Training for hundreds of glass industry apprentices branded ‘inadequate’

UPDATE: The government has confirmed that the Vocational College has now “ceased training”. “The DfE has appointed an administrator to support the transfer of learners and it is our priority to make sure that suitable high quality alternative provision can be found for all learners so they can continue with their learning with the minimum of disruption,” said a spokesperson.

 

A provider which trains hundreds of glass industry apprentices has been branded ‘inadequate’, in a damaging report that warns of a “significant number” being subjected to lengthy enforced breaks from learning.

The grade four across the board Ofsted report on the Vocational College Limited, based in Liverpool, was published this morning. Resulting prospects for the independent training provider and its apprentices are still to be confirmed.

Such ‘inadequate’ verdicts usually result in government funding being pulled from ITPs, which can force closure.

The Vocational College Limited’s status was listed as ‘active’ on Companies House at the time of publication. But no-one was answering calls and its website was down with a message on the home page stating that the “account has been suspended”.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has so far not provided a comment – on what’s happening with the provider, or the findings of the damning Ofsted report.

A significant number of apprentices have had lengthy, enforced breaks in their learning because of the shortage of assessors

“A significant number of apprentices have had lengthy, enforced breaks in their learning because of the shortage of assessors, while some assessors have struggled to gain access to apprentices due to poor relationships with employers,” inspectors warned.

“As a result of these failings, most apprentices have not completed their qualifications in the planned time,” added the report.

“Too many” apprentices were said to be making slow or very slow progress.

“They are unable to complete the apprenticeship by the planned end date due to weak management of the programme and poor teaching, learning and assessment,” inspectors added.

Employers were said to be “not sufficiently involved” in planning, which resulted in apprentices getting insufficient support and guidance.

Added to this, “many highly skilled apprentices do not see the benefit of completing an apprenticeship”. “A few do not realise they are apprentices,” the report added. “Others have left the programme over 12 months ago, but the provider is unaware of their exit.”

Inspectors noted that most apprentices did not receive their “entitlement to off-the-job training”.

The government requires that apprenticeships spend 20 per cent of their time learning away from work.

The Vocational College Limited had 933 apprentices studying on apprenticeship frameworks at the time of inspection.

Of these, 800 were on programmes in manufacturing technologies for the glass industry, and 133 in business, administration and law.

It was also said to provide study programmes for 16 to 19 year olds – offering a range of vocational subjects from level one to three at its training centre in Wallasey, which is situated to the north-east of the Wirral.

“The board of directors and senior leaders have overseen a significant decline in the standards of education and training since the previous inspection,” the report said. “No governance arrangements exist to provide challenge and support for leaders.”

“Managers’ actions to improve quality are ineffectual; teaching, learning and assessment are inadequate.”

Senior leaders were said to have “not sustained the quality of the provision” grade two Ofsted inspection, and have “allowed a significant decline in standards”.

8 things we learned from skills minister’s select committee grilling

A feisty commons education select committee meeting, held this morning, saw Anne Milton quizzed on a number of pressing FE topics.

The skills minister offered a few outlandish opinions while updating MPs on her progress in areas such as funding and subcontracting.

FE Week has the main findings:

 

1. Milton may ask colleges to justify discrepancies in leader and staff pay

 

The University and College Union is currently battling with the Association of Colleges to increase staff pay – but is coming up against roadblocks.

Ms Milton said this row was not for her to “personally decide” but she admitted the “discrepancy” between staff and leaders’ pay is “quite uncomfortable”.

She would “look to do a similar thing” in colleges as was done at schools, where the government is asking academy trust chief executives to justify excessive pay.

“One wants to give people rewards for a complex job but it needs to be proportionate when money is tight,” she said.

“If your salary is way in excess of the workforce, who haven’t had a pay rise in quite some time, you need to ask yourself as a principal what that says about how you value your workforce.”

 

2. She is “constantly” fighting Treasury for more funding – but she’s unsure how much to ask for

 

The skills minister admitted that FE funding has “fallen against other sectors”, and that is why her department is reviewing its “sustainability” – the outcome of which will inform the amount requested from the Exchequer.

“It is incumbent of the minister in this role, and I take it very seriously on all occasions, to point out that if we want a workforce with the skills we need then we need to give it the attention it needs,” she said.

“Those discussions [for more funding] are ongoing with the Treasury at the moment about how much we need. Our sustainability programme on FE is going to inform the figures that we put to Treasury.”

The outcome date for the sustainability review is not yet known.

 

3. The minister is hesitant to introduce a cap on management fees

 

Ms Milton admitted subcontracting is in her list of “top six issues” that she is dealing with after being read out the FE Week analysis that showed that last year more than 10 providers charged average management fees of more than 30 per cent.

Asked if she would introduce a management fee cap, she said, “I hesitate, because how would you assess what that limit should be and for what?”.

“You would have to categorise all of the different levels of work the prime contractor did and put a price on that. That would not be that easy because the sector is so variable.

“I don’t know whether there should be a limit or that all subcontracted contracts should be looked at, where there will be a level above which you might investigate further.”

 

4. Still no movement on subsidised apprentice travel

 

In their 2017 party manifesto, the Conservatives committed to cutting travel costs for apprentices.

Ms Milton had previously told the committee she expected to come back with “good news” on this issue.

Her expectation did not become reality.

“I wish I had good news,” she said. “This is in the hands of the Department for Transport. I have met the minister responsible and they have done their first stage of work and are now doing their second stage and will report later this year.

“I don’t know when the government will make an announcement on it.”

Ian Mearns, the MP for Gateshead, was “really disappointed in this answer”.

“Unless there is intervention from the DfE to make sure students can get to their work placements or colleges, those students will not be able to access the tuition they so desperately need,” he said.

 

5. Milton STILL hasn’t met with the IfA’s apprentice panel

 

In May, Ms Milton admitted she had not met with the Institute for Apprenticeships’ panel of apprentices more than 12 months after it was established.

Asked if she has finally met them, the minister said: “No, but I think I have a date in my diary.”

She added that she meets “hundreds” of other apprentices and there is “nothing quite as powerful as the experience of someone who has done it”.

 

6. She’s open to introducing more “flexibilities” in the levy

 

The minister said she is currently going through the apprenticeship levy “sector by sector to see what changes would make it more usable for employers”.

She said her department has introduced “some flexibilities” – such as allowing employers to transfer 10 per cent of their levy funds to multiple businesses – and she will “continue to introduce some [flexibilities] if they help ensure that the levy is spent on the purpose for which it was intended”.

 

7. 147 former Carillion apprentices are expected to be “lost” from the skills system

 

A total of 1,148 apprentice bricklayers, carpenters and builders suddenly found themselves out of work when the outsourcing giant Carillion went into liquidation in January.

Ms Milton told the committee that 147 of those trainees are currently “disengaged” with finding new work or training “despite numerous target attempts”.

“There will have to be a point where we no longer target them because you can’t go on,” she said.

“I don’t think we’ve met that point yet but we will have to. It is very disappointing and demonstrates the tragedy for learners when a company like Carillion goes under, because we have lost some young people and we can’t afford to lose anybody.”

 

8. “Leave it a year” before starting T-levels

 

In probably her most shocking statement, Ms Milton said she wouldn’t encourage her children to study the new T-level qualifications in their first year.

“I’m a parent of four children. If somebody said to me your children can do this new qualification, I would say ‘leave it a year’,” she said.

You can read the full article here.

Employers leave Learndirect Apprenticeships following sale

The recent sale of Learndirect Apprenticeships Ltd is causing some of its large levy-paying customers to take their business elsewhere, FE Week has learned.

William Hill, the world’s biggest bookmaker, has signalled its intention to look for alternative providers to train their apprentices.

It is understood that the betting company may transfer its business to PeoplePlus Group, the firm that recently had a purchase offer for Learndirect rejected before poaching 22 of its staff.

Lloyds Banking, which owns Learndirect’s former owners Lloyds Development Capital, may also be moving away from LDA after it put its business out to tender.

The news follows a whirlwind series of events in which Learndirect and LDA were sold to Dimensions Training Solutions – a training provider that is part of new owner Wayne Janse van Rensburg’s other business, Stonebridge College Group – just days after a deal with PeoplePlus fell through in June.

In light of the recent sale of LDA Ltd, we are currently reviewing our relationship with them

“In light of the recent sale of LDA Ltd, we are currently reviewing our relationship with them as one of our apprenticeship training providers,” said a William Hill spokesperson.

“Our commitment to apprenticeships continues and we are focused on ensuring the best possible learning experience for our colleagues.”

Lloyds Banking currently has 1,100 learners on apprenticeship programmes with LDA. The group confirmed these apprentices will continue to be trained by the provider until their programme is complete.

But its contract comes to an end in December, and its future business has now been put out to tender.

However, LDA has been invited to tender along with four other unnamed training providers.

“As our existing contract with LDA comes to an end in December 2018 we have recently commenced the tendering exercise for the delivery of these apprenticeship programmes from 2019,” a Lloyds Banking spokesperson said.

“The successful bidder will begin delivering apprenticeship programmes for new learners from January 2019.”

It will be a kick in the teeth to LDA if it fails to win the contract, given that it was effectively owned by Lloyds Banking until just a few weeks ago.

Mr Janse van Rensburg accepts that some Learndirect employers may have been put off staying with the company and admitted that delivery hasn’t been the “best” it could have been. However, he is urging them to stay put by reassuring them that the “ship is steady”.

“I acknowledge that our employers were rattled by the news [of the sale],” he told FE Week.

I acknowledge that our employers were rattled by the news

“Part of what I have been doing is going to see our employers large and small to re-engage with them, communicating what has happened and reassuring them that the ship is steady.”

“If I’m honest I’m not entirely sure we were providing the service to the best of our abilities previously anyway,” he added.

“It is my job now to work tirelessly to convince these employers that under my stewardship they will receive a level of satisfactory service that both they and their apprentices require.”

He also thinks decisions to take business away from LDA were “notwithstanding the changes that have happened” – referring to the news that following Mr Janse van Rensburg’s acquisition, 22 Learndirect staff, including its managing director and three other senior executives, resigned to work for PeoplePlus.

Speaking specifically about the situation with Lloyds, the new owner said it was always known that their apprenticeships business would be put out to tender.

“We’re putting a bid in and hope to win it,” he said. “I think we have a very good relationship with Lloyds and have provided great results.”

But in terms of William Hill he is “unaware” of what conversations have been had.

Two other large employers who together make up half of all LDA business – Marks & Spencer and the Co-op – have, however, given Mr Janse van Rensburg some good news by committing to continuing working with the provider.

“We have an award-winning apprentice programme and we remain focused on delivering to our 734 apprentices alongside our current partner LDA,” a Co-op spokesperson said.

M&S added that it is continuing to work with LDA, but that it reviews all contract relationships as per its normal working practice.

Disappointment at lack of concrete pay offer, as AoC proposes package dependent on funding rise

Disappointment has been expressed at the lack of a concrete offer following pay talks with the Association of Colleges, which is instead proposing a “substantial pay package” over two years dependent on government funding.

The unions met with AoC bosses on Friday to discuss college pay, and were looking for a better pay offer than the 1 per cent increase recommended last year.  

University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt described the resulting proposal as “bizarre”, and warned the pay issue needed to be resolved now if colleges wanted to avoid strike action in the autumn.

“We are proposing a substantial pay package over two years contingent on government funding,” AoC boss David Hughes explained.

“We intend to pursue government for a specific cash injection for pay – to then be consolidated in the 2019 government spending review.”

But Ms Hunt said: “This bizarre offer does nothing to address the fall in pay that members in FE have suffered in recent years.

She did however “welcome” the fact that the AoC recognised that staff “need a pay rise”.

“UCU will work with anyone to call for more funding but as the employer body, the AoC cannot abdicate its own responsibility for improving staff pay,” she added.

Mr Hughes explained his case further.

“It is a well-understood truth that colleges have been hit hard in the austerity decade and simply cannot afford to match other pay awards,” he said.

“It is not right for the average teacher salary to be £30,000 in colleges, compared with £37,000 in schools. If proper funding is not forthcoming, that gap is likely to widen, making the recruitment and retention of staff even more difficult.

“We have called on the unions to work with us to demonstrate to government that additional funding in the sector is now critical.” 

UCU wrote to skills minister Anne Milton last week setting out the case for extra funding.

In its letter, UCU claimed that FE has reached “a crisis point on pay”.

After a “decade of real terms pay cuts”, senior lecturers are now earning around £9,000 a year less than they would if their pay had simply kept pace with inflation, it says.

And even in colleges that have honoured the pay recommendations from the AoC, staff have “suffered a real terms pay cut of 25 per cent since 2009”. 

Trade unions also wrote to the AoC last month to spell out exactly why they have resubmitted a claim for a raise of five per cent for the next academic year.

They originally made the request at a meeting at the start of May, but the AoC said it would not consider a claim while some colleges were still in dispute with the UCU.

Later that month the AoC, which represents college leadership, backed down.

The unions want a guaranteed minimum increase of £1,500 for the lowest-paid staff where a five-per-cent rise is lower than £1,500.

Last year’s 1 per cent pay offer sparked a wave of industrial action among disgruntled college staff.

The National Joint Forum, made up of the unions representing college staff, had requested an across-the-board rise of around six per cent in April.

AoC boss David Hughes expressed regret at the time that it was unable to offer more than one per cent, but “current funding levels for colleges do not allow us to do so”. 

Wayne’s world: meet the new Learndirect boss

A little-known entrepreneur, Wayne Janse van Rensburg, has overnight become one of the most powerful figures in FE after taking the reins at Learndirect. He’s watched from afar as, over the past 12 months, the nation’s biggest FE provider lost a battle with Ofsted to suppress a ruinous grade four inspection report, with the fallout involving high-profile parliamentary investigations. Its government skills contracts will be fully wound down within two weeks, but that doesn’t seem to have deterred the ambitious new owner. So why would he take on such a tough project? Senior reporter Billy Camden interviewed him to find out.

 

The takeover of the nation’s largest FE provider has been “a baptism of fire”, Wayne Janse van Rensburg admits, referencing last week’s sudden departure of 22 key staff at sister company Learndirect Apprenticeships Ltd (LDA).

But the South African-born tycoon, who claims to have dreamed of running Learndirect since he was 13, is unfazed.

“Part of my vision, and people might question my sanity here, is to bring the brand back into the forefront of education,” he says.

“I have big things I need to do in terms of reputation repair, but we owe something to the sector both in terms of a sorry, and repayment of what we have done in the past. I need this business to be an asset to the sector.”

Mr Janse van Rensburg (pictured) is determined to bring Learndirect back to its glory days.

I need this business to be an asset to the sector

The takeover from Lloyds Development Capital seemed like a rushed deal, concluded less than a week after an agreement with a company called PeoplePlus Group fell through at the eleventh hour.

So did they really have time to carry out due diligence? “We already had a fairly good understanding of the business, so to speak,” responds the new owner, somewhat enigmatically.

“Our focus over the next two or three days following the call was to build a sustainable business plan for Learndirect and LDA going forward, and challenging some of that evidence that was there for the due diligence.”

Prior to the acquisition, Mr Janse van Rensburg was a relatively small player in FE. He was the owner of Stonebridge Colleges, a distance-learning college with around 150 staff and a turnover of roughly £10 million, including a government-funded training provider called Dimensions Training Solutions.

The group has worked with Learndirect over the past two years by supplying it with a virtual learning environment through its technology company, PEARL.

This is where Mr Janse van Rensburg wants to rebuild Learndirect – through technology. And they might even offer it for free.

“I plan to keep the business and run Learndirect Ltd as a commercial training provider, as there is no opportunity for us to receive any more government funding,” he says.

“It has great content, initial assessments and diagnostics, which a lot of money has been spent on over the years.

“My ambition is to bring that into the sector and allow other training providers to use our content to support their delivery.

“Whether we charge to do that or, as part of our ‘sorry’ statement to the sector, give it away for free, that is where we want to go with Learndirect Ltd.”

Learndirect was formerly a giant of a training provider, with turnover reaching £200 million and nearly 2,000 staff. But this will all change in August once government contracts end and redundancies are complete.

Mr Janse van Rensburg expects to need only about 60 staff for the soon-to-be commercial provider,.

But it will be “business as usual” at Learndirect Apprenticeships Ltd, which currently has 350 employees. Mr Janse van Rensburg hopes it will become the “largest and most successful apprenticeships provider in the sector”.

However, life at LDA has got off to a far from smooth start.

Four senior executives – including the managing director – and 18 other employees quit suddenly at the end of June and moved to the PeoplePlus Group, the firm that only recently had a purchase offer rejected.

“I do not know their reasons for leaving,” Mr Janse van Rensburg confesses. “They obviously thought there was a better opportunity for them elsewhere.” Legal action against the ex-employees is not an option he wants to pursue: “My focus has got to be about stabilising the business and the staff that remain.”

I acknowledge that our employers were rattled by the news

On top of this, FE Week has recently learned that LDA is losing business from high-profile levy-paying employers including William Hill and Lloyds Banking (see page 13).

“I acknowledge that our employers were rattled by the news [of the sale],” says Mr Janse van Rensburg, who is “not entirely sure we were providing the service to the best of our abilities previously”.

His job is now to “communicate to them what has happened and reassure them that the ship is steady”.

Learndirect was previously run by Andy Palmer, who has taken the brunt of the blame for its downfall over the past 12 months, but who has stayed on in an “executive chair” role. Mr Janse van Rensburg says the former leader will have a job at Learndirect for as long as he “proves his value”.

Asked who is officially the boss of Learndirect Ltd, he can barely disguise his excitement at fulfilling his teenage dream: “I am the chief executive of Learndirect, thank you very much.”

Aside from the staff departures, Mr Janse van Rensburg says, two weeks into his takeover “everything seems to be going according to plan”.

The focus now is to “drive revenue into the business so it can be sustainable, and bring Learndirect back to the sector”.

August is key merger month amid 17 partnerships for 2018

A partnership that was bitterly opposed by a local council, and the first university-college link-up in six years, are among four mergers set to go through on August 1.

They are among 17 partnerships due to be formalised this year, despite Ofsted’s recent warning that bigger colleges are not always better.

Financially stricken Epping Forest College will become the fourth member of New City College at the beginning of August, as confirmed by both colleges this week.

The merger will “secure the future of Epping Forest College”, according to its chair of governors, Martin Rosner.

In June, the chief executive of Epping Forest District Council spoke out against the plans, which he said risked losing the college’s local focus and identity through the merger.

Epping Forest has been in administered status following intervention by the FE commissioner in March last year, and currently holds four notices of concern from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

One of these ruled that the college must agree a plan to “achieve a merger by August 1”.

Bolton College and the University of Bolton are also set to join forces on that date, in the first merger between a university and a college since 2012.

Their partnership will use an innovative merger model, described by the Department for Education as “exciting” and the “first of its kind”.

The college will retain its own principal and governing board, giving it greater protection than would be offered by a traditional merger.

Another university-college link-up, between cash-strapped Lambeth College and London South Bank University, had been set to complete on August 1.

However, the college refused to confirm if it is going ahead as planned.

The on-off merger was initially announced in December 2016, but by January the college was back on the market for a new partner.

However, the college announced in March that it was reverting to the original plan.

Lambeth has been in financial difficulties since 2016, and is understood to have received £25 million from the government’s restructuring facility ahead of the merger.

Lowestoft Sixth Form College and East Coast College are also due to merge on August 1.

Staff at the sixth-form college recently went on strike in protest at the merger, which is going ahead despite two thirds of the consultation feedback being against the plan.

The last merger scheduled for August 1 is between Stockton Riverside College and Redcar and Cleveland College.

A further five mergers are planned for later this year, which – in addition to the seven that have completed so far – will bring the total number this year to 17.

That is 12 fewer than in 2017, in which a record number of mergers were completed.

This was largely a consequence of the area reviews of post-16 education and training, which ended in March last year with multiple merger recommendations.

Speaking exclusively to FE Week last month, FE commissioner Richard Atkins said the sector’s appetite for merger “remains greater than I expected”.

All 19 structure and prospects appraisals he was working on with colleges were expected to result in mergers, although “they won’t all happen on the same day”.

However, Ofsted warned in late June that “big is not always beautiful” when it comes to colleges.

Paul Joyce, the education watchdog’s main man for FE, revealed it was considering whether to carry out a thematic review looking at the impact on quality of colleges formed through mega-mergers.

“We are concerned at the size of some providers, in relation to poor performance data, so big is not always beautiful,” he said.

Ofsted watch: Three ‘new’ apprenticeship providers make reasonable progress

Three ‘new’ apprenticeship providers have been found to be making ‘reasonable progress’ in all areas, while an adult and community learning provider has held onto its grade two rating this week.

Monitoring visit reports into apprenticeship providers SIGTA Limited, FWD Training and Consultancy and Northwest Education and Training Limited were all published this week, with all three making ‘reasonable progress’ in all themes under review.

But none of the three actually new – having all had previous experience delivering apprenticeships as subcontractors.

Early monitoring visits of new apprenticeship providers were first announced by Ofsted boss Amanda Spielman last November, and were were intended to sniff out “scandalous” attempts to waste public money.

Their introduction is believed to be a result of growing concerns around the number of untested training providers that had made it onto the register, and therefore had access to potentially huge sums of public money.

But only a handful of the visits carried out so far have actually been to genuinely new providers.

SIGTA Limited has “extensive experience” in offering apprenticeships as a subcontractor, which leaders and managers were found to be building on to deliver direct levy-funded provision, according to a report published July 11 and based on a visit in mid-June.

Managers at SIGTA “provide a thorough recruitment process” which employers value “highly”, and which results in a “high retention” rate of apprentices remaining on their programme.

Directors and managers at FWD Training and Consultancy “share a vision and ambition” to offer high-quality financial services apprenticeships, according to a report published July 11 and based on a visit in early June.

The provider was a subcontractor from 2014 until it began delivering levy-funded apprenticeships in 2017.

“The majority of apprentices are highly motivated, enjoy their apprenticeship and develop new skills, knowledge and behaviours relevant to their job roles,” the report noted.

Leaders and managers at Northwest Education and Training Limited have “transferred successfully” their previous experience as a subcontractor to a college and private provider since 2013.

They “recruit apprentices with integrity and ensure that each learner is on the right level of programme” and “work closely with employers to select appropriate apprentices”, including reducing the number of apprentices with employers who are “unable to commit to sufficient off-the-job training”.

Leaders at Enfield London Borough Council were praised for establishing a “strong and highly effective supportive internship programme”, in a report published July 9 and based on an inspection in mid-June.

The provider delivers work-placements and work-related qualifications for young adults with learning difficulties and disabilities, and had 12 learners on programme when it was inspected.

These learners “work in a range of placements which reflect their career aspirations, such as horticulture, early years settings and retail outlets” and “benefit from good impartial careers advice and guidance which enable them to make informed decisions about their future careers”, the report said.

Leaders and managers “work effectively” with parents and carers “to support learners to progress into employment”.

“Parents appreciate the opportunity for learners to become more independent in their daily lives,” the report said.

A third monitoring visit report for Learndirect Limited following its ‘inadequate’ verdict last summer was published this week.

While inspectors noted a number of improvements at the troubled provider, leaders were found to have been making ‘insufficient progress’ in ensuring a “smooth transition” for apprentices transferring to other training providers by the end of July, when its government skills contracts finally end.

Two other independent providers held onto the grade two ratings following short inspections this week: Lite (Stockport) Limited, and Focus Training (SW) Limited.

No inspection reports for general FE or sixth colleges, or for employer providers, were published this week.

 

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
SIGTA Ltd 20/06/2018 11/07/2018 M M
FWD Training and Consultancy Limited 05/06/2018 11/07/2018 M M
Northwest Education and Training Limited 25/06/2018 09/07/2018 M M
Learndirect Limited 12/06/2018 09/07/2018 M M

 

Adult and Community Learning Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Enfield London Borough Council 18/06/2018 09/07/2018 2 2

 

Short inspections (remains grade 2) Inspected Published
Lite (Stockport) Limited 19/06/2018 12/07/2018
Focus Training (SW) Limited 14/06/2018 10/07/2018

Minimum 2-month notice period for reduced apprenticeship funding rates

Apprenticeship funding bands currently under review by the Institute for Apprenticeships will be given a minimum two-month notice period if their funding rate is reduced.

But in the case of standards whose funding rate increases, the change will be immediate.

Lucy Rigler (pictured), the IfA’s acting deputy director for funding policy, revealed the extra detail regarding the funding-band review of 31 of the most popular standards at a Westminster Employment Forum on apprenticeships this week.

We expect to make recommendations coming out of the review to the department in August

The review was launched in May at the request of the Department for Education, but information since then has been scarce.

“We’ve been working with all the trailblazer groups involved so they all do have an expected timetable,” Ms Rigler said when questioned on the change by FE Week.

“We expect to make some of the recommendations coming out of the review to the department in August. Some of them will probably be in the cycle after that, so more in the early autumn.

“It is all a bit dependent on how quickly those trailblazer groups are able to mobilise things like getting some expected costs or real costs in from training providers.”

She continued: “Where we have an agreed position, it is out there with the trailblazer groups.

“Where a recommendation is for a funding band to go up it will happen immediately, and where it is going down there will be a minimum period of two months’ notice.”

News of the funding band review rocked the sector after FE Week analysis showed that 21 of the 30 standards with the most starts this academic year are among those involved.

Universities were particularly outraged, as the chartered management degree apprenticeship is one of the 21. Its funding band is already at the maximum upper limit of £27,000. This means its rate has nowhere to go but down, and HE providers would receive less cash to deliver training.

It was predicted that many universities would stop offering degree-level standards if the rate were to drop, as delivering the apprenticeships would become unaffordable.

But both the IfA and DfE argue that a reduction in bands will be welcomed by employers who have felt unable to negotiate with providers on the price of standards, and will provide greater value for money.

As far as the review itself is concerned, early indications suggest that it is going well.

The IfA seems very keen to ensure that there is full input from employers and providers 

“The IfA has been proactive in briefing the apprenticeship trailblazer chairs on the process for the review of the funding bands,” Petra Wilton, director of strategy for the Chartered Management Institute, told FE Week a few weeks after the review commenced.

“The IfA seems very keen to ensure that there is full input from employers and providers in terms of understanding the costs of delivery and to have real insights into the challenges.

“There is a welcome commitment from the IfA that the review should focus on quality, as well as taking into account affordability.”

Another trailblazer member whose standard is under review said its meeting with the IfA went “well and was perfectly amicable”.

The Association of Colleges is a fan of the review process, if it is carried out “carefully”.

“It is right and proper that IfA should review what has happened within standard development since their standards introduction,” Teresa Frith, the association’s senior policy manager, previously told FE Week.

“But we would hope that they will listen carefully to provider concerns about the actual cost of delivery and take these concerns seriously. It is one thing costing apprenticeships to hit a volume target and quite possibly a different thing to fund them for cost-effective delivery.”

Movers and Shakers: Edition 252

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving

Peter Robinson, vice principal, Blackburn College

Start date: August 2018

Previous job: Assistant principal, Heart of Worcestershire College

Interesting fact: Peter once walked for 24 hours non-stop to raise money for charity.

Mary Curnock Cook, former chair, Kensington and Chelsea College

Resigned: July 2018 (replaced by interim chair Ian Valvona)

Previous job: chief executive of University and Colleges Admissions Service

Interesting fact: Mary left school at 16 to become a secretary, and didn’t go to university until she was in her 40s.

Simon Barrable, principal, Portsmouth College

Start date: September 2018

Previous job: deputy principal, Portsmouth College

Interesting fact: Steve started his career teaching history and politics at St Vincent College, Gosport, but before that spent some time living and working in France and the Netherlands.

Zac Aldridge, vice principal, Derwentside College

Start date: May 2018

Previous job: Assistant principal, Gateshead College

Interesting fact: Zac’s allergic to cats, but because his wife insisted they have one, they bought a hairless cat and called him Colonel Sanders.