Low-level apprenticeships should not be rubbished by “commentators and policy makers”, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has claimed in a new report.

The body wants ministers to use government spending and post-18 education reviews as an opportunity to “reverse the sharp fall in level two apprenticeships since May 2017”.

The apprenticeship levy is encouraging large employers to “prioritise higher and degree-level apprenticeships over intermediate levels”, it claims in a paper that hits out at people who believe level two is “not a proper apprenticeship”.

AELP’s boss Mark Dawe (pictured above left) said it is “extraordinary” how many government figures “don’t appreciate how significant level two attainment is for both the economy and the large proportion of young people who leave school without it”.

“The knowledge, skills and behaviours defined at level two are some of the most transformational in the apprenticeship suite of standards,” the paper states, and these are “vital starting points for the young, the inexperienced and the disadvantaged”.

AELP’s report takes aim at, among others, Tom Richmond (pictured above right), a former senior advisor to two skills ministers who now works for the Reform think-tank, who has been highly critical of many level two apprenticeships.

“If all apprenticeships are high-quality at level two, then we would expect to see the numbers increase, because it would be a genuinely attractive option for young people,” said the former advisor to Nick Boles and Matt Hancock.

“It is disappointing to see AELP refuse to acknowledge that some level two ‘apprenticeships’ are nothing more than low-skill, low-wage roles that have been rebadged as an apprenticeship to attract government funding.”

Reform strongly supports more apprenticeships in the service sector, but “too many level two programmes fall well short of international standards and simply would not be recognised as apprenticeships in other countries because they offer so little training”.

AELP believes government intervention is necessary because “the market alone will not incentivise” a reversal.

The proportion of level two apprenticeship starts has fallen below 50 per cent for the first time, according to exclusive FE Week analysis. It has dropped from a high of 65 per cent in 2013/14 (see table). The proportion of apprentices aged 25 has fallen below 30 per cent, from a high of 42 per cent last year.

Mr Dawe’s counterpart at Association of Colleges, David Hughes, said the AELP paper had asked “searching questions” about level two apprenticeships and agreed “there are some sectors where numbers have dropped significantly”.

“We have urged the government to refocus attention on its own definition of an apprenticeship as being for new job entrants,” he said.

Mr Hughes has previously suggested that apprenticeships should start at level three

“Where young people start a level two apprenticeship, the aim should be to get them to level three at the minimum,” he said.

“Level two apprenticeships are helping people to train and progress in their careers,” said apprenticeships minister Anne Milton. “In fact, we have seen nearly 174,000 starts on apprenticeships at levels two and three in first half of 2017/18.”

She wants to “improve the quality of apprenticeships across the board”, by replacing old-style frameworks with new employer-led standards “from level two right up to degree or masters level”.

The Institute for Apprenticeships also weighed in, and claimed it supports “the development of all high-quality apprenticeships at levels two to eight”.

“The Institute sees high-quality apprenticeships as crucial routes in helping young people reach their potential, providing excellent career development, as well as retraining opportunities later in life,” it said in a statement.

T-levels will be watched for “potential for losses and fruitless payments” according to the comptroller-general at the National Audit Office.

Sir Amyas Morse has turned his eye towards the new post-16 technical qualifications after a rare ministerial direction published last month.

The education secretary Damian Hinds last month refused to delay the initial 2020 rollout of the upcoming technical qualifications despite a request from his permanent secretary, Jonathan Slater.

The NAO is automatically informed of all ministerial directions, and it advises the chair of Public Accounts Committee on whether action is necessary.

Sir Amyas wrote to PAC chair Meg Hillier on June 7, and she has told FE Week her committee is planning on grilling Mr Slater about the issue in two weeks’ time.

In his letter, the comptroller-general said he had “no concerns at present” that the department is using public funds “irregularly” in delivering T-levels.

But he will “monitor future spending and consider the potential for losses and fruitless payments arising from T-levels as part of my audits of the department”.

“I have asked my staff to discuss with department officials the reasons for the permanent secretary seeking the ministerial direction, and the plans and risk management arrangements in place to introduce T-levels from 2020,” he added.

“I will then be in a position to decide whether I should undertake any further work on this now.”

Sir Amyas also informed Ms Hillier that should she “wish to ask Jonathan Slater about this matter, he will next appear before the committee on 25 June to give evidence on Ofsted’s inspection of schools”.

Ms Hillier confirmed she would be present to quiz him, in his role as the DfE’s most senior civil servant.

“There are certainly a lot of concerns over the viability and potential for value for money of T-levels,” she said. “They are a nice idea with young people in industry from the beginning, like a super-duper apprenticeship with more education than work, but it is going to be practically quite challenging.”

She added that there is currently no planned PAC inquiry into T-levels but that could change “depending on what the permanent secretary says”.

Ministerial directions are formal instructions from ministers telling their department to proceed with a spending proposal, despite an objection from their permanent secretary.

The DfE published Mr Hinds’ direction on May 24.

“As things stand today, it will clearly be very challenging to ensure that the first three T-levels are ready to be taught from 2020 and beyond to a consistently high standard,” wrote Mr Slater a week before.

As the DfE’s accounting officer, he is required to “consider the regularity, propriety, value for money and feasibility of public spending”.

“If these were the only considerations, you are aware that I would advise deferring the start date to 2021 in order to mitigate the feasibility and consequential value for money risks.”

Despite these concerns, Mr Hinds insisted he would be sticking to the 2020 start date for the first three T-levels, claiming that none of the advice he had received “has indicated that teaching from 2020 cannot be achieved”.

T-levels have been designed as match for A-levels.

They were originally intended to begin in 2019, but in July last year the skills minister Anne Milton announced they had been put back to 2020.

A subsequent announcement in October revealed that pathways in just three subject areas would go live in the first year, with the remaining subject routes launched by 2022.

But the full roll-out of T-levels has now been delayed until September 2023 after concerns were raised about the planned pace of the scheme, particularly by the Confederation of British Industry.

Three financial health notices and two breaches of minimum standard college reports have been published by the Department for Education.

It was double-trouble for Easton and Otley College, rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted’, which received one of each and has been told to stop recruitment of learners in some areas.

The other financial health notice was given to Havering College of Further and Higher Education, while the minimum standards notices to improve were for Morley College and Prospects College of Advanced Technology.

The proportion of leavers below the minimum standard threshold for Easton and Otley’s adult education is 49.2 per cent,

The ESFA now requires the college to “suspend the recruitment of learners on the learning aims listed in red text in Schedule B, with the exception of Access to HE; and Functional Skills and GCSE maths and English”, and “withdraw from all 19+ education and training subcontracting arrangements that have reported provision below the ESFA minimum standard”.

The funding agency also requires the college to “not enter into any new subcontracting arrangements until such time that you have demonstrated, to the ESFA’s satisfaction, that the quality of subcontracted provision has improved and you have improved the monitoring of delivery by sub-contractors”.

The college must also work with the ESFA and the FE commissioner to make the “required changes and improvements, as they deem appropriate” regarding its finances.

“The college must prepare and share with the ESFA the revised financial recovery plan within four weeks of the receipt of this letter.”

Havering College’s notice brings it into scope of FE commissioner intervention, meanwhile.

It must prepare a financial recovery plan “that will give the ESFA sufficient confidence that the actions planned will bring about sufficient and sustained improvements”, on the basis of being a standalone entity.

The recovery plan should aim to secure the college’s financial position by demonstrating a financial health grade of at least ‘satisfactory’ for two successive years.

It was announced last month that Havering College and the neighbouring Havering Sixth Form College are in talks about merging with New City College – a move which would create one of the largest college groups in the country.

PROCAT, which found a merger partner this week after it was told it would struggle to survive as a standalone institution by the FE commissioner, has shockingly bad achievement rates.

The ESFA said the proportion of leavers below the minimum standard threshold for its adult education is 83.6 per cent.

The funding agency now requires it to “suspend/withdraw from all 19+ education and training subcontracting arrangements that have reported provision below the ESFA minimum standard”.

“We also recommend that you inform learners funded through advanced learner loans and bursary that you have failed the ESFA’s minimum standard for 19+ education and training,” it added.

PROCAT, which already has a financial notice to improve, must also “produce an improvement plan that demonstrates immediate action will be taken to bring about significant and sustained improvement to the 19+ education and training provision that failed minimum standards”.

Morley College is required to also produce an improvement plan, after the ESFA found the proportion of leavers below the minimum standard threshold to be 47 per cent.

Its action plan should be “sufficient to improve provision to meet minimum standards in 19+ education and training provision that failed in 2016/2017 when the QAR data for 2017/2018 is published”.

The metro mayors overseeing skills budget devolution have joined forces to demand control of apprenticeship levy cash that employers fail to spend.

The devolved adult education budget will come into effect from 2019/20.

In a joint statement, they insisted that with Brexit approaching it is more important than ever to ensure local workers have the right skills.

“We recognise the government’s efforts to reform the skills system and applaud its ambition to see three million apprenticeships by 2020,” they wrote. “However, the reality is that the number of apprenticeship starts has dropped sharply.

We call on the government to give us the flexibility we need to address these issues, specifically by granting city regions control of the apprenticeship levy funding which levy-payers do not spend

“With that in mind, we call on the government to give us the flexibility we need to address these issues, specifically by granting city regions control of the apprenticeship levy funding which levy-payers do not spend, and by further devolving control of 16-to-19 skills policy.

“We also call on the government to provide additional funding for us to ensure that there are enough quality providers in our city regions, and to drive the quality of apprenticeships.”

Large employers have been forced to pay the levy since it was launched last year.

The money goes into a pot which they have two years to claim back to spend on apprenticeship training, but concern is growing that many will not be able to spend this in time.

London’s mayor wants even more powers over apprenticeships funding and devolution powers.

“In London, I want to go even further, and for London’s whole contribution to the apprenticeship levy to be ringfenced and devolved to spend on meeting the capital’s complex skills needs,” said Sadiq Khan.

It emerged last week that employers have used just 10 per cent of their levy funds in 12 months after it was introduced.

In London, I want to go even further, and for London’s whole contribution to the apprenticeship levy to be ringfenced and devolved to spend on meeting the capital’s complex skills needs

The education minister Lord Agnew admitted to Parliament that between May last year and the end of this April, levy-paying employers “drew down £207 million from their apprenticeship service accounts for new starts”.

This amounts to just a tenth of the ring-fenced budget set by the government “regardless of how much levy receipts are each year”.

The government had hoped the levy would force more employers to invest in training, and help it hit its manifesto target of three million apprenticeship starts by 2020.

But starts have actually fallen since its launch: it emerged today that apprenticeship starts for March are down 52 per cent compared with the same period in 2017.

The directly-elected regional mayors met in Liverpool to back the joint statement and discuss their devolution plans.

It is understood that taking part were Andy Street representing the West Midlands, Tim Bowles for the west of England, Andy Burnham for Greater Manchester, Sadiq Khan of London, Ben Houchen for Tees Valley, and Steve Rotheram for Liverpool.

James Palmer of Peterborough and Cambridgeshire, and Dan Jarvis for Sheffield were unable to attend but signed the statement.

Mr Burnham wants more powers over apprenticeships and the incoming T-levels.

“With the Whitehall machine creaking under the strain of Brexit, it’s time that ministers gave devolved regions the chance to get on,” he said.

“Further devolution to allow a less fragmented post-16 skills system with clear and attractive choices for young people, including apprenticeships and T-levels, would go a long way to connecting residents and businesses with the growth of Greater Manchester.”

Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Anne Milton said: “Our reforms to the apprenticeship system are about increasing the number of quality apprenticeships in this country to give people and businesses the skills they need to thrive. To do this we have put employers at the heart of designing the new apprenticeship standards and we have seen a big increase in people starting on our new, higher-quality apprenticeships.

“Levy funding is already, quite rightly, fully devolved to employers – giving  them direct control so they can invest in high quality training, to suit the needs of their business.”

 

Pic from left: Ben Houchen, Andy Street, unknown, Sadiq Khan, Steve Rotheram, unknown, Tim Bowles, and Andy Burnham

Staff at one of London’s larger college groups will earn a one-off payment and a minor annual salary increase in a new pay deal following strikes.

The offer, which has been agreed between the University and College Union and New City College, puts an end to a dispute which involved three days of walkouts last month.

Staff at Hackney College and Tower Hamlets College, both part of the group, will receive £800 as a part of the deal. This amounts to a one-off payment of £400, with £400 added on to their pay each year.

Hourly-paid staff at the group’s campus in Hackney will also be moved onto the “teachers’ pay spine”, bolstering their terms and conditions.

However, Gerry McDonald, chief executive of NCC, said it was “important to note” that this is “not a pay deal, and is not linked to any national UCU campaign or any organised union action”.

“This is a productivity agreement made as a result of internal discussions and negotiations around out-of-date teaching contracts,” he claimed. “The agreement was reached due to teachers on legacy contracts agreeing to increase their contact hours and adapt working practices in line with the needs of the organisation.”

The new pay offer comes after UCU reached an agreement with Capital City College Group – London’s largest college group – last week, also over staff pay and contracts.

This put an end to industrial action after staff were offered a “modest, non-consolidated payment” of £500 and more secure contracts.

Despite Mr McDonald’s claim that NCC’s offer has nothing to do with union action, the UCU believes members at the colleges “should be proud of their action, which led to pay increases after management told them there was no extra money available”.

The union wants the deals to now prompt the Association of Colleges to bring a “decent national pay offer for all college staff to negotiating table”.

The AoC recently made a “U-turn” on college pay and said it would accept a pay claim from the trade unions for 2018/19, having previously said it wouldn’t while strikes were happening.

“UCU members took action because they were fed up of being told once again that the cupboard was bare,” said UCU general secretary Sally Hunt.

“In both these college groups, members have secured deals on pay and contracts as a result of the action they took. 

“The Association of Colleges should take note. Staff will not put up with their pay being held down any longer and the AoC must bring a fair national deal to the negotiating table.”

New City College is made up on Hackney Community College, Tower Hamlets College, and Redbridge College. Redbridge has not been involved in the strikes.

Mr McDonald said it was “not relevant” to compare its agreement to a “percentage increase, nor to any national negotiation”.

He added that NCC awarded its staff the agreed AoC pay award for 17/18 of one per cent.