The Prime Minister delivered a speech this morning in response to the much anticipated Augar review on post-18 education. Theresa May spoke passionately about the strong case for much more investment in FE, which in her own words has been “left overlooked, undervalued and underfunded”. FE Week was in attendance and has transcribed her speech in full:

 

“Your report is a ground-breaking piece of work. Because it is one that in compelling detail the challenges confronting all of us who care about post-18 education in all its forms.

It’s a sector that since 2010, the government has consistently supported. We’ve increased the funding flowing to universities, delivered more high-quality apprenticeships, developed brand-new technical qualifications on a par with A-levels.

Yet as we have just heard, there remains much to be done.

The UK boasts some of the finest universities in the world. Universities that we can be proud of and all governments should pledge to support and protect.

But in technical education, we have fallen behind other leading nations. Our further education colleges have the potential to transform lives and grow the economy, but the FE landscape can be confusing to navigate.

Too many students, parents and employers see FE as a second-best option

Too many students, parents and employers see FE as a second-best option and successive governments have failed to give it the support it needs. For nearly 20 years, there has been a relentless focus on getting 50 per cent of young people into HE.

Yet most have lost sight that the original target referred not just to university degrees; it quite rightly covered the whole higher education spectrum, including vocational and technical qualifications.

And that’s why in February last year, I set Philip a clear yet ambitious challenge: to break down the false boundaries between further and higher education.

To look at all the options open to young people and to say how they could be improved and how the state should support students so every school leaver, and indeed every adult learner, can follow the path that is right for them.

With today’s report, Philip and his expert panel have provided a blueprint for how those improvements and changes could be carried out.

As we’ve heard, it makes many recommendations across FE and HE, the proposals on adult and lifelong learning are also important.

Decisions about whether and how to implement these recommendations will not fall to me, but to the next government.

But regardless of the debate to come, there can be no doubt this report represents a major landmark. And that the data, analysis and insights it contains will help us to deliver a post-18 education system that truly works for everyone.

That needs to begin with further education.

Our FE and technical colleges are not just places of learning, they are vital engines of both social mobility and of economic prosperity; training the next generation and helping deliver our modern industrial strategy.

But for too long, FE has been allowed to stagnate with student numbers falling. With MPs, civil servants, and yes, even journalists overwhelmingly coming from university backgrounds, it’s no surprise, perhaps, that attention has drifted away from other post-18 options.

I found it rather telling that despite the wide-ranging remit of the panel, in the years since the review was launched, the debate around it has concentrated almost exclusively on what it will mean for universities.

As the panel argues, this focus on academic routes, at the expense of all others, has left FE overlooked, undervalued and underfunded.

Routes into and through our colleges are confusing and opaque.

There is no equivalent of the clear, straightforward and comprehensive UCAS system.

And this system isn’t just bad for students, it’s bad for our economy. By failing to equip more of our young people with the technical skills they will need to compete in the jobs of the future, we have hampered our ability to compete on the world stage.

Businesses here in the UK regularly tell me they struggle to find workers with the technical qualifications they need, but their rivals overseas have no such problems. As the report says, in Germany, 20 per cent of the workforce holds a higher technical qualification. Here in the UK, just four per cent of 25-year-olds could say the same.

Behind that statistic lies an immeasurable number of opportunities missed and potential wasted both for individuals and employers.

We will have to invest much more in FE, the buildings, the equipment and of course staff

So reinvigorating FE is vital if we are to help all develop the skills they need to get on, and if we are truly to make a success of our modern industrial strategy.

Now as Prime Minister, it is something I have worked hard to do. Let us make sure there is an education and training place for every 16-19-year-old who wants one. We’re rolling out T-levels, new high-quality technical qualifications on par with A-levels. We’ve committed to Institutes of Technology in every major English city and this year announced the first 12. And we are creating more high-quality apprenticeships that deliver for students and employers alike.

But while these reforms have made a real difference, it is clear that if the half of young people who do not go to university are to have the skills they need for the future, then we must go further. It’s not enough to simply say that FE and HE should be seen as equals. As the report argues compellingly, to make that happen we will have to invest much more in FE, the buildings, the equipment and of course staff who are expert in their field.

And making a success of FE is not just about an increased funding, it’s about giving these young people a genuine choice about their education. So more also needs to be done to ensure that further and technical options are every bit as attractive a path for students as more academic options, including by reforming the sector so colleges can thrive.

That will mean more specialisation and collaboration, while also continuing to make sure all young people have access to a college in their area. And reforms to ensure the courses offered by colleges deliver the skills that are needed by local businesses.

And of course, we also need to make sure that only high-quality qualifications are on offer.

That FE students are appropriately supported by government and that the route to FE is as streamlined and clear as possible, just as it is for universities.”

 

FE Week editor Nick Linford got the chance to question the Prime Minister after her speech. Telling her she sounds like she’s in opposition when she describes investment in FE, he asked: “Why hasn’t more happened before now? And why are we waiting for a spending review?”

Here’s how May responded:

 

FE Week also caught up with chair of the post-18 education review Philip Augar. Here’s what he had to say:

The government should introduce a “lifelong learning loan allowance” at levels 4, 5 and 6 for adults without a degree, a major review of post-18 education has said.

An independent panel, led by Philip Augar (pictured), will today publish its long-awaited findings and recommendations which aim to create a more “joined-up system” and fix the funding imbalances between HE and FE.

It includes a host of views that’ll be welcomed by the FE sector, including proposals of an increased base rate of funding and an additional £1 billion capital investment over the coming spending review period.

The report seeks to rebuild further education

The report also calls on the government to scrap advanced learning loans for those aged 24 and over studying their first full level 2 and 3 qualifications.

One of the report’s main recommendations is for an individual “lifelong” entitlement to student finance. This is proposed to be set as a financial amount equivalent to four years’ full-time undergraduate degree funding: £30,000, under the panel’s recommended fee cap of £7,500 per year.

It could be used for vocational or academic courses from levels 4 to 6 at any stage of an adult’s career for full and part-time students.

To “encourage” retraining, flexible and “second chance” learning, it was recommended that this should be available “in modules where required”.

Under these arrangements, Augar’s report said individuals would be able to “work, move on or move up, and still have the opportunity to return to study later, using any outstanding loan allowance, and in the subjects, and at the levels, that suit their careers”.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, told FE Week the recommendation to make first full level 2 and 3 qualifications fully funded regardless of age is “fantastic news because for many it will do away with advanced learning loans that have not been successful”.

“It puts everyone on the same footing to wanting to learn about level 3, whether they go to college or university, the funding the maintenance the support is there,” he added.

Explaining why an individual “lifelong” entitlement is needed, Augar’s report said: “Overall, we believe that introducing a flexible lifetime loan allowance would make a fundamental and positive difference to the relative attractions of part-time, adult, and level 4/5 study, and would strongly encourage young people to think about their higher education in terms of a lifetime of employment.

“A lifetime loan allowance would also ensure that there are new incentives for borrowers both to be price-sensitive, and to take a loan for only part of their current fees, thus retaining some entitlement for future years, should they need it.”

The Augar review, which had a panel of five members including Blackpool and the Fylde College boss Bev Robinson, was first announced by the Prime Minister Theresa May in February 2018. Its report was supposed to be released in early 2019 but it got delayed because of Brexit.

It was first thought that the findings would act as final decisions and be implemented in the government’s upcoming spending review, but they’ll now only be treated as recommendations.

May will deliver a speech this morning in response to the post-18 education review, in which she is expected to say that the country must “significantly increase support for further education”.

A Number 10 spokesperson said despite the government “boosting education or training places for every 16 to 19-year old, rolling out T-levels, and creating high-quality apprenticeships”, the outgoing Prime Minister will say “more must be done for the 50 per cent of young people who do not go to university”.

Augar said the report’s proposals seek to “rebuild further education, for too long the Cinderella sector, and see technical and vocational education as a means of addressing the country’s skills gap”.

“We are firmly of the view that post-18 education should be a lifelong experience available to all, irrespective of age, situation or income,” he added. “Our proposals are intended to create such a system.”

Education secretary Damian Hinds said the report “acknowledges fully the key truth that our further education colleges also play a vital role in performing these functions” and “too often we have had in our country a bias towards higher education”.

Hughes said the “narrative” of the Augar review was just as “significant” as the recommendations.

“What it is saying is for too long the system have been focused on people going to do master degrees and neglected the interested and needs of more than half of the population,” he told FE Week.

But shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said: “The report alone does nothing to address the burning injustices facing our education system.

“With no formal government response, no extra funding and no guarantee that the recommendations will be implemented by her successor the Augar review epitomises May’s legacy as Prime Minister and this shambolic Tory government; all talk, empty promises and very little action.”

AELP chief executive Mark Dawe said the “bias towards the ‘public sector’ college infrastructure” was to be expected in the Augar report, but “there needs to be careful consideration as to where the real returns come from at all levels – classroom and workshop based learning  or work based education and training, where the report recognises independent training providers have real strength”.

You can read the full report here.

The colleges and training providers chosen to recruit new FE teachers and improve links with industry for the second round of the £5 million Taking Teaching Further programme have been announced.

Forty five providers are being tasked with recruiting 160 experienced industry professionals to work as post-16 teachers in four key sectors: childcare and education, digital, engineering and construction – areas that will be covered by T-levels from September 2020.

Additionally, the government is splitting £900,000 between 22 projects, including nine by providers not included in the recruitment drive, which will be looking at ways to improve links between FE providers and industry.

Skills minister Anne Milton said she was “thrilled” to announce the winners from the second round, following “fantastic stories of success” from the first round.

Following the programme’s unveiling last June, the first wave of winners was announced the following October and led to 47 new teachers being recruited, including five at East Kent College.

The college’s head of teaching academy Simon Bigrigg said the programme had provided EKC Group, to which East Kent College belongs, with a range of opportunities to develop its recruitment and training of teachers in “hard to fill” areas.

Robin Smith, curriculum manager at another winning provider from the first round, Calderdale College, said the TTF programme had enabled them to deliver “cutting-edge” digital skills to current and future students, and provide a “talent pipeline” for employers in the Leeds City Region.

The second round of the TTF programme was launched in December 2018, with nearly £20,000 up for grabs for each provider to train up to five “experienced industry professionals” in a level 5 diploma in education and training.

Several providers have been successful in both rounds of the programme, including Bridgwater and Taunton College, Calderdale College, Lakes College, Oldham College and St Helens Chamber.

TTF was designed in partnership with the Association of Colleges and the Education and Training Foundation.

The foundation’s chief executive David Russell said there was a “vital need” to bring industry talent into the sector to pass expertise and experience on to learners, teachers and trainers.

In his review of post-18 education, Dr Philip Augar wrote the most important barrier to improving the college workforce is “simply a lack of money”, as FE is directly competing with schools, universities and businesses which can offer more “attractive” rates of pay to experienced industry professionals.

According to the Augar Review, full-time FE teaching professionals in the UK earn, on average, around £2,500 less than secondary school teachers, and approximately £13,000 less than higher education lecturers.

The report, which was launched by Prime Minister Theresa May and Education Secretary Damian Hinds yesterday, recommended prioritising investment in the FE workforce so it can draw in more expertise from industry.

The recommendation came after the government scrapped FE teacher bursaries for subject knowledge enhancement funding and initial teacher education in February of this year, as it moved over to investing in programmes such as TTF.

A DfE spokesperson said they are evaluating the programme before any third round.

FE providers to host TTF teachers:

Activate Learning

Ada, the National College for Digital Skills

Boston College

Bridgwater & Taunton College

Bromley College of Further and Higher Education (trading name London South East Colleges)

Bury College

Calderdale College of Further Education

Cambridge Regional College

Chelmsford College

Chichester College Group

City of Wolverhampton College

Derby College

Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College

East Sussex College

Furness College

Grantham College

Harlow College

Havant and South Downs College

Huddersfield Textile Training Ltd

Lakes College

Leeds City College

Lincoln College

Myerscough College

New City College

Newham College London

North Hertfordshire College

Oldham College

PTP Training Ltd (Performance Through People)

RNN Group

South Devon College

South Essex College

Sparsholt College Hampshire

St Helens Chamber

Stockton Riverside College Group

Sunderland College

The College of West Anglia

The Cornwall College Group

The Isle of Wight College

The National College for High Speed Rail

The Trafford College Group

Wakefield College

Waltham Forest College

Weston College of Further and Higher Education

Wigan and Leigh College

Windsor Forest Colleges Group

 

FE providers to run innovative projects:

Activate Learning

Chesterfield College

Chichester College

City College Norwich

Derby College

East Kent College

Evolve your Future

Farnborough College

Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce

Greater Manchester Learning Provider Network

Havant and South Downs College

Lakes College

Leeds City College

Lincoln College

Myerscough College

North Hertfordshire College

South Devon College

The Cornwall College Group

The Isle of Wight College

The Lancashire College Group

The Sussex Council of Training Providers

Windsor Forest Colleges Group

The long-awaited review into post-18 education and funding has been released today, with the publication of a 216-page report.

The review, conducted by Philip Augar, says there is a “powerful” case for change in the FE sector that is subject to “inflexible” and administratively costly rules, and which in recent years has had its ability to innovate and plan for the long term “severely restricted” by the funding regime.

To improve the quality, capability, and capacity of the FE college network, Augar’s panel has made a number of recommendations for the government and stakeholders.

FE Week has pulled out the main proposals for FE.

 

1. The FE college ‘network’ should be ‘rationalised’ and given a dedicated capital investment

The review wants all learners to be within reach of high-quality provision, but says it has found examples of over-capacity in some areas and a lack of access to good-quality specialised provision in others.

The panel has recommended government promote, through the capital budget, partnerships, group structures, and specialisation to deliver a “national network of colleges”.

Small, local, colleges which are “vulnerable to shifts in demand” and are too small to employ adequate high-quality staff full-time in specialised areas, should be “integrated into groups”.

The report also recommends the government should provide FE colleges with a dedicated capital investment of £1 billion over the next spending review period, in addition to funding for T-levels, allocated in line with Industrial Strategy priorities.

 

2. All adults should be entitled to their first level 2 and 3 qualifications for free

Participation in study for both levels 2 and 3 has fallen in recent years, the report said, despite the “financial benefits they can provide for post-18 students”.

The panel believes the drop is due to the changes to funding in 2012-13 and 2013-14, which meant adults could no longer claim full funding for courses at either level. Currently, only those aged 19 to 23 have their first full level 2 and 3 qualification fully funded.

So, the Augar panel wants to bring back full funding, at all ages, for both levels 2 and 3 to remove barriers in social mobility and productivity and to allow people to meet changes in economic demand.

 

3. The reduction in the core funding rate for 18-year-olds should be reversed

Augar could find “no evidence” to justify the lower base rate set for 18-year-olds in colleges, compared to that for 16-17-year-olds, saying many of them had difficulties in their earlier education, and may need more teaching hours, rather than less.

The number of adults who do not progress past the levels they achieved by the age of 18 is “one of the most disturbing aspects of England’s current 18+ provision,” the report says.

“Addressing this is a matter of some importance to the individuals concerned, to social progression and to the needs of the economy,” it continues.

Currently, 18 year olds have an unweighted base rate of £3,300 compared to £4,000 for 16 and 17 year olds.

 

4. ESFA funding rules should be simplified and government should commit to providing an indicative adult education budget

The review panel said colleges need greater flexibility in terms of spending.

It suggests going about this by having the ESFA reduce the extent to which it focuses on the ringfencing of funds for policy priorities like universally free provision of basic skills, and allowing colleges to transfer their budgets between years.

This is intended to tackle situations where colleges are underspending their budgets, as they can only allocate funds to tackle areas of local demand if it fits with funding rules.

The government should instead commit to providing an indicative AEB which lets colleges plan and budget over a three-year period, the report said.

 

5. Funding for level 6 apprenticeships and above should be available only for those who have not previously undertaken a publicly-supported degree

This recommendation follows warnings from the Institute for Apprenticeships and National Audit Office that the apprenticeship budget is at risk of being overspent in 2018-19, and calls by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers to stop levy funding for all level six and seven apprenticeships.

The review reiterates concerns from organisations such as Ofsted that employers are rebadging graduate schemes as higher-level apprenticeships to claim funds.

 

6. Investment in the FE workforce should be a ‘priority’

The panel’s vision for FE includes a greatly enlarged and professionalised FE workforce with clear progression routes and development opportunities, and encourages employee groups and the Association of Colleges to work with the government to achieve this.

However, the report adds the most “important barrier to workforce improvement is simply a lack of money”, as colleges currently cannot afford to match salaries in schools or HEIs.

“Our recommendations would, if accepted, improve colleges’ financial position and, therefore, their ability to attract and retain good staff,” the report said.

 

7. Government should improve data collection, collation, analysis and publication across FE

“We have been struck,” the report reads, “by the paucity of data available to the college sector compared to both higher education and schools”.

The review recommends better information is a basic precondition for improving college leadership and workforce management.

 

8. FE colleges should have a protected title like universities

The report says that although colleges are “established and well-known institutions in their towns and cities”, both the public at large and prospective learners have been left “confused by a succession of sometimes contradictory reforms and initiatives over recent decades”.

“They have resulted in institutions with an extremely broad focus, with no single defining purpose and with no consistent identity nationally, and we seek a means of restoring that,” it added.

Conferring a protected title on colleges, as universities are entitled to, would “instil confidence in potential learners that their chosen college and the courses it offers are part of a respected national adult education network”.

 

9. Ofsted should become the lead responsible body for inspecting apprenticeships at all levels

Augar’s report said the “complex environment” of apprenticeship regulation creates duplication, stretches the regulators involved, leaves gaps and risks poorer quality provision.

It wants all responsibility to be handed to Ofsted, meaning the Office for Students would no longer be the sole regulator for level 6 and 7 apprenticeships.

Apprenticeship starts for the period August 2018 to March 2019 are up 9 per cent on the previous year, new government data shows.

However, they’re 21 per cent down for the same period in 2016/17 – the year before the levy reforms were introduced.

Provisional figures for March show 25,600 starts, up 7 per cent on the 23,900 provisional starts published at this time last year but still well down on the final figures for the same month in 2017.

March 2017 is a better comparator than March 2018 given that there was a huge drop in starts following the introduction of the levy in May 2017.

There have been 285,000 apprenticeship starts reported to date between August 2018 and March 2019 for the 2018/19 academic year. This compares to 261,200 reported in the equivalent period in 2017/18, and 362,400 in 2016/17.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton said: “I’m very pleased that the number of people starting apprenticeships has increased by 9.1 per cent compared to this time last year. It is also good news that more people are starting their apprenticeship journey on our new high-quality apprenticeship standards – an increase of 65.6 per cent so far this year compared to the same period last year.

“We have reformed apprenticeships so they are now longer, higher quality, with more off-the-job training and with proper assessment at the end. New and exciting apprenticeship opportunities are becoming available all the time from baker, carpenter, aerospace engineer or architect.”

Serco has come out as the biggest winner of the government’s controversial European Social Fund tender, securing 17 contracts worth £60.5 million, FE Week analysis has shown.

They were followed by The Growth Company Limited, which claimed 8 contracts valued at £56.4 million even though it is essentially owned by the the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership.

Overall, 47 providers won 125 contracts with a total value of just under £310 million to deliver ESF from April 2019 to July 2021, according to figures released by the Education and Skills Funding Agency today.

 

The agency said the contracts were awarded through a “stringent procurement process, which adhered to EU rules of open, fair and competitive tendering, and was conducted in accordance with the Public Contract Regulations 2015”.

But the procurement wasn’t conducted out without controversy.

The agency delayed issuing contracts several times, after multiple providers claimed that the government broke tender rules, namely by excluding the “track record” section when marking bids, while the ESFA has admitted to “errors”, such as naming Serco Regional Services Limited as a winner instead of Serco Limited.

Serco Limited made losses of £29.5 million in 2017, according to its accounts, and is rated ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted – although this is just for its apprenticeships provision.

Providers were also aggrieved to find out that Learndirect’s new owner had secured contracts worth more than £20 million, in conjunction with his other company Dimensions Training Solutions.

Further questions were asked about the tender in March, after FE Week discovered an “unprecedented” amount of tie-breaks in the procurement.

One aggrieved provider even threatened legal action against the ESFA, but decided to drop this because of the likely cost and a fear of repercussions from the agency.

The European Social Fund is funding that the UK received, as a member state of the EU, to increase job opportunities and to help people to improve their skill levels, particularly those individuals who find it difficult to get work.

The 47 providers who have secured European Social Fund funding will help to deliver the training in 38 local enterprise partnership areas.

The biggest single contract won in this tender went to Serco, which was awarded £10 million for the “delivery of education and training that best supports the needs of local employers and employees” in the Black Country.

The Growth Company Limited won the second biggest contract, worth £9.9 million, to deliver equivalent training in Greater Manchester.

 

A new provider run by a well-known entrepreneur has been criticised by Ofsted after inspectors found it making ‘insufficient progress’ in most areas of an early monitoring visit.

The Teaching and Learning Group, which has 24 apprentices, is owned by Angela Middleton, who is also a director of grade two provider MiddletonMurray Limited, and received an MBE from the Queen last year for services to apprenticeship training, youth employment and business.

A director of ten companies, Middleton boasts on her website of regularly consulting with businesses on the development of bespoke apprenticeship programmes.

Inspectors found a litany of issues at The Teaching and Learning Group, which started delivering non-levy funded apprenticeships in September 2018 in business administration, retail and digital marketing, accounting and finance, and leadership and management.

These include apprentices not receiving enough off-the-job training; managers not gathering information about apprentices’ attendance; and apprentices who have not submitted work in months being left off its managers’ risk register.

Recruitment consultant apprentices, who have been on the programme for five months, have had “no feedback and no work marked due to staff absences and changes to assessors,” the report reads.

Leaders do not use information about apprentices’ performance “well enough to understand the progress they make” and the data used by managers to identify apprentices at risk of failing are “not sharp enough to promote rapid intervention”.

Assessors at the independent provider have not visited a small minority of apprentices at their work within the least a year, and employers are “unfamiliar” with their apprentices’ training programme.

Tutors and assessors “do not provide apprentices with good enough support to develop their English and mathematics skills”.

Ultimately, “too many apprentices make slow progress”, Ofsted found, as “just over half of all apprentices are behind target for achievement”.

The tumult in apprenticeship provision was exacerbated by managers recently making “significant” changes to staffing.

Providers which are found to have made ‘insufficient progress’ in one or more areas of an early monitoring visit are suspended from recruiting apprentices under ESFA rules.

In response to Ofsted’s report, Middleton said the provider “has made substantial progress since the review”, and is “pleased” inspectors’ findings matched those in its’ self-assessment report and quality improvement plan.

This includes the findings that managers and leaders took remedial action after realising the standard of delivery and assessment on some programmes were stopping apprentices from making good progress; even though inspectors said the action had not yet enabled all apprentices to catch up on lost learning.

Leaders have taken “decisive action to address staff’s under-performance by providing additional training for assessors and restructuring the senior leadership team”, according to Ofsted, which added specialist managers and new assessors have a “sharper focus on their apprentices’ progress”.

Staff also recruit and match apprentices to employers and settings with integrity, and managers use an extensive contact network effectively to match employers to apprentices, which means all apprentices stay in learning.