MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 340

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

Toni Rhodes, Principal, Sunderland College and Hartlepool Sixth Form

Start date: July 2021

Previous job: Vice principal of quality and access to learning, Barnsley College

Interesting fact: She has a background in social care.

Jon Collins, Chief executive, Prisoners’ Education Trust

Start date: April 2021

Previous job: Chief executive, Magistrates Association

Interesting fact: He lived in San Francisco for six months after university, where he volunteered for Project Open Hand, a food bank providing support to people with HIV/AIDS.

Paul Kennedy, Chair, WELL Training

Start date: November 2020

Concurrent job: Co-founder, Mood

Interesting fact: As group HR director for online travel company ebookers, he once visited five countries in a single day: the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria.

Nigel Duncan OBE, Deputy FE Commissioner, Department for Education

Start date: January 2021

Previous job: Further Education Adviser, Further Education Commissioner’s Office

Interesting fact: He has traced his family back to 1472 at the time of Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses

College’s £240k rugby stadium naming deal investigated

The new interim chief executive at Hull College Group has launched an investigation after FE Week revealed the organisation had signed a £240,000 three-year rugby stadium naming sponsorship deal.

The cost of the deal signed in July 2019 with Hull Kingston Rovers came to light after the college fought and lost a year-long freedom of information request to keep it secret.

The rugby club stadium was renamed Hull College Craven Park at a widely publicised ceremony in August 2019.

Lowell Williams, who recently joined the college as the fourth interim chief executive, has told FE Week there “may have been a breach of the college’s financial regulations when senior management at the time entered into the contract”.

Quizzed on whether the sizable deal was signed without the college chair and other board members knowing, as well as whether any spending rules had been broken, Williams said: “My view is that a contract of £240,000 plus VAT did indeed require board approval. I have asked for a legal opinion on this matter.

“There is no record of management bringing to the attention of the board the full value of the contract.”

Hull College Group is supposed to be carefully watched by the government as part of a formal FE Commissioner ‘intervention’ process following a well-reported £50 million bailout in 2018.

Government ‘fresh start’ budgets are meant to be carefully scrutinised and an observer from the Education and Skills Funding Agency attends board meetings. Several board meetings at Hull College have also be attended by the deputy FE Commissioner.

The college marketing budget has been a concern for the government since FE Week first revealed in October 2019 that thousands was spent by the husband of the then-chief executive of the college to hire the 80-piece Hull Philharmonic Orchestra to play computer-game music at the Hull City Hall in June 2019.

The FE Commissioner undertook an “analysis of marketing expenditure” in November 2019 and found more than £1 million was spent in a single year.

The draft report leaked to FE Week said: “2018/19 actual marketing expenditure was £1.077 million compared with a budget of £0.938 million.”

The final report published nearly a year later in October 2020 omitted the expenditure figures and this week the government declined to comment on when they were made aware of the Hull Kingston Rovers contract or value.

Williams said: “The contract with Hull Kingston Rovers was listed in a paper on college’s global marketing spend in a paper to the board on 18 December 2019 [four months after it was signed], but only at its in-year value without VAT with no reference to the three years.

“The paper was then deferred at the meeting and was considered at the following meeting on 29th January 2020.”

In addition, Williams admitted he was “concerned senior managers at the time did not make best use of legal advice they had obtained when negotiating the contract”, adding that “the college welcomes our educational partnership with HKR but I would not have recommended to the corporation entering into a contract of this value and nature in July 2019, if I had been in post.”

Hull Kingston Rovers declined to comment on all questions put to them concerning the stadium naming and educational partnership with Hull College Group.

It is understood that the FE Commissioner and his team is due into the college tomorrow (22 January).

When asked what action the FE Commissioner would take the DfE spokesperson said: “The ESFA and FE Commissioner’s team continue to work with Hull College through the formal intervention process.

“As an independent body the college has responsibility to decide how its marketing budget is spent. The department is clear that college leaders must treat taxpayers’ money in a way that benefits their students and represents value for money.”

In an email to all staff on Tuesday afternoon, seen by FE Week, Williams said the vice principal for learner experience and business development, who had worked at the college for two years and is responsible for the marketing department, had resigned to take up a job at Hull Kingston Rovers.

White paper Q&A with skills minister: ‘We have got an awful lot to do and an awful lot to prove’

The lack of a long-term funding settlement for FE did not hamper the Department for Education’s white paper in terms of its boldness or scale of investment, the skills minister has said.

Speaking to FE Week following the launch of the white paper on Thursday, Gillian Keegan insisted there is an “awful lot to do” with the reforms put forward and an “awful lot to prove” and she wouldn’t “necessarily” want anything more to deliver.

In the Q&A she tackled questions about whether the Treasury’s switch from a multi-year to a one-year spending review had put a stop to “revolutionary” reforms and greater funding, as sector leaders have suggested. And she gave her opinion on why this attempt at embedding employers at the heart of FE will succeed where many past attempts had failed.

 

Q: Did the lack of a three-year spending-review hamper the white paper in terms of speed of reform and/or boldness?

A: “No, it didn’t. We have also had this focus on a need to recover as a result of coronavirus. There is a big recognition that skills are a key part to drive that recovery. 

“Obviously having a three-year settlement is great because it gives visibility, it gives that long-term money, but a lot of the things we wanted to do we have either already been working on, such as T Levels, Institutes of Technology, the capital investment etc, but I think even if you look at what we have implemented and what we’re going to implement this year, such as the level 3 entitlement, the basic digital skills, the bootcamps, we have got the money to get going with all of those things.

“We have got a lot of things we need to do.”

 

Q: So even if there was a longer-term funding settlement for FE, the white paper wouldn’t have seen any further new policies or investment?

A: “The fact is, I don’t know. But I do know that trying to deliver a flexible, more modular approach with the lifelong loan entitlement, a level 3 entitlement, bootcamps, Institutes of Technology and T Levels, that is a massive programme in itself.

“To set ourselves the objective of closing the skills gap and deliver to business what they need, I can’t think of anything more ambitious, to be honest. I don’t know what else I would add to that. 

“The reality is, we have got an awful lot to do and an awful lot to prove.

 “The most important thing for me is to be able to deliver some of this stuff and prove we are capable of stepping up to this massive challenge. 

“I feel there is a lot to deliver. Would I want more to deliver? Not necessarily. Sometimes there is a case of, well, if you argue for more stuff but you can’t spend it because you can’t actually deliver it, well, then that doesn’t always end well.

“I feel we have got the right type of investment to invest in some of the priorities, and I don’t see that holding us back at all.”

 

Q: In your opinion, what is the biggest new reform in the white paper that will affect the sector?

A: “I think it’s really embedding employers at the heart of the system. But it’s more than that, it’s turning those words into actions and I think what’s different is the fact that we’ve already started to build our confidence in this area with the apprenticeship standards and the work we’ve done with about 3,000 employers across the country and the development of T Levels which we’ve done with 250 leading employers. 

“That has given us confidence to really embed the employers into our qualifications and our standards. And when you do that, we make sure that what people are studying is what employers want, which is what’s going to get them a job. It is that big a difference.”

 

Q: Why will this latest attempt to place employers at the centre of the FE system work where so many previous attempts have failed; and will a one-off £65 million strategic development fund make for lasting improvements?

A: “That’s a good question and it is the one we should always ask ourselves. The first thing I would say… I haven’t worked in the sector for a long time but I haven’t seen qualifications built with the DfE, the sector and with employers collaboratively before. I think certainly on the ones I’ve done, the employers were not at the heart of building those qualifications and making sure that they set out what were the knowledge, skills, behaviours and qualifications, and what they needed to do for the 21st-century work environment.

“We’ve got more in college estates, we’ve got more in strategic development, we’ve got business centres, we’ve got additional capital coming forward, and we’ve got the level 3 entitlement, obviously.

“I mean, some of it has been announced before. I don’t know why people get so obsessed about it being announced before ̶ it’s all part of the same strategy, some of which we’ve been working on to be able to start to get people ready to deliver it. But it’s all part of the same strategy, which is closing the skills gap, where we put employers at the centre of our qualifications and working with FE colleges and local skills improvement plans to basically make sure that we bring the system together to deliver it. 

“I think the other thing that’s different now is timing. Timing is everything in being able to implement successfully. And what you’ve got now is employers need to grow, you know, they’ve got skills gaps, the skills gaps are global, with a lot of competition for talent. We’ve also had Covid and there’s going to be a recovery. Skills are going to have to power that. We’ve got Brexit. We will come together at a time when we have proven to ourselves that we can successfully implement employers into qualifications and into apprenticeship standards. Having all those together is what makes it different this time.”

 

Q: The white paper has been a year in the making and builds on various ongoing reform programmes. How would you rate the job that Keith Smith, your director of post-16 strategy who led on the white paper, has done?

A: “Fantastic. He has been involved for less than one year and he was dealing with the apprenticeship reforms before.

“There is an awful lot of work that has been done. To be able to land something that has been so universally welcomed as good news is fantastic. It was a relatively small team who have been working very hard to get this to the point that it is at. I think they have done an absolutely brilliant job.”

FE white paper: The key reforms

The FE white paper included more than 30 proposals but the majority repeat or build on current reforms rather than announcing radically new ones. In this handy explainer FE Week explores the most significant and newest plans.

 

1: Create ‘Local Skills Improvement Plans’ and college business centres

To ensure technical skills provision is “responsive to local labour market needs”, the Department for Education will pilot “new Local Skills Improvement Plans” created by employers, colleges and training providers in trailblazer local areas in early 2021.

They will be led by accredited Chambers of Commerce and will see employers setting out a “credibly articulated and evidence-based assessment of skills needs to which providers will be empowered to respond”. It is the DfE’s “intention” to legislate to put the employer leadership of Local Skills Improvement Plans on a “statutory footing”.

A £65 million Strategic Development Fund will be launched in 2021/22 to aid the plans and support providers to “reshape their provision to address local priorities that have been agreed with local employers”.

Proposals will be invited through the Strategic Development Fund to establish “College Business Centres” within FE colleges, which will offer capital and revenue funding to help colleges “respond to locally agreed priorities”.

 

2: New intervention ‘powers’

The DfE says it will introduce new powers for the education secretary, so the government can “intervene quickly and decisively in cases where there are persistent problems that cannot otherwise be addressed, either with colleges not delivering effectively or where local providers are unable to deliver the skills priorities for that area”.

Through legislation, this strengthened power would enable the education secretary to “intervene locally to close or set up college corporations, bring about changes to membership or composition of governing bodies or review leadership”.

Use of these powers is “envisaged only as a last resort, where agreement has not been possible through other means and there are no alternative options for resolution”.

 

3: Strengthened governance

The DfE plans to set out clearer expectations, requirements and support for governors to “empower weaker colleges” to address problems earlier.

This will include refreshing existing guidance on appointments to communicate a clear government position on what constitutes good leadership, and make it clear that an “independent person” should be included on college leader interview panels to ensure “objectivity and due diligence”.

There will also be new requirements for annual board self-assessment and regular external governance reviews, as well as consideration of the possibilities for enabling board chairs to be paid in “specific circumstances” within the confines of charity law.

 

4: Potential switch to outcomes-based funding

The government plans to reform the funding and accountability systems to “better support” providers by simplifying funding streams and giving providers more autonomy, such as by relaxing ringfences and reporting.

But the DfE will move to hold providers to account for the “outcomes that colleges are delivering to improve progression and respond to employer demand”.

The DfE will consult on how they can “best assess” the performance of providers, building on the “new progression performance metrics being introduced and considering effectiveness of employer engagement, quality of provision and the outcomes achieved, such as how well provision supports individuals to progress in their learning and secure good labour market outcomes”.

By taking an outcome-focused approach, the department says providers will be “incentivised to review their provision to ensure it leads to meaningful employment for their learners, scaling back where there is an oversupply of provision and expanding other areas in line with agreed Local Skills Improvement Plans priorities”.

 

5: Multi-year funding to be considered

The DfE says it wants to “give more certainty to providers” over their funding, including considering how they could “move to a multi-year funding regime which is more forward-looking”.

The idea would be subject to the government’s spending review cycle, the white paper says, and does not give a timeframe of when this could be introduced.

 

6: Implement the flexible lifelong loan entitlement from 2025

As part of the previously announced lifetime skills guarantee, which is enshrined in the white paper, the government plans to launch a lifelong loan entitlement.

The DfE describes this as “new transformative funding provision”, enabling people to access four years’ worth of student loan funding across further and higher education providers throughout their lifetime.

Details of this new policy will be consulted on in 2021, but it will not be rolled out until at least after the next general election.

 

7: Central role for employers to design technical courses

The white paper pledges to give employers a “central role” in designing “almost all” technical courses by 2030, to “ensure that the education and training people receive is directly linked to the skills needed for real jobs”.

This will include aligning the “substantial majority” of post-16 level 4 and 5 qualifications to employer-led standards set by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, as is the case for apprenticeships.

 

8: New national teacher recruitment campaign

“Significant new investment” to improve the FE workforce will be provided in 2021/22.

This will include a “nationwide recruitment campaign to get more talented individuals to teach in further education and investing in high-quality professional development including a new Workforce Industry Exchange Programme”.

The campaign, expected to be launched this year, would “reach millions of prospective teaching staff, targeting those with experience and skills in industry, who can train the next generation of technical experts”.

The campaign would direct potential teachers to a new ‘Teach in Further Education’ platform, which, alongside a dedicated telephone helpline, will give potential applicants “all they need to take the next step into teaching, with information on how to access relevant training, for example the Taking Teaching Further programme, and financial incentives such as training bursaries”.

It will also signpost current vacancies and help existing teachers and lecturers find professional development opportunities.

 

FE white paper sets out ‘ambitious’ reforms

“New powers” for the education secretary to intervene in colleges and plans for funding reform have been revealed today as the much-anticipated FE white paper is published.

The ‘Skills for Jobs White Paper’ was released this morning and includes a raft of measures to “realign” the post-16 system around the needs of employers.

While the Department for Education has claimed the plans are “revolutionary”, sector leaders say that it “falls a bit short” of this ambition as it mostly builds on existing aspects of the sector.

FE Week understands the Treasury put a stop to transformational changes owing to its switch from a multi-year to a one-year spending review in 2020.

The white paper’s reforms (see list below), released to the press ahead of publication, include a greater role for employer groups, such as Chambers of Commerce as previously reported by FE Week, in developing courses on offer, new college “business centres”, and further details on a new lifelong loan entitlement, which will not kick in until after the next general election, as part of the prime minister’s lifetime skills guarantee.

The white paper also sets out plans to “overhaul” the funding and accountability rules for the post-16 sector, which will be consulted on later this year. The DfE was already planning to run a consultation for its new £2.5 billion National Skills Fund in the spring.

As part of the reforms the DfE says it will “introduce new powers to intervene when colleges are failing to deliver good outcomes for the communities they serve”.

The debate of college ownership has been a running theme over the past year, most recently when Education and Skills Funding Agency director, Matthew Atkinson, told MPs in November he would “definitely like more power” to intervene in the running of colleges.

The DfE has long-running concerns that there are colleges and areas across England with “persistent weaknesses” that they do not have the power to resolve until it is too late.

This can result in costly intervention measures, such as hefty bailouts and even insolvency as the sector saw with the Hadlow College Group which involved tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer money.

The DfE told FE Week the new powers to be drawn up will enable preventative action to be taken, ahead of failure, or “where there is an area-based failure rather than simply that of an individual college”.

“This represents an improvement on existing statutory powers which only apply when the failure has already occurred, and cannot be used in a preventative capacity, or where the problem is a collective weakness, not just the failure of an individual institution,” a spokesperson said.

Longer periods of “active support” post-intervention will also be implemented, as will more regular dialogue about emerging risks to help prevent failures.

The white paper also sets out plans for colleges and training providers to be “accountable for the outcomes they achieve with funding to ensure value for money for the taxpayer”.

Skills minister Gillian Keegan hinted that a move to an outcomes-based funding model was on the cards in September when she told an Association of Employment and Learning Providers conference that the FE sector should judge the quality of their training programmes on the jobs that learners end up in.

The white paper sets out plans for the currently complex FE funding system to be simplified and streamlined, relaxing ringfences and reporting, strengthening governance and subcontracting, and will consider a move to a multi-year funding regime.

The DfE has also today finally published its interim response to Philip Augar’s review of Post-18 Education and Funding, which was released way back in May 2019. The final conclusion will however not be set out until the next Comprehensive Spending Review.

Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, “cautiously” welcomed the white paper, saying it is “perhaps not quite as comprehensive as it could have been in terms of covering the range of transformational reforms of post-compulsory tertiary education that the [Augar] review panel envisaged”.

“Overall, what has been announced today is very much a restatement of what has already been agreed — a useful ‘work in progress’,” he added.

“We look forward to the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review for the more ‘revolutionary’ aspects of what was promised previously.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said the white paper is an “ambitious package of measures which can deliver a significant shift in how we support the lifelong education”.

He added that the reforms “build on what colleges already do well so it’s not about taking a wrecking ball to existing infrastructure or making colleges start from scratch, but investing in them to play a bigger part in supporting local businesses and local communities”.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers managing director Jane Hickie added that strengthened accountability for provider performance is “supported but we have been here a few times before.

“We hope that real teeth are evident from now in tackling poor quality and that a good track record of delivery is properly recognised in future contract awards, whether the funding system is local or national.”

 

The key measures in the white paper, in the words of the DfE, include:

.             Business groups, including Chambers of Commerce, working alongside colleges to develop tailored skills plans to meet local training needs; supported by a £65 million Strategic Development Fund to put the plans into action and establish new College Business Centres to drive innovation and enhanced collaboration with employers.

 

.            Giving employers a central role in designing almost all technical courses by 2030, to ensure that the education and training people receive is directly linked to the skills needed for real jobs.

 

.            Boosting the quality and uptake of Higher Technical Qualifications – that provide the skills that many employers say they need and that can lead to higher wages – by introducing newly approved qualifications from September 2022 supported by a government-backed brand and quality mark.

 

.             Changing the law so that from 2025 people can access flexible student finance so they can train and retrain throughout their lives, supported by funding in 21/22 to test ways to boost access to more modular and flexible learning.

 

.            Launching a nationwide recruitment campaign to get more talented individuals to teach in further education and investing in high quality professional development including a new Workforce Industry Exchange Programme.

 

.            Overhauling the funding and accountability rules, so funding is better targeted at supporting high quality education and training that meets the needs of employers; and introducing new powers to intervene when colleges are failing to deliver good outcomes for the communities they serve. 

 

Here are 4 things the FE White Paper missed out

Verdict on the White Paper? Fine start but requires improvement, writes Stephen Evans

“We must put employers’ needs for skills centre stage. We must make colleges and training providers more responsive to employers’ and learners’ needs, reaching out to more businesses and more people, and providing training in ways that suit them.  

“Creating a truly demand-led approach means reforming qualifications, reforming the way we fund colleges, and reforming the way we deliver training.” 

It’s difficult to argue with this quote from the White Paper. Unfortunately, it’s from the 2003 Skills White Paper.  

Will this latest publication be the moment we look back on as when we finally “cracked it”?  

Short answer: only with investment, more radical change, and sustained commitment.  

The good 

Perhaps the White Paper’s main contributions are to put further education centre stage, which matters after the last decade, and to provide helpful hooks for future change.  

For example, I welcome plans to focus more on the outcomes of learning. We’ve long argued for that and worked with the Greater London Authority on it, though the details will be key.  

The intention to look at multi-year funding is great too and, while there’s a balance between simplicity and targeting support, it would be good to simplify the current complex funding and accountability arrangements. 

The Lifetime Skills Guarantee, focus on apprenticeships, and commitment to increase investment, while already announced, are also really welcome – there’s more to do, but it’s great to be talking about how to invest rather than what to cut. 

A point, though, about language. When I worked in government, I was advised not to describe reforms as “radical”, as discussion of this White Paper often has: people would notice if they were, otherwise you’d be over selling.  

No White Paper can solve everything, so it’s important the government doesn’t over claim its impact: better to argue there’s a big plan, moving in the right direction.   

Missing or more needed 

This White Paper aims to align provision with local economic need and deliver better outcomes.  

But how will the new Local Skills Improvement Plans, to be agreed by colleges, employers and others, fit with devolution in parts of England?  

What traction will these plans have? Isn’t this what Skills Advisory Panels were meant to do?  

Similarly, the White Paper would have benefited from more recognition of the wider benefits of learning (health, citizenship etc) and breadth of provision.  

And while there’s lots of talk of employer leadership, I can’t see very much about how we raise their demand for and investment in skills. 

Now here are four areas where the White Paper must go further: 

  1. Investment

We need substantial and sustained investment after a decade of cuts that have left millions fewer adults taking part in learning. There’s little new money here, so let’s hope the government is working on a long-term funding settlement for the next spending review. 

  1. Basic skills

Nine million adults have low literacy or numeracy, but participation in learning has plummeted. More than 20 years on from the Moser Report, which drove a significant focus on this challenge, it’s disappointing not to see greater ambition. 

  1. Retraining

The Lifetime Skills Guarantee is great, but its focused on a first level 3, so we need more help for those needing a level 2 or to retrain at level 3, as well as with maintenance costs. With longer working lives and a changing economy we need to be think bigger. 

  1. Joining up

How will we align skills with employment support, like Kickstart and Restart? What about local government. There is little mentioned apart from Mayoral Combined Authorities, for instance. 

Verdict 

It’s great the White Paper puts further education centre stage – there’s lots of positives already in train to shout about, and some interesting new ideas.  

But to avoid becoming another footnote in the history of skills policy, we’ll need long-term funding and commitment to more radical action.  

Perhaps not a giant leap, but hopefully several steps in the right direction. 

Ofqual delays decision on solution for apprentices stuck in limbo

A decision on whether apprentices can receive teacher-assessed grades for their English and maths if they are unable to sit their assessments has been pushed back by Ofqual until at least late February.

As previously reported by FE Week, tens of thousands of work-based learners, mostly in the health and care sectors, have been stuck in limbo and unable to complete their functional skills programme due to Covid-19 restrictions since the start of the academic year.

Ofqual launched a consultation last week to set out its plans for replacing exams this year, including for vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) if they cannot be sat safely.

The exams regulator’s consultation says that if an apprentice can attend a training centre to sit their functional skills test or complete it remotely, then they should.

But it goes on to suggest that if these two methods are not possible, then “alternative arrangements” can be applied and can include teacher-assessed grades like GCSEs and A-levels.

FE Week pressed the regulator for clarity on when a final decision on this issue would be taken, and a spokesperson said it would be “determined through the consultation”, the outcome of which will not be until “late February”.

But even when the decision is published, a “technical” consultation will follow on the framework of rules that awarding organisations will have to abide by before putting in place the alternative arrangements.

By this point, it is expected that the majority of functional skills awarding bodies will have remote proctoring solutions in place for the assessments, thus cancelling out the need for a large number of teacher-assessed grades.

The Ofqual spokesperson made clear that through the consultation, awarding bodies will “need to determine the most appropriate approach to awarding based on their qualification design and delivery, including what the minimum assessment evidence should be for the valid and reliable award of each of their qualifications ̶ including functional skills”.

However, they added that this “does not follow that functional skills learners will automatically be issued with calculated results in the same way as in 2020”.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers managing director Jane Hickie has urged officials to allow teacher-assessed grades now.

“When the government is saying that everyone should stay home unless absolutely necessary, it is ridiculous to still expect tens of thousands of apprentices who have been unable to take their maths and English tests for months to travel miles to do so at test centres,” she said.

“Mass volume remote testing is still weeks away, and the logjam is now said to number 60,000 apprentices and still growing.

“Apprentices should have access to teacher assessments now.”

Functional skills learners were able to receive calculated results last summer following the cancellation of exams, but Ofqual has refused to reintroduce them even for those that cannot access their training centre to sit their assessments since September.

Awarding bodies have meanwhile struggled to introduce remote solutions that allow apprentices to take the assessments either at home or in the workplace.

FE Week spoke to the awarding bodies that offer functional skills this week and found that four of them – NOCN, Open Awards, Skillsfirst Awards and Highfield Qualifications – do have proctoring solutions available that allow the assessments to be sat at home and be remotely invigilated.

NCFE has meanwhile been piloting its own proctoring solution and will roll it out fully in the “coming weeks”.

Pearson and City & Guilds, the awarding bodies that deliver the greatest number of functional skills assessments annually, have begun offering their own “test at home” solutions but only on a small scale. Full-scale solutions are planned to be rolled out in the coming months.

OCR and AQA both told FE Week they are not working on developing a remote proctoring solution, saying that the functional skills learners not being able to sit their normal assessments has not been a big issue for them.

Ofqual’s consultation is running for two weeks and will close on January 29. 

For wider VTQs, it proposes that where practical exams and assessments which are “required to demonstrate occupational competence for employment and apprenticeships” should “continue to take place throughout the academic year where they can be delivered in line with public health guidelines, including remotely”.

Where these assessments cannot be delivered safely, they should be delayed.

For written VTQ exams, Ofqual is proposing to issue a revised version of its Extended Extraordinary Regulatory Framework, which gives awarding organisations the “flexibility to adapt their assessments and qualifications to mitigate against the disruption the pandemic has caused”.

Where exams have not been able to take place, such as the January BTEC series, they are likely to be in scope of teacher-assessed grades.

‘Compressed’ exams and early results day: Post-qualification admissions proposals revealed

Exam dates could be brought forward or ‘compressed’ to allow for extra time to process university applications under new proposals for post-qualification admissions (PQA).

The Department for Education opened its consultation into the proposed changes for a PQA system into higher education today.

One model would see students apply to university after receiving their A-level results, while a second model would allow pupils to make ‘pre-qualification’ applications but would likewise only receive offers after results are announced.

Under the first model there would be the need for a longer application window which would be created by moving A-level results day forward from mid-August to the end of July and pushing back university term start dates to “no earlier than the first week of October”.

This would allow “at least six weeks” for the processing of applications and the making of offers.

The DfE explains it is exploring different options which would allow it to move results day earlier with the preferred route being “to compress the exam timetable, the marking period and the requirement for UCAS to receive results data well in advance of results day”.

Another option could include exams being held earlier “but the feasibility and impact of this” will be explored through the consultation.

Under this model it is noted students may require support in choosing courses and completing applications but if teachers were expected to provide this support it could have implications for their statutory terms and conditions.

The consultation states: “Our preference would be to avoid affecting teachers’ conditions or workloads as much as possible.”

Under the second model, applications would be made during term-time, as they are now, but offers would come after results day.

A benefit of this model would be students “require significantly less support over the summer with their applications” – which would have less impact on teachers.

The DfE states this route could be implemented with smaller changes to results day – only bringing it forward by a week or two – and term start dates and “could create a longer window of approximately 9-10 weeks for the making and accepting of offers”.

Learners would apply in the normal way at around the same time as they currently do. However applications would be held in the system until results day and offers are only made once results are known.

In order to ensure no offers are made in advance a third party, such as UCAS, would hold the full application until results day – with headline data released to providers to enable the planning on intakes.

Gavin Williamson explained the proposal has come about as it “is becoming increasingly evident that the current system of admissions to higher education is preventing some students from reaching their full potential at the first hurdle” and PQA could “level-up” admissions for disadvantaged students.

UCAS previewed this consultation last November, by putting forward the option of a post-qualification admissions system, or a post-qualifications application model where the entire process of applying for university or college took place after results were distributed.

Post-qualification admissions was the preferred option, as UCAS’ director of strategy, policy and public affairs John Cope said it could “significantly” level up the playing field for further education and skills providers.

Last year a study by the Sutton Trust into reforming university admissions 66 per cent of just over 500 students surveyed in September felt a post-qualification approach would be fairer than the current system of predicted grades, with 30 per cent saying it would be “much fairer”.

In the equality analysis accompanying the consultation it finds that PQA “is likely to have a positive impact on high attaining but disadvantaged students”.

While some evidence suggests “students from a white background are more likely to be positively impacted by moving to a system no longer based on predicted grade . .. in any case, it is likely that White and Black students will benefit most from the implementation of post qualification admissions.”

The consultation closes on May 13.

Next phase of £1.5bn college capital funding programme launched

Colleges have been told how they can now apply for the next phase of the government’s £1.5 billion capital funding scheme, with applications for the fund due in by 15 March.

The Department for Education has today reopened applications for the Further Education Capital Transformation Fund, first announced by the chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak at his March budget.

It comes on the same day as the publication of the landmark Skills for Jobs White Paper, and the DfE says one of the key objectives of the fund will be “to support the government’s further education and technical education reforms”.

The DfE is aiming to “upgrade the FE college estate and to significantly reduce the proportion of FE college estate not fit for purpose or in unsatisfactory condition, ensuring all colleges are excellent places to learn”.

The bidding process will be split across two stages: the first will involve colleges proving their projects support reforms to the FE sector and will maximise space utilisation, while the second stage will be a more detailed look at project plans, costings and affordability, and the project’s deliverability.

Colleges will be notified of the outcomes of stage one on 14 May 2021 and, if they have been successful, will have until 30 July 2021 to submit for stage two. Colleges will be informed of the outcomes of that in the week commencing 27 September 2021.

The minimum threshold for projects is £500,000 and there is no upper threshold, but FE colleges have been told they will be expected to contribute up to 50 per cent of their project costs.

Applications can only be made by FE corporations or designated institutions for further education. Sixth form colleges or any other FE provider not constituted as an FE corporation or designated institution cannot put in a bid.

After Sunak announced in the spring the £1.5 billion would be made available for English colleges, prime minister Boris Johnson announced in June that £200 million of that would be fast-tracked to be available from September 2020, a year earlier than planned.

In August, it was announced more than 180 colleges would share the £200 million, with the biggest beneficiary, NCG, receiving £4.5 million.

FE Week has asked the DfE if the remaining £1.3 billion is now up for grabs through this new application process.

See the full guidance and the application form here.