A college in financial trouble and the education secretary’s old sixth form are among a host of positive Ofsted results for FE providers.

The week was somewhat overshadowed, however, after independent provider EQV (UK) was handed a grade four because apprentices and their bosses did not know they were on an apprenticeship programme.

Brooklands College will find solace in maintaining its grade two after plunging into financial difficulties as the government demanded it return £20 million following a subcontracting scandal.

Inspectors have reported that the current leaders and governors “now have a realistic grasp of the college’s financial position”.

Staff encourage and guide the nearly 2,500 learners towards high aspirations; such as engineering students pursuing a career in motor racing.

Also keeping hold of its grade two is Scarborough Sixth Form College, where education secretary Gavin Williamson completed his A-levels.

A high proportion of the college’s 950 learners achieve high grades, thanks to effective and helpful teaching, through which learners develop knowledge and skills well.

Independent provider Group Horizon had a promising week, scoring a grade two from its first full inspection of its provision to 45 apprentices and 111 adults.

By working effectively with organisations like the combined authority and employers, Group Horizon design programmes that support apprentices and learners to develop skills to meet regional needs.

Salford City College, Locomotivation Ltd, Long Road Sixth Form College and Fairfield Farm College also maintained a grade two this week.

After receiving a grade three in November 2018, FE college Colchester Institute has regained some standing by making ‘significant progress’ in two areas of a follow-up monitoring visit.

Its governors come in for particular praise, with inspectors writing they and leaders, “responded swiftly and effectively to the findings from the previous inspection” and effective structures have improved the quality of education for its over 5,000 learners.

Phoenix Training Services (Midlands), meanwhile, has made ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas of a monitoring visit after receiving a grade three last February.

Following that full inspection, Phoenix was bought by recruitment firm Challenge-trg and was successful in bidding for a slice of the West Midlands Combined Authority’s £125.6 million adult education budget.

But inspectors have found its 39 adult learners are on programmes not designed to meet their needs and “the curriculum remains too narrow and focused exclusively on achieving the vocational or employability short qualification,” which make up most of the provision.

Employer provider Veolia Environment Development Centre, a branch of waste management company Veolia UK, slipped to ‘requires improvement’ after a grade two inspection two years ago.

It was found that the curriculum is not “consistently challenging” for all 187 apprentices and they are not well prepared enough for their end-point assessment.

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust has been hit with a grade three in every area of its full inspection, but inspectors wrote “leaders and managers have made effective improvements to governance and strategic management” since making ‘insufficient progress’ in a monitoring visit.

The independent provider’s 129 apprentices have the opportunity to learn new skills from “highly experienced and professional” ward staff and managers.

Aspect Training, for not making “sufficient progress in improving the quality of education” since a grade three inspection, was declared to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas.

But the independent provider has introduced a “useful” learner monitoring system being used effectively to spot any learners falling behind.

Complete Training and Assessment, with its 73 apprentices, was marked as making ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas of an early monitoring visit because its leaders and managers of the independent provider did not ensure the principles of an apprenticeship are met.

They have not prepared adequately, in the inspectors’ eyes, for the transition to standards from frameworks, which are due to be switched off this year.

Bishop Auckland College, Bespoke Consultancy and Education Limited, New London Educational Trust, Paragon Training Academy, Highfields Community Association and Newfriars College all made reasonable progress in every area of monitoring visits.

GFE Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Bishop Auckland College	18/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	3
Brooklands College	10/12/2019	16/01/2020	2	2
Colchester Institute	11/12/2019	17/01/2020	M	3
Salford City College	04/12/2019	16/01/2020	2	2

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Aspect Training Limited	18/12/2019	13/01/2020	M	3
Bespoke Consultancy and Education Limited	19/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	N/A
Complete Training & Assessment Limited	12/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	N/A
EQV (UK) Ltd	10/12/2019	16/01/2020	4	M
Group Horizon Limited	10/12/2019	15/01/2020	2	M
Locomotivation Ltd	10/12/2019	13/01/2020	2	2
New London Educational Trust	05/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	3
Paragon Training Academy	06/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	N/A
Phoenix Training Services (Midlands) Limited	17/12/2019	16/01/2020	M	3
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust	17/12/2019	15/01/2020	3	M
Veolia Environment Development Centre Limited	13/12/2019	15/01/2020	3	2
Highfields Community Association	11/12/2019	14/01/2020	M	M

 

Sixth Form Colleges (inc 16-19 academies)	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Long Road Sixth Form College	12/12/2020	14/01/2020	2	2
Scarborough Sixth Form College	06/12/2019	15/01/2020	2	2

 

Specialist colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Fairfield Farm College (Farmfield Farm Trust)	10/12/2019	15/01/2020	2	2
Newfriars College	12/12/2019	16/01/2020	M	N/A

Further education is a “ticking time bomb” and more colleges will have to close campuses unless government gets serious about investment in the sector, the boss of Cornwall College has said.

John Evans made the comments in an interview with FE Week after news broke this week that his group was to sell-off its 35-year-old campus in Saltash in order to balance the books.

He said he “regrets” it, but “difficult decisions” need to be made because funding for post-16 learners in colleges has shrunk by 30 per cent over the last ten years.

Evans pointed to the recent increase in funding for learners aged 16 to 18 – rising 4.7 per cent from £4,000 to £4,188 in 2020/21 – and stated that it does not go far enough in covering even inflationary costs; rather, it brings funding up to 2010 rates.

“When you think about universities getting £9,250 [per student] and schools getting £5,000 to £5,500, something has got to give,” he told FE Week.

“All we hear on the news is how schools are underfunded. I would swap their funding for ours tomorrow given the opportunity and yet we are expected to deliver the electricians, engineers, plumbers, farmers, etc., of the future.

“Vocational curriculum delivery is very expensive to run, compounded with health and safety limitations on group sizes in many cases.”

Evans said there is no natural route for a college to apply for capital money and therefore, many college estates are “fighting to stay fit for purpose”.

“I have seen many fantastic lessons across the country – with a bucket in the corner catching the water leaking through the roof.”

He continued: “If the government is serious about its industrial strategy, which is underpinned by skills development, then significant investment is urgently required. 

“The latest response we keep hearing is that £400 million is being invested in the sector. The impact this has had on the base rate is only £188 per learner. This has made very little difference to the bottom line, with many staff in the sector not receiving a cost of living rise for many years.

“The difficult decision to close the Saltash campus is a direct result of the sector being starved of adequate funding for so long. The FE sector is a ticking time-bomb. It needs addressing urgently.”

Asked if he felt other colleges across the country would have to sell-off campuses unless funding improves, Evans said: “Yes, without a doubt.”

Last summer, Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet) controversially closed down its campus in Stourbridge in order to pay back bank debts which in May 2019 had totalled £8.9 million. The college also owed £7.5 million to the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The college in Stourbridge dated back over 100 years, and had a £5 million makeover in 2015.

The move was met with local opposition, including from Conservative MP Margot James. Following the news, she led a Westminster Hall debate on adult learning and vocational skills in the area.

BMet is currently in talks to sell the site to Old Swinford Hospital, a £12,000 a year state boarding school, for an undisclosed fee.

The first FE provider to receive a grade four under Ofsted’s new inspection regime is closing down.

Sixteen jobs are set to be lost and hundreds of learners will be affected after an appeal by independent learning provider Mercia Partnership (UK) Ltd failed to overturn an ‘inadequate’ rating, first published in October.

The provider, which was set up in 1995, currently operates from two centres – one in Chorley, Lancashire, and one in Newhaven, East Sussex – delivering a range of apprenticeships and adult learning programmes.

The Department for Education issued Mercia Partnership with an early termination warning notice following the grade four. A spokesperson for the provider said they will officially close the business by August.

Mercia Partnership offered praise to the education watchdog’s new inspection framework, describing its methods as “right and appropriate” and “100 times better” than the previous one.

However, they said the way Ofsted went about its inspection was “poor” and the sample of learners did not give the “full picture”.

The spokesperson said the appeal was “a waste of time”, accused an inspector of causing a safeguarding issue during the visit, and claimed it was “unfair” to be judged on some learners that it took on from collapsed providers.

They alleged that the education watchdog apologised for an incident in which an inspector phoned an adult learner with severe anxiety, despite acknowledging they needed prior warning before being contacted. The learner reportedly never returned to complete their course after the call.

The spokesperson also said Mercia had taken on learners from two collapsed providers. This had been a “very bitter pill to swallow”, and had “worked against” the firm.

Some of the learners “were in limbo for six months” and had been taken on “at the request of the ESFA”, the provider claimed, adding that “all the negative comments in the report were purely based on these learners they spoke to that had come from another provider”.

“It was very unfair to be judged on learners having gaps in learning when it wasn’t [Mercia Partnership’s] fault,” the spokesperson said.

“We’ve basically been shut down on the back of the helping learners.”

They warned that “ethics will go out the window” for training firms when making business decisions about taking on learners from failed providers – adding that the judgement “is going to be detrimental to learners moving forward”.

The spokesperson also criticised the education watchdog’s lack of transparency on evidence collected after asking to access negative feedback received from past learners – who allegedly told Mercia Partnership they had praised it.

Ofsted’s report stated that learners and apprentices “do not experience a well-planned programme of study” and concluded the curriculum was “not fit for purpose” and “does not prepare them sufficiently for their future careers”.

It claimed apprentices “receive a poor standard of training” and are “unhappy, unmotivated, and, in some cases, very angry about the quality of their training”.

Ofsted reported that high staff turnover had “a negative impact” on apprentices’ learning with frequent changes in assessors leaving “significant gaps” in the training programme.

The education watchdog told FE Week it stands by the findings that are set out in the report, but declined to comment directly on the allegations.

An Ofsted spokesperson added: “When they visit further education colleges and skills providers our inspectors always take into account the starting points of learners and how they are progressing – regardless of where they came from.”

The inspection of Mercia Partnership took place between September 17 and 20 last year.

Prior to this, the independent learning provider had been graded ‘good’ in the most recent full inspection in 2015, ‘requires improvement’ in 2014 and ‘satisfactory’ in both 2012 and 2008.

It had direct contracts with the Education and Skills Funding Agency totalling £1.9 million in 2018/19.

Students still get higher marks in reformed BTECs than in A-levels – but the gap has closed, new analysis shows.

But research from FFT Education Datalab shows many schools and colleges are still delivering the old BTEC qualifications, even though they are no longer included in performance tables.

The blogpost, published today, reveals that just nine per cent of grades awarded in the reformed BTECs in 2018 were the highest score of starred distinction, compared with 37 per cent in the legacy qualifications.

As the grades awarded in the reformed BTECs tend to be lower than those in the predecessor qualifications, the results have become much closer to equivalence with A-levels. However, learners still tend to achieve the equivalent of half a grade higher in the new BTEC qualifications.

In 2018, 17,000 students entered at least one legacy BTEC and at least one A-level, while 15,600 entered at least one reformed BTEC and at least one A-level.

Analysis shows that those who entered the legacy BTECs achieved much higher level three average point scores in those qualifications than they did in A-levels. They achieved an average 43 points in the BTECs (equivalent to between grade A and B and A-level) and 28 points in A-levels, or just below a grade C. The difference of 15 points is equivalent to one and a half grades at A-level.

However, in the reformed BTECs the difference was much narrower at just five points, equivalent to half a grade at A-level.

 In 2017, before the reforms were introduced, students tended to score much more highly in BTECs than in A-levels regardless of their prior attainment. However, in 2018 this difference was much reduced.

The analysis also showed a big decrease in the number of students taking BTECs that are counted in 16-18 performance tables, with the number taking applied general qualifications falling from 125,000 in 2016 to 46,000 in 2018, and those taking tech level qualifications falling from 69,000 to 13,000.

The legacy BTEC qualifications will still be funded until the end of 2021 but are not eligible for performance tables. The data shows this has not put many schools and colleges off from offering them, though. If data included legacy qualifications, then an extra 62,000 pupils could be added to the numbers of applied general students in 2018, and another 35,000 for tech level students.

“The downside of the changes is that take-up of reformed BTECs has been relatively slow,” wrote chief statistician Dave Thomson.

“Many schools and colleges have continued to deliver predecessor qualifications. Up to now there have been no funding incentives to change and the incentive that publication of data in performance tables adds appears not to have had much effect.”

In September, another study by Education Datalab found pupils studying BTECs score an average of a grade higher than they do in GCSE English and maths.

In the summer, exam board Pearson had to hike up the grade boundaries of its BTEC Tech Awards just days before pupils were due to collect their results

The apprenticeships system is “continuing to let women down”, a union has said.

The claim came after it was revealed the gender pay gap for apprentices has almost doubled in recent years.

Male apprentices at levels 2 and 3 were paid nearly six per cent more than their female counterparts – £7.90 per hour compared to £7.47 – on average in 2018.

The gap was just 3.6 per cent in 2016 – £7.10 per hour compared to £6.85.

The figures were revealed in the biennial Apprenticeship Pay Survey, published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy last week.

Research by the likes of the Trades Union Congress has linked the gender pay gap to differences in the sectors in which men and women take up apprenticeships. These choices are often based on occupational stereotypes of “traditional roles” – and the pay disparity between them.

The 2018 Apprenticeship Pay Survey, for example, shows the female-dominated level 2 and 3 programme of hairdressing had the lowest mean weekly wage of £163. Electro technical apprentices on the other hand, the majority of whom are male, got paid £337 – the second highest total weekly earnings from basic pay.

Sophie Walker, chief executive of the Young Women’s Trust, said the survey “once again highlights the sexism and discrimination that young women face even at the very beginning of their careers”.

She added: “This discrimination not only shuts them out of apprenticeships such as engineering and construction that have the best opportunities for pay and progression but fails to provide high quality opportunities in childcare and social care in which the majority of young women apprentices work.”

The survey also showed that women were less likely to be taught their skills properly – while 57 per cent of men received formal training, only 40 per cent of women did. Female apprentices were also less likely to receive a wage that complied with the national minimum wage – 22 per cent, compared with 18 per cent of men.

Walker said more investment must be made in social infrastructure “so that working in these sectors is valued and offers the same level of pay and security as other apprenticeships”.

Amy Dowling, from the National Society of Apprentices, told FE Week the union shares the frustrations “that women continue to be let down by our apprenticeship system”. She added that the government need “to make sure women’s work is fairly funded”.

She said: “We knew it [the gender gap] was coming, but so did the government. When the government first looked at the funding arrangements for each apprenticeship, they recognised that women would lose out. Last year the Department for Education was warned that its efforts to widen participation were ‘inadequate’ and that there were no gender based targets at all.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, pointed out that while the mean hourly rate gap between male and female apprentices is large, the “median figures are actually very close” at £7.10 and £7.06 respectively.

He agreed the gender difference could “perhaps be explained by some of the higher paid standards being male dominated, rather than differences between genders within a standard”.

Dawe said the way to address this “is to make further progress on how we inform pupils, parents and teachers about apprenticeship choices in terms of tackling gender stereotyping”.

Solutions offered to reduce the gender pay gap include combating unconscious bias, directing women to better-paid industries and reducing sexism and discrimination in the workplace.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “This gender pay gap is partly the result of women being overrepresented in lower paying sectors and under-represented in higher paying sectors, such as science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

“We are working hard to encourage women into STEM sector apprenticeships through our Fire it Up Campaign and our Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network.”

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education announced it would trial the use of “gender-neutral” language in May 2019, after research found “masculine” words in job adverts, such as ‘ambition’, ‘challenging’ and ‘leader’, deter women from applying for science, technology, engineering and mathematics apprenticeships.

An IfATE spokesperson told FE Week: “The Institute continues to develop a long-term programme to ensure that gender-neutral language is embedded in all areas.

“The use of language across all new digital standards is now reviewed as part of the Institute’s approvals process. This will be rolled out across all standards looking ahead.” 

A provider of management courses has been declared ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted after it was found learners and their bosses did not know they were on the apprenticeship programme.

EQV (UK) has been handed a grade four for its provision to nearly 80 apprentices, who are either on the level 3 team leader or level 5 operational manager standard.

The Leicester-based training firm was previously suspended from taking on new starts in July after being found to have made ‘insufficient progress’ in all three areas of an early monitoring report.

In today’s full inspection report, Ofsted reported that apprentices “do not benefit from a well-planned programme of study” and “most” apprentices and their line managers “do not know that they are on an apprenticeship”.

“Too many” apprentices also do not develop the “wider range of knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to progress in their careers”, they “just complete their management qualification”.

The provision mostly focused on learners completing qualifications from the Institute of Leadership and Management, the website for which offers diplomas at both level 3 and 5 which can be run alongside the team leader and operational manager apprenticeships.

Ofsted said too many apprentices leave their training early, having not received feedback or support to make better progress and while “a small minority recognise they have gained new knowledge and skills”, the majority “only have their existing knowledge and skills confirmed”.

Inspectors reported that managers, trainers and assessors do not use an apprentice’s prior learning to plan the curriculum: level 5 apprentices who completed a level 3 in management cannot identify any new knowledge gained.

Assessors and trainers do not work together to ensure apprentices, who are pulled from the public and private sector, can develop greater knowledge in workshops and then apply this to the workplace and their assignments.

But leaders and managers do not review the performance of trainers and assessors. Instead, they relying on feedback from awarding bodies and “very brief critiques” of workshops.

The watchdog did say most apprentices gain new confidence in their roles while at the provider and both feel and are safe, thanks to effective safeguarding measures.

Following EQV ‘insufficient progress’ monitoring report in July, a follow-up monitoring visit in August found the provider was making ‘reasonable progress’ in safeguarding.

As of last week, the register of apprenticeship training providers still showed EQV as being banned from new apprentices.

Private providers that receive a grade four from Ofsted typically have their funding contracts with the Education and Skills Funding Agency terminated early.

EQV was approached for comment.

The local Conservative MP for Saltash has called for a government investigation into Cornwall College Group after it announced plans to sell-off a campus in her constituency.

Sheryll Murray wrote to education secretary Gavin Williamson this week after being “so disappointed” to hear the site was closing down.

She said it was “particularly disappointing” considering Cornwall College Group received a £30 million bailout from the government last year. This followed some £4.5 million emergency funding in 2016/17 and another £3.5 million in 2017/18.

Murray wants the investigation to take place “both into how the bailout was used and to see if anything can be done to keep this facility available for further education provision”.

She met with Cornwall College Group’s principal, John Evans, last Friday to discuss this “important local issue”.

The Saltash site is 35 years old and joined the group in August 2001, when it merged with St Austell College.

A total of 74 jobs are now at risk because of the closure. Around 500 students will be affected – although the majority will have completed their courses by the end of this academic year.

The University and College Union is currently involved in redundancy discussions.

Their regional official Nick Varney said: “The closure of the Saltash site is a big blow for the local community and all those affected.

“We are consulting with the college on how to minimise the impact on staff and students; our top priority is to protect jobs and student provision, and we will be strongly opposing any compulsory redundancies as a result of this decision.”

The campus boasts a higher education centre, a construction skills training centre, commercial hair and beauty salons and a “state-of-the-art” training kitchen that only opened permanently in 2018.

Cornwall College Group is currently working with agents to sell the site, although it has not yet been valued.

Evans, who took over as principal in October 2019, told FE Week that the site needs “significant capital money to make it fit for purpose” which he doesn’t have access to.

He said just closing the campus down will save the group hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“As it currently stands the move will stop us losing money on that site,” he added. “The contribution it was making was almost negligible due to the class sizes.

“It does not make economical or educational sense to run small group sizes at Saltash.”

Evans added that it was an “incredibly sensitive and difficult decision to make” but the “steer from government has been to minimise duplication in the FE sector in order to create financially resilient colleges”.

He explained that the Saltash campus is 19 minutes from City College Plymouth, 23 minutes from Duchy College Stoke Climsland and 50 minutes from Cornwall College St Austell – all of which offer the same programmes.

Evans said the decision has been forced on the college due to “reduced funding for post-16 learners in colleges” (read the full interview here).

Cornwall College Group has 11 different campuses in total. A spokesperson confirmed that “all other sites will remain open”.

The college is working with affected learners, who will be offered “progression opportunities” at the other nearby colleges.

The college will also offer staff “redeployment and retraining where possible”.