The government will soon only fund starts on apprenticeship standards that do not have an approved end-point assessment organisation if the provider has an “in principle” commitment from one applying for approval.

The news will be seen as a partial win by campaigners, who have long said it is “morally wrong to start an apprentice on a programme when you don’t know how they are going to be tested at the end”.

It also follows the ‘Quality Strategy’ published by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education in March, which said employers should have access to at least one EPAO before apprentices start their programme.

We are prepared to temporarily stop funding new starts onto apprenticeships

In an Education and Skills Funding Agency update today, the agency said: “From 1 October 2019 the ESFA will not fund apprentices to start on a new standard until an EPAO has given an ‘in principle’ commitment to deliver the EPA.

“To support this change, the IfATE will require trailblazers to engage with potential EPAOs earlier in the standard development process.

“These EPAOs will be asked to complete a new form to share information about their intent to apply to the register of end-point assessment organisations to deliver the assessment against the specific apprenticeship standard.

“Until this form is received by the ESFA, or an EPAO has made a successful application to the register (whichever is earliest), no learners will be funded to begin learning on the standard.”

FE Week analysis shows that, as of today, there are 135 standards ready for delivery without an EPAO in place.

The ESFA said the “in principle” organisation will still need to make a successful application to the register of end-point assessment organisations before they will be able to assess apprentices who are on the programme.

It means that the agency can have “greater confidence” that there will be an EPAO on the register for every apprenticeship standard “as quickly as possible and as soon as they will be needed”.

For existing standards, the ESFA said it will “work to get in principle agreements for standards where no EPAO is already in the market for a standard and are working towards full coverage of standards on the RoEPAO”.

If this is not possible, “we are prepared to temporarily stop funding new starts onto apprenticeships on that standard if necessary and appropriate, but will give notice if that is the case”.

Keith Smith, director of apprentices at the ESFA, told the AELP conference this week that, according to a survey, only 52.6 per cent of providers plan to engage with the EPAO of their apprentices at the start of the programme.

“At the moment too much, in terms of the conversations of who is the right EPAO, has been happening too far into the programme,” he said.

“We really need you guys to get that 52 per cent as high as possible.”

The new guidance said the IfATE and ESFA will offer support and guidance to both trailblazers and EPAOs to complete the required forms, and help them get in touch with the right EPAO.

FE Week was first to report the issue of a lack of EPAs back in 2016, and has since exposed cases where apprentices had to wait more than a year for someone to test them and others who missed out on a pay rise because there was no EPA ready for them.

Dr Sue Pember, a former top skills civil servant and now director of adult and community learning group Holex, has repeatedly called for action to address this, and previously stated: “It is diabolical to let an apprentice start a programme, without explaining not only what the end test will contain, but where it will be, what shape it will take and who will be the organisation to oversee and manage the process.”

In February, this newspaper reported that there was “serious concern” among universities that the government had still not found an organisation to assess over 1,000 nursing apprentices who had just six months left on their course.

Despite the findings, the IfATE has repeatedly rejected these concerns, and accused those who raised them as being “inflammatory”.

Outgoing NUS president Shakira Martin talks Fraser Whieldon through her tumultuous two-year incumbency.

The president of the National Union of Students has promised to continue to champion further education as she prepares to leave office.

In a wide-ranging interview with FE Week, Shakira Martin said she didn’t regret telling opponents to “f**k off”, and has also left the door open to running for parliament and returning to her old college as its principal.

Martin is preparing to leave the role on Sunday after serving the maximum two, one-year terms in the role – something that has given her great jubilation.

“I made it throuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh,” she said.

She added that she was happy to leave the role, but that leaving was bittersweet, and she stressed the importance of having “fresh blood” in the role.

“Two years is enough. I’m really happy to be moving on. I’m a totally different person to the Shakira that started many years ago.

“When I say different, I’m still the exact same funny, raw, challenging person, but different in terms of understanding the world a bit more; being able to navigate through these complex policies and procedures, and being a better mother to my two daughters.”

She is looking forward to spending more time with the two, completing school runs and attending sports days, and said her next job was likely to be somewhere in the education sector.

She is also considering running for parliament.

However, she says she has too much “sauce” – meaning style, confidence and swagger – for the House of Commons at the moment.

“Politics is a mess at the moment and it doesn’t even deserve me right now. I’ll give it a couple of years. Let’s see what happens.”

Another of her career aspirations is to be the principal of an FE college, preferably her old college, Lewisham Southwark.

A former president of the college’s union, Martin was elected president of NUS in 2017 and became only the second NUS president not to have gone to university, having instead completed a diploma at Lewisham Southwark College.

I don’t regret telling people to ‘F**k off’

The former NUS vice-president of FE defeated the controversial president of the time, Malia Bouattia, by 402 votes to 272.

What followed was arguably a controversial tenure – though she preferred to call it “character-building” – during which Martin faced allegations of bullying from the then-NUS women’s officer, Hareem Ghani.

“That has been awful,” Martin said.

“That is something I will never personally get over because the people who put in those allegations were the very same people who talk about social mobility, getting black women and working-class people into leadership.

“And it’s just really awful our political environment has become so hostile and unhealthy on social media and [to] not think it’s going to have detrimental implications for people’s lives. That article is on the internet for the rest of my life.

“I am a strong, articulate, challenging woman and unapologetically so, but now I feel like I have to almost mitigate those accusations to prove I’m not that.”

She denied that her tenure has been controversial, instead saying: “Look, I wasn’t built for NUS, and NUS politics wasn’t built for people like me.”

Asked if she had any regrets, she said: “I don’t regret telling people to f**k off. I regret doing it on social media. I did mean it, but I didn’t mean for it to end up in a newspaper.”

The expletive was posted by Martin on Facebook after the NUS Trans Conference and socialist groups attempted to launch a motion of no confidence in her.

Her comments were picked up by The Independent, Daily Mail and The Sun.

Martin said she had learned that the political environment is “hostile” and people are very “loose-tongued”, but rebuffed accusations of bullying, saying that she is instead a “bullyhater” who fights against bullies.

Martin also regretted allowing people to get to her, which made her less productive for a couple of days.

As her job involves reacting to events, those couple of days could have been crucial – such as when the NUS faced bankruptcy in connection with a £3 million deficit in 2018.

The union had to suspend elections and make staff redundant but avoided collapsing altogether.

Though Martin warns that the NUS is not out of the woods yet, she said “the NUS doors could have closed in March” and the organisation has a good foundation upon which to build in the future.

Elsewhere, she has focused on improving student voice on campuses, and has said that every college campus needs its own sabbatical officer and that students ought to be on college boards with the proper support and training to serve effectively.

“FE needs to be recognised for the true value of what it does for our community and individuals. When we talk about improving social justice and mobility, FE does that in one.”

She has also argued in the past for the re-implementation of student maintenance grants, a goal that was also included in the Augar Review.

On whether she expected the government to U-turn on its 2015 decision to scrap the grants, Martin said: “If the government wants some legacy other than Brexit, they need to do something around education.

“I think personally that student maintenance needs to be brought back immediately, it needs to be in line with current inflation and needs to be fit for purpose.

“And it needs to be supporting students to be able actually focus on their studies and not have to work two or three jobs and do their coursework at 3am in the morning because they don’t have the finances.”

Student maintenance needs to be brought back immediately

Her advice to the incoming NUS president, Zamzam Ibrahim, is “Be true to yourself” and remember: “It’s bigger than NUS national conference. This is about the students that don’t even make it into the college doorstep.

“But enjoy it because it goes by very quickly. And I’ll be here for you, because we’re part of a family.”

She pledged to continue to champion further education wherever she goes, and thanked FE Week for having her back during her time as president.

 

 

A specialist college, run by a famous private hospital which has treated the likes of Kate Moss and Robbie Williams, has been hit with not one, but two “inadequate” grades after Ofsted found damning safeguarding issues.

This week, the education watchdog has published reports into the residential and educational provision at Priory College Swindon, which caters for people with social and communication difficulties.

Inspections were conducted at short notice, after concerns were raised about student safety.

Its multi-million-pound parent company, the Priory Group, has helped famous faces including Kate Moss, Pete Doherty, Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton, footballer Paul Gascoigne and comedian Caroline Aherne.

However, its college learners have not experienced star-studded provision, after the college was downgraded from grade two to four for both its educational provision to 37 learners, and its residential provision to 13 learners, including some under the age of 18. 

Inspectors reported that “serious and widespread failures at the college mean young people are not protected and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded”.

They found “significant shortfalls” in leadership and management in the residential provision, and that governance of the educational provision was “ineffective” because governors did not obtain findings from monitoring activities.

The college has insufficient staffing and resources, after inspectors discovered there was a lack of available tutors, art students were having to make do without sinks, and students faced difficulty setting up email accounts and using the web to look for jobs, due to restricted internet access.

The lack of tutors and internet access issues had led to a learner going missing from the residential accommodation. 

Ofsted said that when a learner goes missing, the incident is not tracked or monitored well, they are not spoken to about it when they come back, and information is not shared with placing authorities – which organise accommodation for vulnerable people.

“Too many students are put at risk,” the report into educational provision found, while the residential report quoted learners saying they “do not feel safe living at this college, and feel unable to talk to staff about their concerns”.

The potential risks presented by adult learners living with under18s were not routinely assessed by managers, and both they and leaders do not consider effectively the physically aggressive behaviour of some learners.

Consequently, there was an altercation in which a learner sustained a minor injury, but staff recorded neither the incident, nor the injury.

There was also no record of when a learner was restrained by staff, which is contrary to requirements; nor was there any records on self-harm, online safety or bullying.

“Leadership and management are inadequate because of the failure to prioritise the safety and welfare of students,” inspectors wrote.

Leaders do not even meet with complainants face-to-face, and those complaints are not responded to within timescales, so one from 2017 had yet to be resolved at the time of inspection.

Ofsted has recommended the college ensure that it has an effective written policy to promote good behaviour among residential learners; and that a written risk assessment is drawn up to ensure the welfare of learners is safeguarded.

A Priory College Swindon spokesperson said they are undertaking a comprehensive review of the services, and new leaders had been appointed to improve student safety while a longer-term plan is finalised.

“We are also consulting with stakeholders about how best to provide the services in the future,” the spokesperson added.

The government’s apprenticeships quango has U-turned on plans to grade end-point assessment organisations (EPAOs) without sharing the results with them.

However, the information will still be kept a secret from the public, and EPAOs will not be allowed to advertise their ratings unless they’re granted special permission.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s (IfATE) published a new framework on Wednesday that “sets the standard” for external quality assurance (EQA) and explains how end-point assessment organisations should be monitored to ensure the process is fair and consistent.

A few hours before its publication, the framework was shared with FE Week, including a “manual” that explained how “risk ratings” were to be given for each EPAO.

There are no plans to share this information publicly

It stated that the ratings “will not be published or made available to EPAOs, but will be stored on the institute’s digital system”.

The risk ratings will be 1 (low), 2 (medium) and 3 (high).

The proposed secrecy sparked controversy when reported by FE Week. One managing director of an end-point assessment organisation claimed to have successfully overturned previous EQA risk assessments and was therefore very concerned that in future these grades wouldn’t be shared.

Hours after our story went live, the institute got in touch with this newspaper to say the framework was still in draft, and the final version will in fact state that the ratings will be shared with EPAOs.

“The risk-rating grades will only be shared with EPAOs and this is reflected in more recent drafts of the manual,” a spokesperson said.

But, he added, there are “no plans to share this information publicly at this stage”.

The first “working edition” of the framework’s manual, which will “make this clear”, will be published on July 1.

“EPAO understanding of their grades is an important aspect of ensuring quality and lifting it where needed,” the spokesperson added.

He also confirmed that EPAOs will not be allowed to publicise their ratings without the institute’s permission.

The risk ratings will be determined by various factors, including data on their performance by apprentices and feedback (including complaints) from apprentices, employers and training providers.

Established EPAOs will also be graded on a four-point scale – 1 (outstanding), 2 (good), 3 (requires improvement) and 4 (inadequate) – similar to Ofsted.

Grades 1 to 3 will feed into the calculation of overall risk but any EPAO graded as “inadequate” will “automatically be assumed to be high risk”.

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said: “Given the costs involved in the whole EPA/EQA process, employers and providers have a right to know whether they are placing their custom with the right EPAO.”

The framework, which is mandatory and must be adhered to by all EQA providers, sets out five principles that underpin “EQA functions”: relevant, reliable, efficient, positive and learning.

A senior policy advisor from the Department for Education has warned providers against using external bid writers to apply for a place on the refreshed apprenticeships register.

Sheila Sturgeon (pictured), who marks many of the submissions, has also urged applicants to not “nick” policies from other providers and claim it is their own while forgetting to change the name and branding – as some hopefuls have done.

The register of apprenticeship training providers finally reopened in December, following a year-long review with more “stringent and challenging entry requirements”.

I don’t see how anyone can fail

In addition to the new applicants, all 2,500 colleges, training providers and employers already on the register will be invited to reapply at some point this year.

Sturgeon, a civil servant working in the apprenticeships department of the DfE, talked through the do’s and don’ts for applicants during a workshop at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers national conference this week.

She would not be drawn on the success rate of reapplications from established providers, but said the RoATP guidance is “quite specific” and “I don’t see how anyone can fail” if the provider is “of the appropriate quality and has been trading for 12 months and has all the policies in place”.

But she did state that her “personal” opinion was that the application was more likely to fail if it was not written internally and a bid writer was brought in “to write it for you”.

When the old RoATP was running, during 2017, FE Week revealed how consultants were raking in thousands of pounds writing bids for training providers desperate to make it on to the new register at the second time of asking.

Sally-Ann Baker, managing director of London-based Bidright UK, said at the time she found it “incredible” how many “silly mistakes” providers had made with applications.

Her company had been approached by 25 to 30 providers on RoATP and took on 12 cases, all of which were successful. Bidright’s fixed rate is £2,000 plus VAT.

But Sturgeon cautioned providers against this, explaining: “The reason I say that is because we ask for specific examples. You need to tell us how your provider has made this policy real and live. It is really important that you find a good example and you use it, because that is probably where providers who aren’t as on the ball are likely to fail.”

The policy advisor said one shocking finding in some was providers “not having a particular policy, nicking one from somewhere else and forgetting to change the provider name”.

“I cannot count the number of those we have seen, and I am not joking,” she added.

The first organisations to be added to the government’s refreshed apprenticeship provider register were revealed the day after Sturgeon’s presentation.

It showed that 23 new firms have been enlisted – a smaller than expected number and strangely, all of them are only “supporting providers”.

An ESFA spokesperson explained that supporting providers are the “first portion of providers who have been added” to the register and new “main and employer providers will be added in due course”.

I cannot count the number of those we have seen, and I am not joking

The 23 are the first providers to be added to RoATP since October 2018.

FE Week reported last month that new applicants trying to get on to the strengthened register had been left hanging by the government six months after its launch.

The ESFA had planned to let providers know if they were successful 12 weeks after their bid. An agency spokesperson said last week that all providers that applied to be on the register in December, January and February have now “been notified of the result”.

The new register is expected to bring greater scrutiny, following various investigations by this newspaper that discovered, for example, one-man bands with no delivery experience being given access to millions of pounds of apprenticeships funding.

The ESFA will throw providers off the new register if they go 12 months with no delivery after joining the register.

“Applicants will be added or removed from the register as and when the full process of assessing applications has been completed,” the ESFA spokesperson said.

The percentage of colleges employing over half of their teaching staff on casual contracts has tripled to 29 per cent, according to a new report.

The University and College Union sent a freedom of information (FOI) request to all colleges and surveyed 789 staff working in colleges, adult education and prison education, which revealed many are having to rely on food banks and second jobs to get by.

Analysis of responses to the FOI showed a “shocking” 66 out of 226 (29 per cent) of colleges, reported over 50 per cent of their teaching staff were on some form of insecure contract – up from just 19 out of 202 (9 percent) in 2016.

And over two-thirds of respondents (71 per cent) to the survey said they believed their mental health had been damaged by working on casual contracts and almost half (45 per cent) said it had impacted on their physical health.

Having enough money to buy substantial and healthy food once the bills are paid is sometimes near impossible

The UCU’s head of further education Andrew Harden called the findings “damning” and said it lifted the lid on how staff without secure contracts are “struggling to make ends meet”, despite holding down multiple jobs.

Casual contracts can be fixed-term, which normally last for one year; zero-hours contracts, which do not offer a minimum number of hours; hourly paid contracts, which offer some hours; or staff can be employed through an agency.

What makes them so damaging, as reported by one survey respondent, is that if classes are cancelled, lecturers on casual contracts are not paid.

The unnamed respondent had to resort to a food bank after being told their classes had been cancelled, and has in the past had to live on cereal, crackers and water, “if I am lucky”.

They added: “Having enough money to buy substantial and healthy food once the bills are paid is sometimes near impossible.”

Sixty nine per cent of survey respondents said they had earned less than £1,500 a month, and 87 per cent earned less than £2,000 a month.

Over half said they had trouble paying their bills.

FE Week spoke to a lecturer at City College Norwich, Nicola Gibson (see story below), who said she was working an extra two jobs, and has earned as little as £600 a month at one point.

While she receives £5 holiday pay every hour she works, benefits like that are not the same for everyone, with one respondent reporting they had to return to work “too early” after being off sick with cancer, because: “I wasn’t receiving sick pay, plus I had the constant worry someone else would be given my hours.”

Teachers’ health has also been affected, with one saying they had felt “suicidal” and developed “a type of epilepsy, which may well have been linked to the stress of losing teaching hours”.

The extent of casual contracts among FE teachers creates another problem, as Harden explains: “None of this is good for staff, but it is also extremely damaging for students, as teachers’ working conditions are their learning conditions.”

Nobody should have to use foodbanks, or worry about how they are going to pay their bills

Over half the respondents disagreed that they have enough paid time to enable them to prepare adequately for their classes, nor that they have enough time left over after teaching to keep up to date with the latest scholarship in their subject.

Additionally, 84 per cent said they had considered leaving the profession; with one newly qualified teacher saying they are already looking for work outside the sector.

Asked why colleges employ staff on casual contracts, Kirsti Lord, deputy chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said: “Nobody should have to use foodbanks, or worry about how they are going to pay their bills.

“We are working with UCU and others to make clear to government that ‘the end of austerity’ must also apply to colleges.”  

The UCU has recommended a number of ways to improve the security of lecturers’ employment, which includes Ofsted inspecting for any negative impact on quality of provision as a result of instability in teaching teams caused by casual contracting.

When asked if the inspectorate would consider doing this, a spokesperson said inspectors will take into account evidence of effective staff management when writing their reports “to ensure the delivery of good-quality education”.

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‘I would like the security my team-mates have’

A college lecturer on a casual contract says she has had to live off £600 a month, and has not been on holiday in four years.

Creative arts teacher Nicola Gibson has worked at City College Norwich for ten years, and has joined hundreds of college teachers in speaking out against their fixed-hours and zero-hours contracts.

Hers is a permanent, variable-hours contract, but there is no guarantee of a minimum amount of work, and as it is not a fixed-hours contract, the college was not obliged to employ her after four years.

She said: “You never know how much money you have coming in.

“I’ve gone from taking £1,200 a month, to £600 a month and I have to think about exactly how I will make ends meet.”

She is paid an hourly rate of £25 an hour, which includes £5 in holiday pay; but if she works fewer than 450 hours a year, she has less than a week to work out her hours and submit a claim to be paid the same month.

Her situation has meant Nicola has not been on holiday in four years, since a relative gifted her one.

She finds it “galling” when there are people working in the same office as her at the college, doing exactly the same job on a permanent contract and living a more regular lifestyle.

Much like teachers on secure permanent contracts, Nicola is having to prepare for lessons, teach them, and care for her ten-year-old daughter.

This is in addition to her other jobs: running freelance craft lessons and working at a technical college.

But she is determined her mental health will not suffer because of the way she works. “I think it’s very important to compartmentalise these aspects of your life because I don’t want to become a victim of this system in that sense: someone who is miserable and downtrodden and hard-done-by.

“I am happy and I want to enjoy my life and I want to enjoy what I can have based on what I can earn.”

Nicola really enjoys her work, and believes she is privileged to work with the students, but says she doesn’t feel she can bring them her best and be recognised for it.

She has considered leaving the profession, as she wants to be a “grown-up”, which she doesn’t feel she can be because of the nature of her job.

She describes her situation as like that of a student, scraping to make ends meet.

“I feel very un-grown-up as somebody who is theoretically in a professional job, and with my qualifications and is hardworking and dedicated.”

I feel very un-grown-up

Asked what she would do to improve the conditions for casual workers in colleges, Nicola says the work is OK in the short-term but people ought to be offered an ongoing role after several years.

“I would like the security my team-mates have, because if they’re entitled to it, I would like to think I was entitled to it too.”

She said it was important that people spoke out about their experiences of casual contracts. However, she understands why people did not want to speak out as, in a chilling reminder of the insecurity of these contracts, she admitted it “was very easy to not have a contract at all”.

A City College Norwich spokesperson said its use of casual or supply contracts is “minimal and are only used in emergency situations to cover short periods of unexpected absences, such as sickness”.

She added that the college is currently “reviewing the way in which permanent sessional staff are paid to minimise the impact of any changes to delivery hours that can occur each year as course requirements evolve”.