Colleges need certainty to deliver promise of social mobility

Welsh college principal, Mark Jones has a few requests to put to the new prime minister, and some leadership advice for the new incumbent at number 10

With responsibility for education in Wales devolved to the Welsh Assembly, colleagues in other areas of the UK may feel that the outcome of the Westminster election is likely to have only a minimal impact on Welsh education – but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Of all of the critical priorities for the new government the first one must be to resolve the impasse caused by the ongoing Brexit impasse which is, I’m sure, creating as much uncertainty and frustration amongst all governments as it is undoubtedly doing in Wales. Civil servants are having to plan for so many possible outcomes that at the current time that there just isn’t enough capacity to do anything else. 

The impact of all of this is that, this year, I have more question marks along my various income ‘lines’ in the College budgets than I’ve ever had in all my 14 years as a College Principal. It is nearing December, and we are still awaiting confirmation and clarification of the funding for a number of key programmes that should have started in September. 

This in turn means that any long-term planning continues to be almost meaningless. We just don’t know the constraints and direction that we will need to respond to.

But neither do I want the new government to rush through a bad deal just to ‘get Brexit done’, and I worry that a new administration may act in haste and leaving us all to repent at leisure, not allowing sufficient time to analyse the implications and the impact of any new deal in sufficient detail.  My strong advice to the new Prime Minister, drawn from 14 years of college leadership, is yes, to get on with it, but do so by bringing in other external advice, taking the time needed to make sure that it’s a deal that works for your whole constituency, for all your stakeholders. You would expect nothing less of us.

We need a framework that incentivises education providers to work together

Whoever gets the keys to number 10, the new education team will need to manage the long-outstanding issue of unnecessary competition in so many parts of the public education sector – most notably between FE colleges and schools at level 3, but also between colleges and universities at levels 4 and above. That competition often results in institutions putting themselves first rather than our learners, and results in advice and guidance that is often far from independent.

All this competition is underpinned by government funding methodologies that reward growth rather than outcomes, partnership working, or indeed any of the targets that the sectors are being asked to achieve. What we need is a framework that incentivises education providers to work together to grapple with some of the significant issues we are facing, rather than creating conditions that prioritise growth and the acquisition of market share.

Resuming normal government service and reforming unhelpful structures aside, the new government will have to follow through on the funding promises made to Further Education colleges. In the past couple of months, we have probably heard more positive comments on the key role colleges play – in skills development, in adult learning, in inclusion and social mobility – than we have heard in many years from all political parties. We can’t keep doing more with less.

All of the main parties have made positive commitments to begin addressing some of these issues. If followed through, they will have a major positive impact across so many areas of our society. It is no doubt encouraging to have this renewed attention given to the sector, but it will be important that we move beyond rhetoric and start to see tangible differences in the levels of support colleges receive. The country’s future cohesion and prosperity depend on it.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 299

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving.

Rebecca Conway: Head of policy and strategy, Federation of Awarding Bodies

Start date: November 2019

Previous job: Product manager, Assessment projects group, Cambridge Assessment International Education

Interesting fact: Her first job was in a bingo hall, checking claims when people shouted ‘HOUSE!’ 

Mick Lochran: Deputy chief executive, DN Colleges Group

Start date: September 2019

Concurrent job: Principal, North Lindsey College

Interesting fact: He studied engineering at North Lindsey College after leaving school.

Jennifer Coupland: Chief executive, Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

Start date: November 2019

Previous job: Director of professional and technical education, ESFA

Interesting fact: She launched the first ever apprenticeship trailblazer groups in October 2013 when she was deputy director of the DfE/BIS Apprenticeships Unit

Kathryn Brentnall: Principal, Doncaster College and University Centre

Start date: September 2019

Previous job: Interim principal, Doncaster College and University Centre

Interesting fact: Her dad was fingerprinted as part of the Great Train Robbery investigation.

Serious safeguarding failures at ‘college’

Serious safeguarding failures at a multi-site “college” are to be exposed in an imminent Ofsted report, FE Week can reveal.

City College Nottingham, a private training provider with campuses across the Midlands, is bracing itself for the publication of a grade-four report. It has already laid off staff and stopped taking on new enrolments.

Inspectors found no restrictions on the internet for material such as pornography and radicalisation, as well as a complete lack of security over who was coming and going to the provider’s campus.

In addition to hundreds of their own learners, City College Nottingham teaches around 300 young people and adults on courses in construction, beauty, care, IT and business courses under a subcontracting agreement with Nottingham College, worth more than £1 million.

After Ofsted alerted Nottingham College to its findings it terminated the contract with City College Nottingham.

When approached by FE Week, a spokesperson for Nottingham College said it took quick and decisive action after being made aware of the safeguarding situation, including “immediately” providing reception and security staff at the Carlton Road campus.

This was to “ensure secure access and strictly enforcing the use of lanyards for staff and students to ensure only people with a legitimate reason to be in the building are in the building”.

It also “suspended IT access to control safeguarding risk online until such time as adequate software monitoring can be introduced”.

City College Nottingham has since taken to Twitter to advertise that “all our places are now full for the academic year 2019/20”.

Ofsted was drafted in after a whistleblower brought concerns to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

It is understood that the ESFA is likely to exercise its power to terminate City College Nottingham’s direct contracts, once Ofsted’s report is published.

The provider has refused to comment despite numerous requests, so it is not clear what other direct contracts it holds with the government. In 2018/19, its direct ESFA contracts totalled £1.8 million, including £650,000 for advance learner loans.

The agency was unable to comment on the safeguarding issues owing to purdah, the period before a political election.

City College Nottingham was given a grade three by Ofsted in January 2018, and was found to be making “reasonable progress” in a follow-up monitoring report published in January 2019.

The provider also runs a nursery, called Learning Angels, which has received two Ofsted grade-four reports this year, in February and August. Two unannounced follow-up visits found further concerns.

The watchdog’s early years framework states that any nursery that has been given two previous “inadequate” judgments is “likely to have its registration cancelled if there’s no improvement at the next inspection”. However, “we can take steps to cancel a provider’s registration at any point if we find that they are no longer meeting requirements”.

City College Nottingham was founded and run by its “principal” Hassan Ahmed, a former councillor with a controversial history. He was elected to Nottingham City Council in 2007 and became its portfolio holder for employment and skills in 2009.

He announced in March 2011 that he would not be seeking re-election, citing “family commitments and health concerns”, according to the Nottingham Post.

But shortly after he stood down a report by the district auditor of the Audit Commission found that Ahmed had been involved with a number of firms and charities which were awarded contracts from a £10 million Future Jobs Fund, which was part of his portfolio.

It said rules were not followed which resulted in “unsafe decision-making”.

City College Nottingham has since worked with Nottingham City Council under Ahmed’s leadership. Its latest contract was to deliver Step into Work training for adults under the European Social Fund programme. This ceased in August 2018 when the contract came to an end.

The provider also had a subcontract with Burton and South Derbyshire College last year worth £220,000. The college said this came to an end in 2018/19 and it has not entered into any new contracts in 2019/20.

A Nottingham College spokesperson said they have worked with City College Nottingham since merger in June 2017. Prior to merger, both Central Nottingham College and New College Nottingham had “longstanding” contractual relationships with City College Nottingham.

He explained that the “serious safeguarding concerns” raised with the ESFA centred on “site security, online e-safety and learner safety, eg use of lanyards to identify legitimate learners at the college.  

“As a result of an extensive series of visits, the college has concluded that the performance, safety and security of our learners is best served by relocating them to the college’s own campuses.

“It is a difficult decision to disrupt students’ studies but we feel this is the only way we can keep them safe.”

He added that Nottingham College’s “immediate priority was to safeguard our 16 to 18 students and vulnerable adults” and it will “do everything we can to ensure that students can still achieve their qualification”.

 

Police and schools top list of those missing apprenticeship targets

The police and schools are the public-sector bodies with most to do to meet the government’s apprenticeship recruitment target, according to new data from the Department for Education.

Apprentices made up an average of only 0.5 per cent of the workforce in police forces across England in 2018-19, followed by an average of 0.9 per cent at schools.

This is significantly below the 2.3 per cent target required for most public bodies with more than 250 employees.

In a document published alongside the figures the Department for Education added: “The police have the lowest rate of apprenticeship recruitment averaging at 0.4 per cent since April 2017.”

The bodies have not officially missed the target as they must meet the 2.3 per cent threshold over a period of four years, from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2021.

However, the requirement only came into force for schools last year.

The average percentage of apprenticeship starts among public-sector bodies since the target was launched in 2017 stands at 1.6 per cent.

The public-sector bodies performing best are the armed forces, which had 7.5 per cent of the workforce starting as apprentices in 2018-19, followed by the fire service with 2.1 per cent, then the NHS at 1.7 per cent.

Two police forces topped the list of bodies with the most employees without any apprentices in 2018/19.

Kent Police had 5,988 employees but no apprentices.

Close behind in second was Essex Police, which had 5,314 staff members and zero apprentices last year. 

Chief superintendent Mat Newton, head of learning and development at Kent Police and Essex Police, said his forces were “currently developing new programmes that will offer apprenticeships in digital design, information technology, and business and administration”.

He added that they were also “just about to launch” a programme in vehicle maintenance, a number of staff members are studying for an apprenticeship master’s degree in applied criminology and leadership, and future apprenticeship programmes for new student police officers will be launched in 2021.

The police forces both moved up one place from 2017/18, when they were placed second and third on the list.

Lead Employer Trust, which is commissioned by Health Education England in the North East and North Cumbria to employ all junior doctors across the region during their training, had the third-most employees and zero apprentices in 2018/19. It had 2,129 employees at the time, according to the statistics published by the DfE.

Three school trusts also made the top ten with no apprentices last year: Saffron Academy Trust, Brampton Manor Trust and Compass Education Trust were eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

FE colleges are excluded from the target as they are technically classed as private organisations.

In 2017/18, Imperial College Health Care NHS Trust came top of the list with 10,662 staff members but zero apprenticeships. A spokesperson said the actual number of staff during that period was 11,789 and confirmed that there were no apprentices.

The trust supplied figures for 2018/19, which were also higher than those listed in official DfE data, which showed that it had 12,179 employees and 87 undertaking apprenticeships for management roles.

A spokesperson for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said: “In 2017/18 new apprentice standards were introduced and the procurement of training providers and completion of setting up the programme took several months.

“Although we did not directly employ apprentices during 2017/18, we continued to work with an apprentice training agency delivering the previous apprenticeship programme.”

There were 56,980 new apprenticeship starts across the whole of the public sector during the financial year, rising from 45,410 the year before.

 

National Apprenticeship Award winners of 2019

The “outstanding” work of apprentices, government officials and employers was recognised at the National Apprenticeship Awards for 2019 on Wednesday.

The great and the good of the FE sector turned out for the glittering awards ceremony in London, which was hosted by TV presenter and actor Reggie Yates.

These awards followed on from this year’s regional prizes, which all the national finalists had won.

Media outlets including FE Week were unable to attend the awards following the general election announcement and the onset of the pre-election embargo period, otherwise known as purdah.

FE Week nevertheless used its sources to get the inside scoop on proceedings.

Speaking at the ceremony, the 2017 winner of higher or degree apprentice of the year Charlotte Hughes said: “Everyone in this room knows it’s really easy to say ‘that’s just my day job, that’s what I’m meant to be doing’.”

But Hughes, who is chair of the East of England Young Apprenticeship Ambassador Network, said “everyone here is doing outstanding work to such an amazing standard and that’s what we’re here to celebrate”.

It was a good night for the young apprenticeship ambassador network: North West Young Apprentice Ambassador Emilia Hoyle from Heat Trace Ltd picked up the award for rising star of the year.

At just 23, Hoyle has been promoted to be marketing manager for Heat Trace and completed a higher business administration apprenticeship and is now studying for a chartered manager apprenticeship.

The Hertfordshire chair of the network’s East of England branch, Tatiana Peters from arms manufacturer MBDA, won the award for the level three apprentice of the year.

Dominique Unsworth from Resource Productions, who was named as a government SME ambassador in 2017, won this year’s apprenticeship champion of the year.

She won the South East apprentice champion of the year in September for her work with six local authority officers and adult learning providers to raise awareness and engagement with apprenticeships.

Louise Meredith from JC Bamford Excavators Ltd (more popularly known as JCB) was recognised as the level-four and above apprentice of the year and the level-two award was won by Julie Mills from Northumberland Community Bank.

Mills began a customer services apprenticeship with Northumberland County Council’s learning and skills service while at the bank after working in a factory for 20 years.

After winning the North East intermediate apprentice of the year award, Mills said she had “never even done any office work before and didn’t realise that older people could do an apprenticeship.”

The audience saved their most rapturous reaction for Sue Husband, director of employer and employee engagement for the Education and Skills Funding Agency: she received a standing ovation when she went to pick up her special recognition award.

Several employers received awards as well: IT company Invotra won small-to-medium enterprise employer of the year; large employer of the year was won by housing association Home Group; and macro employer of the year was won by restaurant, pub and bar operator Mitchells & Butlers.

The full list of winners:

  • SME employer of the year – Invotra
  • Large employer of the year – Home Group
  • Macro employer of the year – Mitchells & Butlers
  • Special recognition award – Sue Husband, director of employer and employee engagement, ESFA
  • Intermediate apprentice of the year – Julie Mills
  • Advanced apprentice of the year – Tatiana Peters
  • Higher or degree apprentice of the year – Louise Meredith
  • Apprenticeship champion of the year – Dominique Unsworth
  • Rising star – Emilia Hoyle

‘Inadequate’ provider hands £2m adult education budget contract back

A training provider has handed back an adult education budget (AEB) contract of almost £2 million after Ofsted criticised it for the second time this year.

Total Training Company (UK) Limited was declared “inadequate” in its first full inspection last week. It was found to be making “insufficient progress” in an early monitoring report in February.

The family-owned provider delivers training in the construction industry and won £1.8 million from the West Midlands Combined Authority’s devolved AEB in May following a competitive tender.

According to last week’s Ofsted report, Total Training has 166 adult learners on its books. The programmes on offer support unemployed people who want to gain qualifications in the construction and logistics industry.

But, following the education’s watchdog latest verdict, the combined authority said the provider asked for its AEB contract to be taken off its hands.

“We received a request from Total Training to withdraw from our AEB contract as a training provider, following their recent Ofsted inspection where they were graded ‘inadequate’,” a spokesperson told FE Week.

“We have agreed to this request. The withdrawal notice was received on 18 November and took place with immediate effect.”

Total Training will complete the training for learners already enrolled under the contract. No new learners have been enrolled since 13 November.

The West Midlands (WMCA) spokesperson said it would be reviewing the performance of all its providers “over the coming months” and would redistribute the available funding.

The combined authority is not, however, cutting all ties with Total Training. It will “continue to deliver services to the WMCA under the Construction Gateway contract,” the spokesperson said.

“This contract includes delivery of short, two to four-week, job-focused training for Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) cards and progression into jobs.”

Total Training, which had direct contracts with the Education and Skills Funding Agency totalling £1.3 million last year, told FE Week that government skills funding contracts make up “just one stream of revenue for our company”.

A spokesperson added: “We are fortunate to have a very successful commercial construction training division which will enable us to continue trading and provide a stable backdrop for us to implement the required actions for improvement as highlighted in the findings from the Ofsted report.”

They added that Total Training does not currently hold any other contracts with the ESFA.

Under government rules, any provider rated “inadequate” by Ofsted is removed from the register of apprenticeship training providers and banned from delivering the programmes.

The ESFA will usually also terminate a provider’s skills funding contracts within three months of a  grade-four Ofsted report being published, unless there are extenuating circumstances. But as the West Midlands Combined Authority has its AEB devolved, it does not have to abide by this rule.

A spokesperson for the combined authority said it has a “contractual clause” that enables it to terminate a contract where a provider receives a grade four from Ofsted.

Total Training was rated “inadequate” in every assessed area of its Ofsted full inspection except behaviour and attitudes, which “requires improvement”.

At the time of the inspection there were 166 adult learners and 25 apprentices across the North-East and the West Midlands.

The report stated that learners and apprentices “do not experience a well-planned programme of study” and they are “not supported to develop their talents or interests”.

Ofsted also found that only a “low” proportion of adult learners successfully gain employment or move onto further learning while “too many apprentices leave their programme early”.

Safeguarding arrangements were considered “effective”, however.

CBI: Don’t restrict how the apprenticeship levy is spent

The Confederation of British Industry has urged the government not to restrict how the apprenticeship levy is spent in the face of opposition from nearly eight in ten businesses.

Limits on age, income or level of training would make 78 per cent of 208 businesses and trade associations surveyed for the 2019 CBI and Pearson Education and Skills Annual Report either “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied”.

“Restrictions on how levy funds can be used could be counter-productive to addressing some of the biggest skills challenges employers face,” the report said.

“These include new technology, such as automation and AI in the workplace, which means that retraining and upskilling is more important than ever.”

Such restrictions have been mooted after projections from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education showed the levy could be overspent by up to £1.5 billion in 2021/22.

This has been blamed by the CBI on a growth in higher-level programmes, which are longer and more costly to deliver, and on the levy having to cover the cost of non-levy payers’ provision.

Even the fund for non-levy provision is running dry, according to the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), which has found providers were having to turn apprentices away as a result.

The CBI suggests that, instead of restrictions, the government should “deliver a sustainable financial plan for the apprenticeship budget that allows firms to continue to invest in apprentices of all ages and levels”.

AELP chief executive Mark Dawe said his organisation “strongly supports” the CBI’s suggestion as a new plan “will remove the fear of further restrictions on employers’ use of the funding”.

The AELP proposed its own solution to the overspend this year, which would remove level six and seven apprenticeships from the scope for levy funding.

Former skills minister Anne Milton said in June that a pre-apprenticeship salary limit was “one of the most palatable” options for restricting how businesses can use the levy.

But Department for Education permanent secretary Jonathan Slater admitted to the Education Select Committee that “hard choices” had to be made about the apprenticeship budget.

This was after the National Audit Office reported the long-term financial sustainability of the apprenticeship programme was “at risk” because the average cost of training an apprentice soared to double what the government predicted.

In addition to concerns about restrictions in how they can spend money, 59 per cent of businesses cited a lack of funding as a barrier to training.

However, more than four in five businesses polled (86 per cent) said they now offer apprenticeship programmes and 63 per cent said they planned to expand their apprenticeship training in the future.

But sparing time for employees to train was cited as a problem by 52 per cent of respondents, amid a crackdown by the government and Ofsted on off-the-job training.

The CBI believes there ought to be a consultation on turning the levy into a flexible skills levy, which Dawe welcomed, as the argument for more flexibility under the levy “needs to be taken far more seriously”.

He proposed that this flexibility should be introduced through the apprenticeship standards “ensuring that they have the correct blend of on and off-the-job training appropriate to level, sector and setting”.

Speaking to FE Week this week (see page 8), education secretary Gavin Williamson said making sure that the levy is “properly funded” and satisfies the needs of industry was “critical” and “it will be part of the discussion on the spending review”.

Employers must be at the heart of the vocational education system

Over the last few years we’ve seen a lot of experimentation with England’s much maligned vocational education system. If these innovations are to be successful they need to involve employers to a much greater extent than is currently the case, writes Tristram Hooley.

The clue is in the name; ‘vocational education’ is only useful if it prepares you for work, and employers are best placed to define what individuals need.

A programme for the next government

As an employer-led membership body focused on bringing entry-level talent into the workforce, the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) has released a manifesto to help politicians to focus on the key issues for employers and young people.

We want the new government to:

  • place greater emphasis on employer and university collaboration in higher education;
  • maintain and streamline the apprenticeship system in consultation with employers;
  • facilitate better employment outcomes for disadvantaged students;
  • renew the Careers Strategy and extend careers hubs across the country;
  • invest in vocational education and engage employers in its design and implementation;
  • design migration policies that enable businesses to access high quality global talent.

At the heart of all of these policies is the argument that the workplace is a key destination for the skills and knowledge that are acquired in education. A successful transition to employment is critical to allow young people to access the good life and make a positive contribution to society and the economy. To make all of this happen there needs to be a clear dialogue between education and employment, and a commitment to directly involving employers.

Towards a new vocational education system

The developing system of apprenticeships and T-levels has much to recommend it, but it has been under-funded, inconsistently implemented and has often played second fiddle to the academic system.

We need supportive ‘careers hubs’ in each locality

We need to place career guidance at the heart of the new vocational education system to ensure that young people have the information they need about all possibilities. The new government needs to commit to implementing good career guidance (as defined by the Gatsby Benchmarks) in schools and colleges. Resources need to be put in place to support the appointment of a careers leader in each school and to set up supportive ‘careers hubs’ in each locality.

We are optimistic about the opportunity T-levels offer to reboot vocational education and would like to see all parties committing to the idea that they will be here for at least a generation. The new government will then need to invest in building the system and in a substantial information and engagement campaign aimed at young people, their parents and employers. It will also have to tackle the concerns employers have by bringing them into the governance of the new qualifications and providing support and incentives for the substantial new work-experience commitments.

Finally, it is important that a new government offers continuity on the apprenticeships system. Employers have been on the sharp end of all of the changes, including cost and bureaucracy increases, and have now started to get the system working.

A new government needs to put employers at the centre of the apprenticeship system, allowing them to increase its flexibility. It should also commit to the principle that the apprenticeship levy should not be a payroll tax, that the funding system should be more transparent and that good employers should get out more than they put in.

The time is ripe for England to build a better vocational education system. We have many of the pieces already, but it is up to the next government to put them together in a lasting way. Employers stand ready to help with this for any government that is serious about making it work.