A provider that trains civil servants has been slammed by Ofsted for putting science graduates on apprenticeships that are a rebadge of its old commercial management courses – with no thought for if they need the training.

The Business Portfolio (UK) Limited (TBP), which teaches 32 apprentices employed at the government-owned National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), received “insufficient progress” ratings across the board in its first monitoring visit after winning a funding contract in 2017.

“Directors do not use the apprenticeship funding appropriately,” inspectors said.

Directors do not use the apprenticeship funding appropriately

NNL acknowledged to inspectors that the apprenticeship on offer is “broadly aligned to courses that TBP previously delivered commercially and that can now be funded through the apprenticeship levy”.

And apprentices “rightly” acknowledge the learning is not at a high enough level for their job role.

It comes a week after the National Audit Office warned that levy-paying employers are replacing graduate training schemes with apprenticeships.

“There are risks that the programme is subsidising training that would have happened without government funding,” it said.

In December, Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman also raised concerns about graduate scheme rebadging, with levy funds being spent on higher level apprenticeships at the expense of young people on lower levels.

TBP has been the NNL’s training provider since 2017, with one person assigned to deliver the apprenticeship training for the laboratory, which is governed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

All apprentices are working towards a level 5 leadership and management programme.

Inspectors found TBP does not take account of prior learning, which is a breach of Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) rules.

“Directors’ curriculum planning is poor,” Ofsted explained. “They give insufficient attention to apprentices’ previous training and career aspirations when designing the curriculum.

“Directors ensure that apprentices develop substantial new vocational knowledge, skills and behaviours.

“All apprentices study the same topics despite their previously acquired knowledge and skills.”

As a result, “too many” apprentices make “slow progress, despite their high achievements at university”.

The ESFA warned providers on Monday they could be audited to ensure apprenticeship courses take into account a learner’s prior learning, and reiterated that funding “may be recovered” if a provider is found not doing this.

Asked if the Department for Education was considering terminating TBP’s funding contract, a spokesperson said: “We will always take action to protect apprentices if a training provider is not fit for purpose.

“We are currently assessing Ofsted’s findings and will be in contact with the provider to set out the action we will be taking in due course.”

An NNL spokesperson said: “We are aware of the Ofsted report and are reading it carefully.

“Our aim is always to work with suppliers of the highest quality, and we will be discussing our future relationship with the Business Portfolio (UK) Limited in the near future.”

It would not be the first time an apprenticeship provider that trains government employees has lost its funding contract following a negative Ofsted monitoring visit.

All apprentices study the same topics despite their previously acquired knowledge and skills

Last November, Premier People Solutions Limited, which delivered apprenticeships to the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, and the UK Visas and Immigration service, had its funding terminated after inspectors warned its recruitment procedures were “not safe enough” and too many apprentices were prevented from receiving off-the-job training.

This was also an issue at TBP, where inspectors found its directors do not ensure apprentices receive their full entitlement to “frequent and high-quality” off-the-job training.

Ofsted also reported that directors do not have a clearly defined strategy to develop apprentices’ English, maths and ICT skills because they assumed, as the apprentices are all graduates, no further training was needed.

On top of this, TBP only has one designated safeguarding officer, a company director, but apprentices are unaware of this.

A small company, TBP only registers two people in its 2017/18 accounts and assets of under £22,000.

A spokesperson for the provider said: “We note the report from the Ofsted monitoring visit published this week and will work with all our partners, including the ESFA, to determine the way forward to ensure we deliver quality programmes for all apprentices.”

The chief executive of the organisation that is behind the troubled university technical colleges programme is stepping down.

Charles Parker, who has headed up the Baker Dearing Trust since 2012, will leave the top position in August.

He’ll be replaced by Simon Connell, the trust’s current development director.

The trust was set up by former education secretary Lord Baker in 2010 to promote and support UTCs – technical providers that recruit students at age 14.

Parker has been a key figure in driving forward the programme, which has grown rapidly but struggled to produce good results.

Many of the 14 to 19 technical providers have found it difficult to recruit adequate student numbers and a run of poor Ofsted grades has caused reputational damage.

Lord Baker, chair of the Baker Dearing Trust, said: “Charles was the central figure in establishing the network of University Technical Colleges.

“When he started not one had opened, now there are 50. This considerable achievement could not have happened without his persistence and professional management in building up a team.”

Parker will remain as an advisor to the senior leadership team on employer engagement, fundraising, and policy matters.

Lord Baker continued: “I am very grateful for all he has done – we worked well together and won against the odds. I am delighted that Simon has agreed to become chief executive.

“This provides the charity with continuity and a clear focus as the University Technical College programme is further embedded in the English school system.”

Connell has been the trust’s development director since 2016, after working as chief operating officer for Educate School Services Ltd, which he founded, and following a career in financial services.

The 10-per-cent fee that small businesses must pay when they take on apprentices will be halved from April 1, the chancellor has finally revealed.

In his Budget speech in October, Philip Hammond announced that the contribution non-levy paying companies pay towards apprenticeship training would fall to 5 per cent.

But since then no start date has been forthcoming leaving the sector and skills minister Anne Milton frustrated, and concerns have grown that small businesses may be putting off taking on apprentices until the change is made.

Today, during his Spring statement, four months after the announcement, the chancellor said: “To help small businesses take on more apprentices I can announce that I am bringing forward the £700 million package of reforms I announced at the budget to the start of the new financial year in April.”

The Treasury later confirmed: “From April 1st employers will see the co-investment rate they pay cut by a half from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, at the same time as levy-paying employers are able to share more levy funds across their supply chains, with the maximum amount rising from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.”

The Department for Education told FE Week that the 5 per cent contribution will also apply to levy-paying employers when their levy pot is empty.

The government predicts that cutting the co-investment in half will cost the Treasury an extra £70 million a year by 2022.

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “Our evidence was that employers were holding back on apprenticeship starts since the autumn budget announcement which might explain the overall falls happening again, so we welcome the fact that this measure is being introduced.”

He added: “Given the overall fall in numbers, there is a case for the low-end levy payers benefiting from the cut.”

 

The managing director of the Federation of Industry Sector Skills and Standards (FISSS) has stepped down with immediate effect, FE Week can reveal.

Mark Froud has left the federation, which represents the 21 sector skills councils across England, after six years at the helm.

In an email seen by FE Week, the FISSS independent chair Dame Julie Mellor said: “Mark Froud will be leaving the Federation at the end of March 2019 and will be on leave until then. 

“The chair and board wish him well in his next endeavour and thank him for his time and undertakings on behalf of the business across the last six years.”

FE Week asked FISSS why Froud was leaving immediately, but it would not provide any further comment.

Mellor added that the board has already started looking for his replacement.

Sector skills councils are employer-led organisations who work with over 550,000 employers to define skills needs and skills standards in their industry, according to FISSS’ website.

FISSS verifies whether apprenticeships have been completed successfully before handing out certificates, but lost responsibility for issuing certificates for completed apprenticeship standards in 2017.

This was due to the Deregulation Act of 2015, which introduced apprenticeship standards and made the business secretary responsible for issuing certificates, a responsibility which could be delegated.

For apprentices on frameworks, providers still need to apply to FISSS for certificates, although the last of these are expected to be handed out in 2021/22.

Froud was previously chief executive of Sussex Enterprise and Lancashire Enterprise, as well as principal policy consultant for the Policy Research Institute.

The government will fund free sanitary products for all students in colleges and secondary schools from September.

Chancellor Philip Hammond made the announcement in his Spring statement today in an effort to tackle period poverty.

“In response to rising concern by headteachers that some girls are missing school attendance due to an inability to afford sanitary products, I have decided to fund the provision of free sanitary products in secondary schools and colleges in England from the next school year,” he told MPs.

“I congratulate those honourable members who have campaigned on this issue on all sides of the House, and the education secretary will announce further details in due course.”

Newcastle College became the first college in England to offer tampons and other such products for free in October.

It followed a successful fight in Scotland when its government committed £5.2 million to fund the initiative. The announcement, made last August, made Scotland the “first in the world” to offer free tampons and sanitary towels to all students.

The Treasury told FE Week today it has not costed the plan for England, but confirmed it will be fully funded for all secondary schools and colleges – not just sixth forms.

A survey conducted by development charity Plan International in 2017 found that one in 10 young women aged 14 to 21 had been unable to afford sanitary products. It also discovered that 12 per cent of those surveyed had to improvise sanitary wear and one in five had changed to a less suitable sanitary product due to cost.

Following today’s announcement, University and College Union acting general secretary, Paul Cottrell, said: “Having a period should not be a barrier to education and we welcome the chancellor’s promise to provide free sanitary products in schools and colleges.

“Ensuring that sanitary products are available to all students will enable women and girls facing real hardship to be able to attend their classes in comfort and dignity.”

Ofqual has ruled itself out of delivering the apprenticeship external quality assurance service for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

Sally Collier, the chief executive of the exams regulator, told the Commons education committee during an accountability hearing this morning that her organisation would like to expand its role in monitoring apprenticeship end-point assessment organisations.

However, when asked by committee chair Robert Halfon if Ofqual bid in the institute’s recent tender to do the quality assurance on its behalf, for 262 of the 410 standards approved for delivery, Collier revealed they had not.

It would not seem appropriate for a regulator to bid for a contract with another part of government

“No, it would not seem appropriate for a regulator to bid for a contract with another part of government,” she said.

There are currently 18 approved external quality assurance (EQA) bodies that monitor end-point assessment organisations, to ensure the process is “fair, consistent and robust”.

Ofqual is the external quality assurer for 61 standards, but many in the sector have questioned why the whole job isn’t given to the exams regulator.

Collier told the education committee today that her organisation has done a “good job in proving that as the regulator we can do this job and can do it well” and they are “ready to take on a larger role”.

“It is complex and confusing in places, I think we can bring some clarity to the process,” she explained.

“As the independent regulator and having end-point assessments independently regulated in the same way that other types of qualifications are I think that would help public trust and confidence in the system.”

But to expand their role, Ofqual would “need more people and more resource to do that”.

She agreed with Halfon that it is “unnecessary” to have so many different bodies doing apprenticeship regulation.

Concerns have been raised that EQA has added “another unnecessary administration cost” to the apprenticeships system, after FE Week last month revealed the “ridiculous variability” in approved external quality assurance charges.

EQA bodies are allowed to apply a charge as long as it is on a “cost-recovery basis” – the amount of which is taken directly from the government funding given to training providers to deliver the apprenticeship.

But FE Week found the charges range from a free service to a whopping £179 per apprentice.

Ofqual does not charge for the service.

I think we can bring some clarity to the process

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education also does not currently charge for its EQA service, but this will change come May.

It launched a tender at the end of January for an organisation to provide quality assurance for apprenticeships assessment on its behalf until the end of March 2021.

Open Awards has held the contract to deliver this service since August 2017, which was worth an initial £160,000 and did not charge per apprentice, but this will end in March.

Tender documents for the new contract, seen by FE Week, state that “legislation allows the institute to charge end point assessment organisations (EPAOs) a fee per apprentice that undertakes an end-point assessment and it is these fees that will pay for the EQA service”.

The winning bidder is expected to earn at least half a million pounds over the two-year contract period.

The new contract doesn’t start until May, meaning there is a month-long gap where no permanent organisation is in place to do the EQA for the institute.

It has been forced into hastily finding “interim” arrangements for the month, but in a recent interview with FE Week, the institute’s boss Sir Gerry Berragan remained tight-lipped about the plans, other than to say: “Rest assured there are arrangements in place.”

PICTURED: Ofqual chair Roger Taylor and chief executive Sally Collier in front of the Commons education committee

The chair of the boards of governors for the troubled Hadlow College and West Kent and Ashford College has resigned with two other governors, FE Week can reveal.

FE Week reported earlier this month the boards at The Hadlow Group, which controls both colleges, went into meltdown as serious governance failings and financial inexperience were put in the spotlight.

It came after the government and FE Commissioner launched investigations into financial irregularities at the group, which subsequently suspended its principal Paul Hannan and deputy principal Mark Lumsdon-Taylor.

It is understood that the FE Commissioner met the ESFA on Friday, ahead of a decision on whether the education secretary should continue to financially support the colleges, or let either of them go into administration.

Today, Theresa Bruton, who has served on the Hadlow board for seven years; Bob McNicoll, the chair of the audit committee; and April McMahon all handed in their resignations as governors at the group.

They follow Paul Dubrow, the former chair of West Kent and Ashford College’s board, who resigned in February, as did governors George Jessel, Harvey Guntrip and Chris Hearn.

Last week, FE Week revealed The Hadlow Group had refused to comment on whether the boards of each college had confidence in Bruton.

She was leading the investigation into Hannan and Lumsdon-Taylor and was also chair of the remuneration committee for both colleges; chair of West Kent & Ashford College curriculum and quality committee; and chair of governance and search committee for both colleges.

The West Kent and Ashford College board had been due to decide on a new chair to replace the interim Bruton, however her term as board chair of Hadlow College was not due to run out until July.

Bruton previously worked as head of regeneration projects for Kent County Council and as a director of Visit Kent.

Bob McNicoll had been a governor at West Kent and Ashford College since 2014 and a governor of Hadlow College since 2007. He works in private equity funding for small businesses that provide electric vehicle technologies.

April McMahon, a member of the curriculum and quality committee, has been on the West Kent & Ashford College board since 2017. She is a deputy vice chancellor of education at the University of Kent and is an honorary fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge.

Pictured (left to right): Theresa Bruton, Bob McNicoll, April McMahon.