A troubled FE college has settled a claim over an unpaid £426,000 bill from its former internal auditor, FE Week understands.
Bath College faced legal action from Birmingham-based Icca (Holdings) Ltd over the alleged debt.
But the two parties are understood to have settled for an undisclosed amount days before the dispute was to be heard at Birmingham County Court.
The college confirmed legal proceedings had concluded but refused to confirm its link to the company, or how much it agreed to pay.
However, the college’s annual accounts list Icca Education, Training and Skills Ltd, part of the Icca (Holdings) group, as its internal auditor from 2019 to 2022.
Accounts for the year to July 2023 reveal Bath College bosses judged the company’s chance of success were “not greater than 50 per cent” so they failed to set aside the £426,000.
Icca – classed as an “education support company” in Companies House records – runs several firms including the Finance and Management Business School, KHL Transport Training and Skills College UK.
Icca owner Scott Winter did not respond to requests for comment.
Leadership challenges continue
Bath College has been run on an interim basis by FE Commissioner special adviser Martin Sim since former principal Jayne Davis resigned in February for “personal reasons”.
Her exit came shortly after Ofsted downgraded the college from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.
Bath’s most recent accounts published last year said its Education and Skills Funding Agency rating fell from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ due to “financial underperformance” that breached the terms of a loan from Barclays bank.
Due to the breach the loan was reclassified to “due in less than one year” which increased net liabilities by £2.5 million.
Had the loan not been reclassified, the college claimed its financial health would have been rated as ‘requires improvement’.
The college’s deficit doubled from £1.1 million to £2.3 million from 2022 to 2023, and its education-specific EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) plunged from 4.28 to -4.1 per cent. The FE Commissioner’s benchmark for a healthy education-specific EBITDA is 6 per cent or more of total income.
Bath College’s deficit was reportedly due to higher operating costs and lower than predicted student numbers.
The college teaches around 8,900 students, including 5,000 adult learners, 2,200 16 to 18 year olds and 650 apprentices.
Metro mayors have admitted they are racing to spend millions of pounds on skills training before a £2.6 billion funding scheme ends in March.
The Tories launched the three-year UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022 to help the economically inactive into work, support businesses, push their levelling-up agenda and improve maths skills through the Multiply programme.
But delays in distributing cash mean some regions are now taking “urgent corrective actions” to spend their funding before contracts finish.
Reports from 10 mayoral authorities – that oversee 43 per cent of England’s £1.6 billion share of the prosperity fund – reveal it has been beset by complexity, cash delivery delays and rule changes.
Authorities also warn the “cliff edge” when the fund’s three years end in March mean key project delivery staff are already looking for new jobs.
Beset by delays
Reports from authorities say the “challenging” three-year spending timeframe was made worse by months of delays in the release of funding.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) said it got its first year’s £17 million payment nine months after the launch in 2022 because the Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government (MCHLG) demanded detailed investment strategies it then took months to approve.
West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which underspent its first two years’ £24 million budget by £4.6 million, said the “complexity” of the government’s timeline and reporting requirements made it difficult to manage.
The GLA, which received a £144 million pot, revealed the MCHLG had admitted the “tight timeframe” was an issue and allowed underspends to be carried over into future years.
Then in 2023 the GLA said the MCHLG took a “late decision” to let each area spend more of its share on people and skills in the scheme’s final year.
It also changed rules to “chivvy” authorities along by withholding 30 per cent of their third-year allocation if they failed to spend enough in the first two years. This new rule was punishing as the final year accounts for around two-thirds of the total allocation.
Spending rush
The West Midlands region was yet to spend £65 million of its £88 million budget in July.
As a result it received £39 million from the government for year three, about 30 per cent less than it was eligible for.
Apparently worried about having to hand funds back to the MCHLG, the region’s new Labour mayor Richard Parker asked his team to take “pro-active mitigating actions to maximise spend” before March.
In a bid to spend an average of £5.5 million per month, Parker told staff to “swiftly” redistribute funding to projects that were performing well.
Meanwhile, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority received £5 million less than it hoped for after underspending in earlier years and mayor Steve Rotheram asked senior officers to move funding around to “maximise delivery”.
West Yorkshire Combined Authority secured its full share for the final year after spending £9 million in the five months up to March this year, but mayor Tracy Brabin has now given permission for staff to move money to more effective projects “at speed”.
Provider concerns
Ian Ross, chief executive of Whitehead-Ross Consulting which has several UK Shared Prosperity Fund contracts, said the short spending timeframe was “not practical” for learners and risked authorities wasting money on “pointless schemes”.
And the Learning and Work Institute told FE Week it feared the budget deadline meant projects would “scale down and lose staff”.
It added: “This is vital employment, learning and skills provision and we need both a long-term plan and to avoid the impending cliff edge in provision.”
How much has been spent?
The MCHLG confirmed only 36 per cent of England’s £157 million allocated in the first year was spent – excluding Multiply, which is overseen by the Department for Education.
The majority of the second year’s £314 million allocation was spent, while figures for the final year are not yet available.
In a letter defending the department’s management of the fund in January 2023, the then-minister for levelling up Jacob Young said interim findings on its success would be published “in 2024”.
What now?
It is not known whether Labour will replace the prosperity fund but concerns have been raised by MPs and the Local Government Association (LGA) in the last week.
Labour MP for Rochester and Strood Lauren Edwards called an adjournment debate on Thursday.
Edwards, who oversaw economic development as Medway Council’s cabinet member for economic development, said despite its problems she and others wanted the fund to continue as it is a “really great scheme” for local authorities.
The LGA said: “Programmes which support the long-term economically inactive require engagement and trust to be built with residents to help them into stable employment.
“The lack of funding certainty can jeopardise this. Providers are likely to see staff leave as contracts end.”
Hopes for medals were high amongst Team UK on the second day of the WorldSkills Lyon competition. Anviksha Patel caught up with some competitors as they were fresh from completing their tasks of the day.
The confidence was exuding from all the competitors I spoke to today. Though the Eurexpo Lyon was swarmed by French school students, the atmosphere amongst our champions seemed a lot more relaxed than yesterday as participants were uber focused on their modules for the day.
Ready Steady Cook
Cookery competitor Oska Ready, who studied at Doncaster College, is aiming for a medal, but he’s up against some tough competition like France, especially given his tasks have been all about French food.
“The last couple of days, we’ve had to do a hot module, so on the first day we had to do a duck main course,” he said. “It’s all very classical French with us being in Lyon, the gastronomy capital. Today we’ve done a bit of cold work so I’ve made a French gateaux, some pate’s, terrines.”
He added: “It’s gone really well. I’m super happy with how it’s gone.”
Ready said his medal goals are “gold, always gold”.
“I’m staying positive and I’m doing the best I can,” he said. “I’ve already taken away so much from the experience but to also get a medal would cap it off.”
What does he cook in his downtime?
“Beans on toast,” he laughs. “You’re cooking this incredible food all day, you’re almost wanting something super simple.”
Makes sense really.
EuroSkills medallists hoping for more
I also managed to grab our EuroSkills 2023 gold medallist in digital construction Isabelle Barron, who told FE Week that her schedule since winning last year has not been too different.
After her win, she celebrated with her training manager Michael McGuire from Glasgow Caledonian University and then got back down to business.
“It was nice to just spend some time with him to celebrate,” she added.
A bashful Barron said, “any medal would be amazing,” when asked what her hopes were for WorldSkills.
Barron has four tasks over four days comprising projects such as 3D modelling, setting up cloud collaboration space, energy analysis of buildings and project management.
Elsewhere, EuroSkills 2023 bronze medallist in hairdressing Charlotte Lloyd is aiming to come out in the top 6 out of 27 competitors.
“I wouldn’t mind a medal but I’m not putting that pressure on myself.”
Since yesterday, Lloyd has a had to work on two women’s hairdressing tasks, and one men’s. Yesterday, she did a perm and a colour on a women’s mannequin, a men’s cut and colour. This afternoon, she did another cut and colour on a lady and she also tackled giving a taper and a beard wet shave to a live male model, which she was “really happy with”.
Since her medal win, she’s cut down her work hours and intensified her training to two days a week plus some weekend days.
As a result, her downtime has consisted of chilling at home “which saves a lot of money because I’m not going out,” she chuckled.
In the afternoon, I had the pleasure of taking up my cocktail bar reservation at the restaurant services workshop.
I was served a delightfully refreshing strawberry and lime non-alcoholic cocktail by the Irish competitor Kate Ryan.
Ryan had to create her own cocktail, which she named Galway Girl, after her hometown and had pineapple juice, sugar syrup and topped up with sparkling water.
Sadly, it would’ve been a conflict of interest if Team UK competitor Ruby Pile served us but I hear her cocktail serving task yesterday went to plan.
I also caught up with Harry Scolding’s parents taking pictures of Team UK on the competition floor.
Meanwhile, Harry Scolding’s parents Katie and Lee, who own and run a hairdressing business, said it is an “honour” being the parents of a WorldSkills UK champion. Scolding, a Solihull College learner, is competing in the joinery skill and has four days to complete one building project.
“I’m not surprised that my son has got himself there, because he’s got a lot of determination and drive, and we’re just hoping he’s going to do really well in his competition,” Lee Scolding said.
Skills on the global agenda
Today also marked the last day of the WorldSkills Conference, which is happening in tandem with the competition and brought together policymakers, industry leaders, education providers, and young professionals to discuss barriers and opportunities of vocational education systems in their respective countries.
Yesterday, one session explored the bias and systemic oppression limiting women entering STEM subjects.
Team UK has 10 women in this year’s cohort, something that WorldSkills UK has been attempting to improve over the years, though CEO Ben Blackledge told FE Week that it will take some years for its work on improving ethnic diversity and other minority group diversities to filter through.
Today’s agenda held a session discussing why millions of young people are failing to acquire foundation skills.
Mihle Mvelakubi, WorldSkills Champions Trust representative for Africa, told delegates that he was failing his school subjects before college in South Africa. After joining a school of skills to learn bricklaying, he was told by college administrators that they did not accept learners from skills schools, as there was a high dropout rate.
Mvelakubi passed all of his subjects after retaking exams and ended up in the top 10 in his class and ended up winning in WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017. He now works for the largest manufacturer in South Africa.
“I was building my future by laying one brick at a time,” he said.
Freya Thomas Monk, managing director of vocational qualifications & training at Pearson, said one of the lessons from Mvelakubi’s story was that foundation skills has to be seen in conjunction with academic and technical subjects.
“When we look at the definition of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and how we see the skills underlying it, we see transferable skills to be really key part of this. They cover cognitive, social, emotional skills.,” she said.
“I very much hear about all of the skills you’ve built and have around problem solving, around managing yourself, around interpersonal skills, affecting effective leadership, communication,” she told Mvelakubi. “[They] are absolutely key to success and go alongside and a part of a TVET education, alongside the technical skills.”
Pearson is the sponsor of Team UK.
Stay on top of the latest by following @feweek on Twitter for live updates. You can tweet your support by using the hashtag #TeamUK.
FE Week is the media partner of WorldSkills UK and Team UK.
Special awards that recognise college staff and students who go above and beyond for their local communities are open for nominations.
Now in its second year, the Good for Me Good for FE awards honour a range of college-led social action initiatives.
Hair and beauty staff and students at Nottingham College won the social impact award in 2023. The college raised over £1,500 for life-saving equipment to be placed around the city centre that provides rapid support to victims of knife crime.
Using their hair and beauty skills, students ran pamper days to raise funds in memory of Bryon Griffin, a 22-year-old man who was stabbed and killed in 2021.
Winning the Good for Me Good for FE award has led to even more social action activities being run at the college.
Emma-Kate Fletcher, vice principal for people and culture at Nottingham College, said: “This past year we’ve built on that success by partnering with even more charities and doubling our fundraising efforts and social action projects. Last year’s achievements motivated us to push even further and we’re excited to continue making a difference.”
This year there are eight awards up for grabs: individual fundraiser of the year, team/college fundraiser of the year, student volunteer of the year, staff volunteer of the year, project of the year, volunteering college co-ordinator/s of the year, inspirational role model of the year and outstanding long-service award for volunteering.
Colleges have until October 7 to submit their nominations on the Good for Me Good for FE campaign website, which will then be assessed by a panel of judges led by the former secretary of state for education Baroness Nicky Morgan.
Shortlists of three finalists for each award will be announced at the Association of Colleges’ annual conference on November 13. Winners will be revealed at a special House of Lords reception on December 6.
A recent report in the Financial Times tells us our skills crisis is damaging growth and holding people back. Sadly, lack of understanding among the public as to which courses are valuable contrasts starkly with the size of the problem.
Recent polling from Public First shows an overwhelming majority (86 per cent) of people aged 22 to 45 are interested in employer-recognised skills education. Yet only a minority (27 per cent) can explain what Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) are. Once HTQs are explained, most (71 per cent) say they would be interested in studying for one.
Furthermore, for most adults, the prospect of accessing skills education remains daunting, often hindered by significant barriers such as time, cost and accessibility. Among respondents aged 25 to 44, 46 per cent thought qualifications too expensive, 38 per cent were unsure about how to access financial support and 48 per cent thought it difficult to fit education around their daily lives.
As Labour sets out to reform the skills system, these problems of understanding and access must be tackled head-on. This will require urgent thinking on the infrastructure needed to meet this challenge.
In its manifesto, Labour announced a new post-16 skills strategy promising to better integrate further and higher education, creating clearer pathways between institutions.
Currently, there is a missing middle between level 3 qualifications like BTECs, A Levels and T Levels, and degrees where people fully commit to three years of study up to level 6. HTQs at levels 4 and 5 are ideal to bridge that gap and to address pressing skills needs.
A recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said level 4 and 5 qualifications can lead to earnings that compare well with degrees (in some cases higher). But too often, these valuable higher-skills courses are poorly understood, and policymakers struggle to boost their uptake.
In the meantime, more than half the adult population have no degree. HTQs are the perfect qualification for them since they are career-focused, shorter than a degree and, if delivered flexibly online, don’t require a substantial commitment to campus-based learning.
This could spell a renaissance in adult learning
They’re good for employers too. Today’s job market demands flexible ways for people to gain new skills and qualifications.
Colleges – and the courses they deliver – therefore play a vital role in making access to learning simple, agile and responsive to local and national needs. Now is the time for them to take their rightful place alongside universities as the core pillars for driving skills for growth and economic prosperity.
Labour is right that greater collaboration between colleges and universities is central to creating a more cohesive and accessible skills system. HTQs can help bridge this gap too.
One (even) lesser-known fact about HTQs is that they can form part of a degree. They therefore provide not only a direct pathway to well-paid, skilled employment, but also a stepping stone to a career-focused degree.
The key is to ensure they are accessible to everyone. What’s more, we must promote their worth loudly, since they are relatively unknown.
We can do this with support from government, but we can also do more ourselves.
That is why several leading colleges have formed an innovative, collaborative network through a new enterprise, College Online. College Online is investing in course development and marketing to enable colleges in the network to significantly widen access to the HTQs they deliver.
The first course will start in early 2025, with more to follow throughout the year and beyond, with a focus on shortage skills qualifications in levels 4 to 6. The network is national as well as local, enabling the provision of local support even for fully online courses.
This could spell a renaissance in adult learning not seen since the heady days of Tony Blair and David Blunkett’s The Learning Age, empowered by flexible, accessible options like HTQs.
However they are delivered, developing a more resilient economy and improving people’s lives depends on them.
MPs have elected Helen Hayes as chair of the House of Commons education select committee.
The Dulwich and West Norwood MP saw off competition from Sharon Hodgson and Marie Tidball in a ballot which closed earlier this afternoon.
Hayes is the first woman to chair the committee and will play a leading role in holding Department for Education ministers and officials to account.
Hayes said: “Working cross-party, this committee will continue to champion the interests of children, young people and parents in every corner of England and from every background, as well as adults who seek to retrain and learn new skills.”
“Over the course of this Parliament, we will scrutinise the policies of this Government and bodies such as Ofsted and Ofqual, and always be led by the evidence we receive.”
‘Ambitious programme of inquiries’
Hayes won 263 votes in the first round to Hodgson’s 197 and Tidball’s 97. As the recipient of the lowest number of votes, Tidball was eliminated. Hayes received 312 votes to Hodgson’s 214 in the second round.
In her election statement, Hayes pledged an “ambitious programme of inquiries” on issues such as a fit-for-purpose skills system, SEND reform, reviewing the school curriculum and scrutinising the work of the government’s child poverty task force.
“I am committed to ensuring that the education select committee takes the widest possible evidence for each inquiry, including by making visits to education and care settings across the country,” she said.
“I will be a fair and inclusive chair and a strong voice for the committee and its work in the Chamber and in our wider national discourse.”
Debbie Abrahams, a former shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, was elected chair of the work and pensions committee.
Abrahams’ priorities for committee inquiries include the devolution of employment support, disability employment, the role of Jobcentre Plus and reviewing Universal Credit.
New committee chairs officially take up their posts once the remaining committee members have been appointed, which is likely to take place next month following the party conference recess.
Riding the high from last night’s opening ceremony, Team UK kicked off with a bang on the first day of the WorldSkills Lyon competition. Anviksha Patel was on the ground to speak to competitors as they came off the workshop floor.
The UK champions overcame some of their nerves of competing in the global competition against hundreds of their peers and settled to tackle what they know best.
Last night’s opening ceremony was a late one, and with a rather early start to beat Team France to the breakfast bar in the hotel they share with them, much of Team UK were not running on a full eight hours of sleep.
Combined with some blind test projects, it’s natural to feel some nerves.
Miguel Harvey, a former apprentice and competitor in car painting, felt some nerves in the first hour of his day until he started and then instantly felt comfortable once the tasks began.
Day one entailed of some minor autobody repair and ended with masking the side door of the car to prepare the surface for painting.
Harvey dislocated his leg last year and wasn’t able to participate in EuroSkills. As he also couldn’t work, he said it was “a low point” for him.
David McKeown, autobody repair competitor, and Miguel Harvey, car painting contender, backstage at the WorldSkills opening ceremony 2024
But after two international pressure tests in Canada and the United Arab Emirates this year, he feels on top of his game and “has to aim high” for the gold medal.
Harvey’s training manager Rich Wheeler from Coleg Gwent has been training him for 18 months and said that since then he has developed the “potential to do well”.
“I saw the personal attributes that I needed to see from him.”
He added: “We’re quite fortunate in the UK that we’ve had some amazing success since I’ve been involved [since 2016].”
Car painting has garnered two silvers and a bronze medal since Wheeler signed on as training manager in 2016. They are both confident that they can keep up, or even exceed, that pattern.
Meanwhile, Luke Haile, our refrigeration and air conditioning competitor didn’t have many nerves.
“If you’d asked me two years ago, I’d have said I would be terrified to go out on stage but nothing fazes me anymore,” he said.
Haile said his first day comprised of 4 and a half hours doing a a refrigeration system install, which will take 12 hours to complete.
“We get a blank table and a load of components in a box and they give you a drawing and say ‘go’,” he said.
Haile has been training for over two years and has developed a quiet confidence that is really quite impressive.
I was told by many people that he was cool as a cucumber, but I never expected how calm he was about the competition.
The reason could well be that Haile, who was a former apprentice training with Eastleigh College, has huge support network behind him.
I caught up with Haile’s proud girlfriend Chloe, who was there to support. She works as part of an airline cabin crew so she told FE Week that squeezing in time to spend together with Haile’s training schedule and her work has been the “biggest test” to their relationship.
“It’s been a long time in the making and seeing him here doing it today and yesterday was just amazing,” she beamed.
Provided Haile wins a medal, Chloe is planning to whisk him away for a well-deserved holiday to Singapore and Sydney once WorldSkills ends.
Haile told FE Week: “I’ve had to sacrifice quite a lot of my social time, missing out on a lot of events with my friends but looking back at it on where I am now, I haven’t missed out on anything. I’ve got so much more out of being here than being at home.”
Elsewhere, Team UK has received a lot of support online from officials and policymakers.
Though she was not able to fly out to Lyon to see Team UK in action, skills minister Jacqui Smith gave some warm words to the team.
“We wish the best of luck to Team UK as they go to represent us at WorldSkills Lyon 2024. Together with WorldSkills UK, you’ll be flying the flag for young people, educational institutions and employers across the UK showing just how far apprenticeship and technical training can take a young person no matter their background.”
“They’re central to this government’s missions, from driving growth to making Britain a clean energy superpower and breaking down barriers to opportunity.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan also added: “You’re a testament not just to young people at educational institutions and employers in London but also to how far apprenticeship and technical training can take a young person.”
Stay on top of the latest by following @feweek on Twitter for live updates. You can tweet your support by using the hashtag #TeamUK.
FE Week is the media partner of WorldSkills UK and Team UK.
Teachers in sixth form colleges will formally ballot for strike action this month over the government’s refusal to extend the school teacher pay rise to them.
Under ministers’ public sector pay plans announced in July, schools and sixth form colleges that have converted to academy status will receive a slice of £1.2 billion to help cover a 5.5 per cent salary boost for teachers.
But the funding will not be extended to the 40 sixth form colleges that have decided to not academise. It means any pay rise from England’s 40 sixth form colleges will have to be fully funded from their own coffers.
The National Education Union (NEU), which represents teachers in sixth form colleges and negotiates their pay as part of the national joint council with the Sixth Form College Association (SFCA), will run the strike ballot for 2,500 members from September 14 to November 7.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said the government’s decision to award funding to some sixth form colleges and not to others “undermines an effective system of collective bargaining”.
“This flies in the face of the Labour’s manifesto commitment to good faith negotiation and bargaining,” he added.
“It would be an abrogation of responsibility by the new Labour government to allow the pay gap between schools and colleges to widen further, when the opportunity is there to support a crucial sector for economic growth through ending pay inequality between schools and colleges.”
Like general FE colleges that will also not receive any additional cash to help fund teacher pay rises, sixth form colleges were reclassified as public sector bodies in November 2022. This move imposed a series of strict controls around borrowing, governance and several other areas, similar to what schools have to abide by.
But, like the government’s refusal to exempt colleges from paying VAT despite now being classified as public sector bodies, officials have opted to also ignore colleges when it comes to public sector pay awards.
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the SFCA, said: “It is deeply disappointing that our 40 sixth form colleges members could face strike action because the government has taken the illogical decision to fund a pay award for teachers of sixth formers in schools but not teachers of sixth formers in colleges.
“Both schools and colleges are state-funded public sector bodies, and sixth form colleges receive 22 per cent less funding than schools. Despite this, the government has found £1.2 billion to fund a pay award in schools but has been unable to find the £5 million required to fund the same pay award in sixth form colleges.”
Watkin added that the NEU is “right to say” this decision “undermines our effective system of collective bargaining and we urge the government to rethink its decision not to fund a fair pay deal for sixth form college teachers”.
Kebebe added: “NEU teachers in the affected sixth form colleges are ready to fight for a fair pay award for all. The NEU believe that the government should revisit the decision not to fund non-academised sixth form colleges, to avoid a damaging and unnecessary dispute.”
NEU sixth form college teachers went on strike for the first time in six years in 2022 after a 1 per cent pay award.
Sixth form college teachers then got a 5 per cent pay increase in 2022/23 followed by a 6.5 per cent salary bump in 2023/24.
Pay row hits parliament
Ministers were pressed on the pay issue in education questions in the House of Commons this week but showed no signs of conceding.
It was the first front-bench appearance of education secretary Bridget Phillipson’s team since the general election.
Responding to questions from Ellie Chowns, the new Green MP for North Herefordshire, and Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham, schools minister Catherine McKinnell said the government was facing an “incredibly challenging fiscal position”.
“We will continue to keep the matter under review, because we want to ensure every child has the best opportunities, whether that is in our school system or in our FE sector,” McKinnell said.
Apprenticeships aren’t the answer to everything. Members of The St Martin’s Group know this, and welcome reforms to the apprenticeship levy that will allow employers to spend it on other relevant training. Nevertheless, we must at the same time protect apprenticeships and bolster increasing demand.
To date, The St Martin’s Group’s (SMG) research has been focused on the benefits of apprenticeships for individuals, organisations and the economy and how, with the right support, we can maximise their return on investment.
However, benefits cannot be realised without opportunities, and there is clear evidence of increasing demand for apprenticeships that is not being met.
Efforts from government and business have been hugely successful in building the apprenticeship brand; so much so that for every apprenticeship start, there are on average four more young people who are interested in that opportunity.
This interest versus starts gap is even more pronounced for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
This is the focus of The SMG’s latest report, ‘Overcoming barriers to opportunity; Stimulating Growth and Unlocking Supply in UK Apprenticeships’, which shows that demand for apprenticeships is on the rise, and businesses will need more support to keep pace.
Demand will continue to outstrip supply
In 2023, of the 1.3 million individuals who registered with UCAS, half a million were interested in an apprenticeship. Of these, around 357,000 are domiciled in the UK. This significantly exceeds the number of apprenticeship starts.
Commissioned by SMG, UCAS explored how the UK’s 18-to-19-year-old population growth and rising interest in reskilling and upskilling current employees will impact this further.
By 2030, modelling by UCAS projects there could be up to an additional 160,000 individuals interested in an apprenticeship. This increase will not only exacerbate existing pressure on supply but, according to the UCAS modelling, it will be felt much more acutely in certain levels, regions and industries than others.
With the barriers employers currently face and the new flexibilities afforded by the proposed growth and skills levy, there is a risk of apprenticeship starts declining as employers opt for alternative training pathways for their workforce.
We must protect apprenticeships to meet the increased demand for those who wish to pursue this pathway, and we must protect them so that individuals, employers and the economy continue to feel their benefits.
We can do this by making it easier for employers to create opportunities.
How to stimulate supply
As part of our research for the report, SMG convened 65 organisations over the course of two months, with the discussion focusing on how we can increase supply and meet demand.
This culminated in a strong message for a new government:
keep what works well for employers;
maintain an inclusive, all-age, all-level system that is quality-focused and employer-led, but take the opportunity to transform parts that act as barriers;
incorporate necessary flexibilities in programme design and funding rules;
encourage closer alignment of levy funds with the apprenticeship budget;
and stimulate supply from SMEs, who play a significant role in provision.
There are five broad areas for consideration:
First, updating current parts of the system which would have a hugely beneficial impact at little to no cost over the shorter-term. This includes but not limited to removing the maths and English requirement as a prerequisite for completion and removing the 12-month minimum duration rule.
Second, protecting the apprenticeship budget, with closer alignment of funds collected via the Levy.The budget should be sufficient to uplift apprenticeship standards funding to reflect inflationary increases and the real cost of delivery.
Third, prioritising additional funding for apprenticeships to support SME engagement. Re-introducing financial incentives for SMEs and introducing a 20 per cent uplift in apprenticeship funding bands for SME employers will help increase their engagement.
Fourth, reviewing financial measures, including the impact to welfare benefits of taking up an apprenticeship. This is critical for improving access for the most disadvantaged apprentices and will improve social mobility.
And fifth, working in collaboration to optimise reforms and supporting Skills England to drive greater cohesion and simplicity of policy across government departments with mandates for education, jobs, skills and productivity.
These recommendations should be part of reforms that tweak the system, rather than overhaul it. Working together, businesses and government can remove barriers to uptake, plug current skills gaps, and stimulate economic growth.
Most importantly, they can ensure that apprenticeships are protected, so that all learners who are interested in apprenticeships can undertake a high-quality programme which will provide them with the skills needed to succeed in the economy of the future.
