The Edge Foundation has hit out at schools for focussing too much on academic subjects and said that Ofsted should save its coveted ‘outstanding’ rating for only those which excel in teaching technical education.

The charity wants the watchdog to limit the top inspection grade to schools “that are able to demonstrate excellence in creative and technical teaching as well as for traditional academic subjects”.

It follows calls from Lucy Noble, the director of the Royal Albert Hall, for the creative arts to be compulsory at GCSE. It also comes after entries to GCSEs in performing or expressive arts subjects nosedived by 40 per cent.

The recommendation from Edge was made in the charity’s Skills Shortages bulletin, which features data from the Department for Education’s employer skills survey and Open University Business Barometer.

DfE data shows that the number of skills shortage vacancies has more than doubled since 2011 to 266,000.

Edge is particularly worried about the decline of creative and technical subjects in the wake of the introduction of the EBacc, a school performance measure which favours academic subjects over the arts and vocational courses. Entries to design and technology GCSE, for example, have fallen by 57 per cent since 2010.

Commenting in the report, Professor Roger Kneebone from Education at Imperial College, London, said: “It is a concern of mine and my scientific colleagues that whereas in the past you could make the assumption that students would leave school able to do certain practical things – cutting things out, making things – that is no longer the case.

“We have students who have very high exam grades, but lack tactile general knowledge so they struggle even to perform chemistry experiments. An obvious example is of a surgeon needing some dexterity and skill in sewing or stitching. It can be traced back to the sweeping out of creative subjects from the curriculum; it is important and an increasingly urgent issue.”

The report also recommends that the government restore creative subjects “back into the heart of the curriculum”, and says higher and FE providers must be “properly resourced to deliver creative courses”.

It also calls for the apprenticeship levy to be “tailored to industry needs”.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Outstanding schools are those in which the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding, where all other judgements are likely to be outstanding and where pupils thrive thanks to the promotion of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

“We have often said that pupils deserve to benefit from a broad and rich curriculum, and that schools should not teach to the test. Our education inspection framework, which will go out to consultation in January, will focus on the substance of education when it takes effect in September 2019.

“We will propose new criteria for outstanding as part of that consultation.”

The government has confirmed that the skills minister wants collaboration, not competition, between colleges and private providers.

Eyebrows were raised on Friday when the Department for Education published Anne Milton’s speech from the Association of Colleges conference, as it claimed it was “exactly as delivered” but contradicted what she actually told delegates.

“There is the apprenticeship levy money out there in the market – you need to show what you can do on training and be real competition for the independent training provider market,” it said.

At conference, the minister (pictured) changed the speech and offered a different message which was warmly welcomed by the likes of the AELP.

“I want to see more and more apprenticeship training being offered by colleges and where possible, possibly in collaboration with independent training providers,” she said (see video below provided by the AoC).

When asked by FE Week for clarification on what it is the minister actually wants, collaboration or competition, the DfE confirmed the speech on gov.uk was incorrectly labelled as checked against delivery and that the minister did mean that she wants to see more collaboration.

A spokesperson added that the minister wants to make people aware that there will be £2.5 billion by 2020 in the apprenticeships budget and colleges should see this as an opportunity and sometimes this could be in collaboration with private providers.

 

FE Week has listened back to the delivered speech and found that the minister followed it nearly word for word, but missed out a couple of sentences, including the line about encouraging competition.

This view from Ms Milton makes a change to former skills minister Nick Bole’s message to the AoC conference three years ago in which he told the audience to stop letting private providers “nick your lunch”.

The new stance was met with fanfare from AELP boss Mark Dawe, who in his weekly members’ newsletter last week said: “The other great change in language was we didn’t hear any of the previous nonsense about ‘eating your lunch’ – instead there was a clear message about collaboration with ITPs – I nearly fell off my very comfy ICC seat!”

The DfE said that it might take some time for the department to update Ms Milton’s speech on gov.uk, so for clarity, FE Week spared 20 minutes to do it for you:

 

Good morning ladies and gentleman. I’m going to have to do today what I hate doing and that is I’m not going to have time for questions.

Unfortunately we were 15 minutes into Birmingham New Street and I have to leave here at half past 10 on the dot.

I have been here for 15 minutes but after those remarks I am sure that channel 4 are now going to run lots of items on further education, I don’t recall them ever having done so in the past but I am sure we will see some in the future.

Anyway it is a huge pleasure to be here for the second year. I and everyone in my department value the support, the collaboration and the critical friend that you continue to provide across all of our work in FE. You remain a much valued partner to me and the department – and long may this continue.

It is also great to be back in the West Midlands, where the legacy of all our industrial innovators is woven into the very fabric of the place. Colleges here, such as Walsall and Dudley College of Technology are among those who will be continuing to this industrial legacy as the first to offer T Levels, a once in a lifetime change to technical education.

All of your colleges are crucibles of change within your communities. You have a vital role to play in making sure that all people, of all ages, whatever their background, have the skills they need for jobs that give them a start in life. A start in life, a 2nd, 3rd or even 4th chance to kick-start a new career.

Just a quick update on recent developments, we are publishing the outcomes of the College Staff Survey today, which greatly improves the information we have on teachers and leaders in FE colleges in England. It provides vital insights into the experiences, qualifications and expectations of those who teach and train in this sector. The survey showed that 82% of principals and 73% of leaders had worked in industry before their existing role. And two thirds of teachers had worked in industry before joining the FE sector a huge asset to FE. We want to build on this with the £5m in our Taking Teaching Further programme, which will support for up to 150 industry professionals to become FE teachers, and fund up to 40 projects.

We also now I feel I should mention have a new Apprenticeship Feedback Tool. By inviting employers to give feedback on apprenticeship training providers, and publishing this data in real time. This will give us early warning of where there are problems and which training providers are doing well. So far, we have contacted around 9,500 employers and we’ve had well over 4,000 responses, of which nearly 90% rated their provider good or excellent and nearly a third were actually excellent. There is still room for improvement and we will be rolling this out to apprentices as well.

Alongside the Post 18 Review which I’m sure all of your would have heard about, we are also looking at the funding and resilience of the FE Sector, the uptake of L4/5 qualifications, and the crucial part that FE plays and could play in those qualifications. All of those are critical landmarks for the future of FE. We need to make sure that FE has the structures, the funding and the support it needs.

We have seen significant achievements in the work of the FE Commissioner and his team. With 29 Diagnostic Assessments taking place – so that we reach Colleges before any greater challenge hits. And a 45% reduction in formal interventions compared with last year, Richard and his team are investing a huge amount of time and expertise to continually strengthen the sector and I would like to thank them for the work that they do.

Since 2016, we have allocated over £330m of funding to support major college restructuring, following the Area Review process. We are now considering the final applications for the Restructuring Facility – and we expect the final figure for restructuring funding to rise significantly before the end of the programme.

The Strategic College Improvement Fund had its pilot phase earlier in June this year, which saw 14 colleges receive grants totalling over £2m, and we have just launched our next phase earlier this month; providing £15m in funding to help colleges build awareness of good practice, foster mutual learning and really push forward rapid action to improve quality in their provision. I don’t think there has not been a moment in my 40 odd years in the public sector where I have not heard the plea to share best practice. We really need to make this happen. As David Corke, the director of policy at the AoC, mentioned, “it is important to continue to share best practice and look at the ways we can continually drive up quality within the sector”. We really need to do that showing best practice and reality and let’s get on and do more of it.

We have also announced 21 Centres for Excellence across the country, two of which are here in the West Midlands. We are investing over £40 million over the next five years to build on the success of the Maths Hubs model in schools, adapting it to improve the quality of teaching post-16.

We know that our ambitions for top quality further and vocational education are not going to be cheap. And I am very aware of the financial challenges you have faced. There is £2.5 billion being spent on Apprenticeships by 2020 and the introduction of T Levels, so there are significant opportunities ahead to strengthen the impact you have on your local communities.

We will also be announcing changes to the operation of the register of apprenticeship training providers shortly. We want to improve the quality of apprenticeship training and are to strengthen the application process and raise the bar for entry.

The register will be re-opening for applications and will remain open, it won’t close, enabling new providers to apply as and when they are ready at the time they want to. Existing providers on the register, including FE colleges, I’m afraid will be required to reapply over the next 12 months. But I want to see more and more apprenticeship training being offered by colleges and where possible, possibly in collaboration with independent training providers.

And then there’s T Levels. The introduction of T Levels will change the delivery and perception of technical education and raise it to a new level. I am hugely grateful for the energy and passion that colleges are bringing to the design and delivery of these reforms. We are providing £38 million in capital to support the initial roll-out of T Levels from September 2020 which will be used to improve the quality of facilities and equipment that will be used to deliver T Levels. T Levels are a once in a lifetime opportunity to transform technical education and give young people the skills they need. They will play a significant role in giving employers the skilled workforce they need. This is a huge opportunity to raise the profile of further and technical education and most importantly, the role that you all play in that.

We are investing up to £20m over the two years to March 2020 to support providers as they prepare for the introduction of T Levels. As part of this £20m, we have announced the investment of £8m in a new bespoke T Level Professional Development offer, led by the Education and Training Foundation, to help staff prepare for the change and successfully deliver the first T Levels. This will be vital training to build on the expertise we currently have, so we are ready for the future.

But T Levels apart never forget that apprenticeship levy money that I mentioned.

Both apprenticeship training and T Levels will only succeed if delivered by high quality, resilient institutions. The one common feature of every successful institution is high quality leadership and governance and that is true across the whole education sector. Of course, you know that better than I do how important it is, but it does bears repeating.

All too often, I sign off requests for emergency support, I see colleges in severe financial constraints that could have been avoided if they had a strong board and leadership. Well-meaning Principals, well-meaning Governors, they may be. But in this day and age, robust, financial management and leadership is the route to a successful College. I am therefore pleased that we are launching the College Governance Guide, which will set out clearly, in one place, what we expect of governors, as well as offering recommended practice.

We are also about to launch a new Learning and Development programme, to support chairs, governors and clerks. I am very grateful to the Education and Training Foundation for their partnership in building upon the successes of previous programmes at the Oxford Said Business School. For example, over 3,800 FE teachers have attended other ETF enhancement programmes designed to improve their knowledge and importantly confidence in teaching maths and GCSE English. This is a major investment in sector leadership. It is important to me, as I’m sure it is to you, and I hope you will take advantage of it.

The National Leaders of Further Education represent some of the best FE leaders and they, together with their teams, have been supporting improvement in more than 30 colleges. I urge you to also use them, learn from them, and share that learning further where you can.

Today, I think really importantly we are publishing a report on The Contribution of FE to social mobility that tracks individuals through post-16 learning and into the workplace. And it shows the critical role that high-quality Further Education plays in helping those who come from more disadvantaged backgrounds and areas achieve success.

Shared best practice, collaboration or partnership, working together – within and between colleges, all play an important role in improving further education. And critically play an important role in improving social mobility.

Social Mobility is a grade used by politicians, think-tanks, the media and is liberally sprinkled through most reports and submissions that I read. For me, social mobility means that people are not bound by the constraints of their birth. That where you are born, where you live, who you know or who you are should have no adverse impact on where you get to. Everybody should be able to succeed.

I would like to pay tribute to David Hughes and the AoC for the work they do representing FE Colleges, they really do a fantastic job. AoC’s campaign “Love our Colleges” was a huge success. But in this world, where everyone vies for tax payers’ money, a one-off campaign is not enough on its own. You must get your leadership and governance right; you must use your money wisely, making realistic assessments of your business model; you must make good use of the money available and you must make use of the resources we put your way. Then only then can I and you together secure the case for additional funding.

I overheard a conversation recently where someone was asking what FE was. The reply came back that FE wasn’t schools and it wasn’t university. And that reply said so much- FE squashed between schools and universities. Sandwiched between the two sectors we hear so much from in education. Sandwiched between the two sectors that represent the majority of the reporting in the media.

But I would like to see a positive vision for FE. I want FE Colleges to stand on their own ground, proud of what they do and proud of the incredible results they achieve. Effective, efficient and focussed and with an unique offer.

Every single person in this room today will have changed someone’s life. Turned around the fortunes, sometimes against the odds- of someone who possibly didn’t get the best start in their life or in their education.

I have the best job in Government – because rarely a day goes by that I don’t hear one of those inspirational stories. So my ask of you because I can’t take questions today, is to help me to help you turn people’s dreams and hopes into reality and together we can be proud of the very unique and special contribution that FE colleges make. Thank you.

Ofsted has slammed an ‘inadequate’ private provider for its “misleading” careers advice, in a damning report published today.

Chic Beauty Academy, which offers advanced learner loans-funded provision and level two adult education courses, was rated grade four overall and in four headlines fields – although the provider has disputed many of the education watchdog’s findings, and said it will be challenging the verdict.

Today’s report comes just a week after Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman criticised colleges for giving learners “false hope” by recruiting them onto courses with low chances of employment.

It found that learners at Chic Beauty Academy  “receive insufficiently comprehensive and sometimes misleading advice and guidance about how the choices they make about courses will help them to achieve their career goals”.

The provider, which offers courses in beauty therapy massage, nail technology and make-up to around 400 learners in the last year, according to the Ofsted report, has an AEB allocation of £455,501 and £996,140 for advanced learner loans in 2018/19, according to ESFA figures.

“Learners do not have access to impartial careers advice before they enrol on courses through the academy’s call centre,” the Ofsted report said.

Inspectors found that leaders had failed to “collect sufficient information about learners’ next steps into further training or employment in the beauty therapy industry” to ensure that the “programmes that they offer meet learners’ career aspirations”.

Nor had they “consulted sufficiently” with employers to ensure that the courses provided learners with the “skills and qualifications to gain employment where they live” or to “meet local needs”.

The provider was also criticised for having “advised inappropriately” a few learners who were “entitled to receive free or subsidised training” to take out loans instead.

Among their recommendations, inspectors urged the provider to “improve the quality of pre-course information, advice and guidance so that learners can make well-informed choices about the appropriateness of the programmes they are considering before they take out an advanced learner loan or enrol with the academy”.

However, Safeen Ali, Chic Beauty Academy’s director, said there were a number of “incorrect, untrue points” in the report and that she was challenging it.

She said the provider has Matrix accreditation, meaning it has met recognised standards in information, advice and guidance – which it would not have got “if our IAG was poor”.

She said learners were given advice at enrolment stage, and again at induction, which included information “about their course, and where they wish to go with their course and their career”.

Chic Beauty also runs “a session in the course on careers advice” but Ms Ali claimed “that wasn’t factored in” by inspectors.

She also denied that it had ill-advised learners to take out loans.

Learners aged 19 to 23 who were eligible for free training, through the first level three entitlement, but had taken out loans instead were on courses that were “not on the eligibility list for the AEB”, and Chic Beauty had agreed with the ESFA that those affected learners were “going to waive their right for free training”.

Ms Ali said she had yet to be told by the funding agency if it was going to terminate Chic Beauty’s contract.

Ms Spielman’s comments last week followed the publication of Ofsted’s thematic review into level two study programmes at colleges.

It found some subjects, namely arts and media, “stand out” as areas where there is a “mismatch between the numbers of students taking courses and their future employment in the industry”.

“Some students get a bit deflated and lose that momentum they built when they discover it is an impossible dream for most of them,” Ms Spielman said.

Although her comments prompted some pushback from members of the audience, the AoC boss David Hughes said she was “quite right”.

“I think the response from Ofsted is proportionate and quite right,” he said.

“We need to face up to the fact that sometimes we’re not challenging learners enough to make sure they are understanding the courses they go in because it does happen in some places, not everywhere.”

The Department for Education is seeking views on how funding should be distributed to providers for the delivery of T-levels from 2020, including plans for four new funding bands.

A consultation, launched today, includes the indicative per student funding rates based on hours of study over the two-year programmes, which range from £4,170 to £5,835 per year (see table).

It also reveals that each industry placement within a T-level will be covered with an additional £550 per student – which is £50 more than was recommended in the Sainsbury Review.

The consultation points out that these initial funding bands are based on “the information currently available about T-levels, and may be subject to some change” as the pathways are developed.

The rate of £550 per substantial industry placement, which will each be a minimum of 45 days, is “based on the amount we made available for the previous work experience trials, and more recently for the industry placement pilot we ran in the 2017/18 academic year,” the consultation document says.

“The funding has been used effectively in both cases and has enabled providers to put in place adequate resource to deliver successful placements.”

The DfE proposes paying half the industry placement funding in the first year and half in the second – so £275 a year.

Funding for 18-year-olds will stay at the same rate as for 16- and 17-year-olds because “the hours required for the Technical Qualifications will be fixed, and 18-year-olds will need the same amount of funded time to achieve threshold competence as other students”, the consultation says.

It also confirms that additional funding will be provided to support T-level students who have not yet met the minimum English and maths requirement.

“We propose providing a one-off payment (during the first year of T-level programmes) of £750 per subject per student to cover these maths and/or English needs over the two years,” it says.

Now is the opportunity for the FE providers who will be on the ground delivering these courses to have their say

“Students who need both maths and English would attract this payment for each subject (i.e. £1,500) in total but as T-levels are level 3 programmes, we expect the numbers needing both subjects to be low.”

The consultation, which closes on February 19, 2019, includes “recognition that T-levels will be larger, more stretching programmes and will therefore attract more funding than existing study programmes,” according to the DfE.

Skills minster Anne Milton said: “Our A-level qualifications are recognised as some of the best in the world, it is now time to deliver the same for technical education. T-levels are central to that.

“Now is the opportunity for the further education providers who will be on the ground delivering these courses to have their say. I want them to help us shape this system. Their view is critical so that we make sure T-levels give young people the technical skills they need and our economy the workforce it needs.”

Overall, the new technical qualifications will be backed by £500 million of investment every year when they are rolled out.

The first T-level courses in education and childcare, construction and digital will be taught in over 50 FE providers from September 2020. The DfE is proposing to set these courses at funding band 7 – £4,845 per year.

A college that fell two Ofsted grades from ‘outstanding’ last year has put 155 jobs at risk of redundancy and is planning to cut 41 of them.

Blackburn College, which went 10 years without being inspected following a grade one in 2007, is consulting on the job losses after finding itself “under increasing financial pressure to operate in a more efficient manner”.

“We will do all we can to prevent any compulsory redundancies and as part of the consultation process will be introducing a voluntary severance scheme, available to staff affected,” said interim principal Graham Towse.

“The college is committed to working collaboratively and constructively with trade union representatives and staff to build a more sustainable future, whilst dealing with these immediate challenges.

“We are confident that with the right measures we will create a sustainable platform for the future to focus on improving our quality and standards.”

The consultation was launched yesterday (November 26) and will run until January 10, 2019.

Around 3 per cent of Blackburn College’s full-time equivalent staffing levels are expected to be cut, Mr Towse said.

The UCU said the proposed job losses would be a “disaster for staff and students”.

“At a time when staff and students should be focused on teaching and learning, the college is again looking to squeeze its overworked teaching staff to cover up a lack of leadership from a changing management team,” said UCU regional official Martyn Moss.

“Blackburn College needs to recognise that staff are already at breaking point. Further cuts would be a disaster for staff and students, and only serve to increase already unmanageable workloads. UCU will oppose compulsory redundancies and calls on the college to urgently rethink these damaging plans.”

Blackburn College dropped to ‘requires improvement’ in an Ofsted report published in May 2017.

At the time, leaders and managers at the college were found to not have “a sufficient oversight of the progress that students make on their courses” and “too few” students achieve the grades and “develop the skills to their full potential”.

Senior leaders have also “failed to evaluate accurately” the quality of the provision through the colleges annual self-assessment process.

The report added that managers are “overly positive” about the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and “insufficient attention” is given to how the quality of course delivery is having an impact on students’ progress.

 

The government’s new “tougher” apprenticeships register will reopen indefinitely from December 12, and will require all subcontractors delivering the programmes to be listed on it.

This will include, for the first time, those subcontractors delivering less than the current threshold of £100,000 a year.

The new requirement was revealed in an announcement about the refreshed Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers, published this afternoon by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

It confirms many of the rule changes that the agency’s director of apprenticeships, Keith Smith, told the AELP conference last month.

It was already known that every training organisation on the existing register would need to reapply, but today’s publication reveals that only two applications in a 12 month period will be allowed from any provider.

To earn a place on the new register, providers and employers must now “prove they have actively traded for 12 months, are financially stable (evidenced by their financial information), skilled and are able to deliver quality apprenticeship training, before they apply, rather than when they begin delivery”.

The three-month trading history requirement for supporting providers has been retained to “enable new providers to build a delivery track record”.

Until now, subcontractors did not need to be on the register if they delivered less than £100,000 of apprenticeships provision a year. But new RoATP rules will put an end to this.

“All organisations delivering apprenticeship training must be on the RoATP,” today’s announcement said.

“By August 2019, it will be a funding rule requirement for all subcontractors delivering apprenticeship training to be listed on the RoATP including those delivering less than £100,000 a year as a subcontractor.”

It added that subcontractors can only receive funding of up to a maximum of £500,000 per year, and this is limited to £100,000 in their first year if they have “no recent history of apprenticeship delivery”.

The ESFA reiterated today that it is also considering the introduction of “provider earnings limits and in the coming months, will be seeking views from the sector on these”.

The limits will “ensure control, not just for quality reasons but the potential size and expansion of providers”. This rule is expected to be controversial among proven training providers, as previously reported by FE Week.

Commenting on today’s announcements, skills minister Anne Milton said: “It is vital that the training apprentices are receiving continues to be of the highest quality. Our new tougher approach builds on the robust checks already in place to provide even greater assurance that public money for apprenticeships is being used effectively .

“I would like to thank all those who took the time to respond to our review. Your feedback has been invaluable and has helped us to shape this new process.”

Eileen Milner, the ESFA’s chief executive, added: “Our new RoATP application process ensures that only those that can stand up to our tough quality assurance entry requirements can access government funds to deliver apprenticeship training.

“We are also being tougher on subcontractors entering the market, to ensure a focus on quality training and mitigate risk to government funds.”

The changes come after FE Week has reported extensively on the problems with the application process, and discovered, for example, one-man bands with no delivery experience being given access to millions of pounds of apprenticeships funding.

The register has been closed ever since the government shut it for review in October 2017, even though it was originally meant to open every quarter, leaving many providers wanting to get on there to deliver apprenticeships frustrated.

A London-based training provider worked with employers who did not recognise the names of their apprentices, according to a damning Ofsted report which rated it ‘inadequate’ in every category.

Inspectors found that Touchstone Education Solutions Ltd, which has Education and Skills funding Agency contracts totalling more than £2 million, also does not withdraw learners in a “timely manner” which leads to funding claims continuing after they’ve left their courses.

The Ofsted report said the provider recruits the vast majority of its 450 learners and apprentices from church community groups at its sites in Woolwich, Greenwich and Leeds.

As well as apprenticeships in care management, Touchstone offers adult learning programmes paid for via advance learner loans in health and social care, access to higher education (nursing), business administration and childcare, and functional skills courses in maths and English.

Ofsted said the delivery of all of this provision was insufficient, and leaders, governors and managers “do not have an accurate view of the quality of the programmes and do not have effective plans in place to make improvements”.

The biggest concern was around the provider’s management of data.

“File management is very weak and records about learners are very poor, with missing or inaccurate information,” inspectors found.

“Leaders are too slow to withdraw those learners and apprentices who have asked to be taken off their programme. Consequently, claims for funding continue to be made for apprentices who are no longer in learning.”

They added: “Too employers do not know how much progress their apprentices make. Some employers did not recognise the names of the apprentices who, according to the apprenticeship files, are supposed to be with them.

“Leaders do not ensure that the programmes meet the apprenticeship requirements or that apprentices receive their entitlement to off-the-job training.”

Touchstone has “very weak systems” for tracking learner progress. “Leaders do not have an accurate view of how well learners and apprentices progress towards the achievement of their qualifications,” Ofsted said.

The inspectorate also found that plagiarism is an issue at the provider.

“The quality of learners’ and apprentices’ work is not consistently of a good standard and too often there are discrepancies in submitted work,” inspectors said.

“These include work that was completed a year before the learner started the course, work that did not show how assessment criteria were met, and work from learners that contained almost identical answers.

“Consequently, assessed and formally accredited work cannot be reliably attributed to individual learners, a few of whom have received qualification certificates.”

The report noted that in 2017/18, the provider’s data shows that the majority of adult learners who took level 3 qualifications in health and social care achieved them, but the proportion who achieved within the planned time was very low.

However, the “concerns about the reliability of assessed and accredited work in learners’ portfolios raises questions about the validity of the provider’s achievement data for 2017/18”.

On top of this, arrangements for safeguarding adult learners and apprentices are “ineffective”.

Leaders “fail to carry out risk assessments to identify vulnerable adults or make sufficient checks on the suitability of the staff that they employ,” inspectors said.

“Learners and apprentices do not have a sufficient understanding of the dangers associated with extremism and radicalisation.”

As it has been rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, Touchstone will now be removed from the register of apprenticeship training providers and banned from delivering its own apprenticeships. The ESFA is also likely to terminate all of its other skills contracts with the provider.

Touchstone was approached for comment.