A training provider with more than 2,500 learners has entered administration, FE Week has learned.

Progress to Excellence Ltd (PtE) has closed down two months after it was judged ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, leaving apprentices desperate for help to finish their course.

PtE’s financial accounts showed there were 140 employees for the year ended March 31, 2018 but it is unclear how many people the firm employed when they went bust.

Global consulting firm Duff & Phelps have been appointed as the administrators but were unavailable to comment at the time of publication.

Affected learners have taken to the comments section of FE Week’s website to complain that they received short to no notice about the closure over the last two weeks.

Many of them said they were due to complete their programmes in the coming weeks.

One adult learner said PtE “owe a lot of people an apology” while another added they were “very angry and shocked”.

A student who was hoping to finish in March also commented they had thought the course was their “way forward but [its] gone to nothing”.

Moreover, an apprentice due to complete a level 5 claimed to have been “totally left in the dark [as] to what will happen next,” having received no correspondence, and said they only found out through FE Week’s website following a report on PtE’s grade four in January.

The company confirmed at the time that it would be exiting the apprenticeship market with immediate effect, and would also be stopping to offer funding for courses via advanced learner loans.

Katy Lennon, then acting chief executive officer, previously told FE Week: “All employers and learners are being notified of this situation, and where necessary, they will be supported by ourselves and the Education and Skills Funding Agency to find suitable alternative training to support their professional development.”

FE Week attempted to contact the provider’s bosses this week but did not receive a response.

This week, a Department for Education spokesperson said: “Following an inadequate Ofsted report, Progress to Excellence Ltd notified us of its intention to file for administration. As a result of this notification a termination letter was issued for the apprenticeship provision.

“We are acting swiftly to secure alternative high-quality provision for the learners that are affected.”

It has also set up a dedicated email, progress-to.EXCELLENCE@education. gov.uk for enquiries from concerned learners, parents or employers.

At the time of inspection in December, there were 2,008 apprentices, 609 adult learners and “a very small number of learners on traineeship programmes” at the Wirral-based provider.

The education watchdog reported that PtE’s leaders’ and governors’ growth strategy to expand the curriculum “had a negative impact on the quality of education and training that apprentices and learners receive”.

“Too many” apprentices and learners experienced “disruption to their learning because of staffing issues”, who told inspectors that they were “having a poor experience”.

A former assessor at PtE, who wished to remain anonymous, supported Ofsted’s findings and told FE Week it was “like a revolving door there”.

They said that some staff members had warned the firm its expansion was going “far too quickly” and “if things do not change, there will be no company”.

In the provider’s 2015 Ofsted report, it trained around 1,900 learners.

The ex-employee also claimed the experience “totally put me off getting another job in education”.

PtE, which was established in 1997, dropped from grade two to grade four in January.

Its apprenticeship programmes included health and care, business and engineering and manufacturing at levels 2 to 5 while adult learners, who all used advanced learner loans to pay for their courses, studied hairdressing, beauty and fitness at level 3 and 4.

PtE subcontracted out around 250 apprentices to four subcontractors.

Despite action being taken by the new chief executive after she identified a decline in quality, “too many apprentices” told Ofsted they were having “a poor experience” and about on- fifth of current apprentices were beyond their planned end dates. In 2017- 18, more than one-third of apprentices did not achieve their apprenticeship.

The inspectorate said governors failed to hold previous senior leaders to account, apprentices were routinely not placed on the right apprenticeship and training and assessment officers did not ensure that all learners are on the correct programme.

Knife crime in colleges has more than doubled in recent years, new figures suggest, which has prompted leaders to introduce metal detectors and enforce bag searches.

The data obtained by FE Week from 22 of the 39 police forces in England reveal that almost 400 offences with the bladed objects have been recorded in colleges since 2015.

There were 39 in 2015, a figure that rose to 64 and then 71 in the following two years respectively. Offences in colleges peaked at 120 in 2018, but declined to 104 last year.

Knife crime more generally has been steadily on the rise since records began in 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics. However, the ONS cautions that “data can be affected by changes in recording practices, policing activity and victims’ willingness to report crime”.

While each police force has different methods of recording the data, the offences included possession, assault, threats or use of violence, grievous bodily harm, wounding, harassment, rape, robbery, criminal damage and affray.

“Carrying weapons doesn’t make students safe, it puts them more at risk”

However, full national figures for college offences are likely to be much higher than this because the London Metropolitan Police, which records the highest knife crime rates across the whole country annually, refused to release data in response to FE Week’s Freedom of Information request.

The findings come a month after two students were stabbed near a college in Cheshire and another teenager was attacked by the entrance to a college in Northampton.

College bosses across the country have reacted to the growing problem by investing thousands of pounds in new equipment, but some have warned they are often restricted by a lack of funding.

Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group (NSCG) searched and screened a total of 514 students across their two sites in September 2019 and January 2020, using handheld metal detector wands and random selection generators.

The group spent almost £3,300 on the equipment and training, of which £1,000 was awarded by Newcastle Borough Council.

Lesley Morrey, director of student engagement and partnerships at NSCG, said there were no “areas of concern” and the only object found was a fruit knife. “We want [students] to understand that carrying weapons doesn’t make them safe, it puts them more at risk,” she told FE Week.

Students “felt that we were taking their safety very, very seriously” and parents had praised the measures at open evenings. As a result, she believes the policy has “paid dividends” and had “the desired impact”.

Jayne Holt, assistant principal for learning services at Walsall College, said her college has “always worked proactively” with West Midlands Police to carry out knife arch operations as well as undertaking other safeguarding measures within the institution and alongside other agencies.

East Coast College principal Stuart Rimmer also told FE Week the college uses targeted and random bag searches in combination with tutorial sessions on knife crime. He said: “Working in the prevention space feels positive and is well received by students.”

London South East Colleges established a “Twilight College” in 2019, as a result of several high-profile reports of knife crime in the capital. It delivers extra-curricular activities four days a week from 4pm to 6pm, when students may be more vulnerable to becoming a victim of knife crime on their way home.

This month, survey results from the college found 82 per cent of students agreed that they felt safer travelling home after attending, and four-fifths would like to be able to stay even later.

Principal Sam Parrett said expanding the initiative with “limited resources is challenging and we have had to (and will continue to) divert resources to it”.

“We would like this to be recognised with additional funding to support our capacity to develop this important area of work,” she added.

An Ofsted research report into knife crime in London from March 2019 found the “biggest barrier” that colleges face when tackling the issue was the cost.

Further data released in September 2019 by the education watchdog found that seven colleges in the capital use knife detection wands and six use knife arches. It also showed that five use stop-and-search, and seven use “anonymous reporting procedures”.

The inspectorate reported the common denominator of students who were found carrying bladed objects was their “vulnerability”, with almost all having experienced poverty, abuse, neglect or living within troubled families.

Iryna Pona, policy manager at the Children’s Society, which works with young people at risk of, or affected by, criminal exploitation, said the data obtained by FE Week was “a real worry”.

“Exclusions only provide them with more time to spend on the street getting into trouble”

“Colleges could do more to spot the early warning signs that a student may be at risk,” she continued.

According to Pona, “too often” there is a rush to exclude students. She claimed colleges should work to understand and address the underlying reasons for concerning behaviour, and that colleges should raise incidents of a young person carrying a knife with their local children’s social care team as a safeguarding concern.

“We know that funding cuts mean capacity can be an issue and the government must ensure all colleges have the resources they need,” Pona added.

A 2019 report by the all-party parliamentary group on knife crime also found colleges were said to not always engage well with students who were starting to get involved with street gangs or low-level criminal activity, with permanent or temporary exclusions only providing them with “more time to spend on the street getting into trouble”.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Knife crime is a complex and worrying issue which AoC is working on with a range of national agencies and policy makers.

“We know that colleges take safeguarding and the security of their staff and students extremely seriously, based on a strong culture of non-violence. Sadly, there have been some serious incidents in colleges which always have a wide-reaching, long-lasting impact but those cases are relatively rare.”

Hughes added that no single institution can tackle knife crime alone and that he has been impressed with the partnerships which colleges have been developing with local partners, including local violence-reduction units, community safety partnerships and resilience forums.

In January, a new “Lives Not Knives” report by social justice charity Nacro revealed young people aged 15-to-19 believe they are not protected by the police, and that harsher penalties would not deter those who carry knives out of fear.

It called for an “urgently needed” shift on prevention, for interventions to be focused on tackling the underlying causes of violence as well as the provision of funding to support students who have been excluded.

A government spokesperson declined to comment on the figures obtained by FE Week but said engagement in education is a strong protective factor against involvement in violence and that it is important for colleges to equip children with the skills they need to be safe. 

Whitehall is lapping up the MBA apprenticeship that the education secretary Gavin Williamson is “unconvinced” provides value for money, FE Week has found.

The Department for Work and Pensions told this newspaper it had 86 on the controversial programme, including those in the application process, while the Ministry of Defence has 17, with seven being “onboarded”.

And the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport had two taking the level 7 senior leader apprenticeship standard with the Open University.

The Department for Education itself has 34 staff on the programme.

Several government departments – including the Home Office, Cabinet Office, and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – said they had none.

Williamson made his comments in a letter to Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education chief executive Jennifer Coupland ordering a review of the standard last week, adding: “I recognise that looking again at this standard may be unpopular with some levy payers.

“Whilst respecting the decisions that employers make about which apprenticeships and apprentices are best for their organisation, I am of the view that we absolutely need to safeguard the integrity of the apprenticeship brand and value for money of the levy.”

Shadow further education minister Emma Hardy has gone further by calling for degree apprenticeship funding to be limited to people aged under 25, those without a first degree, and in sectors with skill shortages.

She told the Annual Apprenticeship Conference this week the government’s “rushed implementation of the apprenticeship levy has resulted not in an increase in apprenticeship opportunities for the most disadvantaged, but quite the opposite”.

The integrity of the apprenticeship brand is not being damaged

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman used her speech at conference to express concerns that doubling the number of higher-level apprenticeships in general between 20116/17 and 2018/19 is to blame for a 45 per cent drop in starts at level 2 during that period.

However, the chief executive of the University Vocational Awards Council’s chief executive Adrian Anderson has defended keeping the MBA apprenticeship as “apprenticeships have just as important, if not more important, role in developing new progression routes and higher-level occupations for under-represented cohorts” as supporting them into lower-paid jobs

He added that stopping the senior leader apprenticeship would have a “detrimental effect” on the NHS and police, which UVAC believes to be among the biggest users of the standard.

FE Week found several hospital trusts advertise the level 7 apprenticeship on their websites, and Health Education England, which oversees training for NHS staff, reported it has 13 staff on an apprenticeship with an MBA. 

The Department for Health and Social Care does not have any.

“Government should be proud of the policy success of the apprenticeship reforms,” Anderson continued.

“The integrity of the apprenticeship brand is not being damaged. Apprenticeships are increasingly being seen as an aspirational programme and not just a programme for other people’s children.”

But degree apprenticeships like the senior leader standard, which has a maximum funding band of £18,000, have been criticised for taking up great chunks of the apprenticeship budget.

The National Audit Office said employers are developing and choosing more expensive standards at higher levels than was expected by the Department for Education, which was “absorbing” more public funding.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education predicted in 2018 the levy could soon be overspent.

A college has fessed up to failing to declare a £20,000 bonus made to its principal in 2018 amid a government crackdown on transparency.

Lincoln College boss Gary Headland told FE Week he was “both embarrassed and disappointed” that the payment was “erroneously not included” in that year’s accounts owing to an “honest error”.

His salary of £199,000 in 2017/18, as recorded in the Education and Skills Funding Agency official college accounts data, also does not include the bonus that was awarded for international work.

The £20,000 payment was disclosed in Lincoln’s 2018/19 accounts (see image right), alongside a £40,000 bonus for that year, but nowhere does it note the discrepancy and the only explanation came after FE Week started asking questions.

A financial auditor told FE Week that they would have expected the £20,000 prior year (2018) adjustment in the 2019 accounts to include a note to explain the past error, particularly as the government is very sensitive to the disclosure of senior staff pay.

Lincoln College’s main international venture is in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where its subsidiary is Lincoln College International (LCI) runs colleges.

LCI generated £30.1 million in 2018 and £25.7 million in 2019, more than half the college group income.

Headland (pictured) said: “At the complete discretion of the board of corporation, I am able to be awarded an annual payment based upon the scale and performance of our commercial and international work.

“In our annual accounts submitted in December 2018, the discretionary payment was erroneously not included. This was an honest error and I am both embarrassed and disappointed in equal measure.

“Importantly, the oversight was not repeated in December 2019 in which full disclosure of all emoluments in 2018 and 2019 was made.”

The college did not explain why there was no note in the 2019 accounts to explain the error.

FE Week has asked the college’s external auditor firm, RSM, about the discrepancy.

The ESFA said it “strengthened” its financial reporting requirements for sixth-form and further education colleges last year.

Specifically, the agency’s finance record spreadsheet for 2018/19 requires, for the first time, that colleges record a figure for its “principal’s performance related pay and bonus”.

For colleges, this should be as simple as listing it separately from the “principal’s salary”.

Their updated rules state: “Corporations receive significant investment from public funds and need to demonstrate to stakeholders that decisions made on executive pay are evidence-based, proportionate and represent value for money.

“This year, as a matter of policy, we have increased transparency around executive pay to support accountability, and to help maintain public confidence and trust in executive pay.”

Burton and South Derbyshire College accounts for 2019, for example, now list a £35,000 bonus for 2018 and £36,000 bonus for 2019 separately from the salary figure.

Its 2018 accounts had lumped the bonus given to principal Dawn Ward in with her salary, totalling £218,000.

Her college runs the International Technical Female College in Jeddah in partnership with Highbury College.

A spokesperson for Burton and South Derbyshire College said: “As you’ve identified, ESFA requirements around disclosure changed in the year between the two sets of accounts.

“Our 2019 accounts adhere to the new reporting requirements and so the value is split out. Obviously, the total value reported in both sets of accounts is unchanged.”

However, it is clear from the ESFA’s college accounts direction for 2017/18 that “corporations must separately disclose the emoluments of the accounting officer” and “emoluments include: performance-related awards (including other bonuses)”.

Highbury College told FE Week the ESFA had given them permission to delay the filing of their 2018/19 accounts.

One college FE Week found that has been in full compliance of the rules is Leeds City College.

It declared a £40,000 bonus separately for boss Colin Booth in its 2018 accounts, and again in 2019.

The Association of Colleges developed its own pay code in 2018. It states that “awards made in respect of annual bonus arrangements linked to the achievement of specific annual objectives should not be consolidated”.

The membership body’s chief executive, David Hughes, told FE Week: “AoC’s governor’s council took the initiative in 2018 to adapt the university senior staff remuneration code for college use.

“We’re confident that the code and the open way in which colleges present information about senior staff pay will ensure that governing bodies properly account for the way in which they use public funds and the approach they take to rewarding, motivating and retaining staff to do incredibly challenging jobs.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Further education colleges set their own salaries for staff, which we expect to be fair, represent value for money and be fully justifiable. We now require colleges to explain and justify the salaries of their key management staff in published accounts.”

The Education and Skills Funding Agency is working on plans to require providers to be “accredited” for the apprenticeship standards they offer.

Keith Smith, the agency’s director of apprenticeships, this week said the limits are being considered to give employers more “confidence” in the “future” register of apprenticeship training providers.

Currently, end-point assessment organisations can only assess apprenticeship standards they’re experts in and approved for via application.

Yet providers that have never delivered apprenticeships have no restrictions on which or how many standards they deliver.

During a speech at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference on Tuesday, Smith said: “That is something we talk a lot about in terms of the future provider register and the extent to which we should start to look at accreditation by a different type of standard.

“At the moment we have taken the view that we want to provide the opportunity that providers can play to their strengths. One thing we are beefing up in the provider register all the time is looking at the capacity of those providers in their workforce, about the professionalisation and the skills they bring to the bear in the sector.”

He continued: “We are trying really carefully to make sure we understand what it is to be a good provider, to actually have confidence in the provider register, and very carefully understand how we give assurance to employers and apprentices that they are going to be finding their way to new providers who actually have the right capacity and infrastructure to be able to do good things.

“More on that to come.”

Smith added that it is “the reality” that providers will already be specialising in certain standard areas, and his agency is working to ensure any limits do not add further unnecessary layers of “bureaucracy” for training organisations.

Any restrictions would form the second phase of the ESFA’s attempts to strengthen its register of apprenticeship training providers, which was relaunched last year following a host of problems with the original application process.

One-man bands with no delivery experience were, for example, being given access to millions of pounds of apprenticeships funding.

FE Week analysis shows that the ESFA has cut the number of main and employers providers on the register down by a quarter over the past year – from 2,234 in April 2019 to 1,628 in February 2020.

The reduction shouldn’t come as a major surprise considering the agency had promised to tighten up the register’s application rules and kick off those who aren’t delivering.

But this cull still has some way to go, as FE Week analysis also shows a further 29 per cent of providers currently on there are still not delivering and many more are in single starts figures.

What makes restrictions even more likely is the fact that new providers with no track record will no longer be limited by a lack of non-levy allocation from November 1 as the ESFA moves small employers onto the digital apprenticeship system.

FE Week understands there are also plans being drawn up to potentially introduce funding caps on providers yet to have full Ofsted inspection.

Last year, the education watchdog was handed £5.4 million to carry out monitoring visits of all new apprenticeship providers, which have so far suggested the quality at about a quarter of them is poor.

It is also understood that the ESFA will dedicate a special team to watch over the largest apprenticeship providers to ensure the sector does not suffer from another “too big to fail” scenario if one of them goes bust, as was the case with Learndirect.