It has been a mixed week for independent learning providers, after four were found lacking in Ofsted inspections – one of which fell from ‘outstanding’ to ‘requires improvement’.

However, it was more positive news for four other ITPs and a general FE college, which were found to be making good headway in their own monitoring visits.

Rotherham-based Develop-U’s early monitoring visit of its new apprenticeship provision was found to be poor in every category during a worrying visit from inspectors on September 19.

The provider, which has been a subcontractor and on a commercial basis since 2005, is currently training 51 levy-funded apprentices.

Inspectors said recruitment is left to employers, meaning that leaders and managers “are unsure about the suitability of apprentices on some programmes, including a minority of apprentices who behave in ways that are unprofessional and inappropriate”.

“Disruptive behaviour impedes the progress and prospects of these apprentices,” inspectors warned. “Managers blame the apprentices for this slow progress; however, apprentices are not sufficiently motivated and engaged by the teaching they receive.”

The report said apprentices “do not benefit from accurate information, advice and guidance”, and “repeatedly” fail English and maths examinations.

Safeguarding was also a concern at the provider, and the report said that, during the visit “inspectors became aware of an at-risk apprentice about whom leaders were not aware”.

So far, all apprenticeship providers found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one area up until the end of September have been barred from taking on new starts until their next full inspection. The Education and Skills Funding Agency will now have to decide whether to also ban Develop-U.

It was a fall from grace for the Summerhouse Equestrian and Training Centre, which received its grade three rating after an inspection on September 18. The Gloucestershire-based provider had been rated ‘outstanding’ at its last inspection in September 2009.

This time inspectors warned that leaders had struggled to manage the growth of the company, monitor the quality of teaching or understand the strengths and weaknesses of their subcontractors’ provision, and said both quality and outcomes had “declined”.

The report said “too many” apprentices with subcontractors either do not achieve their qualifications or take too long to do so, and “not enough of teaching is of a good enough standard”.

However, Summerhouse received ‘good’ ratings for its adult learning programmes and the personal development, behaviour and welfare of learners, and Ofsted said the provider managed its own apprenticeships well and provided effective career guidance.

Derbyshire’s Lifelong Opportunities was also given a grade three rating after an inspection on September 18. The learning provider was purchased by two directors in January this year, and inspectors found that “directors have taken sensible actions to bring about improvement, but these actions have not year had the desired impact”.

Tower College of Further and Higher Education London, based in Lewisham, was found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in a monitoring visit carried out after it was rated ‘requires improvement’ in February.

The report said leaders had “not been successful enough in bringing about improvements” or critical enough to understand what they need to do to improve. There are no plans to standardise the quality of lesson observations, and tutors do not ensure that all learners are making good progress.

There was better news in monitoring visits for other training providers, including London’s Recalvi Enterprise and VQ Solutions which were both found to be making ‘significant progress’ in two categories they were assessed on.

Recalvi’s leaders and managers have “made excellent use of the knowledge and skills they acquired during their time as highly effective subcontractors” to create a “successful” apprenticeship programme providing “good-quality teaching and learning”. 

VQ Solutions, which was monitored after being deemed ‘requires improvement’ after an inspection in December 2017, has made “significant progress” after investing in a management information system to keep up-to-date with the progress of apprentices and ensuring apprentices understand the risks of radicalisation and extremism. 

Warrington and Vale Royal College, Qualitrain and the NVQ Training Centre received ‘reasonable progress’ assessments in monitoring visits. 

GFE Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade
Warrington and Vale Royal College	02/10/2018	21/10/2018	M

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Tower College of Further and Higher Eduation London Limited	03/10/2018	24/10/2018	M
Lifelong Opportunities Ltd	18/09/2018	21/10/2018	3	N/A
The Recalvi Enterprise Ltd	19/09/2018	21/10/2018	M
Qualitrain Limited	26/09/2018	24/10/2018	M
The NVQ Training Centre Limited	03/10/2018	26/10/2018	M
Summerhouse Equestrian and Training Centre LLP	18/09/2018	21/10/2018	3	1
Develop-U	19/09/2018	24/10/2018	M
VQ Solutions Ltd	27/09/2018	24/10/2018	M

 

 

The government has approved around £330 million to cover the cost of implementing post-area review changes so far.

The figure, which amounts to 45 per cent of the £726 million on offer, was revealed in the latest Education and Skills Funding Agency progress report on the restructuring facility, which closed last month.

Although it is less than half of what is on offer, the final figure is expected to increase as last minute applications are signed off.

Up to 21 colleges have been approved to receive compensatory VAT funding

But it is likely that hundreds of millions from the fund will go unused.

Today’s announcement said that 76 applications have been received. A total of 30 of them were made from 31 sixth form colleges “expressing plans to convert to academy status”, but the “majority have not been allocated any funding to support this conversion”.

The ESFA received 46 applications to support restructuring within the college sector, but only 23 “have been approved to date”.

“From the restructuring facility, up to 21 colleges have been approved to receive compensatory VAT funding if the liability arises and funding has been provided for transition grants,” today’s update said.

It added: “The total allocation of restructuring facility funding is approximately £330 million. Total spend so far is approximately £226 million.”

Case summaries of providers that agreed restructuring funding prior to December 31, 2017, were also published today. You can find out who these are here.  Today’s announcement doesn’t however give details of which colleges have since received cash nor how much.

The restructuring facility, administered by the ESFA’s transaction unit, was designed to help colleges implement area review changes but has increasingly being used to support colleges in dire financial straits.

The application deadline was September 28 – although colleges will have until March next year to spend the cash.

In an updated guidance document for applying to the restructuring facility, the ESFA said last month that in order to ensure the “objectives of the programme can be best realised by March 2019 it is important that we prioritise funding to support those colleges and proposals that provide the greatest contribution to the restructuring facility objectives”.

“We are unlikely to be able to support all requests for funding,” it added.

“This might be because: the nature and type of funding required cannot be spent by March 2019; or the deal would need to be structured in a way that falls outside of the scope of available resources; or the proposal does not offer sufficient value for money.”

FE Week has previously reported on a number of colleges in dire straits that have received multimillion-pound handouts from the fund.

We are unlikely to be able to support all requests for funding

These include Hull College, which reportedly received £54 million from the fund earlier this year.

And include Lambeth College, which was expecting £25 million to pay off its exceptional financial support and bank loans, according to its 2016/17 accounts.

Despite these example, skills minister Anne Milton denied that the cash is being used as a bailout fund.

“This funding is not about propping up failing colleges,” she told FE Week in April. “Funding from the restructuring facility is only available after a rigorous assessment to help implement changes which will result in sustainable, effective institutions.”

The last update about the restructuring facility was released in April and showed that at that time over £300 million had been approved for 19 “significant” applications.

When the restructuring facility was first announced in 2016, the then-skills minister Nick Boles told colleges they would be “basically on your own” once the fund had been used up, without the “same level of ad hoc support” they had previously had access to.

Employer satisfaction levels have fallen across the FE sector this year, but private providers are still outperforming colleges.

The latest government research, based on the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s 2017/18 employer satisfaction survey, shows a small decline in satisfaction with every type of provider.

The survey of almost 55,000 employers revealed that 87.8 per cent were satisfied with ITPs, while 84.4 per cent expressed the same satisfaction about general FE colleges.

The scores, based on the median rating for the 170 general FE colleges and 327 private providers with sufficient employer satisfaction feedback to be counted in the FE Choices data, are both lower than last year’s, suggesting that overall satisfaction has declined.

Last year, 88.1 per cent were satisfied with ITPs, and 84.6 per cent with colleges.

Hugh Baird College in Liverpool topped the rankings for FE colleges, with an employer satisfaction level of 99.2 per cent. The lowest included satisfaction rate for an FE College was for Newbury College, at just 40.5 per cent.

In comparison, 15 private providers received satisfaction ratings of 100 per cent from employers.

The proportion of employers either “likely” or “extremely likely” to recommend their training provider to others has also seen a small drop, from 86 per cent last year to 85 per cent this year.

Fewer employers are highly satisfied. Nine in 10 employers were satisfied with the overall quality of the training (91 per cent) and with their training provider (90 per cent), giving a score of at least six out of 10. However, levels of satisfaction on both of these measures has declined by two percentage points each since last year, and the proportion of employers giving a score of at least eight out of 10 has dropped by three and four per cent respectively.

Another measure to see a decline was employers’ assessment of their ability to influence training, with 85 per cent giving a rating of at least six out of 10 for the measure – three per cent fewer than last year.

Small organisations with less than 10 employees had lower levels of satisfaction than larger ones, while those who were only delivering adult apprenticeships tended to be more satisfied with the quality of the training compared to those who were only delivering apprenticeships to 16-18-year-olds.

The highest satisfaction levels for the quality of training were reserved for employers who delivered apprenticeships in engineering, manufacturing and technologies, but those with apprentices in agriculture, horticulture and animal care were the least satisfied.

Employers were most satisfied with the professionalism of staff delivering the training, with 81 per cent giving the highest rating of between eight and 10. They were least satisfied with the clarity of communication from the training provider throughout the training process, with 72 per cent giving a rating of eight out of 10.

 

 

New research on apprenticeships by industry characteristics has revealed which sector is the most popular, what is preferred by each gender and where in the country apprenticeship starts are lowest.

The Department for Education has compiled statistics focusing on the five academic years between 2012/13 and 2016/17, and published them today.

Here are five things that we learnt.

1. Health and social work dominates

The data shows that health and social work is clearly the most popular sector for apprentices, making up 27 per cent (121,680) of all starts in 2016/17, up from 23 per cent (104,170) in 2012/13. It was also the most popular for higher apprenticeships, making up 43 per cent of all higher apprenticeship starts in 2016/17.

The manufacturing and construction sectors also saw slight increases in apprenticeship starts over the five years, but the biggest drops were seen in wholesale and retail trade, accommodation and catering and financial services.

 

2. Fewest people are beginning apprenticeships in the north east

The north east had the smallest number (29,770) of apprenticeships in 2016/17, making up just seven per cent of starts. But interestingly, the north west had the highest proportion, with 16 per cent (70,220) of all apprenticeship starts coming from that region.

Across all regions, health and social work was the most popular sector for apprentices, and starts in wholesale and retail trade declined.

 

3. Women choose social work, men choose construction

The data also shows that traditional ideas of gender roles are still holding strong among apprenticeships. In 2016/17, 88 per cent of all starts in the construction sector were by men, and construction, manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade between them accounted for 40 per cent of all male apprenticeship starts.

In comparison, 85 per cent of all starts in the health and social work sector were women, which accounted for 43 per cent of all female starts.

Since 2012/13, the number of female apprenticeship starts have dropped from 244,380 to 238,290, but men have increased from 205,880 to 211,530.

 

4. Large employers make up the majority of starts

Although large employers (those with 250 or more employees) made up just nine per cent of all employers with apprenticeship starts in 2016-17, 46 per cent of all apprenticeship starts were at large employers. This is a decrease of three per cent from 2012/13.

Small employers (less than 50 employees) took on 37 per cent of apprenticeship starts, with medium sized employers (50-249 employees) the least likely to have an apprentice, taking on just 17 per cent.

5. Differences by age

Heath and social work is more likely to be dominated by older apprentices, with 66 per cent of its starts being from those aged 25 and over in 2016-17.

The youngest apprentices, under 19s, made up over half (54 per cent) of those in the ‘other services’ sector, while 42 per cent of starts in public administration and defence were from apprentices aged between 19 and 24.

Apprenticeship starts for July are down 43 per cent on the same month in 2016 – but up 21 per cent on last year.

There have been 25,200 starts recorded so far in July 2018, compared with 44,100 in June 2016 according to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s monthly apprenticeship statistics update, published this morning.

The 2016 figures are final, whereas the 2018 figures are provisional. July 2016 is a better comparator than July 2017 given that there was a huge drop in starts following the introduction of the levy the previous month.

There have been 369,700 apprenticeship starts reported to date between August 2017 and July 2018, which is the provisional full year number of starts for the 2017/18 academic year.

This compares to 491,300 and 503,700 reported in the equivalent period in 2016/17 and 2015/16 respectively.

It means that provisional starts for 2017/18 are down by a quarter on last year and 27 per cent on the pre-levy year before.

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, is not impressed.

“The chancellor has evidently smelt the coffee by ordering a review and the education select committee has got its finger on the pulse on what needs to be done to turn these disastrous numbers around,” he said today.

“As we head towards Brexit with sectors such as hospitality and care homes crying out for more home grown apprentices, DfE ministers have got to finally take action by removing the recently introduced policy barriers that disengaged smaller businesses and dramatically reduced the apprenticeship opportunities for young people.”

For the monthly stats, comparing first recorded starts for July 2018 to final figures for July 2017 gives an increase of 21 per cent.

However, starts for the month in 2017 were down 53 per cent on July 2016, according to final statistics for the year. There were just 20,900 starts in July 2017, compared with 44,100 in 2016.

According to the commentary published alongside this morning’s statistics, “caution should be taken” in interpreting the figures as they are not final and they will be “subject to change”.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton said: “It’s great to see the figures showing that there continues to be a growing number of people, of all ages, taking up our new, higher quality apprenticeship opportunities.

“Through our reforms we wanted to see high quality apprenticeships offered so it’s good to see that of all apprenticeship starts 43.7 per cent are on the new high quality apprenticeship standards – that’s up from 4.8 per cent this time last year.”

She continued: “The range is growing with 350 apprenticeship standards now available for a wide variety of jobs from planning officers to agriculture to accountancy. There is something for everyone.

“Change is never easy but business and the public sector are now embracing the opportunities our new apprenticeship reforms have given them.”

Former apprenticeship provider Aspire Achieve Advance has been placed into compulsory liquidation, after a High Court Judge accepted a winding up petition brought before the court earlier today.

The directors of the company, better known as 3aaa, submitted a winding up petition against itself last week. It follows the training provider closing its doors earlier this month and saying it was going into administration.

Over 500 staff from 34 sites across England lost their jobs and around 4,500 apprentices had their training programmes affected.

The Derby Telegraph has reported that the official receiver, Anthony Hannon, has been appointed as liquidator. He now has the responsibility to establish what the company owes, and what assets 3aaa has to enable it to pay creditors.

The government’s Redundancy Payment Service has started to engage with affected staff regarding redundancy payments, according to the Derby Telegraph.

3aaa will aim to be wound up in the quickest time possible so that further costs can be avoided.

The training provider received over £31 million in government funding last year and had the largest allocation for non-levy apprenticeships – standing at nearly £22 million.

The Department for Education launched a second investigation into the company earlier this year following claims by a whistle-blower which prompted Ofsted to declare its inspection of the formerly ‘outstanding’ 3aaa in June “incomplete”.

The first ESFA investigation, carried out by auditing firm KPMG in 2016, found dozens of success rate “overclaims”.

Following a meeting with the ESFA on October 10 this month, the agency decided not to provide any more public money to the company and withdrew its contracts.

The findings of the new investigation, which have so far not been shared, have been passed on to the police through Action Fraud.

Derbyshire Constabulary is leading on enquiries.

3aaa was co-founded by Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson in 2008. They both resigned from the company in early September.

Mr Marples has since taken down his LinkedIn and Facebook pages last week. He has also resigned from his position as chair of the Spencer Academies Trust.

Despite withdrawing 3aaa’s funding, the DfE has agreed to pay the wages of around 40 affected staff until the end of October, to help with the transfer of the company’s apprentices to new training providers.

A studio school in Bath that has struggled to meet costs as a result of severely low student numbers is likely to shut in August 2020, after the government agreed to close it “in principle”.

The Wellsway Multi Academy Trust, which has run The Bath Studio School since it opened in 2014, “regretfully” announced the news today and launched a five week consultation to gather views on the proposal.

Nearly half of all studio schools, which offer a vocational curriculum for 14- to 19-year-olds, have now announced their intention to close. Twenty seven have shut or announced plans to do so since their inception, leaving just 28 with no plans at present to wind-up.

We have made this request to the Department for Education with a heavy heart and considerable sadness

The Wellsway Multi Academy Trust said that despite considerable effort, The Bath Studio School – which has a creative and digital specialism – has never been able to recruit enough students to make it financially viable.

Its capacity is for 300 students but it currently educates just 126 students and has never recruited more than 140 in any one of its five academic years of existence.

As a result, leaders have struggled to meet its costs and have required “considerable subsidy and financial support” from its academy sponsor, a position that is “not sustainable going forward”.

The studio school was rated ‘requires improvement’ in its first ever Ofsted report in June 2017. Six months later, the education watchdog criticised leaders and the governing body for being “slow to react to the situation at the school”, in a follow up monitoring visit.

If the closure request is given formal approval following consultation, The Bath Studio School will close with effect from the end of the school year 2019/2020.

This will allow all current students to complete their courses they have enrolled on. No further students are to be admitted from September 2019.

The Wellsway Multi Academy Trust said it will work individually with students to support their transition, and will also provide advisory support for the studio school’s staff, and will look to the “possibility of their redeployment to another trust school”.

Aspire Academy, a special school for children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties, which shares a site with the studio school, will remain within the academy trust and plans are already underway to expand that school.

Andrea Arlidge, the chief executive of WMAT, said: “We have made this request to the Department for Education with a heavy heart and considerable sadness.

Ultimately, there is simply not enough demand in the Bath area for the type of education

“Our decision to seek the closure of TBSS does not reflect on the commitment and dedication of its staff and we will continue to do our utmost to support our current pupils through to the completion of their courses. We will also seek to respond quickly to parent concerns.

“Ultimately, there is simply not enough demand in the Bath area for the type of education that TBSS provides. As a consequence, the school is not meeting its costs, has had to be heavily subsidised by the WMAT and is not financially viable.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “At the request of Wellsway Academy Trust, we have agreed, in-principle, to the closure of Bath Studio School, which we will consider before any final decision is made on its future.

“We will continue to work with the trust and local authority to support pupils at the school and minimise disruption to their education.”

The consultation runs from October 23 to November 27, 2018.

Studio schools have struggled to survive due to poor Ofsted ratings and low pupil numbers, with now 27 closing or planning to close since the scheme was introduced in 2010 – despite millions of pounds of government investment.

The rate of closure has apparently caused unease at the DfE. Meeting records from 2017 show the former academies minister Lord Nash had met with officials from the programme to discuss a review of the model’s concept.

The department is however denying it ever conducted a formal review – despite FE Week discovering an attempt to cover-up internal emails which openly discussed the existence and timescale of the review.

No studio schools opened in 2018.

Staff are likely to strike at four colleges this term, but union members are in uproar as ballots at 103 others did not pass new “pernicious” thresholds.

The University and Colleges union has been balloting staff in colleges across the country since August on whether they want to take industrial action in a battle over pay.

Results were released today and show that 85 per cent of members in the 107 colleges that voted said they would strike.  

However, “restrictive” trade union laws mean that, except in Northern Ireland, only those institutions with a 50 per cent turnout can act on the results.

Just four colleges – Bath College, Bradford College, New College Swindon and Petroc – met the required threshold for action.

A full breakdown of results by institution can be found here.

The union said members of FE committees would be meeting in the coming days to consider the results and next steps.

The UCU said today that it was “frustrated” with the law, and pointed out that college staff have seen their pay “decline by 25 per cent over the last decade”.

Meanwhile, the employers’ representatives, the Association of Colleges, “have yet to make a concrete offer to staff but have said they are seeking extra government funding to support a pay rise”.   

UCU head of policy and campaigns Matt Waddup said: “The national ballot results show clear support amongst members for action over pay.

“However, pernicious ballot restrictions which single out trade unions for special treatment mean this can only be taken forward in some institutions. UCU members will be meeting in the coming days to discuss the outcome of the ballot and the next steps in our campaign for a better deal for staff.”

College staff were left bitterly disappointed in July when the AoC said it was unable to recommend a salary increase of five per cent, and was instead only able to propose a “substantial pay package” over two years dependent on government funding.

The UCU described the proposal as “bizarre” at the time and warned that an immediate solution was needed if colleges wanted to avoid strikes in the autumn.

No such action has since been forthcoming and the government has outright refused to provide the funds needed to increase staff pay – even though it was able to increase school teacher pay by 3.5 per cent.

The AoC’s chief executive, David Hughes, was furious about this and launched a new louder strategy by holding a “week of action” where students, staff, parents, employers, and stakeholders were asked to “advocate for colleges”, including a march on parliament to demand more funding.

Twelve school and college associations have written to the chancellor to urge him to increase funding for sixth form education by an initial £200 per student in next week’s budget.

The letter marks the launch of the ‘Raise the Rate’ campaign, calling for an increase to the base rate for all 16-18-year-old students, which has been cut twice since 2010 and frozen at £4,000 per student, per year since 2013.

The rate for 18-year-olds specifically was reduced even further to £3,300 in 2014.

The ‘Raise the Rate’ campaign, led by the Sixth Form Colleges Association, wants funding to eventually increase to £4,760 per student in the next spending review. For 16 and 17-year-olds, this would be a rise of 14 per cent on the current £4,000 base rate. For 18-year-olds – taking a third year of sixth form – it would be a jump of 44 per cent.

A report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies last month found government funding for 16-to 18-year-olds has been cut “much more sharply” than funding for pupils in pre-school, primary, secondary or higher education.

Schools minister Nick Gibb also admitted in January last year that sixth forms were facing “tight” resources. “I recognise that there is more to do to continue improving our post-16 education system,” he said at the time.

The letter sent to chancellor Philip Hammond today claims that a combination of funding cuts and cost increases have left colleges stretched, at a time when “the needs of young people have become increasingly complex”, with more students reporting that they are experiencing mental health problems, for example.

The associations pointed to research from policy and economics consultancy London Economics, commissioned by the Sixth Form Colleges Association, which found an increase in funding of “at least £760 per student” is required to continue providing “a high quality education to young people”.

The letter also requested that this figure is then increased in line with inflation each year.

“Only a significant increase in the national funding rate for 16-to-18-year-olds will make it possible for the government to meet its objectives for a strong post-Brexit economy and a socially mobile, highly educated workforce,” the associations said.

They claim the money is needed to boost student support services to the minimum required level; support minority subjects, such as languages, that are at risk of being dropped; and increase extra-curricular activities, work experience opportunities and university visits.

As major funding decisions are not likely to be taken until next year’s spending review, and would not take effect until 2020-21, the letter also requested that the chancellor introduce a “modest increase” to the funding rate of at least £200 per student in next week’s budget.

This would “provide some much needed financial stability and ensure that schools and colleges can continue to deliver the high class education our young people deserve”.

The budget will take place on October 29.

“Sixth form education is not just about exam results, it includes a host of essential wrap-around experiences,” said Bill Watkin, the chief executive of the SFCA.

“If we don’t fund it properly, something must give and young people won’t get the high-quality education they deserve. Every year, colleges are being asked to do more with less, and we must not sit idly by while young people are short-changed.”

The twelve associations supporting the campaign are:

Association of Colleges

Association of School and College Leaders

Collab Group

Confederation of School Trusts

Grammar School Heads Association

National Association of Head Teachers

National Education Union

National Governance Association

National Union of Students, Sixth Form Colleges Association

SSAT: the Schools, Students and Teachers network

The Sixth Form Colleges Association

Unison