EuroSkills 2020 postponed until 2021

The international EuroSkills 2020 competition has been postponed from this September until next year, it has been announced.

It will now take place between 6 and 10 January 2021, but will still be held in the Austrian city of Graz, the original venue.

EuroSkills is a companion event to the WorldSkills tournaments which Team UK competes in alongside other European nations.

A EuroSkills spokesperson said: “The new dates for EuroSkills give the health authorities, the Austrian Federal Ministry, the Government of the Province of Styria, the City of Graz, and all involved in the organisation of the event the maximum time to deal with the constantly changing landscape and the disruption caused by the COVID–19 pandemic.

“We understand that the decision to postpone EuroSkills Graz 2020 will be disappointing for some, but the safety and wellbeing of all involved is paramount.

“We also know that this decision is in the best interests of everyone involved in the event and we appreciate the understanding and support of our generous WorldSkills Europe community at this time.”

Ben Blackledge, deputy chief Executive of WorldSkills UK and UK Technical Delegate for WorldSkills Europe said the decision to postpone was taken to “safeguard the health of all involved in the event and to contribute to the containment of COVID-19”.

“WorldSkills UK is committed to participating in the EuroSkills Competition,” he added.

“Our number one priority remains the safety of the UK delegation and we will continue to act on the advice of the UK government and will travel to the event if only safe to do so.”

Ofqual to announce teachers will ‘calculate’ BTEC and other qual results but delay detail

Teachers will calculate student grades for the majority of cancelled BTEC and other vocational qualification exams, but a full list of those in scope will not be ready until after Easter.

In a briefing to the FE sector this morning, Ofqual said that vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs), such as BTEC Nationals, Cambridge Technicals, UAL Diplomas and functional skills, which are “used for progression to higher and further education”, will be graded the same as A-levels and GCSEs this summer.

In “some instances”, teachers may be asked to “provide a rank order” of learners, as with GCSEs and A-levels.

However, Ofqual has reiterated that this approach will not be “appropriate” for all VTQs, such as those designed to support progression straight into employment and signal occupational competence.

The exams regulator said it is still working with awarding organisations to identify those qualifications where it would be better to “adapt assessments or delivery models” so that they can still take place even though centres are closed.

In cases where qualifications “directly signal occupational competence including a licence to practise”, there may be no option but to delay their assessments until students return to their training provider.

A list of VTQs where grades cannot be calculated is being worked on but further arrangements will not be announced until after Easter.

Ofqual explained that calculated results for VTQs could be based in part on teacher judgements of what grade each learner would “most likely” have achieved had they been able to complete their assessments in summer 2020.

They must “draw appropriately” on a “range of other evidence” held by the school, college, training provider and the awarding organisation offering the qualification.

Evidence which “might be useful” in the estimations includes “actual achievement data for candidates – exams or internal assessments which have (or haven’t been through moderation, centre risk profiles” and “historic data on centre outcomes”.

Ofqual said any estimation should have three elements: professional judgement and evidence from teachers and component results from already moderated assessment by awarding bodies; quality assurance such as comparison to historic centre outcomes and evaluation of the algorithm for calculating grades; and a check to see if there appears to be a reasonable profile of grades, similar to previous years.

Learners who do not feel their result reflects their ability will be able to complete an assessment once their provider reopens.

In a letter to chief regulator Sally Collier yesterday, seen by FE Week, Federation of Awarding Bodies chief executive Tom Bewick warned about the overbearing additional resource load for his members in estimating VTQ grades and called for a “resource fund” to be made available.

“Where flexibilities are introduced in awarding, these need to consider constraints of implementation – both around the data available to allow an AO to estimate grades reliably, and the capacity that AOs have to complete this work within the desired timeframe,” he said.

“It is essential that the volume of additional resources required to implement these temporary assessment arrangements is fully understood by all parties.”

Bewick’s letter added that Ofqual has a “duty to make the case to the Department for Education for a specific capacity building and resource fund, to be accessed by AOs, to meet the additional requirements of implementing an emergency regulatory framework”.  

“Adaptation and/or the estimation of qualifications, including up to 9,000 VTQs active in the marketplace, is a hugely demanding piece of work.

“The only way to give AOs the confidence that they can take staff off furlough arrangements will be if they are assured by the department and the regulator that any additional costs of this exercise will be met by government in full.”

Ofqual’s guidance for grading VTQs can be found here.

And their press release can be found here.

The education secretary’s ministerial direction to Ofqual can be found here.

 

Teachers to estimate functional skills results this summer

Results for this summer’s cancelled functional skills exams will be based on teacher calculated grades, Ofqual is set to announce.

They will follow the same format being adopted for grading GCSE and A-level students who can’t sit their tests due to the coronavirus crisis.

Ofqual revealed the move in a briefing to the FE sector this morning, where they said the majority, but not all, vocational and technical qualifications will be graded in the same way (click here for full story).

It said: “Calculated results to be used for qualifications akin to general quallifications, including functional skills.”

But the decision will not be welcomed by the Federation of Awarding Bodies.

Their chief executive, Tom Bewick, previously said: “To be absolutely clear, the Federation of Awarding Bodies does not support an ‘estimation’ approach towards functional skills.

“These important qualifications are not the same as GCSEs and A-levels they are about functionality and competence; and we do need to ensure that even these very challenging times – while we do need to be creative, innovative and pragmatic, we don’t junk quality in the process.”

He added: “So it’s a bit like a driving test – we wouldn’t say to driving instructors ‘you just get on and assess whether or not somebody is safe to drive on the roads’. That external assessment and examination is still possible and indeed there are lots of innovative practices already out there – like online secure proctoring.”

Ofqual’s announcement comes despite one awarding giant, City & Guilds, launching plans to allow thousands of students to sit their functional skills exams from home this summer.

They said last week they plan to use remote invigilation by using online meeting software such as GoToMeeting, Zoom and Microsoft Teams this summer.

FE Week has asked Ofqual if all awarding bodies will now need to grade all functional skills students affected by Covid-19 via teacher estimations.

When calculating functional skills grades, teachers must “draw appropriately” on a “range of other evidence” held by the school and the awarding organisation offering the qualification, this morning’s briefing said.

Evidence which “might be useful” in the estimations includes “actual achievement data for candidates – exams or internal assessments which have (or haven’t been through moderation, centre risk profiles” and “historic data on centre outcomes”.

Ofqual’s guidance for grading VTQs can be found here.

And their press release can be found here.

The education secretary’s ministerial direction to Ofqual can be found here.

MBA set to be removed from level 7 senior leader apprenticeship

Plans to remove the controversial MBA component attached to the level 7 senior leader apprenticeship standard have been revealed.

The employer group behind the programme has “revised” its content following a review ordered by the education secretary Gavin Williamson, who said in February he was “unconvinced” it was in the “spirit” of the apprenticeships programme or that it provides “value for money”.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education said today it had since advised the trailblazer group that requiring the inclusion of an MBA in the apprenticeship “would not meet the intent of our policy on mandated qualifications which was extended to cover level 6 and Level 7 standards in 2018”.

Explaining the decision, the institute said: “As a senior leader, there is no regulatory requirement to hold such a qualification, there is no requirement to be a member of a professional body and an individual would not be significantly disadvantaged in the senior leader job market without such a qualification.

“In addition, the inclusion of such a qualification would not meet the requirements of our ‘Type 2’ category which is intended to cover off-the job technical qualifications and short awards (for example food safety and manual handling certificates) which do not accredit full occupational competence, do not duplicate end-point assessment and add very little to the cost of the apprenticeship standard.

“The trailblazer has agreed to revise the occupational standard on this basis, focusing on ensuring that passing the revised end-point assessment (still to be drafted) will provide all the necessary assurance that full competence will have been achieved.”

A consultation on the revised standard was launched today and will be open to the public until 29 April.

The Department for Education has set a deadline of 1 June for a decision on the standard’s funding future.

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

A spokesperson added: “This apprenticeship standard sets out the knowledge, skills and behaviours employers require of competent senior leaders.

“Providers are free to develop their training programmes from scratch or to draw from other related training courses.

“The apprentice’s competence will then be judged against the standard through a comprehensive end point assessment.”

The level 7 senior leader apprenticeship was launched in February 2018 and currently allows apprentices to achieve a Master’s degree in management, either MA, MSc or MBA. It has proven extremely popular since its launch in February 2018.

FE Week analysis shows there were 6,387 starts on the programme up to the end of the first quarter of 2019/20. As each start is worth £18,000 from the apprenticeship levy pot, this means as much as £115 million has been spent on this standard.

IfATE boss Jennifer Coupland herself has defended spending public levy money on management qualifications, like the senior leader standard, as “perfectly legitimate”.

Others like Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman have said they have seen “levy funding subsidising MBAs that just don’t need it”.

AoC urges colleges to pay exam fees in joint statement with FAB

Colleges have been urged by their membership organisation to pay exam fees to awarding bodies this summer following the cancellation of GCSE and A-level exams.

A joint letter from the Association of Colleges and Federation of Awarding Bodies states that this action should be taken to “protect all parties” during the coronavirus crisis.

It adds that there is “shared interest in ensuring that both colleges and awarding organisations remain viable” and recommends the payment period to be extended to 90 days, but colleges who are in a position to make payments earlier “should do so”.

The letter sets out a set of “principles” which “will support the contractual relationships between colleges and awarding organisations in these exceptional times”.

The “number one priority” is to “protect the interests of students to have the opportunity to obtain the qualifications and assessments they have worked for”.  

“In order to achieve that, we need to protect the provider and awarding organisation post-16 skills ecosystem which supports learners,” it says.

“This includes organisations of all sizes which will face difficulties as a result of the crisis and some of which offer important ‘niche’ qualifications.”

The letter adds that AoC and FAB “understand that there will be both savings and new costs associated with the processes” this year and “agree” that any net savings should be passed on to the providers paying for the qualifications.

“Similarly, we call on regulators and government to recognise that there may also be some net additional costs placed on the awarding sector as a result of implementing an emergency regulatory framework designed to help learners progress,” it continues.

“In all cases, open and independent verification of these calculations would aid transparency and trust.”

The letter concludes: “We hope that these principles will guide the relationships between colleges and awarding organisations and help the sector navigate through the current crisis.

“Achieving that will help to ensure that students are appropriately rewarded for their hard work and offer an approach which allows for a sustainable future for both colleges and awarding organisations.”

You can read the letter in full here.

SPONSORED: Provider receives huge demand for distance learning with over 15,000 applying

While there is a considerable amount of uncertainty in the world surrounding Coronavirus, one thing is clear – there is still a huge appetite for learning. 

As face to face learning is no longer possible to help prevent the spread of the virus, we’re seeing a growth in individuals choosing to study online across the sector. With a large portion of the population furloughed or left unemployed due to the crisis, people are choosing to spend their time in isolation gaining new skills and knowledge to support them once this is over. 

In just two weeks, national training provider, Learning Curve Group have generated over 15,000 expressions of interest to study one of their distance learning qualifications after launching their #EducateWhilstYouIsolate campaign.

The campaign has a core focus to support local communities by providing high quality online learning across key areas of priority at this extremely challenging time. Working alongside local colleges, the aim is to give individuals access to online training to raise skill levels, increase social mobility and generate new employment opportunities – especially within current Key Worker occupations.

Brenda McLeish, chief executive of Learning Curve Group, said: “Our #EducateWhilstYouIsolate campaign has enabled us to support a large number of learners in their locality to access accredited learning safely from their home. The campaign has seen phenomenal demand as people seek to use their time in isolation to learn new skills or further develop the skills that they have. 

“A number of colleges across the country have supported this campaign by using their AEB funding to fund the activity, and this has been brilliant, in times like this it’s clear that we need to ensure that learners remain supported to continue their learning, as well as give the opportunity to those who want to learn and develop. I’m really proud of our sector and the way we’ve pulled together to keep the learner at the centre of everything we do.” 

Brenda McLeish

Multiple colleges across the country have backed the Learning Curve Group campaign to keep individuals studying and learners on track throughout the crisis.

Lorraine Heath, deputy principal for curriculum, performance and innovation at Basingstoke College of Technology, said: “There has been a significant demand recently for adult learning courses such as Children and Young Peoples’ Mental Health, Nutrition and Health, Counselling Skills and Business Administration to support wellbeing during isolation and career progression. We are pleased to be working with Learning Curve Group who provide the online resources and support delivery to continue learning.”

The initiative has allowed colleges to meet that increased demand and support learners locally to develop their skills and knowledge. Kam Dehal, vice principal – business development (college group) commented: “During this period of isolation, we are keen to continue to deliver access to learning across our wider communities. We are extending our reach and responding to the increased demand so that we can support our local residents to be able to develop their skill set and focus on supporting their mental wellbeing during this time. We are delighted to have been able to join forces with the Learning Curve Group in order to support this essential initiative”’

One learner, who preferred to remain anonymous  said, “Having the ability to do online courses has helped me improve my skills and knowledge and also my depression as it gives me something to focus on, especially in this time of uncertainty, I have the ability to do it wherever and whenever I want to and have a bit of ‘me’ time.”

After the success of the #EducateWhilstYouIsolate campaign, the provider has also launched a #KeySkillsForKeyWorkers campaign. With qualifications such as End of Life Care, Infection Control and Customer Service suitable for those volunteering as key workers throughout the crisis, or as CPD for key workers who may be isolating. 

On Friday 3rd April, the government released a publication that said FE providers should continue to deliver learning online, ‘including for ESFA funded AEB, via existing sub-contracting arrangements to support existing learners to successfully complete their courses…  or retain evidence where this is not possible’ it also suggested that providers should be supporting ‘furloughed workers to enhance existing or develop new skills’. 

There has never been a higher demand to study online, and whilst this is a rapidly changing situation and one that no FE provider has experienced before, the message to FE providers from the government is clear – online learning is key to supporting learners through this crisis. 

If you’d like to support Learning Curve Group’s campaign and support the demand from learners in your area, find out more here: www.learningcurvegroup.co.uk/landing/isolate

Director of apprenticeships to leave ESFA

The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s director of apprenticeships, Keith Smith, is leaving the role later this month.

He will move to the Department for Education as its new director of post-16 strategy.

Smith will be replaced by Peter Mucklow, who is currently the ESFA’s director of further education.

Eileen Milner, chief executive of the ESFA, said Smith will “lead on strategic issues across post-16 provision to deliver the secretary of state’s priorities” and will be working alongside Gillian Hillier, DfE director of careers and further education.

FE Week understands one of his main duties will be responsibility for preparing a new FE bill that this newspaper revealed was in the works in January.

Smith is a civil service veteran with over 20 years’ experience in the education and skills sector.

From 2012 to 2018 he was the ESFA’s director of funding, leading on the apprenticeship funding reforms and the introduction of the levy.

He was then named director of apprenticeships, leading on policy and implementation of the whole system.

Mucklow has over 25 years’ experience working in the education and skills system and is currently responsible for oversight of FE providers.

Milner said she will shortly appoint someone to cover this role and added: “I wish Keith and Peter all the very best as they step into their new roles.”

 

AoC calls on Ofsted to delay inspections until 2021

The Association of Colleges has called on Ofsted to suspend all inspections until at least January 2021 owing to the disruptions caused by coronavirus.

The membership organisation says scheduled inspections should only go ahead where specific concerns have been raised about safeguarding or an inspection is requested by a provider.

Last month Ofsted announced it had temporarily suspended all inspection activity, including publishing reports, until further notice.

The AoC said today that education providers are likely to be closed to the majority of students until September, and will then be focussed on supporting students to “catch up” from an extended period at home and without face to face teaching.

The capacity of colleges and other training providers will be “stretched, and we expect that to affect the whole academic year 2020-21”.

Inspecting during the autumn term would “therefore be unfair”, according to AoC chief executive David Hughes.

He said: “Delaying inspections until early next year is the right thing to do in the current circumstances. Our leaders and staff are working tirelessly to support their students and communities.

“Colleges will be doing everything they can in the autumn term, presuming they can open, to support students to ‘catch up’ and get back into the rhythm and habit of learning.”

He added: “Work will need to be undertaken in collaboration with the sector to consult on the changes required to the methodology once inspections resume.

“When inspections resume the priority needs to be supporting the changes colleges will have made and learning from this unprecedented period of closures and online learning.

“No college should be at a disadvantage due to the fallout of the implications of coronavirus. We will continue to work with Ofsted to ensure that routine inspections work in the best interest of students and staff.”

A spokesperson for Ofsted said: “This is a challenging and uncertain time and all routine inspections are suspended until further notice.

“Restarting routine inspections is a decision government and Ofsted will take in due course.”

 

 

College staff don’t need protective equipment, new government guidance states

College staff do not require personal protective equipment, new government guidance has stated.

The guidance also warns cleaning items such as soap “may be rationed” as the supply chain dries up, and rules out any future coronavirus testing for all educational staff.

A document on ‘implementing social distancing in education settings’, updated this morning, states “scientific advice indicates that educational staff do not require personal protective equipment”.

“This is needed by medical and care professionals providing specific close contact care, or procedures that create airborne risk, such as suctioning and physiotherapy, for anyone who has coronavirus (COVID-19), and is displaying symptoms.”

If you are “not providing this care to someone with the virus, and displaying symptoms, PPE is not needed”, the guidance adds.

It comes despite calls from MPs for school and college staff to be given “priority access” to such equipment.

However the guidance instead states the advice for schools, colleges and childcare settings is to “follow steps on social distancing, handwashing and other hygiene measures, and cleaning of surfaces”.

This is because, the guidance states, the virus that causes Covid-19 is “mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. These droplets are too heavy to hang in the air. They quickly fall on floors or surfaces.”

However the guidance states some children, and those with special educational needs, “may be unable to follow social distancing guidelines, or require personal care support”.

“In these circumstances, staff need to increase their level of self-protection, such as minimising close contact (where appropriate), cleaning frequently touched surfaces, and carrying out more frequent handwashing.”

The Department for Education said it will “shortly publish additional advice for settings caring for children and young people with complex needs”.

Some cleaning items ‘may be rationed’

The guidance states the Department for Education has been working with public sector buying organisations to “understand and address supply chain issues relating to hygiene and cleaning products for state-funded provision”.

It adds: “At this time, the supply chain has flagged that for some products there are reduced volume deliveries, and less frequent deliveries, which means some items may be rationed.

“They are seeking to find alternatives to any products which are out of stock.”

Testing for all staff WON’T be rolled-out

The guidance states that testing has been prioritised for those most at risk of severe illness from the virus, those in hospital care for pneumonia or acute respiratory illness “will be the priority”.

It states is a “member of staff becomes unwell with a new, continuous cough, or a high temperature, in an education setting, they should be sent home and advised to follow the staying at home guidance”.

The guidance states that “wider testing is being rolled out, and priority lists will be set for this”.

It adds: “If critical workers, including education and childcare staff, are tested, this will not be for all staff, but rather for staff with symptoms, in order to enable them to go back to work if they test negative.”

Last month, schools and colleges were told they must keep campuses open to vulnerable children and those of “key workers” indefinitely, including during the holidays where possible, while most people go on an unprecedented nationwide shutdown.