Latest news from FE Week

A college is battling Ofsted to prevent the publication of a grade four report after inspectors claimed to have found serious safeguarding failures.

Shrewsbury Colleges Group, which teaches more than 9,000 students mostly aged 16 to 18, is set to receive an ‘inadequate’ rating following an inspection in November.

But the college has insisted the judgement is “wrong”, with the principal declaring that he has “never experienced anything like this inspection” in 27 years in education.

“I can’t stress enough how important it is that all institutions are safe places to study”

The college has denied safeguarding was “ineffective” and claimed the “judgement was changed on the final day of the inspection without adequate explanation” after Ofsted ran out of time to check evidence.

Shrewsbury is a national hotspot for county lines (see below) but the college told FE Week “there was no line of inquiry regarding county lines”.

It did admit, however, that West Mercia Police were called to an incident during the inspection, after a suspended student tried to regain entry to college.

A spokesperson claimed the force “have reassured us, in the light of enquiries by this Ofsted inspection team, that they consider our college campuses to be safe”.

Shrewsbury Colleges Group advertises itself as Shropshire’s largest provider of post-16 education – which teaches 70 per cent of all 16 to 18 students in the county.

Ofsted is currently set to report that students and staff do not feel safe and the college had not taken sufficient steps to help ensure their safety.

Inspectors also allegedly found that staff required to carry out site security roles have not received adequate training and necessary risk assessments to ensure effective safeguarding covering the college estate were not in place.

The college denies these accusations and has lodged an official complaint.

Principal James Staniforth claimed the inspection team did not provide any evidence related to students not feeling safe. He said the college provided the inspection team with policies and actions taken to ensure the safety of students as well as detailed records of staff training.

Staniforth added: “It appears that the inspection team confused the college estates team with the site duty team and safeguarding team, and mistakenly concluded that the estates team were solely responsible for activities that are actually managed by the site duty and safeguarding teams.”

He also said the college has a statutory Prevent Risk Assessment, one of the items inspectors allegedly failed to inspect “as a consequence of running out of time”.

It was claimed the safeguarding system, annual safeguarding reports, site security policies, fire logs and assessments and other health and safety records were also not reviewed and the inspectorate did not discuss their concerns with the college safeguarding teams.

Staniforth continued: “Nor did the team have the time to consider the views of outside agencies. West Mercia Police have confirmed that they have ‘no concerns’ regarding any of the college’s three campuses. 

“As a college principal, teaching professional and parent I can’t stress enough how important it is that all institutions are safe places to study. We would not be contesting the judgement if any part of the colleges were unsafe.”

The college said that some fire call points were disabled during the inspection “in order to stop further false alarms” after a fault and a student caused two separate false alarms.

A spokesperson said: “Staff were asked to stand by those call points and monitor them – which meant there was in fact a greater level of safety than our normal high threshold.”

Shrewsbury Colleges Group is based on three campuses with a turnover of £23 million.

“We respect Ofsted’s work and mission but this particular judgement is wrong”

Staniforth insisted the college’s campuses are “safe places to study” and that Shrewsbury Colleges Group is “confident that our excellent staff have the right safeguarding processes and procedures in place”.

He added: “We respect Ofsted’s work and mission but this particular judgement is wrong.

“In 27 years in working in education and having been through seven Ofsted inspections, I have never experienced anything like this inspection.”

College chair Gordon Channon added: “We have a rich body of evidence to demonstrate that the safety and care of students in our colleges is of the upmost importance.

“We look forward to Ofsted having another chance to review that evidence. We very much hope that common sense prevails.”

Shrewsbury Sixth Form College and Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology merged to become Shrewsbury Colleges Group in August 2016.

Both FE providers were rated ‘good’ in their final inspections before the merger. 

The group’s first inspection took place between November 26 and November 29 2019.

If the draft report is published, it would be the first general FE college to receive a grade four in nearly two years.

 

Shrewsbury: a national hotspot for county lines

Shrewsbury appears to be a hot-bed for drug trafficking. County lines have been documented between the Shropshire town and cities including Birmingham, Liverpool and London. Jailed drug dealers and organised gangs have been caught with heroin and crack cocaine.

According to the National Crime Agency, ‘county lines’ is a term used “when drug gangs from big cities expand their operations to smaller towns, often using violence to drive out local dealers and exploiting children and vulnerable people to sell drugs”.

Young people can be used as drug runners or to move cash in order for dealers to try and avoid detection.

On Monday, the Shropshire Star reported that Shropshire’s Head of Local Policing Chief Superintendent Tom Harding said: “The criminal exploitation of vulnerable people, which includes county lines, has been a priority for West Mercia Police for a long time.

“Work is constantly on-going 24/7 365 days a year with our partner agencies to protect and safeguard those who may be vulnerable to being targeted by county line drug dealers.”

The next day it was reported by The Times that the prime minister will oversee a new Cabinet committee with a focus on county lines gangs. Boris Johnson also told the BBC he wants “to see the county lines drugs gangs wound up”, signalling the importance being placed on their eradication.

Last week academics warned that academic institutions are increasingly being targeted by county lines drug networks as a possible market for class A drugs, according to the Guardian.

In October 2019, the home secretary Priti Patel announced the government would spend £20 million on a new package of measures to tackle county lines drug trafficking.

County lines are now being picked up by Ofsted as a safeguarding issue.

They were mentioned in an Ofsted report of a primary school (St Oswald’s CofE Aided Primary School), which took place in the same month as Shrewsbury Colleges Group’s inspection, with the education watchdog asking leaders to “devise ways to check that all adults are confident to explain their duties with regards to county lines”.

The top ten highest college salaries have dropped by an average of more than £50,000 after six of the principals left, an FE Week investigation has found.

The single biggest cut totalled £136,000 – from £294,000 to £158,000 – after a change in leadership at North Hertfordshire College.

Of the four colleges where the principal or chief executive remained unchanged, two bosses increased their salary, one reduced but has since retired and the fourth declined to comment.

After being shown the findings, Association of Colleges (AoC) chief executive David Hughes said the Department for Education has “sent a clear message to college governing bodies that decisions on senior staff pay needs to be evidence-based, proportionate and [offer] value for money”.

“I know that governing bodies have heard the message, and I’m confident that the top job in a college remains an attractive and rewarding one,” he added.

FE Week carried out the analysis by looking at the ten highest paid college leaders in the latest available Department for Education accounts spreadsheet (2017/18), and then asking each college for their 2018/19 or current pay.

If there were multiple principals in one year, we have used the most relevant salary in a single year for either the former or new highest paid leader (see table).

The average for the top ten in 2017/18 has fallen from £255,000 to £202,000 – a 21 per cent drop (though this calculation assumes that the salary for the college that refused to comment remained the same).

When looking at the national picture of principal salaries, the average in 2017/18 sat at just £136,000 for 257 colleges in England, according to the latest available data published by the DfE.

The figures are in stark contrast to university vice-chancellor pay. They averaged take-home pay of more than £250,000 each in the same year.

Of the ten highest basic salaries paid to university bosses in 2017/18, the average was £395,000.

And the average for the ten highest paid chief executives in multi-academy trusts in that year was £270,000.

The majority of the colleges in FE Week’s analysis which reduced their leaders’ salary did so after changing their top boss.

Five of them have either been handed a financial notice of concern or been placed in FE Commissioner intervention in recent years.

The largest fall was seen at North Hertfordshire College. Over the course of 2017/18 it had two principals after Matt Hamnett resigned mid-way through the academic year.

His salary reached £294,000 in 2016/17, and their new permanent boss, Kit Davies, earned £158,000 in 2018/19. Davies was on a basic salary of £140,000 plus a payment of £17,958 towards the removal of a long-term incentive plan associated with a previous role.

Cash-strapped Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet) had the second biggest difference. Its principal in 2017/18, Andrew Cleaves, was paid £266,000, but new boss Cliff Hall takes home £160,000.

“The job of running a college has become incredibly difficult”

A spokesperson for BMet said the college “undertook a benchmarking exercise prior to the current principal’s appointment”, because both the board and the incoming principal were “keen to ensure that the new chief executive’s salary was in line with sector norms”.

They added that “it was an important signal to the staff of the college.”

A similar situation occurred at West Nottinghamshire College (WNC). Its previous principal, Dame Asha Khemka, earned £257,000 in 2017/18 before resigning at the start of 2018/19.

The new permanent principal is Andrew Cropley, who has a salary of £140,000.

A spokesperson for WNC said: “In recognition of the fact that the college’s turnover has reduced from £51 million to £31 million, the new board of governors, formed in late 2018, made the decision to align the principal’s remuneration in-line with sector benchmarks for a college of this size.”

Meanwhile, Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College paid its new boss, Karen Redhead, £200,000 in 2018/19. Former principal Garry Phillips earned £279,000 the year previous.

NCG, one of the largest college groups in the country, has also seen its chief executive leave in recent years to be replaced by someone on a lower wage.

Joe Docherty was paid £227,000 in 2017/18 before quitting in October 2018. An interim boss was in place for the remainder of that academic year, and Liz Bromley has since become the permanent chief executive on £210,000 a year.

And Capital City College Group has reduced its top leader’s salary from £210,000 to £195,000.

The highest paid principal in England in 2017/18 was Judith Doyle at Gateshead College, who retired with immediate effect on December 31 following the launch of an independent investigation into an unexplained £6 million deficit.

She was paid £344,000 in that year, a sum which took into account an “accrual for a remuneration scheme payable in respect of a three-year period”. In 2018/19, Doyle took home £255,000.

The two colleges to see their highest paid officer’s salary increase were Leeds City College (now known as the Luminate Education Group) and Burton and South Derbyshire College. Both of their leaders, Colin Booth and Dawn Ward, respectively, have been in post for a number of years.

While the DfE has clamped down on chief executive pay in multi-academy trusts and vice-chancellor wages in universities, including writing to demand a justification of salaries of over £150,000, no such action has been taken against colleges.

The AoC’s David Hughes said: “The job of running a college has become incredibly difficult – partly because of the complex and unpredictable systems that DfE itself oversees.”

The AoC developed its own pay code in 2018. It includes guidance such as not allowing seniors to get a pay rise unless all staff do, and ensuring that the top boss cannot be involved in deciding their own pay.

Whilst principals’ pay hasn’t hit the heights of vice-chancellors’, college bosses still come in for criticism for their top salaries, especially when teaching staff are refused pay rises.

In 2016/17 the University and College Union (UCU) lambasted principals as “greedy and hopelessly out of touch”, and in recent years have held numerous substantial strikes across the country.

After being shown FE Week’s analysis, UCU head of further education Andrew Harden said: “Staff have been told time and again that there is no money for pay, but the same restraint has not always been applied to those at the top.

“It is time for colleges to make good their commitment to spend extra funds on dealing with the pay crisis in our colleges and working to close the gap between college and school teachers.”

Skills advisory panels (SAPs) could be given a role in influencing which courses will be prioritised and funded in their area.

Little is known about the 36 SAPs, but FE Week understands that the government is working on secondary legislation, an FE Bill, which would change that.

The panels were heralded in the Conservatives’ 2017 manifesto as a means of “dealing with local skills shortages and to ensure that colleges deliver the skills required by local businesses”.

They have so far been given £2.7 million, £75,000 each, to undertake labour market analysis.

Typically SAPs have been established within mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) or local enterprise partnerships (LEPs).

The FE Bill could mean colleges and providers lose ultimate power over deciding which courses are run, with SAPs providing critical advice to national and local government over the sectors prioritised in their region.

SAPs could, for example, advise that the government prioritise funding for classroom and apprenticeship engineering courses at the expense of courses in media and the arts.

And should such a move take place, it would be welcomed by the representative body the LEP Network, which said that, based on the data that has been produced by SAPS, connecting them to apprenticeships is “smart thinking and a natural development of exploiting LMI to help focus on areas of employer need – and that can only be a benefit to local communities”.

The Department for Education has insisted that while SAPs have a “vital role in helping raise the profile of apprenticeships with local employers and providers” and an unofficial role in informing provision locally, “there are no plans to involve SAPs in the apprenticeship standards process in the future”.

Industrial strategy: “SAPs will have real, meaningful influence over the provision of education and training for those over the age of 16”

SAPs were the brainchild of Theresa May’s government and featured in its 2017 industrial strategy, which told of how SAPs would produce “rigorous” analysis of the current and future supply and demand for skills, and help areas “form a clearer understanding of their skills requirements”.

This could then be used by colleges, universities and other providers to help fill employers’ skills needs.

The analysis is also intended to help direct investment in preparation for local providers to roll out T-levels, and by careers advisory facilities such as the National Careers Service and the Careers Enterprise Company to inform their local activities.

The strategy envisaged SAPs would have “real, meaningful” influence over the provision of education and training for those over the age of 16, and they would work with MCAs and LEPs to establish the best way of ensuring that influence is effective.

Intended to be made up of between 15 and 20 members from providers, employers and local authorities, the SAPs were structured around 15 technical routes identified in the government’s 2016 Skills Plan, which includes such areas as construction, digital and social care.

Mayoral combined authorities have broadly tacked to the government’s recommended approach to SAPs: a group featuring leading local politicians and representatives from business and education running LMI and analysis to inform careers education and skills strategies.

The Department for Education announced in 2018 that each of the 36 SAPs would receive £75,000 to help them analyse their current and future skill needs – £2.7 million was given out overall.

The money, which was handed out in April 2019, had to be spent by March this year and was to be used to hire additional analysts, train up existing analysts and undertake more analysis to establish employers’ needs.

Most MCAs that FE Week spoke to had used the money for these purposes.

Yet there has been criticism of SAPs’ role and their output: the data supposed to power their deliberations would be “weak” or even nonexistent, Professor Ewart Keep from the Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance wrote for FE Week that same year.

This is evidenced by colleges’ “sporadic” use of LMI, as reported by labour market analysts Emsi. Their director of further education John Gray said some providers regard the data as merely a “tick-box exercise” to please Ofsted.

SAPs were also given no financial levers to affect change in provision locally, Keep said, leaving their ability to make fundamental changes in provision “probably close to nil”.

And although SAPs were given pride of place during May’s leadership of the Conservative government, little to no mention was made of SAPs in the party’s 2019 manifesto and little else has been said about them while Boris Johnson has been prime minister, until now.

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How have skills advisory panels worked across the country?

Tees Valley Combined Authority

This SAP, the Education, Employment and Skills Partnership Board, has a bumper membership of 23 people; featuring representatives from FE colleges, schools, independent providers, local politicians, departments like BEIS, DfE and DWP, the voluntary sector and employer representative organisations, who meet quarterly.

This SAP has been developing analysis which has helped shape the investment in programmes such as Routes to Work, careers education, and apprenticeships.

In the future, the authority says it will be carrying out further analysis to define current and future skills requirements.

West Midlands Combined Authority

The WMCA’s SAP, the Skills Board, is a 16-strong body which meets twice a year and is chaired by the authority’s portfolio holder for skills.

It also includes representatives from LEPs, an Association of Employment and Learning Providers representative, and a trade union representative.

It is looking at using the £75,000 to examine a range of learner journeys to identify critical success factors and the courses that lead to good outcomes.

The SAP believes this would help improve learner journeys within and between providers.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority

Thirteen members make up this SAP, known locally as the Employment and Skills Board, including business representatives, an independent training provider, a higher education representative and two from the FE sector.

It is intended they will meet bi-monthly after they held their first meeting in December. 

They have used the funding to draw on expertise from Cambridgeshire County Council’s data analysis team and have already done some analysis of skills supply and demand.

They have kept £20,000 of the £75,000 back to access an LMI tool and run a business engagement survey.

Greater London Authority

The GLA’s SAP is the Skills for Londoners Board, which has 16 members led by the deputy mayor for skills and featuring representatives from the city’s boroughs, sector organisations such as the Association of Colleges, and the world of business.

The board, which meets quarterly, spent their £75,000 on hiring economists and a data analyst, who has been developing the skills and development sections of the GLA’s local industrial strategy, which is due out early this year.

Click below for a full list of SAPs.

 

A college in financial trouble and the education secretary’s old sixth form are among a host of positive Ofsted results for FE providers.

The week was somewhat overshadowed, however, after independent provider EQV (UK) was handed a grade four because apprentices and their bosses did not know they were on an apprenticeship programme.

Brooklands College will find solace in maintaining its grade two after plunging into financial difficulties as the government demanded it return £20 million following a subcontracting scandal.

Inspectors have reported that the current leaders and governors “now have a realistic grasp of the college’s financial position”.

Staff encourage and guide the nearly 2,500 learners towards high aspirations; such as engineering students pursuing a career in motor racing.

Also keeping hold of its grade two is Scarborough Sixth Form College, where education secretary Gavin Williamson completed his A-levels.

A high proportion of the college’s 950 learners achieve high grades, thanks to effective and helpful teaching, through which learners develop knowledge and skills well.

Independent provider Group Horizon had a promising week, scoring a grade two from its first full inspection of its provision to 45 apprentices and 111 adults.

By working effectively with organisations like the combined authority and employers, Group Horizon design programmes that support apprentices and learners to develop skills to meet regional needs.

Salford City College, Locomotivation Ltd, Long Road Sixth Form College and Fairfield Farm College also maintained a grade two this week.

After receiving a grade three in November 2018, FE college Colchester Institute has regained some standing by making ‘significant progress’ in two areas of a follow-up monitoring visit.

Its governors come in for particular praise, with inspectors writing they and leaders, “responded swiftly and effectively to the findings from the previous inspection” and effective structures have improved the quality of education for its over 5,000 learners.

Phoenix Training Services (Midlands), meanwhile, has made ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas of a monitoring visit after receiving a grade three last February.

Following that full inspection, Phoenix was bought by recruitment firm Challenge-trg and was successful in bidding for a slice of the West Midlands Combined Authority’s £125.6 million adult education budget.

But inspectors have found its 39 adult learners are on programmes not designed to meet their needs and “the curriculum remains too narrow and focused exclusively on achieving the vocational or employability short qualification,” which make up most of the provision.

Employer provider Veolia Environment Development Centre, a branch of waste management company Veolia UK, slipped to ‘requires improvement’ after a grade two inspection two years ago.

It was found that the curriculum is not “consistently challenging” for all 187 apprentices and they are not well prepared enough for their end-point assessment.

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust has been hit with a grade three in every area of its full inspection, but inspectors wrote “leaders and managers have made effective improvements to governance and strategic management” since making ‘insufficient progress’ in a monitoring visit.

The independent provider’s 129 apprentices have the opportunity to learn new skills from “highly experienced and professional” ward staff and managers.

Aspect Training, for not making “sufficient progress in improving the quality of education” since a grade three inspection, was declared to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas.

But the independent provider has introduced a “useful” learner monitoring system being used effectively to spot any learners falling behind.

Complete Training and Assessment, with its 73 apprentices, was marked as making ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas of an early monitoring visit because its leaders and managers of the independent provider did not ensure the principles of an apprenticeship are met.

They have not prepared adequately, in the inspectors’ eyes, for the transition to standards from frameworks, which are due to be switched off this year.

Bishop Auckland College, Bespoke Consultancy and Education Limited, New London Educational Trust, Paragon Training Academy, Highfields Community Association and Newfriars College all made reasonable progress in every area of monitoring visits.

GFE Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Bishop Auckland College	18/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	3
Brooklands College	10/12/2019	16/01/2020	2	2
Colchester Institute	11/12/2019	17/01/2020	M	3
Salford City College	04/12/2019	16/01/2020	2	2

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Aspect Training Limited	18/12/2019	13/01/2020	M	3
Bespoke Consultancy and Education Limited	19/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	N/A
Complete Training & Assessment Limited	12/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	N/A
EQV (UK) Ltd	10/12/2019	16/01/2020	4	M
Group Horizon Limited	10/12/2019	15/01/2020	2	M
Locomotivation Ltd	10/12/2019	13/01/2020	2	2
New London Educational Trust	05/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	3
Paragon Training Academy	06/12/2019	15/01/2020	M	N/A
Phoenix Training Services (Midlands) Limited	17/12/2019	16/01/2020	M	3
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust	17/12/2019	15/01/2020	3	M
Veolia Environment Development Centre Limited	13/12/2019	15/01/2020	3	2
Highfields Community Association	11/12/2019	14/01/2020	M	M

 

Sixth Form Colleges (inc 16-19 academies)	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Long Road Sixth Form College	12/12/2020	14/01/2020	2	2
Scarborough Sixth Form College	06/12/2019	15/01/2020	2	2

 

Specialist colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Fairfield Farm College (Farmfield Farm Trust)	10/12/2019	15/01/2020	2	2
Newfriars College	12/12/2019	16/01/2020	M	N/A

Further education is a “ticking time bomb” and more colleges will have to close campuses unless government gets serious about investment in the sector, the boss of Cornwall College has said.

John Evans made the comments in an interview with FE Week after news broke this week that his group was to sell-off its 35-year-old campus in Saltash in order to balance the books.

He said he “regrets” it, but “difficult decisions” need to be made because funding for post-16 learners in colleges has shrunk by 30 per cent over the last ten years.

Evans pointed to the recent increase in funding for learners aged 16 to 18 – rising 4.7 per cent from £4,000 to £4,188 in 2020/21 – and stated that it does not go far enough in covering even inflationary costs; rather, it brings funding up to 2010 rates.

“When you think about universities getting £9,250 [per student] and schools getting £5,000 to £5,500, something has got to give,” he told FE Week.

“All we hear on the news is how schools are underfunded. I would swap their funding for ours tomorrow given the opportunity and yet we are expected to deliver the electricians, engineers, plumbers, farmers, etc., of the future.

“Vocational curriculum delivery is very expensive to run, compounded with health and safety limitations on group sizes in many cases.”

Evans said there is no natural route for a college to apply for capital money and therefore, many college estates are “fighting to stay fit for purpose”.

“I have seen many fantastic lessons across the country – with a bucket in the corner catching the water leaking through the roof.”

He continued: “If the government is serious about its industrial strategy, which is underpinned by skills development, then significant investment is urgently required. 

“The latest response we keep hearing is that £400 million is being invested in the sector. The impact this has had on the base rate is only £188 per learner. This has made very little difference to the bottom line, with many staff in the sector not receiving a cost of living rise for many years.

“The difficult decision to close the Saltash campus is a direct result of the sector being starved of adequate funding for so long. The FE sector is a ticking time-bomb. It needs addressing urgently.”

Asked if he felt other colleges across the country would have to sell-off campuses unless funding improves, Evans said: “Yes, without a doubt.”

Last summer, Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet) controversially closed down its campus in Stourbridge in order to pay back bank debts which in May 2019 had totalled £8.9 million. The college also owed £7.5 million to the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The college in Stourbridge dated back over 100 years, and had a £5 million makeover in 2015.

The move was met with local opposition, including from Conservative MP Margot James. Following the news, she led a Westminster Hall debate on adult learning and vocational skills in the area.

BMet is currently in talks to sell the site to Old Swinford Hospital, a £12,000 a year state boarding school, for an undisclosed fee.

The first FE provider to receive a grade four under Ofsted’s new inspection regime is closing down.

Sixteen jobs are set to be lost and hundreds of learners will be affected after an appeal by independent learning provider Mercia Partnership (UK) Ltd failed to overturn an ‘inadequate’ rating, first published in October.

The provider, which was set up in 1995, currently operates from two centres – one in Chorley, Lancashire, and one in Newhaven, East Sussex – delivering a range of apprenticeships and adult learning programmes.

The Department for Education issued Mercia Partnership with an early termination warning notice following the grade four. A spokesperson for the provider said they will officially close the business by August.

Mercia Partnership offered praise to the education watchdog’s new inspection framework, describing its methods as “right and appropriate” and “100 times better” than the previous one.

However, they said the way Ofsted went about its inspection was “poor” and the sample of learners did not give the “full picture”.

The spokesperson said the appeal was “a waste of time”, accused an inspector of causing a safeguarding issue during the visit, and claimed it was “unfair” to be judged on some learners that it took on from collapsed providers.

They alleged that the education watchdog apologised for an incident in which an inspector phoned an adult learner with severe anxiety, despite acknowledging they needed prior warning before being contacted. The learner reportedly never returned to complete their course after the call.

The spokesperson also said Mercia had taken on learners from two collapsed providers. This had been a “very bitter pill to swallow”, and had “worked against” the firm.

Some of the learners “were in limbo for six months” and had been taken on “at the request of the ESFA”, the provider claimed, adding that “all the negative comments in the report were purely based on these learners they spoke to that had come from another provider”.

“It was very unfair to be judged on learners having gaps in learning when it wasn’t [Mercia Partnership’s] fault,” the spokesperson said.

“We’ve basically been shut down on the back of the helping learners.”

They warned that “ethics will go out the window” for training firms when making business decisions about taking on learners from failed providers – adding that the judgement “is going to be detrimental to learners moving forward”.

The spokesperson also criticised the education watchdog’s lack of transparency on evidence collected after asking to access negative feedback received from past learners – who allegedly told Mercia Partnership they had praised it.

Ofsted’s report stated that learners and apprentices “do not experience a well-planned programme of study” and concluded the curriculum was “not fit for purpose” and “does not prepare them sufficiently for their future careers”.

It claimed apprentices “receive a poor standard of training” and are “unhappy, unmotivated, and, in some cases, very angry about the quality of their training”.

Ofsted reported that high staff turnover had “a negative impact” on apprentices’ learning with frequent changes in assessors leaving “significant gaps” in the training programme.

The education watchdog told FE Week it stands by the findings that are set out in the report, but declined to comment directly on the allegations.

An Ofsted spokesperson added: “When they visit further education colleges and skills providers our inspectors always take into account the starting points of learners and how they are progressing – regardless of where they came from.”

The inspection of Mercia Partnership took place between September 17 and 20 last year.

Prior to this, the independent learning provider had been graded ‘good’ in the most recent full inspection in 2015, ‘requires improvement’ in 2014 and ‘satisfactory’ in both 2012 and 2008.

It had direct contracts with the Education and Skills Funding Agency totalling £1.9 million in 2018/19.

Students still get higher marks in reformed BTECs than in A-levels – but the gap has closed, new analysis shows.

But research from FFT Education Datalab shows many schools and colleges are still delivering the old BTEC qualifications, even though they are no longer included in performance tables.

The blogpost, published today, reveals that just nine per cent of grades awarded in the reformed BTECs in 2018 were the highest score of starred distinction, compared with 37 per cent in the legacy qualifications.

As the grades awarded in the reformed BTECs tend to be lower than those in the predecessor qualifications, the results have become much closer to equivalence with A-levels. However, learners still tend to achieve the equivalent of half a grade higher in the new BTEC qualifications.

In 2018, 17,000 students entered at least one legacy BTEC and at least one A-level, while 15,600 entered at least one reformed BTEC and at least one A-level.

Analysis shows that those who entered the legacy BTECs achieved much higher level three average point scores in those qualifications than they did in A-levels. They achieved an average 43 points in the BTECs (equivalent to between grade A and B and A-level) and 28 points in A-levels, or just below a grade C. The difference of 15 points is equivalent to one and a half grades at A-level.

However, in the reformed BTECs the difference was much narrower at just five points, equivalent to half a grade at A-level.

 In 2017, before the reforms were introduced, students tended to score much more highly in BTECs than in A-levels regardless of their prior attainment. However, in 2018 this difference was much reduced.

The analysis also showed a big decrease in the number of students taking BTECs that are counted in 16-18 performance tables, with the number taking applied general qualifications falling from 125,000 in 2016 to 46,000 in 2018, and those taking tech level qualifications falling from 69,000 to 13,000.

The legacy BTEC qualifications will still be funded until the end of 2021 but are not eligible for performance tables. The data shows this has not put many schools and colleges off from offering them, though. If data included legacy qualifications, then an extra 62,000 pupils could be added to the numbers of applied general students in 2018, and another 35,000 for tech level students.

“The downside of the changes is that take-up of reformed BTECs has been relatively slow,” wrote chief statistician Dave Thomson.

“Many schools and colleges have continued to deliver predecessor qualifications. Up to now there have been no funding incentives to change and the incentive that publication of data in performance tables adds appears not to have had much effect.”

In September, another study by Education Datalab found pupils studying BTECs score an average of a grade higher than they do in GCSE English and maths.

In the summer, exam board Pearson had to hike up the grade boundaries of its BTEC Tech Awards just days before pupils were due to collect their results

The apprenticeships system is “continuing to let women down”, a union has said.

The claim came after it was revealed the gender pay gap for apprentices has almost doubled in recent years.

Male apprentices at levels 2 and 3 were paid nearly six per cent more than their female counterparts – £7.90 per hour compared to £7.47 – on average in 2018.

The gap was just 3.6 per cent in 2016 – £7.10 per hour compared to £6.85.

The figures were revealed in the biennial Apprenticeship Pay Survey, published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy last week.

Research by the likes of the Trades Union Congress has linked the gender pay gap to differences in the sectors in which men and women take up apprenticeships. These choices are often based on occupational stereotypes of “traditional roles” – and the pay disparity between them.

The 2018 Apprenticeship Pay Survey, for example, shows the female-dominated level 2 and 3 programme of hairdressing had the lowest mean weekly wage of £163. Electro technical apprentices on the other hand, the majority of whom are male, got paid £337 – the second highest total weekly earnings from basic pay.

Sophie Walker, chief executive of the Young Women’s Trust, said the survey “once again highlights the sexism and discrimination that young women face even at the very beginning of their careers”.

She added: “This discrimination not only shuts them out of apprenticeships such as engineering and construction that have the best opportunities for pay and progression but fails to provide high quality opportunities in childcare and social care in which the majority of young women apprentices work.”

The survey also showed that women were less likely to be taught their skills properly – while 57 per cent of men received formal training, only 40 per cent of women did. Female apprentices were also less likely to receive a wage that complied with the national minimum wage – 22 per cent, compared with 18 per cent of men.

Walker said more investment must be made in social infrastructure “so that working in these sectors is valued and offers the same level of pay and security as other apprenticeships”.

Amy Dowling, from the National Society of Apprentices, told FE Week the union shares the frustrations “that women continue to be let down by our apprenticeship system”. She added that the government need “to make sure women’s work is fairly funded”.

She said: “We knew it [the gender gap] was coming, but so did the government. When the government first looked at the funding arrangements for each apprenticeship, they recognised that women would lose out. Last year the Department for Education was warned that its efforts to widen participation were ‘inadequate’ and that there were no gender based targets at all.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, pointed out that while the mean hourly rate gap between male and female apprentices is large, the “median figures are actually very close” at £7.10 and £7.06 respectively.

He agreed the gender difference could “perhaps be explained by some of the higher paid standards being male dominated, rather than differences between genders within a standard”.

Dawe said the way to address this “is to make further progress on how we inform pupils, parents and teachers about apprenticeship choices in terms of tackling gender stereotyping”.

Solutions offered to reduce the gender pay gap include combating unconscious bias, directing women to better-paid industries and reducing sexism and discrimination in the workplace.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “This gender pay gap is partly the result of women being overrepresented in lower paying sectors and under-represented in higher paying sectors, such as science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

“We are working hard to encourage women into STEM sector apprenticeships through our Fire it Up Campaign and our Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network.”

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education announced it would trial the use of “gender-neutral” language in May 2019, after research found “masculine” words in job adverts, such as ‘ambition’, ‘challenging’ and ‘leader’, deter women from applying for science, technology, engineering and mathematics apprenticeships.

An IfATE spokesperson told FE Week: “The Institute continues to develop a long-term programme to ensure that gender-neutral language is embedded in all areas.

“The use of language across all new digital standards is now reviewed as part of the Institute’s approvals process. This will be rolled out across all standards looking ahead.”