Where will all the T-level teachers come from?

The ambitious plans for T-levels will surely fail unless more well-qualified staff can be attracted to the sector, warns Simon Martin

In September we saw FE representatives from across the sector almost unanimously voting that the timetable for T-level implementation was “reckless”, at the parliamentary debate staged by FE Week and Pearson.

But even if the sector manages to pull off industry placements and the rushed tendering process, one problem will still seriously threaten T-level delivery – namely, the availability of sufficient numbers of well-qualified, experienced staff.

Department for Education papers and ministerial pronouncements have repeatedly described T-levels as “a skills revolution”, and most recently the education secretary Damian Hinds has extolled them as the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to ensure the UK economy has the skilled workers it needs to compete globally.

Part of the wiring for this is the beefed up 900 hours per annum (1,800 over two years). Allowing for a top-end 60-day industry placement, that leaves 1,500 “classroom” hours, 25 per cent more than a 16-19 study programme top-funded at band 5 (around 1,200 hours over two years).

Even with increased qualification funding to match, that higher level of contact time will place a strain on the teaching establishments of institutions both large and small, which are already struggling with recruitment alongside funding and finances, as recent headlines testify.

The recruitment landscape looks problematic

The DfE reported in February that the FE sector has a 20,000-teacher shortfall, which is most severe in priority subjects. The two most recent FE workforce data collections (the “staff individualised record data insights” produced by the Education and Training Foundation) chart a 3 per cent trend of annual workforce decline over several years, a shrinkage that is doubled among FE teachers. The Teaching, leadership and governance in further education research report published earlier this year concluded, unsurprisingly, that FE teacher supply is a big problem, with growing fears for recruitment because reforms are “reshaping the skills that are required”, particularly in STEM subjects.

Skills and industry currency are also a problem. The latest FE workforce survey has identified that across the board “learner-facing technical staff” have increased by just 1 per cent. That will hardly supply the human resources required for a “skills revolution”. Moreover, the providers who offer T-levels will be competing against industry for the same highly skilled staff. Against a well-documented backdrop of low pay for FE teachers and the government’s refusal to fund pay increases in the same way as schoolteachers, the recruitment landscape looks problematic.

The initial T-level pathways include childcare and education, digital and construction. Worryingly, the economic sectors with the greatest projected employee shortfalls by 2050 are: No. 1 – teachers (128,000); No. 2 – construction (66,800); No. 4 – engineers (36,800); and No. 5 – IT (33,300).

Labour supply problems already exist at this “high end” of the sector. Recruitment and retention problems for end-point assessors for apprenticeship standards have been widely aired in the past few months, with some day-rate fees reputedly approaching £1,000. In the digital route there are already 15 standards available, with another half dozen in development; for the construction route this rises to 60, with a further 30-plus in development. These supply-and-demand pressures will exacerbate the T-level teacher problem.

The ETF is pursuing a number of worthy initiatives through the workforce development strategy for technical education. These include Taking Teaching Further, Teach Too, SET for Teaching Success and Further Forces, among others.

However, the central question of how to persuade highly skilled industry practitioners into FE teaching, with the disparity in potential and actual earnings between the sectors and pay constraints in FE, is yet to be addressed by the government. Mr Hinds has just announced a £38 million capital boost for schools and colleges in the first wave of T-levels, for “cutting-edge equipment and facilities”.

This is all well and good, but unless some similar investment is made in the human estate for technical education, those state-of-the-art facilities and equipment may well be standing idle.

Thousands march on parliament to protest for fair college funding

Thousands of learners, staff and leaders marched on parliament today in “the most amazing show by colleges ever” to demand fairer funding, as the centrepiece of Colleges Week.

The march for FE, organised by the University and College Union in partnership with the Association of Colleges, was followed by a packed rally in Parliament Square during which Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn declared his support for colleges and their “pathway to liberation”.

“It’s the most amazing show by colleges ever,” said David Hughes, the AoC’s chief executive as he addressed the crowd.

“We’re here to really shout out about how proud we are about what colleges can achieve, and we are making a noise in parliament, we are sending a message to government,” he said.

“We’re not after handouts. We’re after investment,” he said.

“I support this demonstration because college education is very, very important,” Mr Corbyn said.

“It’s the pathway to liberation for many of our young people. It’s the pathway for older people to discover new things about themselves, new subjects, new opportunities and indeed a career change if that’s what they want.”

“Stand today for properly funded colleges and properly paid staff. Stand today for the principles of education for all as a right,” he urged.

Earlier shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said she was “so sorry that this current government doesn’t value the work that you do”.

“They know the cost of everything but the value of nothing,” she said.

“We need investment in our education now,” she demanded.

Protesters packed out Parliament Square – despite the rain

Representatives from at least 30 colleges from across the country were understood to have taken part in today’s march in the heart of the capital.

The thousands of protestors headed through Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall, cheering, chanting and bearing placards demanding more funding for colleges.

There were large contingents from Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College and New City College, both of which closed their campuses today to allow staff and students to take part.

Gerry McDonald, group principal of New City College, told FE Week its four campuses in Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Redbridge and Epping Forest were closed “to get as many people as possible, to really get the message across that FE has got to have its funding sorted out for the long-term future of the country”.

“We’ve done the lobbying. We’ve spoken to civil servant and politicians for a long time and we feel now we need to do something a bit more dramatic like today and make a bit more of a fuss about it,” he said.

Karen Redhead, principal of EHWLC, said her leadership team had “taken the decision to close so that students and staff can take part in this very positive lobby that celebrates everything that fantastic about FE colleges”.

A group from Leeds City College had spent six hours on a coach to be at today’s march.

These include Ivola Dombay, a GCSE English teacher at the college, who said she was motivated by funding cuts that meant she was teaching overcrowded classes.

“We’ve barely got enough chairs for them to sit on, we haven’t got enough teachers,” she said.

As well as the march on parliament, college leaders, staff and students have been lobbying MPs to plead the case for more funding for FE.

Throughout the week, colleges across the country are putting on their own events and “inviting the local community to celebrate the impact that colleges have”, an AoC spokesperson said.

Colleges Week was prompted by the Department for Education’s decision to fund a 3.5 per cent pay rise for school teachers while ignoring college lecturers – an announcement that left AoC boss David Hughes “angry” and “frustrated”.

“The issue is we are in a very tight funding financial constraint position with government so we have to make a lot more noise and get a lot more students, staff, parents, employers, stakeholders, partners to advocate for colleges,” he told FE Week in August.

Three schools removed from T-levels 2020 delivery but one college added

Three schools will no longer deliver the first wave of T-levels after one received a low grade from Ofsted and two others “decided not to” take part.

But Suffolk New College has been added to the list of those delivering the technical qualifications from 2020, after the government went back out to find providers when the construction pathway changed from “building” to “design”.

Announcing the changes today, a release from the Department for Education said: “We have added Suffolk New College to our list of high-quality providers who will deliver the first, world-class T-levels from 2020.

“This follows their expression of interest to deliver the design, surveying and planning T-level.

“We have also removed two providers from the list who have decided not to deliver T-levels in 2020 and a third provider has withdrawn due to a recent Ofsted inspection grading.”

FE Week understands the three schools to have been removed from the list are the Archbishop Holgate’s School in York, the George Abbot School in Surrey and Bordesley Green Girls’ School in Birmingham.

The only one of the three to have had a recent Ofsted inspection is Bordesley Green, which was rated ‘requires improvement’ by the inspectorate in a report that was published on June 28. It had previously been rated ‘outstanding’.

All three have been approached for comment.

The first T-level providers were announced at the end of May. George Abbot School was only added to the list on June 18, alongside sixth form college turned 16-to-19 academy Priestley College.

Kate Carriett, headteacher of George Abbot School, said the school had “come to the conclusion that we wish to consolidate our provision and expertise in the new A-levels at this point in time.” 

She added: “This does not mean that we will not wish to offer the new exciting T-levels in the future.”

FE Week reported in June that only a quarter of the providers which applied to offer T-levels in 2020 were successful.

Until today’s changes were announced, 16 schools had been approved for the first wave of the qualifications. While 26 colleges made the cut, many were told they weren’t eligible even though they had grade two ratings from Ofsted.

In January this year the Education and Skills Funding Agency invited expressions of interest from providers which wanted to become the first to offer T-levels.

Providers – which can be colleges, independent training providers, university technical colleges or schools that currently deliver relevant ESFA-funded 16-to-19 education to at least 10 students – must be rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted and must have at least ‘satisfactory’ financial health.

Of the 52 providers chosen, 32 were ‘outstanding’ and 14 were ‘good’, while a further six didn’t have a current Ofsted rating. 

Five of these were academies that were rated ‘outstanding’ before they converted, and the sixth is a university technical college that has yet to be inspected. Suffolk New College has been rated ‘good’ by Ofsted. 

The updated list of T-level providers for 2020-21

Name of provider Region 
Access Creative College (Access to Music Ltd.) West Midlands
Barnsley College Yorkshire and the Humber
Bedfordshire & Luton Education Business Partnership East of England
Big Creative Training Limited London
Bishop Burton College Yorkshire and the Humber
Blackpool and The Fylde College North West
Bridgwater & Taunton College South West
Cardinal Newman College North West
Chichester College Group South East
Cirencester College South West
City College Norwich East of England
City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College West Midlands
Cranford Community College London
Derby College East Midlands
Dudley College of Technology West Midlands
Durham Sixth Form Centre North East
Exeter College South West
Fareham College South East
Farnborough College of Technology South East
Gateshead College North East
Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education Yorkshire and the Humber
Havant and South Downs College South East
HCUC London
La Retraite RC Girls School London
London Design & Engineering UTC London
Lordswood Girls’ School & Sixth Form Centre West Midlands
Nelson and Colne College North West
New College Durham North East
Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College Yorkshire and the Humber
Oldham Sixth Form College North West
Painsley Catholic College West Midlands
Peter Symonds College South East
Priestley College North West
Runshaw College North West
Salesian School South East
Sandwell Academy West Midlands
Scarborough Sixth Form College Yorkshire and the Humber
Shipley College of Further Education Yorkshire and the Humber
St Thomas More Catholic School North East
Strode College South West
Suffolk New College East of England
Sussex Coast College Hastings South East
The College of Richard Collyer South East
The Leigh UTC South East
Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form East of England
Truro and Penwith College South West
University College Birmingham West Midlands
Ursuline High School London
Walsall College West Midlands
Walsall Studio School West Midlands
Weston College South West
York College Yorkshire and the Humber

Revealed: The 12 colleges to receive targeted careers training

The Association of Colleges is to receive over £400,000 to teach staff in 12 colleges to deliver effective careers training for disadvantaged learners.

The Careers & Enterprise Company today announced the first wave of organisations to benefit from a £2.5 million investment fund to support personal guidance in schools and colleges.

Four organisations will share just under £870,000 in the first phase, with up to £1.7 million available in the second round. The four organisations are Achieving for Children, Adviza, the AoC and Careers Connect.

The AoC will receive the largest slice, being given £431,000.

The project is aimed to “strengthen and extend the reach of their existing personal guidance delivery” within  12 colleges (see list below).

It will train curriculum staff to “deliver effective ‘triage’ which supports the delivery of every learner receiving a personal guidance interview” and the colleges included will be “providing support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and special educational needs”.

The AoC previously said the “type of additional activity” supported through the fund includes upskilling “existing careers professionals – qualified staff get access to continuing professional development, unqualified staff supported to achieve QCF Level 6” and “training for new careers professionals for future delivery”.

“Our proposal will aim to develop effective ways for groups of colleges to work together to deliver personal guidance in a cost-effective way,” the association added.

The ‘Personal Guidance Fund’ invests in “projects that deliver innovative models of personal careers guidance to clusters of schools and colleges”, the Careers & Enterprise Company said.

“With a focus on the training of careers development professionals, the fund aims to explore the effectiveness of different approaches to career guidance, and how they can be scaled up and integrated across the education system.”

These programmes will be used to create “case studies, develop guidance on scaling best practice, identify new approaches and make the case for further investment”.

Career Connect, a charity working across the North West, will receive £220,000 to provide careers advice and guidance services in 12 “identified schools” in the region.

Adviza is working across Thames Valley and has been given £114,000 to deliver two programmes.

The first will offer a “number of level six career guidance trained advisers the opportunity to gain an accredited coaching qualification” and the second will “improve the impact of personal guidance by harnessing the power of parents and carers”.

Achieving for Children will receive £105,000 to work across 13 mainstream and special schools, “providing ‘Next Steps’ personal guidance interviews to students with education, health and care plans and those with special educational needs in years 10 and 13”.

The interviews will “provide information on post-16 options and help them explore longer term aspirations”.

Claudia Harris (pictured), chief executive of the Careers & Enterprise Company, said: “Personal guidance is a key ingredient of a good careers education.

“We know there are already countless careers professional doing really effective, innovative work in the personal guidance space. This fund is about backing and celebrating that good practice, so it can be scaled up and shared across the country.”

Applications for the second wave of funding are open from today (October 16) until the end of November. Interested organisations should contact investment@careersandenterprise.co.uk.

The 12 colleges to receive targeted careers training:

                Abingdon and Witney College

                Barnsley College

                City of Westminster College

                Derby College

                Heart of Worcestershire College

                Isle of Wight College

                Leicester College

                Petroc

                RNN Group

                Selby College

                South Devon College

                York College

ESFA overhaul of their register of apprenticeship training providers is more urgent than ever

It all seemed so sensible when the ESFA first announced at the FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conference in March 2016 that they would be launching a Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP).

Employers would be able to choose from a list of “high-quality” providers and everyone would have confidence that the annual £2bn of public money would be well spent in England.

Following an application process, the sector was left in shock in March 2017 to discover the ESFA’s claim of “top-quality” included the inclusion on RoATP of many newly incorporated companies with no trading history.

These companies on RoAPT, many still with no apprenticeship delivery, can then be bought for around £50,000 as a way to gain access to public funding.

But, the problem is not so much with the ability to buy and sell companies on a government register.

The problem was created when the ESFA let companies onto the register with no trading history and no filed accounts.

 It was particularly easy to get on without a trading history because the ESFA was having to judge plans instead of track record, when it came to capacity, quality and finances.

In fact, perverse as it may sound, it would have been easier for the owners of an established provider with poor quality or financial issues to incorporate a new company and apply based on a fictional plan.

The ESFA has belatedly realised their RoAPT application process was deeply flawed, and the register has been closed to new applicants for a full year now.

But, as we expose this week, the longer it is closed the more value those on it may be able extract in a sale.

 So the ESFA must prioritise a complete overhaul of the register, urgently, starting with a reapplication process for everyone that has not had a satisfactory visit from Ofsted in the last five years – which will include those that have not started any apprentices since May 2017.

Then the new application process needs to set the capacity, quality and finances bar far higher, with a process of due diligence commensurate with the ‘top quality’ claims.

This would put an end to the madness of someone simply setting up a company in name alone, so as to sell access to a government approved register.

DfE figures shoot down UTCs’ ‘incredible’ destinations claims

New government data has undermined boasts about University Technical Colleges’ “excellent destinations”, and shows the level of NEET leavers to be eight times higher than is claimed.

The Baker Dearing Trust, which backs UTCs, has repeatedly asserted that just one per cent of 18-year-olds leaving the 14 to 19 technical institutions were not in employment, education or training (NEET).

However, according to the latest destinations data published by the Department for Education today, that figure is actually eight per cent.

FE Week asked the trust to defend its claim, but we were told that no one was available.

Speaking to FE Week in May, Lord Baker (pictured above) described UTCs’ destination data as “incredible”.

“Last year we had 2,000 leavers and only 23 NEETs. That is an unemployment rate of one per cent whereas nationally it is 12.2 per cent,” he said.

And Charles Parker, the chief executive of Baker Dearing, said in July that the 14 to 19 technical institutions’ destinations were “the best of all schools in the country”.

The claims are featured on a flier published on the Baker Dearing Trust’s website, which boasted that 97 per cent of UTC leavers at the age of 18 either continued in education or started an apprenticeship or job.

Just one per cent were NEET, compared to 12 per cent nationally, it said.

However, these are the Baker Dearing Trust’s own figures, not government data.

A footnote on the flier said that the information was based on “data collected in September and October 2017 from year 13 students who left 33 UTCs in July 2017. 14 students were un-contactable and are not included in the breakdown of destinations”.

FE Week asked to see this data, but we were refused.

In contrast, the DfE’s figures are based on learners who completed sixth form in 2015/16, and measure destinations in 2016/17.

A total of 1,315 learners across 28 UTCs were included in the data, of whom 88 per cent had a sustained education or employment destination and eight per cent didn’t.

“Sustained” is defined as in education or training, including apprenticeships, for the six-month period from October 2016 to March 2017, or in employment for at least five of those six months.

“Destination not sustained” includes learners who participated in some form of education, training or employment over the year but not for long enough to count as sustained, and those recorded as NEET or claiming out-of-work benefits.

A further four per cent of leavers were recorded as “data not captured”. This included learners with a National Insurance number but no recorded education, employment or training participation, or any record of any benefit claims, as well as learners without a NI number.

The average for positive sustained destinations across all state-funded schools and colleges for the year was 89 per cent, while for “destination not sustained” the average was eight per cent.

For FE colleges the figures were 86 per cent positive, and 10 per cent not sustained, while sixth form colleges had 90 per cent positive and seven per cent not sustained.

Ministers lobby for change in UTC admission age

The government is lobbying those in charge of controversial university technical colleges to move away from recruitment at 14, the academies minister has revealed.

Lord Agnew (pictured) told the House of Lords today that he is “trying to encourage” Lord Baker, the founder of the UTC movement to “adjust the entry age of UTCs so that they are not in conflict with surrounding schools and then local areas can work in harmony with one another”.

His intervention marks a significant climb-down for the government, which until now has been hesitant to express a view either way on UTC admissions.

The UTC model has been fraught with problems, largely because recruiting students at 14 is so difficult. Ministers and UTC architects have come under pressure to change the admissions age as more and more of the 14 to 19 institutions have failed to become financially sustainable and closed down.

We are doing as much as we can. The system still needs to improve

Lord Agnew did not say what the admissions age should be, but most of those lobbying for change advocate a switch from 14 to 16, a move which would bring UTCs in line with sixth forms.

Last week, the former schools minister David Laws called for the admissions age to change to 16 and a halt to the expansion of the UTCs programme, after his think tank the Education Policy Institute faulted their academic progress and ability to recruit and retain learners.

Asked in the Lords by Lord Baker if he would “spread his enthusiasm” for UTCs amongst his colleagues in government, Lord Agnew praised the “enormous amount of effort” put in by Lord Baker and his organisation, the Baker Dearing Trust.

“He’s right, I have put a lot of my own time into it because I think they are a vital part of the skills network,” Lord Agnew said.

“We are doing as much as we can. The system still needs to improve. I am encouraging the Baker Dearing Trust to allow more UTCs to join multi-academy trusts so their resources can be pooled. I’m also trying to encourage [Lord Baker] to adjust the entry age of UTCs so that they are not in conflict with surrounding schools and then local areas can work in harmony with one another.”

Lord Baker described UTCs as “outstanding schools, some of the most successful schools in the country”, and said we “need many more of them”.

However, research by FE Week found in March that more than two thirds of UTCs visited over the previous year were rated ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted. None of the UTCs inspected between February 2017 and February 2018 were rated ‘outstanding’.

Since 2011, the Department for Education has allocated almost £330 million of capital spending to the UTC programme. In this time, 59 UTCs have been established, although eight of these have since closed and one converted to an academy. Another, UTC@Harbourside, will close in August 2019.

Revealed: Six more apprenticeship providers banned from taking new recruits

Six more poor-performing apprenticeship providers have been barred from taking on new starts – bringing the total up to 12.

The penalties were revealed in the latest update to the register of apprenticeship training providers, dated October 11.

It means that the Education and Skills Funding Agency has wielded its powers against all new apprenticeship providers found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one area up until the end of September.

Employer provider Securitas Security Services Limited Among was those added to the list in the most recent update.

Its damning monitoring visit report, published September 19, found that most of the company’s 650 apprentices had had no choice but to enrol on the programmes, and that some had not had a progress review for five months due to a lack of resources.

Other newly-barred providers include Entrust Support Services, a joint venture company between Capita and Staffordshire County Council.

Mitre Group Limited is also on the list, despite its managing director, Jennie Bowmer, telling FE Week in September that many of Ofsted’s comments were inaccurate and that it had “formally raised a number of concerns” with the watchdog.

The latest tranche of barred providers follows the first group of six, details of which were revealed in September.

Four more providers have been deemed to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one area in reports published since the beginning of October, but are not yet on the ESFA’s list of barred providers.

Guidance published by the ESFA in August confirmed that any provider making ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one of the themes under review will be barred from taking on any new apprentices – either directly or through a subcontracting arrangement.

These restrictions will remain in place until the provider has received a full inspection, which should take place within a year of the monitoring visit, and been awarded at least a grade three for its apprenticeship provision.

The ESFA can only overrule this guidance if it “identifies an exceptional extenuating circumstance”.

In addition to these new powers over apprenticeship quality, which FE Week exclusively reported in May that the watchdog was set to gain, Ofsted has been awarded £5.4 million from the Department for Education to carry out monitoring visits to all new apprenticeship providers within its scope.

The visits, announced by chief inspector Amanda Spielman last November, were intended to sniff out “scandalous” attempts to waste public money.

Their introduction is believed to be a result of growing concerns around the number of untested training providers that had made it onto the register, and which therefore had access to huge sums of public money.

Education committee chair urges chancellor to increase core FE funding

The chair of education select committee has urged the chancellor to “look very carefully” at the core level of funding for students in FE ahead of the budget and spending review.

Robert Halfon (pictured) wrote to Philip Hammond today to highlight the stark disparity between funding for pre- and post-16 education.

He stated that it “cannot be right that a funding ‘dip’ exists for students between the ages of 16 and 18, only to rise again in higher education”.

“Successive governments have failed to give further education the recognition it deserves for the role it pays in our national productivity puzzle,” Mr Halfon said.

Philip Hammond

“As you prepare for the budget later this month and next year’s spending review, we would like to take this opportunity for you to look very carefully at the core level of funding for students in FE, as opposed to targeted announcements.”

His letter follows last week’s education select committee hearing on FE funding, in which sector leaders urged the government to “stop the initiative mania” and focus on core funding.

“We have to work back from what this country needs, we have to do our work in envisioning what an education system should look like post-16, including adult, and then we have to work out what it will cost to fund it,” said Dr Alison Birkinshaw, the former Association of Colleges president.

“Politics needs to come out of it because we cannot afford the short-termism that we get currently.”

Mr Halfon, who is a former skills minister himself, said that the “substantial sums” of £500 million for T-levels and £80 million for Institutes of Technology are to be “welcomed”.

However, the witnesses at last week’s hearing “highlighted some of the particular challenges for further education, including underspends of more than £100 million in recent years, additional costs in the form of VAT, requirements for students to study additional maths and English and the need for specialist facilities for some subjects”.

Mr Halfon told Mr Hammond that FE plays a “vital role in tackling social injustice and providing an educational ladder of opportunity”.

“One in three college students live in the most disadvantaged wards in the country, yet they manage to outperform independent schools when it comes to next steps,” he said.

Look very carefully at the core level of funding for students in FE

“Eighty seven per cent of college students are in education, training or work six months after finishing their course, compared to 82 per cent from independent schools.”

Mr Halfon also used the letter to invite Elizabeth Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, to give evidence in its inquiry on college funding.

“We will, of course, be taking evidence from a minister in the Department for Education towards the end of our inquiry,” he said.

“Given the specifically financial aspects of our inquiry and the link to improving national productivity and creating a skills-based economy, we would also like to hear from a treasury minister.

“I would therefore like to take this opportunity to invite the chief secretary to give evidence to our inquiry on school and college funding on a mutually convenient date later this year, and hope that your officials will be able liaise with the committee staff to make this happen.”

The letter has been published at the start of Colleges Week, in which unions, colleges, and students across the country are coming together to march on parliament to lobby for greater funding.