Days after Ofsted criticised the government for locking young people out of the apprenticeship system, education secretary Gavin Williamson has offered his “reassurance”.

“I’m determined to make sure the apprenticeship system works for the people that can benefit the most”, he said.

Williamson made the comments whilst writing in FE Week’s National Apprenticeship Week 2020 supplement.

Concerns about graduate recruitment schemes being rebadged as  apprenticeships, falling starts for young people, a lack of level 2 standards and the levy budget running out have been building for more than a year.

In December 2018 the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education projected that the shortfall in the budget for England could rise to £1.5 billion during 2021/22.

The National Audit Office further sounded the alarm over the financial sustainability of the programme in March 2019 after it found the average cost of training an apprentice hit double what the government predicted.

And writing about apprenticeships in FE Week on Wednesday, Ofsted’s deputy director, Paul Joyce, said: “There is a real danger that young people aiming to step on to the career ladder are discovering that the vital bottom rungs simply do not exist.”

Numerous questions have also been tabled in Parliament from concerned MPs, including chair of the education select committee, Robert Halfon.

Boris Johnson said it was “absolutely right” to follow the advice of Halfon and “reform the apprenticeship levy” at prime minister’s questions last month.

He confirmed the education secretary would be updating the House of Commons “in due course” about the proposals.

In his article for FE Week, Williamson said: “I’m aware that many of you have raised questions or concerns about funding for apprenticeships as well as the future direction of the apprenticeships programme. I want to reassure you that I am looking at all of this very carefully.

“I’m determined to make sure the system works for the people that can benefit the most from the life-changing impact apprenticeships can have, and that it works better for employers and providers too.”

He added that “improvements” are in progress – including moving
smaller employers “on to our award-winning digital apprenticeship service, so they can choose the training provider that works for them”.

Williamson also addressed other areas of concern regarding the quality of apprenticeship provision.

He said: “We’ve put in place new tougher rules for providers and employers applying to get on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers, and they now have to meet strict criteria to become registered training providers.

“Strengthened oversight and tighter monitoring also means we can take swift and decisive action against poor performance by providers, or attempts by them to break, or manipulate the rules.”

The education secretary added that he had commissioned the website Mumsnet to survey over 1,000 parents about their attitudes towards apprenticeships due to the persistence of “lingering stereotypes”.

Three in five parents who responded said they were concerned their child would be “stuck doing more menial tasks, such as making the tea” in an apprenticeship.

The research also found around 45 per cent were unaware that apprenticeships go up to degree level, while a third of parents said they still associated them with manual jobs.

Williamson said he knew that everyone in the sector had been “working hard” to tackle such assumptions.

“We’ll be doing everything we can to change people’s perceptions over the coming years so that they recognise the work which goes into delivering apprenticeships and the opportunities they provide,” he added.

The Department for Education is stumping up an extra £95 million to help upgrade the facilities of the 64 colleges set to deliver T-levels from 2021.

It is in addition to the £38 million capital fund being used for the first 50 providers that will offer the new technical qualifications from this September.

The latest fund will again be delivered in two parts. From today, 2021 providers are being invited to bid to refurbish their existing buildings or to build new spaces.

Funding for specialist equipment such as digital and audio-visual kit will account for around 20 per cent of the £95 million and will be allocated to providers from spring 2021 onwards.

As revealed by FE Week in October, colleges will have to keep on running T-levels for at least 20 years if they want to avoid handing back the millions they will receive in capital funding.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has also today announced an extra £15 million to expand the T-level professional development programme.

The DfE said the scheme, which is being delivered by the Education and Training Foundation, aims to provide tailored training to boost FE lecturers’ and leaders’ “skills, industry knowledge and expertise”. 

The first phase of this began in spring 2019 and will continue until March 2020. A spokesperson for the DfE said as of December 2019, the professional development programme supported over 2,500 individuals.

Announcing the new cash today, Williamson said: “T-levels will play a vital role in our drive to unlock talent and level up skills across the country.

“This cash injection will make sure more T-level providers and their staff are ready to teach the new qualifications, so young people have access to the high-quality teaching, first class facilities and industry standard equipment they need to succeed.”

David Russell, chief executive of the Education and Training Foundation, added: “It is crucial that professionals teaching the new qualifications are excellently equipped to do so from the very first day learners walk through the doors.”

And John Laramy, principal of Exeter College, which will deliver T-levels from 2020, said the success of the qualifications is “fundamentally linked to the quality of staff who teach, assess and lead the provision”.

The first 11 colleges to receive a share of the original £38 million capital fund were named in July. They included Barnsley College, which received £2.25 million, and Exeter College, which received £2.5 million.

Since then, 11 more colleges in wave one of the rollout have had grants from the fund confirmed, according to a DfE spokesperson, and their names will be revealed in “due course”.

The first three T-levels set for delivery in September 2020 include childcare and education, construction and digital.

Another route, in health and science, will be introduced from 2021.

The DfE spokesperson said that 2020 providers are able to apply for a part of the new £95 million capital fund if they are delivering the health and science route from 2021.

The names of the 64 colleges chosen to deliver T-levels in the second wave of their roll out were announced in June.

Headteachers at schools across England will again be reminded by ministers of their legal duty to promote apprenticeships, as a leading MP accuses them of “not doing enough”.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson told FE Week that warning letters will be sent by the minister for the FE market, Lord Agnew, tomorrow (full letter below).

He said they’ve been drafted as the government “wants to make sure every young person is aware of just how rewarding doing an apprenticeship can be – no matter what their skills, interests and aspirations”.

And education select committee chair Robert Halfon told an FE Week reception at Parliament yesterday that “time and time again we know schools, for one reason or another, are not doing enough to promote apprenticeships”.

“If we’re going to change the views of parents, and if we’re going to have more young people thinking an apprenticeship is the right thing to do, we need to have people going into schools,” he added.

Under the so-called Baker clause, all local authority-maintained schools and academies have since January 2, 2018 been legally obliged to give education and training providers the opportunity to talk to pupils in years 8 to 13 about technical qualifications and apprenticeships.

They must publish a policy statement online to this effect, as well as details about the careers programmes they offer, how the success of these programmes are measured and when the published information will be reviewed.

The clause became law after the government adopted an amendment to the 2017 Technical and Further Education Act, proposed by former education secretary Lord Baker, who claimed schools were “resisting” those who tried to promote more vocational courses to pupils.

A YouGov survey released last week and commissioned by the training provider JTL, found that 11 per cent of 15- to 18-year-olds were being encouraged to take up an apprenticeship.

Department for Education has so far shied away from intervening where schools are not complying with the Baker Clause.

Last year the DfE admitted no action was taken against schools between January 2, 2018 and January 2, 2019 in response to a previous freedom of information request from FE Week.

This is despite a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research, published around that time, that found two-thirds of schools were flouting the clause.

The government’s lack of action has led the Baker-Dearing Trust to label their own founder’s clause a “law without teeth,” adding there was not much point in passing the law if the government did not “follow it up”.

But, they added, getting the government’s weight behind the law was the “best we can hope for”.

The government’s own researchers have slammed policy makers for exacerbating National Colleges failures, according to an evaluation report into how the same mistakes can be avoided with Institutes of Technology.

In the 107-page evaluation report published today, the Department for Education was criticised for setting up specialist National Colleges as stand-alone institutions that relied on working capital loans and employer investment to fund initial operating costs.

“An inherent risk with a specialist institution is that the scope is so narrow that learner numbers will be too low to achieve a broad base and achieve financial sustainability.”

The report goes on to say: “More detailed consideration could have been given to other models such as evolving new institutions from existing education and training providers” and “if more time had been invested early on to analyse the potential impact of existing policies and involve relevant stakeholders in finding solutions, it is likely there would have been fewer challenges.”

Only one of the four national colleges launched with £80 million of public money was developed at existing providers: National College for Nuclear (NCfN), and the report found it faced “fewer challenges” than the others as it is based across two hubs at Bridgwater and Taunton College in Somerset and Lakes College in Cumbria.

National Colleges have struggled with recruiting high-quality staff as they are “difficult to obtain in buoyant sectors”

The two existing providers were able to provide a lot of the wider infrastructure required for setting up a new provider, like business development and marketing, and coverage for some of the college’s overhead costs, instead of the loans.

The report compares this favourably to the planned set-up of IoTs, which will be run by high-performing FE and HE providers.

Having been launched by the DfE two years ago, the report says National Colleges have also struggled with recruiting high-quality staff as they are “difficult to obtain in buoyant or specialist sectors of the UK economy where salary expectations are high”.

Senior members of the teaching faculty who had come over from industry reported they had taken pay cuts in order to work for their college, with one lecturer likening it to “national service”.

ESFA funding being paid in arrears after the first two years of delivery, the report reads, has created difficulties when the colleges try to recruit staff to design and deliver new courses and increase the scale of delivery.

Staff at some of the National Colleges suggested to the researchers that employer contributions could be sought to co-fund salaries for senior teaching positions in order to bring them closer in line with the industry average.

Four of the colleges have opened their doors since the programme launched in 2016; including NCfN, Ada National College for Digital Skills, National College Creative Industries (NCCI), and National College for High Speed Rail (NCHSR).

And they would have progressed more smoothly if a greater amount of time had been invested by the DfE in analysing the impact of policies like funding being paid in arrears, it has been found.

“More work could have been undertaken at the early design stage of the policy to understand adjustments required to existing processes to accommodate the new national colleges,” the report reads.

A fifth national college, specialising in onshore oil and gas, was put on hold by its overseers United Kingdom Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG) while “greater clarity and progress by way of timing and the scale of production activities is ascertained”.

The report also covers how learner numbers across all of the colleges have been below target because of “unforeseeable circumstances” from capital build projects and “slippage” in the delivery of national infrastructure projects affecting apprenticeship demand.

Such as was the case with NCHSR, where delays in announcing HS2 contractors meant employers were unable to commit to the apprentice volumes they had originally anticipated, and the National College for Onshore Oil and Gas, which the report says was paused “due to weak economic conditions in the sector”.

An Ofsted report into National College Creative Industries, released last November, found it had just 24 classroom learners and 81 apprentices being delivered provision inspectors rated as ‘requires improvement’. NCCI had previously predicted it could attract 450 learners in 2018/19.

This week, the college relaunched as NCCI Ltd, with South Essex College signed on to deliver what was the college’s classroom learning and Access Creative College running apprenticeships provision.

Department for Education representatives were attributed in the report as saying the narrow definition of colleges as highly specialist institutions has further impeded them from meeting their learner number targets.

And even the viability of the colleges’ original learner numbers has been called into question by stakeholders, the report reads, as the colleges had predicted growth during the first five years of operations which was without precedent in the FE sector.

Only NCfN has met its learner number targets for the 2018/19 academic year and Ada has come close; but NCCI and NCHSR both fell short.

The report does say, given the various challenges the colleges have faced, it is impossible to assess if these targets could have been achieved in different circumstances.

It concludes: “Across all National Colleges, learner numbers are lower than initially forecast in their original business plans and the colleges are not yet national in their scope.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “As with any start-up organisation, the colleges have faced challenges which has impacted on delivery in their initial set up phase.

“However, we will continue to work with them while they establish themselves and work towards financial stability.”

Learners are “at the heart” of schools’, colleges’ and training providers’ decisions about the qualifications they offer, according to new research by Ofqual.

The finding comes just weeks after Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman reiterated her concern that some colleges fill their rolls with “superficially attractive” low-level arts and media courses simply to “attract funding”.

Her comments were based on a report from November 2018 – rather than inspection reports – the findings of which were from 15 college visits and learner surveys and found “the proportion of [level 2] students who went on to employment was small”.

In Ofqual’s research, it said there is “little data available about what drives schools, colleges and training providers to choose certain qualifications over others” for their 16 to 19 year old students.

The exams regulator commissioned YouGov to conduct a survey of over 500 staff and found there are a range of factors when deciding which qualifications to offer, which can be categorised as: “students’ needs; the capacity or facilities of the educational establishment itself; and the needs of employers”.

More than nine in ten respondents said they offered qualifications based on “learner interest”, and 83 per cent said their decisions were due to the qualifications “serving as prerequisites for further study”.

Funding was the least likely driver for why providers choose to offer qualifications they do.

“The research indicates meeting students’ needs and serving their interests – either directly, or by enhancing their prospects and future employability – is a common priority across educational settings,” today’s report said.

“This shared commitment to students may prompt centres to continue offering courses, even where they are not commercially viable.”

Ofqual found that the weight different types of educational providers give to other factors “varies”.

Employer-focused drivers were, for example, were “more a point of focus” for colleges and training-providers than schools.

It adds, however, that even though funding and fees were “found to be of little importance across the survey as a whole”, it “appears to be a more frequent driver of choice” in training providers and colleges.

Phil Beach, Ofqual’s executive director for vocational and technical qualifications, said: “It is encouraging to have for the first time research evidence showing learners are at the heart of schools’, colleges’ and training providers’ decisions about the qualifications they offer.

“It is important these decisions are the right choices for learners, supporting their development and employability – factors we will consider as we progress our research in this area.

“When making such decisions, both learners and centres need access to detailed information about the range of regulated qualifications available and their value to employers.”

Spielman, who is a former chair of Ofqual, was criticised by the college sector following her claim that a minority of colleges simply try to “fill their rolls and attract funding” with low-level arts and media courses.

Writing for FE Week shortly after her comments, Association of College’s boss David Hughes said singling out courses at lower levels was “wrong and unfair”.

Responding to Ofqual’s report, he said: “This research confirms what I already knew – that colleges continue to serve students’ interests and help prepare them for the world of work with the wide range of courses they offer and the transferable skills they provide.

“Student choices are informed in many different ways, not just immediate job progression opportunities, although that is one important component.”

 

“Thousands” of workers have been forced to pay the apprenticeship levy from their wages owing to a loophole in government rules, according to a union.

Unite alleges to have received “increasing” evidence that some employment agencies, umbrella companies and other “unscrupulous operators” are “corrupting” the policy in this way.

They say the construction industry is the main culprit, and the union claims it is now taking legal action against the companies involved.

Since April 2017, companies with a pay bill of more than £3 million have had to pay an apprenticeship levy to the government, equating to 0.5 per cent of their payrolls.

Wage deductions found by Unite often amount to less than £2 a week per employee, but rules state companies cannot deduct the levy from the wages of an earner.

The union would not reveal the names of these “unscrupulous” employers, or how many they have found to be deploying the practice.

The union’s assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “The levy is entirely clear that it is the duty of the employer to pay it, the fact that it is being passed on to workers is entirely unacceptable and taints the entire system.”

During National Apprenticeship Week, Cartmail called on the government “to step in and ensure that no employer can pass the levy onto its workforce”.

“If it fails to do so then the general public will consider it a punitive tax on workers and the good intentions behind the apprentice levy will be entirely undermined,” she added.

Unite, which has warned about the practice since 2018, said although it is “highly immoral” to pass levy costs on to workers, it is not illegal provided the worker has agreed to the deduction.

A spokesperson said construction workers are usually compelled into operating via an umbrella or payroll company, and in order to obtain work they “don’t get an option how they are paid”.

Payslips are “then made so complicated that workers frequently struggle to understand what deductions are being made from their pay”.

And even if they are aware of the charge, most sign up in order not to lose the work they have been offered.

Unite added that there is a “double whammy” if an agency or umbrella company charges their entire workforce the apprentice levy because they will be making an additional profit, as they don’t pay the levy on their first £3 million of payroll.

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “It’s really disturbing to hear that this is still going on.

“Employers are under contractual obligations with the ESFA to draw down the levy in the intended way with no requirement on the part of the apprentice to make a financial contribution and the government needs to crack down on any malpractice once and for all.”

It is not just construction companies that appear to be making their employees pay the levy for them. In 2017, FE Week’s sister paper Schools Week found that pay slips for supply teachers from umbrella company RACs Group included a percentage deduction attributed to the “apprenticeship levy”.

The group claimed at the time it was following the law and deducted the levy costs as a “business overhead” from the income it earns through agencies that send out supply teachers, rather than employee’s earnings.

An HMRC spokesperson said: “Employers cannot deduct the apprenticeship levy from the gross salary of their employees.

“However, an umbrella company can deduct amounts to cover its administration and other costs, including the apprenticeship levy, from their overall rates.”

The number of colleges entering formal intervention rose by two-thirds on the previous year, mostly due to historical “weak decision-making,” according to the FE Commissioner’s 2018/19 annual report.

In total, 13 colleges entered intervention – 12 for financial reasons and one which escalated from diagnostic assessment – five more than the previous year. None were the result of an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted grade.

However, the report states that 17 colleges moved out of intervention last year, meaning the overall number of colleges in FE Commissioner intervention has dropped from 27 in 2017/18 to 23.

FE Commissioner Richard Atkins said intervention cases are “frequently” the result of “poor governance and leadership over a number of years, resulting in weak decision-making”.

But “we are making progress”, he insisted, as many of those moving out of intervention were “the most challenging cases – where the restructuring facility has resolved problems that were previously very entrenched”.

The report only covers August 2018 to July 2019. Since then a number of high-profile colleges have moved into formal intervention; these include Highbury, Gateshead, Richmond-upon-Thames and East Sussex College Group.

Following the end of the post-16 area reviews, Atkins’ focus has shifted more towards diagnostic assessments: the commissioner’s team conducted 33 diagnostic assessments in 2018/19, four more than 2017/18.

These assessments include members of the FE Commissioner team visiting a college before major problems arise to “help strengthen improvement plans and then work with the college to ensure it is on the path to a strong and sustainable future”.

The increases in interventions and assessments has been met by a rise in the number of national leaders of further education and national leaders of governance under his command.

It was announced last month the commissioner had almost doubled the number of principals and governors serving on the two teams by recruiting leaders and governors from colleges such as London South East Colleges, Luminate Education Group, and Education Partnership North East.

One area where commissioner activity has decreased is structural reviews, which reduced from 20 to 13, with Atkins attributing it to the government’s restructuring fund no longer being available.

The report also details how 74 per cent of eligible colleges had applied to the £15 million Strategic College Improvement Fund and 91 per cent of applicants have secured grants ranging from £60,000 to almost half a million pounds.

In his introduction to the 2018/19 report, Atkins said: “There is a much more positive perception of further education colleges today than was the case some time ago.

“The increases in funding announced in August 2019, together with the success of the ‘Love our Colleges’ campaign have increased awareness of the sector and helped to create a more optimistic climate within institutions.”