The Department for Education has suspended the process for defunding thousands of legacy qualifications at level three and below with low enrolments amid the coronavirus crisis.

But for qualifications with no enrolments, officials will continue with that process under an “expanded timeframe”.

A consultation on plans to remove funding for more than 5,000 qualifications at level three and below was launched by the government in February.

Those at risk are courses that are currently not being studied by any learners or have cohorts of fewer than 100, and are coming to the end of their three-year operation.

The plan was to stop their funding by August 2021, and the deadline for organisations to submit appeals for keeping individual qualifications under review was 27 March.

But following a plea to delay the process from the Federation of Awarding Bodies owing to colleges and other education settings being ordered to close, Education and Skills Funding Agency chief executive Eileen Milner has agreed to alter the arrangements.

“Recognising the rapidly changing nature of the current situation, and taking account of recent announcements, we are proposing to run the no enrolment process only this year, offering, on top of the four week extension for evidence you suggested, a further window to submit evidence during September,” she told FAB boss Tom Bewick in an email, seen by FE Week, today.

“We will not run the low enrolment process this year, but re-launch that in the autumn, as part of the second cycle of review of funding approval decisions, with qualifications in scope potentially having funding approval withdrawn from August 2022.”

An email outlining the changes will be sent to all awarding organisations today.

It will inform them that the deadline to submit the “relevant accompanying evidence” for qualifications with no enrolments is now extended to 30 April 2020.

“Qualifications with low enrolments which are included on the published list will retain funding approvals for 2021 to 2022,” it will add.

“These qualifications will be in scope to have funding approval removed from August 2022.”

Exact timescales for the revised arrangements will be revealed “in the autumn”.

Bewick said his federation was “pleased that the ESFA is responding so flexibly to our members at this incredibly challenging time”.

“These postponements will free up some of the time of awarding body staff to focus on the immediate crisis of dealing with Covid-19, including ensuring that various assessments continue for apprentices and vocational technical qualification students.”

On Saturday FE Week hosted a webinar to provide an overview of the latest legislation and guidance from the government regarding the response to the coronavirus pandemic, for the FE and skills sector.

Presented by Shane Mann, publisher of FE Week, he was joined by Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes, Association of Employment and Learning Providers boss Mark Dawe, FE Commissioner Richard Atkins, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills Paul Joyce, and Holex director Sue Pember.

You can watch it back for free by clicking here.

Further FE Week webinars will be announced throughout the Pandemic to help support the sector.

The government has celebrated nearly tripling the interest in apprenticeships after spending more than £1 million on the release of a grime song as part of its Fire It Up campaign.

FE Week can reveal the unusual partnership between a YouTube entrepreneur, rapper and the Department for Education (DfE) cost £542,009.65 to deliver, with an additional £323,446.42 spent on its partnership with The Guardian newspaper and £215,426.51 with streaming platform Spotify.

However, the DfE refused to disclose the individual fees paid to the famous participants on the grounds that it is “personal data”, which means the total amount is likely to be much higher.

FE Week has requested an internal review of our Freedom of Information request to find out these costs.

Jamal Edwards MBE, the founder of online music platform SBTV, collaborated with artist P Money, producer Teddy Music (aka Silencer) and director Matthew Walker, who previously worked with stars including Skepta, Stormzy and JME, to create the single and shoot the music video.

The DfE did confirm that it spent £44,000 on the production of apprenticeship track The Calling, and it said the launch event cost £8,800.

No fee was paid to SBTV, which uploaded a series of three behind-the-scenes videos to its platform with more than one million subscribers on YouTube.

The song has now had more than 100,000 views on P Money’s own YouTube channel (said to be much higher than the DfE’s usual organic figures) as well as almost 90,000 views on SBTV’s channel.

The partnerships contributed to a 171 per cent increase in the number of users of the apprenticeship website in January to March compared to the same period last year, from 300,380 to 814,991, and a 180 per cent rise in sessions, from 385,998 to 1,079,207.

An extra 270,000 people were also reached through YouTube and Instagram.

A DfE spokesperson said: “This campaign was designed to directly appeal to young people and their parents to showcase the huge range and diversity of apprenticeships on offer.

“The success of this campaign shows that by thinking differently, whether it’s by using grime artists or drones, you can successfully reach new audiences and open their minds to the idea that a life-changing apprenticeship could be right for them.”

In response to the FOI, the DfE added that it worked with partners it knew “young people, in particular, respond to, follow, trust and respect”.

For example, Edwards was selected as a digital influencer to increase reach and engagement for his “large and diverse” audience and background, which made him a “great fit” for the campaign.

The YouTube entrepreneur previously said he was “passionate about showing £1m rap collaboration sends apprenticeship site visits soaring young people that there are many ways to reach their potential” and that he hoped the track would “help get the message out” that apprenticeships are not just for trades such as plumbing and construction.

Seven apprentices volunteered to help record, produce and promote the song, working on sound and video production, drone engineering, logistics, lighting, hair styling, marketing and social media.

Their parents, teachers and employers also volunteered to take part.

Shola West, a 19-year-old level 3 digital marketing apprentice at WhiteHat Apprentice BAME Network, organised the launch party event, promoted it on Twitter and Instagram and recorded a voiceover for the Spotify advert as part of the Fire It Up campaign.

West previously told FE Week it was a “great experience” because it showed she was able to put the skills developed during her apprenticeship into practice.

She called the opportunity to work with Edwards and P Money “really exciting” and added that her involvement made the digital marketing apprentice consider working in creative industries in the future.

The Fire It Up campaign was first launched in January last year. The latest phase started in January 2020 and will run until the end of this month, which is considered a key application and recruitment period.

This evening the apprenticeships and skills minister, Gillian Keegan, wrote to all FE and sixth form colleges in England. Read the letter in full below, or download it from here.

Dear Colleagues,

I wanted to take the time to write to you and thank you for all of your hard work and continued commitment during what I know is a very difficult time.

We are facing an unprecedented challenge and I recognise that as teachers and leaders working to provide education and support to learners in your institutions, you are on the frontline of our national effort.

UK COVID-19 response

I appreciate that the decision announced by the Secretary of State on Wednesday 18 March, that FE providers should stop classroom delivery from 23 March, other than for vulnerable young people and dependents of critical workers, will have a huge impact on you as college leaders, as well as your staff members and learners.

I have already heard some hugely impressive stories on how colleges and other providers across the country are reacting – including using online resources to continue to deliver education for your learners, offering support to schools in your areas and establishing crucial communications channels with learners and parents. These illustrate how you are pulling together with ingenuity at this time and typify the spirit that runs through our brilliant further education sector. I’d like to thank you for all the work you have put in so far and for all that is surely to come in the coming weeks.

Funding

I understand that, alongside your priority to deliver learning and care for your students, the situation we are in does carry financial implications for many institutions. I am aware of some of the issues you are facing, including those raised by the Association of Colleges in a letter to the Secretary of State on 17 March, and  we are working hard to mitigate this impact as much as we can. The Chancellor has also announced a series of wider measures to support employers and employees, recognising the significant impacts caused by COVID-19.

I can confirm that the ESFA will continue to pay grant funded providers their scheduled monthly payments for the remainder of the year. Your allocations for 2020/21 will have been confirmed by the end of March, and payments will be made as scheduled. I hope this can provide you with the funding certainty you require as you seek to address the impact of responding to COVID-19.

Because of the activity-based funding model for apprenticeships specifically and independent training providers generally, we are urgently looking at the impact of the current disruption and how we can help to mitigate that. For other funding streams, we will be making decisions on where existing rules and models may need to be modified in relation to any planned reconciliation and future year allocations.

For colleges in significant financial difficulties, the existing support arrangements remain in place including emergency funding. Please do speak to your ESFA territorial team about this.

We are also working on more detailed operational guidance, which will be circulated as soon as possible.

Alternatives arrangements for exams

You will also be aware that we have taken the difficult decision to cancel all exams due to take place in schools and colleges in England this summer. This is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we know that this will be disappointing for students who have been working hard towards these exams. So that we can ensure students can progress to the next stage of their lives, including going onto university, further study or an apprenticeship this autumn, we have been working closely with the exam boards and qualifications regulator Ofqual to put in place alternative arrangements.

There are a very wide range of different vocational and technical qualifications as well as other academic qualifications for which students were expecting to sit exams this summer. These are offered by a large number of awarding organisations and have differing assessment approaches – in many cases students will already have completed modules or non-exam assessment which could provide evidence to award a grade. We are encouraging these organisations to show the maximum possible flexibility and pragmatism to ensure students are not disadvantaged.

Ofqual is working urgently with the exam boards to set out proposals for how this process will work and will be talking to teachers’ representatives before finalising an approach, to ensure that the approach taken is as fair as possible. For more details please read our news story. More information will be provided as soon as possible. 

Support

In terms of other avenues of support at the moment, Richard Atkins the FE Commissioner (FEC) and his team of highly experienced Deputy FECs and FE Advisers have offered their services to college leaders that would like to talk through plans, concerns and issues. Our pool of National Leaders of Governance (NLGs) also stand ready to offer any support they can. If you would like to arrange a phone conversation between yourself and a member of the FEC team or an NLG, please do email FEC.OPERATIONS@education.gov.uk.

Communication with the sector.

I recognise that the current situation is throwing up queries and concerns that many of you are working through and my officials are already speaking regularly with provider bodies including The Association of Colleges, and with unions, to make sure we are alive to the issues that you are all facing and the questions that you have. I am also in contact with representatives of the sector on the impact of COVID-19 and will continue to engage over the coming weeks.   

Accurate information is clearly vital at a time like this, and the latest government guidance is available on GOV.UK, including advice for all education settings and critical workers classifications.

To help maintain the flow of information and ensure we are alive to the issues affecting you all, I would encourage you to keep in touch and raise any queries via your ESFA territorial team.

We are certainly in an extraordinary situation and I am extremely grateful for the huge amount of work being done across the sector to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on our staff, students and institutions.

Yours sincerely,

Gillian Keegan, Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills

 

 

A north-west England university technical college has become the latest of its type to move towards joining a multi-academy trust – but this time the tables have turned.

The leader of UTC Warrington, Lee Barber, has been appointed by the North West Academies Trust (NWAT) to be the interim headteacher of Rudheath Senior Academy, following the resignation of its second headteacher in as many years.

Rudheath, which teaches pupils aged 11 to 16, joined NWAT 18 months ago following a fire that burned down half the school, and its departure from University of Chester Academies Trust, which collapsed in 2018 after forecasting a £3 million deficit.

This marks a rare example of a successful UTC supporting a multi-academy trust (MAT) with a struggling school. MATs have traditionally come to the aid of at-risk UTCs in the past.

UTC Warrington, which teaches students aged 14 to 19 and specialises in science, engineering and cyber, is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.

Barber said, although Rudheath is also rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, it “has suffered significant turbulence, fallen on tough times and needs some strong leadership and management”.

While discussing with NWAT the opportunity for UTC Warrington to join the trust, the idea of Barber working across both schools “seemed like an obvious start to a strong future partnership,” he said.

While he splits his time between the two, the UTC’s vice principal Amanda Downing has become associate principal and conducts the day-today running, though Barber insists he is still “proactively” involved at Warrington, and staff at both providers are supporting one another.

Barber says that as Rudheath’s curriculum is very academically focused, the UTC is taking the opportunity to inject some technical education into its provision.

The school’s students have gone to the UTC for engineering and construction taster days. There is even talk of the UTC delivering specialist GCSEs for Rudheath from September.

The boards of NWAT and the academy will be discussing the UTC possibly joining the trust in the coming weeks and months, Barber said.

The chief executive of NWAT, Steve Docking, called this a “great opportunity” for both organisations to benefit from working together and sharing resources.

He also believes the partnership will strengthen their work ensuring “every student deserves the best possible education”.

UTCs that have been brought into MATs following academic or financial difficulty include Sir Charles Kao UTC, which joined the Burnt Mill Academy Trust and rebranded itself the BMAT STEM Academy in May 2018.

After Ofsted slapped it with a grade 4 in its first-ever inspection, UTC Swindon joined the Activate Learning Education Trust in 2017, which also includes UTCs in Reading, Oxfordshire and at Heathrow.

UTC Bolton was told to join a MAT in March 2018 when it was issued with a notice to improve because the Education & Skills Funding Agency found it had “inadequate” financial controls. It was announced last month UTC Bolton would be joining The Keys Federation MAT and renaming itself the University Collegiate School.

UTC founder and former education secretary Lord Baker has previously warned that UTCs would be “watered down” if they joined a MAT.

But in a U-turn last year, he and then-academies minister Lord Agnew wrote to the principals and chairs of every UTC urging them to join a trust.

Speaking at a public accounts committee hearing on Monday, the Department for Education’s permanent secretary Jonathan Slater said that around 30 UTCs will be part of a MAT in the next year. There are nearly 60 UTCs open in England.

A university technical college has pulled itself out of ‘inadequate’, while two other FE providers, including an accountancy giant, slumped to the lowest rating this week.

Health Futures UTC has been given a grade three, nearly two years after the 14 to 19 provider was hit with a grade four.

Inspectors said it was previously “not clear” that the college had a health focus, but students are now in “no doubt” it aims to provide a career in health-related industries.

The reception area is “flanked by mannequins dressed as paramedics and surgeons,” the report reads, and at key stage 4, students study health and social care alongside English, maths and science.

While this provider escaped a grade four, others were less successful: Shrewsbury Colleges Group told FE Week it would be appealing after Ofsted dropped it from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ this week, because it found “not all students feel safe”.

Meanwhile, one of the ‘big four’ accountancy firms, KPMG, was also slapped with the grade for a lack of unbiased careers advice and poor support for high needs learners with dyslexia for its 933 apprentices who all work in the civil service.

Fellow independent provider B-Skill Limited was branded ‘requires improvement’ for its provision to 274 adult learners and 423 apprentices, as while all of them “demonstrate a keenness to learn and take pride in their work”, the report said “too many” apprentices do not receive their full off-the-job training entitlement.

After avoiding losing its contracts after a grade four report in 2018, DV8 Training (Brighton) Limited has improved to ‘requires improvement’ in a report published this week.

While the great majority of students, of which DV8 has 178, complete their studies, “too many” do not attend lessons and when they do, they often arrive late.

Leaders were pulled up on this as it was an area for improvement from their last inspection, but inspectors did report progress had been made in improving the quality of education.

Cherith Simmons Learning & Development LLP made ‘insufficient progress’ in all areas of a monitoring visit as no apprentices have completed their qualifications, despite passing their end dates.

Leaders and managers “did not understand the need for end-point assessment to be completed by the planned learning end date” for apprentices commencing programmes before August 2019”, inspectors found.

They “expected this to take place after apprentices complete their planned training”.

Doncaster Conferences, Catering and Events Limited made ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas of an early monitoring visit: leaders and managers do not enrol apprentices onto “sufficiently challenging” programmes, instead requiring them to complete specific courses irrespective of prior experience.

New independent specialist provider The Michael Tippett College made ‘significant progress’ in an early monitoring visit of its provision to 30 students.

Leaders were commended for their “enterprising actions” in developing provision: they have put in a café where students can learn catering skills and set up pop-up outlets in the local community for students to sell products.

Phoenix4Training LLP made ‘reasonable progress’ in two areas of a monitoring visit conducted after it made ‘insufficient progress’ in safeguarding at a previous one.

Since then, leaders and managers have “worked quickly and effectively to correct and deal with concerns identified” and have established relevant policies and procedures.

Waltham Forest College, which this week revealed to FE Week it was due a diagnostic assessment from the FE Commissioner, had a monitoring visit after concerns were raised about its culture of safeguarding and its responses to notified concerns.

Inspectors found a “suitable” culture of safeguarding, but a few staff were dissatisfied with the outcomes, so decided to air their grievances outside established procedures.

UTC Sheffield City Centre achieved a grade two this week, its second consecutive one, because of a “well thought through” curriculum and because the provider “understands its specialist character well” and students are drawn to it in the hopes of becoming engineers or digital designers.

Hertfordshire County Council also kept hold of its grade two, after senior leaders acted “very swiftly” to further education colleges reducing local provision, by opening three new area.

Teachers at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, which has maintained its ‘good’ rating, structure classes “very well” to build on what learners know, and learners “demonstrate high levels of motivation and are keen to share their enthusiasm”.

Caroline Pauling and Equestrian Training Limited both made ‘reasonable progress’ in every area of an early monitoring visit.

GFE Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Waltham Forest College	26/02/2020	19/03/2020	M	2

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
B-Skill Limited	21/02/2020	18/03/2020	3	2
Caroline Pauling trading as Peak Accountancy Training	05/03/2020	18/03/2020	M	N/A
Cherith Simmons Learning & Development LLP	26/02/2020	18/03/2020	M	N/A
Doncaster Conferences, Catering and Events Limited	20/02/2020	19/03/2020	M	N/A
DV8 Training (Brighton) Limited	06/03/2020	19/03/2020	3	M
Equestrian Training Limited	20/01/2020	18/03/2020	M	N/A
KPMG Limited Liability Partnership	07/02/2020	17/03/2020	4	M
Phoenix4Training LLP	04/03/2020	17/03/2020	M	M

 

Sixth Form Colleges (inc 16-19 academies)	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College	05/03/2020	19/03/2020	2	2
Shrewsbury Colleges Group	26/02/2020	16/03/2020	4	2

 

Adult and Community Learning	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Hertfordshire County Council	12/02/2020	17/03/2020	2	2

 

Other (including UTCs)	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Health Futures UTC	26/02/2020	19/03/2020	3	4
UTC Sheffield City Centre	13/02/2020	16/03/2020	2	2

 

Specialist colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
The Michael Tippett College	12/02/2020	17/03/2020	M	N/A