Colleges are to receive a £400m boost from the chancellor, it has been announced.

Sajid Javid today revealed the increase for 16-19-year-old students, which he calls “the biggest increase for a decade”.

This includes £190 million to increase the base rate of funding for 16-19-year-olds; however the government has not revealed what the new base rate will be.

There is also £120 million to help deliver “expensive but crucial” subjects such as engineering; £35 million extra for students resitting GCSE maths and English who are on level 3 courses; an additional £25 million to deliver T-levels; and £10 million for the advanced maths premium, which adds £600 to college budgets for every additional student who takes on A-level and AS- level maths.

There will also be £20 million to help the sector recruit and retain teachers and leaders, and provide more support for the teaching of T Levels.

Javid said: “Further education, like all our public services, is a lifeline of opportunity for our young people.

“We’ll make a strong statement in backing it at this week’s Spending Round and I’ll continue to look at what more we can do to help, just as my FE college opened my horizons and set me on my way.

This funding will come into effect in 2020/21 and cover the 257 colleges in England, as well as other FE providers like school sixth forms.

Learners at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, which Javid himself attended when it was known as Filton Technical College, met with the Bromsgrove MP yesterday (pictured top).

Javid wrote in The Guardian this morning: “College helped make me who I am today, the first FE chancellor of the exchequer.”

FE colleges are more important than ever, he added, as young people enter working life while technology revolutionises industry, and emerging economies change the global economy.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson, who attended Scarborough Sixth Form College, said: “As former FE students, the chancellor and I both know first-hand how important the further education sector is so I’m really pleased that today that government is giving our sixth forms and colleges a major funding boost – the single biggest annual uplift since 2010.

“This investment will make sure we can continue to develop world-class technical and vocational education to rival countries on the continent so we have a highly skilled and productive workforce for the future.”

The base rate of funding for all 16-18 students has been frozen at £4,000 per student, per year since 2013; while the rate for 18-year-olds was reduced to £3,300 in 2014.

FE organisations have long campaigned for the government to increase base rate funding for colleges, with the most famous campaigns being the Sixth Form Colleges Association’s Raise the Rate campaign and the Association of Colleges’ #LoveOurColleges campaign.

Ofsted has reported a number of new apprenticeship providers have made ‘reasonable progress’ in early monitoring visits, according to reports published this week.

The one independent provider that stands out, though, is British Printing Industries Federation, which has climbed from a grade three to a grade two in its latest inspection.

Inspectors found there that leaders, managers and staff have made “significant improvements” to the apprenticeship programme, and “strong progress” has been made to addressing all the weaknesses identified at the last inspection.

A new training advisory board, with direct oversight of apprenticeship training, has been established; and the chief executive and board have increased management capacity and expertise, to bring about rapid improvement, by hiring an experienced managing director.

The report singled this change out for bringing about “significant improvements to the quality of provision”.

A number of providers which had report published this week have also improved their safeguarding score from an early monitoring visit.

For example, Contracting Services (Education and Skills) Limited has made ‘reasonable progress’ in ensuring effective safeguarding arrangements are in place.

This was after Ofsted found on a visit in March it had made ‘insufficient progress’ in the area, and apprentices were unclear about who to go to within the provider if they have a concern.

Now though, apprentices are clear on how to keep themselves safe and what to do if they have a concern about a peer.

Another provider which has been found to have made ‘reasonable progress’ in safeguarding is EQV (UK) Limited.

They were inspected for a second time in this area, after the watchdog found previously that leaders had not checked staff had the right to work in the United Kingdom – this has now been rectified.

A third inspection focused purely on safeguarding was made of Piper Training, saying: “Leaders and managers have worked methodically to address adequately most of the significant weaknesses identified at the previous monitoring visit.”

Leaders have reviewed and amended safeguarding arrangements after the first inspection and made arrangements for safeguarding by subcontractors more stringent.

However, letting down the side this week was South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, which was found to have made ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas and ‘reasonable progress’ in one.

“Leaders have not made sure that the programme meets the requirements of an apprenticeship, including the development of English and mathematics skills,” the inspectorate wrote.

The provider also does not use data effectively, so senior leaders and managers do not know the current progress of learners and whether they will complete within the planned timescale.

Apprentices, meanwhile, are “not aware of the requirements of the end-point assessment or what the criteria for success are”.

This is the latest in a series of negative reports of NHS apprenticeship providers: in March, Poole Hospital was reported as being “unable to provide accurate information on the number of apprentices who remain on the programme”.

And in January, Walsall NHS Trust was rated ‘inadequate’ for its apprenticeship provision, once Ofsted found the trust was “not aware that the vast majority of apprentices are not making the expected progress on their programme”.

While University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust had fallen foul of “ineffective strategic leadership, weak systems to secure trust-wide delivery and an absence of a clear understanding of what constitutes an effective apprenticeship training programme”.

A number of providers had reports published this week which found they had made ‘reasonable progress’ in all areas of an early monitoring visit. They are: Derwent Training Association; PET-Xi Training Limited; Port of Tilbury London Limited; Reed Business School; Xtol Development Services Limited; Keolis Amey Docklands Limited; KMF Precision Sheet Metal Limited; and Secom Plc.

See the victories of Team UK’s medal winners in this series of spectacular photos from the WorldSkills 2019 medal ceremony.

It was truly a night to remember for Team UK, which scored two gold medals, one silver and one bronze.

The golds went to aircraft maintenance competitor Haydn Jakes and beauty therapy’s Rebecca West, while the silver went to Conor McKevitt in car painting and the bronze to Phoebe McLavy in hairdressing.

Haydn told FE Week after his win: “I wasn’t really expecting a gold medal, so for that to actually happen was a really pleasant surprise.”

While Rebecca said she was “really, really amazing and so proud”, and thanked her supporters.

“Amazing” was also how Phoebe said she felt; and Conor, who also won the UK’s best of nation for getting the highest score of any UK competitor, paid a “massive thank you” to everyone who had helped him achieve his two medals.

The UK came in 12^th place out of 49 countries; with the number one spot going to the host of the next WorldSkills in 2021, China, which will be holding the event in Shanghai.

In addition to the four medals, the UK also scored 15 medallions of excellence – which are awarded to competitors who are judged to have reached the international standard in their skill.

The event was addressed by Russian president Vladimir Putin, who said competitors “demonstrated outstanding techniques and skills, which you have refined and honed to virtuoso heights”.

See more amazing photos from the Kazan competition in FE Week’s forthcoming WorldSkills 2019 supplement, sponsored by Pearson.

Team UK has achieved a gold medal in beauty therapy for competitor Rebecca West.

The achievement means Britain retains its place as best in that category from EuroSkills in 2018, where Holly-Mae Cotterell was voted Europe’s best beauty therapist.

And it comes after Kaiya Swain came first in beauty therapy at WorldSkills 2017.

Rebecca, who is 22 and from East Sussex College, won silver at the Global Skills Challenge in Australia last April.

The Government today announced Dame Mary Ney will lead a review into the way the Department for Education monitors college finances and financial management.

In May the then Skills Minister, Anne Milton, told Association of College conference delegates that there would be an “external review to look at the systems within the DfE, so that problems with financial management are identified at the earliest possible stage.”

Milton said at the time that: “I want to be able to show Treasury that every penny put into further education is spent wisely.”

The announcement today 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, as reported by FE Week.

Dame Mary Ney, according to the Government, has “been appointed to conduct the review given her extensive experience in local government, serving as Chief Executive of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and a government appointed commissioner to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.”

Details of the appointment include a terms of reference for the review, which state: “In light of the financial difficulties at Hadlow and West Kent & Ashford Colleges, to review the way Government monitored and exercised its oversight of those colleges’ finances and financial management, and their effectiveness in practice, including the work of the ESFA and the FE Commissioner’s team; and to recommend changes that would reduce the risk of such problems recurring, taking account of colleges’ independence and the need to minimise regulatory burden.”

The findings from the review are expected to be published later this year and the DfE has been approached for comment.

The full biography for Dame Ney, published alongside the announcement today, reads: “Mary has had a distinguished 40-year career in local government, culminating in her serving as Chief Executive of the Royal Borough of Greenwich for 14 years during a period of major regeneration and service transformation in the borough, which won Council of the Year in 2013. She joined the DCLG Board as a Non-Executive Director in October 2016 and continued in this role for the MHCLG Board from January 2018.

“Mary carried out the Review of the Governance and Transparency of LEPs (often known as the Ney Review), which was published in October 2017. The recommendations were accepted by the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and are being implemented.

“In February 2015, Mary became one of five government commissioners at Rotherham metropolitan borough council, who assumed decision-making powers and were tasked with improving the council’s performance and helping rebuild the trust of local residents. Mary became Lead Commissioner in 2017 and oversaw the full restoration of powers back to the Council in 2018.

“Mary is a board trustee of two charities. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List, for services to local government.”

Team UK has taken home 15 medallions of excellence from WorldSkills 2019.

The medallions are earned by competitors who are judged to have reached the international standard in their skill.

And here they are: #TeamUK!!!!! pic.twitter.com/g42M1DCAeP

— FE Week (@FEWeek) August 27, 2019

Team UK’s medallions come after they won two gold, one silver and one bronze in the competition.

Medallions were awarded for the UK to Thomas Thomas in plumbing and heating, Elliott Dawson in CNC milling, Thomas Lewis in electrical installation, Thomas Andrews in electronics, Jack Dakin and Danny Slater in mechatronics, Elizabeth Newcombe in floristry, Callum Bonner in painting and decorating, Mark Scott in wall and floor tiling, Christopher Caine in joinery, Tonicha Robert’s in chemical laboratory technician, Lewis Greenwood in bricklaying, Samuel Taylor and Shea McFerran in landscape gardening, Sam Everton in cooking, Collette Gorvette in restaurant service, and Orlando Rawlings and refrigeration and air conditioning.

Its previous totals from WorldSkills 2017 and EuroSkills 2018 were 13 and seven respectively.

Team UK will be loading down its aircraft home with a haul of gold, silver and bronze medals.

The UK won a total of four medals at WorldSkills 2019 in Kazan, including two gold medals for Haydn Jakes in aircraft maintenance and Rebecca West in beauty therapy.

There is also a silver medal for Conor McKevitt in car painting and a bronze for Phoebe McLavy in hairdressing.

While the total of medals is below the seven the UK won in Abu Dhabi in 2017, it is one more gold medal than was achieved at that event.

And it is one more silver medal than it bagged at EuroSkills 2018, where it scored one gold and three silver medals.

WorldSkills UK’s chief executive Neil Bentley-Gockmann has called it a “fantastic result” for the team. 

He said Team UK’s members “championed the UK’s focus on skills development on the world stage”. 

“Governments, education and industry need to continue to work with us to make sure the UK stays at the cutting edge of global best practice in skills development,” he continued. 

Team UK has scored a gold medal in aircraft maintenance, thanks to the efforts of competitor Haydn Jakes.

The Nottingham University learner improved on the UK’s previous result at WorldSkills 2017, where it achieved a medallion of excellence after being just six points off a medal position.

It is the latest success for Haydn, who won a silver medals at WorldSkills UK Live in 2017 and the WorldSkills Russian National Finals.

Having completed an apprenticeship with Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, he is now studying for a degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Nottingham.

He said his training with WorldSkills has meant he is “much further ahead” than his peers at university, in terms of real-life skills and knowledge.

After WorldSkills 2019, he hopes to continue his degree and carry on working in the aeronatical industry.

Watch the WorldSkills 2019 medal ceremony live here from 5pm (UK time) today, and see Russian president Vladimir Putin address the crowds of supporters and competitors.

It will also be broadcast on SKY 192 and Freesat 161, but you can also catch the action via FE Week’s Twitter account and website.

FE Week is proud to be the official media partner for WorldSkills UK and Team UK.

FE Week will is onsite in Kazan to bring rolling coverage of Team UK’s progress. To find out more about the what, when and why of WorldSkills, read our handy guide.

Here are all of the Team UK competitors in the running for a medal: