More licences to practice would show England ‘values’ skills

The lack of jobs in England which require a licence to practice shows the country does not place a high value on skills, a leading academic has said.

Lorna Unwin, professor emerita in vocational education at the UCL’s Institute of Education, called for a “cultural shift” on the licences during an FE Week webcast on the Skills for Jobs white paper, held today.

Unwin, along with Federation of Awarding Bodies chief executive Tom Bewick and NOCN Group chief executive Graham Hasting-Evans, was discussing how England’s vocational system could “beat” Germany’s – which is a goal of education secretary Gavin Williamson.

Unwin said most of England’s politicians “never mention” Germany’s “regulated labour market”.

She called it a “huge stick and a carrot for employers to have a really good commitment to training” which involves a much wider use of licences to practice than in our system.

Pilots for licences to practice?

Licences to practice are where workers have to train and be certified at a standard set out by a professional body to fill a particular occupation, such as a doctor.

Unwin said England has “very, very, very” few licences to practice, which means: “I could set myself up as an electrician tomorrow, if I wanted to.

“I could certainly cut your hair and do toenails, with no training.”

This, she said, showed “we don’t value a lot of jobs, or we think for lots of jobs you just need a bit of induction and you pick it up as you go along”.

But Covid-19 had “exposed all of the occupations that the country relies on to keep going, that people generally just dismiss”.

Unwin said there needed to be a “cultural shift” around the licences, focusing on “to what extent we can develop the notion across more occupations”.

Her comments come after education secretary Gavin Williamson promised in his speech to the Conservative Party conference in 2019 that England would “overtake Germany in the opportunities we offer to those studying technical routes by 2029”.

FE Week editor Nick Linford, who was chairing the discussion, compared the lack of licences to practice in England to when a recruitment shortage for teachers led to a debate about recruiting unqualified staff.

“The downside is,” he added, “that anyone and everyone could potentially do it and what does that say about your kind of your belief in the value of your skills system”.

Unwin agreed, posing the question: “They wouldn’t withdraw training from brain surgeons, even if there was a shortage. So why do it for teachers?”

She proposed a pilot of licences to practice in some sectors, to figure out what they might look like and whether it could be linked to progression from level 3 up to level 5.

However, she did warn that it could create “bottlenecks” around entry into the labour market.

Construction ‘miles ahead of everybody else’

One area of England’s jobs market which makes heavy use of licences to practice is construction.

For instance, NOCN Group offers two “job cards” for the sector to “provide proof individuals have the required training and qualifications for the type of work they carry out”: one under the Construction Plant Competence Scheme, and another for the Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme.

Hasting-Evans said certain sectors, such as construction, are “going miles ahead of everybody else” in using licences.

Pictured top (clockwise from top left): Graham Hasting-Evans, Nick Linford, Lorna Unwin, Tom Bewick

Watch the full webcast here:

 

Could your college capitalise on the new apprenticeships?

Apprentice reform has opened the floodgates for private providers to really get involved in delivering apprenticeships.  The new standards are starting to prove their worth to employers as the first cohorts of students have successfully navigated the improved – yet imposed – changes. Even the pandemic hasn’t held back the more entrepreneurial spirits from delivering and learning content, despite the series of lockdowns.

With such confidence growing, how can colleges capitalise on the opportunities offered by the new apprenticeships? Traditionally the ‘home’ of apprenticeship delivery and with unmatched skills in encouraging younger learners to fulfil their potential, colleges are very well-placed to make the most of the new standards. Yet some remain reticent, unsure of the changes or unclear how to implement the new standards. 

The changes can be daunting but here, Tad Chapman, Head of End-point Assessment at Active IQ. and Amanda Charlton, Sport & Protective Services Work Based Learning at Bridgwater and Taunton College, explain how their partnership has really made a success of the new apprenticeship standards.

Getting to grips with the changes

“I’ll be honest and say when we first saw the new apprentice standards, I didn’t know where to start – and that’s with the best part of 30 years’ apprenticeship experience under my belt,” says Amanda.  “So, I started by calling in Active IQ and together we navigated the process. Its reputation for moving and adapting quickly is deserved and has been a huge asset to us, firstly in getting to grips with the new standards and, secondly, working around the added complexity of lockdown restrictions,” she says.

“As one of the first End-point Assessment Organisations (EPAOs) to be approved on the Register of End-point Assessment Organisations, we have plenty of insight into the End-point Assessment process, the requirements for the apprentices, tutors, employers and assessors,” says Tad.  “Also, as a leading Awarding Organisation, we are well-versed in the ways of Ofqual and regulatory bodies and well-placed to support the transition from the old-style frameworks to the new standards. 

Even that being so, Tad agrees the new process required careful navigation and was as much a learning curve for Active IQ as it was for its college partners. 

“We learned a great deal by working closely with colleges and their cohorts to help them take on board the fundamental changes and acknowledging we were partnering on this journey was by far the best approach,” says Tad.

Plan for success

Bridgwater & Taunton College has over 20,000 students of which around 3,000 are doing apprenticeships.  Amanda manages approximately 100 students at any given time in her department which offers the following apprenticeships with Active IQ.

Level 2             Community Activator Coach

                           Leisure Team Member

Level 3             Leisure Duty Manager

                           Personal Trainer

                           Community Sport and Health Officer

                           Teaching Assistant

“The toolkits and e-learning provided by Active IQ are extremely good and provide the scaffold for the learners to understand what is required,” she says.  “Furthermore, the employer guides provide a really good overview and make it much easier to include national agendas and environmental changes into learning.” 

In addition, Amanda undertakes a mapping exercise with any new standard to match the toolkits to work-based tasks and activities to ensure that the apprenticeship standards’ competencies of knowledge, skills and behaviours, including English and maths, are covered in sufficient depth and detail.  Finally, Amanda aligns the Bridgwater and Taunton College MyBTC Advantage programme – that is used to support and underpin soft and transferable skills such as being more community minded, having higher aspirations and being a better communicator – to inform her Plan of Learning for that standard.

High profile employer partner

“We’re very proud to hold the national contract with British Gymnastics for apprenticeships,” says Amanda.  “Our programme provides clubs and individuals the opportunity to create full-time careers in gymnastics, supporting the development of young coaches who are already invested in the sport.”

The 18-month programme sees apprentices do on-the-job training within their club environment whilst completing learning outside of their club under the guidance of the college. Apprentices can choose to study for either the Level 2 Community Activator Coach Standard or an Apprenticeship in Level 3 Community Sport and Health Officer (both of which include a funded Level 1, 2 or 3 coaching course in a gymnastics discipline).

Perfectly placed colleges

Apprenticeships have always been an attractive option by offering a cost-effective and clearly mapped route for career success.  That concept is even more evident with the new standards offering pathways starting at Level 2 and going right up through junior and senior management roles to Levels 6 and 7.  While it’s always been good to know that an apprenticeship leads nicely into the world of work, after the recent uncertain and turbulent times, there’s even more to be said for the structure, reassurance and security offered by apprenticeships and the End-point assessment process. 

“Apprenticeships provide a supportive and guided route into the workplace to cushion the transition from school, or other settings, to the workplace,” says Amanda.  “As an apprenticeship provider, we can work with employers to structure and plan the off-the-job training and schedule in our on-line and face-to-face delivery so that the apprentice is managed and guided carefully to be the best they can be.”

But education is not only about classroom learning and skills acquisition, especially among younger learners aged 16-19.  As well as fulfilling an educational role, colleges are perfectly placed to support students in other ways.  “Colleges are able to offer substantial wrap-around support and services for students,” says Amanda.  “This covers everything from wellbeing and counselling support for learners in addition to careers advice, maths and English support and opportunities to learn from and experience other sectors.” 

Another concern for many youngsters and their families is the worry over accruing student debt and the concern they may not necessarily find work on completion of their further education.

Many students can see real benefit in starting their chosen career as soon as possible and for those who have a clear passion for a vocation, an apprenticeship is hard to beat.

Meeting employers’ demands

The Department for Education described apprenticeship training as “the key to unlocking productivity” while last month’s National Apprenticeship Week run under the theme “Build the Future”.  Both these bold statements are true. Today’s apprenticeships have the potential to attract strong candidates looking for a clear career pathway to the top and, importantly, have the power to retain top talent within an organisation.

With a grading system for apprentices now in place and assessments taking a more holistic view of the learner, the standards give employers more of what they need in terms of greater engagement, more focused work and more practical time with their apprentices.

FE colleges will naturally prioritise their student body but knowing the benefits for employers is a vital piece of the career jigsaw.  “Apprentices can be strategically savvy choices,” says Tad.  “Open- minded employers will see apprentices as an ideal opportunity to train people precisely to fit their business model while vetting their potential by seeing them in the workplace.  Employers who are prepared to invest time and energy in an apprentice will be rewarded by having the chance to take a learner from Level 2 up the career ladder to take a management role within a few years by completing Level 3, Level 4 and so on.”

Amanda has heard exactly this feedback from employers. “We’ve had employers build their short-term future business strategy around the individuals we bring to them. They identify skills and potential early on and can even plan where in their business an apprentice’s talent can be used to diversify, grow and develop to achieve a business aim as well as fulfil a career goal.”

Successful outcome

The new apprenticeships standards all build up to the End-point Assessment, itself an unfamiliar process to many. This is where Active IQ comes into its own by working closely with colleges and employers to ensure that each apprentice is appraised at regular intervals to ensure they are absolutely ready to be assessed. 

“Active IQ has a very high-quality resources, regular newsfeeds and webinars alongside, proactive account managers and named individuals who are always ready to answer queries and questions,” says Amanda.  “Its online portal (EPA Pro) is a fantastic resource which provides me with a dashboard to see exactly which parts of the EPA have been booked or completed.  They provide great post-EPA feedback to our learners which we are able to use to improve our own practice.”

Getting it right

You could argue that if you can successfully steer a cohort of apprentices through work-based learning at a time when many workplaces are closed and social distancing measures are in place, you can manage it under more normal education circumstances. 

Active IQ recognises that colleges, in the same way as other training providers, had their work cut out in the last year to keep learners on track.  Amanda agrees that when the pandemic hit just after Bridgwater & Taunton College had started to get to grips with the new standards, a combination of adaptations, swiftly implemented changes and a leap of faith were called upon to succeed.  But succeed they did: she kept all her students on track and lost none from the process through the pandemic.

“As a College we moved very quickly to using Microsoft Teams to successfully deliver both training and wellbeing sessions to support students in keeping their up with the apprenticeship commitments while safeguarding their mental and physical health,” says Amanda.  “We had to be creative and responsive to provide all our learners, not just our apprentices, with the same high quality Teaching Learning and Assessment as our face-to-face delivery. No-one was more pleased than me to see everyone pass their EPA and a few even gained distinction grades.  If you can achieve that for learners in the middle of a lockdown, you have to feel that you got it right!”

www.activeiq.co.uk

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:

  • Business Administrator
  • Community Activator Coach
  • Community Sport & Health Officer
  • Customer Service Practitioner
  • Facilities Management Supervisor
  • Personal Trainer
  • Teaching Assistant
  • Team Leader/Supervisor
 

College closes all campuses for a week following ‘major’ cyber attack

A Birmingham college has closed all its campuses to students for a week following a “major” ransomware cyber attack that disabled its core IT systems.

The eight sites of South and City College Birmingham will be shut and revert to online teaching from today while computer forensic specialists work to fix the problem.

The college has said the government and the Information Commissioner’s Office have been informed.

Students only began returning for face-to-face teaching last week following the national lockdown.

A statement posted on the college’s website and its Twitter page on Saturday 13 March calls the incident a “major ransomware attack” – which is where computer systems are encrypted by hackers, who say they will only release them if a ransom is paid.

From today, the college says, “we will revert to online teaching for the rest of the week for all areas.

“We are therefore asking students to access their online lessons from Monday as during the lockdown.

“There may be some disruption during this time and we ask that you bear with us and contact your tutor if there are any problems.”

The college has since confirmed to FE Week the attack on Saturday involved data “on a number of servers and workstations connected to our domain” being encrypted by ransomware, while “a volume of data has been extracted from our servers”.

“We proactively removed a number of systems from our network upon discovering the incident.”

The college is now in the process of investigating the extent of the outbreak and are working to ensure security and restore service “as quickly as possible”.

The college has around 13,000 students, according to its 2019-20 financial statements. It was formed in 2012 by a merger of South Birmingham College and City College Birmingham, and in 2017 took over Bournville College.

Principal Mike Hopkins tweeted about the attack: “As if COVID wasn’t enough, hackers have finally got through our system and taken down all our IT systems – a few weeks getting it all sorted and back up.

“Unfortunately we’ve had to shut the college for a week and revert to online! Staff can still work from home and emails are OK.”

 

ESFA warned about cyber attack

This is the latest in a number of cyber-attacks on colleges, which in August 2019 prompted the Education and Skills Funding Agency to publish advice on how colleges should protect themselves.

This included backing up data, training staff to verify email senders, firewalls, and a series of questions to evaluate “cyber” risk in their organisation.

Eighty per cent of further/higher education institutions identified a cyber security breach or attack in the 12 months prior to the end of 2019, according to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020.

Cyber criminals hacked into the personal details of past and present staff and students at Swindon College in September 2019, triggering a police investigation.

Officers were also called in that same month by South Staffordshire College after “ethical” hackers maliciously broke into a senior staff member’s email account and sent doctored emails, purporting to be from the principal and using racist language, to staff, local politicians and FE Week itself.

The email account of a teacher at Loreto College in Manchester was also used by hackers in November 2019 to email students about a hoax terror attack.

The Chancellor did broadly the right thing with the Budget – now to delivery

The government will need to be much quicker delivering what it announced in the Budget last week than its record so far, writes Stephen Evans

Times have changed. Last week, we already knew most of the measures in the Budget in advance through Treasury press releases. But in 1947 Hugh Dalton resigned as Chancellor because a newspaper published leaked details of the Budget before it had been announced in the House of Commons!

The result of how we do things in 2021 is that there wasn’t much which was new last week that we didn’t already know about.

However, the Budget did shed light on the approach the government is taking and what the future might hold.

‘Right policies, right scale’

The Budget confirmed that the Plan for Jobs, first published in July 2020, is the government’s main answer to unemployment.

The Office for Budget Responsibility expects unemployment to peak at 6.5 per cent, which is lower than previously expected and testament to the success of the furlough scheme – now extended to September 2021.

However, that still means almost a million more people out of work than before the pandemic. Helping people back to work is going to be a big focus for us all for years to come.

Our research shows it takes three to seven years for employment to recover after recessions. Long-term unemployment is already up by 25 per cent on last year.

Government measures to tackle this include Kickstart (which is funding jobs for six months for young people at risk of unemployment) and Restart (which will help long-term unemployed people back to work).  

As pre-announced, the Budget also gave extra funding for traineeships in 2021-22 and increased incentives for employers to take on apprentices.

From my analysis, the government’s got many of the right policies and of broadly the right scale.

‘Delivery must be quicker’

But the challenge is in delivery. It took seven months to even decide which providers to allocate the extra traineeship money announced in July 2020.

We’ll need to be much quicker than that with the new money announced last week. Young people need help now.

And I worry that we risk having a list of initiatives rather than a coherent offer for young people and adults.

For example, we at the Learning and Work Institute have argued for a Youth Guarantee so every young person is offered a job, training place or apprenticeship.

The other thing to bear in mind is that Kickstart is currently due to close for new entrants in December 2021.

That’s just three months after furlough will end and likely a year before youth long-term unemployment will peak. Surely we’ll see an extension to Kickstart at some point?

‘More investment still needed’

The other key theme of the Budget was about building the economy of the future – looking beyond the pandemic. Here, there was lots of talk of green investment, infrastructure and levelling up.

All fairly sensible, particularly given economic growth has been poor since the last recession. Unless we boost growth and productivity, we won’t have rising prosperity or extra resources for public services.  

Skills drive economic growth, and have much wider benefits for health, wellbeing and citizenship.

The good news is that, after a decade of cuts, there is already new money in the pipeline, including in the form of the National Skills Fund.

But this won’t get us back to 2010 levels of investment at the end of the New Labour government, which weren’t high enough anyway. 

And we need much better joining up, for example, by ringfencing jobs and apprenticeships for young people and unemployed people.

It also means investing in public services such as social care, creating jobs where they’re desperately needed.

That all needs to be underpinned by a long-term investment plan in skills – from basic skills to levels 4 to 5 and beyond.

All told, the Chancellor has done broadly the right things in terms of emergency support, but we need a tighter focus on delivery.

And the ambitions for a future economy are good, but need to be backed by increased spending in learning, skills and retraining.  

All eyes on the autumn spending review to see if it delivers the goods…

This is how I brought Swedish ‘fika’ to FE in England

If staff are skipping lunch and only talk about work, they and their principals need to hear about fika, writes Victoria Grimberg

Having lived in both Sweden and England, I have seen many notable differences in work culture first-hand. One that has really struck me is the difference in staff stress levels. 

According to the ‘OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey’ in 2018, 40 per cent of UK teachers say they commonly experience stress in their profession. That’s double the 20 per cent of Swedish teachers who made the same claim.  

This became evident to me when I moved to England, and FE colleagues of mine, who get a 30-minute window for lunch, were so stressed that they often did not have lunch all. 

“I don’t have time!” would be a common midday exclamation by the time they had walked to the office, checked their next lesson, printed any last-minute resources and squeezed in a toilet visit.

I am sure many reading this recognise themselves in this lunchtime routine. 

‘The importance of fika’

But in Sweden, the Working Hours Act states “the employer shall organise work so that employees are able to take pauses from work as necessary […] Pauses are included in the working time”. 

These pauses actually have a much-loved name in Sweden. You may have heard of hygge in Denmark, meaning a mood of cosiness and contentment. But have you heard of fika? 

Fika are breaks that are a deeply established part of Swedish life and work culture. They usually come with coffee and cake and are at least 15 to 20 minutes long (but can go on for longer) and occur twice daily: one in the morning around 10am and one in the afternoon around 3pm.  

Various studies show that taking a break and stepping away from your desk makes you feel more energised which, in turn, helps reduce stress levels, improves staff wellbeing and increases workplace productivity.  

Management and staff are encouraged to fika together (yes, it’s a verb as well as a noun) regardless of power and position. Above all, it is a social gathering where you are advised specifically not to talk about work.  

Many Swedes consider it essential to make time for fika every day. You may be astonished to find out that employees are encouraged or scheduled to take two fika breaks per day, on top of their lunch break.  

Research shows Swedes fika for about 227 hours per year, the equivalent of 7.5 working days.  

Maybe that is partly why Sweden was seventh on the World Happiness Report in 2020, while the UK was thirteenth. Might there be a correlation between the happiness of Swedes and fika culture? 

‘Staff appreciated college pilot’

I decided to introduce fika to South Devon College.

After meeting our now vice principal for a chat and being given the opportunity to share a presentation about fika for health and wellbeing, it was decided that we would host a drop-in fika session for three hours.  

Staff were encouraged to come and share a hot drink with Swedish chocolate cake I made from my grandmother’s recipe.  

The successful drop-in was followed by a month of fika in January 2020. Students and staff could go to different venues to escape the day-to-day cycles of work. 

Colleagues of mine really took it to heart. One said, “I enjoyed taking part in fika and I was glad that there was encouragement from my supervisor to do this.” 

Another said it was a “welcome addition to allow time away from the stressful day”. 

Perhaps you recognise yourself in this final comment: “I’m the classic ‘tied to my desk’. I break at my desk, lunch at my desk, so it was great to take a bit of time to chat to colleagues. I definitely felt more positive and productive when I went back to work.” 

The college is encouraging staff to take time for a fika without feeling guilty and it’s even a part of the South Devon College people strategy. 

With wellbeing under greater strain than ever with Covid, could you encourage your staff to fika?

Victims of county lines gangs easily go under the radar in colleges

Creating a non-judgmental space for victims to discuss gang involvement in county lines would make a big difference, writes Teresa Carroll

The increase in gangs selling drugs to our communities served by the further education sector is startling. 

The National Crime Agency’s analysis suggests there are more than 1,000 county line drug lines in operation across the country. This refers to the exploitation of vulnerable adults and children to move and deliver drugs, usually from cities to rural areas. 

Victims include children and young people, both girls and boys, aged between 15 and 17. However, as county lines is often a hidden form of abuse, the age of victims may be even lower.

Many victims are recruited as children, with exploitation continuing into early adulthood.  

Last month, Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner, warned that there were around 27,000 children aged between 10 and 17 at high risk of gang exploitation, with these numbers likely to increase because of Covid-19.

Statutory guidance across the UK highlights it is the responsibility of educators to safeguard young people from all forms of abuse and criminal exploitation. The government’s Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance from September is clear that county lines is a safeguarding issue. 

In September 2018 the Home Office published updated guidance, called ‘Criminal Exploitation of Children and Vulnerable Adults: County Lines Guidance’.

More recently the Ministry of Justice also published practical advice for frontline practitioners on safeguarding, signs of exploitation and referral pathways, called ‘County Lines Exploitation Practice Guidance for YOTs and Frontline Practitioners’.

But more needs to be done to raise awareness of county lines in FE providers and schools.  

‘Signs not always obvious’

Young people and adults more at risk include those who are economically vulnerable, have a special educational need or disability, are in the care system and who have been excluded from mainstream education.  

But colleges need to remember the signs are not always obvious. Take Patrick (not his real name), who was an academically gifted and talented 17-year-old footballer when his family started to notice changes in his behaviour. 

He began refusing to attend college and skipping football practice. He was soon repeatedly arrested on drugs-related charges, sent to prison, and released after serving his 12-month sentence.  

He is just one of many examples of a young person who was groomed and exploited by a county lines gang.

Victims are often recruited face-to-face, including in FE institutions, special educational needs schools and homeless shelters, as well as on social media. Some children are groomed through family members.

‘Look out for clues’

We must ensure that all our children and young people have access to an education that provides a clear line of sight to an independent life, with employment that will sustain them.

County lines gangs can take advantage of young people who feel they have no prospect of getting an education or a well-paid job. As one victim said, there is a need for money, and county lines is a “way of making good money”.  

So, what can colleges and FE providers do?  

County lines is a ‘way of making good money’

Firstly, it’s important to recognise that learners will rarely report county lines exploitation. This is a hidden crime and many victims easily go under the radar.

Educators need look out for clues, such as missing classes, unexplained acquisition of money, clothes, mobile phones or behaving in an unusual way.

The County Lines – Children’s Society toolkit for professionals offers guidance on vulnerabilities and indicators. Robust procedures need to be in place when these are flagged.

Staff must also listen closely to young people who have been affected.

To gain a better understanding of young people’s experiences, this week the ETF presented the critically acclaimed production Bullet Tongue Reloaded by The Big House, an organisation that works with those from the care system to produce plays. 

In a Q&A session with the young cast, many said colleges and schools listening to them in a non-judgmental way would have helped them escape gang culture.

County lines gangs could exploit the uncertainty created by Covid to prey on more vulnerable young people. 

Therefore, education and training that has a clear line of sight to a decent job with a successful career pathway has never been more important. 

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 346

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving.

Lizzie Beale

Youth member of board, The Careers and Enterprise Company

Start date: March 2021
Concurrent job: Charity and community partnerships manager, Heathrow

Interesting fact: She has debated in the House of Commons twice as an elected Member of Youth Parliament.

Asif Khan

Head, Blackburn Sixth Form, Blackburn College

Start date: May 2021

Previous job: Senior leader and director of e-learning, St. Marys College

Interesting fact: He used to teach Chinese Kickboxing alongside teaching computer science at Bolton Sixth Form College.

Sydney Samuels

Youth leadership team, The Careers and Enterprise Company

Start date: March 2021

Concurrent job: Founder and managing director, Loop not Luck

Interesting fact: She won Dragons Den at 11-years-old and Peter Jones invested in her first business idea – an over-the-shoulder utility bag called a Funky Strap.

Andrew Webster

Education sector manager (further education and skills), The Careers and Enterprise Company

Start date: March 2021

Previous job: Area education manager (West), The Careers and Enterprise Company

Interesting fact: He has climbed the mountain Snowdon (pre-lockdown) and hopes to get a few more big hills, small mountains in soon.

‘Absurd’: Small employers blocked from apprentice cash incentives

Small employers are being blocked from the government’s apprentice cash incentives due to a “bonkers” cap on starts, an FE Week investigation has found.

Under the terms of the bonus scheme for hiring new apprentices, employers can only make claims through the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s digital apprenticeship service.

But non-levy-paying businesses have been capped on the number of apprentices they can put through the portal since January 2020 – starting with a limit of three before increasing to ten in July – to ensure the overall apprenticeships budget is not overspent.

Ministers are now under pressure to lift or extend the cap as some small employers have already met the limit and cannot put any new starts through the service. This means it is impossible for them to claim the cash incentives.

The bonuses were first introduced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in August to help get people back into work following the pandemic. He announced last week they will double from April to September 2021, allowing employers to receive £3,000 for every apprentice they take on, regardless of their age.

One non-levy-paying business that has reached the starts cap told FE Week they want to take on ten new apprentices and are therefore set to lose out on £30,000. They described the situation as “absurd”, while training providers have said it is “frustrating” and “counter-intuitive”.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency told FE Week it was monitoring the impact of the reservations cap and will “very shortly” confirm how it will operate from April 2021, from which date all apprenticeship starts must be put through the digital apprenticeship service.

They added that ESFA analysis of non-levy demand in 2020-21 shows that a cap level of ten is “sufficient for 99 per cent of smaller employers”.

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

Since January 2020 employers who do not pay the levy have been able to create accounts and were initially capped at three starts before this increased to ten in July. Small employers have been able to start more apprentices through procured non-levy contracts held by training providers, but these end for new starts next month.

The cap was imposed owing to concern that the amount of money not being spent by levy payers wouldn’t be enough if the government allowed small employers to have as many starts as they wanted.

But in the past year starts have dropped dramatically across England because of the pandemic.

Take-up of the financial incentives has also been low. The Treasury originally budgeted for up to 100,000 incentive payments for new apprentice hires, but latest Department for Education data shows that 25,420 employers have submitted claims for the bonus.

‘Until the limit is removed the apprentice cash incentives are useless to us’

Debbie Gardiner, a well-known FE consultant who works with a number of training providers, said it “feels like the right arm doesn’t know what the left arm is doing”.

apprentice cash incentives
Deborah Gardiner

“My instinct is that the Chancellor didn’t even know about the cap issue when announcing the incentives,” she told FE Week.

“The cap was there to initially test the system and ensure there is a budget control. We don’t need this level of control any more because we have had a pandemic and apprenticeship numbers are nowhere near where you’d expect them to be.”

She added that one of her training providers estimates this will negatively impact them by around 100 apprentice starts, mostly in childcare, between now and July.

An employer feeling the direct impact of the cap is Katey’s Nursery & Pre-School – a nursery group with five sites in London.

Its finance director, Janet Firmston-Williams, told FE Week that they have started ten level 3 early years apprentices through the ESFA’s digital service over the course of the past year. And despite two dropping out, they are still being blocked from putting any more starts through the service, even though they want to employ ten new apprentices.

“Until the limit of ten is removed the incentives are of no benefit to us,” Firmston-Williams told FE Week.

“In an industry that desperately needs to attract workers, how absurd is all this? £30,000 will be lost. For a nursery business, that is key.”

She added: “The government is trying so hard to be seen to be encouraging employment of apprentices but ultimately the incentives do not work.”

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers told FE Week it understands the cap will stay in some form for the “foreseeable future” but that it could be increased come next month.

Its chief policy officer Simon Ashworth said the current cap is “counter-intuitive” and “a bit bonkers”, considering the drop in starts and expected apprenticeship budget underspend.

The ESFA pointed out that funds transferred from levy-paying employers to smaller employers through the apprenticeship service do not require the receiving employer to reserve funds. They can therefore use this system to exceed the ten cap and claim incentives.

Revealed: The most popular Skills Toolkit courses

The government has for the first time revealed the most popular courses being taken through its “Skills Toolkit” – but questions may again be raised about the data’s accuracy.

Figures published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency show 162,320 “registrations” and 30,254 “completions” on the courses offered for free by 12 providers as of January 24.

Sitting at the top of both tables (see below) is the Good Things Foundation’s “Learn My Way” programme – a collection of resources to help visitors use the internet, such as “how to use your computer or device” tutorials.

The second most popular is a web page called “Learn For Everyday Life” by Lloyds Bank, which features a series of downloadable videos and PDF resources to help with digital skills, organisation and finance like “improve your CV”.

And in third place is a course offered by technology company Cisco which teaches people to learn to code in Python – a programming language used by small companies and tech giants.

Skills Toolkit
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The toolkit’s “platform” was launched in April 2020 at a cost of around £1 million and directs visitors to free online content which aims to help build their skills during the coronavirus outbreak.

But as previously reported by FE Week, significant overcounting has already led to revised estimates of “registration” claims in the official statistics which continue to include web hits and could be coming from anywhere in the world.

The “completions” data is brand new and how these are recorded varies by each course. For some, learners need to reach a pass mark, but other courses simply consider the time a learner actively spends on the content.

For example, FE training provider Corndel offers a course called “Organisational Financial Management: An Introduction” – a web page featuring a series of videos and PDFs – which is reported as having had 9,975 registrations and 178 completions.

Corndel told FE Week that a registration is triggered when users click on at least one learning asset and that a completion is recorded when the user spends at least three minutes on a continuing professional develop component of the course.

Elsewhere, the Good Things Foundation’s “Learn My Way” course triggers a completion when a learner clicks on either a “next course” or “back to course start page” button when they get to the end of one of the resources.

For other courses, visitors have to register through a portal and submit assessments upon which a decision is made regarding passing and completion.

The Learning Curve Group offers a business and customer awareness course whereby learners sign up to an online platform. A completion is recorded when the learner has submitted their assessments and reached a pass mark of 75 per cent.

FutureLearn, which is part of the Open University, operates a similar system to Learning Curve. On all 23 of the courses it offers through the toolkit, visits must mark over 90 per cent of course steps and attempt all test questions, achieving a score of over 70 per cent.

 

‘The Skills Toolkit further confirms the value of online flexible courses’

The take-up of the free content was welcomed by the course providers.

Hannah Brindle, managing director of the Virtual College, said: “Supporting people to focus on personal growth and development in a time of uncertainty and worry makes a huge difference to mental health and overall wellbeing. Hopefully through this initiative people have been able to feel a sense of control over some aspect of their lives and futures, by keeping their minds optimistic, curious and open to learning new things.”

Harminder Matharu, director of government partnerships at FutureLearn, added: “The popularity of our selected digital and workplace skills courses further confirms the value of online flexible courses that are available to anyone, at a time that suits them, enabling people to learn those critical basic and digital skills that employers look for.”

Education secretary Gavin Williamson and skills minister Gillian Keegan have often celebrated the impact of the skills toolkit, claiming it has had a “transformational impact” on those looking to retrain during the pandemic despite having no system in place that tracks learner destinations.

The Department for Education also previously refused to release the names of the organisations given funding to develop the toolkit’s platform and conduct user research.

But the DfE has reluctantly now told FE Week the names of the firms through a Freedom of Information request. The companies that shared almost £1 million were: Contracts Online Ltd; eSynergy Solutions Limited; Leidos Innovations UK Ltd; Methods Business and Digital Technology Limited.