EuroSkills 2018: Team UK arrive in Budapest

Team UK are “super excited” to have today landed in Hungary ahead EuroSkills 2018.

The 22 competitors flew nearly 1,000 miles to Budapest from Luton airport at roughly 9am this morning and spent the rest of the day touring the city centre before heading to the capital’s stunning houses of parliament.

FE Week caught up with a couple of Team UK’s competitors a few hours after landing to find out how the camp is feeling.

“The team feeling is great, it really makes you want to go for the competition,” said heavy truck maintenance contender Kieran Leyland.

“We’ve got familiarisation tomorrow to see what equipment we’re going to be using and the specifics on the tasks we’ll be doing before competing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.”

Asked if he will be going for gold, Kieran added: “Yeah definitely. You’ve got to do your best and see how it comes out in the end.”

Floristry competitor Elizabeth Newcombe said she and her teammates are “super excited” and “can’t wait to get into the competition”.

“I’m ready to go for it and give it everything I’ve got,” she added.

“[In the build to the competiton] I will be going over my notes, sketches, get everything ready to go and get into the right mindset.

“I’m hoping to get gold. Let’s see what happens.”

The team will look to get in an early night tonight ahead of their familiarisation day tomorrow, where they can scout out the competition floor at the HUNGEXPO Budapest exhibition centre.

Later that evening EuroSkills Budapest will host the opening ceremony before competitions start on Wednesday (September 26).

The tournament will conclude on Friday with the closing ceremony held the day after where results will be revealed.

FE Week is media partner and will be covering the competition every step of the way. Follow us on Twitter @feweek using the hashtags #TeamUK and #euroskillsbudapest2018.

Team UK prepare to fly to Budapest at Luton airport

Labour Conference 2018: No closer to revealing FE policy in shadow secretary speech

Labour has done little to shine a light on the party’s plans for FE policy as the shadow education minister stopped short of going into any details on the subject during her speech at the party’s conference.

The hotly awaited address from Angela Rayner did not include any new policy announcements about FE and skills, or any details about existing policies. 

Although Ms Rayner did speak about the formation of a commission for lifelong learning, this was first suggested in the party’s 2017 election manifesto which said the commission would be part of the National Education Service and “tasked with integrating further and higher education”. 

However, no further details were provided today on what this would entail or how it would be funded. 

At the party conference in Liverpool, Ms Rayner said: “I know from my own life that sometimes people need a second chance later in life. So we’ll provide not just free higher education but free further education. 

“And we’ll ask experts from across the field to join our lifelong learning commission, led by our shadow minister Gordon Marsden. Because we’re not afraid to hear from experts. In fact, we welcome it.”

Elsewhere in her speech, she also accused the Conservative government of giving the country “a million fewer adult learners.” 

 

Angela Rayner’s full speech  

(before checking against delivery)

“Conference, we’re at our best when we work together.

“That is what we did when we stopped the Tories in their tracks last year. Just look at their manifesto. If you can find a library they haven’t closed, you’ll find it under ‘political fiction’.

“And if you read now what they claimed they’d do then, you’ll find more self-serving delusion than Donald Trump’s twitter feed.

“Since then, our opposition under Jeremy Corbyn has lit a bonfire of the vanity projects.

“The Tories are in retreat on every issue from free schools to free school meals, which were saved by the campaigning of so many in this room and outside it.

“Just last week, we forced them to give up a plan to spend 20 million pounds on taxis to chauffeur a few hundred individual pupils up to thirty miles a day to get to their nearest grammar school. All while cutting transport for disabled children to get to their local school. And what did they do with the money? Not reinvest it, but return it to the Treasury!

“This when they have broken promise after promise to properly fund our schools. If there was an Ofsted for politics, the Tories would fail their inspection and be forced to convert to a Labour government.

“And I’ll tell you what that Labour government will do.

“Our National Education Service will not only reverse the cuts but tackle the inefficiency of the Tories’ school system and take power from corporations and hand it to communities.

“We’ll start by immediately ending the Tories’ academy and free schools programmes. They neither improve standards nor empower staff or parents. Instead, they’ve been shut out and cut out by Tory ministers in Whitehall.

“Like the schools minister in the Lords, who has his own academy chain but won’t say how he deals with the conflict of interest. An unelected minister, literally refusing to be transparent about his own transparency policy.

“If only he was as accountable to us as he wants teachers to be to him.

“And it’s the same for our councils. The Tories talk about devolution. But they want to hand down the blame, not the budget. Councillors are left responsible for school places but without the power to create them.

“So we will allow them to build schools, create new places and take back control of admissions from academy trusts.

“We’ll also tackle the problem of trusts that fail, leaving schools stranded outside the system. Imagine being in an organisation facing a crisis but with no leadership or direction. You’d think Tory ministers would know the feeling.

“Yet that’s what they’ve inflicted on an ever increasing number of schools. So we’ll allow academies to return to local authority control. We’ll end the scandal of individuals and companies profiting from schools they are involved in, stopping fat cat pay for bosses and restoring fair pay for staff.

“And we will use our time in government to bring all publicly funded schools back into the mainstream public sector, with a common rulebook and under local democratic control.

“On issues like the rising cost of school uniforms, parents have no say, while others profit. The Tories promised to empower people but we know the reality. Not taking back control. But taking it away.

“And where parents and staff want to go further in launching and leading their own schools, our own movement already has an answer: co-operative schools – as part of the local schools family.

“Attacked by the Tories, under Labour they will be part of John McDonnell’s co-operative vision. They will just be one part of the most ambitious school building programme ever, delivered without the waste and inefficiency of free schools and, as we set out in the election, backed by eight billion pounds of investment.

“And let me be clear that if I have anything to do with it, not one brick will be laid by a company that doesn’t pay its taxes or a builder who is falsely self-employed. 

“The cost of free market failure is highest in the most important area of schools’ spending. Their staff. Years of real terms pay cuts, rising workloads, and failure to plan the workforce have created a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.

“The result is that private recruitment agencies rake in over half a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money every year, in fees alone. Our money, spent on profit not pay.

“The Tories talk about public sector waste. Well I’ll tell you, there’s no bigger waste in our education system than this.

“So led by our shadow schools minister Mike Kane, we’ll set out plans for a state funded teacher supply service, fixing the failure of the free market, cutting out the waste and stopping the exploitation of agency workers.

“Too often those who suffer most from staff shortages are children with special educational needs and disabilities. So our National Education Service Charter, the result of thousands of submissions from our members and others, guarantees it will be truly inclusive.

“That is why our shadow children’s minister Emma Lewell-Buck will lead plans to stop those with special educational needs and disabilities from falling out of the school system. And we would back it up with a record investment in modernising school buildings to make sure they are accessible to all who could learn in them.

“Providing an excellent education to the many and not a privileged few.

2And to achieve that, we must start before school. Nowhere is this Conservative government’s failure starker than in the early years, which make the greatest impact on a child’s life. They promised 30 hours high quality free childcare a week.

“But one in seven families now pay more, and nearly one in ten providers risk going bust. Even worse, the very families who need help the most, are least likely to get it. That’s why shadow early years minister Tracy Brabin has led our plans for a new public service, offering free early education for all two to four-year-olds and reinventing our state nurseries.

“A policy as radical as anything proposed by any Labour government in our history.

“But I know from my own life that sometimes people need a second chance later in life. So we’ll provide not just free higher education but free further education.

“And we’ll ask experts from across the field to join our lifelong learning commission, led by our shadow minister Gordon Marsden. Because we’re not afraid to hear from experts. in fact, we welcome it.

“We’ll do the same when we revise assessment and the curriculum. That includes making sure that people know how to use their rights, including joining a trade union, which changed my life. 

“Conference, after last year’s election, there were even some Tories who wanted socialism on the curriculum too. They thought that if schools taught young people the history of communism, they wouldn’t vote Labour. 

“I have to tell them, young people didn’t turn to us because they don’t know their history but because they do know their future. They don’t need re-education, they need free education. Because a society where education is free, is a society where people are free.

“Conference, we heard earlier today from our shadow chancellor how a Labour government will redistribute wealth, and our National Education Service will play its part.

“But it’s also about redistributing power. Because poverty isn’t just about being penniless. It’s also about being powerless.

“Powerless compared to your employer, your landlord, big business and even the welfare system created to support you but which the Tories have turned against you.

“So our National Education Service isn’t just about educating. It’s about empowering. Allowing people to take control over their own lives.

“And that must be what we do in politics too. To make clear to people, as Jeremy [Corbyn] said: you don’t have to take what you’re given.

“And what have the Tories given us?

“A million fewer adult learners. 

“A thousand Sure Start centres lost.

“A billion pounds cut from children’s services.

“State nurseries fearing for their future.

“Children going hungry.

“Cuts targeted at the very people who need our support the most.

“Conference, in the run up to the next Budget, our task is to lead parents, teachers, trade unions and communities in demanding better. And make clear, we offer better.

“Our National Education Service. In the words of the anthem we’ll sing this week, a banner bright and symbol plain, of human right, and human gain. That is education under a Labour government. A human right, for human gain.

“Conference, we have already changed the political direction of this country. Together we have fought austerity. Now, Conference – let’s end it.”

See our sister paper FE Week for Labour’s planned reforms to the school system announced at the conference.

Lewisham Southwark College to become two separate colleges

Lewisham Southwark College is set to become two separate colleges again, just six years after it was formed through a merger.

The move was announced today by Joe Docherty, chief executive of NCG, which the college joined in 2017.

“This decision will allow the newly-established colleges to develop curriculum programmes that better meet the needs of the communities they serve, and to work more closely with key stakeholders, including crucially the local authorities of Lewisham and Southwark,” he said.

New principals will be appointed to lead Lewisham College and Southwark College, Mr Docherty said, “both charged with the opportunity to make sure the offer better meets the respective local challenges while continuing to collaborate on areas where that makes sense”.

Both colleges will remain part of NCG following the de-coupling, which is set to take place on October 1.

Staff, student and parents will be consulted on the changes, although no redundancies are planned.

Damien Egan, mayor of Lewisham and councillor Peter John, leader of Southwark Council, both welcomed the decision. 

“This move will allow the newly-branded Lewisham College to tailor their curriculum to the needs of our borough,” Mr Egan said.

Mr John said that Southwark residents “deserve a better and more focused further education offer than we have had in recent years”.

Lewisham Southwark College was formed in 2012 through the merger of Lewisham College and Southwark College.

Since then it has had a troubled time, including a failed rebrand and two ‘inadequate’ Ofsted ratings in a row – the first FE and skills provider to do so.

In August 2017 it merged with NCG, despite concerns being raised by Lewisham council over the sense of the college joining a college group based 300 miles away.

Earlier this year staff at the college walked out on strike in a dispute with NCG bosses over pay. 

 

3aaa told staff to leave dates off paperwork and not to tell customers about new starts ban

Crisis-hit Aspire Achieve Advance has been telling its staff to not date any paperwork for “planned enrolments” in the midst of a government suspension on recruiting apprentices.

Employees at the apprenticeship giant, better known as 3aaa, were also instructed not to tell current and prospective employers that the ban has been placed upon it.

The provider has denied any wrongdoing.

Emails sent to staff on Monday morning (September 17), seen by FE Week, have exposed the activity at the training provider which is subject to an ongoing ESFA investigation.

No apprentices have been enrolled since the suspension

3aaa’s new managing director Richard Irons, who took over running the company on Monday after co-founders Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson resigned, provided staff with a company update.

This informed them of the departures of Mr Marples and Ms McEvoy-Robinson. It then stated that Mr Irons had “taken the decision with the support of the board to pause all enrolments until I am fully comfortable with all elements of our activities”.

This is despite 3aaa confirming to FE Week the following day that it was in fact the ESFA who told the provider to stop taking on new starters.

Mr Irons added: “I expect this process to take approximately one month and we should plan on the basis that enrolments will restart no later than 1st November.”

A subsequent communication made by a different 3aaa boss said they had been “instructed” to tell seniors to inform other staff not to tell clients that the provider has been barred from enrolling new apprenticeship starts, and not to date any paperwork associated with “planned enrolments”.

FE Week has meanwhile been contacted by other businesses this week who claim 3aaa has been calling them to offer new apprenticeships despite the suspension, which is not guaranteed to be lifted.

A spokesperson for 3aaa did not deny the instructions went out to staff, but offered the following statement published here in full: “3aaa has agreed a suspension of apprentice enrolments with the ESFA.

“As a result, when current employers or potential employers of apprentices contact us we explain the situation with regard to the freeze.

“We can confirm that, in accordance with the agreement with the ESFA, no apprentices have been enrolled since the suspension.”

It is understood that the pause in starts will not be lifted at least until Ofsted’s inspection of the provider has been completed.

Mr Irons’ company update revealed that the provider is expecting a visit in the next few weeks, but it won’t be another full inspection.

“As you are aware, we are yet to receive our final Ofsted report and we continue to have positive engagement with both Ofsted and the ESFA,” he said.

This is an exciting time for the business

“We expect that Ofsted will revisit the business in the next few weeks to review the final 2017-18 data before our report is issued. We are not expecting a full re-inspection and this process will be in parallel with filing our critical 2017-18 period 14 submission mid-October.”

He concludes by saying: “This is an exciting time for the business during which the senior management team and I look forward to working with you closely over the coming weeks to help define the future.”

3aaa had the largest allocation for non-levy apprenticeships last year at nearly £22 million. Its overall ESFA allocations totalled more than £31 million.

In June FE Week revealed that 3aaa’s latest Ofsted inspection, which was expected to result in another “outstanding” rating, had been declared incomplete following intervention from the ESFA after claims by a whistleblower.

A month later it was revealed that an independent auditor, Alyson Gerner, had been called in by the Department for Education to investigate its own funding agency over their contract management of 3aaa.

When asked what action the agency would take following this latest revelation, a DfE spokesperson said: “We do not comment on any investigations, ongoing or otherwise.”

Ofsted’s Amanda Spielman on T-levels, funding and research spending

London South East Colleges has hosted the highest echelons of Ofsted after the inspectorate’s chair chose its Bromley Campus for his landmark lecture. 

Amanda Spielman, the education watchdog’s chief inspector, and chair of its board Professor Julius Weinberg were given a tour of the college before Professor Weinberg gave a speech reflecting on his first year at the helm.

FE Week took the opportunity to sit down with Ms Spielman to talk about the some of the biggest issues currently facing FE.

As the introduction of T-levels looms ever nearer on the horizon, with the first pathways due to be introduced in 2020, the chief inspector admitted that the inspectorate is still unsure how performance of the new qualification will be measured.

“First of all, the government has got to get clear on what T-levels are really going to be, and get them to the point of being ready for teaching. It will be a bit later in the process that we really start to think about what it is that we will be able to look at and how,” she said. 

Professor Julius delivered a landmark lecture

“Essentially, T-levels themselves – their shape and form and implementation – has to be clear before we can design how we inspect.”

She also didn’t rule out that Ofsted’s role in ensuring quality T-levels could include directly inspecting workplaces, but said it was “too early to say”. 

At a time of squeezed budgets, Ms Spielman also defended the inspectorate’s increased focus and spend on research, and said one of the regulator’s main reasons for conducting so much research was to “look at the validity and reliability of its own processes” and to draw together “insights that we get from our birds eye view” from inspecting thousands of providers every year. 

“It makes people grumpy and we’re criticised if we don’t draw together the insight from that and put it out in a form that’s useful for the sector,” she said. 

“What we’ve done over the last year and a half is really just to reinstate some of the capacity that we used to have that had been stripped out over the last few years, to get us back to a sensible level of research team of a scale that fits the operation we have.” 

Professor Weinberg insisted that a “small proportion of the budget” was spent on research, and denied
suggestions of a board disagreement over the matter. Board minutes from last November showed questions being raised about “what, if anything, regional directors would need to stop doing” in order to carry out the research programme and how much such a programme would cost over two years.

Professor Weinberg said: “One of our roles as a board is challenge and scrutiny. So when Amanda [Spielman] proposes a spend, because we are not flush with money, every spend has an opportunity cost. So if we spend on one thing, it does mean we have less to spend elsewhere, although we’ve been extraordinarily good at maintaining our level of activity and finding ways of saving money.

“The board did exactly what it should do. It’s in the minutes because we scrutinised and we challenged and we were convinced. We absolutely support the research money.”

The Ofsted bosses appearance at a college came in the same week that a damning report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies warned that FE has been hit the hardest in the education sector by cuts to government funding.

The IFS report found that spending per student had fallen eight per cent in real terms since 2010-11, and Ms Spielman acknowledged that a “decline in quality” in FE “may” be linked to the lower funding.

“We’ve seen and acknowledged previously that funding for FE has declined a lot relative to schools, and
it’s got a tough job to do with all the technical and vocational education. And we’ve also seen a decline in quality in the sector. They may be related.

“What I can’t do is definitively attribute, because the work we do doesn’t investigate to the point of being
able to say ‘this is because of that’, but we have seen a decline in quality in the sector in recent years which is a concern to us.”

When asked whether a possible link between a drop in quality in FE and lower funding should be investigated, Ms Spielman suggested this was not a job for Ofsted.

“The ESFA is the funding agency which has the direct line into what colleges are spending money on,”she said. “Pulling together the information in the system to get a clear picture is generally good news.”

She also said it was too early to say whether college mergers were successful in raising quality, as there have only been three inspections of institutions after “area review driven mergers” so far.

“I don’t think you can draw very much from that small an evidence base,” Ms Spielman said. “I think in the
coming years we’ll start to see a little more coming through. 

 “The profile of inspection outcomes will shed some light on it, but one of the difficult things about mergers is it takes quite some time after them happening before you know if they’ve worked or not.”

 

Team UK all set for EuroSkills 2018 in Budapest

Twenty two of the UK’s most highly skilled young people will fly to Budapest next week to compete in EuroSkills 2018.

The team will go up against the best Europe has to offer from 27 countries in disciplines ranging from mechatronics to cooking, heavy truck maintenance to floristry.

Each member of Team UK has swapped their evenings, weekends, and social life for dogged training regimes over the past year, ever since they won places at the UK’s Skills Show, now known as WorldSkills UK Live, last year.

Now the training is over, the team is raring to compete in what will be the first international competition for most of them.

Everyone in the team has been hard at it, working on weekends and in holiday periods

“Prep has gone really well,” said WorldSkills UK chief executive Dr Neil Bentley. “Everyone in the team has been hard at it, working on weekends and in holiday periods.

“What’s been really good is the sense of togetherness that you see at the boot camps and the camaraderie that they’ve got.”

He said the target was to finish in the top 10.

EuroSkills is the sister competition to WorldSkills, often referred to as the “Olympics of skills”, and takes place every two years.

On offer to competitors are gold, silver and bronze medals as well as medallions of excellence, achieved whenever a team member reaches the international standard in their discipline.

At the last EuroSkills in Gothenburg in 2016, Team UK won two gold medals, one silver, two bronzes and eight medallions of excellence.

Among the competitors this year is Shane Carpenter, who is employed by BAE Systems and will compete in IT network administration.

The 22-year-old is no stranger to the process and competed in WorldSkills Abu Dhabi last year where he achieved a medallion of excellence.

“I would like this time to get top three because I missed out slightly in Abu Dhabi after a few mistakes and that is what I’ve learnt from. I’m pretty confident,” he told FE Week.

Skills minister Anne Milton sang the praises of Team UK at a special send-off event in Parliament earlier this month.

She told them life today is “no longer about what you know, it is about what skills you have got as well”.

“You will be going out to Budapest representing your country and doing us proud.”

Speaking to FE Week after the event she added: “It is going to take endurance, fortitude and determination to show the rest of Europe what they can do. Good luck to them all.”

Team UK flies to Hungary on September 24, and will take part in three days of intense competition between September 26 and 28.

FE Week is media partner and will be reporting every step of the way.

Major DfE research says ‘no evidence’ the £350m Employer Ownership Pilot had impact

A £350 million employer ownership of skills pilot failed to have any impact at all, a damning evaluation report published by the Department for Education today has revealed.

The project, which ran from 2012 to 2017, was designed to test the effect that giving employers direct access to public funding had on their own investment in skills, or if it boosted skills in the workforce.

It failed on all counts, according to today’s evaluation report, written jointly by CFE Research and the University of Sheffield – in part because the money went to employers that were already involved in training.

The findings have prompted the Association of Employment and Learning Providers to call for an inquiry.

“There is no evidence to suggest that EOP has changed attitudes towards training or that it led to subsequent increases in the number of staff trained,” the report said.

This was partly due to “high levels of training already undertaken by EOP employers” and the “positive attitudes towards training they already held”.

“As such, EOP cannot be said to have reached a large cohort of employers that had not previously trained their staff.”

Further analysis showed that after one year employers in the pilot “do not report higher levels of training compared to a matched counterfactual group”.

This was based on “the proportion of employers delivering training; the average number of workers trained; and the average proportion of the workforce trained”.

Although the salaries of learners in the pilot “sometimes increased following the programme”, the level of increase was “no different to that experienced by other individuals on workplace training outside of EOP”.

“This whole exercise was a very sorry tale based on a poorly misguided reading of the skills marketplace,” said Mark Dawe, AELP chief executive. 

“Lessons have been learnt, especially in relation to the apprenticeship reforms, about the importance of providers in supporting employers in the delivery of publicly funded programmes, but given this involved a budget which was half the size of the young people’s apprenticeship budget, we believe an inquiry is called for.”

The pilot was announced in November 2011 by former prime minister David Cameron (pictured above), who said he hoped “this radical new approach will encourage even more employers to take on apprentices and ensure that the UK workforce has the skills we need to boost growth”.

It was led by the now-defunct UK Commission for Employment and Skills, before responsibility passed to the DfE as part of the machinery of government changes in 2016.

A review of the first stage of the pilot, published in April 2015, found it had resulted in less than 40 per cent of the starts originally planned.

Today’s report found that around most employers involved in the pilot had a “positive experience”.

“We are pleased that learners and employers who took part in the pilot found the training beneficial,” a DfE spokesperson said.

“We have drawn useful lessons from this pilot, and employers remain at the heart of our skills programme.”

 

DfE given just 48 hours to rescue high-profile college from cash crisis

A college in financial crisis requested a multi-million pound government bailout just 48 hours before it would have run out of cash, FE Week understands.

West Nottinghamshire College, whose principal Dame Asha Khemka is one of the highest paid college bosses in England, received a £2.1 million exceptional financial support loan from the Education and Skills Funding Agency in July.

The ESFA published a financial health notice to improve this week, which triggers a formal review from the intervention team and the FE Commissioner.

FE Week can now reveal that the last-minute loan was requested after the “partial” sale of its software company was pulled at the eleventh hour.

Part of the college’s plan for financial recovery was the partial sale of bksb

A spokesperson for WNC told FE Week: “Part of the college’s plan for financial recovery was the partial sale of its highly successful and profitable subsidiary company bksb.

“Until late June/early July, the college understood this sale was proceeding well and would address the short-term cash flow issues at the end of 2017/18.

“However, as the terms of that deal became apparent, it was clear that it did not represent good value for the college or bksb and as a result the board took the decision not to proceed.

“Consequently, the college found itself in the position of needing to approach the ESFA for exceptional financial support at short notice.”

Bksb, which is wholly owned by WNC and claims to be the UK’s “most popular eLearning solution for functional skills and GCSE”, has a turnover of £3.4 million and made £1.5 million pre-tax profits for the college in 2016/17.

WNC’s former deputy principal and finance director Alastair Thomson told FE Week that he took on the sale of an unnamed “asset” when he joined in April this year and negotiated a value “well in excess of the amount the college had initially sought” before leaving for an overseas holiday.

When he returned the principal and governing body “without consulting me decided not to pursue the plan”, he claimed.

“I asked to meet with governors on several occasions following my return from leave to discuss a range of issues and they have steadfastly refused to meet with me and explain the basis for their decisions in this and a number of other matters,” he said.

WNC board minutes published April 2018

Mr Thomson left the college on July 20, four months after his arrival. The terms of his departure are unknown.

Board minutes from April say the college was running low on reserves which were below the £9 million set in its banking covenants. The college has a £15 million loan outstanding with Lloyds Bank, which was negotiated in 2012 to pay for redevelopment and has another 20 years to run.

The minutes also reveal the college’s worryingly low cash days – the number of days an organisation can continue to pay its operating expenses given the amount of cash available.

For colleges these are benchmarked by the FE Commissioner at 25.

“The current position is 11 days and therefore the margin for error on cash is incredibly tight and will present some challenges,” the minutes say.

The financial crisis is said to have been brewing for years because of decisions made by the principal and governing body, according to Mr Thomson.

“What I can say is that the college’s current financial challenges had very little to do with the sort of cash management issues that I, or any other finance director, would have been able to manage as they were the natural consequences of a number of strategic decisions made by the principal and governing body,” he claimed.

The college’s 2015/16 accounts make reference to investing £6.5 million along with cash from the Local Enterprise Partnership to build a higher skills centre.

And board minutes from as long ago as July 2016 note that “one member of the board challenged the senior team and asked whether the college generally has an over-optimistic view of its ability to take on new projects”.

The college’s accounts for 2016/17 have yet to be published.

The financial challenges were the natural consequences of strategic decisions made by the principal and governing body

A spokesperson said the aim was to publish them in October, 10 months late. Dame Asha’s £262,000 remuneration package has meanwhile been confirmed.

Earlier this year WNC blamed changes in apprenticeship subcontracting rules, which reduced their income from management fees, for having to cut more than 100 jobs in an effort to make £2.7 million in savings.

The 2015/16 accounts also describe the college missing its adult skills budget target by £700,000 and board minutes from April 2018 suggest under-delivery continues to be a problem.

Leigh Powell, UNISON’s national officer for FE, claims the college has repeatedly refused to heed financial warnings.

“It’s a disgrace that financial troubles have escalated to this level,” she said.

“Senior managers at the college have played fast and loose with public money to the detriment of students’ education and the future of the dedicated staff who work there.

“Staff are now left wondering who will be leading the financial recovery plan and how future changes will affect them.”

The WNC spokesperson said he was “unable to provide any further comment on matters relating to the FE Commissioner’s recommendations but would be willing to do so on their publication.”

Ofsted Watch: Apprenticeship provider ‘requires improvement’ amid flurry of monitoring visits

An independent learning provider has been given a grade three rating across the board in its first Ofsted inspection as the results for five more early monitoring visits of apprenticeship providers have been published. 

The only full Ofsted inspection published this week saw Encompass Consultancy gaining a ‘requires improvement’ judgement in every possible category. 

The Hull-based provider, which has delivered apprenticeships as a subcontractor since 2013 but secured its own contract to deliver non-levy funded apprenticeships in the last academic year, was criticised by inspectors for being “slow” to make improvements. 

The report said that managers were “not sufficiently self-critical” in assessing the quality of the provision provided, and found the current self-assessment plan to be “overgenerous” and not paying enough attention to the delivery of the two subcontractors it works with. 

However, the report did note that directors had “recently” recognised the issues and appointed a new management team to implement improvements, and said “sensible steps” had been taken to focus the curriculum on management apprenticeships and employability training. 

Inspectors also found that “too many” adult learners on courses funded through advanced learner loans “make slow progress”, with just over half completing their courses and achieving their qualifications within the planned timescales in 2016/17.

They also warned of “significant gaps” in the progress of different groups of adult learners, including between men and women and between Asian and white British learners. 

When assessing apprenticeships at the provider, Ofsted warned that the quality of teaching, learning and assessment was currently “not good enough” to allow apprentices to make the progress expected of them. 

Five more early monitoring visit reports were also published this week as part of the inspectorate’s scrutiny on new apprenticeship providers. 

Securitas Security Services (UK) was found to be making ‘insufficient’ progress in two of the three themes looked at by inspectors, who warned that the provider did not have enough assessors to meet the needs of its 650 apprentices. 

“Most apprentices do not have a choice about enrolling for the apprenticeship training programme. As a result of this compulsory training, apprentices do not enjoy their learning or understand its nature,” the report said. 

The Mitre Group also received two ‘insufficient’ ratings from Ofsted this week, and was particularly criticised for its lack of off-the-job training and the quality of apprenticeship provision. 

Under new rules from the Education and Skills Funding Agency, any provider with an ‘insufficient’ rating in at least one theme will be banned from taking on any new apprentices – either directly or through subcontracting agreements – until the grade improves.

However, there was better news for the three other providers to have monitoring visits published this week. Darwin Training, ABM Training (UK) and icount Training were all found to be making ‘reasonable’ progress in the themes looked at by inspectors, and Darwin Training was commended for making ‘significant’ progress in ensuring safeguarding is effective. 

 

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade
icount Training 14/08/2018 17/09/2018 M
Encompass Consultancy  07/08/2018 17/09/2018 3
Mitre Group 09/08/2018 18/09/2018 M
ABM Training (UK)  23/08/2018 19/09/2018 M
Darwin Training  22/08/2018 21/09/2018 M

 

Employer providers  Inspected Published Grade
Securitas UK 16/08/2018 19/09/2018 M