Have hopes for the new national colleges been derailed?

Nearly three years ago the government pledged to create five national colleges that would train more than 20,000 students between them by 2020. Over the weekend one of these, the National College for High Speed Rail, hit the headlines after it emerged it had just 93 learners last year. That prompted FE Week to take a closer look at all the national colleges – uncovering inadequate financial health, special treatment and below-target learner numbers.

Almost a year ago to the day, the National College for High Speed Rail (NCHSR) was opened with great fanfare.

Justine Greening, then education secretary, was all smiles as she cut the ribbon at the college’s Doncaster campus, declaring it a “win-win for everyone”.

But behind the positive front, a funding battle was raging that threatened to derail the college’s very future – and that is still affecting it now.

Although extreme, this isn’t the only case of a national college struggling.

But, as FE Week discovered, none of them will suffer the usual penalties for weak financial performance due to their “unique position” – even though most are in debt and under-recruiting.

Plans for the five colleges were first confirmed in the 2015 spending review, which said they would “train an estimated 21,000 students by 2020 in industries central to the productivity agenda such as digital and high-speed rail”.

The following May, the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced £80 million of government investment for the colleges, of which half would go to the NCHSR.

Two colleges, the National College for Digital Skills, known as Ada, based in London, and the National College Creative Industries (NCCI), in Essex, both opened their doors in 2016/17.

NCHSR, which has campuses in Birmingham and Doncaster, started in 2017/18, as did the National College for Nuclear, based in two hubs, at Bridgwater and Taunton College and Lakes College.

A fifth, the National College for Onshore Oil and Gas, was supposed to open in the same year, but has yet to get off the ground.

NCCI was in “inadequate” financial health in 2016/17, according to its financial statements.

Minutes from a July board meeting at Ada revealed that it was projected to fall to this financial rating in the current academic year, although this projection was later revised, a spokesperson said.

The minutes acknowledged that “under normal circumstances an ‘inadequate’ financial health rating would result in intervention measures in the sector but it was acknowledged that the national colleges were in a unique position during start-up”.

“This was recognised nationally and had been confirmed by Department for Education officials,” they said.

Furthermore, at least three are in receipt of “working capital loan” funding, described by one college as cash to “ensure liquidity and provide short-term funding during the early years of the college’s operations until learner volumes increase”.

Ada has received at least £420,000, according to its 2016/17 financial statements: £140,000 that year, with a further £280,000 expected in 2017/18 – even though its financial health was “satisfactory”.

NCCI’s accounts for the same year show it to have received £650,000 in working-capital-loan funding in July 2017, while the NCSHR received a massive £4.7 million in 2016/17.

FE Week asked the DfE to confirm this special treatment for the national colleges.

In response, a spokesperson said it was “only right that we work with them during their set-up phase while they establish themselves and work towards financial stability”.

All the colleges were offered working-capital loans “to assist in their start-up costs”, she said.

National College for High Speed Rail

Despite receiving more than £55 million in capital funding from BIS, local authorities and industry, the NCHSR had just 93 students enrolled in its first year, according to board minutes.

This was less than half the 226 learners it had forecast to have on board, it was acknowledged in its 2016/17 financial statements.

Nonetheless, it still set itself an ambitious target of 639 learners for this September, according to minutes from a board meeting in May: so ambitious that it prompted a team from the Education and Skills Funding Agency to remark that “they had never seen such growth”.

The driver behind this rapid expansion in learner numbers was simple: money.

The college was hit hard by the Institute for Apprenticeships’ decision in 2017 to award the level-four high-speed rail and infrastructure standard a funding cap of £21,000, rather than £27,000 as anticipated and budgeted for by the college.

The college was hit hard by the Institute for Apprenticeships’ funding cap

The standard has seven pathways and represents half of the college’s current provision.

Minutes from an October 2017 board meeting, just days after Ms Greening’s visit, reveal that the college “would not be viable” at that level of funding, “as for every £1,000 below the level of the higher band it would lose £1 million over five years”.

“The college’s costs had been built based on the quality of its provision that could not be delivered if the funding band was £21,000,” the minutes said.

Despite attempting to enlist the support of Ms Greening to fight their cause, and an appeal by the employer group that developed the standard, the IfA’s decision stood.

According to the college’s 2016/17 financial statements, the impact of this on the college’s income “will be significant over the medium to long term”.

College leaders met with officials from the Department for Education, Department for Transport and HS2 in December to discuss the college’s financial situation, according to board minutes from that month.

“It was clear the departments will not let the college fail, and that they will develop a package to support it,” the minutes said.

Earlier this year the college was forced to renegotiate repayments on a loan it had taken out from HS2, worth millions.

Minutes from a May board meeting show the college to be in discussions with the DfE about further support, although this was contingent on the college “being seen to help itself”.

This included a suggestion that the college “broaden its scope” as it was “underselling itself by restricting its remit to high-speed rail”.

Of the 14 courses the college currently offers, nine are focused on high-speed rail. The remainder are in management or rail engineering, and it has plans to introduce five new courses – including one in train driving.

“Recognising the transferability of the skills gained at the college and how they can be applied in transport and infrastructure is key to matching the aspirations of our learners and businesses that come to the college, and is a focus of our ongoing discussions with DfE and our wider network of industry partners,” said Martin Owen, the college’s commercial finance director.

“We are proud of what we have achieved in launching the world’s first dedicated high-speed rail college,” he added.

No further funding support for the college has been agreed at this time, confirmed the DfE.

An IfA spokesperson said: “The Institute strives to make recommendations that support high-quality training whilst delivering value for money for employers and government.”

National College for Digital Skills

Ada received £18.2 million from the London local-enterprise partnership’s further education capital fund, and £13.4 million from the government, and had 56 students when it opened in September 2016.

Those numbers are now up to 130 learners in its sixth form, and 125 apprentices working for companies including Google, Siemens and Deloitte, a spokesperson told FE Week.

She admitted that its enrolment was lower than forecast, but said the college had been forced to “constrain our numbers” as the larger premises it was due to move into this year were not yet ready.

The college is also under considerable financial strain.

Minutes from meetings in February and May reveal concerns from board members about its reliance on fundraising to cover core costs, with question raised over “whether Ada will ever break even purely with government funding”.

Robert Halfon at the launch of Ada in October 2016

Its 2016/17 financial statements show that it received £140,000 in working-capital-loan funding from the Department for Education that year, with a further £280,000 expected in 2017/18 – although its financial health was “satisfactory”.

The cash was to “ensure liquidity and provide short-term funding during the early years of the college’s operations until learner volumes increase”, according to the accounts.

Board minutes from February indicate that the college was in discussions with the DfE about “whether we can delay the repayments” on this loan.

An Ada spokesperson said the college was on track to break even in 2018/19, and go into surplus next year.

“Breaking even within three years of operation exceeds expectations,” she said.

Fundraising was essential to enable the college to “go beyond what is possible in many education environments”, she added, and referred to “the high levels of industry support” it received.

She said the college was “doing really well. We have had some fantastic successes and are incredibly proud of what we’re achieving here”.

National College Creative Industries

The NCCI was allocated £5.5 million from the public purse and opened at the same time as Ada with just 16 students.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it had already fallen into ‘‘inadequate” fiscal health in 2016/17, according to its financial statements.

They show it had an operating deficit of £165,020 for the year, and were forecasting further deficits over the following three years.

The college had agreed a £650,000 working-capital loan with the DfE in July 2017, and a further £263,000 from Creative and Cultural Skills, the sector skills council.

But as it had revised down its initial student forecasts “because of the risks associated with the original recruitment profile”, the college was therefore “seeking to renegotiate the repayment terms”.

An NCCI spokesperson said that the college’s original plans had been “out of kilter” with the needs of industry and the “start-up nature” of the college.

Its revised plans “more closely align to the needs of the industry for higher level work-based training” and had led to its level-two classroom-based provision being scrapped, she said.

It currently has 27 learners and 59 apprentices enrolled – although the spokesperson insisted it was “confident it was on track to recruit over 450” students altogether in 2018/19.

Achieving this would be represent a “four-fold increase on the previous year”, she said.

National College for Nuclear

The National College for Nuclear has a different set-up from the other existing national colleges, in that it isn’t a college in its own right.

Instead, it operates out of two hubs: its northern hub, based at Lakes College in Cumbria, and its southern hub, based at Bridgwater and Taunton College in Somerset, through which the college’s learners and apprentices are enrolled.

The DfE provided £15 million to cover the cost of new buildings and equipment, while the Heart of the South West local-enterprise partnership contributed a further £3 million to the southern hub, and Bridgwater and Taunton put in £4.5 million.

It opened in September 2017, when it had 111 learners enrolled.

A further 357 learners have started courses across the two hubs in 2018/19, bringing the total to 468.

A spokesperson said the college was “pleased with our start-up progress in a challenging environment for education and skills”.

National College for Onshore Oil and Gas

The National College for Onshore Oil and Gas (NCOOG) was allocated £5.6 million in 2016 by BIS, along with equipment donations from industry.

It was set to open in September 2017, but has yet to materialise.

Martin York, the college’s managing director, said the onshore oil and gas industry – otherwise known as fracking – was in development and as yet was still “identifying its future workforce requirements”.

“NCOOG will launch and develop in partnership with industry,” he said.

“When NCOOG is confident of the industry’s requirements, delivery of the colleges funding and support package will be progressed; until we reach this stage I am pleased to confirm that NCOOG does not require or is seeking any third-party funding.”

A DfE spokesperson confirmed that development of the college had been paused.

Ofsted watch: A mostly positive week for FE and skills

It’s been a mostly positive week for FE and skills, with one provider receiving a grade two on its first ever full inspection and five early monitoring visit reports returning ‘reasonable’ grades.

The only blemishes on this otherwise glowing picture are two apprenticeship providers found to be making ‘insufficient’ progress.

Leaders at independent learning provider 1st Care Training, based in King’s Lynn, have “worked well to establish a culture of ambition for all learners” according to a report published October 11 and based on an inspection a month earlier.

Teachers at the provider, which offers apprenticeships and loans-funded provision for the care sector, provide “good individual training” to learners which meets their “specific needs and supports their workplace and employment ambitions well”.

Achievement rates were “extremely high”, with all but one learner completing their courses on time in 2017/18.

Learners make “good progress” at work, and many “reach management positions or gain additional responsibilities” as a result of their training.

Four independent providers and one employer provider have had apprenticeship early monitoring visit reports published this week that found them to be making ‘reasonable progress’ in all areas.

These were Train Together, in Leicester; Seymour Davies Ltd, in Cambridgeshire; Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust; Cheshire-based Partnership Training Limited; and Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.

In contrast, Kashmir Youth Project, in Rochdale, was found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in two out of three areas under review, in a report published October 5 and based on a visit in early September.

The provider, which began as a voluntary and community organisation in 1979, first started delivering apprenticeship training in 2005 as a subcontractor before gaining a place on the register of apprenticeship training providers in May 2017.

Governors, leaders and managers “have a clear focus and vision for the future” but “have not focused sufficiently on the delivery of the new apprenticeship contract”, the report said.

They have “identified several weaknesses” but “have not acted quickly enough to eliminate them”.

Managers have not ensured that all “apprentices receive their full entitlement to off-the-job training time during working hours”.

“Apprentices do not develop substantial new knowledge, skills and behaviour,” the report said.

Trainers and tutors were also criticised for failing to “check the progress and understanding of all apprentices” and for giving “insufficient” feedback to apprentices.

As previously reported by FE Week, Cumbria-based NC Training Limited was found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in a report published October 11 and based on a visit in mid-September.

Both NC Training and Kashmir Youth Project face being barred from taking on new apprentices until they’ve been rated at least ‘requires improvement’ for their apprenticeship provision, following a full inspection.

This should take place within 12 months of the monitoring visit.

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
1st Care Training Limited 11/09/2018 11/10/2018 2 –
Train Together 11/09/2018 05/10/2018 M M
Seymour Davies Ltd 12/09/2018 09/10/2018 M M
Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust 25/09/2018 12/10/2018 M M
NC Training Limited 18/09/2018 11/10/2018 M M
Partnership Training Limited 18/09/2018 11/10/2018 M M
Kashmir Youth Project 11/09/2018 05/10/2018 M M

 

Employer providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust Foundation Trust 11/09/2018 10/09/2018 M M

DfE refers 3aaa to police following investigation

The Department for Education has referred Aspire Achieve Advance to the police following its investigation into the crisis-hit provider.

The company, known as 3aaa, was put into administration today following a second government investigation regarding claims about inflated achievement rates.

This newspaper can now reveal that the DfE has referred their findings to the police via Action Fraud – the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.

The case has now been passed onto Derbyshire Constabulary who will lead on enquiries.

“We have terminated our contracts with 3aaa. Our priority now is to find new training providers as quickly as possible for the affected learners,” a spokesperson for the DfE said.

“We have put a specialist team in place to identify new providers and help learners with as little disruption as possible. Following our investigation we have referred our findings to the police, through Action Fraud.

“We will look very carefully at what lessons can be learned as a result of this investigation.”

A Derbyshire Constabulary spokesperson said: “Derbyshire Constabulary has received a referral from Action Fraud in relation to 3AAA and enquiries are ongoing.”

The first ESFA investigation into 3aaa, carried out in 2016 by auditing firm KPMG, found dozens of success rate “overclaims”. Despite the findings, the DfE awarded the provider £7 million in growth that year.

3aaa received over £31 million in government funding last year and had the largest allocation for non-levy apprenticeships – standing at nearly £22 million.

The company’s co-founders, Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson, resigned last month in the midst of the DfE’s second investigation.

DfE wastes £2.3m on UTCs and studio schools that never opened

The Department for Education has wasted more than £2.3 million over the last five years on studio schools, UTCs and post-16 free schools that never even opened.

Figures obtained by FE Week’s sister paper FE Week reveal a staggering £2,331,888 has been written off for nine planned providers cancelled between May 2013 and January 2018.

The biggest loss was from the Powerlist Post 16 Leadership College, which was expected to open in London in September 2015 but was scrapped that month instead.

A joint venture between The Powerlist Foundation and the Aspirations Academy Trust, the cancelled college cost the DfE more than £467,000, including over £200,000 in capital losses.

Four university technical colleges also make the list, costing over £1 million between them.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The way taxpayers’ money is awarded to education projects should be transparent and above board, yet these examples raise questions about the level of scrutiny being applied to applications when the recipient schools are well-connected within government circles.”

But Mark Lehain interim director of the New Schools Network, a charity which supports the setup of free schools said establishing a school is “a big challenge”, and it is “only right” the DfE cancels the “small proportion” of cases that don’t develop as planned.

Burton and South Derbyshire UTC, developed in partnership with Burton and South Derbyshire College, was given over £8 million of government funding before being scrapped in May 2016.

This year the abandoned campus became a sixth form centre for the de Ferrers academy trust, but the DfE still accrued a loss of over £400,000 on the project.

UTC Guildford was supposed to open this year, but was scrapped in March 2017 at a cost of £408,000. Its trustees, which included Royal Holloway University and Surrey County Council, said at the time the DfE was “no longer supportive of the project”.

Planned engineering specialist Birkenhead UTC was backed by local employers including shipbuilder Cammell Laird, but was cancelled in May 2013 at a cost of almost £11,000. Liverpool Engineering and Logistics UTC, which counted City of Liverpool College, Liverpool John Moores University and engineering company Laing O’Rourke within its trustees, cost over £245,000 when it was scrapped in August 2014.

Two studio schools – Digital Studio College Derby and London’s Aldridge Centre for Entrepreneurship – cost over £560,000 when they were scrapped.

The most recent free school to have its plans rejected was the North West Leeds Sixth Form Centre, which was cancelled in January this year – eight months before it was due to open – at a cost of £121,864.

The scrapped projects were only identified by the department in the last academic year as a result of “improved financial management” and had not been previously reported, despite some dating back to 2013.

A DfE spokesperson said all free school projects “go through a robust approval process”.

Colleges to march on parliament in funding protest

Up to 3,000 people are expected to march on parliament on Wednesday to demand more funding for colleges.

The march for FE, organised by the University and College Union in partnership with the National Union of Students and the Association of Colleges, is the main event taking place during Colleges Week, from October 15 to 19.

The week of action, led by the AoC, aims to “make a lot more noise” about the funding issues affecting the sector.

The UCU estimates that between 2,000 and 3,000 people will show their support for FE that day, with colleges around the country laying on coaches to get protestors to the march.

Two London colleges are even cancelling classes that day so their teachers and learners can attend.

Matt Waddup, the UCU’s head of policy and campaigns, said that staff, learners and college leaders will “march together on Wednesday because colleges are getting a raw deal on funding”.

“Colleges are increasingly unable to compete with schools and universities to retain staff, and budget cuts have led to fewer local learning opportunities for people to upskill and retrain,” he said.

“We need urgent public investment in our colleges and their staff – without it, we risk squandering the potential of millions of people.”

The march will start out from Waterloo Place at 12.45pm, before heading to a rally in Parliament Square from 1.30pm.

Speakers will include shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, AoC chief executive David Hughes and NUS president Shakira Martin.

New City College is closing its four campuses, at Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Redbridge and Epping Forest, that day, its group principal Gerry McDonald said.

“Staff will be free to lobby, march, write to their MPs and meet with stakeholders to really explain the value of what we do and how much we need the years of underinvestment to end,” he said.

Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College is also understood to be closing for the day.

Emily Chapman, NUS vice president for FE, said the union was working to “make sure all colleges are represented in this crucial week for the future of FE”.

This included working with the AoC to ensure student unions were represented, and with principals to provide coaches to Westminster on the day.

As well as the march on parliament, college leaders, staff and students will lobby MPs that day to plead the case for more funding for FE.

Throughout the week, colleges across the country will be putting on their own events and “inviting the local community to celebrate the impact that colleges have”, an AoC spokesperson said.

Colleges Week was prompted by the Department for Education’s decision to fund a 3.5 per cent pay rise for school teachers while ignoring college lecturers – an announcement that left AoC boss David Hughes “angry” and “frustrated”.

“The issue is we are in a very tight funding financial constraint position with government so we have to make a lot more noise and get a lot more students, staff, parents, employers, stakeholders, partners to advocate for colleges,” he told FE Week last month.

Multi-academy trust backs chair embroiled in 3aaa police probe

An expanding academy trust is backing its chair despite the government referring his giant private training provider to the police following a second investigation.

Peter Marples (pictured), a multi-millionaire businessman who co-founded 3aaa in 2008, joined the Spencer Academies Trust in December 2015 as a trustee and became its chair in the 2016/17 academic year.

He also heads the trust’s resources and remuneration committees.

Since launching in 2011, the trust has grown to sponsoring 12 schools. This month it took on four more and will take on another one next month following a “merger” with the Trent Academies Group.

Mr Marples resigned from his position at 3aaa last month in the midst of a second Education and Skills Funding Agency investigation, but continued to be its joint majority shareholder with co-founder Di McEvoy-Robinson.

The Department for Education has now referred their investigation findings to the police through Action Fraud. 3aaa has since gone into administration after the department pulled its skills contracts – which totalled over £31 million last year.

More than 500 jobs and the future of 4,500 apprentices are at risk.

Despite the scandal, the Spencer Academies Trust appears to be fully supportive of Mr Marples.

“Peter is a highly respected, valued and effective chairman of our trust,” a spokesperson for the trust said. “We do not comment on matters outside of the Trust.”

When asked for comment, the DfE said it was a matter for the trust.

“Appointments to positions within academy trusts are the responsibility of the trusts themselves; academy trusts must make sure they comply with the terms set out in both their funding agreement and the articles of association, both of which consider suitability tests for key personnel,” a spokesperson said.

FE Week made multiple attempts to contact Mr Marples but he did not respond. He has taken down his LinkedIn and Facebook page in the last couple of days.

According to the trust’s accounts for 2016/17, 3aaa supplied “apprenticeship services” to the Spencer Academies Trust to the value of £11,600, which was “subject to normal procurement procedure”.

The Trent Academies Group will now operate under the Spencer Academies Trust name following the “merger”, and will be “led by” chief executive Paul West and Mr Marples.

The enlarged group will comprise 18 schools which will teach 17,000 students across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

The trust said that with anticipated future growth, including the construction of new schools, “nearly 20,000 East Midlands’ pupils and students will be educated in the trust by 2020”.

This was the second government investigation into 3aaa. The first, carried out in 2016 by auditing firm KPMG, found dozens of success rate “overclaims”. Despite the findings, the DfE awarded the provider £7 million in growth that year.

In July FE Week revealed that an independent auditor had been called in by the Department for Education to investigate its own funding agency over their contract management of 3aaa.

Concerns raised about the quality of maths centres for excellence

The government has insisted “quality” was a factor in choosing 21 colleges to share £40 million funding as maths centres of excellence after concerns over their achievement rates.

The centres for excellence will test and disseminate new ways to improve the teaching of maths to learners who are resitting maths GCSEs, and will share the cash over five years.

The chosen colleges were revealed last week, but eyebrows have been raised over some pass rates at the selected institutions.

According to the Department for Education’s official data for 2016-17, the average A*-C pass rate for general FE colleges was 24.8 per cent, and 39.4 per cent for sixth-form colleges.

However, four colleges and two sixth-form colleges that have been selected as centres for excellence have pass rates below the average.

 All six had an A*-C pass rate of less than 25 per cent, with Leyton Sixth Form College in east London at the bottom of the table at just 12.8 per cent.

It is followed by Leeds City College on 17.3 per cent, Tameside College on 18.4 per cent and Christ the King Sixth Form College in south London on 19.2 per cent.

Two college groups – Greater Brighton Metropolitan College and Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group – also came in below average, at 24.2 and 24.3 per cent respectively.

A DfE spokesperson said all colleges picked for the programme “passed the necessary eligibility criteria and were selected based on their leadership qualities, networks in the sector and the quality of their proposed approach”.

FE Week was told the eligibility criteria included the quality of proposed teaching approaches, student support, maths “credibility and capacity”, leadership and networks.

Gill Burbridge, principal of Leyton Sixth Form College, said the A*-C pass rate was so low because they enter all learners for GCSE resits “regardless of their prior achievement”, and pointed to their high progress rates.

“We still have work to do to get more students on higher grades, but that’s part of a national issue and that is what this funding is part of addressing,” she said.

“We are really thrilled to have been given this opportunity. At a time when we are significantly underfunded in terms of base funding, to be able to access some additional funding to work on a priority area like GCSE maths is really good, and a real opportunity for the young people here and in the organisations we work with.”

Louise Turner, director of academic support at Leeds City College, also said their focus was “progression”, and added: “We focus on liberating students from the pressures of believing that only high grades count.”

 Progress scores do not always fully reflect the achievements of learners at FE providers, as those who cannot sit exams are automatically given a negative score.

Paul James, deputy principal for curriculum and quality at New College Swindon, said he was concerned about institutions without strong outcomes getting the badge of “centre for excellence”, and said the sector must “commit to clarity about our own performances”.

“I wonder how long it will be before the successful colleges start branding themselves as centres for excellence for maths in marketing materials,” he said.

“The title is value-laden and has the potential to significantly miscommunicate the institution’s position in respect of the challenges they are facing.

 “Many applicants will rely on word of mouth, local marketing and reputation to make judgements, and in this respect I worry the centre for excellence may mislead.”

Revealed: 37 colleges and providers chosen for first wave of Taking Teaching Further funding

The first colleges to train 80 industry experts as teachers for part of the £5 million Taking Teaching Further scheme have been announced.

The programme seeks to recruit industry specialists and retrain them to work in the post-16 and FE workforce, in an attempt to bring in more “diverse experiences and skills”.

The scheme was unveiled in June, when it was announced that each provider would receive up to £20,000 to train up to five “experienced industry professionals” in a level-five diploma in education and training.

This first round will focus on “priority sectors”, including T-levels in the fields of education and childcare, digital and construction, as well as engineering and manufacturing and other STEM subjects.

On Friday, skills minister Anne Milton revealed the initial 23 providers who will take part in the programme and recruit 80 “expert” teachers, comprising 20 colleges, a county council and two independent learning providers.

Also announced were 20 providers who will split £900,000 in funding to run “innovative projects”, exploring how industry and FE can work together.

Some lucky institutions appear on both lists, and will be receiving money for both training industry experts and creating innovative projects, including Calderdale College, East Kent College, Northampton College, Petroc College, Walsall College and the Learning Skills Partnership.

“We are transforming technical education in this country with the introduction of new T-levels,” Ms Milton said. “We want staff with industry skills to pass on their expertise to the next generation.

“I’m thrilled that we have a chance to bring industry to colleges and it will be exciting to see the differences they can make to their colleges and the students they teach.”

David Russell, chief executive of the Education and Training Foundation, which is managing the programme, said it will “add significant impetus to the recruitment of world-class teachers and trainers into FE”.

“Those who have been successful in this first tranche will set a new benchmark for bringing in talent and expertise to improve technical teaching and support the development of our brilliant FE workforce.”

The next round of the Taking Teaching Further programme will open for applications in December. 

The providers hosting the first TTF teachers 

Blackpool and the Fylde College 

Bridgewater and Taunton College

Buckinghamshire College Group 

Calderdale College

Capital City College Group 

City College Norwich 

City College Plymouth 

East Kent College 

Grimsby Institute 

Kirklees College 

Lakes College

Learning Skills Partnership 

Leicester College 

Northampton College 

Northumberland County Council 

Oldham College 

Petroc College 

Reaseheath College 

St Helens Chamber

Tameside College 

Walsall College

West Suffolk College

 

Providers to run first projects

Abingdon and Witney College

Bath College

Blackburn College

Bournemouth and Poole College

Calderdale College

DN Colleges Group 

East Kent College

Genius Solutions 

Greater Manchester Learning Provider Network 

Harlow College

Learning Skills Partnership 

London South East Colleges

North Kent College

Northampton College

Petroc College

Sandwell College

The Consortium of Vocational and Educational Trainers

The Isle of Wight College 

Walsall College 

Weston College

 

 

 

Government needs to improve access to apprenticeships

This week the education select committee published a wide-ranging report on the government’s apprenticeship record. It highlighted failings in apprenticeship policy, process and delivery that we, along with sector bodies, have articulated for months – often in this newspaper. But what needs highlighting from this report is the importance not just of the apprenticeship but of the apprentice.

This is a priority that’s long overdue for this government. What is the point of the skills minister waxing lyrical about our young people’s success in world skills competitions if her department takes little notice of young apprentices? My Labour colleagues and I have repeatedly held the government to account for failing to utilise the Panel of Apprentices.

The select committee touched on the government’s consistent failure to support underrepresented groups adequately. That is why we have long-standing pledges to set targets to increase apprenticeships for people with disabilities, care leavers and veterans, and ensure greater representation of women, BAME, LGBT and people with disabilities – and tried to get them included in the Institute for Apprenticeships’ priorities when it was set up.

Improving access and participation are fine words, but how do we give them sharp edges? The report references witnesses, as diverse as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Central YMCA, on what might be done by way of pre-apprenticeship support – establishing an apprenticeship access fund is one possibility.

That could be a useful start, but what’s equally important is encouraging young people to see the potential for their futures at a much earlier age. I have been saying we need to be engaging young people as early as nine and 10 in school about the options available via apprenticeships. That also needs hard wiring into careers advice, to go beyond the Baker clause into a more sustained holistic strategy, giving young people a taster of the variety and excitement that the apprentice route can offer.

Here again, utilising the talents of the IfA apprentices panel, alongside the National Society of Apprentices, the Industry Apprentice Council and the expanding WorldSkills champions programme, is the right way to cut through and promote the social mobility we need. In the world of the 2020s, where bespoke skills and enabling ones will have to combine in people’s lives with more traditional qualifications, that sort of early exposure will be critical.

Establishing an apprenticeship access fund is one possibility

Traineeships, or pre-apprentice training, remains the great potential lever to expand that social mobility by getting more young people to the starting line for top-quality apprenticeships. Since traineeships were announced, the government has failed miserably to put the incentives, the marketing or the resources into them, and to remove the barriers in regulations between the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education that stymie them for many young people. It is good to see the committee and its witnesses, including the EEF (the manufacturers’ organisation), raising these issues again.

The report mentions the Care to Learn scheme, which gives financial support to parents under the ages of 20 who are their child’s primary carer. But what about the same cohort of people who are the primary carers for a parent or sibling? This is a huge, under-recognised issue – in my own constituency in Blackpool we have nearly a thousand teenage carers, some of whom I met recently, in that category. Don’t they deserve a chance to be supported to get on the apprenticeship ladder, to be recognised for their service as carers with aspirations too?

We also need a far stronger definition of what role there is for post-24 apprenticeships in the daunting task of retraining and reskilling millions of adults. Why can’t the money, lost in poor take- up of the government’s failing advanced-learning loans policy, stay in the DfE to fund and support some of the initiatives talked about here? Labour’s new National Education Service, along with our lifelong learning commission, will be focusing sharply on this.