Chancellor announces ‘brand-new bonus for businesses to hire apprentices’

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a “brand new bonus” for employers to hire apprentices over the next six months.

From August to January, any firm that hires a new young apprentice aged 16 to 24 will receive £2,000, while those that hire new apprentices aged 25 and over will be paid £1,500.

Announcing the incentives during his summer statement, Sunak told the House of Commons: “We know apprenticeships work. Ninety one per cent stay in work or go on to further training.

“For the next six months we are going to pay employers to create new apprenticeships.

“We will pay businesses to hire young apprentices with a new payment of £2,000 per apprentice. And we will introduce a brand new bonus for businesses to hire apprentices aged 25 and over with a payment of £1,500.”

The Treasury has since published a “plan for jobs” document, which states these payments will be in addition to the existing £1,000 incentive the government already provides for new 16 to 18 year-old apprentices, and those aged under 25 with an education, health and care plan where that applies.

It means that employers could receive up to £3,000 for hiring 16 to 18 year old apprentices from August to January.

Sunak used his speech today to confirm plans for a £2 billion “kickstart” scheme, which will pay the wages of hundreds of thousands of people aged 16 to 24 who are claiming universal credit to take six-month work placements.

He also announced a £111 million investment to triple the scale of “proven” traineeships in 2020-21, an extra £32 million for the National Careers Service to provide tailored jobs advice to a quarter of a million more young people, and £17 million of funding from the adult education budget to almost triple the number of “sector-based work academy placements” next year.

And there is an extra £101 million for school and college leavers to return for a third year (full story here).

Lastly, Sunak announced plans for a job retention bonus, meaning employers who bring back workers from furlough and continuously employ them until January on at least £520-a-month would receive £1,000 for each employee kept on.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe said the chancellor “clearly understands that apprenticeships work and give real jobs to young people with high quality training”.

“The scale of the challenge means that a financial incentive was an absolute necessity to get more employers on board and we believe that today’s announcements will help achieve that aim. As he said, we can’t lose this generation of young people,” he added.

On the kickstart programme, Dawe said the “big question is will a young person on the scheme be able to start an apprenticeship on day one?

“Without this, the incentives for kickstart will wipe out new starts for apprenticeships for the 18 month duration of this very attractive offer of wage support – a very unintended consequence.”

Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said that “we need to see more of the details and vitally how this all fits together, particularly how education and skills provision are part of the package, particularly within the kickstart scheme and for adults”.

“For young people, for adults, for advisers and for employers the range of incentives are potentially bewildering,” he continued.

“We will work with colleges and with DfE and DWP to make this more coherent, so that the incentives work for the widest range of people and employers in the all circumstances.”

Hughes added that it was “disappointing that there was little for adult education today”.

“Despite the chancellor’s bonus to retain furloughed workers, we expect many to be facing redundancy in the autumn.

“For that group and unemployed adults we wanted to see a stronger package of training to help them be successful in a very different post-pandemic labour market.”

 

Extra £101m for school and college leavers to return for a third year

The government has pledged £101 million to give all 18 to 19 year olds who are struggling to find work in England the “opportunity” to study “targeted high value level 2 and 3 courses”.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the “high value courses for school and college leavers” scheme during his summer statement this afternoon.

An accompanying Treasury document said: “Government will provide £101 million for the 2020-21 academic year to give all 18 to 19 year olds in England the opportunity to study targeted high value level 2 and 3 courses when there are not employment opportunities available to them.”

FE Week has asked Treasury for further details but the Department for Education explained it will be offering school and college leavers that are at risk of becoming NEET an additional optional paid extra year in education.

A full list of qualifications available for the fund will be published in due course but it is expected to apply to A-levels in science, technology, English and maths, as well as qualifications in ICT and construction, for example.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “The one year, high value courses for school and college leavers are of particular interest to us – applied general qualifications (AGQs) will be an ideal fit for many young people, so this initiative may provide further evidence of the vital role these qualifications play, and cause the government to reflect on its future plans for AGQs.

“It will be important to address the funding reduction for 18 year old students to ensure colleges and school are not financially penalised for delivering these one year courses.”

Sunak also announced employer incentives for taking on new apprentices today, as well a £2 billion “kickstart” scheme and a £111 million boost to traineeships.

FE Commissioner tells MPs he thinks dozens of colleges could run out of cash next year

There are 30 to 40 colleges “at risk of running out of cash” following the coronavirus crisis, the FE Commissioner has said.

Richard Atkins, who has been undertaking analysis of college financial health with the Education and Skills Funding Agency throughout the pandemic, revealed the number whilst giving evidence to the education select committee this morning.

However, he said this could change and it would be “foolish” of him to provide a precise figure until he sees full financial returns, which are due on July 31.

It comes two weeks after Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes warned that total income across colleges in England could fall by £2 billion – from £7 billion to £5 billion – next year as the “enormous impact” of Covid-19 bites.

The FE Commissioner said: “I have been working closely with colleagues in the ESFA to analyse the financial health of colleges and in particular to look at their cash flow forecasts. I have a pretty good idea of what colleges are at risk of running out of cash.

“Those colleges wouldn’t necessarily need intervention. They may require more funding and they need to come forward and ask for that. We may respond to that in a number of ways.

“The first place colleges go for financial support is to their banks. If they are not able to borrow from their bank the bank of last resort would be the government, there is a fund to support colleges.”

He added that the “figure in my head” and he is “working on the assumption” that “at risk there are 30 to 40 colleges going into the next financial year”, but this may change when he sees their financial return on July 31 “where they are going to present their budget and financial outlook for next year”.

Atkins was keen to stress “how difficult for principals it is this year and finance directors”, particularly their job of putting together a costed curriculum plan which is the “engine room of any college”.

“A costed curriculum plan is where colleges need to plan for the number of students, the average class sizes, the number of staff, the costs and contributions to overheads.

“It sounds quite straightforward but in colleges with thousands of learners it is always challenging but this year with the potential of a 50 per cent drop in apprenticeship starts, unpredictable 16 to 18 numbers, with HE numbers being subject to the new 5 per cent cap, plus the commercial income that a lot of colleges have lost already, it is a complex picture for each college.”

The commissioner concluded: “At the moment 30 to 40 colleges would be of concern but until I have seen their detailed financial return it would be foolish of me to give a precise number.”

DfE scraps T-level subject after employers express ‘viability and deliverability concerns’

The rollout of T-levels has taken another slip after the government canned a subject and delayed the start of two others by a year.

Cultural, heritage and visitor attractions (CHVA) has been removed altogether by the Department for Education after the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education reported that there was “insufficient employer demand” for a new technical qualification in that field.

A spokesperson said that as well as “viability and deliverability concerns”, the T-level employer panel for the proposed subject “raised concerns that the level 3 standards in scope did not accurately reflect positions found in industry”. They also shared concerns that most organisations tend to recruit individuals with graduate or post-graduate degrees.

The IfATE added that the employers who were consulted “felt that the management and administration T-level would be well placed to develop the skills that are relevant to many occupations within the sector”.

It means the total number of T-level subjects set to be rolled out has dropped from 25 to 24.

Meanwhile, the legal and human resources T-levels, which were due to start in September 2022, have been pushed back to 2023.

A DfE spokesperson said the IfATE has assessed the bids put forward to develop these subjects but judged that “these did not meet the minimum quality standards”.

They will therefore “not be awarding contracts for these T-levels in the autumn” and the institute has “taken the decision to postpone the legal and HR T-levels until 2023″ pending a renewed procurement process.

The first three T-levels, in digital, construction and education and childcare, are due to be rolled out from September 2020 with more phased in until 2023.

Many of the providers set to deliver the first of the new qualifications, dubbed to be the “world class” technical alternative to A-levels, have either pulled out or deferred their participation in recent months.

Last week, the government unveiled a “package of support” to encourage more employers to take on T-level learners for substantial work placements of at least 315 hours – including cash incentives of up to £750 per student.

Chancellor expected to reveal sliding scale of employer cash incentives to boost apprenticeships

The chancellor is set to announce a sliding scale of cash incentives for employers to take on both young and adult apprentices in his summer statement today, FE Week understands.

Firms are expected to receive more for taking on under 25s. Rishi Sunak is due to provide the details this afternoon as he unveils his plan to tackle the anticipated largescale unemployment caused by Covid-19.

Under current Education and Skills Funding Agency rules, employers and providers already receive a £1,000 incentive each for taking on an apprentice aged 16 to 18.

Last night, the government trailed plans for a £2 billion “kickstart” scheme, which will pay the wages of hundreds of thousands of people aged 16 to 24 who are claiming universal credit to take six-month work placements.

The Treasury told FE Week it will be paid at the national minimum wage by age group for 25 hours a week, and employers able to top up pay packets.

The kickstart scheme will be open to funding applications from August 2020, and the first jobs are expected to begin in the autumn.

The Treasury said young people are more likely to be furloughed, and with a quarter of a million more people aged under 25 claiming unemployment benefits since March, they are leaving education into an “extremely difficult” jobs market.

The kickstart jobs programme will “give young people the opportunity to build their skills in the workplace, and to gain experience that will improve their chances of going on to find long-term sustainable work”, they added.

Today’s summer statement comes a week after prime minister Boris Johnsson promised to offer an “opportunity guarantee” that will give “every young person the chance of an apprenticeship or an in-work placement” to boost the economy after Covid-19.

Sunak is also expected to announce a £111 million investment to triple the scale of traineeships in 2020-21 as announced on Monday, an extra £32 million for the National Careers Service to provide tailored jobs advice to a quarter of a million more young people, and £17 million of funding from the adult education budget to almost triple the number of “sector-based work academy placements” next year.

Ahead of his speech, which is scheduled to start at around 12.30pm today, the chancellor said: “Young people bear the brunt of most economic crises, but they are at particular risk this time because they work in the sectors disproportionately hit by the pandemic.

“We also know that youth unemployment has a long-term impact on jobs and wages and we don’t want to see that happen to this generation. 

“So we’ve got a bold plan to protect, support and create jobs – a Plan for Jobs.”

 

ESFA waters down apprenticeship oversight for new providers

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has softened its policy on allowing paused providers to start recruiting again.

Since October 2018, Ofsted has conducted early monitoring visits of new training firms and any that are found making ‘insufficient progress’ are suspended from taking on new apprentices in line with ESFA rules.

Providers have been unable to recruit until they have achieved a grade of at least ‘requires improvement’ in a follow-up full inspection.

But in an update published today, the agency said the suspension can now be lifted if Ofsted has undertaken a “subsequent monitoring visit” and the training provider is “making reasonable or significant progress in all three themes”.

It comes a day after the inspectorate announced it would start conducting “visits” to FE providers from September, as well as an additional monitoring visit to new providers that have an existing ‘insufficient progress’ rating, following a pause in activity due to Covid-19.

The full inspection regime is not scheduled to fully return until January 2021.

The watered down rules will be welcomed by new providers such as Wiser Academy Ltd, which last month warned they could be forced to make redundancies as the pause in Ofsted inspections since March has prolonged their inability to recruit.

In the ESFA’s update today, it said monitoring visits may replace full inspections if the number of apprentices is “too low to sufficiently undertake a full inspection” or if Ofsted “consider it appropriate during the interim return to inspection period from September 2020”.

The agency warned that where Ofsted undertakes another monitoring visit instead of a full inspection, they will “normally remove from the register any organisation with two consecutive ‘insufficient’ progress judgements”.

Treasury’s £111m traineeship boost is a giant leap forward

The proposed tripling of traineeship starts with a £111 million boost is perhaps the brightest piece of news for skills since the pandemic began, writes mark Dawe

We may be kickstarting traineeships from a modest base, but a multiple of ten being applied to the budget for the adult cohort (18-24) is definitely a giant leap forward. AELP has always been a strong believer in the potential of the programme but the past four years has been an undoubted struggle in terms of others sharing our evangelical zeal. For those delivering, there have been hidden regulatory and performance measure barriers that have meant that the programme has bounced along the ground and never really taken off. So we might be forgiven for yelling hallelujah when the front page headline of the Telegraph popped up on Sky News on Sunday night.

The £111 million expanded budget and the proposed tripling of traineeship starts is perhaps the brightest piece of news for skills since the pandemic began and hopefully this Wednesday’s summer statement will be an important landmark for apprenticeships as part of the economic recovery effort with traineeships being just one element of a much larger commitment to skills and apprenticeships.

So why are we suddenly witnessing a Damascus moment for traineeships? Put simply, they work. Having said that, finding the hard evidence to prove it is a little tougher now.  The positive outcomes for the programme have been defined from the start in 2013 as progress onto an apprenticeship, a job or further education, but the ESFA measured success through completions of qualifications leading to a fatal disjoint and significant disincentive to those providers considering delivering the programme.  More recently, the government has referred to the first two outcomes as the principal ones, but data specifically on job outcomes is sadly no longer published.  When apprenticeship and job outcome data were published together originally, there was a very encouraging story to build on.

Last summer, FE Week reported former skills minister Anne Milton hailing a 75 per cent progression rate for traineeships based on findings from a research report for the DfE but this rate covered all three outcomes. Nonetheless the same report found that traineeships had a significant positive impact on employment of 19-23 year olds, both when considered in terms of whether individuals were in employment 12 months later, or whether they had had any employment spell within 12 months of starting. The report added that over half of trainees aged 19-23 (53.2 per cent) had worked in the 12 months since starting their traineeship, compared with 29 per cent of a matched comparison group. Finally their real impact was being recognised. When those numbers are set against the cost of Universal Credit, then a £111 million bill for 30,000 traineeships must look like peanuts to the number crunchers in the Treasury and DWP, and if this initiative is successful, we are sure that there will be further investment to follow.

AELP has almost been a lone voice in championing traineeships and partly this has been because other observers have tended to just judge their effectiveness in terms of them being a pre-apprenticeship programme whereas our members see them as a much wider solution to reducing the 771,000 young people in the NEET group.  Sometimes an individual just needs to start work, and once settled, can then progress into further training and learning.  It was therefore no surprise that the government came to us a month ago asking us to re-submit updated proposals on how to reboot the programme and we then advocated a financial incentive for employers as part of the post-pandemic response. The government has also granted another of our requests to widen learner eligibility. 

The Treasury announcement is terrific but if we want traineeships to have a sustainable long-term future, the government must adopt some of the other proposals which AELP has made. Most critically we need a responsive funding system that allows providers to identify employers willing to support the programme and ensure they have access to the funding to match this demand in a flexible manner. Many providers, who have strong relationships with thousands of employers, deliver apprenticeships and adult education programmes; they should have the opportunity to deliver traineeships as well with the success measure being the outcomes that are at the heart of the programme.

The latest data for traineeships shows a 79.4 per cent completion rate for 2018-19. We never needed rebrands or wholesale redesigns; we just needed the government to get behind the programme properly. The Treasury announcement suggests that the message has got home and AELP is delighted.

Government urged to let adults return to class before September

FE sector membership bodies have joined forces to urge the education secretary to let adults return to training before September.

In a letter to Gavin Williamson today, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, Association of Colleges and HOLEX say that adult education providers cannot see why their training offer is seen to be less safe than that offered by schools to young pupils.

They are also confused as to why they cannot continue their face-to-face training when libraries and pubs are allowed to reopen, and shopping for non-essentials is permitted.

“We would ask that you reconsider your position and allow safe opening for adult education and skills immediately,” the membership organisations ask, adding that this is particularly vital for those who are struggling with remote learning or need to complete assessments

It comes after the Department for Education revealed to FE Week last Thursday that it was considering allowing adult learners to return to college before September ahead of the full re-opening of FE providers.

Current guidance from the DfE states that colleges and training providers could reopen to more students from June 15 following country-wide closures on March 23 owing to Covid-19, but that 16 to 19-year-olds should be prioritised.

The guidance has been updated since its initial release in May to “clarify that we would not normally expect adults to be included in the cohort returning to on-site delivery from June 15”.

Today’s joint membership organisation letter states that adult education centres, independent providers and colleges have moved to online provision in a “remarkable way” but they are now “keen to open their buildings now in a safe way because they want to serve their communities and employers, and start to reskill individuals to support the economic recovery plans”.

“Providers had drafted their safety-first opening plans, developed their risk registers, ordered their signage and PPE and were ready to start to bring back those adult students who were struggling with the digital offer or needed to complete assessments,” it continues.

“Providers are keen to support the recovery programme and were encouraged by the prime minister’s comments this week about an enhanced infrastructure plan, which is now at risk, How can that plan be implemented if colleges and providers cannot train the staff needed to work on it?

“Providers have shown in the last few weeks that they can successfully open to young students and are fully aware of the risks. So they are prepared to open to adults in a safe and controlled manner.”

The letter adds that adult education providers are also “under pressure” to open from other organisations, for example, awarding bodies for assessments, the Department for Work and Penisons and Jobcentre Plus on working with the unemployed to help them back into work and from social services on providing for the socially isolated.

Adult students themselves are also “keen to return as they are worried about their job prospects and there are only certain types of leaning that can be done online”.

You can read the letter in full here.

College intervention regime resumes as AoC calls for post-Covid FE Commissioner ‘rethink’

The Association of Colleges is calling for a post-Covid-19 “rethink” of the sector’s intervention regime as the FE Commissioner resumes all “usual activity”.

Lead commissioner Richard Atkins (pictured) wrote to college bosses on June 16 to inform them that his team has recommenced its work on a virtual basis as they begin to welcome back more students following the coronavirus outbreak.

This includes intervention where there are cases causing “serious concern” to the Education and Skills Funding Agency, as well as diagnostic assessments and restarting ongoing structural reviews.

Association of Colleges deputy chief executive Julian Gravatt said there are a “small number” of colleges in “significant difficulty” so the plans of the FE commissioner to restart visits will be “helpful in some cases”.

But he added it is “clear” the intervention policy for colleges needs to change as the current regime was “designed for another time”.

He told FE Week: “What is clear though, is that the coronavirus crisis has reinforced our case that a rethink is needed about the way in which Department for Education, ESFA, the FE commissioner, Ofsted, Office for Students and other regulators oversee and work with colleges.

“The intervention policy and regime were designed for another time, and not for a sector which has been severely hit financially through no fault of its own.

“If we are to achieve the education secretary’s aim of a world class English technical education system then we need to see a sector-wide financial resilience plan in which every college can thrive educationally and be financially strong. We were a long way from that before the crisis, and now we are even further away.”

The FE Commissioner and his team paused most of their duties in March, around the same time that colleges closed to most students.

The only activity they have conducted since has been “confidential” support to any colleges struggling financially as a direct result of the pandemic.

In his letter to the sector, seen by FE Week, Atkins states that as colleges could recommence with some face-to-face provision from June 15, and are planning for full delivery in the autumn, “we will also resume our usual activity with colleges”.

“Initially we will arrange our formal meetings with college governors and leaders on a virtual basis, but I do hope that my team can begin visiting colleges again soon, albeit in a socially distanced way,” he added.

The recommencement of FE Commissioner activity comes before the restart of Ofsted inspections, which aren’t scheduled to be back fully until January 2021.

The watchdog did however announce yesterday that they will conduct “visits” to FE providers from September, but these will not be graded.

Audits are also currently paused for FE providers. The Department for Education told FE Week today that they are “reviewing our current position” on when to resume audits and “more information will be available in due course”.