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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apprenticeship starts for the whole of 2019/20 fell 18 per cent on the previous academic year, new figures show.

Provisional data published this morning by the Department for Education has revealed there were a total of 319,200 starts last year compared to 389,000 in 2018/19.

A drop was to be expected owing to impact that lockdown had on apprenticeship recruitment following the outbreak of Covid-19.

FE Week analysis shows that just one month (September) out of the 12 in 2019/20 saw starts increase on the year before.

Apprenticeships for young people aged 16 to 18 were the hardest hit overall, dropping by 22 per cent. Starts for 16 to 18s in July were down a huge 64 per cent.

Between 23 March – when lockdown hit – and 31 July 2020, there have been 58,160 apprenticeship starts, fewer than the 107,750 reported for this period at this point last year, a decrease of 46 per cent.

The DfE points out that final data will not become available until later in the year, therefore at this point it is “unclear what the true number of starts in the affected period was or if the level of reporting at this point in the year has been affected by the lockdown”.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We recognise this is a difficult time for employers, apprentices and people thinking about their next steps, but we remain committed to making sure people across the country can access high-quality apprenticeship opportunities.

“Apprenticeships will continue to play a vital role in growing our economy and as we build back better after the pandemic, making sure people get the skills they need to get ahead and businesses have the talented workforce they need.

“It is encouraging to see that even during these challenging times, employers of all sizes still recognise the value apprenticeships can bring to their businesses.”

Association of Employment and Learning Providers managing director Jane Hickie said: “The government has taken some welcome steps recently to support apprentices who have been made redundant but as the furlough scheme unwinds, we are sadly hearing of more apprentices becoming unemployed especially in sectors like hospitality.

“To help create new opportunities on the programme, ministers need to replicate the Kickstart scheme and start subsidising the wages of new young apprentices.

“They also need to do more to protect the jobs of tens of thousands of existing apprentices who can’t complete their programmes right now because of bureaucracy preventing them from being properly assessed while the covid restrictions remain.”