Labour ‘concerned’ and brand promise of an apprenticeship guarantee a ‘deception’

Labour’s shadow apprenticeships minister has branded the prime minister’s “apprenticeship guarantee” proposal a “deception”.

Toby Perkins told FE Week he was “concerned” that young people were being given “false reassurance” by Boris Johnson at a time when they are facing “a very difficult job market”.

His comments come a day after Johnson told the nation during his coronavirus briefing that young people “should be guaranteed an apprenticeship” after warning of “many, many job losses” expected from the fallout of Covid-19.

The prime minister added that young people “in particular” are at the highest risk of losing their jobs or being unable to find work so “it is going to be vital that we guarantee apprenticeships for young people”.

His comments made headlines across the national media and has divided opinion across the FE sector, with some lauding the proposal while others are sceptical about its viability.

The idea of an apprenticeship “guarantee” originally came from education select committee chair Robert Halfon who tabled it Johnson during last week’s Liaison Committee hearing.

It is not clear, however, exactly how an apprenticeship could be “guaranteed” and the government has so far stopped short of explaining how it would work or even if it is an official policy they are working on.

Perkins said: “I am very concerned that a deception is being performed here because the announcement as I understand it is that the government will fund the learning part of an apprenticeship, but we all know the most expensive part of employing an apprentice is paying their wages, and if the government aren’t offering to do that then this no way constitutes a ‘guarantee’.

“When young people who are facing potentially a very difficult job market are given false reassurance it really is most unfair. I’m calling on government be clear about what it is they are offering here and not to use words like ‘guarantee’ unless they genuinely are guaranteeing that young people will have an apprenticeship.”

The Department for Education has provided a statement in response to Johnson’s comments from yesterday, but it fails to reference the “apprenticeship guarantee”.

A spokesperson said: “Apprenticeships are an excellent way to get into a wide range of rewarding and valuable careers, and they will continue to play a vital role in delivering the high-quality skills employers need and that will support our economic recovery post Covid-19.

“We are looking at ensuring that we support employers, especially small businesses, to take on new apprentices this year and will provide further detail in due course.”

Halfon has today written for FE Week on why an apprenticeship guarantee is needed. Read it here.

Revealed: Apprenticeship training providers paid biggest slice of levy funds

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has for the first time revealed the training providers that have been paid funding from apprenticeship levy funded employers.

The data, for the 12-month 2018/19 academic year, shows Lifetime Training at the top after it was paid a whopping £51.5 million – almost double the next closest provider QA Limited on £26 million.

In third was the British Army on £21.37 million, closely followed by Babcock Training on £21.3 million, and then Kaplan Financial in fifth on £20.8 million.

The college with the largest amount of levy-funding in 2018/19 was The Sheffield College with £3.8 million – which places it in 28th place overall.

The total amount of levy funding handed out in that year was £876,390,234, shared between 1,366 training providers. The average levy funding per provider was £641,574.

Winners of the AoC Beacon Awards 2020 announced

Top colleges across the country are celebrating receiving honours in the Association of Colleges’ Beacon Awards 2019-20.

The winners and runners up are being announced via a virtual awards ceremony today after the scheduled Parliamentary reception in July had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This page will be updated throughout the day as and when each prize winner is revealed.

First up, Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education have won the British Council Award.

 

The next award to be announced goes to… Fareham College for the City and Guilds Award for College Engagement with Employers.

Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education have won again! It picks up the Edge Award for Excellence in the Practical Delivery of Technical and Professional Learning.

Next up is the Jisc Award for effective use of Digital Technology in further education… which is awarded to The Manchester College.

Barnsley College have now been announced as the winner of the NOCN Group Mental Health and Wellbeing Award.

We have now moved on to the Pears #iwill Award for Social Action and Student Engagement which goes to… EKC Group.

The next prize is awarded to Preston’s College for the RCU Support for Students Award.

We have another double-winner, The Manchester College! Its second prize of the day is the Careers and Enterprise Company Award for Innovation in Careers and Enterprise.

And that concludes the virtual ceremony for the Association of Colleges’ Beacon Awards 2019-20! 

Below is a full list of the winners and runners up.

British Council Award
Winner: Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education
Runners-up: Southern Regional College, Burton & South Derbyshire College

City and Guilds Award for College Engagement with Employers
Winner: Fareham College
Runners-up: Exeter College, Bradford College, Hugh Baird College

Edge Award for Excellence in the Practical Delivery of Technical and Professional Learning
Winner: Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education
Runners-up: London South East Colleges, Abingdon & Witney College

Jisc Award for effective use of Digital Technology in Further Education
Winner: The Manchester College
Runners-up: Bridgwater & Taunton College

NOCN Group Mental Health and Wellbeing Award
Winner: Barnsley College
Runners-up: Bridgend College, College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, Hartpury College

Pears #iwill Award for Social Action and Student Engagement
Winner: EKC Group
Runners-up: South West College

RCU Support for Students Award
Winner: Preston’s College
Runners-up: Abingdon & Witney College, Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education

The Careers and Enterprise Company Award for Innovation in Careers and Enterprise
Winner: The Manchester College
Runners-up: Cambridge Regional College, Barnsley College, Sunderland College

 

Did the Prime Minister promise an ‘apprenticeship guarantee’? This is why it is needed post Covid-19

Prime minister Boris Johnson last night told the nation that young people “should be guaranteed an apprenticeship” as part of the country’s recovery from Covid-19. Robert Halfon, who first proposed the idea, explains how this radical measure is a chance to re-establish a ladder of opportunity

 

Last week I raised with the prime minister the idea of an apprenticeship guarantee for our young people, with everyone between  16 and 25 with the right qualifications having access to an apprenticeship in a relevant business or social enterprise.

We must recognise the hugely important role that apprenticeships can play as we emerge into a post-pandemic society. It is vital that the government takes radical action to harness their benefits for the good of our economy and next generation.

The apprenticeship guarantee would be funded by the £3 billion skills budget announced in the Conservative manifesto at the general election. This money would cover the training costs of every would-be apprentice. The Department for Education must then make sure that there is a proper progression of apprenticeships from level 2 to degree level, and make sure every young person can be given that opportunity to move on.

FE Week has posed an important question about how the apprenticeship guarantee would work. I am pleased that Boris Johnson has agreed to look at the idea as a first step and it now falls on everyone with a stake in making apprenticeships a success to get together to work out how to make it happen.

It is all about putting in place the conditions for apprenticeships to flourish and I am determined that the education committee will play its part in pushing the government to act and work with businesses and training providers on a radical new approach to skills.

There needs to be an evangelisation of what apprenticeships can do, from the prime minister all the way through to every member of the government. We are lucky that the education secretary is passionate about skills and further education – and that Gillian Keegan, the skills minister, did a degree apprenticeship (the only MP to have done so).

Every day, ministers, MPs, peers and all those in authority should be talking up apprenticeships, and encouraging businesses to take apprentices on and young people to take them up. Businesses, FE colleges and training providers need more support to make this possible.

Finally, there should be a target that 50 per cent of students study degree apprenticeships in which they will earn while they learn, have no debt at the end and, unlike many graduates, be virtually guaranteed a good job.

Over the past few years it looked like we were really making progress in building an apprenticeship and skills nation. Between 2010 and 2015 more than two million apprenticeships were created – since then another 1.5 million. About 90 per cent of qualified apprentices then stay on with their employers.

Sadly, over the past year our apprenticeship dream seems to be stalling. Even before the pandemic, the number of apprenticeship starts in the first half of the last academic year had dropped by 11 per cent, with an even greater drop of 15 per cent for those aged between 16 and 19.

Last month’s report from the Sutton Trust laid bare the challenge that apprentices and businesses have faced from Covid-19. It suggested up to two-thirds of apprentices have lost out on work experience or learning, with more than a third furloughed. Eight per cent have been made redundant and 17 per cent have had off-the-job learning suspended.

The results of this survey are incredibly worrying. Not just because our skills deficit will widen – the OECD found that 40 per cent of workers in the UK are in a job for which they are not properly qualified – but, more significantly, because hundreds of thousands of young people may not have a chance to climb the jobs ladder once this awful pandemic is over.

We’ve done enough tinkering with apprenticeships, the levy clearly is here to stay and it is right that big business should contribute to the cost of training. We now need a bold grand vision, something that will really excite the nation and say to every parent that their son or daughter will have an apprenticeship, skills training and a job future-proofed for the fourth industrial revolution.

The coronavirus pandemic should be recognised as an important moment for re-establishing a ladder of opportunity. With an apprenticeship guarantee, every young person will have the chance to get the skills and training they need for a prosperous future.

 

National student photography exhibition captures life of sixth form college learners during lockdown

An online photography exhibition to showcase the life of sixth form college students during lockdown has been launched by the apprenticeships and skills minister today.

More than 140 students from 46 colleges submitted contributions to “At home”, which is being co-ordinated by the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA).

Department for Education minister Gillian Keegan said: “This has been a difficult time for the entire country but this exhibition is a wonderful example of how creativity can flourish in the face of adversity.

“It’s great to see how these sixth form students have captured the experiences of lockdown from a young person’s perspective.”

“2 metres distance” by Kate Johnson

One of the featured A-level students from Grimsby-based Franklin College, Kate Johnson, told FE Week: “I wanted to capture the way life has adapted.”

Her submission “2 metres distance” showed one of the smaller changes – not handling post directly – people have made to the way they live their lives that “seem so silly but are incredibly important to try and stop the spread of Covid-19”.

Johnson, 17, who wants to study fashion photography at university next year, said the exhibition had opened her eyes to still life and documentary style portraiture.

She added: “Art is and will always be a form of escapism and people can express their feelings through different art mediums, which I feel is even more important in a time when there isn’t much clarification.”

Emily Vivian Salomon, a 19 year-old A-level student at Franklin College whose photograph “Hands are for holding” is also being showcased, said she decided to participate to have an outlet of creativity while stuck indoors.

She added: “I’m really excited to be given the opportunity and I can’t wait to see what other people have done as well.”

Her photograph represents being “physically inside but mentally trying to escape the confines of your own home”.

“Hands are for holding” by Emily Vivian Salomon

Vivian Salomon plans to stay at the college to complete an art foundation course next year and study photography at university after that, while this experience has inspired her to produce a short film on the same theme.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the SFCA, praised the “extraordinary artistic talent” in the sector and said the national exhibition had been put on to “stimulate our thinking about the world this summer”.

He added: “If young people are to make a valuable contribution to society –  even if they are to be successful scientists, engineers, doctors and technicians – they need to develop their creative skills, their artistic sensitivities and their ability to interact with others.

“All of this will be more important than ever in the post-Covid world.”

The exhibition runs until June 19.

You can view the full exhibition here.

Nearly half all qualifications assigned new estimated grade process, new Ofqual list reveals

The results for nearly half of all vocational and technical qualifications planned for certifications this summer will be based on a grade calculated by their provider, FE Week analysis has found.

Ofqual has published a list of qualifications in scope for their “exceptional arrangements for awarding qualifications” following the cancellation of exams.

Sitting alongside an interactive search tool, the spreadsheet allows users to see which individual vocational and technical qualifications will be graded either by teacher calculation, adapted assessments, or, as a last resort, have their assessment delayed.

The list shows there are 10,461 different qualifications with expected certifications this summer, before the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Of those, FE Week analysis found that 44 per cent, or 4,567 different qualifications, will require an estimated grade.

Meanwhile, 42 per cent (4,370) could involve an “adapted assessment” such as an assessment online and 15 per cent (1,524) of the qualifications will need their exams rescheduled.

As previously reported, Ofqual has set colleges and training providers a three week “window” to provide calculated grades for vocational and technical qualifications, starting from 1 June.

You can download the full list of qualifications in scope here. Ofqual’s guidance on how to calculate grades and adapt assessment can be found here.

SPONSORED: How to move your post-16 tutorials online ready for 2020/21

With so much uncertainty and disruption to classrooms, it has been difficult to deliver key post-16 tutorials in recent months.

For many colleges and sixth forms, it’s been tricky to adapt.

Thousands of teachers had to quickly find alternative ways to deliver online lessons, whilst still trying to provide a semblance of routine for students and a support system for parents.

There have been headaches over exam cancellations, battles to keep students engaged, and questions over the value of teaching new content or simply revising prior learning during lockdown.

These challenges have also, naturally, extended to delivering our 16-19 year Study Programme tutorials for personal development, social awareness, and employability skills.

This non-qualification based learning, which is key to delivering your planned post-16 tutorials for Employability, Enrichment, and Pastoral (EEP) hours, and is crucial to underpinning your traineeships, has been very hard to achieve in recent months!

Having relied on face-to-face tutorial sessions, it has been difficult to engage remote students in areas like career development, CV presentation, employability skills, self-development, mental health and safeguarding.

But keeping on top of this learning is crucial for Study Programme students and traineeship learners.

 

Embedding online content into post-16 tutorials and traineeships

With so much disruption, sixth forms and colleges are now using this time to plan and look for online approaches to help deliver their employability and enrichment tutorials for 2020/21.

Embedding online learning material into your post-16 tutorials can really help you to:

  • Navigate any issues you may be currently facing to achieve these learning hours
  • Deliver a more blended approach to these classroom tutorials in the new academic year
  • Allow students to complete learning online between their other sessions (great for traineeships).

The Skills Network (TSN) can support you to deliver online content for your post-16 tutorials or traineeships.

The brand new online ‘Essentials’ study programme from TSN comprises 30 hours of online learning material for post-16 students, covering:

  • Social awareness
  • Employability skills
  • Career development
  • Safeguarding and Prevent
  • Mental health and well-being
  • Study skills and self-development.

This content helps to develop your learners’ employability and development for their career and life, and is mapped to the latest Ofsted framework.

 

 

How can colleges or sixth forms benefit from ‘Essentials’?

The new online Essentials programme can help you in a number of ways as you finalise your curriculum plan ahead for 2020/21:

Catch up with any learning missed during lockdown

Contact time and class sizes are likely to be limited when restrictions ease. ‘Essentials’ can be a really effective way to build-in your employability and development hours, and catch-up with key learning online.

Flexible online content for distance delivery

Essentials is trackable, self-paced and auto-marked, allowing students to complete key learning in between sessions or deliver online tutorials to them remotely (ideal for traineeship students).

Better engage your students

The content is delivered in a variety of ways such as videos, interactive templates and quizzes to also help you keep engagement high and improve student experience in this area.

Manage teaching time more effectively

Teachers’ time is stretched already, this approach allows them to save time with lesson plans and resource prep. Plus, topics like safeguarding and online safety continually updated. Essentials gives both teaching staff and students access to up-to-date online learning content and templates.

Save thousands of pounds in education costs

With 30 hours of online tutorial content for students, teachers’ time can be spent focusing on ‘stretching’ student knowledge on tutorial topics (i.e. interview preparation). You can then recover these hours and better manage overheads regarding your teaching time and timetabling.

 

Find out more

We’d love to have a conversation with you and discuss how ‘Essentials’ can benefit your tutorial delivery.

To find out more information, please click here.

Many providers are already benefiting from embedding ‘Essentials’ into their post-16 delivery.

Chloe Rendall, Assistant Principal for Quality at Askham Bryan College – “With the Essentials package, our students enjoy the online content, and staff are able to plan and deliver innovative and engaging sessions, knowing that the information is relevant and supports learning for 16-19 study programmes. This learning tool allows us to meet our subject specialist needs.”  

Adult apprentices CAN return for face-to-face contact from 15 June, says DfE

The government has confirmed that colleges and training providers can begin face-to-face contact with adult apprentices from 15 June, but reiterated that 16 to 19 apprentices should be “prioritised”.

In updated guidance published this afternoon, the Department for Education repeated their view that providers should include apprentices in their wider reopening plans alongside students on the first year of a two year 16 to 19 study programme.

They said the government supports offering face-to-face contact to any 16 to 19 apprentice, although training providers could offer this to “certain groups” such as those on the first year of an apprenticeship, those who require on-site training to help them complete their apprenticeship, or those who have upcoming “key assessment dates” and would “therefore particularly benefit from face-to-face training”.

The guidance added that although 16 to 19 apprentices should be “prioritised”, there “may be some apprenticeships that include apprentices within a classroom-based training environment that are over 19”.

Providers “can choose to allow” apprentices who are over 19 to attend, but “should continue to prioritise 16 to 19 apprentices”.

“If older apprentices attend on site delivery, the maximum number of 16 to 19 year olds attending on site at any one time must be reduced to ensure the setting remains within the overall limit.”

The guidance follows prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement last week that plans for the wider reopening of schools, colleges and providers this month are moving forward after the government’s five tests for easing lockdown measures were being met.

Wider guidance for the reopening of FE settings was published on Friday and confirmed that from the week commencing 15 June, providers can broaden the number of 16 to 19 learners attending on-site delivery.

To help reduce the coronavirus transmission risk, the guidance asks that the number of FE learners attending at any one time is limited to a quarter of those on the first year of a two year 16 to 19 study programme.

Vulnerable young people and children of critical workers, within this cohort, are to be counted within the attendance limit. However, vulnerable young people and children of critical workers outside of this cohort who might already be in full-time attendance do not count towards the attendance limit and can continue attend.

Redundancies planned at massive apprenticeships provider to government

A huge training provider that delivers hundreds of apprenticeships for the civil service is planning to make major redundancies.

Training giant QA Limited, which currently employs over 2,250 staff, is bracing itself for business to plummet following recent conversations with their clients as a result of Covid-19.

FE Week understands that hundreds of those jobs are now at risk but the company would not be drawn on a figure. It is preparing to launch a consultation on the losses in the coming weeks.

A QA spokesperson said that since the start of the pandemic, the firm has taken “extensive measures to ensure that it can continue to serve its customers and provide critical training virtually, while its training centres have been closed”. 

“Due to the severe economic recession however, it is now clear that activity in our sector will be reduced for some time and this has been confirmed in recent conversations with clients,” they added.

“As a result, the group needs to reduce costs and this will involve all areas of the business and is likely to result in a number of redundancies.”

The spokesperson said these steps will ensure that QA “weathers the current crisis well and is then able to play a key role in the economic recovery that will follow by providing skills to help businesses grow and create new jobs”.

QA is one the largest apprenticeship providers in England and one of the first to announce redundancy plans as a result of coronavirus.

It offers commercial training and apprenticeships to the technology sector and recorded a £181 million turnover in its most recently published financial accounts, for 2018.

The firm already made 90 of its staff redundant in January 2020 after taking a strategic decision to refocus its apprenticeship division to more technology focussed programmes, according to the spokesperson.

QA has 19 training centres across England and was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted following a visit in January this year when the firm had 6,500 apprentices. Around 2,700 of those were studying IT, around 2,500 on business administration and law apprenticeships, and 2,000 were on business management apprenticeships.

It is also an approved provider of apprenticeships to the Crown Commercial Service and a subcontractor to KPMG – training hundreds of apprentices for the civil service in departments such as the Cabinet Office and the Treasury. KPMG was rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in March 2020 in a report that criticised the provision offered by its subcontractors.

QA came under new leadership in September 2019 when former RBS and Direct Line Group boss Paul Geddes took over as chief executive from William Macpherson.

Macpherson retired two years after he helped strike a deal for private equity firm CVC Capital Partners to buy out QA from previous owners Bregal Investments. The deal as reportedly worth £700 million.