Latest news from FE Week | FE Week

Young people need to be involved in decisions around youth unemployment

Combined authorities and colleges working closely together can help reduce the risk of youth unemployment, write Julie Nugent and Gina Patel

Since the pandemic emerged in the UK last year, the economy has taken an unprecedented hit. National unemployment now stands at five per cent, while one-fifth of people are not economically active or seeking work.

For many people, the government’s furlough scheme has been a crucial life raft during this challenging time. However, what the future holds once this comes to an end is much less certain.

It is likely to mean even higher unemployment rates across many of our local areas. Armed with this knowledge, we have a duty of care to support the communities we serve.

It is one of the reasons we’ve been trying to innovate and provide robust solutions for young people, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

In the West Midlands last month there were 169,835 claimants, either on unemployment benefits or those on universal credit or jobseeker’s allowance – a staggering increase of 79 per cent from the same time last year.

Additionally, almost 7,000 16-to-17-year-olds were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the West Midlands in 2020 – lower than the national average, but still a lot.

Setting up a ‘Young Combined Authority’

Experience tells us that the most effective solutions to addressing unemployment are those that reflect regional and local contexts, co-designed with employers and local partners.

A regional Jobs and Skills Board has allowed us to work with colleges, providers, local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions to develop the best responses possible.

Importantly, these responses have been designed with young people, for young people. We know that our careers advice and FE engagement programmes will have much greater reach and uptake if we integrate the views and insights of those they are intended to support.

So last September at the West Midlands we set up a Young Combined Authority (YCA), which is a forum of approximately 30 young people aged between 16 and 25 who are representative of different backgrounds and experiences and can feed into wider policies.

It’s still in its infancy, but we are developing a wider community of 100 young people to drive wider outreach across the region.

It has helped to launch a new online platform, which is a one-stop-shop for young people to find training, employment and volunteering opportunities in their local area.

Youth hubs in colleges

Support for young people has been further bolstered following the Chancellor’s announcement of the creation of Youth Hubs, as part of the “Plan for Jobs”, in July last year.

Physical “youth hubs” have been established across the region to engage more young people and give them access to localised advice and support, including support from a DWP work coach. These youth hubs provide co-located support for young people in youth-friendly spaces such as Sandwell College.

During Covid-19, many of these have moved to providing support online through webinars, as well as supporting young people via text and email.

There are other initiatives that we think can add to a national blueprint of increasing employment and decreasing economic inactivity among younger people.

Strengthening the combined authority’s connections with colleges and local authorities is important, to effectively track and reduce the number of those young people at risk of not being in employment, education or training.

This is achieved by working closely with colleges and their respective local authorities to share data on young people which helps identify those who are at risk of disengaging.

Colleges can then provide enhanced engagement and recruitment activities for specific students to ensure they start and stay on course.

The youth voice is an important piece of the puzzle for the country going forward. It should be amplified when decision-makers are thinking about jobs of the future, the Covid-19 economic recovery and employment support.

Creating the YCA forum, and linking it up with colleges, will help to make sure local employment and training initiatives can be regionally focused and more effective.

Escape from the lockdown with the AELP Spring Conference 2021

Just 10 days after the official return to learning, the AELP Spring Conference 2021 on Thursday, 18 March has all the up-to-date information and guidance which a provider practitioner needs. The only thing we can’t guarantee ITP delegates is a home testing kit for covid!

There is so much to do to ensure a safe return to learning and enable apprentices and other learners to catch up on what they have missed over the past few months. Tens of thousands of learners have now passed the planned end dates for their programmes and further education and skills providers are keen to support them, even if there is no additional government funding to assist this monumental effort.

In addition to the end of the lockdown, a shaft of light has appeared in the form of teacher assessments for functional skills testing, but one glance at the conference agenda will identify some of the challenges ahead. This year may also be fundamentally different from any before in that far more teaching and assessment will take place online as a now permanent feature of the learning landscape.

As usual, AELP’s spring event primarily takes the form of workshops and we have another excellent line-up this year which can offer an assessment of the new Plan for Jobs measures in the Budget and the sector reforms are still going on with the publication of the FE white paper. Above all, our presenters know that delegates will be eager for information which will help them maximise learning opportunities available after the latest lockdown.

Four major themes are covered by our workshops: Regulation, Technology, Teaching & Learning and Quality. Some of the eye-catching workshop topics include:

Using emerging technologies to deliver immersive learning experiences
Increasing transparency in apprenticeship funding: An update
Adult Education Budget and the New Adult L3 offer
How to facilitate complex dialogues with learners
Collaborating to Engage with BAME Communities
Supporting learner skill development with maths and English through engaging virtual delivery.

I will begin the conference, sponsored by Learning Curve Group and NCFE, with a headline policy update before we launch into a policy roundtable discussion with a great set of sector leaders who will offer their insight on how the next few months will unfold:

Rob Colbourne, Performance Through People
Dominic Gill, Intequal
Brenda McLeish, Learning Curve Group
Philip Le Feuvre, NCFE

AELP Spring Conference 2021 takes place online and we will be using the breaks to run service promotions and during lunch, there is a further roundtable discussion with apprentices from BAME communities.

The practical and theoretical elements of work based learning mean that providers are eager to resume face-to-face learning as soon as possible and I can’t wait to go and see some of the excellent work they do. But I would like to think that the AELP Spring Conference will help set delegates up to hit the ground running. We look forward to meeting you online!

College facing ‘uncertain future’ agrees merger partner

A troubled college is set to merge with one of the biggest college groups in the country this summer.

Ruskin College will become part of Activate Learning in June 2021 after getting sign-off from skills minister Gillian Keegan.

An Activate spokesperson said the decision was “unanimous” and “will ensure the unique identity of Ruskin College and its values as a college, as well as its long tradition of working with the Labour movement, are preserved in perpetuity.”

Activate’s group chief executive Sally Dicketts said she was “truly delighted” to be chosen as the merger partner.

She said there was a vision for Ruskin to be a “national centre of excellence for adult learning,” and she was “very excited” about working together.

Originally founded in 1899, the Ofsted grade two Ruskin College, based in Oxford and with “close links” to the city’s university, has historically educated working class people, especially those in the trade union movement.

Its curriculum currently focuses on adult learners and includes Access to HE diplomas, English for speakers of other languages courses, and trade union courses accredited by the TUC.

Ruskin College chair Doug Nicholls said the merger with Activate “with its breadth of resources and scale of delivery” would help “to safeguard the future of the college for the 21^st century”.

He said the college has “recognised operating as an independent college is increasingly challenging”.

College faced clawback and ‘sharp’ decline in enrolments

The Education and Skills Funding Agency first issued Ruskin College with a financial health notice to improve in 2014, which was reissued in November 2020.

Keegan placed the college in supervised status after an FE Commissioner report into the college, dated for July 2020 but published in October, detailed how the college faced an “uncertain future”.

This was due to a “sharp” decline in higher education enrolments, combined with “substantial overclaiming” of adult education and bursary funding thanks to it misapplying funding rules and “poor” record-keeping.

The commissioner found range of board vacancies and a lack of local governors, as well as “barriers to entry” may also have contributed to the situation.

As of July 2020, the report reads, enrolments were just over 50 per cent less than in 2018/19.

The college was also highly geared “relative to turnover,” and had “limited” room to reduce this quickly without selling off property.

At the time, the college was facing having the adult education and bursary funding overclaims for 2018/19 clawed back by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Funding for previous years was also in scope for recovery, which had “potential implications for the college as a going concern”.

However, the agency agreed to defer any decisions on that until a sustainability review by an independent practitioner had been completed.

The college has yet to publish either its 2018/19 or 2019/20 financial statements.

The commissioner recommended the college consider undertaking a structure and prospects appraisal led by him, which has now led to merger.

East London UTC’s future ‘uncertain’ as DfE fails to approve expansion

The future of another university technical college (UTC) hangs in the balance despite receiving emergency funding.

East London UTC was slapped with its second financial notice to improve last month, after getting a £375,000 government bailout last year when it also chalked up a £1.8 million deficit.

Its latest accounts for 2019/20 show the Department for Education warned governors last month it was “minded not to approve” the 14-to-19 institution’s requests to expand and take on students from age 11 in order to improve its sustainability.

“Although negotiations are continuing, the outcome of these is inherently uncertain,” say the accounts, adding that without extra cash the UTC won’t be able to “meet its liabilities”.

The college is rated grade three by Ofsted and has 111 students on roll this year.

Questions raised over government support

The situation raises the question as to whether the DfE would rather allow struggling UTCs without good Ofsted results go to the wall rather than change their business model.

Principal Kim Donovan told FE Week there were currently no plans for the East London UTC to close but declined to comment on the ongoing uncertainty over its future.

Eleven UTCs have closed since the first technical institutions were created by former education secretary Lord Baker in 2010.

The UTC does not have adequate resources to meet its liabilities […] without further financial support from the ESFA

East London UTC, which was first issued a financial notice in January last year before a second was published this month, hoped the DfE would agree to expand their starting age after it exited special measures in June 2019, say its accounts.

But “after making enquiries on the level of support from DfE and ESFA”, governors concluded it “does not have adequate resources to meet its liabilities […] without further financial support from the ESFA or elsewhere”.

Several UTCs have had finances probed

Meanwhile, eight of the 48 UTCs across the country have received financial notices to improve, three of which have closed since.

Buckinghamshire UTC, whose financial notice was issued in 2016 and lifted the following year, also faces an uncertain future.

Its accounts reveal the Ofsted grade three institution recorded a £336,000 deficit last year, adding “the long-term financial sustainability of Bucks UTC depends ultimately” on increasing its 135 students through expanding the starting age to 11 or joining a multi-academy trust.

A proposal to join the Merchant Taylors Oxfordshire Academy Trust has been resubmitted after the DfE rejected the first application. The UTC did not respond to a request for comment.

David Robinson, director of post-16 and skills at the Education Policy Institute, has said “one-on-one bespoke funding responses are not enough” to save the UTC model.

“In terms of the transition at 14, I don’t think any amount of Baker Clause reinforcement is really going to save that,” he added, referring to the legal duty on schools to make pupils aware of vocational study routes.

UTCs “either need to start from age 11, or at age 16”.

Better to transfer UTCs to colleges

Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, told FE Week that “it might be better to transfer a UTC to a neighbouring college” rather than a multi-academy trust in some cases but this was currently “more difficult than it should be”.

Meanwhile Simon Connell, chief executive of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust charity, which supports UTCs, said the “raised profile of employer-led technical education through the FE white paper” means “many high-quality MATs wish to have a UTC”.

Twenty-three UTCs are in academy trusts, while four now start from age 11.

A DfE spokesperson said “strong UTCs” play an important role in skills education and it “continues to work with UTCs to address any individual challenges”.

Education staff won’t be prioritised for vaccine as government continues with age-based approach

School and college staff will not be prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccine over other workers in the next phase of immunisation, the government has confirmed.

But education workers in their forties will be next in line for the jab along with all others in that age group once phase two begins, after ministers confirmed the age-based approach to immunisation would continue.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said last month that teachers have a “very strong case” for priority jabs, and the education secretary Gavin Williamson had said he was lobbying for prioritisation.

However, the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisations has said today that a mass vaccination targeting occupational groups would be “more complex” to deliver and “may slow the vaccine programme leaving some more vulnerable people at higher risk unvaccinated for longer”.

They add that an “age-based approach” remains the “most effective way” of reducing death and hospitalisation from Covid-19.

The government has said it aims to offer everyone over 50 a vaccine by April 15, bringing it to the end of the first phase.

In phase two, those aged 40 to 49 will be next, then 30 to 39-year-olds and finally 18 to 29-year-olds. The vaccines are not currently approved for use on children.

School and college leaders say they are “disappointed” that the JCVI have not advised the prioritisation of education staff.

The decision comes just over a week before schools and colleges are due to start reopening to all pupils on March 8.

Williamson said last month he was “fighting tooth and nail” to make teachers a priority for the vaccine.

It is crucial that those at higher risk are encouraged to take the vaccine

Geoff Barton, leaders of heads’ union ASCL, said: “The government needs to make a policy decision on this matter having insisted that education is a national priority and having announced a ‘big bang’ return to the classroom in England.

“It must now back that up by providing a clear direction that education staff will be prioritised in the next phase of the programme.

“This is important not only in reassuring staff who it expects to work in busy and crowded environments, but also in terms of minimising disruption to education caused by staff absence as a result of Covid.”

Professor Wei Shen Lim, covid-19 chair for JCVI, said “continuing the age-based rollout will provide the greatest benefit in the shortest time, including to those in occupations at a higher risk of exposure”.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisations at Public Health England (PHE), said: “Delivering a vaccination programme on this scale is incredibly complex and the JCVI’s advice will help us continue protecting individuals from the risk of hospitalisation at pace.

“The age-based approach will ensure more people are protected more quickly. It is crucial that those at higher risk – including men and BAME communities – are encouraged to take the vaccine, and that local health systems are fully engaged and reaching out to underserved communities to ensure they can access the vaccine.”

This is how my sixth form college will tackle the mass testing challenge

Staff will be mass testing dozens of students an hour in order to get them safely back into learning, writes Gerard Garvey

Colleagues at Newcastle Sixth Form College were relieved to have clarity over the reopening of colleges and an end to fully remote learning this week.

Whilst staff at our college have astounded me with the way they seamlessly moved to synchronous online delivery, we know that the best place for our students is in the classroom, receiving expert tuition from talented teachers who can respond to their needs.

We also know that our learners and their families are looking forward to the return to classroom based learning as well as the personalised wrap around support, which is much harder to replicate online.

We intend to bring back our 1,250 students in phases, beginning with an appointment for their initial test on Monday, March 8.

This will continue across the early part of that week until all those consenting have been tested.

We plan to invite our students in blocks of 80 per hour – the number we are comfortable our testing team of six can safely process – with a view to testing everybody by the end of Tuesday.

Naturally, this will lead to some disruption to our regular activities for a couple of days, but we are keen to get the first test out of the way swiftly.

I understand the anxiety in the sector about running large scale testing on site

We hope to have all of our students tested in time for a full reopening for all learners on Wednesday 10 March and will run the second and third tests during the college day.

I understand the anxiety in the sector about running large scale testing on site.

But our experience with the mass testing pilot last term has shown us that we can process hundreds of tests in a single day with a team of less than 10 and we have our staff testing team trained and ready.

I fully appreciate the challenge is very different for larger colleges.

As part of NCG we have some colleges with up to 11,000 students to test across the next few weeks and we have been working as a group to look at how we can do this in a way that is both efficient and safe.

I wouldn’t suggest for a second that the next couple of weeks are without challenge – but I am sure we can all agree that this is a positive move in getting young people back on site so we can finish preparing them for their futures.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 344

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

Jasmin Lewis, Assessment development manager, Construction EPA Company

Start date: February 2021

Previous job: Healthcare partnership manager and product manager, Lifetime Training Group

Interesting fact: She has performed in a West End theatre production based on the Beatles.

Dominic Gill, Chair of trustees, Ufi VocTech Trust

Start date: February 2021

Concurrent job: Managing director, Intequal

Interesting fact: As an independent consultant, he previously developed and led Microsoft’s Partner Apprenticeship Programme.

Nick Lewis, Curriculum manager of automotive and engineering, City of Wolverhampton College

Start date: December 2020

Previous job: Operations manager, Total People

Interesting fact: He won apprentice of the year on completing his automotive apprenticeship in 1998.

Delay to Covid-19 testing for providers branded ‘madness’

The government has failed to explain why private training providers will need to wait until the end of next month to apply for Covid-19 testing kits, a decision branded as “madness”.

The move has proven particularly controversial as colleges are receiving the kits ahead of a return to face-to-face training on March 8.

Officials are developing a “demand-led model” to allow independent providers to order the kits for students and staff but it is unclear as to why this is still not available.

Despite this, Department for Education guidance states that it “expects” every 16-to-19 student will “attend their FE provider in person, and will undertake the majority of their planned hours on site” from two weeks’ time.

This “unfair” and “depressing picture” has been lambasted by private providers, especially as prime minister Boris Johnson has made mass testing central to reopening schools and further education settings “safely”.

Providers have warned that the decision constitutes a “significant risk” and some fear they will now have to delay course starts as a result.

The DfE could not provide an explanation for why its “bespoke solution” for independent providers to order the kits is not yet available or how it will work. A spokesperson only said it will “take a few weeks to implement”.

Graham Howe, executive director at the Apprenticeship College, told FE Week his provider won a contract through the DfE’s recent traineeships tender and they are “keen” to deliver to help the government’s goal of tripling the number of starts on the pre-employment programme over the next five months.

But without the testing kits “some course starts will need to be delayed until the end of March, at the earliest”, he warned.

Howe added that some of his provider’s current trainees have “little or no access” to the technology needed for remote learning, so “anything that delays their return to classroom delivery is frustrating”.

Corrina Hembury, managing director of Access Training (East Midlands) Ltd, also expressed frustration. “We provide training for around 700 apprentices and 50 study programme learners aged 16 to 19 at our sites in Nottingham and Derby and, along with many other providers, our cohort includes high levels of vulnerable and disadvantaged learners that are more likely to be affected by Covid-19 so it is unfair that they are being doubly disadvantaged by this lack of testing,” she said.

Providers are encouraged in the DfE’s guidance to use local asymptomatic testing sites until their kits arrive, but “most of these are not easily accessible by public transport and therefore it is unlikely that many of our learners will be able to use them”, Hembury said.

“We are therefore expected to deliver training without the additional reassurance of testing for both the learners and the staff.”

The DfE said that to help ensure the safety of students and staff and minimise risk of outbreaks, providers should “continue implementing the system of controls”.

A spokesperson claimed that while testing helps to identify people who are infectious but do not have coronavirus symptoms, the “system of controls involves a fuller set of actions that providers need to take to prevent and respond to any infection”.

The system of controls includes ensuring face coverings are worn as well as other personal protective equipment where appropriate, promoting the “catch it, bin it, kill it” approach, keeping occupied spaces well ventilated, and maintaining social distancing.

A depressing picture has emerged

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers described the delay to testing for their members as “madness”. Chief executive Jane Hickie said: “This is another example of where the DfE seems to be treating work-based training programmes as an afterthought, even though the chancellor regards them as integral to the economic recovery.

“A depressing picture has emerged of apparent ministerial indifference to a part of the sector that is working closely with thousands of employers to generate new opportunities for unemployed young people and adults who may need to retrain.”

She added: “The DfE has recognised that ITPs need home-testing kits for their staff and learners to ensure their safe return to face-to-face training, but we urgently require a delivery plan and the one which will be most effective will closely involve providers as the main point of distribution.”

‘Bureaucratic’ process for adding courses to level 3 lifetime skills guarantee offer slammed

One of the country’s largest manufacturing sectors has hit out at the “frustrating” and “bureaucratic” process of adding courses on to the level 3 lifetime skills guarantee offer.

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) was left “puzzled” in December when their industry was one of many key economic sectors overlooked in the original list of 380 qualifications being offered to some adults aged 24 and above for free from April.

The federation, which represents around 900 employers, has since been lobbying for a number of food manufacturing courses to be added but has found the process “difficult”.

Only mayoral combined authorities and awarding bodies can submit bids for qualifications to be added, and the Department for Education is only allowing applications every other month. The first was in January, which was too soon for FDF’s bid to be ready, so they’re having to wait until the end of March.

Mark Corbett, the federation’s education and skills policy manager, told FE Week that food manufacturing “shouldn’t have been in this position in the first place” as the sector, which employs nearly half a million people, is perfectly placed for people who have lost their jobs and want to retrain.

level 3 lifetime skills guarantee — Mark Corbett

“We are one of the sectors that has kept the nation fed throughout the pandemic,” Corbett said. “We were hailed by government as hidden heroes, but then for courses in our sector to be missed off, and then to be asked to go through this quite difficult process of getting courses added, is disgruntling.”

Industries such as hospitality, tourism and the media were left off the government list because they were deemed to be a low priority with low wages.

Corbett said there was “clearly something wrong” with the methodology adopted and claimed the DfE confuses food manufacturing with hospitality and catering. This led to the industry being omitted while the engineering and manufacturing technologies sectors were included, he added.

Explaining his experience of the application process so far, Corbett said: “It is very bureaucratic. As a trade association we are not allowed to submit any application to get courses added.

“We have pulled together different stakeholders and created a working group. We’re currently pulling together all the courses we think should be added and align our application together to submit it through mayoral combined authorities and make this case as strong as possible.”

He continued: “We have to make a case for the number of learners we expect to have, how we will support the local economy – is it part of local skills plans and the industrial strategy.

“We are a national sector so to have that regional criteria are a bit frustrating.”

Corbett said the situation is additionally frustrating because last month’s Skills for Jobs white paper “sold itself as putting employers at the centre to influence the skills system and yet employers do not have any role in this current system of getting courses added”.

The process is based on existing and well-understood processes

The level 3 courses chosen by the DfE will be fully funded for adults aged 24 and above without a full qualification at level 3 – equivalent to two full A-levels. The policy will be rolled out from April, funded by the National Skills Fund.

At the time the list was unveiled, the department said it had chosen qualifications that were “valued by employers”.

Defending the process for adding courses, a DfE spokesperson said: “The process for suggesting additional qualifications to include in the level 3 adult offer is based on existing and well-understood processes.

“We encourage these organisations [mayoral combined authorities and awarding bodies] to work with employers and put forward their suggestions, to ensure the offer provides people with chance to gain the skills they need to get ahead.

“We have been engaging with sector representatives – including those from the food and drink manufacturing sector – since the publication of the qualifications list in December and will continue to do so.”

The new offer builds on a similar policy that has been in place since 2013. It allows adults up to the age of 23 to be fully funded for their first full-level 3 qualification from the adult education budget. Those aged 24 and over have since had to take out an advanced learner loan to pay for the course.