Exam boards to investigate claims of ‘bias’ in teacher-assessed grades

Exam boards will be expected to investigate claims from students that schools and colleges have not shown “care or integrity” in stamping out “bias” in teacher-assessed grades.

In updated draft guidance on appeals for exam boards, Ofqual said while they expect such allegations to be rare, it is an “important safeguard” for pupils in this year’s grading arrangements.

A consultation has been launched on new guidance today which sets out the information exam boards must provide schools considering an appeal, and the circumstances an appeal may be allowed because the “wrong data” was used.

 

1. Allegations of ‘bias’ in teacher-assessed grades to be investigated

Ofqual has, again, ruled out allowing individual students to challenge their teacher-assessed grades, as an appeal would have to be undertaken by “someone better placed than the student’s teachers to judge their likely grade if exams had taken place”.

“In the unique circumstances of this summer, we do not believe there is any such person,” Ofqual said.

However, the regulator said students who have concerns about “bias, discrimination or any other factor that suggests that a centre did not behave with care or integrity” when issuing teacher-assessed grades can complain to the school or college.

Where there is “evidence of serious malpractice”, Ofqual says it “may be appropriate to bring those concerns directly to the exam board in the first instance”.

“Where there is evidence, we require exam boards to investigate allegations as potential malpractice or maladministration. We expect such allegations to be rare, but this is an important safeguard for students and their overall confidence in this year’s grading arrangements.”

 

2. Student appeals guide to be published, and helpline set up

As part of the above, Ofqual has also committed to publishing a guide for students that sets out how their grades were calculated this year and the options available if they believe their result was not properly produced.

This will include “expectations about who can support students in understanding both the options available to them if they wish to query their result and how to access those routes”.

Ofqual has said this will be published by the end of July, before results days in August.

Sally Collier, chief regulator for Ofqual, said they are “committed to helping students and their families understand how to access an appeal or make a complaint about bias, discrimination, or another concern.

“We will provide accessible information and have a helpline available to students and their parents or carers to talk about the appeals process and any other questions they may have about their results this summer.”

 

3. No specific appeal route because of ‘significant demographical change’

Ofqual had promised to look into whether allowing an appeal where a school or college could show “significant demographical changes in its cohort to justify changes in how the standardisation process was applied to its students”.

The regulator justified this by analysis that found such circumstances were “exceptional” cases, as the “magnitude of change that would be required to affect calculation of results would need to be great”.

The guidance said such circumstances may include a school or college becoming single-sex, or having put in place an “accelerated learning programme for very able learners other than in year 11 or 13” who are for the first time entering qualifications.

Another case could be where teaching and learning for 2018 or 2019 was “significantly disrupted” due to “one or more extraordinary or momentous incidents or events”.

However – and importantly – Ofqual has said should this be the case, schools and colleges can use the “wrong data” grounds to appeal.

But Ofqual said appeals should not be made on the basis of inspection reports, curriculum choices or mock exams – it must relate to evidence that “something happened” to either the 2020, or an earlier, cohort that “may not be comparable with previous years”.

 

4. So what grounds can schools and colleges appeal on?

Ofqual has already said schools and colleges can appeal only on procedural grounds: the basis that the “wrong date was used to calculate results”, or where there was an administrative error.

The wrong data includes where a school or college has provided incorrected teacher-assessed grades or rank order information, where the exam board has used the incorrect data for its standardisation process, or where the exam board has “introduced an error” into the data.

For appeals based on the school or college making a mistake when submitting information, it will be on the school or college to evidence this.

Ofqual said: “We expect that any mistakes will be quickly found and corrected.”

 

5. Exam boards can provide further info to help centres decide on appeals

Ofqual said that, in “appropriate” cases, exam boards can disclose further information to schools and colleges to help them decide whether to appeal a grade.

The regulator said “sufficient information” would include the centre-assessment grades and rank order, the school’s or college’s historical results and the relevant prior attainment data used by the exam boards for its standardisation.

Exam boards must have arrangements in place to provide this information if requested by schools and colleges.

It’s also up to schools and colleges whether to disclose this information to the student whose grade may be appealed.

Information about teacher-assessed grades and rank orders are not allowed to be shared with pupils or parents amid concerns they “may try to exploit” the system. But the draft guidance states disclosure of such information from exam boards “at this stage will not represent a breach of confidentiality … because it will take place after results have been issued”.

GCSE and A-level autumn series grades to be based only on exams, Ofqual confirms

Student grades in this year’s autumn exam series will be based on their performance in the tests alone, not on any non-exam assessment, Ofqual has confirmed.

The exams regulator has published its decisions following a consultation on the autumn series, which will allow learners who are not happy with their summer calculated grades to sit an actual exam. 

Ofqual has also confirmed that exam boards must make exams available in all GCSE, AS and A-level subjects. However, exam boards will be allowed to withdraw an exam if there have been no entries by the closing date. 

Exam boards must also issue replacement certificates for the summer results if students request them, and boards must adopt the normal arrangements for reviews of marking and appeals.

The majority of the proposals set out in the consultation document, published in May, have been implemented. AS and A level exams are expected to be held in October, with GCSEs in November, but exact timings are to be confirmed in “due course”.

Ofqual said it had “listened carefully” to responses about what the grades should be based on, including arguments about the role non-exam assessment (NEA) plays in assessing aspects of a subject’s content that cannot be assessed by exam. 

Overall, 46 per cent of respondents agreed with the proposal, while 39 per cent disagreed citing concerns including the “de-motivating” effect on students if work they had completed before school and college closures was disregarded. 

There were also concerns about the possible impact of removing NEA for some students, including those with special educational needs.

Research published today by Ofqual, which appears to underpin its decision, claims there is “little evidence” coursework has any impact on outcomes for students of different socio-economic statuses, or those with special education needs.

This study includes data from six academic years between 2004 and 2017 and, within those years, it focused on specifications in five different subject areas.

“While it would be desirable for the autumn series to include NEA, on balance we believe the issues of manageability and fairness raised with us could further disadvantage some students and that it is not in students’ best interests overall,” Ofqual said.

The only exception would be for art and design qualifications, where a new “task”, which is technically an NEA, would be set.

The Association of School and College leaders has expressed concerns about how schools and colleges will be able to accommodate and manage a full suite of autumn exams alongside bringing all students back in September.

Geoff Barton, ASCL’s general secretary, said: “We had argued for the autumn series to be restricted to A-levels, and GCSE English and maths.

“However, we understand the pressure on the government and Ofqual to provide the option of a full suite of exams in the event that pupils and parents are unhappy with centre-assessed grades in August.

“We would reassure pupils and parents that the process for centre-assessed grades is robust. These qualifications will be every bit as valid as in any other year and will allow young people to progress to the next stage of the lives without hinderance, and without the need to use the autumn series.” 

Ofqual said it understood the “logistical challenges” schools and colleges will face this autumn, and will continue in-sector talks.  

It added that the Department for Education is exploring ways to minimise additional burdens on schools and colleges.

Profile: Sarah Stannard

FE Week meets a principal with a history of bravely sailing against prevailing winds. Is her ship about to come in?

Sarah Stannard learnt resilience young. The principal of City College Southampton, who cut her teeth in the business world before moving into leadership in FE, was brought up by a Navy man and strikes you as the sort of person you’d want to be stuck with on a boat in stormy weather.

Her father’s job meant she, her mother and sister moved around often when she was young, from Hampshire to Wales and Kent, attending comprehensives, grammar schools, sixth forms and sixth form colleges. It had two impacts on her outlook: First, experiencing different kinds of schools meant Stannard, who was herself academically capable, realised “an academic education is not right for everyone” and being helped towards a fulfilling career trumps top exam results. Second, she became a roll-your-sleeves-up kind of person. “What it taught me was to be pretty resilient. I reflect now that I’m not too bothered by change. We just got on with it.”

It’s a trait Stannard has needed, as any education leader does. But she has particularly interesting circumstances for leadership: last year, the Education and Skills Funding Agency told her that City College Southampton, which she has led since 2013, received the highest subsidy for free school meal students in England because of the very high level of disadvantaged learners on roll. The college is also in the top 10 per cent for students who arrive needing to retake English and math GCSEs. Meanwhile the challenges of recruiting to coastal colleges are well-documented, and parts of Southampton rank among the most deprived in the country.

Actually, FE does an OK job of thinking into the future

For her first principalship and second FE college, it was already a tough outlook. Yet in the past six years, Stannard has also weathered two ‘requires improvement’ Ofsted grades (with reasonable progress noted at last year’s monitoring inspection) and put forward proposals for two college mergers, both which were rejected by the Department for Education. She’s now onto her third merger, and is staunchly hopeful. When I ask her future plans for the college, she replies determinedly: “To get this done.”

The younger Stannard completed her secondary education at grammar school and won a place to read history at King’s College London. The first person in her family to attend university, she was determined to build a solid career and landed a graduate scheme place with Abbott Laboratories, a US pharmaceutical company with a Kent branch. Later she moved to another huge global US company, Kraft Foods, which specialised in coffee, chocolate and cheese, working with brands such as Kenco from their Cheltenham branch.

The company’s investment in staff development has stayed with her. “I’ve got files from the training courses sitting in my cupboard and I still go back to them occasionally, as they were really high quality!” Kraft was also the first place Stannard encountered apprentices, who were trained at nearby Banbury College. “I got to see apprentices from the employer’s point of view, and I could see it was a great way of bringing them into the company. It was about people coming in at entry level and developing them.” Stannard was placed on Kraft’s Top Talent scheme, but it wasn’t quite compelling enough. It would soon become clear that a passion for developing others would eventually take Stannard out of the business world altogether.

She continued as a senior management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and then IBM until 2006 and simultaneously volunteered for 15 years with the Tall Ships Youth Trust. As watch leader, she was responsible for 16- to 24-year-olds for a fortnight at sea, many of whom were from disadvantaged backgrounds and had never set foot abroad. “It was brilliant. I think I learned a huge amount about how quickly people can change. You saw people blossom in two weeks. I also learned a lot about leading a team. People ask me, what was your most important people management learning moment? For me it was that.” Stannard seems to have gained nerves of steel, as she’s sailed in the famous Bay of Biscay race amid force 10 gales.

Her first role in FE was a very senior job, as vice principal responsible for business development at Chichester College. During almost seven years there, she observed that the world of business and FE are not so unaligned. “People often say to me, ‘it must have been a huge shock moving over from business’. But my standard answer is actually it wasn’t. They’re both big, complex organisations employing many people.” She also thinks FE beats itself up too much about not having a long-term strategy. “Actually business operates in some ways even more on a day-to-day basis. The meetings are all about what this quarter’s results are like. I think actually FE does an OK job of thinking into the future.”

However, there was one area that struck Stannard as in need of improvement. As someone with both a career and an employer’s perspective, she felt not enough was being done to really encourage students onto their next steps. Shortly after she joined Southampton, she was invited to the local Education Forum, comprising all the secondary schools, colleges and universities in the area. “I remember being very passionate about the fact that careers at that time was still low on schools’ priority and the Ofsted framework didn’t give much attention to it. Meanwhile, employers were still saying that students weren’t arriving work-ready.”

Stannard told the forum that “although nationally no one is very interested in this, we can do something in Southampton if we want to”. She has been vindicated since, with Ofsted announcing careers guidance in schools wasn’t working just months later and the DfE introducing a full careers strategy by 2017. “We certainly started focusing on it before it hit the national agenda. 

But the real challenge was more unexpected. The college, which was briefly graded ‘good’ in 2011, got graded ‘requires improvement’ in 2017 and again in 2018. It will have placed some pressure on Stannard and her team, who were nevertheless praised for delivering “good-quality, impartial careers advice”. There have been improved indicators since: the percentage of students completing their level 2 programmes has shot up from 83 per cent three years ago to 92 per cent in 2019, with similar rises for level 3 qualifications. But achievement rates in a minority of courses remain too low and particularly declined last year for marine apprenticeships, says Ofsted. One wonders how much the inspection outcome reflects a highly disadvantaged student body, but Stannard doesn’t complain about the ratings, except to note that “there is a selective process going on about who goes where” in terms of post-16 education in the area. “We are the most inclusive college in the city.”

I didn’t foresee that it would be so difficult

She is, however, evidently frustrated by the long delay to a goal she’s held since 2013 (and officially recommended in an area review not long afterwards), which is to merge the college in order to secure its finances and future. FE Week readers will know her first proposal for a merger, with Southampton Solent University, fell through in 2018, while a plan to join Eastleigh College collapsed at the eleventh hour in 2019 after an application for emergency funding was rejected by the ESFA. Third time tantalisingly lucky: the college is set to join Itchen Sixth Form College in August 2021, delayed only by the coronavirus. In the meantime, the college got about £2.5 million in emergency funding last year and warned it would soon run out of cash. I ask Stannard whether she expected such challenges when she joined.

“I knew when I joined that it didn’t have very much money. But I didn’t know funding was going to decline as much across the sector in the way it did.” In Southampton, the failure to merge has been all the more frustrating because there are three colleges in the city and three more on the outskirts – too many. “I didn’t foresee that it would be so difficult.”

“No, I’ve never wanted to throw the towel in,” she responds to my inevitable question. “I do ask myself the question sometimes. The frustration has been not having control over it.

“But the community in this city really deserves good education. It doesn’t matter what the name over our door is. That sense of doing the right thing by the community is what’s kept me and our staff going.”

Stannard has needed that resilience. Let’s hope the ESFA finally lets her sail this ship into harbour.

Official figures reveal 85% fall in apprenticeship vacancies

The number of vacancies on the government’s Find An Apprenticeship website plummeted by more than 80 per cent in each of the first two full months of lockdown.

“Repurposed” data published by the Department for Education on Thursday showed apprenticeship vacancy figures for the first time since they were last published in 2017.

The figures reveal that in April and May 2020, there were 2,020 and 1,850 employer vacancies for apprentices, which compares to 10,400 and 12,580 in the same months of 2019 respectively.

It comes as the government works on policy to encourage businesses to take on more apprentices as part of their Covid-19 recovery plan.

Prime minister Boris Johnson sent a letter to Commons Liaison Committee chair Sir Bernard Jenkin last week and stated: “We are looking at how we can support employers, especially small businesses, to take on new apprenticeships this year and will provide detail in due course.”

Director of apprenticeships in the Education and Skills Funding Agency, Peter Mucklow, said on Friday that discussions were underway with Treasury about what “incentives” they can give employers to take on more apprentices.

Johnson has previously said he thinks all young people should be given an apprenticeship “guarantee” following the pandemic.

It was reported by The Sun last night that chancellor Rishi Sunak could handout £3,000 to employers  for each apprentice under the age of 25 they hire.

A number of high-profile businesses have announced large-scale apprentice recruitment drives in recent weeks.

British multinational defence, security, and aerospace company BAE Systems, for example, has announced they are continuing with plans to recruit 800 apprentices – a “record” number – this year.

Yesterday, the UK’s largest independent travel agency, Hays Travel, announced plans to take on 700 apprentices nationwide.

Commentary published alongside the DfE’s vacancy data said the figures from Find An Apprenticeship represent “only a subset of the total number of vacancies available across the marketplace as a whole, as many apprenticeships are not advertised through this website”.

The department did used to publish data on apprenticeship vacancies but this stopped back in 2017.

They have begun publishing it again as part of their efforts to “repurpose our statistics and commentary to make them more relevant to the current pandemic”.

A spokesperson said as part of this, the DfE has been considering other data and intelligence that they may want to consider releasing – for example “we’ve started providing the very latest month of starts that we don’t usually do given high levels of underreporting when first submitted by providers”.

“We’re only doing this temporarily for transparency purposes and to evidence whether there is continuing activity in the apprenticeship programme in a more timely manner,” they added.

“Similarly we have decided to publish apprenticeship vacancy data at this point as we believe users will find this a useful piece of information currently, especially if in future months we start seeing signs of a recovery, which an increase in vacancies may indicate – this doesn’t mean we will return to publishing vacancies data as before, but during the affected period we believe it provides additional valuable insights for our users.”

 

Government to ‘fast track’ £200m of £1.5bn capital budget to refurbish colleges

The government is to make £200 million of its £1.5 billion college capital funding pot available from this September – a year earlier than planned, prime minister Boris Johnson has announced tonight.

The cash for repairs and upgrades to college buildings and estates was promised by chancellor Rishi Sunak in his March budget but the five-year project was supposed to start in 2021.

Johnson has now said that £200 million of the investment will be accessible this year.

It comes alongside a ten-year “rebuilding programme” for schools also announced by the prime minister tonight, which includes £560 million being made available to them this year for refurbishment.

A government spokesperson said this “fast tracked” activity will “further support the government’s wider plans to protect jobs and incomes and drive forward the country’s economic recovery from the [Covid-19] pandemic”.

Johnson said: “As we bounce back from the pandemic, it’s important we lay the foundations for a country where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, with our younger generations front and centre of this mission.  

“This major new investment will make sure our schools and colleges are fit for the future, with better facilities and brand new buildings so that every child gets a world-class education.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said this is a “good first step by the government to support colleges to be central players in the country’s recovery”.

“For colleges, they will be desperate to have the resources quickly, so I hope this is delivered through a simple formula which grants the money with minimum bureaucracy.

“That way, colleges can invest in the repairs, adaptations, equipment and crucially the digital infrastructure they need to provide a great learning experience from September.”

The government previously told FE Week that the capital fund will require colleges to match the funding with 21 per cent – so for every £1 invested by the government, “we are expecting an average 21p college contribution”.

Hughes continued: “The overall package of £1.5 billion committed in the March Budget will only be sufficient if colleges are financially healthy enough to secure commercial borrowing to extend the fund, and that is in doubt unless further revenue investment comes very soon.  

“Overall this is a very welcome announcement which will show college leaders that they are viewed by the government as a vital part of the recovery effort. They want to be, and can be with the right investment.”

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “Replacing and upgrading poor condition school and college buildings with modern, energy efficient designs will give our students and teachers the environment they deserve, and support them to maximise their potential.

“As we look forward to this September and all children returning to school, we can be assured that for years to come this country’s education system will drive opportunity and prosperity for all.”

And minister for apprenticeships and skills Gillian Keegan said: “This investment is fantastic news for colleges and means they can kick start work to refurbish their facilities and equipment from as early as this September.

“The FE sector will play a pivotal role in our economic recovery post-Covid-19, ensuring more people can gain the skills they need to get ahead. This is just the start of work to transform the FE sector including making sure students have access to high quality, fit for purpose facilities and are great places to learn.”

She added that the Department for Education will set out further details of how the £200 million college capital funding will be allocated “in due course”.

 

Exams regulator to lose their FE lead

The head of Ofqual’s vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) department is stepping down.

Phil Beach, who is currently leading the regulator’s Covid-19 response across further education providers and students for cancelled exams, will leave to become chief executive of Energy and Utility Skills – a membership body for the utility workforce – on September 21.

Ofqual said arrangements to secure his successor are being made.

Beach joined the regulator in January 2015 as the director of strategic relationships for general qualifications before becoming its executive director for vocational and technical qualifications.

“We are delighted for Phil, and wish him every success with this new opportunity,” a spokesperson for Ofqual told FE Week, adding that he has “done much to shape and improve the quality of the complex VTQs landscape”.

“Under his direction the regulation of VTQs has strengthened, as has Ofqual’s regulation of the awarding organisation market. This has, of course, been most noticeable over the recent months as he has steered us through the arrangements for awarding VTQs this spring and summer.

“Phil will continue to lead this work until he moves to his new role in September, over which period arrangements to secure his successor will progress.”

Before he joined Ofqual, Beach served in the Royal Air Force. He received an MBE in the 2000 New Year’s Honours List, a Queen’s Commendation in 2004 and a CBE in 2014.

Beach said he was “delighted to be joining Energy and Utility Skills at such an important time for the organisation and the sector”. 

 

Kate Green appointed shadow education secretary

Kate Green has been appointed as the new shadow education secretary.

The MP for Stretford and Urmston, a former chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, replaces Rebecca Long-Bailey, who was sacked on Thursday.

She has previously served as a shadow minister for disabled people, shadow minister for women and equalities and shadow minister for child poverty strategy.

Green said: “It’s a privilege to have been asked to serve as shadow education secretary.

“The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on children’s education. I look forward to working with teachers, unions, parents and councils to help ensure we get our children back in school as soon as possible.”

New employer incentives will form part of ‘apprenticeship guarantee’, claims ESFA director

The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s director for apprenticeships has revealed that discussions are underway with Treasury about what “incentives” they can give employers as part of the prime minister’s “apprenticeship guarantee” pledge.

Peter Mucklow revealed the first bit of detail of how the proposal might work during an Association of Employment and Learning Providers webinar this morning, in which he said apprenticeships are “central to the government’s view on recovery” from Covid-19.

“We are looking at what incentives can be provided including to employers to incentivise them to make more new starts available than would otherwise be the case given the current lack of confidence or indeed available funds for many employers,” he explained.

“That is something we are discussing internally and with Treasury.”

Mucklow, who was previously the ESFA’s director of further education but got moved to the apprenticeships role after Keith Smith left for the Department for Education last month, added that an apprenticeships guarantee also means ensuring “that we have sufficient budgets to meet small and medium sized enterprises ambition to recruit”.

“That is in relation to contracts but also numbers of SMEs coming forward and we have the money in the budget to meet that demand.

“Specifically, [those are] the three things we can take away from that apprenticeship guarantee statement and you might expect more to be said over the coming weeks on that.”

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

Various sector bodies, such as the AELP and the Association of Colleges, have since said that wage subsidies would have to be central to the policy to make it a reality.

Apprenticeship starts have continued to drop sharply since the outbreak of coronavirus. Data published yesterday by the Department for Education showed that from March 23 – when lockdown began – to May 31 there were 26,090 starts compared to the 50,050 reported between those months in 2019 – a fall of 47.9 per cent.

Skills minister Gillian Keegan told an FE Week webcast in April that her “biggest worry” during the Covid-19 pandemic is the “recruitment of new apprentices”.

Mucklow told today’s AELP webinar that the government is also looking “more broadly” than apprenticeships to areas such as traineeships.

“Apprenticeships depend on some things that we can’t control while we might be able to incentivise them so we are really interested in what we can do to improve and expand traineeships for example,” he said.

“I haven’t got time to say anything more on that but that could also provide some significant opportunities.”

Johnson and the chancellor Rishi Sunak are expected to announce their Covid-19 recovery strategy in the coming weeks and reports suggest skills and training will be at the heart of their plan.

 

New ESFA apprenticeships director pledges ‘collaboration, communication, and clarity’ with the sector

The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s new director for apprenticeships has pledged more “collaboration, communication, and clarity” as he bids to “strengthen relationships” with training providers.

Statements on building greater partnerships have this afternoon been published by Peter Mucklow, Association of Colleges boss David Hughes, and Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe.

They come as the government develops its recovery package following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mucklow, who took over the top apprenticeships role from Keith Smith in the ESFA last month, said that since his appointment, he has been “immensely proud of the tenacity and adaptability of our innovative provider base, employers of all sizes, apprentices, end-point assessment organisations and wider stakeholders in dealing admirably to the situation we find ourselves in”.

However, “I can see opportunities for improvement in how we work with you all,” he added.

“A great apprenticeship requires an equal contribution from employers, apprentices and providers. As we look to develop and deliver a recovery package to support employers, individuals and the economic recovery, I want to strengthen how the apprenticeships directorate works with all apprenticeship providers.”

Mucklow said he wants collaboration “to be the ‘golden thread’ that permeates through all our relationships for the benefit of apprentices and employers”.

“I want early and meaningful communication and engagement with the sector about our plans. Trusted communication is two-way and I want to focus more on bringing our providers closer together with the ESFA through greater – and more productive – partnerships on the ground.

“Finally, I want a greater clarity about the future of apprenticeships; a common understanding of the clear benefits and value that apprenticeships bring to employers, apprentices, local communities, and the economy.

“Collaboration, communication, and clarity. That’s my commitment to the sector.”

Hughes said he was “pleased” that ESFA recognises the partnerships it needs to forge with colleges and other providers.

“An apprenticeship is a complex animal, requiring joined-up action and commitment from the apprentice themselves, alongside the employer, the college or training provider and government,” he added.

“Reflecting that collaboration is important in communications and policy.”

Dawe said AELP was “delighted to have had constructive conversations with ESFA and welcomes this announcement by Peter Mucklow which offers greater collaboration, communication and clarity, as we work together on making apprenticeships a vital component of the economic recovery”.

“Having performed miracles to keep thousands of apprentices learning remotely during the lockdown, providers are now facing the challenge of keeping apprentices in employment as the furlough scheme ends and AELP knows that they will pull out all the stops in doing so,” he added.

“We also want to generate new opportunities and this means encouraging employers to look at the benefits of the programme. As Peter says, this can only happen if there is a common understanding between ESFA, AoC and AELP, working with the local provider groups, on the messages to employers, apprentices and other stakeholders such as parents and teachers.

“The pandemic has reminded us that out of adversity comes opportunity, and AELP sees this new approach from the ESFA as a fresh chapter in collaboration which should help transform the skills landscape across the country. “