College to stay open as usual during ‘mammoth’ 15-day strike

Nottingham College has said it will be open as usual during 15-days of strike action by the University and College Union, including two full weeks of industrial action.

College staff will be on picket lines from Wednesday 11 September to Friday 11 October after members voted to stage a one-day walkout which will escalate to strikes of two, three, four and five days in subsequent weeks.

The action has come about because of a dispute centring on a move by the college, the UCU says, to impose new contracts which leave over 80 staff more than £1,000 a year worse off, and remove protections for staff against work overload.

UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, said: “UCU members at Nottingham College are rightly furious at the college’s attempts to force staff into these damaging new contracts.

“These changes increase the risk that staff will burn out or simply leave the college, impacting on the student experience.

“Strike action is always a last resort, but staff are sending a clear message that they will not tolerate this attack on their pay and conditions and the college’s uncompromising approach has only hardened their resolve.”

She said that following Sajid Javid’s announcement of a £400 million funding boost for colleges last week, “the college cannot use funding as an excuse for refusing to address members’ concerns”, after staff have not received a raise since 2010.

But despite this action, a Nottingham College spokesperson said the college will be open as usual through any industrial action: “Everybody in the college cares passionately about providing our students with the best possible education, training and personal development and the last thing anybody wants is a strike.

“We have already reached collective agreement with UNISON and NEU and we remain in discussion with UCU in the hope that we can resolve remaining issues and reach an agreement.”

The full strike dates are:

  • This week: Wednesday 11 September
  • Week 2: Thursday 19 and Friday 20 September
  • Week 3: Monday 23, Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 September
  • Week 4: Monday 30 September, Tuesday 1, Thursday 3, and Friday 4 October
  • Week 5: Monday 7, Tuesday 8, Wednesday 9, Thursday 10 and Friday 11 October

New education secretary commits to Stourbridge College sell-off meeting

The education secretary has committed to meeting with principals around Stourbridge to discuss how further education can continue in the area – after its only general FE college was sold off.

Cash-strapped Birmingham Metropolitan College controversially announced in May that it would sell off and close Stourbridge College in a desperate bid to ease a financial situation which threatens its solvency.

Margot James, the MP for Stourbridge, has since been battling to find a way of offering skills provision and adult education in her constituency.

Just three days ago she tweeted to say she had met education unions about the future of the Hagley Road site that housed Stourbridge College, and was “pleased” to say there is “positive progress towards continued education provision on the site in the future”.

She took the matter to the Houses of Commons today to ask for the secretary of state’s help with the issue during his first appearance at education questions.

“Following the deeply regrettable closure of Stourbridge College earlier this summer, can I ask my right honourable friend whether he would consider meeting the principals of all the Dudley Colleges – Dudley College, Halesowen College and King Edwards – with a view to discussing their wish to continue to provide vocational skills training, particularly adult education, in my constituency of Stourbridge?” she asked.

Gavin Williamson said he would be “very happy to meet with my honourable friend to discuss this in detail with those stakeholders”.

Stourbridge College’s 900 learners have been transferred to Dudley College of Technology and Halesowen College since BMet announced the closure decision.

Many have, however, been left frustrated with extra travel time and costs.

James, who was the minister for digital and the creative industries until July’s reshuffle, believes Stourbridge College was “let down by the failures of management and leadership at BMet”, which is now on the “brink of insolvency”.

READ MORE: Minister and local MP in ‘shock’ at ‘tragic’ decision to close Stourbridge College

She wrote to the National Audit Office’s comptroller and auditor general Gareth Davies last month asking him to investigate how this situation unfolded.

James told Davies how under BMet’s stewardship, the college “got into difficulties” and has had to obtain multi-million pound loans and bailouts to survive, while Ofsted has rated it ‘requires improvement’ three times in a row.

Davies used his response to reveal that the UK’s public spending watchdog is preparing to launch a value for money review on the management of colleges’ financial sustainability.

He added that in the meantime, he has asked his education team to “engage with the Education and Skills Funding Agency in order to establish in more detail the facts of this particular case”.

Principal no-shows TUC fringe event panel but claims UCU pressure unconnected

A college principal embroiled in a bitter dispute with unions has denied withdrawing from a Trades Union Congress event panel after University and College Union leaders spotted his name on the agenda this weekend.

Paul Di Felice, whose college Ruskin College, claims to train up to 2,500 trade union officers each year, was due to speak at a fringe event at the TUC’s annual congress called ‘Trade Union Education – A New Start’ today.

However, his booking sparked outrage from leading members of the UCU, with former general secretary candidate Jo McNeill tweeting it was “unbelievable”.

UCU national executive member Sean Vernell tweeted: “You can’t make this up.”

Vernell alleged Di Felice “targeted” and “sacked” UCU representatives, after union branch officer and Ruskin lecturer Lee Humber was allegedly suspended then sacked for circulating information about a motion of no confidence in Di Felice, which passed days before Humber was suspended.

Ten union leaders wrote to the college in July to protest against the “victimisation” of trade union officers at the college, including Humber and three other union representatives who had been allegedly placed under disciplinary investigation; but Ruskin insisted it had not targeted staff for their union activity.

The college, which was also looking to make redundancies at the time after it needed a recovery plan in 2017 to address “severe solvency issues”, instead said any disciplinary investigations were unconnected with their subjects’ trade unionism.

After Di Felice had withdrawn, Ruskin College UCU said via Twitter it was “delighted to confirm” his action was “due to pressure”, and thanked people for their solidarity.

However, Ruskin Ccollege has denied these protests were the reason Di Felice pulled out, instead citing “very pressing family matters”.

A spokesperson said: “The college categorically denies the implication the principal has withdrawn under pressure from UCU as this is simply untrue.

“This is part of a campaign from a few members of former staff from Ruskin College aimed at misrepresenting and undermining the college, its students and current staff.”

Di Felice had been due to speak on new initiatives being implemented by Ruskin College aimed at developing trade union education and training.

This included a new trade union apprenticeship standard for trade union officers.

A spokesperson for the UCU said: “UCU has been in dispute with Ruskin since April over its victimisation of trade union reps and we believe the best place to now resolve this dispute is through ACAS.”

Adult education slumps to lowest since major survey began more than 20 years ago

The government has been told to “wakeup” after research by the Learning and Work Institute found adult participation in education has fallen to a record low.

The news comes after adult education was snubbed in the Chancellor’s Spending Review, which handed £400 million to students aged 16 to 19 – but nothing to older learners.

Learning and Work Institute’s adult participation in learning survey has been tracking the number of adults taking part in education or training in the UK since 1996.

Its report for 2018 reveals just 35 per cent of adults say they have participated in learning during the previous three years, the lowest figure on record.

This is two percentage points lower than the 2017 survey, which reported the previous lowest participation rate, and six percentage points lower than the survey before that in 2015.

Last year a report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies found that funding for adult education has been cut by 45 per cent since 2009-10.

The institute’s chief executive Stephen Evans said: “Lifelong learning has never been more important. So, it should be a real cause for concern that participation has fallen to a record low, leaving the UK at risk of falling behind other countries.

“This survey should serve as a wakeup call, encouraging us to redouble our efforts to make lifelong learning accessible for all, and to invest in adult education.”

The survey showed the biggest regional gap in participation on record, with participation as low as 29 per cent in the south west, and 30 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber and Northern Ireland.

To read Evans’ exclusive op-ed for FE Week on this survey, click here.

Its findings are based on a survey of 5,314 adults aged 17 and over across the UK, with fieldwork conducted in November and December 2018.

Sue Pember, former director of FE at the department for education and now policy director of adult education network HOLEX, said the study demonstrates the government needs to establish a lifelong learning strategy, “which kick starts a refreshed understanding that we all need enhanced skills if we are to thrive both economically and personally in this new technology-led world.

“It is time to change, government has found more funding for young people, it now needs to turn its mind to adults and overturn the 2011 austerity measures by investing in community-based education for those one in five adults with poor basic skills, those who need to retrain because their jobs are at threat and those whose lives, wellbeing and productivity could be improved through learning something new.”

The Commons Education Select Committee is currently undertaking an inquiry into adult education and lifelong learning, which is exploring the level of support available to learners.

Chair Robert Halfon launched the inquiry by calling for every town to have its own adult community learning centre and for there to be tax incentives for employers who invest in training their staff.

The survey also carries some recommendations for the National Retraining Scheme, which is due to begin rolling out next year; the survey was part-funded by the DfE to inform the scheme’s development.

Recommendations include helping people recognise the need to develop skills, helping those with no job security or progression opportunities consider retraining for roles in different industries, and ensuring information about the opportunities available through the scheme are widely promoted and accessible to all, offline and online.

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.

Wake up call to reverse cuts in lifelong learning

For more than twenty years Learning and Work Institute has been surveying adults to ask if they are taking part in learning. Never has the figure been lower. Just 35% of adults are taking part in learning or have recently done so. Given that our definition of learning is a deliberately broad one – not limited, for example, to those undertaking qualifications – the decline is troubling. In the absence of any announcements about adult education in this week’s spending review, the results take on new urgency.

Our survey shows stark and growing inequalities in participation in learning by socioeconomic group and region. People in the highest socioeconomic groups are two and a half times more likely to be in learning than those in the lowest, a gap that has grown in the last year. The gap in participation in learning between the nations and regions of the UK too has never been larger. This means the falls in participation in learning have been greatest where participation was lowest to begin with, reinforcing inequalities and limiting people’s opportunities to progress.

While the figures are shocking, they are unlikely to be a huge surprise to many of us, given the scale of cuts to adult education over the last decade. Indeed we published a report earlier this year showing progress has stalled over the last decade in improving skills, meaning the UK is on track to slip even further down the international league tables by 2030. Forget title-winning performance. This is more like a relegation zone battle.

These findings should serve as a wake-up call. Lifelong learning can help to boost our stalled productivity, and in turn help increase wages and the money available for public services. It can help people find work and progress in their careers. It can help build cohesive communities and benefit people’s health and wellbeing. Lifelong learning is not the answer to everything, but it needs to be part of the answer to most things.

That connection and value is only going to grow. Lengthening life expectancy means 50-year careers will be the norm. Rapid advances in technology will transform our labour market in the coming years, and Brexit will have an effect too. Put all this together and you have an increased need for people to update their skills and participate in learning throughout their lives.

The good news is there’s increasing recognition of the need to do better on lifelong learning. A growing number of commissions is looking into it, business groups are making the case, and the main political parties are all saying the right things.

The bad news is that action doesn’t yet match the rhetoric. I was pleased to see the Chancellor announce an extra £400m for young people in Further Education. This was a vital first step and the first meaningful investment in Further Education in a decade, but it simply isn’t enough.

Ongoing political uncertainty means we don’t know when there’ll be a longer-term Spending Review. But the need for a clear strategy for lifelong learning and long-term funding grows more urgent by the day. We’ve shown how an extra £1.9bn per year could, over a decade, reverse our falling international position and deliver a £20bn annual boost to the economy.

How we invest is as important as how much we invest. Our survey shows that once people are in learning, they are far more likely to come back to learning in the future. Learning is addictive, but we have to get people through the door in the first place. Things like Festival of Learning’s Have a Go Month, taking place now, can help engage and inspire adults to take that vital first step.

Adults told us that the biggest barriers to learning were time pressures – how to fit learning around life and work. Respondents said they’d be more likely to consider learning if they could learn at home or at times that suited them, or if learning was cheaper. So, yes we need to invest more, but we also need to inspire people to want to learn, and help them to fit learning into their busy lives.

The Chancellor has said austerity is over, but for prosperity to be the order of the day, lifelong learning must be a top priority for any new government. Only then will we see sustained improvement, not only in productivity, but in social justice.

Early win for DfE’s £5m apprenticeship marketing campaign

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ESFA to demand actual off-the-job training hour data for every apprentice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ofsted watch: Ex-pro footballer’s provider scores highly in positive week for providers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

Large employers lose access to £96 million of apprenticeship funding in just two months

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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