The government’s latest apprenticeship campaign appears to be bearing fruit after the Department for Education claimed the proportion of interested young people has nearly doubled.

Last November, the DfE awarded a two-year £5 million contract to one of the world’s most renowned advertising companies – M&C Saatchi – to help boost apprenticeship numbers across the country.

They launched phase one of the Fire It Up campaign in January, when just 14 per cent of young people said they were considering an apprenticeship, according to the DfE.

Nine months on and this interest has risen by 71 per cent, going up ten percentage points to 24 per cent, the DfE told FE Week.

Figures have been calculated via online surveys of young people who are yet to make an application for A-levels or University and also for those that have already made an application.

Fire It Up, which replaced the DfE’s old “Get in go far” apprenticeships campaign, is moving into its second phase. The first phase involved promoting apprenticeships to young people, parents and employers through a series of adverts on national TV and social media, featuring real-life apprentices.

The second phase will broaden the activity to focus on those audiences that contribute to widening participation in apprenticeships such as those from disadvantaged backgrounds, women in under-represented sectors, low paid workers, people with learning difficulties or disabilities and people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

“Look out for the adverts on TV, cinema, out of home poster sites, digital and social media,” the DfE said.

While the figures show more young people are taking an interest in apprenticeships, it is unclear if the campaign is impacting upon employers.

And this interest has not necessarily helped boost starts, with the latest DfE statistics revealing a 23 per cent drop in the number of them between August 2018 and June 2019 and the same period in 2016/17, the year before the apprenticeship levy was introduced.

The boost in the level of interest may have come too late to save the government’s target of 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020 also.

In June, the then-education secretary Damian Hinds admitted to the education select committee “that target is not going to be reached”.

Nevertheless, the DfE said its Fire It Up campaign is a “great opportunity for providers and employers to share case studies of your own apprentices with us” and has encouraged them to email their stories to: apprenticeships.campaign@education.gov.uk.

M&C Saatchi’s contract runs out in July 2020.

Yet another data field for logging apprentices’ off-the-job training hours will be introduced to individual learner records (ILR) from next August.

It follows high-profile concern from the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee about non-compliance with the unpopular rule going unchallenged.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency revealed today that a mandatory “off-the-Job training – actual hours” data field will added to the ILR from 2020/21.

This will “enable visibility of actual training delivered”, the ESFA said.

It is unclear whether the “actual hours” field will need to be updated by providers every month, or whether the figure will need to be inputted at the end of each apprenticeship programme.

Further details will soon be posted to the feconnect forum and open for comments until 20 September, the ESFA said.

It comes after the ESFA announced in May that from the 2019/20 academic year, a new mandatory field in the ILR would be added that requires providers to record “planned” off-the-job hours.

This replaced the “optional” field for recording how many OTJ training hours had been completed on a monthly basis, which was introduced to the ILR in 2018/19.

The ESFA said the mandatory field for 2019/20 will “help demonstrate compliance with the funding rules”.

In March the National Audit Office said in its apprenticeships progress report that the ESFA, in summer 2018, had just one “red risk” associated with delivery of the programme – that apprentices do not spend at least 20 per cent of their time doing off-the-job training.

The government’s spending watchdog warned that the agency has “limited assurance” in knowing whether the policy is being abided by, as even though audits may identify problems, there is “scope for providers to under-deliver for some time without this being picked up”.

“This is an important gap in oversight, because the provider continues to be paid as long as the apprentice remains on the programme,” its report said.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the influential Public Accounts Committee, added that it was “concerning that the ESFA can’t be sure that apprentices are spending enough time on off-the-job training”.

The new mandatory ILR fields have therefore been introduced to mitigate the problem.

The policy, which requires apprentices to spend a fifth of their week on activities related to their course that are different to their normal working duties, has split the FE sector since its introduction in 2015.

Many have complained that the rule is the single biggest barrier to apprenticeship recruitment, but others view it as a vital part of the apprentices’ development.

A provider co-founded by former Crystal Palace football striker Dougie Freedman has been rated ‘outstanding’ in some areas, in a week where nearly all providers scored well with Ofsted.

Freedman’s Focus Fitness UK received a grade two overall in its first report from the watchdog, which rated the independent provider ‘outstanding’ for personal development and outcomes for its 55 learners.

Ofsted said senior leaders have a “strong purpose and high expectations for their health and fitness training provision” and almost all learners achieve their qualifications and most gain employment.

Tutors were praised for using their “extensive” industry experience in their practical teaching.

Co-founder Gavin Heeroo thanked all of their “hard-working staff” for their “professionalism and commitment to ensure our stable and continued growth in the sector”.

He set up the provider nearly 10 years ago with Freedman, who is now the sporting director at Crystal Palace and had spells as a player at Queens Park Rangers, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Southend United, plus two caps for the Scottish national team.

Eglantine Catering Limited also had a good week, scoring three ‘reasonable progress’ ratings from an early monitoring visit of its provision to 15 apprentices.

Intertrain UK received the same result, and inspectors found its 10 apprentices gain new skills, knowledge and behaviours and the level 2 rail engineering operative course it offers is valued by employers as a means of filling the skills gap.

Optimum Skills, which has eight adult learners in addition to its 98 apprentices, was found to have made ‘reasonable progress’ in four areas of a monitoring visit.

Remploy Ltd, which has 133 apprentices and 12 learners, earned the same outcome as Optimum, as the independent training provider has what inspectors call a “very clear rationale for the company’s adult learning programmes”.

“This centres largely on their commitment to improving learners’ employment prospects and improving their health and well-being,” the report reads.

A report based wholly on adult learning provision to ten learners was published about Street League this week.

It revealed the provider had made ‘reasonable progress’ in all areas, and the watchdog commented on how leaders target their adult education budget very effectively on those learners who are least likely to participate in education and training.

‘Reasonable progress’ was also made in all areas by Triage Central, which has 26 apprentices and 80 adult learners.

Employers working with the provider provide useful job shadowing sessions for apprentices so they can acquire the knowledge, skills and behaviours for their jobs or for future promotion, so almost all apprentices complete their work on time.

Vision Training (North East) was found to have made ‘reasonable progress’ in three areas of a monitoring visit of its provision to 102 apprentices.

Inspectors wrote: “Leaders are implementing a well-considered strategy to specialise in providing apprenticeship training in adult social care,” an area in which leaders have significant experience.

Employer provider Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust made ‘reasonable progress’ in all areas.

It provides level 3 healthcare support and adult care programmes to 28 apprentices and level 5 healthcare practice for England (Assistant Practitioner) standards to eight.

Managers and staff are ambitious for those apprentices and leaders recognise the further development of new and existing staff is “essential” to the trust’s development, according to the report.

Fellow employer Medivet recovered from being found to have made ‘insufficient progress’ in their safeguarding measures back in May, to climb to a ‘reasonable progress’ rating in that category this week.

Senior leaders responded “swiftly” to the findings from Ofsted’s previous visit, inspectors wrote, and ensured all staff are trained and can demonstrate competence in safeguarding.

Focus Training’s otherwise ‘reasonable progress’ in a report published this week was blotted by one ‘insufficient progress’ finding in developing and implementing an effective strategy to ensure all tutors support learners to develop their English and maths skills.

This was because leaders and managers had only recently begun to develop and implement the strategy, so not all tutors were supporting learners well enough to develop those skills.

Specialist college Liberty Training had the worst week of all, however, as Ofsted slapped it with a grade three for its provision to 70 learners with mental health needs, disabilities or learning difficulties.

Its directors, Ofsted found, “do not have sufficient knowledge of the quality of all aspects of the programmes” as they do not monitor provision thoroughly enough.

And too few of the minority of learners who study functional skills in English and maths at levels 1 and 2 gain the qualification.

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Eglantine Catering Limited	15/08/2019	04/09/2019	M	N/A
Focus Fitness UK Limited	08/08/2019	05/09/2019	2	N/A
Focus Training Limited	25/07/2019	03/09/2019	M	3
Intertrain UK Ltd	01/08/2019	02/09/2019	M	N/A
Optimum Skills Limited	15/08/2019	02/09/2019	M	N/A
Remploy Ltd (listed as Maximus Training)	25/07/2019	02/09/2019	M	N/A
Street League	24/07/2019	03/09/2019	M	N/A
Triage Central Limited	08/08/2019	02/09/2019	M	N/A
Vision Training (North East) Limited	23/08/2019	05/09/2019	M	N/A

 

Employer providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust	31/07/2019	06/09/2019	M	N/A
Medivet	14/08/2019	06/09/2019	M	M

 

Specialist colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Liberty Training	02/08/2019	05/09/2019	3	N/A

Employers lost access to £44 million of their apprenticeship levy funds in July, and £52 million in August, the government has revealed.

It means that a total of £133 million has expired from employers’ levy accounts to date.

However, it is important to remember that the levy policy was designed so that large employers wouldn’t use all of their funds. The unspent money is recycled and made available to small businesses who do not pay the levy to use to train their apprentices. Unspent funds are also used to top-up levy funds by 10 per cent as well as pay for English and maths teaching for relevant apprentices, amongst other things.

As per levy rules, businesses with a payroll of £3 million or more pay each month into the pot and have a rolling 24-month deadline to spend the funds.

The first month that funds could have expired was May 2019, as the levy policy kicked in at the start of April 2017.

Expired funds for July and August are much larger amounts than what big businesses lost access to in May (£11 million) and June (£26 million).

FE Week analysis suggests a significant reason for the increase relates to 1,430 employers waiting until July and August to register to the government’s apprenticeship system.

Kemi Badenoch, the Department for Education minister who has now gone on maternity leave and had her FE duties temporarily replaced by Michelle Donelan, revealed the latest levy expired amounts yesterday in answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Catherine McKinnell MP.

“The amount of funds expiring in employers’ digital apprenticeship service accounts in July 2019 was £44 million, and in August 2019 it was £52 million,” Badenoch said.

“As well as funding apprenticeships in levy-paying employers, levy contributions are also used to fund training for existing apprenticeship learners and new apprenticeships in employers that do not pay the levy.

“We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds in their accounts, though they are able to do this if they wish.”

One of England’s largest college groups is officially closing down its two private training providers – meaning nearly 300 jobs will be lost by the end of October.

NCG has this morning confirmed that, following a consultation, Rathbone Training and Intraining are in the process of winding down their delivery operations.

Around 4,500 learners were being trained between the two providers, of which two-thirds were apprentices, when the consultation was launched in March.

NCG said the majority of these have either now completed their training or have transferred to other providers.

Rathbone and Intraining had 19 centres across the country but accounted for less than 20 per cent of the college group’s revenue in 2017/18.

Their loss of income should still place NCG as the second largest college group, in terms of income, in the country. The largest is the LTE Group, which includes The Manchester College and independent training providers Total People and Novus.

As previously revealed by FE Week, Intraining in particular has been hit with quality concerns, which have included falling achievement rates, a poor Ofsted report, and a mystery audit that found dodgy data.

The provider has been in trouble for many years. It had already shed more than a third of its original 1,200-person workforce back in 2015, and then last year, staff numbers were cut again by up to a fifth.

The decision to close the two providers comes one month after NCG appointed Liz Bromley as the group’s new chief executive. The group is chaired by former Education and Skills Funding Agency chief executive Peter Lauener.

A statement from NCG said: “We are now in the process of winding down Intraining and Rathbone’s delivery operations in England, Wales and Scotland.

“In doing that we are committed to ensuring that already-enrolled learners receive the support they need to complete their training – either with us, or by transferring to alternative training providers.

“The vast majority of learners in England and Wales have now completed or transferred. We expect to complete the wind-down process by the end of October.”

NCG previously said if it proceeded with closing the two private providers, it would in future operate a “single, smaller, digitally-enabled business focussed on delivery of high-quality apprenticeships for the tech, management and professional occupations”.

FE Week has asked the group if this is still the plan.

Bromley has a big job on her hands following a turbulent couple of years at NCG, which led to its last permanent chief executive Joe Docherty resigning with immediate effect in October 2018.

Staff at its colleges in London have gone on strike in a row over pay – with union officials even calling on the FE Commissioner to consider de-merging them – and a free school that the group sponsored, the Discovery School, was forced to close down by the government last year.

NCG is currently subject to intervention from the FE Commissioner owing to its Ofsted grade three, and was due a “diagnostic visit” over the summer.

From November onwards, NCG will comprise of Newcastle College, Newcastle Sixth Form College, Lewisham College, Southwark College, Carlisle College, Kidderminster College and West Lancashire College.

Police have been called in after a college’s principal was targeted in a malicious hack in which fraudsters allegedly doctored internal emails to include a racist word and then sent the emails to the media, staff and a local councillor.

FE Week was one recipient from someone who called themselves an “ethical hacker” and had broken into South Staffordshire College’s IT system this morning in order to send them from a senior employees email account.

“About time. All that paki kept banging on about was more ALS,” one alleged message from the principal, dated 23 July 2019, said concerning a departing employee.

“The chair of the board has been informed and this has now become a police matter”

The email chain, which the college insists was fabricated, even had a response from the college’s interim deputy for finance and resources, who minutes later responded to ask: “Can we discuss this offline please and not have comments in writing.”

South Staffordshire College told this newspaper that the emails had been forged and they have now referred the matter to the police.

“You may have recently, this morning, received an email that entered the college system through means of hacking and claims to be an ethical hack,” a statement from principal Claire Boliver said.

“We are taking this email very seriously, the chair of the board has been informed and this has now become a police matter.

“We have taken measures to strengthen our security systems further.”

She continued: “The contents of the email with an alleged racist remark is fabricated.  There is clear evidence that proves the email has been edited.”

Staffordshire police later released this statement to FE Week: “Police received a report at around 10.50am on 5 September of malicious emails being sent from an account at an educational establishment in South Staffordshire.

“Anyone with any information is asked to ring 101 quoting incident 175 of 5 September.

“Alternatively, for guaranteed anonymity, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”

South Staffordshire is the latest college to be targeted by a cyber-attack in recent months.

Education providers were first warned about hacking and phishing scandals in an ESFA update in June, which said some had suffered “financial losses” after falling for this type of scheme.

FE Week later revealed that Lakes College in Cumbria was one provider targeted. Fraudsters, perpetrating a phishing scam, hacked into the email account of principal Chris Nattress and sent a link to his contacts to “review and sign”.

When Nattress’s contacts replied to check if the email was genuine, the fraudster replied saying that it was.

They also changed the college’s phone number in the email signature by one digit, and made up a mobile number, so contacts could not check in that way.

The college’s digital team identified the issue before staff received any reports of a problem.

Further cyber-crime advice was put out by the ESFA last month following the hacks.

A cookery school run by the Hadlow Group and celebrity chef Rosemary Shrager has closed, after the group’s two colleges went into administration.

A notice posted on the school’s website reveals it closed with effect from August.

It reads: “We regret to advise that owing to external financial pressures related to the well-publicised wider external issues at the Hadlow Group, the Rosemary Shrager Cookery School could not continue to operate in its present form, or in its existing location.

“The school has therefore closed.”

The Kent school ran cookery classes for members of the public, who will have to claim a refund for any courses they have paid for from their credit card company or wait for liquidators to send them a letter so they can make a claim as a creditor.

The school has been trading since 2016 and is the latest business to fall into trouble following the fallout from an FE Commissioner intervention at the two Hadlow Group colleges, Hadlow and West Kent and Ashford Colleges earlier this year.

The interim principal of the Hadlow Group, Graham Morley, said: “This has obviously been a difficult decision to take.

“However, the financial difficulties facing the cookery school have meant it could not continue to operate in its current form or in its existing location. 

“We hope to continue to work with Rosemary and are currently in discussion with her, and other partners, to explore future initiatives.”

FE Commissioner Richard Atkins and his team found both colleges were running out of money and their boards had failed in their fiduciary duty.

After his intervention, and the appointment of Morley and new board chairs, Hadlow announced it would be selling its Betteshanger Parks business, with the aim to having a buyer in place by last month.

When asked about the sale earlier this week, a college spokesperson said that conversations “are continuing with the interested party but the sale has not yet been finalised”.

Shrager was contacted for comment.

College leaders are being asked for their views on the ESFA’s oversight of financial management – after the FE Commissioner found staff there had failed to accurately assess Hadlow College’s finances.

It was announced last week that Dame Mary Ney would lead a review into the way the government monitors college finances.

The review was promised in May by then skills minister Anne Milton after the FE Commissioner revealed that Hadlow College, now in education administration, had misled the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) over the health of its finances.

The report, published in May, said: “The college’s finance record for 2016/17 shows an automated financial health score of ‘good’. However, when this is compared to the annual accounts there are material differences, particularly in relation to loans. When the finance record is amended to reflect the annual accounts the automated health score is ‘inadequate’.”

So it would appear the ESFA had not thought to read the Hadlow College published accounts.

The findings from the review are expected to be published later this year, and Ney is now asking the sector for their own insights.

In an update published yesterday, the DfE said: “Dame Mary would welcome written comments from anyone with views on the functioning of financial oversight of the college sector. If you would like to contact the review please email FEOversight.REVIEW@education.gov.uk.”

The DfE told FE Week there is no fixed deadline for submissions, but they should come in by early October to give Ney enough time to review them.

Ney’s review will determine whether the government has “monitored and exercised” its oversight of those colleges’ finances and financial management, including the work of the ESFA and the FE Commissioner’s team.

It will recommend changes that would “reduce the risk of such problems recurring, taking account of colleges’ independence and the need to minimise regulatory burden”.

The launch of Ney’s review comes less than a month after the National Audit Office said they were also preparing to launch a value for money review on the management of colleges’ financial sustainability.

Read more about Ney’s appointment here.

The Department for Education has announced that Michelle Donelan will take over Kemi Badenoch’s brief as she goes on maternity leave.

It is expected this means that Donelan (pictured), the MP for Chippenham, will hold the remit for supporting further education.

Badenoch was appointed a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in Boris Johnson’s recent reshuffle, in which the new prime minister didn’t name a dedicated skills minister to replace Anne Milton who resigned.

Instead, education secretary Gavin Williamson took on the brief personally, with the support of Badenoch.

Michelle Donelan @michelledonelan has been appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State @educationgovuk, taking over from @KemiBadenoch as she begins maternity leave pic.twitter.com/imaPjNZqN6

— DfE (@educationgovuk) September 4, 2019

Donelan became an MP in May 2015 and has previously sat on the education select committee.

She appears to have a keen interest in education and her local college.

Her website’s ‘about’ page states: “From parking charges to education funding – I am on your side.”

In another post on her website from February 2018, Donelan says she “once again stressed in the Commons that there is not value for money in the UK further education system because it lacks transparency so students can’t make informed choices. I welcomed the prime minister’s recent announcement of a post 18 education review which will look at this.”

In March 2019 she visited Wiltshire College‘s Lackham Campus to meet with the principal Amanda Burnside.

“I supported the college LEP bid and was it excited to see the plans come to place,” she said.

“It really will be a state-of-the-art centre of excellence for agricultural engineering and robotics dairy farming. The college has invested heavily in engineering and science-based subjects and are planning a new Campus Hub for learning, a robotics dairy and an animal science building. This will be a great asset for our community from people going into further education, doing apprenticeships and upskilling – so watch this space!”

It is not known if Donelan will stay on as a junior minister in the DfE once Badenoch returns from maternity leave.