Labour has pledged to raise the base rate of per-student funding in FE to secondary-school levels and expand the apprenticeship levy if it wins power.

Jeremy Corbyn launched the party’s manifesto at Birmingham City University today ahead of the general election on December 12.

The Labour leader vowed that the party would “make lifelong education a right” and “value technical education as highly as academic learning”.

The manifesto said it was “more important than ever that people have the opportunity to retrain and upskill throughout their lives” with automation and the green revolution bringing major changes to industry.

If elected Labour would reform the apprenticeship levy by allowing it to be used for a wider range of accredited training, launch a climate apprenticeship programme and provide targeted bursaries to encourage the participation of women, black, Asian and minority ethnic people, care leavers, ex-armed forces personnel and people with disabilities.

The manifesto added: “We will reverse the fragmentation and privatisation of further and adult education, incorporating it into a single national system of regulation that functions for education as our NHS does for healthcare provision.”

It is not clear if this would mean that private training providers would no longer have access to public money or whether reversing privatisation would include apprenticeship funding.

Labour was approached to clarify the policy but had not responded at the time of publication.

FE Week previously reported that colleges’ status as independent corporations could be at risk under Labour’s plan for free lifelong learning in 2017, as the party wanted to bring them back under local authority control.

The Labour Party confirmed its intention to abolish the education watchdog, stating in the manifesto: “We will replace Ofsted and transfer responsibility for inspections to a new body, designed to drive school improvement.”

It also said: “Labour will ensure fairness and sustainability in further education,” outlining plans to provide dedicated capital funding to expand provision and reform existing careers advice.

In the accompanying Funding Real Change document, the party announced it will spend £1.4 billion on the restoration of the education maintenance allowance, equalising 16 to 19 funding with key stage 4 and the Union Learning Fund (to give workers the right to accrue paid time off for education and training).

The gap in per-student funding between secondary and 16-18 education was 9 per cent in 2017-18, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The recommendations from Labour’s independent commission on lifelong learning, including free key stage 3 and key stage 4-plus (training with maintenance grants for disadvantaged learners) and the restoration of English for Speakers of Other Languages funding, would cost £3.3 billion.

As Labour announced last week, it would introduce a free lifelong entitlement to training up to level 3, as well as six years of training at levels 4 to 6, with maintenance grants for disadvantaged learners.

The manifesto states that all new spending, marked for 2023/24, is in addition to that announced in all previous fiscal events, up to and including spending round 2019.

Association of Colleges Chief Executive David Hughes praised the announcements.

“The Labour manifesto offers a strong package for the future, with the potential to make real change, for business, for individuals, and for communities,” he said.

“Their commitment to raising the base rate for 16-19 funding, offering a boost for adult and life-long learning, and the reintroduction of an education maintenance allowance, provides a vision for a society that has an ambitious, people-centred education and skills system at the heart of it.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said apprenticeship delivery has a “key part to play in improving skills at all levels and we would be happy to work with a new government to see how reform of the levy can make a real difference”.

However, “we have repeatedly said to Labour, the Liberal Democrats and other bodies that allowing the levy to pay for other forms of training would be premature, especially when current demand for apprenticeships by employers means that the levy is now being overspent”.

Two leading skills organisations have called for a rethink of the construction T-level curriculum ahead of the qualification’s launch next year, as they fear its current set-up is out of date.

It should be changed to include “commissioning and design” based on Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) methodologies, which have been used in northern Europe and elsewhere for decades, according to WorldSkills UK and awarding body NOCN.

“The DFMA approach is based upon maximising the proportion of a building or infrastructure asset that is made in a controlled manufacturing environment and hence reducing the time on-site,” a new joint report explains.

It adds that this concept should, ideally, be added to the T-level construction curriculum before its launch in September 2020.

The two organisations are launching their new report ‘Seeing is Believing: Accessing the World’s Best Skills Innovations’ this morning on the first day of this year’s WorldSkills UK LIVE!, where thousands are expected to attend Birmingham’s NEC to see national skills competitions and meet employers.

Graham Hasting-Evans (pictured), chief executive of NOCN, which is a specialist in construction curriculum after taking over CITB’s assessment arm called CSkills Awards in 2017, worked with WorldSkills UK on the report after visiting the this year’s WorldSkills competition in Russia.

He told delegates at WorldSkills UK LIVE! on Thursday the “big thing” he heard in Russia was skills systems have to be agile and to change with technology, but the UK’s system is not “quick enough” or “agile enough”.

Whereas Hong Kong, which has around the same number of job types in their construction industry as the UK, were able to change their curriculum to introduce new technologies in 12 months, “nobody has a clue” how long it would take in the UK.

Hasting-Evans also said the UK has “missed the opportunity” on T-levels, and the government’s flagship qualification is “not going to prepare us for the skills we need”.

“We need to rethink the structure and curriculum of the construction T-level if we are to drive up productivity in the sector.”

He said about WorldSkills Kazan: “There was a great opportunity to enhance and adapt the learning from other countries and build upon the progress the sector has made on skills over several decades.

“We need to increase productivity by greater use of digital and artificial technologies as well as a move a greater proportion of off-manufacturing (referred to as DFMA) for new construction.”

Two other WorldSkills UK reports will be launched today, including one with the RSA and FETL, which studied best practice in four countries – Shanghai, Singapore, Russia and Switzerland – that have used skills to boost productivity and grow their economies.

The other is with the University of Oxford which focuses on “mainstreaming WorldSkills methodologies to achieve world-class standards in the FE sector”.

Dr Neil Bentley-Gockmann, chief executive of WorldSkills UK, said skills are the “most valuable national resource of all” and “we’ve got before us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build the kind of skills systems that will teach all young people into the 2030s and beyond”.

FE Week is the official media partner of WorldSkills UK LIVE and will be bringing live coverage from the event from Thursday to Saturday.

Three FE colleges in England have been announced as winners of the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for 2018-2020 in a ceremony at St James’s Palace.

London South East Colleges, Dudley College of Technology and Tyne Coast College were among the 22 education providers recognised in the awards. They were recommended by the prime minister and approved by the Queen.

The prizes will be officially presented by a senior member of the Royal Family in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in February.

Dr Sam Parrett, principal of London South East Colleges, said: “London South East Colleges has a very long history of supporting technical and vocational education and this award is a real celebration of our work, reflecting our well-regarded and high-performing education group.

“It’s also fantastic to be representing FE, showcasing some of the pioneering and innovative work that is taking place in our incredible, yet often overlooked, sector.”

London South East Colleges, based in Bromley, was chosen in recognition of the technical and vocational education on offer, including its “pioneering” of a strategic engagement programme within the construction industry.

Tyne Coast College, created from a merger of South Tyneside College and Tyne Metropolitan College, was chosen for creating digital scenarios that allow naval architects to design and implement projects at the South Shields Marine School.

Principal John Roach said: “Our 3D modelling team is in a field of its own in the UK in the expertise it has developed over the past two decades, and its achievements should be celebrated.

“We are known throughout the world for the strength of our maritime training, but this award gives us the global recognition we deserve in another field entirely.”

Dudley College of Technology, the largest provider of advanced vocational and technical education and apprenticeships in the West Midlands, was awarded the prize for “contributing to the economy of the region”.

The college’s chief executive Lowell Williams said: “I see this honour as recognition that further education can be the driver for economic regeneration, particularly of struggling towns in areas of the country that have been left behind by the under investment of successive governments, over many years.

“We never gave up on our vision. We took investment risks. And we always believed in the transformative power of further education. It goes to show so much can be achieved by so many people working together in one place for the good of that place.”

A total of 275 prizes have been awarded to 49 further education colleges and 98 universities since the awards were created in 1993. They are granted every two years.

The only other college to win an award outside of England was Belfast Metropolitan College.

Sir Damon Buffini, chair of the Royal Anniversary Trust, which manages the prizes, said: “Colleges and universities throughout the UK do exceptional work year after year that delivers benefits well beyond the institution – positively affecting education, the economy and wider society in many different ways.

“The criteria are demanding, and competition is strong; it is a great incentive to our colleges and universities to think critically about the direction of their work and its application and relevance in today’s world.”

The 22 award-winning UK further and higher education institutions were recognised this time for “ground-breaking work and pioneering research” in a range of disciplines including science, engineering, education, the humanities, the environment and medicine.

Entries to the scheme are invited in any subject area and are subject to assessment in a process managed by the Royal Anniversary Trust, an independent charity.

PIC: London South East Colleges celebrating winning The Queen’s Anniversary Prize

Refugees who achieved their qualifications after fleeing thousands of miles from their home nations are among the 11 winners of the WEA 2019 Educational Impact Awards.

The awards, which took place this evening, recognise learners, tutors, volunteers, partners and staff from across the nation who have “transformed their own lives and the lives of others through lifelong learning”.

Such as ten refugees and asylum seekers who completed their qualifications after fleeing from Eritrea, Sudan, Yemen and Iraq and have now won the outstanding student group for Science for ESOL Glasgow.

Seven of them gained SCQF level 4 and three gained a certificate of participation during their resettlement process, which the WEA says “gives inspiration to ESOL students across the country that there are different pathways available”.

The WEA’s deputy chief executive Jo Cain gave her congratulations to the winners, saying they are a “fantastic example of how adult education benefits individuals, their families and the communities they live in”.

She added that the awards “are a great way to recognise the impact of adult education”.

The winner of the Olive Cordell foundation student award, learner Hava Cil, has been accepted to study PGCE maths at the University of Oxford after moving from Turkey and studying with the WEA to improve her English.

The outstanding regional partner award has gone to the Dolphin Women’s Centre for providing local women in Washwood Heath – one of Birmingham’s most deprived wards – with creative courses and training and educational courses to support employment.

For his inspiring work teaching art classes to students with varied needs including students with MS, dementia and with mental health needs, Frank Ferrie was presented with the award for outstanding tutor.

Cathy Kirk took home the Olive Cordell foundation tutor award for her efforts with an intensive ESOL programme with the WEA.

Anne Hollis was recognised in the impact in the local community category for being instrumental in starting Reaching Out art classes and widening its reach.

“At a time when many classes are no longer running for students with disabilities,” the WEA said, “the programme has remained full and varied with student success and progress at the centre”.

The social impact award was won by Adult Signpost Haverhill for “their inspiring work with adults who risked becoming marginalised and socially excluded due to mental health conditions”.

And the outstanding student award has been won by Sarah Marie Birks, who started with the WEA’s Helping in Schools programme, which led to her getting a teaching assistant position. She is now starting a BA in education culture and childhood.

Twelve regional award winners have also received awards; and WEA fellowships were bestowed on NOCN group managing director Graham Hasting-Evans, chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute Stephen Evans and the executive chair of Together TV and former chief executive of the Media Trust Caroline Diehl.

FE Week is the official media partner of the WEA 2019 Educational Impact Awards, which are taking place as part of the association’s Adult Education Works campaign.

 

The winners are as follows:

• Outstanding student: Sarah Marie Birks
• Outstanding student group: Science for ESOL Glasgow
• Outstanding volunteer: Norma Hinson
• Impact in your local community: Anne Hollis
• Outstanding tutor: Frank Ferrie
• Outstanding staff member/team: Sam Jones
• Outstanding staff team: Midlands Engine ESOL project
• Outstanding regional partner: Dolphin Women’s Centre
• Social Impact award: Adult Signpost Haverhill
• Olive Cordell foundation tutor: Cathy Kirk
• Olive Cordell foundation student: Hava Cil

Kendal College has been announced as the top college in FE Week’s annual league table for 2019.

This year’s NICDEX rated 172 FE colleges across England in four categories: employer satisfaction, learner satisfaction, 16 to 18 positive progression and adult progression into work.

The criteria is based on performance measures published by the Department for Education.

Kendal College was awarded the title with the highest overall average point score of 37 out of 40.

Principal Kelvin Nash told FE Week: “Kendal College are both proud and delighted to top the NICDEX league table this year.

“The college has a unique culture of support, ambition and maturity that is embedded in everything that we do, which means that our staff, students, and employers all work together in partnership.

“This whole college approach is why I believe we have been recognised as one of the country’s top colleges, and for that I have to thank all the staff and students for making Kendal such a positive and enjoyable place to be.”

Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group came second in this year’s poll with a score of 35.

Abingdon and Witney College came third with a score of 34.

Petroc was crowned the winner last year, after knocking 2016 and 2017 champion Exeter College off the top spot.

In the 2019 NICDEX, Kendal College scored highly in all of the four categories, securing 90.7 per cent for employer satisfaction, 89.8 per cent for learner satisfaction, 85 per cent for 16 to 18 positive progression and 66 per cent for adult progression into work.

Nash said every student was “capable of achieving great things” and he is proud that they have spoken “so positively” about their time at Kendal College.

“As a college we do everything we can to help our students to excel in their studies, and prepare them to think about life after Kendal, and this is reflected in the fact that a high majority of our students now find themselves in sustained employment, further study or higher education,” he added.

The annual college league table, now in its fourth year, was created by FE Week editor Nick Linford.

“The NICDEX was an enjoyable intellectual challenge to create an annual performance table with an overall score, from a mix of key measures,” said Linford.

“Most importantly, NICDEX is transparent. The four measures that make up the NICDEX are published by the DfE.”

Click here to read the full NICDEX supplement.

The Liberal Democrats have pledged to invest an extra £1 billion in FE, including VAT refunds for colleges.

“Further Education is vital route to learning and we will invest to support it,” the party has written in its manifesto, which was published today (click here to read).

The Sixth Form College Association has welcomed the £1 billion boost, which is believed will be used mainly to raise the funding rate for learners aged 16 to 18 – the SFCA has been campaigning for this to be raised to £4,760 with their Raise the Rate campaign.

Association chief executive Bill Watkin said this would “help to ensure that colleges and schools have the resources they need to provide every 16 to 18-year-old with a high-quality education”.

VAT costs, on average, for each sixth form college totals £350,000 a year, according to the SFCA.

Watkin said this scrapping this “learning tax” is the right call as it means more cash can be spent on front-line education for students.

Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said: “It’s great to see another major further education announcement from a major political party. It is clear, whoever you talk to that colleges play a huge role in answering the big questions facing the country.”

According to the association, refunding VAT would be worth £150 million to general FE colleges annually.

The Liberal Democrats would also invest to clear the backlog of repairs to school and college buildings “so they are safe places to learn in” – although the party has not put a figure on how much this would cost.

The party also wants to expand the apprenticeship levy to “help prepare the UK’s workforce for the economic challenges ahead” by diverting 25 per cent of the funds raised from companies going into a ‘Social Mobility Fund’ targeted at areas with the greatest skill needs.

New sector-led National Colleges to back up a major expansion of high-quality apprenticeships, including higher apprenticeships, has also made it into the Liberal Democrats’ 100-page document.

These national colleges would be “centres of expertise for key sectors”, such as renewable energy, to deliver the high-level vocational skills that businesses need.

Which sounds very similar to the national colleges launched by the Conservatives in 2014 – one of which is surviving on a taxpayer bailout and is looking at dissolving while another has dramatically altered its offering after also receiving a bailout.

The party wants to create a ‘Young People’s Premium’, which would be based on the same eligibility criteria as the pupil premium that schools currently benefit from, but a portion of it would be paid directly to a young person aged 16 to 18.

There is also the Skills Wallet, which would give adults £10,000 to spend on education and training over 30 years, that was announced last week.

Improvements to wider vocational education are also on offer: the Liberal Democrats would seek to “improve careers advice and links with employers in schools and colleges” to include skills for entrepreneurship and self-employment.

Its manifesto also pledged to establish a Student Mental Health Charter which will require all universities and colleges to “ensure a good level of mental health provisions and services for students”.

According to the party’s own costings, their promises for further education, skills and youth services would cost £1.6 billion.

The Liberal Democrats are the first major political party to launch their manifesto for this year’s general election.

The Conservatives have so far pledged a £1.8 billion capital investment for colleges, while Labour has announced a raft of pledges for lifelong learning.

Labour’s manifesto is expected to be launched tomorrow.

Pictured: Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson and the party’s education spokesperson Layla Moran.

A learner with hearing and speech difficulties who also works as a carer for his twin sister is among the winners of the Association of Colleges’ Student of the Year Awards 2019.

The gongs, which include Young Student, Adult Student, Apprentice and Higher Education Student of the Year, were given out at the annual AoC conference gala dinner in Birmingham tonight.

They followed the introduction of the first-ever AoC President’s Award, earlier in the day, which was handed to a team of students from Brockenhurst College for their petition during the Love Our Colleges campaign.

Steve Frampton, AoC President, said: “Each year the level of applications is extremely high, and it goes to show the fantastic work that students are doing in colleges as well as the lengths colleges go to support their students.

“They have done amazingly well to win and should rightly be proud of their achievements.”

Billy Gibbons, from South Essex College, claimed the top prize for ‘Young Student of the Year’.

The student, who has profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, speech and language delay, developmental delay and an auditory processing impairment, achieved a D*D* in his 90 Credit Diploma in public services.

Gibbons, who also helps as a carer for his twin sister, obtained a distinction in every assessment.

He recently went to Buckingham Palace to receive his gold Duke of Edinburgh award and has completed training as a fire cadet within Essex County Fire and Rescue Service.

The runners-up in the category were Sibgha Amin, from Stoke on Trent College, and Macy Sheil, from Trafford College.

‘Apprentice of the Year’ was won by Tia Whelan, from Leicester College.

Whelan completed a three-year plumbing course before starting her property maintenance operative apprenticeship at UK Gas, where she is the first female in the team.

She now takes on her own work experience students and has visited 10 schools and colleges over the last six months to speak to students about the construction industry and promote the programme to female students.

Leicester College staff said Whelan, who is dyslexic, is also working at distinction level.

Lauren Polson, from London South East Colleges, and Luke Leech, from Bournemouth & Poole College, were both runners-up.

Ryan Kimber, from the Isle of Wight College, beat Roxanne Willoughby, from the Northern College and Malcolm Thwala, from Hugh Baird College, to win ‘Adult Student of the Year.’

He achieved D*D*D* in his Extended Diploma Engineering Level 3 BTEC after being diagnosed with brain and spinal cancer in 2016.

Kimber was headhunted by GKN Aerospace to design a project for their craft apprentices as a result of successful work placements.

He also volunteers for CLIC Sargent.

The college’s chair, Nicholas England, said: “It has been a privilege to see how much this young man has developed during his time at the college.”

The Higher Education Student of the Year was awarded to Benjie Kusita, from Bradford College, who is studying a BA (Hons) Media Makeup with Special Effects, ahead of Matthew Chilvers, from Loughborough College, and Henry Green, from Weston College.

Earlier in the day Frampton announced a new prize, the President’s Award, which was established to recognise those who have made a unique and lasting impact on the further education sector.

Brockenhurst College were the first ever winners, in recognition of their work in the Love Our Colleges campaign.

The college’s online petition gathered more than 70,000 signatures, which paved the way for a debate in Westminster about college funding.

 

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has today recommended a new, more “robust approach” to subcontracting in an effort to avoid an outright ban.

Subcontracting in FE, the practice of one provider paying another to deliver the training, has never been far from scandal and controversy. It has already been banned for advanced learner loan funded courses.

In what the AELP describes as a “last chance saloon” for subcontracting apprenticeships and adult education budget funding, its chief executive, Mark Dawe, claims “by incorporating the recommendations in our submission into its rules, the agency can avoid ministers demanding a ban”.

“Examples of subcontracting malpractice do not justify at all a call for an outright ban on subcontracting”

The ESFA announced plans last month for a radical overhaul of its subcontracting rules amid high-profile cases of fraud, while Ofsted has launched research into the practice.

In its submission, the AELP said the “vast majority” of subcontracting is “high quality” and officials must not take a “damagingly blunt” approach to address the behaviours of a small number of providers.

The requirement and expectations of main providers who subcontract out government funding should be “much more robust” in order to ensure integrity.

AELP has produced a checklist of the “minimum expectations” of the main provider, which they say is significantly above and beyond the current ESFA rules and “should be adopted across the sector”.

This includes: acceptable fees, charges and additional services, quality monitoring and quality assurance, MIS, audit and ILR services, and contracting management (read the full report here).

The association says there also needs to be clarity on the “different types of subcontracting and what is and what isn’t a subcontract to help alleviate confusion across the sector, including with employers”.

AELP has used its submission paper to again call again for fees and charges not to exceed 20 per cent of the funding – a recommendation that has been adopted by the Greater London Authority and other mayoral combined authorities with devolved adult education funding.

This maximum cap would “block the profiteering of a small number of providers who commoditise their privileged access to government funding and ensure value for money”.

AELP adds that there should be a clear policy on management fees and charges being only applicable to core funding and not additional funding “designed to support specific groups of learners or to support certain additional needs”.

ESFA should also procure funding from providers that is “continuously subcontracted out on a transitional basis”, the association’s submission said.

“Recent examples of subcontracting malpractice do not justify at all a call for an outright ban on subcontracting in the sector, but a much more robust approach on the part of the ESFA and Ofsted would make a huge difference in stopping further examples occurring,” Dawe (pictured) said.

“Over the last ten years, AELP feels that the ESFA has rather dragged its heels in making the required changes needed in its funding rules to put the issue to bed and we are probably now in the last chance saloon.”

“Let’s have no more prevarication around this issue”

He added: “Let’s have no more prevarication around this issue which has been damaging the sector’s reputation for far too long. Change the rules now.”

Eileen Milner, the chief executive of the ESFA, sent a sector-wide letter last month warning of rule changes to subcontracting and that she will take strong action against any provider that abuses the system.

She said there are currently 11 live investigations into subcontracting, with issues underpinning them ranging in seriousness from “complacency and mismanagement”, through to matters of “deliberate and systematic fraud”.

She revealed the government will review its current subcontracting rules later this year.

Ofsted’s research will mainly look at whether management fees, which have controversially grown to as much as 40 per cent on subcontract values, are having a detrimental impact on learners’ education.

There have been a number of high-profile subcontracting scandals in recent years. The most recent involved Brooklands College and resulted in the ESFA demanding a £20 million clawback.