The Department for Education has this morning published eight intervention reports based on FE Commissioner visits that in some cases took place more than a year ago.

These are the first reports to be published since Gillian Keegan (pictured) was appointed as minister in March 2020.

The reports were accompanied by a letter from Keegan, many of which were dated 15 July 2020.

FE Week reported on 7 July 2020 the FE Commissioner, Richard Atkins, wrote to college bosses on June 16 to inform them that his team has recommenced its work on a virtual basis, following a Covid-19 related pause.

Summary and links to the reports and letters below.

Gateshead College

Further light has been shed on the cause of Gateshead College’s shock £6 million deficit in its newly-released FE Commissioner report.

In a report based on visits last December and January, Atkins writes the underpinning cause of the shortfall was “a failure by the board and the senior leaders at the college to address the very significant reduction in income that was the result of the loss of the European Social Fund (ESF) contract”.

FE Week first reported last December that Gateshead’s governors had called in independent investigators to explain why the deficit had come about. The principal and chair of governors both left during the ensuing controversy.

Large short-term contracts like ESF had provided a “significant” financial contribution to the college’s bottom like, Atkins explained.

An otherwise “successful” ESF project concluded in January, but the senior leaders reported there were “no significant financial concerns” to the board, despite losing the ESF contract.

The commissioner found the college had in fact been in deficit for years, but this had been disguised by a misstatement of certain bills. Other factors behind the shortfall include “incorrect” budgeting of around 40 per cent for subcontracting costs, which was a “major” cause of the size of the deficit.

Keegan wrote that there had been “significant failures in leadership and governance have allowed for the serious deterioration of the college’s financial position”.

The college said that, since the visit, a structure and prospect appraisal has been completed and is awaiting sign off from ministers. One option being explored is a merger.

A spokesperson said: “Our focus remains on making sure that the good work to date continues and that we keep to the agreed targets in our recovery plan, including the appointment of a permanent principal, while delivering the very best education and training for our local community, strengthening financial health and maintaining the confidence of our stakeholders.”

 

Stoke-on-Trent College

The college received a £20 million taxpayer bailout two years ago and was warned it faced “significant challenges” following its FE Commissioner report, but said it is now on a “strong trajectory of improvement”.

Stoke-on-Trent narrowly avoided insolvency, according to the FE Commissioner’s assessment from March, and only escaped thanks to exceptional financial support between January 2016 and September 2017.

The college later received £21.9 million from the Department for Education’s restructuring facility in September 2018.

This all came after income declined by more than a third between 2004 and 2014, so commercial loans agreed at the start of that period were no longer affordable by the end.

Following the bailouts and redundancies for 5 per cent of its workforce, Stoke-on-Trent is now on track for ‘good’ financial health in the 2019-20 financial year.

A spokesperson said the college is “working well to progress the recommendations of the FE Commissioner, despite the disruption of Covid-19”.

However, Atkins has warned the Education and Skills Funding Agency would be writing to Stoke-on-Trent to refresh its financial health notice to improve following his visit.

An “urgent” investment in IT equipment was also recommended in the report, after students commented on its “poor” quality, and owing to the Covid-19 pandemic placing a much greater importance on online learning.

The college has said it has recruited for the vacant finance positions, and the curriculum job will be filled by the end of 2020, and made a “considerable” investment in its IT facilities since the commissioner’s visit.

Skills minister Gillian Keegan, in a letter accompanying the report, said while “significant challenges remain, the college has adopted a positive approach towards implementing various improvement initiatives to address both historic and recent concerns”.

 

RNN Group

This college group suffered “serious decline” in enrolments, quality and financial health following multiple mergers, the FE commissioner reported.

RNN Group was created from a merger of Rotherham College of Arts and Technology (RCAT), and North Nottinghamshire College in February 2016. In February 2017, there was another merger with Dearne Valley College, on the recommendation of the Sheffield City Region Area Review, which the commissioner was involved with.

However, Atkins has now identified that the mergers led to a decline in finance and Ofsted grades – for RCAT – from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.

Income had fallen “steadily”, owing to fewer student enrolments. RNN part-financing its University Centre Rotherham had also “eroded” its reserves, while higher education student recruitment was down.

There was also a “steep” reduction in 16 to 18-year-old student numbers since the merger, though that has largely stabilised in 2019-20.

Mergers had also created what Atkins called a “substantial” college estate, stretching across south Yorkshire and north Nottinghamshire. He recommended a “rationalisation” of the estate and the college has since removed all provision from one of its sites, Dinnington. It is looking at renting or selling some or all of the buildings and land.

At the time of the commissioner’s assessment last December, RNN had subcontracted out adult education budget provision to 22 subcontractors, seven for apprenticeships, and four for 16 to 18 study programmes. This level, the commissioner wrote, presented a “risk” to RNN. The college said it now has just 11 subcontractors.

Atkins raised concerns about RNN’s governance during his assessment, including the lack of finance committee despite the “significant financial challenges”, and the seven vacancies for independent governors, leaving the board “severely depleted”.

Principal Jason Scott said “significant” progress has been made since then: “Strong governance is in place, and important progress has been made with financial recovery, quality improvement, rationalisation of surplus estate capacity and reduced staff costs.”

 

Hull College Group

FE Week was leaked a copy of Hull College’s FE Commissioner report in January and revealed how it would show that leaders employed “close family members” and created a culture where staff would not speak out for “fear of being exited at short notice”.

It came after this publication reported in December – a month after Atkins’ visit – that Hull’s chief executive, Michelle Swithenbank, and vice principal for HR, Julie Milad, had been suspended and then quit.

The commissioner’s report published last week includes the same findings, such as “clerking arrangements have not been sufficiently independent from the executive and have fallen below acceptable standards” and “many staff felt reluctant to voice their concerns to senior leaders because of a lack of trust”.

Keegan wrote that she it was “clear that the college leadership has experienced significant turbulence” and that she was “concerned with the weakness of governance arrangements on”.

Derek O’Toole took over as interim chief executive at Hull College at the end of 2019, and Atkins’ follow-up visit over the summer said he had “already made a positive impact”.

A spokesperson for Hull College said the college has “made rapid and effective progress against a report from a specific point in time nearly a year ago”.

“The college has not only completed all 11 recommendations detailed in the report at that time, but has focused on making many other improvements for our learners and staff to give the city a college it so richly deserves,” they added.

 

Birmingham Metropolitan College

BMet received a highly positive report from the FE Commissioner which skills minister Gillian Keegan said showed “remarkable improvements” since the group first entered formal intervention in 2015. 

Principal Cliff Hall told FE Week, following the report’s publication, that they have met all of the commissioner’s recommendations “due to the hard work and dedication of staff”. 

This marks a rare upturn for the college, which has received three consecutive ‘requires improvement’ ratings from Ofsted, and was said to be on the “brink of insolvency” as late as last August. 

The commissioner reported the chair, school ‘superhead’ Sir Dexter Hutt, appointed in January 2019, is “confident and capable and has led a period of rapid and significant cultural change in partnership with the principal”. 

Staff, the commissioner wrote, have a “greater level of confidence” in the future and are “complimentary” about Hall and his “clear, open and honest approach”. 

In a letter attached to the report dated July this year, Keegan said the report “describes the college as having made remarkable improvements, and it was clear governors and leaders “have been working diligently and effectively to implement rigorous and focussed strategies for improvement”. 

Atkins, who assessed BMet in October 2019, also praised the “timely manner” in which BMet responded to concerns from the community about the controversial removal of provision from its Stourbridge campus, as part of a structure and prospects appraisal (SPA) led by Atkins’ team.  

 

Coventry College

A lack of “clear post-merger strategy” and “robust scrutiny” led to a “substantial deterioration of financial stability” for this college, which almost went insolvent this year.

Henley College Coventry and City College Coventry merged to become Coventry College in August 2017. City College had achieved three ‘requires improvement’ and two ‘inadequate’ ratings from full Ofsted inspections prior to merger.

The merged college was inspected for the first time in September 2019 and achieved a grade three.

Atkins visited in November 2019 and found that governors had allowed the college to “drift” since the merger without developing and directing a “clear post-merger strategy and harmonisation plan”.

“Whilst this work has gathered pace since January 2020, the financial and curriculum performance of the college has deteriorated, and its future is now challenging,” he added.

An “overly optimistic” merger plan was developed, which contained significant income growth that the college has not delivered. In 2019, the college finances “have suffered from weak financial controls, poor strategic financial leadership, and a lack of strong governance challenge”.

The report warns that Coventry College breached bank covenants during the year which made a £10 million loan with Barclays liable by 1 August 2020. Atkins said if the college was not able to reclassify the loan, it would go insolvent. The college confirmed to FE Week it was able to secure an extension on the loan.

Keegan’s letter said that following the formation of Coventry College in 2017, the “lack of a clear post-merger strategy or robust scrutiny have contributed to the substantial deterioration of financial stability and curriculum performance, to the point that the college now faces a challenging future”.

Atkins revisited Coventry in September 2020 and said the college’s newly appointed principal, Carol Thomas, has made an “immediate impact despite only being in post for a short time”.

A Coventry College spokesperson said: “In the intervening six months [since the commissioner’s original visit], the college has worked hard to address the specific recommendations and all of those which had a September or earlier deadline have now been completed.

“The FE Commissioner team has undertaken a ‘stocktake’ visit during September 2020 and has recognised the significant progress made against their original set of recommendations.

“The college’s financial accounts for 2019/20 will show a circa £1 million improvement on the figures shown in the March FEC report, as a result of the implementation of its recovery plan.”

 

Highbury College

There has been a “significant step-change in openness and trust” at the scandal-hit college where staff previously felt “undervalued” and “too scared to challenge”, the FE Commissioner’s report said.

Atkins visited Highbury College in October 2019 after FE Week revealed how its long-standing principal, Stella Mbubaegbu, had spent £150,000 on expenses in four years, which included one-off lavish items such as a £434 pair of designer headphones and a lobster dinner.

The commissioner found that governance and leadership were “seriously dysfunctional” namely because the relationship and trust between the chair, Tim Mason, and principal had “broken down”.

Mason admitted that the board had “not operated with sufficient scrutiny and challenge”.

Atkins said he found a number of “significant leadership and management” issues, including the “very high” turnover of new staff in their first year, low staff morale, and an “expressed lack of trust by staff in their leaders”.

Staff that filled out an Investors in People survey also reported that “people are too scared to challenge or feel nothing will come of it”.

Mbubaegbu, who joined in 2001 and officially retired in April 2020, actually left her position as accounting officer in December – a month before new interim principal Penny Wycherley and interim chair Martin Doel discovered Highbury was running out of cash and had to secure a £1.5 million emergency bailout, as previously reported by FE Week.

In Atkins’ follow-up visit over the summer he commended a new “positive culture across the college with managers more empowered and engaged, and staff now working well together”.

The report reads: “Effective leadership and communication from the interim principal/chief executive have improved staff morale and the culture of the college. The staff survey, and staff and trade union feedback, all reflect a significant step-change in openness and trust.”

Wycherley said: “Staff have shown real ‘blitz spirit’ throughout the pandemic and their passion and commitment for teaching has shone through.”

 

East Sussex College Group

The college was visited by Atkins’ team in December 2019 during which he found various reasons for its ‘inadequate’ financial health: unstable and poor leadership; a downward trend in 16 to 18 recruitment; £1.1 million government clawback relating to ineligible apprenticeship provision delivered by a former subcontractor at Sussex Coast College Hastings in 2011/12 and 2012/13; and inaccurate data reporting.

The college was also rapped for its “wholly inadequate” preparations for T Levels that were set for rollout in September 2020 but presented a “high risk of failure”, and concern over the “quantity of subcontracted activity”.

Keegan’s letter said the college’s governance and leadership arrangements were “weak and unsuited to the size and complexity of the college”.

“It is clear from the report that current management structures have failed to provide clear strategic direction for the college and have not adequately addressed ongoing and emerging issues following merger,” she added.

Atkins made a follow-up visit in July and said the college has made “progress despite the turbulent circumstances during which existing challenges, including financial ones, have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Commenting this week on the report, an East Sussex College Group said they feel that the college has made “significant progress in resolving the financial leadership concerns via the appointment of an experienced turnaround chief financial officer and new finance director.

“Alongside a review of our financial processes and controls we anticipate a steady improvement in financial health, even in a Covid affected climate, in 2020/21.”

They added that the college has “successfully launched our first three T Levels”, with 45 students engaging in the new qualifications, and have “reduced our reliance on subcontracted provision”.

The interim leadership team have been supported by national leaders in FE, and a new-look governing body is completing the recruitment process for a new chief executive this month.

Labour has castigated the Conservatives for their “pitiful” investment in college estates, after a minister revealed that the average annual spend fell by £244 million between 2010 and 2016.

Skills minister Gillian Keegan this week released data showing that, while funding for capital improvements in FE colleges under the previous Labour government stood at £3.6 billion between 2001-02 and 2009-10, the Conservative-led coalition government spent £957 million between 2010-11 and 2015 -16.

Analysis of the figures show the average annual spend under Labour was £404 million, more than double the £160 million average spent since being out of government.

Keegan’s figures only go up to 2015-16 because, after that point, £980 million was devolved from the government through the Local Growth Fund to local enterprise partnerships to spend on objectives such as supporting college capital projects. 

Shadow apprenticeships and lifelong learning minister Toby Perkins, who received the figures from Keegan in answer to a parliamentary question, said they “starkly reveal what principals across the land already know.

“That, for all the rhetoric, this government’s capital investment in our FE estate is neither transformational nor record-breaking.”

After prime minister Boris Johnson announced his Lifetime Skills Guarantee last month, education secretary Gavin Williamson told the House of Commons the government had a “proud” record on investing in colleges.

Speaking on the £1.5 billion of capital investment the government announced in March, the “largest capital investment in the sector in a generation”, Williamson promised the money would “transform” the estates of FE colleges over its five-year span. 

“It will enable colleges everywhere in England to have buildings and facilities that can deliver world-class tuition.

However, Perkins called it a “pitiful insult to the FE sector” compared with the investment made under Labour.

He said £200 million, which had been brought forward to this September from the £1.5 billion, was less than Labour had spent in any year between 2005 and 2010. 

Williamson’s claims of “world-class tuition” and being the largest capital investment this generation, “shows how far detached from reality he really is,” Perkins added. 

Labour has “been calling for a strategic approach to developing the skills our country needs throughout ten years of Tory chopping and changing,” Perkins said, adding: “The need for investment and urgency is greater now than ever.”

But the government “needs to come clean about the fact that it has neglected this sector, and that the money they are currently talking about is small change in historic terms”.

The “insufficient” capital funding to maintain the college estate was also called out in Philip Augar’s review of post-18 education, which also said declining revenue had discouraged colleges from investing in advanced equipment and facilities. 

Keegan said the government was “committed” to upgrading FE colleges over the next five years “so they are great places to learn”, through the £1.5 billion boost. 

“That transformation,” she added, “has begun with an allocation of £200 million this year to FE colleges and designated institutions to tackle immediate remedial condition improvement projects.”

That is in addition to £290 million of capital funding to develop 20 employer-led Institutes of Technology.

Keegan said the DfE has so far invested £21.4 million in 2019-20, and £18.9 million in 2020-21.

£11.1 million has also been invested since last November in building facilities for T Levels, with an extra £5.4 million going towards specialist equipment.

The Association of Colleges deputy chief executive Julian Gravatt said the government’s promised boost for capital funding “follows years of underinvestment”. 

Colleges have been able to access the Local Growth Fund and the IoT funding, but “there have been unrealistic expectations about the ability of institutions to supplement public grants”.

See the full tables here:

Covid is being blamed for recruitment concerns at the government’s new flagship Institutes of Technology (IoT), FE Week can reveal.

Despite demand for more traditional FE courses booming, the Department for Education is understood to be in negotiations with several IoTs over revising down contractual student number targets.

A crunch meeting was held in June with all of the first 12 IoTs and the DfE, in which “strong sentiment” was shared “across the group” that learner number targets were at risk due to the pandemic, according to newly published board minutes for Dudley College.

The college, which is spearheading the opening of the Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology set for autumn 2021, told FE Week that a follow-up meeting was held in September where the DfE confirmed that recruitment “re-profiling” would be “dealt with in the round by collecting data from all IoT’s in the coming months”.

At least four other colleges leading on the development of an IoT have said they are also struggling to meet recruitment numbers in the current climate.

Extensions to the contractual deadline for spending capital funding, originally set for March 31, 2021, have also been granted to a number of IoT projects owing to delays to their multi-million-pound builds.

While failure to meet learner number targets and other key performance indicators (KPIs) can put individual IoTs at risk of having their licence revoked, the DfE has said it will “work closely” with the institutes and introduce “mitigation measures” where necessary to ensure a successful rollout.

IoTs are not the only new, high-profile technical education schemes that appear to be struggling to attract students: an FE Week investigation last month found that colleges and schools had missed two-thirds of their T Level enrolment targets.

Meanwhile, a different investigation by FE Week in September found that recruitment for more traditional level 3 further education courses was flourishing, and even university technical colleges learner numbers were on the rise despite the pandemic.

Institutes of Technology are a major government project aimed at boosting high technical level skills across England. They are a collaboration between colleges, universities and employers, and specialise in delivering higher level technical training at level 4 and 5 in STEM subjects, including digital, advanced manufacturing and engineering.

The first wave of 12 IoTs was announced in April 2019 and are being created through a £170 million capital funding pot. A further eight are expected to open in the coming years through a new competition worth £120 million in total, which launched on Thursday.

Four of the first 12 opened last year, with the rest following in 2020/21 and then 2021/22.

Harrow College and Uxbridge College (HCUC) enjoyed a successful launch of the West London Institute of Technology in autumn 2019, recruiting 306 learners against a target of 272, according to board minutes for July 2020.

But the board noted “the challenge of meeting learner number targets for 2020/21” which led to a request to the DfE to “keep targets at 2019/20 levels taking account of Covid and a slow start to the national rollout”.

The board also said the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic “might adversely impact on DfE funding for the IoT”.

An HCUC spokesperson told FE Week: “Our first year as an IoT has gone well. However, Covid has been a concern with regard to our higher-level recruitment but this is not specific to our IoT and is a concern for many across the FE sector.”

They added that the capital build for the IoT, developed with partners including Brunel University London, Fujitsu and Heathrow Airport, was completed on time and on a budget set at almost £9 million.

Elsewhere, the Swindon and Wiltshire Institute of Technology is working towards a launch of autumn 2021 but raised concerns about recruitment.

A spokesperson said: “Targets remain unchanged. We will work towards achieving them but we know that apprenticeship recruitment in HE and FE recruitment has been impacted nationally currently and this is likely to result in a variance in numbers.

“However, with greater levels of unemployment and promised government initiatives to upskill adult learners particularly in these sector areas, it is difficult to forecast whether these targets for next year are currently achievable. It will be a challenge.”

Dudley College said it was expecting its target of recruiting 313 learners in the first year of operation for the Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology to be revised by the DfE.

A spokesperson told FE Week: “At the last IoT network meeting [in September], the DfE confirmed that re-profiling will be dealt with in the round by collecting data from all IoTs in the coming months.

“The DfE acknowledges the likely impact of Covid on recruitment, particularly on apprenticeship pathways as at the moment there is a predicted downturn of 20 per cent but as things begin to stabilise we are hopeful the negative impact will be mitigated.”

Dudley has also been struggling to meet its capital build project deadline, after work stopped for seven weeks to enable it to be made “Covid-safe” earlier this year. The college is also still waiting to purchase the land of the site, although this is purely administrative and has not impacted the building schedule itself, which is continuing “under licence pending completion”.

The college said the purchase of the land is “anticipated in the next two weeks” and the DfE has agreed to extend the deadline for spending its £17.36 million allocation from March 2021 to the end of July 2021, given the circumstances.

Barking and Dagenham College was unable to comment at the time of going to press but minutes from a board meeting in June 2020 warned there “could be a real challenge with the KPIs” for its IoT in the current climate.

Other IoTs that spoke to FE Week claimed that Covid had not had a big impact on their rollout.

Milton Keynes College is leading on the South Central IoT, which is inspired by England’s famous wartime codebreaking centre, Bletchley Park, and plans on recruiting 213 learners in its first year of operation in 2021/22.

While there has been a delay to its building work, which resulted in the DfE extending the deadline by which it needs to spend its £27 million of capital funding, a spokesperson said the consortium behind the project is “confident” of meeting its student targets.

Lee Probert, principal of York College, told FE Week the Yorkshire and Humber Institute of Technology launched last year and that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic “is currently under discussion with the DfE”.

“Final actuals against KPIs for year one were very positive,” he added. “We continue to recruit students and deliver against contracted targets in 2020/2021.”

Paul Phillips, principal of Weston College Group, officially opened the aWest of England Institute of Technology building just this week but began delivering its curriculum in the last academic year.

In year one, the IoT was set a target of 200 learners which was achieved. The target has increased to 320 learners in 2020/21, which “we are on target to achieve”, Phillips added.

Elsewhere, the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Institute of Technology opened to students in the autumn of 2019 and “met its learner number recruitment KPIs in its first year”, a spokesperson told FE Week, and raised no issue about meeting this year’s targets.

New College Durham principal Andrew Broadbent confirmed that North East Institute of Technology is on track to launch in autumn 2021 but did not say whether or not it was expecting a drop in learner number targets.

A spokesperson for the University of Lincoln, which leads the Lincolnshire IoT collaboration, said that whilst there “have been challenges due to Covid”, the Lincolnshire IoT “achieved and exceeded its recruitment target in its first year and has managed to sustain its construction programme”.

“We are looking forward to another positive year despite the challenging circumstances created by the pandemic,” they added.

The two other universities that are leading on the remaining IoTs – University of Exeter, University of Lincoln and Queen Mary University of London – could not provide comments at the time of going to press.

Plans are afoot to revive the level 2 business administration apprenticeship under a new name, FE Week can reveal.

A group, led by representatives in local councils and the health sector, last week held an online meeting with around 100 different employers, such as police forces and charities, to sound out support for the bid.

Working with the tentative title of “Organisational Support Assistant”, the group is in the early stages of figuring out how to design the course content differently so that it doesn’t fail where the level 2 business admin proposal did.

One option being explored is to design the new standard so that it is focused on the public sector.

The group is expected to appoint a chair by the end of this week before making plans to formally approach the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

The proposal comes as the Department for Education defends its first ever job advert for an “administration” apprentice to undertake the level 2 customer service practitioner standard – a programme which the department controversially previously said was a viable replacement to the level 2 business admin. The DfE had favoured the level 2 business admin framework before it was binned.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers welcomed the prospect of a level 2 business admin revival and believes the group has a “strong case for their proposal being treated favourably”, managing director Jane Hickie said.

The popular level 2 business admin framework was officially switched off on July 31, this year. In February, the government outright refused to replace the programme as a new apprenticeship standard, despite lobbying by more than 100 employers, including the NHS.

At the time the IfATE claimed the proposal did not meet the required length or quality of an apprenticeship standard.

The institute’s chief executive, Jennifer Coupland, told FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference one week later that signing off on the standard would “undermine” efforts to create a “well-regarded” programme.

Efforts have since been made by the government to suggest alternative standards to the level 2 business administration framework, including the existing level 3 business admin standard.

A blog post published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency in March also lauded the level 2 customer service programme as a viable alternative if the learner is not yet up to a level 3, especially for NHS trusts. This is despite the customer service standard being for jobs in “sales, marketing and procurement”, according to its specification on the IfATE’s website.

Showing that they practise what they preach, a job advert for an “administrative officer” in the DfE’s ministerial and public communications division is currently live and states the successful candidate will work towards a level 2 customer service practitioner apprenticeship.

When FE Week asked the DfE why it had chosen this apprenticeship for an administration role, a spokesperson said: “Having reviewed both the customer service level 2 and business admin level 3 apprenticeship standard, the department felt the customer service apprenticeship was more relevant with its emphasis on providing excellence of service to customers and stakeholders, and developing communication and interpersonal skills.

“We no longer offer business admin level 2 and would not have selected this apprenticeship for this vacancy, even if it had been available.”

The spokesperson later confirmed this is the first time the DfE has ever recruited an apprentice on to the level 2 customer service programme, even though the standard has been approved for delivery since July 2016.

When asked if the IfATE had any issues with the DfE appearing to substitute the level 2 business admin framework with the customer service standard, a spokesperson for the institute said: “It is down to individual employers, including the Civil Service, to decide on which apprenticeships work best for them.”

Hickie said the customer service standard as an alternative to business admin is an “interesting development, given that we were told that one reason for the government rejecting a business administration stanadard at level 2 is that the latter wasn’t a profession or specific occupation.

“But surely the same applies to customer service, so why can’t we have both?”

She added: “Both private and public sector employers have made it clear that they wanted a level 2 standard as part of an employer-driven skills system and yet the employer voice has been rebuffed despite them using business administration to offer young people the first step on to the ladder of opportunity.”

Tom Bewick, chief executive of Federation of Awarding Bodies, said: “The reluctance by government to embrace an entry-level apprenticeship role like business administration is getting more Kafka-esque by the day.

“Ministers can’t keep on banging on about how they want employers in the driving seat of a demand-led skills system; and then at the same time turn major employers down when they make a reasonable request for a level 2 business administration standard.”

A competition to create the next wave of Institutes of Technology has been launched by the education secretary Gavin Williamson today.

Bids are now being invited to open a further eight IoTs, backed with £120 million. The deadline for applications is 14 December 2020.

The decision to open up a further eight was announced at the Conservative party conference last year after FE Week revealed geographical issues with the first 12 IoTs as there were none planned for the north west and the east of England.

The additional institutes will ensure that “every area of the county has access to one”, Williamson said today.

Bids will only be open to regions of the country without an IoT, including the north west, midlands, east of England and parts of the south east.

Williamson said: “I’m thrilled to launch the competition to find the next wave of Institutes of Technology, which will play such an important role in levelling up skills and opportunity across the country.

“Institutes of Technology are the pinnacle in higher technical education. By bringing together Further Education colleges, universities and businesses we can make sure more people can get the skills they need to secure rewarding careers, and employers can get the talented workforce they need to grow.

“The expertise Institutes of Technology will help to deliver in vital sectors, including digital, construction and engineering, will be even more important as we build back better after the pandemic. I’d encourage any providers interested to apply.”

IoTs are a collaboration between colleges, universities and employers, and specialise in delivering higher level technical training at level 4 and 5 in STEM subjects, including digital, advanced manufacturing and engineering.

A ‘wave two prospectus’ published by the Department for Education earlier this year said all applications must meet the “strict minimum conditions” set out in wave one and be a collaboration involving further education, higher education and employer partners.

The prospectus does not detail the exact criteria, but the first IoTs had to involve colleges with at least a grade two from Ofsted and have ‘good’ financial health.

Training providers have been given less than three weeks to bid in the government’s much-anticipated tender for 19 to 24 traineeship funding.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency yesterday launched an “accelerated” bidding process worth an initial £65 million to expand the provider-base for adult traineeships.

A deadline of 28 October has been set for applications. The ESFA intends to award contracts in January 2021.

The initial funding period will be from 1 February until 31 July 2021 – the deadline chancellor Rishi Sunak has set for tripling the number of traineeships to help boost the economy after Covid-19.

The ESFA’s tender documents, seen by FE Week, state that the total funding to be allocated to successful contractors for the initial period will be £65 million across nine regions in England (see table below).

This funding is expected to deliver “a total of circa 20,000 traineeship starts by eligible learners between 1 February 2021 and 31 July 2021”.

The total procurement has contracts worth £233.5 million up until 31 July 2023, and there will be options to extend the funding up to £380.5 million.

The ESFA said this will be a “very competitive exercise” and so to mitigate significant oversubscription and “speculative” bidding, the agency has set tender caps that “take into account the experience and potential capacity of potential contractors”.

Caps will be set at £1 million for brand new providers, £2 million for current subcontractors, and £3 million for existing providers.

In order for their bid to be successful, potential contractors will need to “demonstrate how they can quickly establish strong relationships with employers, Jobcentres, the National Careers Service, Local Enterprise Partnerships and other local partners to recruit learners, including through referrals from Jobcentres, and to tailor the traineeship programme to real-time needs of the Learner and local labour market”.

The procurement was supposed to run over the summer but was delayed owing to a “significant amount of due diligence” that needed to be taken, the ESFA previously said.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief policy officer Simon Ashworth said: “The delay and short procurement window are frustrating, but the ESFA has probably struck the right balance between the total initial awards and holding funding back for existing contractors and new entrants who perform well during the 30-month period.

“As the agency says, the ITT is going to be very competitive and so it should definitely be looking at the track record of providers and colleges in delivering traineeships, apprenticeships and AEB before choosing the winning bids.”   

The ESFA said it is using an “accelerated timetable” for this procurement to support Sunak’s Plan for Jobs. The agency’s previous adult education budget tender, launched in January 2017, had a deadline of a month.

Other AEB tenders, such as the devolved procurement run by the Greater London Authority in 2018, had a two-month deadline.

Initial funding period budgets for each of the nine regions in England

A former technical qualifications director at the exams watchdog has signalled intention to establish another end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) membership body.

Phil Beach, who left Ofqual last month to become chief executive of the Energy and Utility Skills Group – which itself is an EPAO, is sounding out interest for a group “run by EPAOs for EPAOs”.

In an email sent to all apprenticeship assessment organisations yesterday, seen by FE Week, Beach says an EPAO-led forum where “we share areas of common interest, best practice or develop a common voice on the issues we face” is the “missing piece” of the EPAO “jigsaw”.

With a working title of the ‘Association of Apprenticeship Assessment Organisations (AAAO)’, Beach adds that his “initial aim” would be to establish a no-cost organisation with membership open to all EPAOs. If the group achieves “critical mass” it could “provide us with the opportunity to engage at senior levels across government agencies”.

On the face of it the group would inevitably rival existing membership organisations that are the currently voice of the majority of EPAOs, such as the Federation of Awarding Bodies.

But speaking to FE Week, Beach said it is “absolutely not my intent” to cut across other bodies such as FAB.

“What I want to establish, as part of my understanding and journey in this new role, is the degree to which there is any appetite for a relatively informal gathering of EPAOs as we all face our journey together,” he added.

“It is a really early scoping email to see what the appetite is.”

EPAOs have been established ever since apprenticeship standards were introduced in 2014, which replaced the old-style frameworks and now include an end-point assessment.

An independent organisation must be involved in the end-point assessment of each apprentice so that “all apprentices following the same standard are assessed consistently”, according to rules set by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

There are currently 306 EPAOs, according the ESFA’s regsiter of EPAOs at the time of going to press.

Before joining the Energy and Utility Skills Group – a membership body for the utility workforce – Beach worked for four years as the executive director for vocational and technical qualifications at Ofqual.

The regulator will soon become the external quality assurance body for nearly all EPAOs, requiring all assessment organisations to gain Ofqual “recognition”.

In his capacity at Ofqual, Beach designed, developed and delivered Ofqual’s approach to external quality assurance. 

His email to EPAOs said: “Having worked in Ofqual, and now operating as the chief executive of an EPAO, I think there is a piece of the jigsaw missing.

“I think we lack an EPAO-led forum where we share areas of common interest, best practice or develop a common voice on the issues we face.

“Of course, some membership organisations have apprenticeship working groups as part of their wider offer. And the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and Ofqual will sometimes convene EPAO meetings. But that doesn’t feel the same as a group run by EPAOs for EPAOs.”

Beach has asked EPAOs for an “indication of whether your organisation would be willing to participate” and if he gathers enough interest, he will “pull together a meeting to discuss terms of reference and the like”.

“Ideally, I would like to make early inroads, recognising that Ofqual recognition is just around the corner for some,” he added.