pay at 5 London colleges

Staff at five London colleges have landed improved pay offers following strikes.

They include salary increases of up to 5 per cent, increased annual leave and workload “protection”.

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady claimed this as a “fantastic win” for their members and urged employers who are “refusing to negotiate on pay” to follow suit or face further industrial action.

Staff at Croydon College took to the picket line for seven days this term but have now voted to accept an offer.

The deal includes a backdated 2 per cent pay increase for all staff, 5 per cent for lower-paid members in learning support roles and a minimum salary for qualified teachers of “around £30,000”.

There are “additional commitments around workload protection, a four-week summer leave period and simplified pay progression”, a UCU spokesperson said.

South Thames Colleges Group, which includes South Thames, Merton, Kingston and Carshalton colleges, has offered a 2 per cent consolidated pay award for all staff. This increases to 2.25 per cent for staff who earn less than £23,000.

The offer also includes a “commitment to review and level up terms and conditions across the group including lecturers’ contact hours and holiday arrangements, as well as a new pay and grading structure”.

UCU members in the South Thames Colleges Group are voting on whether to accept the offer in a ballot that closes on Monday. Staff had previously taken one day of strike action.  

Staff at fifteen colleges had voted to take strike action over pay demands in July this year. The latest offers mean ten of the colleges have now received improved pay offers.

The UCU has been demanding a pay increase of greater than 5 per cent to “close the school-college pay gap” which currently stands at £9,000, and after more than a decade of below inflation FE pay increases.

The union said its dispute with Capital City College Group remains unresolved. The group has seen ten days of strike action this year.

Jo Grady

Roy O’Shaughnessy, chief executive of Capital City College Group, previously said he was “very disappointed” that the strike has continued because his lecturing staff “are already paid more than other further education lecturers in London”.

He added that the sector’s “ongoing lack of funding is precisely the reason why we cannot afford to pay the 7 per cent increase in pay that the union is demanding”.

Grady said today: “This is a fantastic win for all our members at Croydon, Carshalton, Kingston, Merton, and South Thames colleges. By taking industrial action they have won long overdue improvements to their pay and terms and conditions, which will particularly benefit lower paid staff. 

“Employers that are refusing to negotiate on pay, such as Capital City College Group, need to follow the example of Croydon College and South Thames Colleges Group and agree to improvements in staff wages, otherwise they risk further disruption.”

Croydon College and South Thames Colleges Group were approached for comment.

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.”