Five early monitoring reports for independent providers returned ‘insufficient’ ratings this week, with Ofsted finding some have not recruited with “integrity” and another had learners unaware they’re on an apprenticeship.

It was also bad news for a local authority which was downgraded to ‘inadequate’. There was, however, promising results for colleges.

The grade four came in for Stoke-on-Trent Unitary Authority, which has over 2,000 students.

The majority of adult learners and students aged 16 to 19 “do not make strong progress from their starting points” and “too few adult learners successfully move on into the next stage of their education, training, or employment when they complete their programmes”.

The local authority was however praised for its apprenticeship delivery, which was judged as ‘good’.

Elsewhere, Apprentice Assessments Ltd was hit with two ‘insufficient progress’ ratings in its first monitoring visit since it started offering its own apprenticeships in August 2017. It had 90 apprentices at the time of Ofsted’s visit.

Inspectors found that managers have “not ensured that apprenticeship provision was meeting the requirements of the funding body and the principles of apprenticeships”.

In February 2019, two senior managers resigned from their posts at AAL and a new managing director was appointed in April. They have since made “substantial investment” in resources to improve training.

Another new apprenticeship provider found making ‘insufficient progress’ this week was Ashley Hunter Ltd. It started delivering its own apprenticeships in January 2018 but before that it delivered them as a subcontractor.

It has nearly 150 apprentices on its books for the care sector, but inspectors found leaders and managers “do not ensure that apprenticeship programmes are planned appropriately to meet the principles and requirements of an apprenticeship”.

Leaders and managers have, however, “very recently” introduced additional checks, systems and processes to “rectify identified weaknesses in the quality of education and training”.

Fresh Training Services (UK) Ltd came in for heavy criticism in its first monitoring visit, which found the independent provider making ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas judged.

It has 25 apprentices, but Ofsted said leaders and manager do not recruit them with “integrity”.

“They do not ensure that prospective apprentices are employed appropriately to enable them to complete an apprenticeship,” inspectors continued.

Merseyside Accredited Community Training and Assessment Centre also received two ‘insufficient progress’ ratings in its first monitoring report.

Leaders and managers “do not have a coherent curriculum plan” for its 70 adult learners, Ofsted said, and students “do not receive sufficient information, advice and guidance before they enrol on a course”.

Prospect Training (Yorkshire) Limited was also slammed by the inspectorate, this time for not making learners and their employers aware they’re actually on an apprenticeship programme.

A better performing private provider this week was All Trades Training Limited, which improved from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’.

Leaders, managers and learning coaches work “highly effectively” with employers to provide good-quality learning for its 69 apprentices.

Tendring District Council (Career Track) also did well and was found making ‘significant progress’ in two areas of its first monitoring visit.

Leaders and managers make “very good use of their experience and knowledge” to design “highly effective training programmes which effectively meet apprentices’ individual needs”.

Carole Plummer also received two ‘significant progress’ ratings. Ofsted said highly qualified and experienced staff provide a “rich variety of training to ensure that almost all apprentices gain considerable new knowledge, skills and behaviours that tangibly add value to their employer’s business”.

Four private providers – Blue Apple Training Ltd, Culture, Learning And Libraries (Midlands), Poplar Housing And Regeneration Community Association Limited and Marson Garages (Wolstanton) Limited – as well as one NHS trust – Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust – were found making ‘reasonable progress’ across the board in their first ever monitoring visits.

Marson Garages (Wolstanton) Limited was found making ‘reasonable progress’ across the board in its first monitoring visit since being rated ‘requires improvement’ in October 2018.

The Real Apprenticeship Company Limited scored its second grade three in a row.

It was better news for Morley College, which trains over 11,000 learners. It retained its ‘good’ rating, and scored ‘outstanding’ for personal development, behaviour and welfare.

“Governors, leaders and managers have high aspirations to meet the needs of adult students in the local area and across London,” Ofsted found.

There was also cause for celebration at New City College, which has over 13,000 students.

It was formed by a merger of four predecessor colleges: Tower Hamlets College merged with Hackney Community College in August 2016, Redbridge College joined the group in April 2017, and Epping Forest College was the last to join in August 2018.

Ofsted found the mega-college is making ‘reasonable progress’ in two fields judged in a monitoring visit – for apprenticeships and other areas of teaching – but ‘significant progress’ in governance.

Stella Mann College, a private college that trains students for employment in the musical theatre and dance industries, was also celebrating after Ofsted upped its grade from three to two.

Students “effectively develop the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to work successfully in the performing arts industry” and they “benefit from working with a wide range of industry specialists, guest teachers and advisers who bring and share a wealth of experience”.

GFE Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Morley College	18/06/2019	15/07/2019	2	2
New City College Corporation	27/06/2019	17/07/2019	M	N/A

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Ashley Hunter Ltd	13/06/2019	15/07/2019	M	N/A
Blue Apple Training Ltd	19/06/2019	17/07/2019	M	N/A
Apprentice Assessments Limited	14/05/2019	17/07/2019	M	N/A
Culture, Learning And Libraries (Midlands)	20/06/2019	18/07/2019	M	N/A
Fresh Training Services (Uk) Limited	12/06/2019	18/07/2019	M	N/A
MACTAC	18/06/2019	18/07/2019	M	N/A
Poplar Housing And Regeneration Community Association Limited	27/06/2019	18/07/2019	M	N/A
Prospect Training (Yorkshire) Limited	05/06/2019	18/07/2019	M	N/A
Tendring District Council (Career Track)	26/06/2019	18/07/2019	M	N/A
All Trades Training Limited	04/06/2019	19/07/2019	2	3
Carole Plummer	13/06/2019	19/07/2019	M	N/A
Marson Garages (Wolstanton) Limited	27/06/2019	19/07/2019	M	3
Riverside Training (Spalding) Ltd	22/06/2019	19/07/2019	M	N/A
The Real Apprenticeship Company Limited	18/06/2019	19/07/2019	3	3

 

Adult and Community Learning	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
STOKE-ON-TRENT UNITARY AUTHORITY	11/06/2019	15/07/2019	4	3

 

Other (including UTCs)	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust	19/06/2019	18/07/2019	M	N/A
Stella Mann College	20/06/2019	18/07/2019	2	3

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has today published its annual accounts for 2018/19.

This is only the second year of the institute’s existence and the report comes shortly after it took on responsibility for T-levels.

Here are six things we learned from the accounts.

1. Staff headcount has increased to nearly 150

The number of full-time staff at IfATE has risen to 146, from 89 in 2017/18; an increase of 64 per cent.

The majority of this increase came from recruiting 34 staff members to work on T-levels, which IfATE took over in January and which are expected to be introduced next year.

2. Sir Gerry received a bonus of up to £15,000

The institute’s chief executive Sir Gerry Berragan was unsurprisingly the highest-paid employee, receiving between £140,000 and £145,000 as a salary. He also received a bonus of between £10,000 and £15,000.

The reason for having a range for the figures is that bonuses are reported in £5,000 brackets, so a more accurate total is not possible.

The accounts do not show any other employees received a bonus.

Berragan is due to be replaced in November once his two-year contract expires, with the ESFA’s director of professional and technical education Jennifer Coupland.

Several board members received fees of between £10,000 and £15,000; though not the chair, Antony Jenkins, who volunteered for his remuneration to be reduced to a maximum of £5,000, from the £5,000 to £10,000 range it was in in 2017/18.

3. £152,000 was paid out in exit packages

A total of two exit packages, both in the range of £50,000 to £100,000, were handed out by the institute in 2018/19.

The total amount spent on such packages was £152,000 – none of which was spent following compulsory redundancies.

4. IfATE exceeded their own target for signing off standards

IfATE approved 424 apprenticeship standards in 2018/19, besting their target of 400 – whereas in April 2018, only 257 it had signed off on.

Berragan attributed this increase in the number of standards to its “Faster and Better” approach.

5. Most of the appeals to IfATE were about funding bands

One of the most controversial undertakings of IfATE has been the funding band reviews – investigations to determine the most appropriate cost of delivering an apprenticeship standard, two waves of which have been ordered by skills minister Anne Milton.

Employers and providers have been outraged when these reviews have led to cuts in funding for particular standards, such as the level 6 chartered manager standard.

So much so, the IfATE promised a review of their impact in May.

According to the report, IfATE received a total of 37 appeals in 2018/19 – 35 of which were about funding band recommendations.

Only 10 of these appeals were upheld, the remaining 25 were either rejected or deemed “not in scope”.

The other two appeals were about the development of the standards, neither of which were upheld.

6. Quality of apprenticeships and T-levels is ‘at risk’

According to IfATE’s performance analysis, there is “some risk to the delivery” of apprenticeship and T-level quality.

This is because the institute aimed to have external quality assurance for all standards with active apprentices, and although the report says “good progress” has been made towards this goal, nearly ten per cent of apprentices who started in the last 12 months do not have EQA providers in place.

Three per cent have a provider in principle and Open Awards has been contracted to provide EQA for all standards where no provider has been assigned.

IfATE has “developed robust contractual requirements for the T-level awarding organisations that we procure”, but agreement on a quality assurance framework for the new qualification is “ongoing”.

Both programmes have been given amber ratings for quality.

An ‘inadequate’ university technical college is to close just four years after opening as it is “no longer financially viable” following a huge drop in student numbers.

South Wiltshire UTC will become the eleventh provider of its type to close since the programme launched in 2010.

Like many of the other failed institutions, it has struggled to recruit students and had just 214 on roll against a capacity of 600 when Ofsted visited last year and gave it a grade four.

However, following this damning report, the 14-to-19 college saw its learner numbers almost halve. It currently only has 121 on roll, according to government data.

A statement by the UTC said its board of governors with the Department for Education, have had “no option but to take the difficult decision in principle” to close in August 2020.

“At what is an extremely difficult time for our staff, students and prospective students, our focus will now be on ensuring the students remaining with us in years 11 and 13 successfully complete their planned two year courses,” it continued.

“All students due to enrol and start with the school in September 2019 have been informed of the decision. We will support pupils that had applied to join the UTC in September 2019 to find alternative places.”

Principal Joe Mulligan said: “We will work hard to ensure that the students who will remain at the UTC in 2019/2020 will receive the best possible education and will provide a rich curriculum around our specialism, including continuing to work with our employer and university partners.

“We have always strived to provide the best possible education for our learners and I would like to thank all who have been part of the South Wiltshire UTC community, for all their support over the years.”

Doug Gale, chair of South Wiltshire UTC Trust, said: “Closing South Wiltshire UTC is incredibly disappointing for all who have worked hard to give students a technical education option within Salisbury and the surrounding area.”

A four-week listening period is now open for interested parties to provide views on the closure process. Comments should be submitted to: views@wiltshire-utc.co.uk.

A private provider has been slammed by Ofsted after it found learners and their employers unaware they were taking part in an apprenticeship programme.

The report from an early monitoring visit of Prospect Training (Yorkshire), which has 112 apprentices, found: “Too many apprentices are not aware that they are on an apprenticeship, and often their employers do not know.”

A Prospect spokesperson said the provider “accepts” this finding and is “working to address it”. However, they claimed apprentices “did know they were on a learning programme and who with”, but referred to the “programme title in a sector context rather than using the term ‘apprenticeship’”.

Prospect’s leaders and managers were, inspectors said, also not ensuring its 25 adult learners achieve their qualifications, with too few learners achieving within the planned timescale: learners who were due to complete as much as nine months ago have not done so.

But more worryingly, learners on spectator safety courses, as most of the adults are, “incorrectly believe they have achieved their qualification and they can now apply for jobs”.

After FE Week pressed them for more detail about this, Ofsted said Prospect’s learners had “not been given certificates as they had not completed their course, despite being told otherwise by their tutor”.

Prospect’s said learners undertaking the spectator safety programme of study did confirm to inspectors they had gained new knowledge from attending this programme.

“They had completed their programme of study,” the spokesperson said, “however, we were awaiting a statement from their employer to confirm their competence at managed events”.

Ofsted graded Prospect as having made ‘insufficient progress’ in adult learning. The provider held procured AEB contracts with the ESFA worth almost £200,000 in 2018/19.

And as at September 2018, Prospect’s was a subcontractor for five prime providers with AEB contracts totalling over £1.2 million.

Its apprenticeship provision, both in terms of whether it is meeting all the requirements of successful apprenticeship provision and ensuring apprentices benefit from high-quality training, was also found to be ‘insufficient’.

It boasts on the government’s Find Apprenticeship Training site of working “in partnership with ESFA, colleges and providers to offer apprenticeships”, yet inspectors discovered apprentices, coaches and employers have a poor understanding of off-the-job training requirements, and those who work in care homes have been counting their handover at the end of a shift as off-the-job training.

The Prospect’s spokesperson said they accepted Ofsted’s findings about both its spectator safety course and its apprenticeships, and were working to address them.

The provider made ‘insufficient progress’ in three out of four areas of the monitoring visit, and ‘reasonable progress’ for safeguarding.

Under Education and Skills Funding Agency rules, any provider with an ‘insufficient’ rating in an early monitoring visit Ofsted report will be banned from taking on any new apprentices until the grade improves.

Ofsted missed its inspection target for FE providers by 11 per cent this year – the biggest miss out of all education sectors.

The education watchdog’s corporate annual reports and accounts for 2018/19, published today, shows that it had aimed to carry out 323 inspections in further education but ended up conducting 287.

This is in stark contrast to Ofsted’s performance in 2017/18, when it carried out 485 FE inspections, which was 101 per cent of its target.

Elsewhere, Ofsted achieved 103 per cent of its target inspections for schools this year, 114 per cent for early years, and 114 per cent for “other inspections” such as local authorities.

The new accounts state that providers “opening, merging or closing subsequently can change the number [of inspections] delivered and internal targets are not adjusted for these changes”.

When asked to explain this further, a spokesperson for Ofsted said: “Targets are not set for demand-led activity and we reprioritised resources away from low-risk inspections to complete more demand-led monitoring visits to new apprenticeship providers.”

The watchdog’s falling budget might go some way to explaining its inspection target miss for FE.

Its core funding has decreased from £185 million in 2010–11 to £125 million in 2019–20, which represents a 32 per cent reduction.

Meanwhile, Ofsted’s gross budget, which includes income, has reduced from £201 million in 2010–11 to £150 million in 2019–20 – a net reduction of 25 per cent.

Perhaps owing to the falling budget, chief inspector Amanda Spielman did not receive a bonus for the second year in a row.

The largest bonus payments went to chief operating officer Matthew Coffey and Ofsted’s national director for education Sean Harford, who both received between £15,000 and £20,000 each on top of their salaries.

Eight senior staff got bonuses this year totalling between £70,000 to £110,000, compared to five members last year who picked up a total of between £45,000 to £70,000.

Ofsted has previously come under fire for handing out bonuses – as it has regularly pointed out its funding has been slashed by 30 per cent since 2010. But the watchdog underspent by £1.7 million against its core funding of £130.3 million this year.

The principal of a collapsed college was referred to the police after his assistant principal wife benefited from a sweetheart deal involving pay rises of over a fifth and a £240,000 severance package between them.

That is according to an ESFA report into Bournville College, which dissolved into South & City College in August 2017, despite Bournville receiving a £26.5 million bailout from the agency.

According to the report, based upon an original KPMG report, Anjum Cave, the assistant principal of the college, was promoted to the executive leadership team in 2014, with a 22 per cent pay increase but no change in responsibilities and no explanation for the raise.

Yet no disclosure was made in the minutes of the corporation meeting which approved this that Cave was the wife of principal Norman Cave, who served in that position from 2002 to 2014.

The principal was suspended in November of that year, before retiring with a £190,000 severance package, according to college accounts.

An FE Week report from 2014, following an intervention by then-FE Commissioner David Collins at Bournville, was published while Norman Cave was “on leave” from the college since the commissioner’s visit

Anjum Cave left the college in 2015 and was handed a £50k severance package, despite having only been appointed to the senior leadership team in the same financial year.

Her husband has later referred to West Midlands Police by the Skills Funding Agency, after they received the KPMG report in December 2016.

West Midlands Police decided against pursuing criminal prosecution – they have been contacted for comment.

The college also held an opening event when they moved onto their new campus in October 2011, costing £132,000; yet KPMG could find no evidence the event budget had been approved, or that invoices were reported to the corporation or any committee.

This, the ESFA said, “constitutes a significant breach of the college’s financial regulations”.

As was a centenary celebration held in October 2013, which cost just short of £150,000 despite a £90,000 budget, and for which there was also no evidence the budget or invoices were reported or approved by governors.

ESFA chief executive Eileen Milner has written to the chairs of governors at sixth form and general FE colleges following the report, saying: “The activities that took place during the period covered by the investigation clearly fell significantly short of the expectations for college governance and oversight of expenditure.”

The lengthy investigation report also included a long catalogue of financial irregularities, including credit card expenses in excess of £100,000 and the procurement of large contracts with no formal tender process.

According to the ESFA, the investigation has taken so long to see the light of day because the ESFA was waiting to see if authorities such as West Midlands Police and the Charity Commission would be taking any action.

The agency is undertaking a review of how it shares information with other agencies to see if publication can be sped up.

Norman and Anjum Cave has since set up an education consultancy business called Marque Associates – and FE Week has contacted them for comment.

Overall learner satisfaction with FE providers slightly increased this year, according to new government figures.

The Department for Education released the results of its 2018/19 online student survey this morning, which showed 82 per cent of all learners would recommend their training provider and college to friends or family.

Private training providers scored 88.2 out of 100 for their overall satisfaction rating, compared with 81 for general FE colleges.

Overall satisfaction with all FE providers increased compared to last year, from 86.2 per cent in 2017/18 to 86.5 per cent.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton said: “It’s great to see that 82% of all learners would recommend their training provider to friends or family.

“Further education providers play a vital role making sure people of all ages and backgrounds can gain the skills they need to go on to have successful careers.

“We will continue to work with providers to make sure more people receive the best education and training possible and standards remain high.”

The survey had 345,174, representing 19 per cent of the eligible population of 1,735,478.

 

The government has finally revealed details of the first phase of the national retraining scheme, with the launch of a new digital service that will act as a course and job directory.

Initially heavily restricted to only include people from the Liverpool City Region, adults will be invited to test the system if they are aged 24 or over, do not hold a degree and earn “low and medium wages”.

A private beta website, called Get Help to Retrain – similar to Hotcourses – has gone live today and will aim to help eligible adults identify their existing skills before signposting them with local English and maths functional skills courses and job opportunities.

This is big and complex challenge, which is why we are starting small

Once the trial and service has been fully evaluated, it will be scaled up and rolled out nationally by early 2020.

It is the first real detail of the long-awaited scheme, which was first promised in June 2017 as a manifesto commitment and has been backed with an initial £100 million by the Treasury.

But the government is still unable to say what it will look like at steady state – with education secretary Damian Hinds today admitting the Department for Education will be “learning as we go”.

A DfE spokesperson said Get Help to Retrain is the first of a “series of products” that are being developed and tested in parallel, before being released at different times to make up the full national retraining scheme.

Skills minister Anne Milton spoke to FE Week ahead of Get Help to Retrain’s launch, and said the department is “starting in a very small way because the most important thing is to build up user feedback as we go”.

“What we need to do is get something up, find out how useful people find it and find out what more they want,” she added.

The DfE said it has worked closely with Liverpool City Region to devise a list of eligible colleges and other training providers who will participate in the Get help to Retrain trial.

Initially, users will be “signposted to functional skills courses”, funded by the adult education budget, and “delivered by these providers through National Career Service advisors”.

The aim is to integrate the National Careers Service course directory into the service in the future.

To identify existing abilities of adults, Get Help to Retrain will “contain high quality job profiles that help people understand their skills from the jobs they currently do and identify related potential new jobs they could move into”.

When the complete national retraining scheme is in place, the DfE expects it to offer a mix of functional skills provision, online learning, tailored advice and guidance, and on-the-job technical retraining “similar to the delivery approach of the apprenticeship programme”.

The service will “support people from the moment they decide to consider retraining, until the moment they have secured a better job”.

Milton told FE Week that users will stay in their existing job while they retrain, and the new digital service trial will find out what flexibilities are needed to ensure this is practical.

“It is exactly that sort of issue that we need to find out more about,” she said.

“Anybody who is retraining is probably going to have to do it alongside their existing job. So, how do we make sure that is training that people can fit around busy lives? They might be a single parent, have child care responsibilities or looking after an elderly adult.”

She continued: “You can’t just offer online training. There needs to be more than that but at times that people can do it. Maybe online with some mentoring support, maybe online with some ed-tech support, but that is exactly why we’re launching this in a very small way.

“What we need to find out in these early stages are the flexibilities that providers and adults need.”

Hinds said the scheme will be “pivotal in helping adults across the country whose jobs are at risk of changing to gain new skills and get on the path to a new, more rewarding career”.

The scheme is led and overseen by the National Retraining Partnership – which includes government, the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress.

Iain Murray, senior policy offer at the TUC, told the education select committee in January that the scheme could cost “billions” to run when it is at steady state.

More than half the providers of two care worker apprenticeship standards are decreasing their starts, or pulling the programmes altogether, due to the government’s refusal to increase their funding.

That’s according to a new Association of Employment and Learning Providers survey, which says providers of the level 2 adult care worker and level 3 lead adult care worker standards believe the £3,000 funding bands render both of them “totally unviable”.

Many other providers said they are being forced to introduce “cost efficiencies” such as fewer in-person monitoring visits, increasing ratios of tutor to learner or charging employers more.

“The government has got to sort this out now,” said AELP chief executive Mark Dawe.

He warned the problems with the apprenticeships were part of a “full-blown crisis” in the care sector, which is going to get “even worse”.

This is after the All-Party Parliamentary Group on social care reported this week as many as 500,000 unqualified people could be passing themselves off as trained care workers, putting millions of senior citizens at risk.

The AELP wants Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) to immediately review the funding bands for the two standards, with a view to increasing the level 2 band to £4,500 and the level 3 one to £5,400, based on the average responses to the survey.

In May, a review by the institute kept the bands for the two standards at £3,000, despite calls for it to be doubled.

This caused a significant provider of the two, Professional Training Solutions, to stop recruiting apprentices to the programme, as previously revealed by FE Week.

The provider’s managing director Jackie Denyer said she was working at a 9 per cent loss upon achievement, and a 30 per cent loss if an apprentice did not achieve, at the current funding band.

Officials were accused of undervaluing the care sector, with Jill Whittaker, the managing director of HIT Training, branding the decision a “disgrace”.

IfATE said it is “fully committed to supporting apprenticeships at all levels and across all industry routes”.

“The aim with all standards that go through the funding review process is to ensure the funding band we recommend provides for quality apprenticeship training and assessment,” a spokesperson added.

“Each standard is considered on its own merits following the same rigorous processes. This was the case with the care standards.”

FE Week has asked the institute if it is now looking to increase the care standard funding rates following sector criticism.

A total of 99 per cent of the 137 providers who answered the AELP’s question on whether the £3,000 funding band was sufficient believe it is not sufficient for the level 3 standard, while 96 per cent believe the same for the level 2 standard.

A total of 59 per cent of respondents reported they are either reducing the number of apprentices they train, or are withdrawing the programme from their provision.

One respondent said it “cannot deliver a quality product at this cost” and the standard of training will slip if providers cut corners, which will impact upon the welfare of the care industry.

Another problem is the lack of suitable alternative programmes: while there are some relevant diploma courses which are well-regarded, the funding for them is very limited and the courses do not always provide the work-readiness employers are looking for.

Respondents to the AELP survey are currently training over 20,000 level 2 and around 17,000 level 3 care workers.

The AELP said in stark contrast to the current funding rate for care standards, the IfATE has approved a funding band of £5,000 for a level 2 animal care and welfare assistant apprenticeship programme.

“Without wishing to sound facetious, properly caring for Tiddles for some reason attracts 66 per cent more funding for an apprenticeship than training a person to care for the elderly members of our community,” Dawe said.

“I can’t imagine that the policymakers would want their own family members to be at risk, so let’s get our priorities right.”