Colleges and training providers should continue to deliver education for 16 to 19-year-olds on site during the new national lockdown, but have been told to move adult learners to online teaching where possible.

The Department for Education has this afternoon published its guidance for delivering FE this month ahead of the national restrictions set to be implemented from tomorrow until 2 December.

It confirms that further education settings will “remain open to on site delivery for the duration of the national restrictions”.

Face coverings should be worn by adults and students when “moving around the premises, outside of classrooms, in corridors and communal areas where social distancing cannot easily be maintained”.

For 16 to 19 study programmes, providers should “continue to seek to deliver the majority of education on site unless they have had written public health advice to move some groups to remote teaching”, in which case they should “inform their ESFA territorial team”.

And if there are “operational constraints which necessitate a greater proportion of online teaching”, providers should “discuss this with their ESFA territorial team directly or email FED.COVIDCENTRAL@education.gov.uk, ahead of any announcement”.

Providers have been told to preserve provision on site for learners who “need it”, including vulnerable learners, children of key workers and learners without access to devices/connectivity at home.

For adult education, the DfE is asking providers to “consider moving to online teaching where possible to do so while still achieving educational objectives”.

Where education needs to continue on site to enable access to equipment, or where students cannot access remote delivery, this “can continue in a Covid-secure way”.

The guidance also states that apprenticeships and other training in the workplace will “continue where those sectors remain open” but DfE expects to see “particular impacts in hospitality and retail”.

In terms of sport and physical education, this can continue “as part of education and training”.

Outdoor sports should however be “prioritised where possible, and large indoor spaces used where it is not, maximising distancing between consistent student groups and paying scrupulous attention to cleaning and hygiene and using maximum fresh air ventilation through either opening doors and windows or ventilation systems”.

Competition between different colleges should not take place, in line with the wider restrictions on grassroots sport.

For clinically extremely vulnerable young people, adults and staff, they are advised not to attend education whilst the national restrictions are in place.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “We must put the interests of our children and young people first, especially when the benefits of being in the classroom are clear.

“Education is a national priority and we cannot allow it to be disrupted again.”

A mother bullied out of school aged 13, and an agency which fights serious and organised crime nationwide are among those recognised at this year’s Festival of Learning awards. 

The awards, run by the Learning and Work Institute (LWI), recognise the inspiring stories of adult learners, and top-notch adult learning providers, tutors and employers. 

Skills minister Gillian Keegan congratulated all 12 winners, saying she hopes their stories “inspire and motivate others to kickstart their own learning journeys”. 

One such winner is Wiltshire mother Hannah Wilkins, chosen by LWI’s patron Princess Anne for the Patron’s Award, who completed over 20 different courses after being bullied out of school at the age of 13. 

The winner of the President’s Award, chosen by LWI president and former Department for Education director-general of lifelong learning Nick Stuart, was Positive People.  

A partnership of organisations run by social enterprise Pluss, Positive People helps unemployed adults in the south west, with a sister programme in west Yorkshire, develop life skills in areas such as digital technology. 

Brandon Layton has won this year’s Outstanding Individual award, as having found his education and potential were limited as an autistic teenager attending a specialist school, the judges said he transformed his life and his academic and career prospects at Derwentside College. 

The Learning for Health award has been won by Waltham Forest Adult Learning Service’s health and wellbeing programme. The project has created a range of creative learning courses focused on improving health, wellbeing and social welfare.  

The Employer award, supported by awarding organisation NOCN, has been won by the National Crime Agency, the body responsible for fighting serious and organised crime in the UK. 

The law enforcement organisation was recognised for their initial operational training programme, which provides learners with the knowledge, skills and experience to help fight crime through accredited flexible learning. 

Derby-based Evripides Evriviades has won the Tutor award, which is supported by the Education and Training Foundation. Evriviades has supported many vulnerable and marginalised people through “innovative, creative and functional” English and maths lessons, from entry to level 2. 

Warwickshire Police Inspector Paul Barnsley received the Learning for Work award, also supported by NOCN, after taking to his heart a course with North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire on understanding mental health while signed off work. He has since set up a number of new workplace initiatives to make the force more inclusive. 

Laura Dunn-Green overcame severe anxiety by taking part in a health and social care course run by City College Peterborough at a local care home and has now embarked on a career as a healthcare assistant, winning her this year’s New Directions award, supported by the Skills and Education Group. 

Rubi Naz has won the English Language Learning Award after having been motivated by her son, who was born with various medical conditions and has special education needs, to enrol at Tameside Adult and Community Learning Education to learn English. She is now supporting others in her community to improve theirs. 

A project delivered by social housing providers, Motiv8, has received the Project award for helping disadvantaged and vulnerable Greater Manchester adults access housing and benefits, as well as employment through CV and job-searching help. 

The Return to Learning Award, supported by adult education provider City Lit, has gone to Liz Collins, who, following a “traumatic” experience of education as a child, enrolled on an Introduction to Adult Social Care course with Islington Adult Community Learning and is now a support worker. 

The social impact award, supported by adult learning provider the WEA, has been awarded to a volunteer digital champion Phil Branigan, for running regular computer drop-in sessions at a sheltered housing scheme and supporting other volunteers through an online forum. 

Learning and Work Institute chief executive Stephen Evans said the winners of the awards, which are being held during England’s first Lifelong Learning Week, “show just how powerful learning can be and the difference that great tutors and learning providers can make.  

“I hope their stories help to inspire others to go into learning, and make the case for a renewed commitment to – and investment in – lifelong learning.” 

The awards ceremony is being broadcast live on LWI’s YouTube and Facebook pages from 6pm this evening. 

The full list of winners:

• Hannah Wilkins – Patron’s Award.
• Positive People – President’s Award.
• Brandon Layton – Outstanding Individual Award
• Health and Wellbeing Programme – Learning for Health Award
• National Crime Agency – Employer Award
• Evripides Evriviades – Tutor Award
• Paul Barnsley – Learning for Work Award
• Laura Dunn-Green – New Directions Award
• Rubi Naz – English Language Learning Award
• Motiv8 – Project Award
• Liz Collins – Return to Learning Award
• Phil Branigan – Social Impact Award

Top image caption: Front row – Hannah Wilkins, Evripides Evriviades, Brandon Layton, Health and wellbeing programme.

Second row – Laura Dunn-Green, Motiv8, Liz Collins, Paul Barnsley

Third row – National Crime Agency, Positive People Programme, Phil Branigan, Rubi Naz

A college that has been led by a troubleshooting interim chair for almost a year has appointed a permanent replacement as it continues to consider options for a merger.

Ex-chief executive of the Association of Colleges Martin Doel (pictured left) was parachuted into Highbury College in December 2019 after it was hit by an expenses scandal and placed in formal FE Commissioner intervention.

Succeeding him from this month is businessman Paul Quigley (pictured right) who has been promoted to the position of chair after joining Highbury’s board as a member in January.

His CV includes finance and managing director positions at numerous waste management and chemical companies across Europe. His LinkedIn page says he has led a number of business “acquisitions and divestments” throughout his career.

Quigley previously spent 12 years on the board of neighbouring Eastleigh College including eight years as chair in a period which saw the college rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

Penny Wycherley, Highbury’s interim principal who took over from former principal Stella Mbubaegbu also in December 2019, has agreed to stay on until August 2021.

The decisions come as the college continues a structure and prospects appraisal with FE Commissioner Richard Atkins. While there is currently no deadline for the appraisal’s conclusion, the college told FE Week that “all options” are being considered, including merger.

Wycherley thanked Doel, who was previously brought in to chair West Kent and Ashford College’s board as it was put through insolvency, for his “commitment and dedication to Highbury during what has been a truly extraordinary year”.

She also welcomed Quigley as the new chair, saying that he brings a “wealth of knowledge and invaluable financial experience to the role and his dedication to the further education sector is admirable”.

Quigley said: “After joining the board in January, I am both delighted and excited to become chair of an organisation so fundamental to the prosperity of Portsmouth, both educationally and economically.

“The current team of governors is stronger than ever with members from an impressive array of backgrounds. I very much look forward to working with all at Highbury and can see exciting times ahead.”

Highbury’s former chair Tim Mason and principal Mbubaegbu stepped down after FE Week revealed how £150,000 was spent on Mbubaegbu’s corporate college card in four years, including extravagant items such as numerous first-class flights, stays in five-star hotels, a boozy lobster dinner and a £434 pair of designer headphones.

Around the same time the college had to make redundancies, scrap its A-level provision and dropped from Ofsted ‘outstanding’ to ‘requires improvement’. Highbury has also been stuck in a legal battle with a Nigerian state following a failed technical education project.

Just a month after Doel and Wycherley took over a Highbury, the pair discovered the college was running out of cash and had to secure a £1.5 million emergency bailout to keep it running.

FE Commissioner Richard Atkins was sent in to the college at the command of then Department for Education minister Lord Agnew last October. Atkins’ report from his visit was finally published last month and found “serious issues regarding leadership, management and governance”.

A follow-up visit was conducted during the summer of 2020 where Atkins said a “significant step-change in openness and trust” had been made under the interim new leadership.

Awarding organisations are being sought to develop T Levels in areas such as media, animal care, and hair and beauty for the fourth year of the flagship qualification’s rollout. 

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has today published an invitation to tender for suppliers to help design the eight pathways set to start teaching from September 2023. 

The awarding organisations, IfATE says, will be responsible for “designing the content of the qualification; upskilling providers (further education schools and colleges); providing learning and teaching materials; updating content; and delivering qualification assessment services”.

They will form the final wave of T Level qualifications.

The most popular of the qualifications (see full list below) is expected to be the media, broadcast and production, which the IfATE tender predicts could have 4,800 learners in its first cohort, and have had 51,200 by 2027/28.  

Second most popular is expected to be the animal care and management T Level, with 27,500 learners by 2027/28, followed by hair, beauty and aesthetics with 25,200.  

Overall, the eight T Levels are predicted to have been delivered to 149,000 learners by that year. The tender has been valued at a combined £44.7 million.  

There is a tight deadline for applications to be considered for the contracts, as potential suppliers will need to have completed the selection questionnaire for the first stage of their application by two weeks from now (17 November).  

Those that pass from there will proceed to the second and final stage, where suppliers will have to submit tenders by 23 February next year.

The successful applicants will be notified the following August. The contract’s end date is September 2030. 

Suppliers must be recognised by Ofqual to deliver the qualifications at the point the contracts are awarded.  

It was announced last month the six T Levels being rolled out in 2022 will be awarded by Pearson and City & Guilds.  

Pearson is currently delivering, alongside NCFE, on the first three T Levels, which started in September. City & Guilds and NCFE are set to award seven T Levels being delivered from next year.  

The steady escalation in the number of T Levels being delivered each year was mandated by the 2019 T Level Action Plan, which outlined an objective to “expand the number of providers delivering T Levels so the momentum behind the programme continues to build”.  

Here is the full list of wave 4 T Levels included in today’s invitation to tender:

• Lot 1 Hair and Beauty: Hair, Beauty & Aesthetics 
• Lot 2 Creative & Design: Craft & Design 
• Lot 3 Creative & Design: Media, Broadcast & Production 
• Lot 4 Catering & Hospitality: Catering 
• Lot 5 Agriculture, Environment & Animal Care: Animal Care & Management 
• Lot 6 Agriculture, Environment & Animal Care: Agriculture, Land Management & Production 
• Lot 7 Legal, Finance & Accounting: Legal Services 
• Lot 8 Business & Administration: Human Resources

The next two WorldSkills competitions, set to take place in Shanghai in China in 2021 and Lyon in France in 2023, have both been postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Competition organisers WorldSkills International announced today the competitions will instead take place in 2022 and 2024 respectively. 

This comes after the EuroSkills competition, set to take place in Graz, Austria next January, was indefinitely postponed last month due to the “worsening” Covid-19 situation in Europe. 

WorldSkills International president Chris Humphries said of this latest postponement: “We are grateful for the support of both WorldSkills China and WorldSkills France and their organising teams who have worked closely with WorldSkills International to reach what we all believe is the best solution to preserve the integrity and spirit of the Competition.” 

Preparations were already well underway for WorldSkills UK to take part in the competition, which had been due to include over 1,300 young skilled people from 60 countries competing in 56 competitions between 22 and 27 September 2021. 

A longlist, known as Squad UK, of potential members of Team UK, who would compete in Shanghai, had already been drawn up with the aim of regaining this country’s top ten place among competing nations. This had been lost at WorldSkills Kazan in 2019, when the UK was pushed down to twelfth. 

WorldSkills UK chief executive Neil Bentley-Gockmann said: “The UK remains committed to competing at WorldSkills Shanghai and we will continue to support our Squad UK members, their employers, colleges and training providers and the wider training team, who have been working tirelessly to prepare for the competition, so we can deliver a medal-winning performance for the UK in 2022.” 

A new date for Shanghai has not been finalised, but it is expected the competition will take place between October and November next year.

The rules around age eligibility for the tournaments will also be amended for Shanghai, so all competitors in training for WorldSkills Shanghai will be eligible for selection. 

Fears are growing that the government’s FE funding boost for this year will not be sufficient to cover an anticipated surge in 16 to 19 year old college places.

The government is pumping an additional £400 million into further education in 2020-21, which includes raising the 16 to 19 learner base rate to £4,188 and could, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says, represent the first real-terms increase in spending per student for about a decade.

However, the organisation’s annual report on education spending, published today, warns that because of the way the FE funding system works, exceptional rises in student numbers could still generate a real-terms fall in funding per student.

It explains how student numbers in FE colleges and sixth forms are likely to increase this year due to rising numbers of young people combined with “unusually high” GCSE results and “significant” reductions in training and employment opportunities.

The report chimes with an FE Week investigation in September that found recruitment for traditional level 3 further education courses was booming, and even university technical colleges learner numbers were on the rise despite the pandemic.

The IFS says that responding to these changes in participation will be “challenging” given that providers’ funding is set by the Education and Skills Funding Agency based on lagged student numbers.

The IFS does recognise that the 16 to 19 funding system does have mechanisms to allow colleges to apply for in-year growth if they have a spike in student numbers. However, they say that this is “subject to affordability” and it is “not designed to address significant sector wide growth”.

Imran Tahir, research economist at the IFS and a co-author of the report, said: “Student numbers could have risen dramatically more than expected due to a reduction in training, apprenticeship and employment opportunities, on top of population growth.

“If there is no additional funding forthcoming, planned real-terms increases in spending per student could be mostly – if not entirely – eroded.”

James Kewin, deputy chief executive at the Sixth Form Colleges Association, shared the IFS concern that, because in-year growth is subject to affordability, not all colleges that need the funding will be able to access it.

He told FE Week that his organisation has been “making the case for some time” that the threshold for in-year growth funding needs to be lowered.

Responding to the IFS’ report, Kewin said: “A combination of demographic trends, this year’s exam results and the lack of work-based opportunities means that more young people than ever could participate in 16 to 19 education.

“However, the lagged funding model means that this will put pressure on the cashflow and finances of some colleges and schools at a time when they are already under strain dealing with the additional costs of Covid.

“This, and of course an increases in the core rate of funding itself, should therefore be a priority area for investment.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said his organisation has “raised the issue of in-year 16 to 19 growth several times now with ESFA”.

He told FE Week: “Overall we believe that numbers will be higher, just as the IFS supposes. The commitment to support exceptional growth is always subject to affordability, which is unlike in HE where it looks as though increased student numbers will attract full funding immediately. That does not feel fair and we hope that ESFA recognises that too.”

A government spokesperson said: “We understand this has been a challenging time for the education sector which is why we introduced a range of support to help colleges and universities manage their finances and safeguard students.

“We have protected grant funding for further education, worth over £3 billion for a full year, and increased education and training investment this year for 16-19 year-olds by an additional £400 million.”

The government has been urged to devolve more skills funding to mayoral combined authorities to allow them to develop “grassroot” recovery strategies from Covid-19.

A new report, Act Now, has today been published by education giant City & Guilds that warns a “top down” approach to recovery puts the UK economy “at risk” as much of the announced government skills support “is simply happening too late”.

Based on a series of roundtables with mayors and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) that took place over the summer, the report suggests that increased skills devolution is the “only way to coherently address the differing priorities and challenges being faced” the country’s regions.

The Department for Education has so far devolved the adult education budget to eight regions in England since 2019, but the City & Guilds report urges ministers to go further.

“Government should devolve more skills funding to a regional level and give regions more autonomy to implement central skills policy in a way that works for them,” it says.

“For example the Kickstart scheme could be implemented by MCAs and LEPs to better meet immediate, local needs.”

The report also calls for a “more effective reallocation of government funding to ensure more adults have access to Adult Training Allowance Loans to meet employer and labour market demand”.

A series of other solutions have also been put forward by City & Guilds, including the creation of employment and training hubs in areas of high unemployment.

The hubs would act as a “one-stop skills and jobs matching service” for adults in employment who “might need to or want to upskill or retrain and those seeking employment”.

They would provide “careers advice and guidance, direct people straight into employment in other sectors where possible, direct people into college or university if needed but would also provide short, sharp training interventions to get people back into work”.

The report also urges government to take learning “to the people”. Adult training, for example, should be taken “out of the traditional college / university environment” to make it “more appealing” to older students.

City & Guilds proposes rejuvenating underutilised educational and council owned buildings as well as shop units left empty by the pandemic.

Former skills minister Anne Milton chaired the roundtables and in her foreword of the report she notes how the Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast 3.4 million people out of work this year, an increase of 260 per cent on the start of the year.

“We need to act now to deliver the rapid interventions needed to bring the country back from recession and grow a workforce that is fit for the future with the skills needed to drive up levels of innovation and productivity,” she says.

Kirstie Donnelly, chief executive of City & Guilds Group, said: “We spent the summer talking to local governments and employers across the UK to understand what they need to help the unemployed back into work after the hammer blow of Covid-19. The message that came back loud and clear was we can’t apply a ‘one size fits all’ approach if we want to successfully support people back into jobs.

“The challenges and solutions were often different in each area and Mayoral teams felt that they were not always enabled to act quickly and effectively enough with local solutions.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are committed to open dialogue with MCAs, the Greater London Authority and other sector stakeholders on how best skills provision and reforms can be shaped to fit the needs of local areas.”