The government’s forthcoming FE white paper could hand the British Chambers of Commerce key influencing powers over funding and priorities, FE Week understands.

Sources close to policy development say a gap has been created with the demise of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills in 2017, and that local enterprise partnerships have failed to impress.

Utilising the national and 53 accredited local chambers would be similar to the much lauded system in Germany.

The chambers’ strong business links are understood to be particularly desired by government as ministers look to align courses on offer closer to those “valued by employers”, as prime minister Boris Johnson said during a major speech on the future of further education on Tuesday.

Greater use of chambers of commerce is an idea favoured by Baroness Alison Wolf, who now advises Johnson on skills three days a week.

In a 2015 report, Fixing a Broken Training System, she wrote that “powerful chambers of commerce to which all local businesses must belong are one way to secure [business] participation (as in Germany)” in the skills system.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson met this year with the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), which represents the UK’s 53 accredited local chambers, to discuss “further education and apprenticeships”, according to the latest government disclosures of Williamson’s meetings.

This was after the minister promised last year’s Conservative Party conference to “overtake Germany in the opportunities we offer to those studying technical routes by 2029”.

Williamson laid out the groundwork for handing chambers greater powers at a major speech on FE reform in July 2020 where he quoted the BCC’s director general Adam Marshall, saying: “Unless we improve the transition from the world of education to the world of work in the United Kingdom, we will not fix our long-standing issues around productivity.”

The BCC told FE Week their members are “open” to exploring how “to use their knowledge, experience and convening power to contribute to the future development of the skills system”. It also confirmed that it is speaking regularly with the DfE on the skills agenda because skills are “of fundamental importance to businesses and local economies in the wake of the pandemic”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said it has had a “number of conversations” with a “wide variety of groups about the future skills system,” ahead of the white paper.

The spokesperson added that involving employers and local business groups, such as the chambers, will be “crucial” for that work, so that “we can make sure we are delivering the skills local communities and our economy need to thrive”. They said more details would come out “in due course”.

Chambers of commerce, the BCC said, would want to work “collaboratively” with FE colleges and providers, employers and communities if they are given a greater role in provision, but already have “long had a role in the skills systems, shaping local strategies”. This has included, for example, organising local skills forums, contributing to the local Skills Advisory Panels, submitting evidence to parliamentary select committees, overseeing links between businesses and education providers, helping develop university technical colleges, and supporting young people with careers activities.

The BCC is also itself involved in the new Kickstart scheme, getting young people on to work placements that can then lead on to apprenticeships or other training, as a gateway provider, which allows employers who have fewer than 30 placements to take part.

The chambers are groups of local businesses, with varying levels of staff, which can offer their members opportunities at networking as well as advice on legal matters, health and safety, and tax.

Because they charge membership fees, chambers do not receive much in the way of public funding, although they have competed for government tenders, the BCC said.

Chambers may move front of stage for the white paper because it is understood the government has been underwhelmed by the influence of local enterprise partnerships when it comes to FE.

More closely integrating chambers with the FE and skills system in their area would bring England closer to Germany’s “world-class” system, which relies on local chambers to approve the trainer, known as a meister (German for master), that every company needs to have apprentices. 

Membership of organisations like the chambers are compulsory for firms in Germany and they have to pay fees.

Federation of Awarding Bodies chief executive Tom Bewick who has worked and written extensively on international
apprenticeship systems, said adopting a
similar approach here would come down to
the capacity of England’s chambers.

Germany’s are built upon decades of
prestige, Bewick says, and as businesses
have to pay into the chambers, they are much more focused on its outcomes: “You always feel a little more anxious when it’s your money going out the door.”

English chambers, meanwhile, suffer from vast gaps in capability, Bewick said: “When you talk about the London chamber of commerce, it’s quite a substantial organisation, got quite a lot of staff, quite a bit of money coming through the door.

“But in other parts of the country, the chambers are no more than one man and a dog, with retired Colonel Blimp who used to run a corner shop.

“We just haven’t got the level of capacity in our chamber movement. If it’s just a series of talking shops, why would active employers, other than out of the goodness of the heart, get involved?”

Whereas German chambers see themselves as the “paymasters for the apprenticeships system”, in England, people look to government as the paymasters, even though the apprenticeship system is funded by employers.

Professor Ewart Keep from the Centre on Skills, Knowledge & Organisational Performance at Oxford University said the compulsory membership element of German chambers renders them “fundamentally different”, as they are “embedded” in the local business structure, and the structure of apprenticeships.

“When people talk about copying the German system, I always laugh a bit because it’s not really that easy. It’s deeply embedded in the structure of their country and the cultural expectations of parents, young people, employers and so on.”

But neither Bewick nor Keep believe chambers taking a beefed-up role in FE and skills is impossible.

Bewick thinks if the government does give chambers more power it will be because policymakers have realised “the system has gone too far in the direction of being a technocratic-led system, as opposed to an employer-responsive one”.

“Employers are engaged quite a lot, but I don’t think it’s the same as having employer-owned bodies independent of government and bureaucracy that then have some say over how provision is organised and paid for.

“So, I suspect that will be the crux of what they’re trying to work through with the chambers.”

While it is “not beyond the wit of man” to award those powers to chambers, it would turn them “into quasi-local authorities”, and although he is not involved in the chamber movement, “I don’t know to what extent there is an appetite to take on that statutory role,” Bewick added.

Keep said that in most developed countries there is some kind of local employer-led body that deals with training, which England does not have and “sooner or later we are going to have to tackle that”, so the chambers “might be a runner” for fulfilling that role.

Any announcement on the role of the chambers is highly likely to be dependent on a successful DfE bid to the Treasury in the forthcoming spending review.

Thousands of apprentices are “stuck in limbo” as awarding bodies struggle to adapt their functional skills assessments in the face of Covid-19, training providers have warned.

Leaders of providers, who say they cannot physically visit some of their work-based learners to invigilate their tests especially in the care and health sectors, have described the situation as “heart-breaking” and a “kick in the teeth” for those who are waiting for the exam in order to complete their programme.

Calls have been made for Ofqual to revert to centre-assessed grades for these qualifications but the regulator has rejected the plea and stressed that it is down to awarding bodies to come up with a solution.

One apprentice told FE Week that she feels “frustrated” and “disadvantaged” by the bureaucracy, while another said the delay is causing him “additional stress”.

The Federation of Awarding Bodies has defended its members, insisting that “we need to remember the unprecedented summer just gone” before criticising exam boards.

After this summer’s exam series was cancelled in March due to the pandemic, Ofqual moved to a system of teacher-calculated grades for functional skills qualifications.

But since August 1, 2020, the regulator has banned the use of centre-assessed grades for all vocational and technical qualifications, including functional skills.

All functional skills exams must now either be sat in the traditional manner, or awarding bodies must adapt their assessment arrangements to mitigate any impact of the pandemic.

But coming up with an adapted assessment solution for all affected learners has become an issue for some awarding bodies. Many apprentices are being instructed to work from home in line with government guidelines and are being instructed not to travel to centres for exams due to risk of spreading Covid-19.

Some workplaces that are open will not allow assessors to visit as their employees are having to use all available space which is restricted because of social distancing and safety measures.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers estimates that tens of thousands of functional skills exams, mostly for apprentices but also for some learners funded by the adult education budget, could be delayed from now until Christmas as a result.

In her update to members this week, AELP managing director Jane Hickie said the delays are “due to a lack of access to workplace settings, learners working from home and some awarding organisations being behind the curve on being able to provide a technology solution, including a lack of proctoring”.

She added that with a “fresh lockdown coming, this is just going to squeeze access and deliverability even more”.

‘I feel frustrated and disadvantaged’

Jill Whittaker, the managing director of independent provider HIT Training, told FE Week that she has 360 apprentices who cannot achieve by the end of October as planned, and another 560 who will not be able to achieve by the end of the calendar year owing to these issues.

The majority are in hospitality, care, early years and NHS settings which Whittaker says are all “unable to facilitate being completed in the workplace due to social distancing, and the potential spread of Covid causing a risk to staff, customers, care users”.

Both of the awarding bodies that HIT Training work with to deliver functional skills do not “have a solution in place right now”, Whittaker said, adding that this is “damaging to progression, confidence and achievement”.

She also warned: “Ultimately without an extension to flexibilities, learners will leave the programme, not achieve and it will unnecessarily damage their future prospects at a time when the job market is fragile to say the least.”

Max Turton (pictured top left with his manager Josh Bird) is training towards a level 2 food and beverage service apprenticeship with HIT at The Eagle and Child Inn in Bury but has had his functional skills exam delayed for over a month now.

“It’s causing me additional stress,” he told FE Week. “My trainer Andy has been really supportive and is helping to keep me motivated but things feel like they are starting to drag on a lot further as I don’t know when I can go through my gateway.”

Jacqui Oughton, managing director of charitable provider Ixion Holdings, part of the Shaw Trust, said she has almost 250 learners waiting to sit their functional skills exams in sectors such as health and social care and  construction.

One of them is Lisa Jones, a level 3 lead adult care worker apprentice at The Oaks Residential Care Home in Upminster, Essex.

She told FE Week: “I feel frustrated and disadvantaged that I am being held up in completing my functional skills qualifications because of bureaucracy. I understand we are not letting people into the home but surely there are alternative solutions that can be used to allow me to complete my functional skills exams.”

Oughton said it is “essential that all contributory bodies recognise the impact this is having and they need to put themselves in the shoes of those learners who are trying to progress and listen to the frustrations and tears that we are getting from people who are trying to secure their futures”.

Nichola Hay, chief executive of Estio Training, joined Whittaker, Oughton and the AELP in calling on Ofqual to return to centre-assessed grades for functional skills, warning that the response from awarding bodies and government “has not been quick enough”.

‘We are working as hard and as quickly as possible to get this resolved’

An Ofqual spokesperson said that since August, awarding organisations have provided functional skills assessments “as normal” for the “majority of learners” and that over 17,000 “live” assessments have taken place.

While a spokesperson confirmed that the regulator is “aware that some learners are facing challenges in taking assessments in their work setting due to coronavirus”, they do “not intend to extend the earlier provision of calculated results for functional skills qualifications”.

Awarding organisations are “working with training providers to put in place arrangements for those learners to access alternative venues or undertake remote assessments,” Ofqual added.

One of those awarding bodies is City & Guilds, which had announced they were set to roll out functional skills tests to be sat at home prior to lockdown.

But the organisation was forced to divert its resource into dealing with the exams fiasco throughout the summer. The at-home tests are still being worked on, but there is no date for their rollout.

David Phillips, City & Guilds’ managing director, said his organisation is “working hard to find additional delivery options as quickly as possible and are currently testing a number of remote invigilation options”.

“We are also assessing the possibility of opening some functional skills test centres across the country,” he added. “We understand completely how frustrating this is for learners and apprentices who are affected, and I would like to assure them all we are working as hard and as quickly as possible to get this resolved.”

Phillips stressed that despite some learners being affected, “many learners and apprentices are still able to take their functional skills qualifications as usual, using a range of methods, including online E-volve tests, remote assessment of speaking, listening and communicating and by taking tests at their employer’s premises if their workplace is accessible”.

Pearson has also been able to offer adapted online assessment for some of its functional skills learners. For those where this has not been possible, the awarding body is currently working on other options to offer individual centres, including an “online proctoring solution” and scheduling socially distanced exams.

A spokesperson for NCFE said it has amended its assessment variation process to allow for additional and adapted delivery arrangements, which are already available for their paper-based and online offer. The awarding body is also working on a “remote invigilation solution” which they hope to launch at the end of October.

Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said: “Before people start criticising awarding organisations, we need to remember the unprecedented summer just gone. The government’s U-turn on the A-level algorithm and the eleventh-hour decision to use centre-assessed grades placed a massive resource load on an already stretched system.

“Staff worked night and day to get results out so learners could progress. Inevitably, along with Covid restrictions, this issue has caused some difficult knock-on effects, including a short-term challenge around the issuing of functional skills results.

“Awarding organisations continue to innovate by moving assessments online, for example, by adopting a model of secure remote invigilation. What we need from the regulator is flexibility and pragmatism as we look to ensure that no functional skills learner is disadvantaged.”

T Levels will be an option for adults of any age to study as part of the government’s new lifetime skills guarantee, the education secretary has surprisingly claimed.

Gavin Williamson’s promise, made in the House of Commons today, comes despite Department for Education rules that T Levels can only be taken by 16 to 19 year olds.

The education secretary this afternoon took questions from MPs on prime minister Boris Johnson’s new “lifetime skills guarantee”, which involves offering all adults in England a full level 3 qualification for free from April if they do not already hold one.

A full list of available level 3 courses for this entitlement will be set out next month, but the government has said the qualifications will need to provide “skills valued by employers”.

Peter Aldous, the MP for Waveney, said in the Commons today that this new guarantee is “extremely welcome as it should help boost Covid recovery”, before asking: “So that those adults who will take up the guarantee can realise their full potential, can my right honourable friend confirm that the new gold standard T Levels will be available to them?”

Williamson replied: “I can absolutely guarantee that. I had the great opportunity to see so many youngsters at college, taking on the T Level.

“It has been incredibly warmly welcomed because what the real difference is, is to so many other past attempts in terms of reform of qualifications in this sector has been very much based on the needs of employers to ensure that as the T Levels are being developed that they actually take young people into work or onto further education or apprenticeship.”

Williamson’s claim has baffled the sector, considering that only those up to the age of 19 are currently allowed to study for T Levels.

In response, Labour’s shadow skills minister Toby Perkins tweeted: “Incredible, and if indeed he is saying T Levels will be available to all adult by April 2021 he’s got less idea what’s happening out there than I thought.”

The DfE later claimed that Williamson only meant that T Levels could possibly be made available to adults in the future, not by April when the level 3 entitlement and lifetime skills guarantee kicks in.

T Levels for adults are not expected to be made available until all T Levels are rolled out and embedded into the skills system, the DfE added.

The first three T Levels were rolled out in September, with 22 others due to follow from next year until 2023.

‘Outstanding’ schools, colleges and training providers are set to be inspected again when Ofsted inspections resume next year – but it will now take up to six years to get through them all.

The government has published its response to the consultation on removing the inspection exemption for the top-rated providers.

It was introduced by former education secretary Michael Gove in 2011. But a previous FE Week investigation revealed how some colleges had been ignored by Ofsted for over a decade.

The government will now seek Parliamentary approval to remove the exemption, and pending that will reintroduce inspections for ‘outstanding’ schools and colleges alongside the restart of routine inspections – slated for January. However this date is being kept under review.

The document says 90 per cent of over 3,700 respondents agreed that the exemption should be removed.

But, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the government said “a longer window is needed to complete the required inspections”.

It means all formerly exempt schools, colleges and other organisations must now receive an initial full inspection or short inspection within six years, rather than the original five.

Providers that have gone the longest since their last inspection will be prioritised, starting with those that have not been inspected for a decade or longer.

FE colleges and providers inspected before September 2015 will receive an initial full inspection, while those last inspected after this date will normally receive an initial short inspection.

But where an initial short inspection indicates that outstanding performance may not have been maintained, Ofsted will extend the inspection to a ‘full’ inspection within 15 working days.

Ofsted will also aim to organise scheduling so that “as far as possible” schools and FE colleges and providers that were last inspected since 2015 receive an initial inspection within six of seven years of their previous inspection.

Trade unions have called for a “significant” pay rise for college staff this year, after the government pumped an extra £400 million into the sector. 

The University and College Union (UCU), the National Education Union, the GMB, UNISON, and Unite have today launched a new claim for pay levels to move considerably towards what they would have been had pay risen with inflation since 2009 and for colleges to implement the living wage. 

The Association of Colleges, which recommends a pay rise percentage for staff to its members each year, said in July 2018, amid negotiations with the UCU, that pay rises would be “contingent on government funding”.

Last November, two months after the chancellor announced a £400 million boost for colleges, the AoC recommended a 1 per cent staff pay rise. Chief executive David Hughes said at the time that his association had calculated that a little less than half of the funding would end up with colleges in the next academic year. 

He added that the association expects colleges to have funding allocations for 2020/21 by the end of March 2020 and promised to accelerate a pay recommendation for the following academic year.

While the AoC recommends a pay increase to its members, colleges are independent and make final decision on pay themselves.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said with the £400 million investment from government, “colleges must now deliver on their promise to staff that they would be first in line when the money arrives”. 

Without honouring boosting staff pay, “it will be impossible to attract and retain the staff colleges need to be able to play their role in the national recovery effort”. 

NEU joint-general secretary Mary Bousted called for “urgent action to restore the huge real-terms pay cuts” in the FE sector. 

Staff there have “a vital role to play in our economy and society,” so “we must ensure their pay reflects that key role, starting with a significant restoration of the real-terms cuts in this pay round”. 

The UCU has previously said senior college lecturers were earning almost £10,000 less than if their pay had kept up with inflation. Last year, they held a series of strikes at individual colleges to win pay increases from their management.

As part of their demands, the unions want all FE colleges in England to become accredited living wage employers with the Living Wage Foundation, and for all contracted-out services to be brought back in-house, with terms and conditions equal to those of staff already directly employed by the college. 

Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said college staff had shown their “remarkable focus on students in their response to this crisis,” and colleges and unions agree it is time to address “longstanding pay issues” in the sector, which he blamed on funding cuts.

But, he continued, “the Covid-19 crisis has brought great uncertainty in terms of income and expenditure for every college, and employers everywhere.

“We need to talk to our members, as we always do, and we will be in a position to discuss this pay claim with unions in due course.”

Controversial plans to clawback some of this year’s unspent adult education budget grant funding are back on the cards, the Education and Skills Funding Agency announced today.

In its weekly update, the agency said any grant-funded provider that delivered less than 68 per cent of their allocation in 2019/20 is now at risk of having to repay their funds.

The ESFA will “consider reconciling any under delivery up to 68 per cent” unless the provider can justify why they shouldn’t by submitting a business case.

It means that, for example, if a provider’s performance was 60 per cent then the agency will consider recovering 8 per cent of the allocation.

This policy only applies to grant-funded providers such as colleges and local authorities who are paid in advance of delivery. It does not apply to independent providers who have to tender for their funds.

Original ESFA guidance published in March said they would “not carry out the final reconciliation for grant funded providers in receipt of ESFA funded AEB” in 2019/20 due to the pandemic.

But in July the agency announced that providers and colleges would retain their full 2019/20 allocation only if they attempted to continue delivering during lockdown and they delivered 80 per cent of activity in the whole year.

A sector backlash followed and the ESFA withdrew the plans one week later.

Announcing the new threshold for clawing back unspent AEB funds today, the agency said: “We recognise that this has been a challenging year and our primary concern remains the stability of providers going into 2020 to 2021, whilst ensuring the proper use of public funds through an approach that will be fair, open and transparent, and in line with the intention of the March Covid guidance.

“This intention remains not to reconcile most providers and so the approach will use a threshold that has been lowered in line with average delivery to identify providers that are significantly under delivering in relation to their peers at R14, rather than assessing the mid-year funding claims, which would be hard to implement fairly.

“Providers that are below the thresholds will be able to submit a business case to allow us to consider any exceptional challenges, impacts on vulnerable groups and moderate any adverse outcomes.”

Full details have been set out in the updated 2019/20 funding claim guidance, which states: “If your [AEB] performance is between 68 per cent and 99.9 per cent then we will not reconcile your allocation.

“Where performance is below 97 per cent, you will be required to confirm through a declaration in the claim process, that you sought to continue to deliver within the Covid-19 period and maintained your subcontracting relationships.

“If your performance is less than 68 per cent of your allocation, then we will consider reconciling any under delivery up to 68 per cent. For example, if your performance is 60 per cent then we will consider recovering 8 per cent of your allocation.

“If you feel that there were extenuating circumstances for your under delivery due to the Covid-19 lockdown, or that the funding you will retain is less than the costs of your delivery, then you will be able to submit a business case. We will assess your business case and if we approve this, then we will adjust your claim accordingly.”

Adults over the age of 23 in England without a full level 3 qualification will be offered one for free from April, prime minister Boris Johnson is set to announce.

The policy to extend full funding to all eligible adults was a recommendation in Philip Augar’s review of post-18 education published 15 months ago and will be funded through the government’s new £2.5 billion National Skills Fund.

A full list of available level 3 courses for this entitlement will be set out next month, but the government tonight said the qualifications will need to provide “skills valued by employers”.

This is the second Augar recommendation adopted today, after the Department for Education confirmed plans for Ofsted to inspect all apprenticeships.

In a speech on Tuesday, Johnson is expected to announce this new “lifetime skill guarantee”. He will say: “As the chancellor has said, we cannot, alas, save every job. What we can do is give people the skills to find and create new and better jobs.

“So my message today is that at every stage of your life, this government will help you get the skills you need.”

Since 2013, adults up to the age of 23 have been fully funded for their first full level 3 qualification from the adult education budget but those aged 24 and over would need to take out an advanced learner loan to pay for the course.

Prior to 2013 and the introduction of advanced learner loans, the government funded half the costs of all level 3 qualifications for those aged 24 and over. 

Johnson is also expected to unveil plans for more flexible higher education loans tomorrow, which will allow adults and young people to take further and higher education courses in “segments” and “space out their study across their lifetimes”. 

The upcoming FE white paper is due to set out how the government will make “credit transfer” between further and higher education “more of a standardised and mainstream feature of our post-18 education system”.

This new arrangement is hoped to provide finance for shorter term studies, rather than having to study in one three or four year block, the government said.

A spokesperson added that the government will consult on this and “bring forward legislation where necessary in this parliament”.

At the time of going to press it remained unclear whether the additional level 3 funding from the National Skills Fund will be added to the adult education budget in England. Or if a new funding methodology is to be introduced, alongside a new application process for colleges and training providers to gain access to the funds.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers managing director Jane Hickie said: “It’s good to see National Skills Fund being invested in extra and much needed funding for adult education alongside AEB and we have recommended that the comprehensive spending review should integrate these two budgets and the National Retraining Scheme into a single pot which providers of all types can access.

“The next step after that is that adult learners should access the pot instead via properly regulated individual skills accounts, so we end up with a fully demand-led system like we now have for employers with apprenticeships.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “We believe that colleges should play a bigger part in a more collaborative education and skills system that allows people to train and retrain throughout their lives. Today’s speech is a strong sign that this thinking will form much of the foundation for the upcoming FE white paper and develop a system that works for all adults and not just those fortunate enough to go to university.

“A new entitlement to a fully-funded level 3 qualification and more flexibility built into level 4 and 5 are important steps forward as the government begins to implement the Augar Review. There is a lot more to do to stimulate demand from adults and employers and to support colleges to have the capacity to meet needs. I am looking forward to working with officials on the details and the legislation which will be part of the white paper later this year.”

Johnson’s announcement will come on the same day that skills minister Gillian Keegan appears in front of the education select committee, facing questions on adult education and lifelong learning. The hearing is set for 10am tomorrow.