The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has today launched a new apprentice satisfaction survey.

It comes a week after the Department for Education scrapped this year’s FE Choices learner satisfaction survey, which included apprentices, on the basis to do so would “reduce the impact and burden on the public during this [coronavirus] crisis”.

The IfATE’s online survey will be run by its panel of apprentices, which has recently recruited 20 new members.

Questions will focus on the duration and quality of training apprentices across the country are receiving as well as their end-point assessment experience.

They will also be asked for the average percentage of their working hours spent doing off-the-job training.

It will also ask apprentices for comments on the impact that Covid-19 is having on their learning.

Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the IfATE, said: “I’m delighted that this new survey will help us to gather more information and feedback from apprentices than we have ever done before.”

She added that she would like to “welcome” the institute’s new apprentice panel members, who have joined six existing members staying on for a second year.

“They will play an important role in providing the institute, along with employers who help us develop new apprenticeships, with invaluable insight into the experiences of the people who matter most – the apprentices themselves,” Coupland said.

“This is more important than ever in these challenging times.”

The institute said each apprentice panel member has been tasked with supporting “apprenticeship standards related to their own apprenticeship, grouped into different ‘occupational routes’”.

They report to institute-run groups of employers who make decisions over the future of apprenticeships, known as “route panels”, as well as the IfATE’s board.

The apprentice satisfaction survey will close on 29 May. It can be viewed here:  https://www.cognitoforms.com/InstituteForApprenticeships1/apprenticeshippanelsurvey.

The members of the IfATE’s panel of apprentices:

Amber Storey, Historic Environment Advice Assistant (level 4)

Joel Roach, Chartered Manager Degree (level 6)

Saarah Zaman, HR Consultant (level 5)

Luke Grayston, Joiner (level 2)

Jade Jones, Digital Marketer (level 4)

Jamilah Simpson, (former) Digital Marketer (level 3)

Marcus Kaye, Data Analyst (level 4)

Ekansh Sharma, Digital and technology solutions (level 6)

Amelia Russell, Business Administrator (Level 3)

Dillon Jones, Installation Electrician/ Maintenance Electrician (Level 3)

Raisa Matadar, Engineering Technician (Level 3)

Zuza Wnekowska, Aerospace engineer (level 6)

Louis Curtis, Mineral Products Technology Higher Apprenticeship (Level 5)

Leon Jacobs, Manufacturing Engineer (level 6)

Kat Pricos, Food Industry Technical Degree (Level 6)

Benjamin McKenna, Science Electrical Engineering Technician (level 5)

John Alfred, Hair Professional (Level 2)

Jacqueline Kankam-Hoppe, Advanced and Creative Hair Professional (Level 3)

Nikki Greaves, Laboratory scientist (Level 5)

Sam Davies, Laboratory Technician (Level 3)

Angela Hogg, Digital Technology Solutions Specialist (Level 6)

Samantha Ross, Solicitor (Level 7)

Ricardo Costa, Commercial Procurement and Supply (Level 4)

Molly Parnham, Junior Management Consultant (level 4)

David John, Bus and Coach engineering technician (Level 3)

Joel Shevlin, Transport Planning Technician (level 3)

 

The deadline for providers to submit bids for supplier relief from the Education and Skills Funding Agency has been extended.

The application process launched last Friday and the closing date had been set for today, but this has now been changed to midnight on Sunday 3 May.

We have extended the deadline to submit applications to the Provider Relief Scheme. Eligible providers now have until midnight Sunday 3 May to request support.

We have done this as a result of feedback from training providers and look forward to receiving your applications.

— ESFA (@ESFAgov) April 30, 2020

Our full story on who is eligible for the financial support can be read here.

The Department for Education appears to have backtracked on a decision to scrap monthly apprenticeship data releases by now committing to “replace” and “repurpose” them.

In a controversial announcement on Tuesday described by one sector leader as “staggering”, the department said it would “cancel all in year further education and apprenticeship releases” from May until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic. They added that they would still publish the end of year releases normally in November.

But in their apprenticeship stats to include the month of February published this morning, the DfE said it would now be “replacing the remaining in-year dates” to “enable us to provide release(s) with more relevant information to cover the period affected by the pandemic”.

They “intend to make headline statistics” such as apprenticeship starts available on a “regular basis, and to similar timescales to those currently, but we intend to repurpose our releases to focus on the most relevant information available”.

The publication explained that the current releases and measures “may now provide very little value and/or may be misleading given how the pandemic will have impacted on both apprenticeship training and provider reporting from March”.

“While collections remain open we have no way to quantify how robust any reporting by providers will be during the period affected by the pandemic,” it said.

“Where there are updates they may well be small corrections to pre lockdown periods. Therefore, given the expected large drop in starts from March, comparing a participation measure in say the third quarter of 2019/20 to this point in 2018/19 would offer no meaningful insight to activity in the third quarter.”

It continued: “While we expect to include some headline summary we wish to repurpose our releases to focus on the most useful and relevant measures and comparisons.

“We are therefore consulting users on this and seek your feedback on key data needs in terms of the regularity of data needed and also the type of breakdowns users would find most useful, e.g. similar to those we currently publish such national apprenticeship starts by age, level and individual framework/standard etc, so we can consider going forward and in light of continued data quality assessments.”

The apparent U-turn will be welcomed by many in the sector, including Mark Dawe, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, who described the DfE’s original decision as “staggering”.

Labour’s new apprenticeships and skills minister Toby Perkins said earlier this week that scrapping the monthly releases would be “alarming”.

Following today’s announcement, he tweeted: “I very much welcome DfE’s decision to reverse their previous edict about not publishing apprenticeship data.

“Hiding data that points to problems is no way to tackle them, and glad that government have realised that.”

I very much welcome @educationgovuk decision to reverse their previous edict about not publishing apprenticeship data.
Hiding data that points to problems is no way to tackle them, and glad that Government have realised that. https://t.co/xDlDSqKhZ4

— Toby Perkins (@tobyperkinsmp) April 30, 2020

Government plans to axe the controversial MBA qualification from the level 7 senior leader apprenticeship have been put on hold.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has revealed the move will not happen until at least November, possibly even 2021.

It was set for the chop after education secretary Gavin Williamson requested a review of the popular programme, worth up to £18,000 per apprentice, as he was “unconvinced” it provides value for money.

A revised level 7 senior leader standard that excludes the MBA was drawn up by its trailblazer group earlier this month and has been consulted on.

But in a blog post this week, the IfATE’s senior relationships manager for standards development, Sally Timmins, said that due to Covid-19, they have agreed an “update to the envisaged development timeline to project when the revised apprenticeship standard could be approved for delivery if it got through the institute’s approval process without any problems”.

“We have agreed separate submission dates for the standard and the end-point assessment plan/costings which now means a final approval date of end November/early December,” she added.

“Consideration will also need to be given as to whether a notice period needs to be given between its approval and final implementation.”

As previously reported, the IfATE ordered the trailblazer group of the level 7 senior leader apprenticeship to remove the MBA from programme as it would no longer “meet the intent of our policy on mandated qualifications”.

However, the institute has since confirmed to FE Week that providers would still be allowed to offer the MBA as a non-mandatory qualification, though costs for qualification registration, certification and any training not directly related to the standard would not be fundable from the levy.

An employer could choose to pay these costs out of their own pocket to enable their apprentice to acquire the qualification in addition to passing the apprenticeship via the end-point assessment.

FE Week has spoken to a number of universities that have said they intend to continue offering the MBA in the apprenticeship after it is scrapped as a mandatory qualification.

The IfATE previously told FE Week that as the changes to the occupational standard and end-point assessment plan are likely to be significant, they expect to change the funding band, which currently sits at £18,000.

The level 7 senior leader apprenticeship has proven extremely popular since its launch in February 2018. FE Week analysis shows it had 6,387 starts on the programme up to the first quarter of 2019-20, worth up to £115 million.

Apprenticeship starts for the month of February 2020 fell 11 per cent on the previous year, figures published this morning show (see below).

The statisticians at the Department for Education said: “Apprenticeship starts reported to date have decreased to 198,600 from 214,200 in the first two quarters of 2018/19, a decrease of 7.3 per cent.”

They go on to say that of the 198,600 starts in the first half of this academic year, 64.9 per cent (128,900) were on the apprenticeship digital system and 74.3 per cent (147,600 starts) were on standards.

Reaction to the latest figures:

Gillian Keegan, minister for apprenticeships and skills, told FE Week: “The reforms introduced in 2017 mean apprenticeships are longer, more rigorous, and quality assessed by independent organisations. This has resulted in a slight decline in the number of starts, but we will continue to prioritise quality over quantity.

“While the impact of the coronavirus is still becoming clear, we are supporting employers, apprentices and training providers during this challenging time so people can continue to access high-quality apprenticeship opportunities. Apprenticeships are a valuable route into good quality employment and will play a vital role in securing our economic recovery, post-coronavirus.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “These pre-pandemic figures are bad enough which is why the government should be getting round the table with us to discuss how covid-19 provider support measures should apply to all apprenticeships and not just to those offered by SMEs.

“New apprenticeship starts are falling off a cliff and the more time the government vacillates over the covid-19 guidance, the worse it’s going to get. Furthermore we must get full transparency in terms of publishing the starts data over the coming months because the statement the DfE made about this earlier this week was very alarming.”

Providers that failed to meet the minimum standard for apprenticeship achievement rates last year will be informed next week of the government’s “action to challenge this situation”.

With a minimum standard threshold of 62 per cent for apprenticeships, the move is expected to impact on several hundred providers after the sector average rate fell 2.2 percentage points to just 64.7 per cent.

Action for failing to meet the minimum standard can be as severe as contract termination, according to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s “oversight of independent training providers” operational guidance.

The ESFA said in an update today that they have now “reviewed” providers’ data published in the national achievement rates tables (NARTs) for 2018/19.

Where a provider did not meet the minimum standard achievement for “all-age apprenticeship provision”, the agency “will be writing to all providers from next week on our proposed action”.

The update added that the position on minimum standards is to “continue to be rigorous in driving up the quality of apprenticeship delivery”.

Providers have to have more than 40 per cent of their cohort on frameworks and standards above the 62 per cent to achieve the minimum standard.

The ESFA’s minimum standards policy states: “The apprenticeship tolerance level will remain at 40 per cent in 2018 to 2019.

“To calculate the tolerance we will calculate how many of the apprenticeships delivered by a provider are below the minimum standards threshold; if the QAR for an apprenticeship is below the 62 per cent threshold, we classify that apprenticeship as falling below the minimum standard.

“We will then calculate if this is more than 40 per cent of the total cohort for apprenticeships, if so the provider will be in scope for intervention.”

It means that even if a provider’s overall achievement rate was above 62 per cent, they could still fail the minimum standard.

The published NARTs list the overall apprenticeship achievement rates for providers with cohorts of at least 30, and shows 215 out of 737 (29 per cent) with an achievement rate below 62 per cent, failing the threshold but not necessarily failing the minimum standard.

The ESFA’s policy document reminds providers that “poor or declining education performance data can lead to escalating intervention action and we will act early in the best interests of students, apprentices and the public purse”.

It adds that where the underperforming provision “exceeds the tolerance level but the cohort is small and it is predominately new or immature provision that is below the minimum standards threshold, we will take this into account when deciding whether to take intervention action or what intervention action to take”.

Any provider in this position is “expected” to “set quality improvement targets for the poor provision as a priority”.

The agency’s operational guidance warns that where independent training providers fail on minimum standards, they can “expect to have their contracts terminated early, subject to protecting the interests of learners”.

It adds, however, that “where we have evidence that learners’ interests would be best served by maintaining the contract we will only do so under strict conditions with rigorous monitoring, and we will seek to terminate the contract immediately if the provider fails to improve”.

And “failure to comply with additional contractual obligations and/or remedy a serious breach may also lead to early termination of the contract”.

In an FE Week webcast on Monday, apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan expressed concern at historic “low quality” apprenticeships delivery.

She said: “I was quite shocked at some of the lower quality delivery that happened in the first stages of the levy being introduced and I never want to go back to those days…I’ve met people on the doorstep who’ve actually said to me this is a load of old rubbish. We have to make sure that every apprenticeship is quality.”

The education secretary today dodged an MP’s question about his department’s delay in launching supplier relief support for training providers.

On 20 March, the Cabinet Office published a policy notice that allowed payment in advance of delivery on publicly funded contracts up to 30 June owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayoral combined authorities were quick off the mark in letting their training providers know how they would comply with the notice, but it took the Department for Education more than a month, until 24 April, to launch applications for support.

During an education select committee hearing primarily focussed on vulnerable children this morning, the first question on FE was from Ian Mearns MP who asked education secretary Gavin Williamson: “Why didn’t the DfE immediately comply with the Cabinet Office guidance and announce support for those providers with an ESFA contract? Why wasn’t this support package automatically done?”

Williamson offered a blunt response: “We always comply with Cabinet Office guidance and we always will do.”

Mearns pressed back the that “implication” is that the DfE “hasn’t done so on this occasion so I would ask you to look at that please”.

On Monday, apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan joined an FE Week webcast to answer questions on the same topic and described the difficulty in figuring out with Treasury which parts of the FE sector could benefit from the support (click here for full story).

Williamson went on in today’s hearing to state that apprenticeships will play a “really important part” of the country’s economic recovery from coronavirus.

He said his department has taken a “whole number of actions in terms of increasing the flexibilities so people can continue their apprenticeships” and quoted the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ survey that found over 81 per cent of apprentices are “continuing [training] as we speak”.

“What we have been looking through the ESFA is how we support some of those apprenticeship providers who aren’t able to continue to deliver apprenticeships either through online learning or being able to access those apprentices in those critical areas where we are needing to preserve that high quality, how we can put a package there to support those providers and making sure we have a sustainable future in apprenticeships,” he added.

Applications for supplier relief need to be submitted to the ESFA by the end of this Thursday and cover procured adult education budget funding contracts and non-levy apprenticeship allocations.

Any potential ESFA supplier relief for providers of European Social Funding is still being considered.

Williamson was also questioned today on the DfE’s new ‘Skills Toolkit’. He confirmed this new “platform” was created through “existing resources that we corralled together” to help train adults’ digital and numeracy skills who are currently not in work.

He was also asked why the DfE was ploughing ahead with the launch of T-levels in September considering the disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, to which he said the new qualifications are “one of the most important tasks that this government has”.

“I want to see that happen, I want to make that happen,” he added.

Williamson also touched on the Augar review and said the DfE’s response to it has been pushed back with the spending review.

And on the upcoming white paper and FE Bill, the education secretary said it has the possibility of being “revolutionary” for the sector and is currently being worked on by a task force led by the DfE’s new director of post-16 strategy, Keith Smith.