AAC Awards 2019 winners crowned

The country’s best apprenticeship providers, employers and champions have been honoured at the Annual Apprenticeship Awards 2019.

More than 500 people celebrated the winners at a glittering gala dinner at the Annual Apprenticeship Conference, held in Birmingham. This is the second year of the awards.

Organised by FE Week and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, there were two types of awards: Route Apprenticeship Provider of the Year, and National Awards.

A new award to recognise employers and providers who increase diversity in apprenticeships, as well as working with apprentices who have special educational needs and disabilities, were introduced this year.

After assessing 350 entries, judges named the Royal Air Force as the Apprentice Employer of the Year, while In-Comm Training took home the Apprenticeship Provider of the Year award.

Martin Dunford OBE, chair of the AELP, received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Shane Mann, managing director of FE Week’s publisher Lsect, congratulated the winners for their “outstanding work”.

“These awards are a brilliant opportunity to demonstrate and celebrate the importance of apprenticeships in England and the incredible hard work that employers, providers and individuals put into them,” he said.

“The calibre of applications was tremendously impressive this year and deliberations were tough in the extreme. The volume of entries we’ve received was overwhelming and showcased just how much talent there is in the sector.

“A huge congratulation to all our winners, who are truly making a difference through their work in apprenticeships.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the AELP, said: “The second year’s entry nominations for these awards underlined why it was totally right for FE Week and AELP to team up and shine a spotlight on the work that employers and providers are doing to promote apprenticeships.

“It never ceases to amaze me what fantastic training is being delivered to young people and to existing employees who need to enhance their skills in the face of current economic uncertainty.

“Providers, employers and the apprentices themselves never fail to rise to fresh challenges and tonight’s awards winners perfectly illustrate why.”

Look out for FE Week’s AAC supplement next week which will report on the winners in full.

Apprentice Employer of the Year – Royal Force 

Royal Air Force took home one of the most anticipated awards of the evening. Being one of the largest employer-providers, it has 2,900 apprenticeships spanning 24 different trades, from police officer to air traffic controller or dog handler. It rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, and has a completion rate of 97 per cent across all of their apprenticeships.

In 2016, it achieved and retained Top 100 Apprenticeship Employer status and won the Macro Employer category of the 2017 National Apprenticeship Awards.

Apprenticeship Provider of the Year – In-Comm Training

In-Comm Training was recognised for the way its apprenticeships are delivered by pioneering an employer-led approach involving 450 companies across the UK.

It has placed engineering and manufacturing firms at the heart of its delivery, having an impressive 40 per cent uptake in starts over the last twelve months.

The provider said the award will help its plans to take its employer-led model to a national scale.

Lifetime Achievement Award – Martin Dunford

Over the last 20 years, Martin has been chief executive of two national training providers which have secured jobs and provided high quality skills training to thousands of young people and adults across the country.

The judges said he is truly a champion of social mobility in that he and his team deliver on it as well as promote it.

Throughout most of this period, Martin has voluntarily served with distinction as chairman of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, overseeing its growth from an organisation that started off as representing about a dozen national training providers in 2002 to about 900 work based learning providers of all types and from all sectors today.

 

Full list of winners:

Agriculture, Environmental & Animal Care Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Haddon Training Ltd

Apprenticeship Diversity Award: Lookers Plc

Business & Administration Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Seetec

Care Services Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Qube Qualifications and Development Ltd

Catering & Hospitality Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Lifetime Training

Construction Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Fareham College

Digital Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Arch Apprentices

Education & Childcare Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Interserve Learning & Employment

Engineering & Manufacturing Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Uniper Engineering Academy

Hair & Beauty Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Milton Keynes College

Health & Science Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Gower College Swansea

Legal, Finance & Accounting Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: CILEx Law School

Outstanding contribution to the development of apprenticeships (Employer): Thatchers Cider

Outstanding contribution to the development of apprenticeships (Individual): Steve Williams

Promoting Apprenticeships campaign of the year: Umbrella Training Ltd

SEND Apprenticeship Champion Award: Weston College

Transport & Logistics Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: Outsource Training and Development

Outstanding contribution to the development of apprenticeships (Provider): Skills Training UK

Apprentice Employer of the Year: Royal Air Force

Apprenticeship Provider of the Year: In-Comm Training

Lifetime Achievement Award: Martin Dunford OBE

Blow your own trumpet and shake off your victim mentality, providers told

FE providers have been urged to “blow their own trumpet more” after research found they have developed a “victim mentality” because they have been “unfairly blamed for deficiencies in a highly complicated system”.

A study, conducted by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and the Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL), found that providers now acted in a way that minimised risk and optimised regulatory compliance to “just survive”.

The study followed a series of nine roundtable discussions with 81 sector leaders across the country.

It found a “feeling within the sector that it has been held to blame for a perceived unsatisfactory state of the system, when even the government’s own evidence often doubts whether it is as unsatisfactory as it fears”.

More alarming was a “realisation” that over time providers had “not been effective enough in countering this view”.

They were often “too willing to accept this position instead of pushing back against it”, because the market was “too risky and uncertain to do otherwise”.

Dame Ruth Silver, the former principal of Lewisham College in south London and president of the FETL, told FE Week the sector currently had a “victim mentality” because it had been taking the blame for “inadequate policy implementation”.

“People set themselves up to deliver the original design and requirements and then that changes, depending on how much money government needs to take back from the sector,” she said.

“This is no way to run the future of our economy and people.

“One thing that I would wish for the sector is that there was a promise to not interfere with things for a period of five years. To let things take root, to let things have stability, to let managers and leaders have the time of perspective.

“Government officials keep changing their minds. This is due to political incompetence and some impatience and, of course, the fact that we have ministers in FE who do not stay very long. I used to say that the skills brief in Whitehall is the apprenticeship for being a minister.”

Silver also said ministers had tried to make public servants of employers, to change their ways and mind-sets, instead of understanding where they were coming from, what they wanted and how they saw their role.

“As a result, employers lose interest, feel frustrated or ill-served, and withdraw, at great cost to learners and the sector, not to mention the treasury and economy.”

As reported last week by FE Week, the report also called on the government to move away from its “unhelpful” mantra of “employers in the driving seat” in UK skills policy because this was “more rhetoric than reality”.

The FETL president added that for decades politicians had “scratched their heads” about how employers could become more engaged in FE – and were still asking themselves the same question today.

Meanwhile Mark Dawe, the chief executive of the AELP, said that providers and colleges often knew how they should work with employers, but government red tape, restrictions and a lack of funding did not allow them the “flexibility” to do it.

The report said there was now a “strong sense of risk aversion” among providers who felt their expertise and achievements were “under-recognised”.

It concluded that the sector needed to “blow its own trumpet more and be more assertive of what its role should be”.

Incentivise the apprenticeships that actually boost productivity

Apprenticeship funding mechanisms should be weighted to favour those standards that boost employability and earnings, argues Nicole Gicheva

The best apprenticeships provide an alternative entry route into employment to academic education. They make it easier for people to reskill and change career. High-value apprenticeship programmes also increase skill levels, enhance productivity in firms and in the economy and increase the wages of workers.

But our new Social Market Foundation report, Making Apprenticeships Work, highlights a huge variance: some apprenticeships deliver these outcomes. Some do not.

The recent reforms have aimed to improve the quality of apprenticeships offered and undertaken across the economy. Yet the ten most popular standards in 2017/18 include hairdressing, care work, customer service and hospitality; historically, these fields lead to lower returns to both apprentices and the economy.

The new funding mechanisms and incentives should go a step further than their current scope (to cover the cost of provision of standards) and reflect the outcomes that would be most useful to society now and in the future.

Employers should be encouraged to offer apprenticeships in sectors and occupations with a history of delivering good returns in the form of employment opportunities and productivity-enhancing skills. Introducing apprenticeship value premiums for each occupation could help achieve this.

Apprenticeships that perform well when evaluated by their productivity gains (measured principally by the average wage returns to apprentices), the level of employment or progression into higher-level training, and the degree of transferrable skills associated with the programme would attract an additional financial grant (a premium), deposited into the digital accounts of employers.

Conversely, schemes that systematically perform poorly on those metrics should see a cut in the maximum contribution to training and assessment costs provided by the government and be moved to a lower funding band.

In 2017, only a minority of apprentices undertaking training in education (33 per cent), leisure (37 per cent), health (40 per cent) or retail (42 per cent) reported receiving a pay rise afterwards. This compares to 71 per cent in construction and 65 per cent in engineering. Under our proposed reform, employers in the construction and engineering industries who hire apprentices could receive more funding to encourage more such training.

We accept that this course of action is likely to make some schemes less attractive to employers and providers, and to make some uneconomic. However, if schemes are not delivering the skills that improve the employability or productivity of apprentices, then it is right that we question whether alternative training or jobs should be pursued instead.

While the role of employers in determining the nature of apprenticeships is vital, the employer-led approach could entail a risk of apprenticeships being created with short-term needs of businesses in mind rather than future skills requirements and the changing nature of the economy. That is especially important as robotics and artificial intelligence become increasingly commonplace.

The high take-up of apprenticeships in lower-skill fields – which Bank of England analysis suggests are highly at risk of automation in the future – raises questions around the extent to which apprenticeships are being sufficiently future-proofed. As the risk of automation is much higher in lower-level occupations, there is significant crossover between the sectors of the economy where apprenticeships are most prevalent and the occupations that are most likely to have been made redundant by technology. In other words, there is a significant risk that some individuals who undertake apprenticeships could find that their training soon becomes redundant.

In this context, the government’s industrial strategy is unambiguous about the implications of automation for the economy and low-skilled jobs, as well as the need to ensure workers have the right skills to maximise their earning potential.

Employers and prospective apprentices might not be aware of the risk of automation for each occupation. So this risk should be reflected in apprenticeship value premiums. Unless alterations can be made to each specification, funding for apprenticeships at a high risk of automation should be reduced, or these schemes can be discontinued altogether.

The best apprenticeships do not just offer skills and pay, they also prepare their holders for the economy of the future. This is where we should focus support and resources.

 

Apprenticeship quality not improving, says Ofsted chief inspector

The quality of apprenticeships is “sticking” instead of moving forward, according to Ofsted’s chief inspector who today urged the sector to “improve”.

Amanda Spielman (pictured) delivered a keynote speech on day one of FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference and provided delegates with an update about what the education watchdog is finding during inspections.

She said last year Ofsted inspected the apprenticeship provision at just over 100 providers, of which nearly 60 per cent of those were ‘good’ or better.

More recent inspections “show that, for now, the sector is holding steady – despite so much new provision coming on stream”, Spielman explained.

“Since last September, of the 52 full inspections that reported on the quality of apprenticeships, nearly 60 per cent were found to be good or better.”

So, while the picture “isn’t getting worse, I think that you would all agree that there is still work to do”.

The challenge is to “move past this 60 percent”, she said.

Meanwhile, the findings from over 150 monitoring visits to new apprenticeship providers show that around 60 per cent were making ‘reasonable progress’ across all three lines of enquiry, while almost a quarter received at least one ‘insufficient progress’ judgement.

AAC host Kirsty Wark later quizzed the chief inspector on the 60 per cent figure for full inspections, saying “it seems to me that’s not particularly good” considering the other 40 per cent of providers will be offering bad quality apprenticeships.

“That is why I wanted to talk about it today, it’s a figure that seems to be sticking,” Spielman said in response.

“We see this across last year and this year, the monitoring visits, it is a higher figure than in other areas of education that we inspect and we’d really really like to see that improve.”

The chief inspector’s comments come after Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills said in May last year that the quality of apprenticeships was actually in decline, and the programmes were starting to resemble the doomed Train to Gain initiative from the mid 00s.

Monthly apprenticeships update: January starts up 15% but down 21% on 2017

Apprenticeship starts for January are up 15 per cent on last year but down 21 per cent on the same month in 2017 before the levy was introduced, new government figures have revealed.

There have been 29,100 starts recorded so far in January 2019, compared with 36,700 in January 2017 and 25,400 in January 2018, according to the Department for Education’s monthly apprenticeship statistics update published this morning.

January 2017 is a better comparator than January 2018 given that there was a huge drop in starts following the introduction of the levy in May 2017.

There have been 225,800 apprenticeship starts reported to date between August 2018 and January 2019 for the 2018/19 academic year.

This is 10 per cent up from the 206,100 reported in the equivalent period in 2017/18, but 16 per cent down on the 269,600 in 2016/17.

Skills and apprenticeships minister Anne Milton said: “It’s excellent news that the number of people starting on our new high-quality apprenticeships in the first two quarters 2018/19 increased by 10 per cent compared to last year.

“We overhauled the apprenticeships system almost two years ago to the day and we have made good and steady progress.

“I’m delighted that thousands of employers large and small are now embracing the huge benefits apprenticeships are bringing to their business and offering people of all ages and backgrounds the chance to progress.”

 

ESFA says 30 hour cap to off-the-job calculation has always been in funding rules

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has insisted that an apparent change it made to the off-the-job training policy last week has always existed and does not contradict the funding rules.

As reported by FE Week yesterday, providers were left baffled after the agency updated its ‘apprenticeship off the-job training policy background and examples’ document which for the first time stated the 20 per cent calculation should be capped based on 30 hours of work per week.

Official funding rules for 2018/19 make no reference to a 30 hour cap in the calculation and providers have been including all “paid hours”.

The off-the-job section in the funding rules is not intended to be read in isolation

FE Week sought clarification from the ESFA, which today provided this statement: “To be clear the published guidance does not contradict ESFA apprenticeship funding rules.

“It was produced to complement the funding rules and to further clarify areas that have prompted questions since the introduction of the policy.

“The off-the-job section in the funding rules is not intended to be read in isolation; the 30 hours is referenced in the minimum duration section.”

Mark Dawe, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said he was “pleased but surprised” by the clarification.

“We’ve looked for clarity all the way through and it’s never been clear it’s based on 30 hours,” he told FE Week.

“We’re pleased but surprised because it’s a very easy thing to clarify from day one but it definitely wasn’t there.”

Many in the sector have taken to an online forum managed by the ESFA called FE Connect to discuss the issue.

It’s never been clear it’s based on 30 hours

One person, who goes by the username of PaulB, said the 30 hours cap will “significantly reduce the number of OTJ hours required for our learners”, some by “around 100 hours reduction”.

“I’d like to gauge people’s views on amending the commitment statement and apprenticeship agreement,” he added.

“In light of the ‘clarification’, for apprentice starts from 1st August 2018, should we all now go back, amend all of these and re-issue to employers and apprentices to re-sign?

“The ESFA themselves refer to the commitment statement as a ‘working document’ and should be updated during the apprenticeship as required.”

Revealed: The 16 members of the ‘College of the Future’ commission

The 16 people that will form an independent commission to set out a “new vision” for colleges in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been revealed.

The commission on the “College of the Future” will be chaired by Sir Ian Diamond, chair of Edinburgh College’s management board, and also features BBC broadcaster Steph McGovern, chief UK policy director at the Confederation of Business Industry Matthew Fell, National Union of Students president Shakira Martin, and FE Week contributor professor Ewart Keep.

Other prominent names from education, industry and the media from across the four nations of the UK make up the commission (full list below).

It will be supported by key organisations from across the FE and skills sector, including the Association of Colleges, Colleges Scotland, Colleges Wales, the colleges in Northern Ireland, City & Guilds, the Further Education Trust for Leadership, Jisc, NCFE, NOCN and Pearson.

The commission will be working together to answer the question – what does the college of the future look like?

“Colleges are a central part of our education systems right across the UK,” Diamond said.

“But with so many critical challenges facing us, nationally and internationally – from changes in technology, aspirations, jobs and climate, to name just a few – colleges must take an ever more central place in public policy, as they are critically important for people and communities.

“The independent commission brings together a formidable team of experts and leaders to ask the fundamental questions about the role and place of colleges across all four corners of the UK.

“We will be putting forward clear recommendations, as we seek to ensure that colleges are able to play the critical role that they must – so that people have the right opportunities to get on in life, that no community is left behind, and that governments across the UK are able to meet the challenges of the future.”

The members will meet five times throughout the year, with the aim to release a final report with recommendations by Spring 2020.

An expert panel, chaired by Amanda Melton, principal and chief executive at Nelson and Colne College, will also feed into the process.

The commission said it will also hold a range of roundtable and workshop events across the UK throughout the year and will hold a number of public events.

Full list of the commissioners:

Sir Ian Diamond (chair) – Chair, Edinburgh College Management Board

Peter Cheese – Chief Executive, CIPD

Audrey Cumberford MBE FRSE – Principal and Chief Executive, Edinburgh College

Dr Stephen Farry – Former Minister for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland

Matthew Fell – Chief UK Policy Director, CBI

Lesley Giles – Director, Work Foundation

Professor Ellen Hazelkorn – Joint Managing Partner, BH Associates Education Consultants Ireland

Rob Humphreys CBE FLSW – Council member, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales

David Jones OBE DL – Chief Executive, Coleg Cambria

Professor Ewart Keep – Director, SKOPE, Oxford University

Shakira Martin – President, NUS

Marie-Thérèse McGivern – Principal and Chief Executive, Belfast Metropolitan College

Steph McGovern – BBC Broadcaster

Amanda Melton – Principal and Chief Executive, Nelson and Colne College

Paul Nowak – Deputy General Secretary, TUC

Nora Senior CBE – Chair, Weber Shandwick, and Chair of Scottish Government’s Enterprise and Skills Board

Annual Apprenticeships Conference 2019 gets underway

Colleges, training providers and employers have flooded to Birmingham for the Annual Apprenticeships Conference (AAC) 2019 which officially gets underway this morning.

Across two days the conference, in partnership with the Department for Education and now in its fifth year, will provide over 1,200 delegates with an opportunity to access vital updates on apprenticeships policy and debate how programmes can be successfully delivered.

Discussions will undoubtedly focus on this month’s National Audit Office report which warned the apprenticeships programme is not financially sustainable based on current trends, as well as a subsequent Public Accounts Committee hearing that saw MPs grill government officials on the report’s findings including value for money and future affordability.

Our agenda is the best one yet

Changes to the levy and the 20 per cent off-the-job training rule are also likely to be heavily discussed, among other hot topics.

Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark is hosting the conference, and on day one AAC guests will hear from FE Week editor Nick Linford, as well as Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe, before keynote speeches from Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education chief executive Sir Gerry Berragan

Day two will see keynote speeches from the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s apprenticeships director Keith Smith, head of education and skills at the Confederation of British Industry John Cope, and shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden among others.

Skills minister Anne Milton will close the conference.

A range of workshops will be run throughout both days, which will see speakers, including government officials, provide updates on topics including the government’s new register of apprenticeship providers, end-point assessment, funding, audits and inspections.

Nick Linford on stage at AAC

Click here to view the full agenda.

Shane Mann, managing director of FE Week’s publisher Lsect, said: “It’s incredibly exciting to launch this year’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference in partnership with the Department for Education.

“Our agenda is the best one yet, packed with high-profile speakers who will give vital updates to everyone involved in the apprenticeships sector.

“Delegates will have the opportunity to meet with and hear from an array of leading civil servants from the IfA and DfE, which is invaluable at a time of uncertainty.

“The idea for this conference was conceived following a meeting with the then skills ministers, Matt Hancock, and it has grown each year since. We kicked off in 2015 back in London, where we had 400 delegates, this week we will welcome over 1,200 delegates.”

A glitzy gala dinner will end the conference on Thursday night where the winners of this year’s AAC Awards will be revealed.

Follow @FEWeek on Twitter for live updates throughout the conference, the hashtag for which is #FEWEEKAAC19.

Proportion of apprenticeships delivered by subcontractors falls dramatically

The proportion of apprenticeships delivered by subcontractors fell 15 points to just 11 per cent last year, according to government figures obtained by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.

The drop has been attributed to more stringent rules on subcontracting, introduced in May 2017 as part of the levy reforms, and the introduction of a new register of apprenticeship training providers.

The data, obtained via a Freedom of Information request, will be laid out by AELP boss Mark Dawe to delegates at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference which kicks off this morning.

It shows that out of the 376,000 apprenticeship starts in 2017/18, a huge 89 per cent (334,000) were directly delivered while the remaining 11 per cent was subcontracted, compared with 26 per cent the previous year.

Starts fell overall by 24 per cent in the first full year of the levy, which AELP believes is a factor in the decline of the independent training provider (ITP) share of the market, which now sits at 67 per cent – down from nearly three-quarters the year before.

Colleges, which contracted out over a third of their delivery (36 per cent) to ITPs in 2016/17, are not only subcontracting less but delivering less themselves and now make up 25 per cent of the market instead of 31 per cent.

Only 13 per cent of college-contracted apprenticeships were subcontracted to ITPs to deliver last year.

 

Provider
16/17 total starts
of which in
16/17 they
subcontracted out
17/18 total starts
of which in
17/18 they
subcontracted out
ITP
300,330 (61%)
52,590 (18%)
251,386 (67%)
12,120 (5%)
GFE
152,410 (31%)
54,200 (36%)
92,420 (25%)
12,050 (13%)
All other
 42,870 (9%)
21,600 (50%)
32,590 (8%)
17,360 (53%)
Total
495,610
128,390 (26%)
376,396
41,530 (11%)

 

Apprenticeship subcontracting rules were changed by the government for all starts from May 2017 and mean lead contractors can no longer subcontract entire apprenticeship programmes. Instead they must “directly deliver” more than a “token” number of apprenticeships to each employer.

In addition, many providers that were previously subcontractors are now able to contract directly with levy paying employers to deliver apprenticeships.

And the new “tougher” register of apprenticeship training providers, which reopened in December, now requires all subcontractors delivering the programmes to be listed on it – meaning many more will now deliver directly.

As well as the reduction in subcontracting, 200 fewer private providers delivered apprenticeships to non-levy paying employers as a result of a controversial government procurement exercise two years ago and the halving of the budget for small business apprenticeships since April 2017, according to the AELP.

The association’s boss Mark Dawe said it is “clear” that the change in subcontracting rules and an “inability to access funding has reduced the ability for independent training providers to deliver apprenticeships and this would seem to be a major contributor to the fall in apprenticeship numbers in 2017/18”.

“While genuine subcontracting in the interests of employer need shouldn’t be banned, its use as an income source for the lead provider with little benefit to the employer or learner certainly shouldn’t be accepted,” he added.

An even bigger subcontracting drop may be on the cards for next year, as the sector is still waiting for potentially more strict rules from the government as officials mull over whether to introduce a cap on management fees.

The AELP said despite the reduction in subcontracting, the association said it maintains that the ESFA funding rules should impose a 20 per cent cap on subcontracting management fees. The agency kicked a decision on this into the long grass last year and is still debating whether or not to introduce the policy.

Dawe continued: “We are still in a state of transition on the apprenticeship reforms which may or may not lead to the end of the ESFA contracting system.

“However if the current refresh of the government’s provider register goes well, employers can be more confident of gaining access to good quality training whatever type of provider they use without worrying about funding being creamed off unnecessarily in management fees.”