A sixth form college was lauded as ‘outstanding’ in a mixed week for FE, which saw one private provider plummet to ‘inadequate’ while another dropped two grades to ‘requires improvement’.

Godalming College was given the top rating by Ofsted in its first inspection since converting to a 16 to 19 academy in January 2018.

The Surrey-based college has around 1,900 students, who “thrive in the atmosphere of industrious learning,” with a large majority studying A-level courses.

Inspectors found they “make strong and sustained progress with their learning and achieve excellent examination grades”.

Staff were praised for supporting students who fall behind or need extra help “very effectively” and for revisiting topics, providing “clear” feedback and distributing “useful” careers advice.

In contrast, independent learning provider Icon Vocational Training Limited dropped from a grade one to a grade three.

It works with about 118 employers within the leisure and sport industry and currently has 309 apprentices.

While Ofsted said many apprentices benefit from frequent feedback and gain promotion due to their participation in the programme, some do not develop significant new knowledge for their vocational areas rapidly enough because “leaders and managers do not plan and sequence the curriculum to take into account the previous experiences of apprentices”.

Engagement with smaller employers was deemed “not as successful” as it is with the large employers.

Recent improvement actions to address these issues are “only just beginning to have a positive impact,” according to inspectors.

Another private provider to receive a grade three this week was Seymour Davies Limited.

It has 68 apprentices across care, business administration and carpentry as well as 108 adults working in the care sector who are enrolled on short-duration qualifications in care.

The inspectorate said carpentry apprentices, taught by a subcontractor, become “highly skilled very quickly”.

However, it was reported that too few taught by the prime provider “receive high-quality off-the-job training or prompt feedback on the quality of their work” and “most have not completed their qualifications in the time planned”.

Tutors have “significant industrial experience” which helps apprentices to link theoretical concepts to the real-life situations that they face at work, but careers guidance was also criticised.

Chesterfield College, a general FE college, received a second grade three in two years.

At the time of the inspection, it had 2,000 learners aged 16 to 18, 900 adult learners and 1,500 apprentices across three main sites in Chesterfield and three satellite apprenticeship centres in Derby, Manchester and Nottingham.

Ofsted found learners “do not always receive high-quality training” and those with high needs “do not receive personalised training”.

The report said “leaders have not improved the quality of education for young people rapidly enough”.

Elsewhere, the education watchdog found North Lincolnshire Council, an adult and community learning provider, was making ‘reasonable progress’ in its first re-inspection monitoring visit following a full inspection in June 2019 – which found it to be ‘inadequate’.

In addition, Derwen College, an ‘outstanding’ independent specialist college, received a monitoring visit after safeguarding “concerns” were brought to Ofsted’s attention.

It provides education and support for learners with special educational needs and disabilities.

The college was found to be making ‘reasonable progress’ in ensuring that effective arrangements are in place to safeguard learners, frequently reviewing them and making improvements as a result.

As reported earlier in the week, Progress to Excellence Ltd was declared ‘inadequate’ and is immediately exiting the training market, leaving more than 2,500 apprentices and adult learners in the lurch.

Meanwhile, Ofsted reported that apprentices “thoroughly enjoy their learning” and are “highly motivated to do well” at private provider Bright Direction Training Limited.

Similar praise was offered to fellow provider Louise Setton, where apprentices “benefit from a high level of support and technical training”.

Both firm’s received grade twos in their first full inspections.

Hull Business Training Centre Limited was also rated ‘good’ – maintaining the grade it has retained since 2005.

The remaining independent learning providers inspected by Ofsted this week received positive reports following monitoring visits.

Primary Goal Ltd was found to be making ‘significant progress’ in one area and ‘reasonable progress’ in the other two assessed themes.

Both Cambridge Professional Academy Limited and Parenta Training Limited received ‘reasonable progress’ across the board.

Employer provider Kingswood Learning and Leisure Group also made ‘reasonable progress’ in a second monitoring visit, after receiving three ‘insufficient progress’ grades in September.

But British Airways PLC was given one ‘insufficient progress’ rating out of three in its first monitoring visit (read the full story here).

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Bright Direction Training Limited	12/12/2019	21/01/2020	2	M
Cambridge Professional Academy Limited	12/12/2019	20/01/2020	M	N/A
Hull Business Training Centre Limited	12/12/2019	21/01/2020	2	2
Icon Vocational Training Limited	13/12/2019	24/01/2020	3	1
Louise Setton	12/12/2019	21/01/2020	2	M
Parenta Training Limited	17/12/2019	21/01/2020	M	M
Primary Goal Ltd	12/12/2019	20/01/2020	M	N/A
Progress to Excellence Ltd	16/12/2019	22/01/2020	4	2
Seymour Davies Ltd	29/11/2019	20/01/2020	3	M

 

Sixth Form Colleges (inc 16-19 academies)	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Godalming College	06/12/2019	21/01/2020	1	N/A

 

Adult and Community Learning	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
North Lincolnshire Council	10/01/2020	24/01/2020	M	4

 

Employer providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
British Airways PLC	18/12/2019	19/01/2020	M	N/A
Kingswood Learning and Leisure Group	11/12/2019	22/01/2020	M	M

 

Specialist colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Derwen College	08/01/2020	22/01/2020	M	1

 

General FE colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Chesterfield College	28/11/2019	24/01/2020	3	3

The founder of a firm at the centre of a major education data breach involving betting companies was subject to a previous government investigation.

Questions have now been asked as to why the firm, which offers screening checks, was allowed access to a database with the records of 28 million young people, meant only for vetted education training providers.

Unions have slammed the Department for Education’s due diligence processes, with one calling for an “urgent investigation looking at the criteria the DfE uses to grant access to the data”.

“DfE has failed these young people by not performing the relevant due diligence”

According to a DfE list, more than 12,000 organisations have successfully applied to have access to the Learning Records Service (LRS).

Earlier this week, an inquiry was launched by the ESFA after the Sunday Times reported that the LRS had been accessed by data intelligence firm GB Group – whose clients include 32Red and Betfair among other gambling companies.

The data contains names, ages and addresses of young people aged 14 and over in schools and colleges across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Privacy rules state that young people’s personal information should only be accessed through the LRS by organisations “specifically linked to your education and training”.

The DfE suspended access to the system this week in order to carry out the “necessary checks to ensure data security”. It reopened on Thursday.

According to the department, the “education training provider” which “wrongly provided access” to the LRS was Trustopia, a firm co-founded by Ronan Smith in August 2018.

The department said the company had access to the LRS because they registered with a UK Provider Reference Number (UKPRN) on the UK Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP) as an apprenticeship provider.

Trustopia is not on the government’s approved register of apprenticeship providers and can therefore not deliver apprenticeships in any capacity.

Its “nature of business”, according to Companies house, is “other information technology service activities”.

Smith declined to comment on the breach when approached by FE Week, but did confirm Trustopia is not a training provider, nor has it ever been.

It is understood that the firm has worked with education providers in the past.

A previous investigation by FE Week exposed how any company can gain a UKPRN within 24 hours, simply by providing their limited company number.

And a UKRLP spokesperson said at the time: “It is up to stakeholders who use the UKPRNs to ensure that they carry out the necessary due diligence appropriate to their scope when engaging with providers.”

Once a company has a UKPRN, it then needs to fill in a three-page application form to access the LRS.

The service is designed to help training providers verify their potential student’s previous educational achievements and their eligibility for additional funding.

The DfE would not say why Trustopia was given access to the LRS, or what it used the service for.

A spokesperson would say only that “a full investigation is under way and we will share any further information with you in due course.”

Prior to co-founding Trustopia, Smith ran a private provider called Edudo, which was investigated by the ESFA in 2017. The agency subsequently terminated the firm’s contracts, which were used to deliver courses funded through advanced learner loans.

Smith then transferred Edudo’s assets to a new company called Learning Republic and went bust. Hundreds of learners were subsequently left thousands of pounds in debt with no qualifications to show for it.

An FE Week investigation last year found that some of these learners, most of whom were Polish construction workers, had claimed they never started the course with Edudo – or even realised they had signed up for one.

Smith declared as bankrupt in November 2019.

Juliana Mohamad Noor, the vice president for further education at the National Union of Students, said her union is “shocked that this level of personal data of students was readily available without adequate checks on who can access it”.

The DfE has “failed these young people by not performing the relevant due diligence assessment of Trustopia and its owner,” she added.

“We are calling for a full and thorough investigation of this case to ensure that no more harm is done to the students involved.”

“We are calling for a full and thorough investigation of this case”

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “Parents will be rightly concerned about this data breach.

“There needs to be an urgent investigation looking at the criteria the DfE uses to grant access to the data and the identities of organisations which already have access.

“Given the hugely sensitive nature of this data it is also vital that there are rigorous checks on any organisations which are granted access.”

According to the Sunday Times report, GB Group used the LRS for age and identity verification services for its clients.

The DfE this week referred the breach to data regulators the Information Commissioner’s Office. An ICO spokesperson confirmed it has “received a report” from the DfE and “will be making enquiries”.

A DfE spokesperson said Trustopia “broke their agreement with us” with regards to the LRS.

“This was completely unacceptable and we have immediately stopped the firm’s access and ended our agreement with them. We will be taking the strongest possible action,” they added.

A GB Group spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we use the Learning Records Service dataset via a third party. We take claims of this nature very seriously and, depending on the results of our review, we will take appropriate action.”

Trustopia did not respond to requests for comment.

Parents are lobbying the government to restart funding for an arts and media provider that trained mostly high-needs learners.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency terminated its contracts with Sheffield Independent Film and Television (SHIFT) last year, after it was rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.

A report by the education watchdog, published in February 2019, said inspectors found the quality of provision for 51 learners on 16 to 19 study programmes, a third of whom had special educational needs, had “declined and was now inadequate” since an earlier grade two report.

The proportion of its learners who go on to further study, apprenticeships or employment was “low” and Ofsted warned that learners make “slow progress” in achieving qualifications and developing skills.

The report came shortly after the watchdog’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, spoke out about the “mismatch” between the numbers of students taking low-level arts and media courses and their “future employment in the industry”. She reiterated this concern just this week.

However, a parent petition says the watchdog is “ill-equipped and inadequately trained to judge specialist provision working with students who have complex needs”.

They have said the provision on offer at SHIFT was “specialist and unique”, as well as “learner-focused using gentle teaching techniques which engages the students”.

Ofsted defended itself by stating that all of its inspectors complete an extensive training programme before undertaking inspection work and inspectors with particular expertise in areas like SEND are recruited too.

“We are confident we made accurate judgements about the provision delivered by Sheffield Independent Film and Television Limited,” a spokesperson added.

SHIFT director Kathy Loizou said parents were “absolutely distraught” that the provider had to close. They believed their  children would not have gotten through education without their training.

A lot of the young people’s needs were connected with anxiety, meaning they would have found it “difficult” to go to a learning environment like an FE college, Loizou said. She added that although colleges do “great work under very extreme funding circumstances,” they are often too big for some young people.

“We provided a safe and effective place for learners with complex needs to re-engage. We felt we were especially good at that.”

The petitioners, who are calling for the immediate reinstatement of SHIFT’s funding by the ESFA and for Sheffield City Council to take action to influence the ESFA, said there is no other provision like what SHIFT did in the area.

“Young people in north England are put at a disadvantage in relation to their peers in the south,” they say, compared to providers in the south like Dv8 Training (Brighton).

Dv8, which also caters for high needs learners and offers arts and media courses, received a grade four in November 2018; yet has been allowed to continue its provision, albeit while subject to two monitoring visits in May and September.

Asked to explain this discrepancy, the Department for Education said that while it is normal to terminate contracts for independent providers which receive a grade four, if there is evidence learners’ interests would be best served by maintaining the contract, they will do so under strict conditions with rigorous monitoring.

The spokesperson did say factors such as whether there are other providers in the local area to support learners are taken into account.

“Protecting the interests of learners is always our main priority, and Ofsted’s published assessments of the inadequate quality of provision is always taken seriously,” they said.

Dv8 did not respond to requests for comment about why it was allowed to keep its contract. Sheffield City Council declined to comment on the petition.

The petition had 49 signatures at the time of going to press. It can be viewed by visiting https://bit.ly/2uqrl7p

One in five colleges have not published board minutes in over a year, an FE Week investigation has found.

The news will come as a shock to FE Commissioner Richard Atkins who recently criticised Hull College for being less than transparent by not making its minutes available to staff and stakeholders for the same period of time.

The leaked report said the practice “needs to change” (see below).

And Lord Agnew, the minister responsible for college oversight, said at an event in May that good governance was “something of a personal crusade”.

Although there is no fixed rule on whether colleges must publish their board minutes online – or how frequently – “accountability” is considered a requirement by the Department for Education.

A spokesperson for the DfE said they “expect colleges – like all education institutions – to be open and transparent about their operations”, including “publishing minutes in a timely manner”.

Guidance from the Association of Colleges (AoC) states: “In the spirit of open governance and accountability, approved minutes should be published on the college website”.

FE Week’s analysis was based on an audit of more than 250 general FE and sixth form college websites.

The analysis also showed that 14 colleges appear to not have any openly accessible corporation or governing minutes on their websites.

Some, including South Devon College and Warrington and Vale Royal College, advertise that they can be obtained on request. Others, like Portmouth College’s website, state that permission needs to be granted to access their minutes. 

Some websites, including those of New College Stamford and Fircroft College of Adult Education, stated minutes were published online, but no links could be found by FE Week, while others appeared to have no specific references at all.

The AoC’s 2015 report on ‘Creating Excellence in College Governance’ confirmed that, under the 2008 “instrument”, governing bodies must meet at least once each term.

In 2019, as part of its ‘Governors’ Council Code of Good Governance for English Colleges’, the association added: “The board should conduct its affairs as openly and transparently as possible.

“…With the continuing trend for greater transparency and ‘student/customer’ protection, we cannot stress enough the importance of being proactive in providing this assurance if we are to avoid future legislative or regulatory creep.”

College corporations can decide whether to include this requirement in their own rules, but some providers are not abiding by these either.

NCG’s instrument of government states it “shall ensure that a copy of the draft or signed minutes of every meeting of the corporation… shall be placed on the institution’s website, and shall, despite any rules the corporation may make regarding the archiving of such material, remain on its website for a minimum period of 12 months”.

However, it is one of 25 colleges that have not updated their board minutes since 2018.

In addition, all of the archived minutes on NCG’s website are currently without working links.

The most recently available board minutes for four colleges were from 2017.

After being asked why this was so in the case of Chichester College Group, a spokesperson told FE Week: “It is our policy to publish the minutes of our governing body meetings on our group website.

“Unfortunately, the minutes have not been appearing on the site. As soon as this was identified, we were able to rectify this error.”

Many of the published sets of minutes across the colleges were also incomplete.

For example, York College, which has published regular governing body minutes since March 2012 up to July 2019 was missing the minutes from its March 2018 meeting until contacted by FE Week.

A spokesperson for York College described it as an omission which has now been corrected.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has applauded the UK’s ambition to host an upcoming WorldSkills competition – and is encouraging the sector to back a bid.

His remarks come as FE Week launches its ‘Back A Bid’ campaign to prove there is sufficient interest in hosting the competition, affectionately known as the ‘Skills Olympics’, in 2027.

It follows on from WorldSkills UK “exploring” whether to bid to host the competition, as outlined by the organisation’s chief executive Neil Bentley-Gockmann in an interview with FE Week earlier this month.

Williamson said the competition “is a fantastic way to showcase the very best young talent from across the country,” and he “applauds WorldSkills UK’s ambition to host a future WorldSkills competition here in the UK”.

“I look forward to hearing the extent of support for this from the sector.”

FE Week kicked off its campaign with a call by Shane Mann, managing director of FE Week’s publisher Lsect, for the sector to “unite behind reinvesting in WorldSkills UK and a bold vision for their next decade”.

It would be great if we could mount a bid for a city other than London

Mann said holding the international skills tournament here would “be an amazing opportunity for our sector and the UK to play host to the global skills community”.

Shadow FE minister Emma Hardy has offered her full support, as she says the WorldSkills competition “is a wonderful opportunity for young people to highlight their skills and talents on the world stage”.

“I’ve seen the transformation in young people’s confidence and employability after developing skills and being chosen to represent their country.”

The chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education Jennifer Coupland said her government quango also “backs the bid”.

She would find it “incredibly exciting” to host WorldSkills 2027, because of the chance to “showcase the fantastic skills we have in this country” and “really energise young people and training providers to hit the highest standards”.

The possibility of hosting has already attracted support from sector organisations like the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, with chief executive Mark Dawe saying “now” is the right time to bring the competition back to the country, after it previously came to London in 2011.

But Dawe, who also sits on the WorldSkills UK board, said this time “it would be great if we could mount a bid for a city other than London”.

“Fantastic” was how Association of Colleges president Steve Frampton described bringing WorldSkills back to the UK “as part of a very strong signal we are serious as a nation about being a world leader”.

“If the UK is to be a world leader in skills at all levels, this is exactly the sort of thing, alongside wider plans, that will be key to tackling the employment challenges of the future”.

It is not just sector organisations which can back the bid: FE Week readers are being encouraged to show their support at FEWeek.co.uk/BackABid and on social media using #BackABid.

An FE Week investigation into T-level cold-spots has found six out of eight college principals in Lincolnshire appear to have turned their backs on the opportunity, with one telling FE Week the mandatory industry placement requirement in the region was “really, really difficult”.

We also found no colleges or training providers in London would be offering the construction T-level from September this year, something the Mayor of London said he is “concerned” about.

Lincolnshire colleges refusing to join the party

The lack of T-level industry placements in Lincolnshire appears to have been acknowledged by the Department for Education, with a series of meetings lined up so they can speak to the college principals, FE Week understands.

But officials declined to comment on the problem beyond repeating a previous statement concerning a “phased approach to the introduction of T-levels so they can grow in a managed way”.

It remains unclear how the lack of industry placements opportunities in the Lincolnshire area will be resolved.

Of the eight grade one and two colleges in the Greater Lincolnshire area, only Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education will be running the digital and education routes in wave one this year, and DN Colleges Group, which includes North Lindsey College and will be running all four routes in wave two from next year.

This means learners will have to put in the miles if they want to take T-levels: students at New College Stamford, for example, would have to travel out of the county to Derby College, a journey estimated to take an hour and a half by car.

None of the remaining six colleges are part of wave one or two, nor would any of them commit to applying to run the next wave of T-levels from 2022 when asked by FE Week, after the Department for Education (DfE) invited expressions of interest this month.

Boston College principal Jo Maher said they are “carefully considering and reviewing” the expression of interest requirements for wave three, and will be looking at the work placement requirements and local demand to ensure any expression “set learners up to succeed with local demand”.

She explained that her college had not gone for T-levels due to problems around the industry placement, which the college found “a challenge for rural areas”.

Also, at the time of applying for the early pathways, she said “we did not feel that there was enough course detail to market to prospective students and to develop the content”.

Franklin College is “reviewing the situation as more information comes from the pilot centres and are considering our options for the next wave at this time,” a spokesperson said.

One college which will not be going for wave three is New College Stamford after it was rejected for wave two; though its decision is also because of the demands of an ongoing merger with Peterborough Regional College.

Principal Janet Meenaghan said her college had also faced challenges around industry placements, the 315-hour work experience requirement for T-levels which partly caused education secretary Gavin Williamson’s alma mater Scarborough Sixth Form to drop out of the T-level programme in October.

Williamson said at the time that his old college took the “right decision” by pulling out and promised to convene business leaders to thrash out a solution.

New College Stamford has been part of the capacity and delivery fund piloting industry placements: they met their target of putting 74 learners on placements last ear; but Meenaghan believes that while well over 100 will be placed this year, they will struggle to meet their target of around 142.

“The challenges of making it work are really, really difficult in this location,” she said, because 98 per cent of Lincolnshire’s businesses are small or micro businesses, and a lot are just one or two people.

“You have to supervise and give a student something meaningful when they are there. How do you do that when you’re a tiny business? You haven’t got the capacity.”

And her learners have to travel to placements using “poor” public transport and road infrastructure, when some take more than an hour and half to reach the college as is.

The college has told the Department for Education they do not think they will be able to hit the placement target this year.

Meenaghan said she thinks the placements are a good idea and T-levels, as a whole, are “fantastic”: “I wish I had this as a young student. I would have loved it.”

After the DfE announced it would be exploring flexibilities for industry placements last year, Meenaghan put forward letting learners count paid work as part of their placement because students may have to give up work to get in the hours of the industry placement and “they’re reluctant to do that.”

London missing construction course opportunities

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has said he his “concerned” that the T-level in construction will not be offered by any providers in capital in the next academic year, or any in south London from 2021.

He believes the government “must to do more to address this gap in provision”.

Of London providers starting this year, just one is a college (Harrow and Uxbridge) and none of them are running the construction T-level, so London learners will have to travel out to providers like East Sussex College Group, Chichester College Group or Havant and South Down College.

The three London-based providers of the construction route from 2021 – Barking and Dagenham College, Newham Sixth Form College, and United Colleges Group – are all based north of the river.

There was one provider delivering the construction T-level south of the river that year, Richmond-upon- Thames College.

However, they withdrew from delivery last week, so they could focus on developing their campus.

But a spokesperson left the door open to running the qualifications in the future, saying it could introduce them “at a later stage, rather than in 2021”.

They were also scheduled to deliver the digital, education and childcare, and health and science routes.

Construction skills have taken on added importance under Khan as he has led the Greater London Authority to set up a construction academy and bestow a quality mark upon providers recognised as delivering high-quality construction skills training in the capital.

So far, 24 providers have received the quality mark, including Barking and Dagenham College and United College Group, and applications for it are due to reopen this year.