As Gavin Williamson promises to match Germany in the delivery of vocational and technical education in ten years, JL Dutaut looks back at the mismatch between vision and reality over the past twenty years.

It was an education policy announcement that grabbed the headlines. Fifty per cent of young people would access higher education. A policy announced not by a secretary of state for education, but by Tony Blair, a prime minister two years into his first administration. A vision, attached to a target.

Yet, a third element was missing: strategy. It has taken 20 years, three education department rebrandings, six prime ministers and 11 secretaries of state, but finally this month, the target has been met. In the end, it passed with little fanfare and a strong chorus of criticism.

From Aimhigher to higher-level apprenticeships, and from widening participation to broadening curriculum, it is a target that has transformed not only universities but, perhaps just as profoundly, further education.

Was it worth it? It depends where you stand on the balance between student debt and incalculable economic benefit, or between grade inflation and unknowable social capital growth.

Would any politician wish to repeat it? Under one condition: if public support could be so fixed behind the objective that to abandon it would be unthinkable.

Last week the new education secretary Gavin Williamson announced a policy for “the other 50 per cent”.

It’s the policy equivalent of an iPhone, with obsolescence built in

Set against the backdrop of a Blair success finally delivered under Boris Johnson, and a public discourse shaped by the pernicious notion of “liberal elitism”, it has the virtue, from the outset, of expressing a vision, something none of Williamson’s predecessors have done with any impact since Michael Gove.

The vision is that by 2029 England will match or better Germany in the delivery of vocational and technical education (VTE).

For now, at least, there is little flesh on the bone. It’s a vision with a backstop, the policy equivalent of an iPhone with obsolescence built in, intended to fizzle out behind the pomp of another product launch.

How will it be delivered? Apart from eight new institutes of technology, some specialist maths colleges and the promise of a skills and productivity board, there is little strategy.

How will it be measured? The Department for Education can’t tell us.

The Learning Age

To understand what shape it might take, one has to look back again to the Blair years.

In a 1998 green paper, The Learning Age, David Blunkett, then-secretary of state, set out two priorities to make education more responsive to a changing economy: individual learning accounts (ILAs) to subsidise people to take responsibility for their own learning, and a University for Industry (UfI), a network of providers to support people to do just that.

That green paper became the Learning to Succeed white paper, and then the Learning and Skills Act (2000).

By 2002, the ILA scheme, run in partnership with Capita, was wound up amid a fraud scandal that left the public purse lighter by £268 million.

By 2004, UfI, which ran learndirect – an online learning scheme to attract young people and adults to upskill through education and training – had cost £1 billion and was subject to a value-for-money review by the National Audit Office (NAO).

Of the 1.4 million learners the initiative was said to have supported, only 65 per cent had completed their courses and it found itself hobbled by the collapse of ILAs, its main income source.

The ILA fraud left the public purse lighter by £268 million

Its journey after that has been eventful. It has eeked out an existence on Home Office contracts to run workfare programmes, faced financial collapse, was earmarked for a “bonfire of the quangos”, and was finally sold to Lloyds Bank’s private equity arm LDC in 2011. It has since undergone an Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) investigation, an Ofsted mauling and a public inquiry that left the provider, ESFA, government and Ofsted with egg on their faces.

The apprentices, in the end, were sold off to a private provider, a far cry from Blunkett’s vision of 20 years ago, and a testament to the fact that even with a vision, a strategy and targets, the best-laid plans of politicians often go awry.

The economic turn

The transformation of UfI from publicly funded quango to publicly funded for-profit provider shouldn’t mask another development in government policy, before even the NAO investigation. It started with education secretary Charles Clarke, continued under Ruth Kelly, and found support in Gordon Brown’s Treasury.

A 2003 policy paper by Charles Clarke entitled 21^st Century Skills, Realising Our Potential represented a subtle, yet major change in the political philosophy underpinning FE policy. It was a shift from Blunkett’s notion of lifelong learning – an individual entitlement and an end in itself, with associated economic and social benefits – to a strongly economic conception founded on international competitiveness.

Perhaps coincidentally, this was also the year of the second round of PISA tests, the dawn of the age of international comparison of education systems. As Gavin Williamson sets his sights on Germany and Singapore today, New Labour had set theirs on India and China.

Earlier in the year, Clarke had set out his vision in a paper called 14-19: opportunity and excellence, which included the notion of expanding the entitlement to literacy, numeracy and computer skills to level 2 standard to age 19.

Train to Gain was sacrificed to the demands of austerity

By the time Kelly took over, all that remained of substance to the FE sector was a commitment to “give employers greater choice and control over the publicly funded training they receive” and to “create a new guarantee of free tuition for any adult without […] a ‘level 2’ qualification”.

Translated into policy and announced at that year’s spending review, “choice” and “guarantees” became a public service agreement (PSA) target to “increase the proportion of 19-year-olds who achieve at least level 2 by three percentage points between 2004 and 2006”.

But it was another PSA target, aimed at over-25s, which took precedence in the funding decisions. It read: “reducing by at least 40 per cent the number of adults in the workforce who lack NVQ2 or equivalent qualifications by 2010”.

A year later, the government had made £1 billion of new money available through the Train to Gain scheme to meet that target. Under-25s were only eligible if an apprenticeship would not have been appropriate, and under-19s were not eligible under any circumstance.

In 2010, Train to Gain funding was cut by £200 million. It was then sacrificed altogether to the demands of austerity.

A third 2004 PSA target went barely noticed, because no baseline data was available against which to measure progress: to increase the proportion of young people who achieve level 3.

From PSA to PSB

If FE policy under the Conservative or Conservative-led governments since 2010 has been mostly characterised by reform of apprenticeships and compulsory GCSE resits, even this reduced ambition hasn’t been straightforward.

When it comes to apprenticeships, the DfE is investigating a 51 per cent drop in level 2 starts, and a drop of 23 per cent in uptake from 16- to 18-year-olds since May 2017, while apprenticeships for the over-25s continue to grow.

As to GCSE resits, evidence shows that the policy has contributed to a rise from 9 to 21 per cent (an extra 25,000 students) achieving a strong pass in English and maths, but even Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman is critical of the impact of repeated failure on the other 79 per cent.

Into this tableau of dysfunctional policy steps Williamson, committing himself to “the other 50 per cent” let down by Blair, rather than the ‘other 79 per cent’ let down by long-term failure to grab the bull by the horns.

As well as new institutes of technology and specialist maths colleges, the secretary of state has announced that he is setting up a new skills and productivity board (PSB) to advise him on “what the economy needs”. The DfE says Mr Williamson has yet to invite a “suitable leader from the business community” to chair the board, which will be “set up as a DfE expert committee” without “a specified timeframe at inception.” In time, an open competition will be used to recruit a panel of “expert labour market economists”.

Perhaps a comprehensive spending review is awaited to nail down the specifics. For all the talk of vision, it appears New Labour’s economic turn is yet to be undone. Perhaps that forgotten target from 2004 will be revived from inside the bowels of the Treasury – to increase the proportion of (young) people qualified to level 3.

Hindsight has the power to make any vision appear naive, yet without it policy is a firefight in which targets take the place of water buckets and strategy rises little above survival. Our college leaders know this, and they know too that vision without strategy or targets is worse.

For as long as government policy, hemmed in by international comparison, is determined primarily by Treasury memories of wasted billions, education will continue to vacillate between these two poles. The sector must surely hope Gavin Williamson has convinced them he is worth an investment of faith as well as pounds.

Funding for students progressing to college from Pupil Referral Units should more than double to £10,000, the Association of Colleges has said.

A new report, published by the organisation at the start of Colleges Week, has highlighted the barriers that colleges face when trying to re-integrate “marginalised” young people back into mainstream education.

The research, conducted via interviews with staff from four general FE colleges – Bridgwater and Taunton College, Leeds City College, Walsall College and Waltham Forest College – found that “insufficiency of funding” is the “single biggest challenge”.

It said current funding gaps between alternative provision (AP) settings – places that provide education for children who can’t go to a mainstream school, such as Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) – and college means there is a drop of on average of £6,000 per pupil.

This prevents colleges from “providing all of the necessary support and the smaller group sizes that would benefit the students”, who often have “complex” needs. It also restricts the amount of training provided to “help staff adopt the most effective practices and understand the issues the students face”.

AoC chief executive David Hughes said current funding is “simply lacking meaning that their needs cannot be fully met and causes colleges undue strain”.

The organisation has now called on the government to provide an additional £6,000 per year for every student attending college who has come from an AP setting, on top of the normal £4,188 base rate that all 16 to 18 learners will receive from 2020/21.

It is the latest call for more college funding by the AoC, which upped its base rate plea for 16 to 18-year-olds from £4,760 to £5,000 per year in February, which it says is needed to avoid a T-levels crisis.

Colleges are able to apply for high needs funding for a student over and above the extra £6,000 they receive in AP settings. However, the AoC’s research found just one out of the four colleges received this top-up funding from their local authority.

The remainder were “reliant on Element 1 funding plus additional learning support funding (ALS)”.

The AoC’s research attempted to uncover the scale of AP students in colleges, but found there is no precise data to calculate this.

Respondents said there is a lack of a specific Individual Learning Record (ILR) categories to support data collection.

They added that “poor quality” or “lack of transition information” also prevented them from building up an accurate picture of the scale of the issue. They described transition information provided by the pre-16 provider, local authority, or other referring agency (where students were NEET) as “inadequate or patchy”.

The AoC has also called on the government to create an ILR that identifies students who were out of school during key stage 4 to help track funding and progress.

Hughes said: “We know there are growing challenges for colleges supporting the rising number of young people who were not at school during their GCSE years due to off-rolling, home schooling or exclusion. Their needs can be complex and while colleges offer safe, positive and transformative educational experiences for these young people they need sufficient funding to keep up with the demand.

“There is real risk of colleges not being able to offer this bespoke support to all those who need it. 

“College leaders and staff providing this sort of provision are clear that lack of transition information also leads to difficulties. To allow colleges to have the best chance of meeting their needs, which are sometimes combined with mental health and behavioural issues there needs to be joined up sharing of data and for local authorities to undertake education, health and care plans when requested.

“With the right resources, colleges can help young people turn their lives around and prevent them from becoming NEET and / or taking the wrong path to crime or drugs.”

Colleges Week is calling for greater recognition and investment in colleges, and will see colleges across the country hosting local events and speaking to their local MPs. It is taking place from 14 to 18 October 2019.

Read the full AP report here.

Twenty one colleges in the West Midlands have joined forces to produce a region-wide approach to educating learners about the dangers of gang violence and knife crime.

Announced at the beginning of Colleges Week, the Further Education and Skills Productivity Group has designed a ‘Safer Student Charter’ with support from the West Midlands Combined Authority and West Midlands Police.

It aims to ensure young people who attend colleges throughout the region are taught about “modern dangers and safety risks” that affect them and teaches them how to avoid these.

The partnership will see all colleges “deliver key themed events” that will “ensure students are given the skills to be able to identify and avoid safety risks outside of their studies”.

According to reports of figures from the Office for National Statistics, police in the West Midlands recorded 3,428 offences involving knives or sharp instruments in the year to March 2019, the highest number since comparable records began in 2010-11.

Chair of the Safer Student Group and Halesowen College principal, David Williams, said: “Our collaborative approach means that regardless of which college a young person attends, they will receive a fantastic academic, technical or vocational education partnered with insights and learning on how to avoid dangers that are more prevalent amongst today’s young people.

“Our coordinated approach will allow us to share best practice and resources across the college network which will undoubtedly add significant benefit to students across the Midlands.”

Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “Thousands of young people attend our further education colleges and it is vital that our campuses not only offer safe spaces for people to learn but ensure learners are equipped to keep themselves safe.

“Every college in the FEPSG already does its utmost to keep its students safe, but by being part of the same conversation the colleges are able to share their experiences and best practice.”

Colleges Week is part of the #LoveOurColleges campaign and is taking place from 14  to 18 October 2019.

It is calling for greater recognition and investment in colleges, and will see colleges across the country hosting local events and speaking to their local MPs.

The 21 colleges signed the West Midlands Student Safety Charter are:

Birmingham Metropolitan College

Burton and South Derbyshire College

Coventry College

City of Wolverhampton College

Dudley College of Technology

Fircroft College

Halesowen College

Hereward College

National College of Advanced Transport and Infrastructure

Heart of Worcestershire College

Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College

Kidderminster College

North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College

Sandwell College

Solihull College and University Centre

Stratford-upon-Avon College

South and City College Birmingham

South Staffordshire College

Telford College

University College Birmingham

Walsall College

WCG and Association of Colleges

A college has been refused admission to the Office for Students’ register of higher education providers and had an application for an injunction to conceal the decision rejected by the High Court.

Barking and Dagenham College was refused access to the HE register because it “has failed to demonstrate that it delivers successful outcomes for all of its higher education students”, according to the universities regulator.

After being informed of this, the college appealed and also sought an injunction to prevent the OfS from publishing the decision.

The hearing was held this week.

Susan Lapworth, director of competition and registration at the OfS, said: “We welcome the court’s judgment which allows us to publish an important regulatory decision in the interests of current and prospective students.

“This means that all students will have the information necessary to make informed choices about their studies. The OfS is prepared to defend vigorously the interests of students through the courts and, as in this case, we will seek to recoup the costs of such litigation.”

Barking and Dagenham College principal, Yvonne Kelly, said the OfS “have failed to consider and appreciate the richness of the college’s offer and outcomes in their decision; further education colleges open up the opportunity to study at a higher level to people that otherwise wouldn’t be able to access higher education.

“Removal of our direct HE funding reduces the opportunities for our community and marginalises the people within it”.

She added: “Our priority, as ever, is our students and our staff and we will do everything we can to minimise any impact on them arising from the OfS’s decision and will continue to support them and our community in accessing opportunities.”

Refusal means the college will be denied access to HE public grant and student support funding, cannot recruit international students, nor apply for degree awarding powers.

Barking and Dagenham College has 12,500 students overall. Its HE cohort is around 300 students. A spokesperson said “only a small proportion” is affected by the OfS’ decision.

They added that the college will continue to offer higher education provision up to MBA level in partnership with its university partners.

Lapworth said the OfS is working with the college “in order for it to have the opportunity to apply to ‘teach out’ its current students”.

“Being granted designation for teach out would mean that continuing students, subject to individual eligibility, would be able to continue to access student support from the Student Loans Company,” she added.

The husband of the chief executive at a college surviving on bailout funding used the marketing budget to hire the 80-piece Hull Philharmonic Orchestra to play computer-game music, FE Week can reveal.

As previously reported, Hull College Group has launched an independent investigation into allegations of nepotism and misuse of funding and its boss, Michelle Swithenbank, has since gone on leave.

The investigation is understood to also include over £100,000 spent on a computer game app, computer game-style cinema advertising and a PR agency that promoted the music event and computer game.

The spending has been described as “concerning” by the college’s local MP, Emma Hardy, who is also a member of the education select committee.

The college funds now under scrutiny were spent or committed to by Graham Raddings when in charge of the college marketing budget between January and August 2018.

Raddings, partner and now husband to Swithenbank, claims on his LinkedIn profile to be a “games designer” and an “8 bit [computer game music] enthusiast with entrepreneurial spirit”.

He was appointed to the college as executive director of marketing and innovation in January 2018, around the time the college had received a £42 million bailout from the government as part of a Fresh Start process.

Before Raddings left the college in August 2018, the college partnered with 8-Bit Symphony to run their first ever music event on June 15, 2019.

The college spent more than £10,000 to hire the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra and Hull City Hall, according to the contract, with Hull Culture and Leisure Ltd acting as an agent for Hull City Council.

Described as “8-bits, 80 piece orchestra, 90+ minutes” the musicians played retro computer game music by composer Dr Rob Hubbard.

8-Bit Symphony was founded by Chris Abbott, who runs a business called C64Audio. According to Abbott’s website the two other founders were Damian Manning and Graham Raddings.

Supporting the claim that Raddings was Abbott’s business partner, FE Week has also obtained emails from Raddings sent to college staff many months after he had left, leading the event arrangements on behalf of 8-Bit Symphony.

Despite this, Abbott told FE Week that he “approached the college to see if they wanted to support the very first event” and that Raddings was only “a point of contact at the college” and “Graham’s name is an error on the website, and this is currently being corrected”.

A spokesperson for Hull College Group said: “The board were made aware of the event happening in June 2017, and considered there was no conflict of interest.

“As with any business the event had clear objectives and budget allocation. Michelle Swithenbank’s involvement with the event was to support and promote where appropriate.”

An email from Raddings’ personal Hotmail account to a college employee on February 20, 2019 concerning the “8 bit VIP event”, with Abbott copied in, asks “what do you need from us to ensure we can get things sorted?”.

The following day, Swithenbank responds to the “8 bit VIP event” email by sending it to the vice principal, marketing staff, the PR agency Pace Communications and copying in Raddings, to say: “Hi all. We don’t need the theatre we need the restaurant and the main building. This has been going on since August, how are we not up to speed with things? This is a Very important event on 15th June which is a Saturday. I thought it had all been coordinated and sorted?”

Abbott said C64Audio “paid for the food and drink and also paid for all of our VIP tickets”…“received no payments from the college” and is still in the process of registering 8-Bit Symphony as a charity.

According to tweets from college staff at the time, the VIP event held on the college premises included 38 bottles of champagne, 46 bottles of wine and more than 1,000 canapés.

Of the VIP event, a spokesperson for Hull College Group said: “The event was not for guests of the principal’s husband. Prosecco and canapés were served as agreed in the hospitality brief to the client, C64Audio.”

They added that the students “gained valuable voluntary work experience which has enhanced their skills for their study programme”.

In the meantime, Abbott has used the publicity from the 8-Bit Symphony event to raise close to £70,000 for a Kickstarter campaign to produce a CD and told FE Week he plans to run similar events “with other organisations across the globe”.

During his time at the college, Raddings also used the marketing budget to pay for the development of a free computer game called Go Go Dash, which remains available on the iTunes store.

The college has refused to reveal how much was spent, but FE Week understands it was in excess of £30,000. The developer chosen was a former colleague of Raddings, Adam Carmichael, a lecturer at Grimsby Institute and the sole director of Microwave Games Ltd.

The college confirmed it also paid Rob Hubbard, the composer behind the 8-Bit Symphony, to compose the music for the game.

According to the press release written by the PR agency Pace Communications: “Hull College principal and CEO, Michelle Swithenbank, said: ‘The game is a lot of fun and is an innovative way to showcase the opportunities we offer for learners who are interested in working in the city’s growing digital sector. By involving Rob Hubbard, we also hope to inspire our learners to also go on and achieve great things’.”

In addition to the cost of creating the free game and use of the PR firm, the marketing budget was also used to create a “gaming zone” at the college to launch the app, as well as advertising the game around Hull on a digital screen on the side of a van.

College minutes for May 2019 describe another app in which “the finance director confirmed that the app is being developed and progress would be reported at the next meeting”.

When FE Week first asked the college about this app a spokesperson said: “The smartphone app is a new proposal and still under consideration and planning. It is not linked to Go-Go-Dash”.

The college has refused to provide any details about this app, understood to have a £50,000 budget, and has since said: “After initial consideration of an app, the college decided not to pursue the idea.”

Another new area of spending that is being looked into as part of the investigation is animated video adverts based on computer game graphics that were screened at cinemas.

Before leaving the college, Raddings employed a sole trader, Dave Shepherd, trading as 3D Facility, to undertake what he describes on his website as the “concept development, design and production”.

Shepherd confirmed to FE Week that he is a sole trader working from his home in Hull and with other freelance game designers, but did not respond to further requests for comment.

Raddings was also behind a tender for a PR Agency, understood to have initially been for £90,000 to support the college with internal communications and reputation management as part of the Fresh Start.

The tender process was won by Pace Communications, and the company founder and owner, Anita Pace, has confirmed the contract included her attendance at staff and board meetings at a rate of £85 per hour.

It is understood that before the contract was terminated in early 2019, the budget had been significantly overspent.

In August 2018, Steven Yardley, at the time the college’s vice principal corporate and commercial, spent the afternoon on a 43-foot luxury yacht as a client of Pace Communications.

When asked if Pace knew Raddings from the time when they both worked for KCOM, a spokesperson for Pace Communications said: “We would not comment on our work with any of our clients, past or present.”

Raddings did not respond to the question of whether he knew Pace prior to the tender process.

When asked about the details of the spending, Raddings told FE Week: “I categorically and strongly deny any and all allegations of implied or actual financial wrongdoing, budgetary impropriety and any and all inference, direct or otherwise, that my involvement with any of the projects, contractors and suppliers that fell under the remit of my role as executive director of marketing and innovation or my time working at Hull College Group were in any way improper, or have brought the financial position or public perception of Hull College Group into any kind of disrepute.”

The college’s local MP, Emma Hardy, said: “I am pleased that the investigation is looking into this. I am concerned by the evidence that has been presented so far, especially as we know FE colleges are in a dire financial situation and every penny should be used to improve the education for learners.

“It is important to recognise the difficult journey the college has been on and there have been huge improvements. So I welcome this investigation and look forward to a speedy resolution so the college can continue to move forward.”

Michelle Swithenbank told FE Week: “I welcome the investigation and look forward to the outcome.”

College switches law firm conducting the ‘independent’ investigation

FE Week reported the Stone King lawyer appointed to the ‘independent’ investigation had for many years been the college’s lawyer, which raised questions over potential conflict of interest.

Since then, the college has moved the work to the law firm Eversheds. A spokesperson for Hull College Group said: “It is in the interests of all parties for the investigation into these whistleblowing allegations to be carried out swiftly and thoroughly.

“As soon as the allegations came to light, Hull College instructed its lawyers Stone King – who are highly regarded in the sector and by the ESFA – to investigate the matter using its HR investigatory team.

“As things stand, however, the whistleblower has declined to participate in the investigation.  Since their participation is clearly integral to the whole process, the corporation has decided to instruct a separate law firm, Eversheds, to conduct the investigation in the hope the whistleblower will now choose to engage with the process.

“The corporation will then be in a position to fully consider and address any issues which may arise from it.”

The government has written to a new training firm demanding it stops claiming to high-profile employers it can deliver apprenticeships.

Thomas Cook Airlines and a McDonald’s franchise are among those to have had approaches from Apprenticeship Partners, which was set up by David Montague and Jane Simpson in August (pictured above).

Emails from Montague to learners and their employers, seen by this newspaper, assert that his new firm is “able and ready” to provide apprenticeships. “I can assure you, that we would not be offering any services that we are not able to fulfil,” he said in one message.

“We have not, nor would we mislead any of our customers”

The company’s website also states that “we offer a number of apprenticeship courses” and lists over 20 standards it can supposedly deliver, which include business management, customer service, human resources, recruitment and sales sectors.

Apprenticeship Partners is, however, not on the register of apprenticeship training providers (RoATP).

In a further attempt to lure apprentices and their employers to train with Apprenticeship Partners, the owners said they had been “approved by Skills First Awards” for the delivery of a number of qualifications, when they hadn’t.

They were even using Skills First’s logo on their website, but when the awarding organisation became aware of this they ordered Apprenticeship Partners to immediately take it down.

Montague told FE Week that Apprenticeship Partners has “not, nor would we mislead any of our customers and furthermore, would not act in an unethical manner”.

But a spokesperson for the Department for Education confirmed that Apprenticeship Partners is “not eligible to deliver apprenticeship provision or receive apprenticeship funding”.

“We have written to this company and instructed them to remove any information from their website and other media which suggests they are approved to deliver apprenticeships,” she added.

Montague and Simpson formerly worked at another provider called BIOR Business School before setting up Apprenticeship Partners.

Brian Leslie-Willetts is the apprentice manager at Thomas Cook, which collapsed earlier this month. He told FE Week that prior to this, Montague contacted two of his apprentices directly to say he had left BIOR but could “pick up your learning” at Apprenticeship Partners.

And “when the news came out about our insolvency, we got a further message to say ‘we’re really sorry to hear this’ and ‘I can help support you with continuing apprenticeships’”.

Leslie-Willetts said he was concerned that his apprentices were being “contacted directly and provided information that we have since found out is false”.

Roger Khoryati, the managing director at MCD Manchester, which operates 10 McDonald’s franchise restaurants, also said his apprentices were contacted via “private” email addresses by Montague informing them that his new training provider could deliver their training.

One apprentice challenged Montague after he claimed that his new company only needed to partner with a provider that is on the RoATP to deliver apprenticeships, asking which provider it had linked up with.

Montague claimed this was New Trent College, which is also not on the RoATP. Its parent company, Trent Education Centre, is however on the register as a main provider.

A spokesperson for Trent Education Centre explained it had been approached by Apprenticeship Partners some weeks ago claiming to know of a number of apprentices who wanted to transfer to a new provider.

Apprenticeship Partners was looking to deliver the provision itself via a subcontract relationship, according to the spokesperson.

After Trent Education Centre advised that they couldn’t do this, as Apprenticeship Partners is not on the RoATP, they began negotiating a role in which Montague and Simpson could join the provider as assessors.

The director general of BIOR, Azmat Mohammed, told FE Week that his provider has “evidence that Apprenticeship Partners are soliciting BIOR Business School learners using email data that could only have been obtained by criminal means, not in the public” domain.

“We have reported the theft of this data to the Information Commissioner’s Office and have emailed Apprenticeship Partners informing them that they have committed a criminal offence by using this stolen data and requested they destroy the data with immediate effect,” he added.

“We also stated that any further use of this stolen data will result in criminal prosecution.”

Montague said no information has been used as a “direct result of ‘stolen’ documents”, adding that the details of individuals he’s contacted “are in the public arena”. However, FE Week has spoken to multiple employers contacted by Montague who say their contact information is not in the public domain.

“Apprenticeship Partners are not eligible to deliver apprenticeship provision”

One prime provider that BIOR works with is East Sussex College Group. After they became aware of the practice at Apprenticeship Partners, they reported it to the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The college’s executive director for strategic partnerships and engagement, Dan Shelley, told FE Week: “ESCG takes any issue or concern about subcontracting very seriously, especially in instances like this. I can confirm that ESCG has shared concerns with the ESFA.”

Montague said any employer or learner that has decided to work with his new firm has “made that decision based on evidence of provision of the services and without coercion from any individual from this organisation”.

When FE Week pointed out that all subcontractors must now be on the RoATP to deliver apprenticeships, Montague said they had applied to the register. He did not say when this application was submitted, nor did he explain why he had been telling apprentices and employers they were already approved.

He also claimed that the emails seen by FE Week are “at best fabricated and at worse, absolute lies”. This newspaper has spoken to the people who received the emails who confirmed they were sent by Montague.

West Kent and Ashford College has scored well in its first Ofsted monitoring visit since it went into administration, in what was a mixed week for FE providers.

The college, which followed its sister college Hadlow to become the second provider to fall under the new insolvency regime in August, received ‘reasonable progress’ ratings across the board. Its last full inspection, in late 2018, resulted in a grade three.

In terms of improving retention and achievement for adults on English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) courses and students aged 16 to 18, Ofsted found more learners “now stay at college, complete their studies and achieve their qualifications than at the time of the previous inspection”.

“Leaders and managers have accomplished this by improving induction procedures and support for new learners,” inspectors said.

Leaders and managers have worked closely with teaching staff to “improve feedback to learners”, while Graham Morley, the interim principal, and senior leaders have “recently restructured the management of apprenticeships, which has led to improvements”.

Elsewhere, DN Colleges Group was found making ‘significant progress’ in one area, and ‘reasonable progress’ in three others in its first monitoring visit since it was formed in November 2017 following the merger of Doncaster College and North Lindsey College.

“Leaders and senior managers have a clear vision for the college group post-merger and promote high expectations for all students and apprentices,” Ofsted found.

“Leaders and governors have invested significantly in the recruitment of senior quality assurance managers, curriculum leaders and teaching staff to ensure sustained improvement. As a result, the pace of improvement over the last 12 months has been rapid.”

DN Colleges Group’s board of governors has also been “substantially strengthened”.

The most positive report of the week went to Impellam Group PLC, an international specialist recruitment company based in Luton which trains over 180 apprentices.

It was found making ‘significant progress’ across the board in its early monitoring visit.

Leaders “plan programmes very effectively” in partnership with employers, including the likes of British Airways, Ofsted found.

“They establish accurately the existing skills and knowledge apprentices have at the start of their programmes.”

Employer provider Caunton Engineering Limited was also found making ‘significant progress’ in an area of its early monitoring report.

The structural steelwork contractor designs and builds steelwork for large building projects across the UK, and trains 13 apprentices currently.

Inspectors said trainers at the employer “provide well-planned training, and help apprentices to develop their knowledge and skills from design through to manufacture”.

Several current apprentices are “working at a level beyond what would be expected at this stage in their programmes”.

Another provider to pick up a ‘significant progress’ rating in an early monitoring report was private provider Gem Partnership Limited.

This was for its safeguarding provision, with Ofsted noting how leaders “implement a comprehensive approach to keeping apprentices and staff safe”.

But it was bad news this week Selection Training Limited, which was found making ‘insufficient progress’ across the board.

The watchdog said leaders “do not ensure that the requirements of apprenticeships are met or that employers demonstrate sufficient commitment to the programmes”.

Staff at the provider are also “not involved sufficiently in the selection of apprentices to ensure that recruits are suited well to the programme”.

Ofsted also came down hard on one of the UK’s leading firms of financial compliance advisers this week.

New Model Business Academy made ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas of its provision to 113 apprentices on level 4 financial adviser and paraplanner standards, during an early monitoring visit.

It is the not-for-profit training arm of SimplyBiz, which is registered on the London Stock Exchange.

Azilo Training Ltd, which was found making ‘insufficient progress’ in its early monitoring report published in January when it was called BNG Training Limited, was given a grade three in its first full inspection.

Ofsted said senior leaders “have not yet successfully addressed all of the weaknesses identified at the previous monitoring visit” and their strategies to improve the quality of provision “lack rigour”.

Inspectors did say, however, that most apprentices “develop new work-related skills and behaviours and add value to employers’ businesses”.

Lastly, two private providers, Positive Approach Academy for Hair Limited and Avensys UK Training Limited, were both found making ‘reasonable progress’ across the board in early monitoring reports.

 

GFE Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
DN Colleges Group	11/09/2019	08/10/2019	M	N/A
West Kent and Ashford College	25/09/2019	11/10/2019	M	3

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Azilo Training Ltd	20/08/2019	07/10/2019	3	M
New Model Business Academy Limited	18/09/2019	07/10/2019	M	N/A
Selection Training Limited	05/09/2019	07/10/2019	M	N/A
Impellam Group PLC	10/09/2019	08/10/2019	M	N/A
Avensys UK Training Limited	25/09/2019	10/10/2019	M	N/A
Gem Partnership Limited	10/09/2019	10/10/2019	M	N/A
Positive Approach Academy for Hair Limited	18/09/2019	10/10/2019	M	N/A

 

Employer providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Caunton Engineering Limited	25/09/2019	09/10/2019	M	N/A

Apprentices are struggling to raise concerns about poor training, the Department for Education has found, while their tool allowing learners to give feedback is stuck in development.

An internal ‘Discovery’ project is currently being run by the DfE, which has asked apprentices what they consider “most important for successful completion and what drives their satisfaction”.

The “emerging findings” have flagged concern about “how to complain about poor training quality, and responsiveness from training providers more generally,” and has led the DfE to tender for a supplier to deliver an Apprentice Experience Survey to validate these findings.

“A system that values the views of employers over the views of apprentices is inherently unbalanced”

Such concerns come amid delays to a tool that would allow learners to feedback on their training provider by text. It is being developed by the ESFA Digital Service and was originally meant to be rolled out by July-September 2018. It was listed as in “final stages of development” as of last month.

This is despite a similar tool for employers, delivered through the Find Apprenticeship Training website, being launched late last year.

The DfE told FE Week that the tool for apprentices “has been developed” and it has collected initial feedback as part of a “trial phase”.

A spokesperson said this will be “used in the development of future policy for this area”, but could not say when or if it would be fully rolled out.

The National Society of Apprentices said an apprenticeship system that “values the views of employers over the views of apprentices is inherently unbalanced”.

“It comes as no surprise that employers are able to provide feedback on their perception of the quality of education and training that their apprentices receive, but that the views and experiences of apprentices can wait,” a spokesperson added.

“When we speak to apprentices, and we speak to around 1,000 every year, the quality of their education, both on and off the job, consistently makes the top three issues.

“So we would welcome a platform that enables apprentices to report concerns about the quality of their education in a way that does not put their apprenticeships at risk.”

As would the learners: a blog post by the ESFA last November reported it was testing the tool with a small group and apprentices had “consistently” told them they are happy to give feedback regularly by text message.

Former skills minister Anne Milton spoke in favour of a feedback tool for apprentices and employers in October last year, sayingformal Ofsted inspections “often miss the point”.

Speaking this week, she told FE Week that she believes the feedback tool should go further, and allow apprentices to also report on their employers.

“I always have thought an apprentice feedback tool was a good idea,” she said.

“Ideally you would have all three bits of the puzzle on the feedback tool: employers commenting on providers; providers commenting on employers; and apprentices, the most important, commenting on both.

“If you have a really simple feedback tool, it can be very useful in highlighting where there might be problems ahead of inspection.

“If the department is seeing a consistent problem with one provider, it can look into it ahead of time.

“What matters above all else is that apprentices are getting the training they need and deserve and they are getting a good experience in work.”

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s panel of apprentices also thinks it is “important apprentices are able to feed back on their experience”, and they “support efforts being made to improve opportunities available to do this”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We want all apprentices to be able to provide feedback so we can make sure apprenticeships are high-quality and know what more we can do in this important sector.

“The feedback tool has been developed and we have gathered responses from apprentices as part of our trial phase, which will be used in the development of future policy for this area.”

A former adviser to the minister for higher education has expressed “concern” that dozens of providers delivering level 6 and 7 apprenticeships are still going without inspection more than four years after the courses began.

In June the Office for Students was given responsibility for overseeing this provision at all training firms, even if they are not on its register of higher education providers.

Prior to this, nobody was responsible for checking the quality of delivery at these unregistered providers, as Ofsted’s remit only stretches up to level 5.

“It is hard to prioritise when you have a huge list of priorities”

Analysis by FE Week of the latest individual provider data shows there were 6,140 apprenticeship starts at levels 6 and 7 between 58 training organisations, which are not on the OfS’ register, from 2014/15 to 2017/18.

This number is likely to have rocketed in 2018/19, as national data shows starts for the first three quarters of that year were almost twice those recorded in the whole of 2017/18.

One unregistered HE provider that will be of particular concern is Prospects Training International, which started delivering apprenticeships around three years ago.

It managed to recruit over 1,000 apprentices until Ofsted inspected its level 5 and below provision in April 2019. It was found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ and was banned from recruiting at those levels as a result.

Ofsted was, however, unable to assess the quality of Prospects’ level 6 and 7 provision, of which it has had at least 270 starts since 2016/17.

The unregistered provider with the highest number of starts at these levels, according to the latest government data, is Kaplan Financial.

It is a major financial services provider to high-profile employers including British Airways, Eurostar and Morrisons Supermarkets. It was rated as ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted in September 2018 for its level 5 and below provision.

Despite the pressing urgency, the OfS appears to be dragging its heels on inspecting this provision.

A spokesperson for the regulator admitted that “no reviews have been completed”.

He did however say that four reviews are “currently underway”, which will typically involve a three-day, on-site visit. Providers will not be graded, like in Ofsted reports, but their review will be published publicly.

The spokesperson claimed that visits to providers have commenced, but did not say when the first took place.

He added that more reviews will “take place in the coming months”.

Once all of the planned reviews are completed, the OfS will sit down with the Department for Education to evaluate the process and decide how best to conduct future reviews. This “lessons learned” exercise will begin in the new year.

The OfS is prioritising the providers that have the highest number of starts in its initial reviews.

Based on the latest provider data, for up to 2017/18, the providers with the most starts at level 6 and 7 are: Kaplan Financial with 1,990; BPP Professional Education with 610 starts; Ernst & Young with 410; and QA with 410.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute and a former adviser to HE minister David Willetts, said it was “concerning” that thousands of level 6 and 7 apprenticeships are still going unregulated five years after they launched, and urged the OfS to “get a move on”.

He told FE Week this is a “very important issue” but admitted to having some sympathy for the higher education regulator.

“I do not blame the individual staff at the Office for Students. The organisation only got its full legal powers in August and they have had a huge job to do in getting to grips with the providers on their register, let alone keeping an eye on others.

“It is hard to prioritise when you have a huge list of priorities.”

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman expressed her deep concern at the issue of unregulated apprenticeship during an interview with FE Week in March, when she said: “I very much hope people will see the logic in us doing it.”

All new providers that fall under Ofsted’s remit will have a monitoring visit from inspectors within two years of the firm starting delivery.

They will then have a full inspection within another 24 months, unless they’re found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in their monitoring report, in which case they’ll be fully inspected within a year.

The OfS explained to FE Week it was directed by the DfE to “look at both on and off-the-job training and to visit a number of providers that currently offer substantial apprenticeship provision at levels 6 and 7 that does not lead to either a full bachelor’s or a master’s degree” in its reviews.

“The purpose of the review exercise is to evaluate the quality of the apprenticeships,” a spokesperson said.

“At the end of each review, we will report to the DfE so that it can identify where high quality apprenticeships are being delivered.

“Whilst we recognise that the providers that are participating in these reviews have not applied for OfS registration, we will review their apprenticeships against criteria that have been adapted from the OfS’ quality-related Conditions of Registration.

“This will provide some comparability with OfS-registered providers of apprenticeships at levels 6 and 7.”

The spokesperson added that once the review activity has concluded, the OfS will undertake the “lessons learned” exercise. This will “give reviewers, providers, apprentices and other participants an opportunity to input to an evaluation of the new review method”.

A DfE spokesperson confirmed the OfS’ approach, and said it has given the regulator this responsibility “to ensure that all apprenticeship training is high quality regardless of whether or not the provider is registered with the OfS”.