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The FE fashion school where change is always on trend

Fashion Retail Academy principal Lee Lucas on the impact of 20 years of industry transformation- from physical shops to same-day deliveries, influencers and drone flying

A delicate fragrance lingers in the air as I pass through the grand pillared archway under a stained-glass goddess, and into the home of the Fashion Retail Academy.

The lavish décor of the Ofsted ‘outstanding’ training provider’s new home, Electra House in London’s Moorgate (a former wartime secret operations base), embodies the emphasis on aesthetics that defines the fashion industry.

Five industry players founded the Fashion Retail Academy (FRA) 20 years ago and still play a role in shaping it. But the decimation of the high street means the skills required of its learners are quite different two decades on.

When we meet, principal and chief executive Lee Lucas is looking dapper in his crushed velvet jacket and jeans, as you might expect. But he laments that the CEOs of fashion companies he meets turn up in “really scruffy jumpers and trainers” and “could be selling the Big Issue”.

The entranceway of Electra House, Moorgate, which the FRA moved into in 2024

Unlike his fashion-loving students, a gaggle of whom are taking selfies in the corridor, Lucas “cannot stand” having his picture taken and jokes that his children (aged 11 and 22) “won’t remember I existed” as there will be “no proof” when he is gone.

Then he tells me about the FRA’s origins, which underlie its purpose as the UK’s only specialist fashion retail institute.

Retail giants Arcadia, Marks & Spencer, Experian, Tesco F&F and Next were “rivals beyond compare” who “would sooner kill each other than do anything together”, but such was their “frustration” with the calibre of graduates joining their industry that they united in 2005 under a “common cause”.

At first, the firms tried to work with the universities, offering to help write a programme of courses tailored to industry needs. None took up their offer, so they pooled £10 million to form the FRA. They started with 50 students on level 2 qualifications. Now, there are 3,500 students and apprentices, ranging from level 2 in fashion retail to a master’s in international fashion marketing.

“The litmus test” of success, both then and now, is how many go on to work in the industry, and Lucas is “really proud” that 94 per cent end up in “positive destinations”.

Lee Lucas, CEO of the Fashion Retail Academy

Tracksuited apprentice

Lucas admits that his own academic record makes him a “very bad example” for his students. As a tracksuit-donning teenager growing up near Carshalton, South London, he quit his A-levels and a GNVQ in business because he found them “incredibly dull”.

Instead he did an IT apprenticeship with Kingston University. Apprenticeships then had a “real stigma” attached to them, with “this idea” that those on them “maybe weren’t very clever”. But he loved the hands-on nature of the work.

Lucas progressed quickly into an “exceptionally well-paid” IT manager role for a recruitment company but “hated” it. Three years later, aged 24 and feeling “disillusioned,” he quit to seek a new career path.

He realised the only part of the IT job he had liked was training apprentices. So he retrained in FE as an IT teacher and assessor at Richmond upon Thames College and ended up leading its community outreach programme.

Lucas admits “the work that FE does changes lives”, although the often-used statement is one that “needs to come with a sick bag”.

He adds: “When you find something like that that you can do for a living, it feels far less about doing a job and much more about just who you are.”

Beholding beauty

Lucas’s next move was to the London College of Beauty Therapy (as head of student services), which last year was bought by the FRA’s parent charity, Education for Industry (EFI) Group.

Both providers have a lot in common; Like the FRA, the London College of Beauty Therapy serves one sector so “everyone marches in the same direction”. Lucas believes having that shared purpose is “quite special”, and having the group run both providers gives students access to a broader industry network.

He spent the next seven years, before joining the FRA in 2014, leading the British Academy of Jewellery (then known as Holts Academy), another niche provider operating in the basement of a shop in London’s historic diamond district, Hatton Garden.

He worked with brands to write the first official qualifications in jewellery-making, and helped grow the academy to a multi-site campus with 800 students, which has since moved to Camden.

Lucas believes the key to success with such sector-specific providers lies in working with brands to “capture the sentiment of what their skills needs are”, but “making it as simple and light touch as possible”.

Lee Lucas shortly after joining the Fashion Retail Academy

FRA-bulous times

When he took over at the FRA, the high street was a “very different place”.

Retailers still boasted plenty of town centre stores and were opening outlets in retail parks across the country.

Now, much of retail has moved online, with all the logistical complexities that entails, plus there’s intense competition from the likes of Amazon and Temu.

Lucas is determined to be optimistic, although the brand leaders he works with are “always miserable – I don’t think they ever feel like times are great”, he says.

The FRA prioritises teaching the soft skills that will help students find work, whatever the future has in store.

In all, the FRA works with around 250 brands that help shape its curriculum and provide mentoring and work placements so students “learn about the realities” of life in retail.

This means students are often “not sitting in a classroom just hearing the same teacher who has spent the last 10 years regurgitating; they’re hearing from people doing that job today”.

The fashion retail sector is incredibly diverse, with “no barriers to head office roles based on gender, religion or sexual preference”. Reflecting this, many chief executives of the brands the FRA works with left school with no qualifications and worked their way up.

Lucas muses that “as in a lot of walks of life, there are a lot less big personalities left in retail than there used to be” – which in some cases, he concedes, is not such a bad thing.

The FRA does “first-come, first-served” enrolments; there are no interviews or personal statements (apart from for degrees, as it’s a UCAS requirement).

This means the FRA’s classes have a “wonderful mix” of people from different backgrounds, with no ability streaming of classes (“because that’s not how the workplace works”).

Lucas says: “We probably don’t blow our own trumpet about that enough. It’s one of the few industries that, if you roll up your sleeves and you get stuck in, you can make it far”.

The Fashion Retail Academy advert on London buses

Influencers wanted

Large, eye-catching ads for the FRA, saying ‘influencers wanted; specialist courses for fashion careers’ were recently emblazoned across London’s buses.

Although the FRA does not train young people to be influencers, “the focus of those campaigns is really trying to meet young people where they are”.

“If you’re great at spotting trends and being influential on social media, then you could retrain and get these amazing jobs in the marketing or PR office of brands, where those skills are really in demand,” Lucas tells me.

But the most in-demand skill in the fashion industry is not one on most young fashion connoisseurs’ radars; data analysis.

Although Lucas sees data as “the new asbestos from a GDPR perspective”, analysis skills are “the new gold” for which there is a “massive skills gap”. “It doesn’t matter what job you do, if you can’t interpret data, actually, you can’t do your job that well. And that’s a real challenge.”

Brands “struggle” with the fact that young people are more enamoured by the glamour of online influencing and catwalk shows than the prospect of number-crunching.

“Do you think a 16 to 18 year old wakes up in bed one morning and thinks, ‘I’m going to be a data analyst?’ No. So there’s a limit to what we can do.”

The academy’s most popular FE courses are in visual communications, styling and fashion design, while buying and merchandising and marketing and PR courses attract the most HE students.

Self-funding research

The FRA funds independent research in partnership with a consultancy firm, assessing retail companies’ job forecasts and what emerging skills are required for different roles.

This helps the brands, which get a sense of what their competition is up to, as well as Lucas in his curriculum planning.

He’s found that retail roles are becoming “broader and more complicated”. “Rather than having a real depth in one specialism, you need a breadth of understanding of the end-to-end impact in retail”, he says. This is partly down to job cuts, with head office staff now spreading themselves across roles.

The research also throws up surprises with the jobs some brands now require, such as drone controllers – which isn’t yet taught at the FRA.

Apprenticeships journey

Lucas says apprenticeships were “not on the radar” of the brands the FRA works with until the levy came into force and tells me it was an “interesting journey” for the FRA to develop “something meaningful”. This year it will have about 450 apprentices on its books.

At first, “some brands wanted huge volumes of apprenticeships”, which the academy tried to meet – then decided not to.

Lucas explains: “If you were a classic independent training provider, perhaps having 500 apprentices with just one brand is a good business to have.

“For us, it’s not particularly high quality, and there are not the jobs for apprentices to go onto at the end. We could have made more money that way, but it wasn’t in our core values.”

Then along came Covid, which the FRA “weathered well”. “But it was “a real challenge” for their industry. And the public appreciation of retail workers as “key workers” in lockdown did not last long, with “physical and verbal abuse becoming really prevalent”.

Faster fashion

The FRA’s students learn all about the impact of customer abuse, as well as the rise in shoplifting, demand from consumers for super-fast deliveries and the increase in the rate of returns. They also learn about the complexities brands face in trying to ensure their products are ethically sourced.

One of the biggest challenges retailers face is how they will meet national insurance cost rises in April, which Lucas fears will “alter the mix of head office functions and have a seismic shift in the expectations of skill sets and roles”.

But there are also many exciting opportunities emerging for the sector, for example with experiential shopping, which Lucas believes makes it a “fantastic industry” to work in.

The “wonderful thing” about fashion retail is it “moves at breakneck speed” – more so, Lucas found, than the jewellery and beauty industries.

He says: “The brands’ need for innovation and new products, their need for winning, is really finely tuned.

“Nothing stays still. People in it have to love it because if they didn’t, they’d burn out.”

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 484

Nicola Birch

Deputy Principal, City of Stoke on Trent Sixth Form College

Start date: January 2025

Previous Job: Centre Principal, Macclesfield College

Interesting fact: Outside of work, Nicola enjoys travelling with her three children and attending festivals in her bright orange VW campervan

Hassan Rizvi

Principal and CEO, Stoke on Trent College

Start date: January 2025

Previous Job: Deputy Principal (Curriculum and Quality), Waltham Forest College

Interesting fact: Hassan has a keen interest in international relations and politics and holds a PhD in the subject from the University of Hull

Boris’s rushed retraining scheme created huge underspend

Low uptake of a flagship government retraining scheme that offers free courses to adults resulted in mayors handing back £64 million in the first three years – half of what they were allocated.

Free Courses for Jobs (FCFJ), announced in 2020, offers fully subsidised level 3 courses in hundreds of subjects to adults with low qualifications or wages.

At the time, the then prime minister Boris Johnson made headlines with the promise his “lifetime skills guarantee” – backed by a wider £2.5 billion national skills fund – would “boost career prospects, wages and help fill skills gaps”.

But analysis by FE Week, based on information shared through freedom of information requests, has revealed that half of the cash handed to mayors between 2021 and 2023 – £133 million – was quietly returned.

England’s 10 mayors with devolved skills powers are responsible for about two-thirds of the £98 million in funding handed out each year for FCFJ, but records of exactly how much they or the government spend have never been routinely published.

Experts have blamed low spend on FCFJ on the narrow eligibility offer, the cost-of-living crisis, and the way the programme was procured at short notice during the pandemic.

Who is eligible?

Before FCFJ was rolled out, only 19 to 23 year olds were fully funded for their first level 3 qualification, while anyone older had to take out an advanced learner loan to pay for the course.

At launch the courses were only free for adults without a level 3 qualification. This was expanded in 2022 to include any adult who was unemployed or earning less than a typical salary provided by the national living wage, regardless of whether they already held a level 3.

In August last year the government limited the offer to adults earning below £25,000.

Mayors told FE Week the DfE gradually relaxed rules on what courses they could fund through FCFJ, and which learners could be eligible.

‘Flaws from the outset’

Sue Pember, director of policy at adult learning body Holex, argued the FCFJ scheme was not always tailored to the needs of its target audience, who face an increasing cost of living and may “carry baggage of past educational struggles”.

She said: “Although the intent was commendable, it faced flaws from the outset.”

While official statistics show enrolments on level 3 courses on the FCFJ list increased from 32,000 per year in 2018-19 to 80,000 in 2023-24, only about 50,000 achieved their qualification.

Pember said low participation and retention was “flagged early on” to the DfE.

But officials failed to put in place a “preparatory ladder” of courses in basic English, maths and study skills that would bridge the gap for learners to move on to a more demanding level 3 course, she added.

Skills policy consultant Gareth Thomas said some training providers may be “risk averse” about FCFJ courses in a bid to hit achievement targets.

There may also be “market saturation” with learners also being offered shorter employment-focused training schemes such as sector-based work academies and skills bootcamps.

Mayoral spending

Mayoral authorities told FE Week they handed back £64 million of their £133 million allocation between 2020 and 2023.

Underspends mayors hold at the end of the year are subtracted from the next year’s payment, unlike leftover funds from the main adult education budget which mayors can keep as reserves.

Most mayoral skills teams said the rushed introduction of the fund towards the end of the 2020-21 academic year meant there was little time to plan for it.

In the three years up to 2023, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority handed back the highest underspend – 74 per cent of its £6.1 million pot.

A spokesperson for the authority, which gained devolved skills powers in 2021-22, said it “mobilised” FCFJ provision in the second year (2022-23) and introduced local flexibilities around who could access courses for free, which resulted in a “significant improvement” to a 90 per cent spend in 2023-24.

Less given back

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, which spent just over half of its £9 million FCFJ pot in the three years, said “slower initial delivery” was common with new programmes. It achieved full expenditure and delivery in 2023-24.

The Greater London Authority said it most recently used 87 per cent of its budget after spending only 16 per cent in the first year.

Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “It’s disappointing that, at a time when money for adult education is scarce, specific funding for the free course for jobs scheme hasn’t reached front-line delivery.”

He told FE Week that removing fees “does not, in itself, increase participation in courses, particularly if the core funding for those courses keeps reducing and therefore makes it hard for colleges to retain and recruit teaching staff”.

The English devolution white paper published in December revealed mayoral strategic authorities would no longer have to ring-fence FCFJ funding, meaning they can spend allocations on other adult education initiatives that better fit local needs.

DfE ponders national rollout of NHS T Level coordinators

A national rollout of special coordinators to match T Level students with work placements in the NHS is being considered by the government.

An early engagement notice has been launched by the Department for Education to gauge interest in expanding a two-year NHS regional industry placement coordinator pilot that has run since 2023.

It would allow NHS coordinators to act as “ambassadors for T Levels” and support non-participating employers in England, such as ambulance services and GP surgeries, to offer the mandatory 45-day industry placements.

It’s unclear how much the department would spend on the scheme.

The placement process within England’s biggest employer could alleviate strains on colleges that have complained of limited numbers of NHS industry placements for T Level students, particularly in health-related subjects.

Jess Barwell, assistant principal for healthcare and business at Middlesbrough College, said: “T Level students are expressing great enthusiasm for the opportunity to secure placements within the NHS.

“However, the reality is there are not enough placement opportunities available for those studying T Levels in health.

“Currently, only a small number of learners are able to access placements within NHS trusts, with many being placed in care home settings. This is not always the preferred environment for students who are keen to gain experience in a variety of NHS specialisms.”

Around 1,600 students started on health and science T Levels when the courses launched in 2021-22 but only 1,109 were awarded a result at the end of the two-year courses in 2023-24 – suggesting a third dropped out.

Meanwhile, 2,819 young people started a health and science T Level in the last academic year, the latest statistics show. Demand is expected to grow as more schools and colleges offer the qualifications.

NHS England did not specify how many T Level students have been placed in the health service since the qualifications – dubbed the technical equivalent to A-levels – began in 2020.

Acting as ‘ambassadors’

The DfE funded a pilot from June 2023 which employed seven regional industry placement coordinators (IPCO), limited to one per integrated care system (ICS) in each of the seven NHS regions in England.

The contract, if procurement goes ahead, will expand the IPCOs’ remit to cover T Level placements in the 42 ICSs in England “to broaden their impact”, officials said.

Grant funding was awarded to each ICS to employ a coordinator at NHS salary band 7, which pays between £46,148 to £52,809 depending on experience.

According to a recently published handbook by NHS Employers, IPCOs can act as a T Level “ambassador”, engage organisations “beyond the reach of individual employers” and “streamline” the placement process.

In the pilot, one IPCO created a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to speed up the process of securing industry placements “without individual negotiations”.

“The MOU has been shaped by all those involved in the T Level industry placement process,” said Ruth Field, IPCO for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICS. “We can refer to it to address concerns and ensure we’re maintaining high-quality placements for students.”

The NHS Employer guide claimed a nationwide model could consider T Level students from all subjects, like digital and business, and not just learners on health and science T Levels.

“Colleagues can also ensure that T Levels are represented in a number of different spaces that discuss broader workforce needs, integrating T Levels as a part of wider system-level workforce strategy,” the document said.

The DfE will host an online market engagement event on February 7 to gauge interest and discuss how to achieve regional coverage, how IPCOs might manage the additional workload, and funding alternatives once DfE funding ends.

The department is aiming to have IPCOs in post by October 1 if the plans go ahead.

NHS England did not respond to requests for comment.

Wolf’s apprenticeship proposals would be a devolution howler

Last week’s proposals by Baroness Alison Wolf to devolve apprenticeship funding to local leaders is not only misguided but risks undoing progress made in creating an employer-led apprenticeship system and taking us back 10 years.

There are, of course, ways in which we could improve the apprenticeship system.

Some of these the government are already making progress on – foundation and shorter duration apprenticeships are, for example, a positive step forward; others such as ensuring the overall programme budget matches the apprenticeship levy require additional funding to be released.

That’s not to say that metro mayors should not have a voice on skills needs – their input is valuable. However, giving commissioning powers to local leaders on apprenticeships would be a significant backward step.

Local leaders should influence, not control, apprenticeships.

Having read the proposals, I strongly suggest it’s doubtful that Alison Wolf has bothered to actually ask employers what they want and if they would be willing to juggle such a new postcode lottery system either.

Expertise and insight

The foundation of the current apprenticeship system is the principle that employers are in the strongest position to determine their workforce needs.

It is employers who have the expertise and insight to align training with real-world requirements. They are best placed to ensure that apprenticeships deliver the skills businesses need to thrive.

Shifting commissioning to local leaders would undermine this employer-led approach.

Local authorities and regional bodies, while well-intentioned, do not possess the same direct understanding of industry-specific skills gaps or future workforce demands.

This is particularly problematic in a rapidly evolving economy where adaptability and responsiveness are paramount.

Costs and inefficiencies

One of the most glaring flaws in devolving funding to local leaders is the inevitable increase in administrative costs. Currently, 98 per cent of the apprenticeship budget is already spent.

Adding additional layers of governance, commissioning, oversight and bureaucracy would only eat further into a budget that is already under pressure.

This would reduce the funds available for the actual delivery of training, undermining the primary purpose of the programme.

At a time when every pound of apprenticeship funding needs to be maximised it is hard to justify siphoning off yet more resources to fund unnecessary layers of local administration.

Bid writing nightmare

If funding were to be devolved to local leaders, then training providers would inevitably face the prospect of a bidding war for regional or local funding contracts. This would result in a costly and time-consuming process, with providers forced to dedicate significant resources to bid writing rather than delivering high-quality training.

Moreover, the competitive nature of a bid-based system introduces uncertainty. History tells us there is no guarantee that the providers who are best placed to deliver apprenticeships are successful and that they then get the right amounts they need to meet their employers’ needs.

This misalignment between prime providers, allocations and actual needs would destabilise the apprenticeship system, making it harder for both providers and employers to plan effectively.

Fragmented and bureaucratic

Devolving apprenticeship funding to local leaders would create such a fragmented, bureaucratic system that it would hamper employer engagement.

Unlike the current system, which allows access to a wide range of providers, a devolved model would restrict options and result in reduced choice. It also risks undermining the effectiveness of apprenticeships and employer confidence in the system.

Rather than devolving control and letting apprenticeships take a different and scary direction, efforts should continue to focus on making the current approach more seamless for employers.

The current apprenticeship service is far from a perfect platform and there is certainly still more that can be done to improve it, especially for small employers. But devolving control and commissioning to local and regional authorities would be a huge mistake.

Recruitment ban as bootcamp firm Redstone probed

A rail industry skills bootcamp training provider has been suspended from recruiting new learners amid investigations being conducted by multiple authorities.

Manchester-based Redstone Training moved into the bootcamps space in 2023, receiving almost £3 million in public funding to deliver the short courses across the Liverpool City Region and West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) area.

FE Week understands Network Rail has asked rail regulator the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) to probe a series of allegations brought against the company that would breach its rules.

NSAR declined to comment but the body pulled Redstone from its approved provider list last week and has temporarily suspended the company from delivering NSAR-accredited training.

Redstone Training’s combined authority funders have also taken action, including by suspending starts in at least one area, but have refused to disclose the full nature of the case.

The WMCA, which gave Redstone a skills bootcamp contract worth £1.6 million, said: “The WMCA is investigating matters specific to the delivery of skills bootcamps at Redstone Training. We are unable to comment further.”

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, which paid £1.25 million to Redstone over the last two years, said: “We are aware NSAR has put a temporary restriction on Redstone’s approval status for the delivery of NSAR-accredited training currently included in skills bootcamps.

“We have suspended the start of any new courses until the matter is resolved and are working to ensure there is no disruption to current learners.”

Liverpool City Region flagged skills programmes as a “major” audit risk in a paper published in December.

Introduced as a publicly funded training route in 2020, skills bootcamps initially focused on getting unemployed people into work in the digital sector, and later expanded to more sectors, including rail.

The government is funding the courses that last up to 16 weeks with £550 million between 2020 and 2025.

Providers are paid in instalments: an upfront 45 per cent fee for enrolling learners, 35 per cent for course completion and 20 per cent for achieving a job offer within six months of finishing the course. The courses are supposed to include a guaranteed job interview and cannot be officially completed until this has taken place.

Redstone Training was incorporated in 2017 and delivers a range of courses for budding rail workers with around 20 staff on its books, according to the company’s latest accounts.

The company came into scope for Ofsted inspection when it moved into the skills bootcamps market and was found to be making “significant progress” in two of three areas in an early monitoring report published in July. There were, however, only 24 learners on programmes at the time of the inspection.

Ofsted’s report praised a “very high standard” of training and commended leaders for monitoring learners’ destinations “for six months from completion of the skills bootcamp”, adding that “most learners remain in employment and benefit from additional training with their employer, gain promotion or take on additional responsibilities such as site warden, welding or de-vegetation”.

Aside from bootcamps, Redstone runs level 1 and level 2 City & Guilds-accredited NVQ courses in engineering and several health and safety and track safety courses.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Network Rail is aware of various investigations into Redstone Training, who have been suspended as a training provider to our supply chain until the outcome of those investigations.”

Redstone Training declined to comment.

While NSAR declined to comment on Redstone Training specifically, the regulator said: “Post-training employment requirements mandated by funded training, including skills bootcamps, sit with specific education frameworks owned by a variety of organisations. A provider’s adherence to those frameworks is not under NSAR’s jurisdiction.

“NSAR quality assures that the delivery of training and assessment awarding safety critical competence in Network Rail’s sentinel database has taken place in accordance with Network Rail’s rules, standards and NSAR’s quality assurance framework. The rules prohibit assured providers from sponsoring for training purposes only.

“There has been an increasing trend in sentinel sponsors sponsoring individuals during their training and de-sponsoring them once qualified. Work by the industry, NSAR and supplier assurance organisations has produced an updated version of the Sentinel Scheme Rules to reduce such practices.”

IfATE: Contract delays won’t derail gen 2 health and science T Levels

Delays to the relicensing of health and science T Levels will not impact the rollout of “generation 2” versions of the qualifications, the government’s technical education quango has assured.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) began tendering for exclusive awarding licenses for health, healthcare science and science T Levels in March. Bids had to be in by June, with successful awarding organisations notified in September, followed by contracts starting in October.

But the procurement winners are yet to be announced, three months after the contracts were due to start for the redevelopment of the qualifications in time for delivery in 2026.

Separate procurement rounds for other T Levels are taking place as existing licenses come to an end.

IfATE operates a single-license model for the technical qualifications in each T Level, meaning that one awarding organisation is responsible for updating content and assessment materials, providing training to teachers and provider staff, quality control, and assessing and grading students.

The first batch of so-called ‘generation 2’ T Level license holders, covering education and early years, construction and digital courses, were announced following a competitive re-tender process in August.

That procurement round resulted in four contracts changing hands. Two construction T Levels, first held by City and Guilds, were awarded to WJEC, and two digital T Levels, first held by NCFE, were awarded to Pearson. NCFE retained education and early years.

Procurement for health, healthcare science and science T Level awarding licenses, all held currently by NCFE, took place separately,

A third procurement, this one for three engineering T Levels and T Levels in management, finance and accounting, had been planned to launch this spring.

‘Delays happen‘

IfATE has bloated potential contract values and introduced a controversial new pricing mechanism for centres in a bid to make the gen 2 qualifications more commercially attractive to awarding organisations, some of whom have reported losses on the current licesnes due to low student take-up.

IfATE told FE Week it was “confident” delivery of relicensed health and science T Levels would still begin as planned in 2026 despite the procurement delays.

A spokesperson claimed the bidding period was extended due to the general election, which had a knock-on impact on approvals.

“We remain confident in the 2026 delivery date as planned, and we have communicated with awarding organisations throughout,” they said.

“Delays to process happen – but our priority remains making sure we get this right and that the end-product delivers for learners.

“At present we are working through the final due diligence in the proper way.”

Controversial contracts

FE Week revealed last January that generation 2 contracts feature a new adaptive pricing mechanism which allows awarding organisations to hike entry fees paid by providers if student numbers are lower than forecast.

College leaders criticised the new pricing model for pushing T Level recruitment risks onto providers, rather than awarding organisations and the government.

In an attempt to reassure the sector, the then skills minister Robert Halfon said DfE officials would consider “whether any further action is needed to mitigate” the impact on providers of adaptive pricing should it be triggered.

Awarding insiders previously told FE Week that DfE forecasts for T Level student numbers are often too optimistic, leading to huge financial risks for awarding organisations. Some have also suggested growth in T Level students is now less likely as a result of the new government’s decision to allow some overlapping level 3 qualifications to remain funded alongside T Levels.

IfATE did not provide a date when the new health and science contracts would be announced.

Hair today…

Elsewhere, IfATE has yet to confirm whether it will continue with plans to introduce T Levels in beauty and catering.

The catering course was originally earmarked to be taught from September 2023. Highfield Qualifications had a £2.6 million contract to develop the T Level, but this was pulled in July 2023 because there was not a “shared vision of the technical qualification”.

There remains no planned delivery date for the catering T Level, with some expecting the qualification to be scrapped.

The previous government scrapped the hairdressing and barbering T Level this time last year, citing a lack of employer buy-in.

A qualification in beauty and aesthetics was floated, although the DfE is yet to reveal whether an assessment of employer demand will give it the green light.

The only remaining confirmed T Level yet to be rolled out is marketing, set to start this September.

DfE’s T Level webpage still incorrectly publicised the hair, beauty and aesthetics T Levels as ready for delivery in September 2024 at the time of going to press.

NCG hit with £9m clawback bill after ESFA battle

A large college group is handing back over £9 million to the government following a long-running clawback dispute.

NCG had challenged an attempt by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to reclaim funding for delivery across the group between 2018-19 and 2020-21.

FE Week understands the case related to the application of funding rules in 16 to 19 and adult education budget funding streams, although it is unclear which specific rules were allegedly broken.

NCG, which runs seven colleges across England, previously told FE Week that after seeking legal advice, it disputed “certain elements of the clawback, including the application of current and historic funding rules”.

Financial statements for previous years suggested the repayment could reach around £8 million. But newly published accounts for the year ending July 2024 reveal that a heftier settlement was reached, costing the group £9.2 million.

NCG was chaired by former ESFA chief executive Peter Lauener from 2018 until he stood down in 2023 – three years earlier than planned.

The clawback doesn’t appear to have impacted NCG financially. Its 2024 accounts show a financial health rating of ‘good’, an EBITA (earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation) of 4.45 per cent of adjusted income, and cash reserves of £10 million.

The group’s surplus for the year was £9,575,000 compared to a loss reported in 2023 of £3,698,000. But the “significant improvement” was a result of the sale of a “surplus asset” which earned a profit of £12,589,000.

Turnover increased from £146,819,000 in 2023 to £172,286,000 in 2024, primarily due to growth in NCG’s 16-to-19 contract.

The strong financial position led to the college giving staff a 6 per cent pay rise plus a £500 consolidated award which was paid to “all but key management personnel”.

NCG, which teaches around 25,000 students, was also judged as ‘good’ by Ofsted this month.

A spokesperson for NCG said: “The dispute, related to historic delivery from some years ago, was resolved almost a year ago. We did not make a legal challenge.

“Through robust financial management, we’ve maintained our financial strength and have been able to give above-benchmark pay awards each year. We have remained aligned with our strategic priorities and were delighted to achieve another Ofsted ‘good’ this month.”

The ESFA declined to comment.

‘Life changing’ West Thames College judged ‘outstanding’

A London college has been judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted after inspectors heard of its “life changing” impact on disadvantaged people’s lives.

The watchdog’s report for West Thames College, published today, highlighted a “relentless focus on quality improvement which permeates through all levels of staff”.

It received the accolade in all areas barring apprenticeships, which was judged as ‘good’. This is the first time the college has held Ofsted’s overall top grade.

The achievement means that one in ten general FE colleges currently hold the highest possible judgment.

West Thames College teaches around 1,700 young people, over 1,500 adults who mostly study English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) and pre-employment courses, 45 apprentices and 250 students with high needs.

Tracy Aust, West Thames College principal, said the Ofsted judgment “is a true testament to the hard work, dedication and passion of our amazing students, staff, governors and partners”.

She added: “We’ve been on a journey to outstanding but this is by no means the end. We will continue to put our students first, to be ambitious, to have high expectations and to serve the needs of our communities. I am incredibly proud of the diverse, inclusive, successful college that is West Thames.”

Ofsted noted that students “enjoy learning and socialising in highly inclusive, calm and welcoming environments” at the college’s two campuses in Hounslow.

The report praised how students “behave impeccably” and interact with respect and harmony.

Inspectors also recognised how adult learners, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds, “thrive” at the college, describing their experience as “life changing”.

‘A well-deserved reward’

Ofsted’s report commended the college for its “strong” contribution to meeting regional and national skills needs. Inspectors noted that leaders are “proactive and respected partners who play a lead role in the local borough and across west London”.

West Thames has “consistently high achievement rates” and positive destinations, while staff are “proud to work at the college”.

The college’s chair, Stuart McGeoch, said: “Categorisation as outstanding by Ofsted is a well-deserved reward for three years of really hard work by the staff, management and board of West Thames. In that time period, the overriding mantra at every stage has been to focus on the creation of an outstanding student experience and the comments of the Ofsted inspectors make clear that is exactly what has been achieved.”

The success takes the number of general FE colleges with an Ofsted ‘outstanding’ judgment to 15, which is 10 per cent of the 150 colleges that hold a grade with the watchdog. This is up from 7 per cent on August 31, 2024.

From September, Ofsted plans to ditch overall effectiveness grades in FE and introduce new-style report cards. A consultation on the design of the report cards is expected to be launched next week.