Does the IfA really believe in degree apprenticeship?

The IfA’s review of the DTSP will be a key test of whether it really listens to employers (and apprentices), says Mandy Crawford-Lee

The Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) has started a review of existing standards on the digital route, which includes the flagship Digital Technology Solutions Professional (DTSP) degree apprenticeship.

To date the DTSP has been the most successful degree apprenticeship. It is used by employers that include Accenture, Capgemini, IBM, Lloyds Bank, Fujitsu and Quicksilva and it’s being offered by a growing number of leading institutions, including Aston University, BPP, the Open University, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Portsmouth and the University of Salford.

We’ve also seen some really new and innovative delivery partnerships that also involve colleges and independent training providers. Employers love it, as do individuals, and early evidence from the Department for Education’s Degree Apprenticeship Development Fund projects suggest it’s having a positive impact on attracting women into tech roles.

There’s one major negative: the twice-run Education and Skills Funding Agency procurement for non-levy-paying employers means a postcode lottery in the availability of DTSP provision for SMEs. But overall we’ve got the rare example of an English approach to vocational learning that’s applauded and, more importantly, is working for employers and fulfilling the objectives of the apprenticeship programme.

So in terms of the IfA review, if it’s meeting a major skills need, is supported by employers and is starting to make an impact on widening participation and access, then given a bit of updating this should be a formality, shouldn’t it?

Unfortunately, no. The problem is the IfA’s so-called “faster and better” approach to approving apprenticeship standards and assessment plans introduced earlier this year, with negligible consultation. And, more specifically, its mandatory qualification rule.

A trailblazer can only specify a mandatory qualification in an apprenticeship standard, including a degree, if it’s a requirement of a professional body, regulator or used in hard-sifting for job interviews.

This will be a key test of whether it believes in degree apprenticeships

The DTSP meets none of these requirements. If the IfA applies its mandatory qualifications rule to the DTSP, the degree will be removed and the IfA will scuttle its own flagship apprenticeship standard.

This would be a tragedy. The trailblazer, large employers and SMEs have all emphasised the importance of the degree in the apprenticeship and its role in opening up a new talent pipeline to senior level digital occupations. Every DTSP degree apprentice I’ve met says the degree is essential to the credibility and standing of the apprenticeship and is a, if not the, key reason why they chose the apprenticeship route.

To resolve this “problem” UVAC has proposed to the Office for Students (OfS, the higher education regulator), the DfE and the IfA that for the institute’s mandatory qualification, the following criterion be introduced:

“Employers through the trailblazer process can also specify a mandatory degree in an apprenticeship where they can demonstrate its inclusion will support social mobility and is in the interests of employers in the sector (eg, the degree ‘professionalises’ an occupation, helps attract new talent, raises performance standards for the occupation).”

Given the OfS’s role in protecting the student interest, and the importance to a student of a degree in terms of national and international recognition, transferability and the breadth of skills developed, OfS supports our proposal. Not to put too fine a point on it, the IfA’s mandatory qualification rule when applied in higher education runs counter to the student interest – it is OfS’s role to protect this “interest”. I also suspect the DfE will want to ensure the future success of the DTSP. But the decision will rest with the IfA.

The IfA’s approach to the review of the DTSP will be a key test of whether it believes in degree apprenticeships, whether it really listens to employers, if it wants to transform apprenticeship in England into an aspirational choice and if it’s committed to ensuring we have an employer-led apprenticeship programme that delivers the skills needed by the UK economy. We would support leaving this one to carry on as it is without tinkering and, instead, concentrate review resources on standards that are less successful at delivering core objectives.

Dame Asha WILL stay on the IfA board despite West Notts resignation

Dame Asha Khemka remains a “valued” Institute for Apprenticeships board member and will not be leaving the role, despite her resignation from West Nottinghamshire College earlier this week.

FE Week reported yesterday that the institute had refused to say if it still backed Dame Asha, more than 48 hours after news broke of her departure from WNC.

This morning a spokesperson finally confirmed that “Dame Asha Khemka remains a valued member of the IfA board”, even though she is no longer a serving principal.

Dame Asha, who led WNC from 2006, stepped down from the top job on Monday following a “special meeting of the board of governors” held “in light of the current challenges faced by the college”.

It was forced to go to the Education and Skills Funding Agency in July for a £2.1 million bailout, just 48 hours before it would have run out of cash.

Dame Asha was one of two college principals appointed to the IfA’s board in January 2017.

She is also a member of the Cabinet Office’s education honours committee, which is responsible for reviewing honours nominations for people involved in education.

This is a fixed-term position, and the Cabinet Office confirmed on Tuesday that she will remain in post until her contract expires.

Dame Asha was one of the most highly-paid principals in the FE sector, with a remuneration package worth £262,000 in 2016/17.

She receives £15,000 a year for her role on the IfA board. Following her appointment last year, a spokesperson for WNC refused to say whether Dame Asha would keep the money herself or give it to the college.

 

IfA silent on support for board member Dame Asha following resignation

The Institute for Apprenticeships has refused to say if it is backing its board member Dame Asha Khemka, after she resigned from West Nottinghamshire College on Monday.  

The former principal was one of just two FE college leaders appointed to the IfA’s board in January last year.

FE Week reported on Monday that she had stepped down from the top job at WNC following a “special meeting of the board of governors” held “in light of the current challenges faced by the college”.

It was forced to go to the Education and Skills Funding Agency in July for a £2.1 million bailout, just 48 hours before it would have run out of cash.

Despite this, the IfA has so far remained silent about Dame Asha’s position on its board – despite numerous enquiries.

However, its website still lists her as one of 10 board members.

According to the job advert for the role, advertised by the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in June 2016, applicants should be “senior figures with expertise in business, employer representatives, academics, and other senior representatives with expertise in particular aspects of apprenticeships and skills”.

Dame Asha is also a member of the Cabinet Office’s education honours committee, which is responsible for reviewing honours nominations for people involved in education.

This is a fixed-term position, and the Cabinet Office has confirmed she will remain in post until her contract expires.

Dame Asha was one of the most highly-paid principals in the FE sector, with a remuneration package worth £262,000 in 2016/17.

In addition she received £15,000 a year for her role on the IfA board. Following her appointment last year, a spokesperson for WNC refused to say whether Dame Asha would keep the money herself or give it to the college.

The college has hit financial troubles in the past year.

Earlier this year WNC blamed changes in apprenticeship subcontracting rules, which reduced their income from management fees, for having to cut more than 100 jobs in an effort to make £2.7 million in savings.

Board minutes from April say the college was running low on reserves which were below the £9 million set in its banking covenants. 

The minutes also reveal the college’s worryingly low cash days – the number of days an organisation can continue to pay its operating expenses given the amount of cash available.

For colleges these are benchmarked by the FE Commissioner at 25 but they sat at just 11 for WNC, according to the minutes.

The college’s accounts for 2016/17 have yet to be published.

Crisis-hit 3aaa up for quick sale – with government support

Beleaguered apprenticeship giant Aspire Achieve Advance has put itself up for sale with the government’s backing.

The decision has been made following a suspension on its recruitment while an Education and Skills Funding Agency investigation is carried out into the company’s achievement rates.

It is the second government investigation into the provider in the last two years.

The company, commonly known as 3aaa, has hired accountancy firm BDO to seek potential bidders.


READ MORE: DfE’s damning ‘Project Vanilla’ investigation into 3aaa

An “investment opportunity” document, code named ‘Project Alphabet’, has been obtained by FE Week and notes the deadline for indicative offers is tomorrow at 5pm.

3aaa finalised a significant cash loan of around £5 million in April from Beechbrook Capital.

FE Week understands that one reason for the sale is because the terms of that loan have been broken and the lender wants to claim their money.

It is also understood that the ESFA is supportive of the sale on the basis that its co-founders, Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson (pictured), will not benefit from it financially.

FE Week approached Beechbrook and a spokesperson said the firm is not prepared to comment other than to say: “As a lender, we remain fully supportive of 3aaa and we wish to see the business continuing to deliver the excellent services it has done in the past.”

BDO’s investment opportunity document states: “Reason For Sale: The ESFA has placed a temporary block on new learners whilst an investigation is undertaken in to achievement rates, prompting the shareholders to seek an exit.

“The investigation relates to a period under the stewardship of the previous management team, which has now been removed from the business.

“A new management team is in-situ and the business is well positioned to deliver an improvement in business performance.

“Alphabet is in pro-active dialogue with the ESFA with a view to lifting the learner block in the shortest period possible.

“The ESFA’s priority is continuity of learning for learners.”

Alphabet is in pro-active dialogue with the ESFA with a view to lifting the learner block in the shortest period possible

The document says 3aaa is a “highly accredited and underlying robust business with new management in place focussed on driving material forecast growth driven by established, high margin, level 3 and 4 course delivery”.

It has an “experienced management team” and circa 500 “highly skilled employees” operating from its national network of training academies.

The document added: “Learners on programme are split across circa 1,700 active customers with circa 1,500 non levy clients and circa 165 levy customers.”

For the year ending 2019 its turnover is £26.6 million.

The ESFA’s current investigation into 3aaa was sparked earlier this year when a whistleblower approached the agency with new claims about its business.

Owing to this, Ofsted declared its latest inspection of the provider, which was expected to result in another ‘outstanding’ rating, as incomplete in June.

Mr Marples and Ms McEvoy-Robinson, who set up 3aaa in 2008, resigned from their roles as the company’s chief executive and main director respectively in September.

The provider was then suspended from recruiting apprentices, but FE Week later revealed that senior employees had been “instructed” to tell its staff to not date any paperwork for “planned enrolments”.

Last week FE Week revealed that 3aaa was subject to a separate government investigation in 2016 which found dozens of funding and success rate “overclaims”. Despite this, it was given a £7 million apprenticeships contract increase in that year.

3aaa had the largest allocation for non-levy apprenticeships last year at nearly £22 million. Its overall ESFA allocations totalled more than £31 million.

 

Decision on management apprenticeship funding bands delayed following employers’ appeal

Three controversial management standards are not among those to have their final funding bands confirmed by the Institute for Apprenticeships today, after the employer group behind them lodged an appeal.

Details of the funding bands for 12 of the 31 standards involved in the IfA’s review, which began in May, were published today following sign-off by the education secretary Damian Hinds.

These did not include the level six chartered manager degree apprenticeship, the level five operations departmental manager nor the level three team leader/ supervisor standard.

All three, which between them accounted for almost 20,000 starts in the first nine months of 2017/18, were set to have their funding rates slashed by between £500 and £5,000 following the review, as reported by FE Week in August.

However, the employer group behind them launched an appeal against the recommendations.

More than 150 employers, including retail giant Tesco, joined forces in late August to protest against the “extensive and highly-damaging cuts”.

The all signed an online appeal, led by the Chartered Management Institute, urging the IfA and the Department for Education to “undertake a full and transparent economic and social impact assessment” before making any final decision.

It’s unclear whether the appeal has been successful.

A spokesperson for the CMI told FE Week in late September that the employer group had formally appealed to the IfA against its recommendations, but was unable to say when a decision was expected.

FE Week has approached the CMI for an update.

According to documents seen by FE Week in August, the IfA’s recommendation for the chartered manager standard was to cut its funding from £27,000 to £22,000.

The level five operational/departmental manager standard is facing a cut from £9,000 to £7,000, while the level three team leader/ supervisor standard is set to be capped at £4,500 – down from £5,000.

The team leader/ supervisor standard is the most popular to date, with 12,080 starts in the first nine months of 2017/18, while the operational/ departmental manager is the fourth most popular with 5,530 starts over the same time period.

And there have been 1,750 starts on the level six standard, making it the most popular degree apprenticeship.

The funding band review was launched in May by the IfA at the request of the DfE.

Its aim is to “help make sure that employers can access high quality apprenticeships and that funding bands represent good value for money for employers and government”.

Any recommendations from the review are subject to possible appeal by the employer group followed by final sign-off by Mr Hinds.

Once confirmed any increases will take effect from October 6, while any decreases will come into effect from January 1.

IfA funding band review: 12 of 31 standards signed off by education secretary

Final funding bands for 12 of the standards that were part of the Institute for Apprenticeships’ review have been published, following sign off by the education secretary Damian Hinds.

Of the 12, seven have had their funding cut and three have remained the same, while a further two have had their funding rate increased.

Funding band reductions will take effect on January 1, while increases take effect from October 6, the IfA said today.

Reviewed funding bands for the remaining 19 standards have not yet been sent to Mr Hinds, including the controversial management apprenticeship standards.

The IfA has said it expects the process will be finalised in late 2018. 

Explaining the review, the IfA today said: “We used our new funding process, adapted to reflect that these standards are already being delivered. Throughout the process, we worked collaboratively with trailblazers to ensure the review was carried out in an open way.

“As part of this process we considered a range of factors, including the costs submitted by providers, advice from trailblazers, data we hold, consistency across similar apprenticeship standards and the expertise of our route panels and a provider panel.”

The institute claims to have only recommended changes to current funding bands where “there is evidence that justifies a change”.

It added: “The Institute is working closely with DfE to monitor the impact of these funding band changes over the coming months. We will continue our work to bring more standards into the new 30-band structure.”

This is the first time the IfA has publicly revealed the funding band changes, having previously refused to share them while they were still at the recommendation stage.

However, a number of employer groups shared the outcomes with FE Week, including those behind the healthcare, customer service and aviation ground specialist standards, which have all had their final rates confirmed today.

In addition to the three management standards, the retailer standard is also missing from today’s list.

FE Week reported in August that it was set to have its funding cap reduced from £5,000 to £4,000.

The IfA’s funding band review, launched in May, was intended to “help make sure that employers can access high quality apprenticeships and that funding bands represent good value for money for employers and government”.

It covers 31 standards – including some of the most popular.

Analysis at the time the review was launched found that the 31 represented 64 per cent of all starts on standards for the first half of 2017/18 (45,900 out of 71,720).

Why getting QTLS is on teachers’ to-do lists

When it comes to developing their careers, more teachers and trainers in further education are opting to gain QTLS status. Here three of them explain how it’s enhanced their practice, as well as their prospects.

Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status is the badge of professionalism for practitioners in the Further Education and Training sector, conferred by the Society for Education and Training. It offers participants an opportunity to develop their teaching practice, gain recognition for their skills, and widen their career prospects, and its parity with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) also allows those who achieve it the flexibility to teach in schools. But what do teachers who’ve gained the status believe it’s done for them personally?

Opening up career progression

Tom Hardy completed his PGCE in 2017. When he took a new role in a Pupil Referral Unit at  Grimsby’s Phoenix Park Academy, both he and the school had one eye on his professional development.

“Senior management said they saw additional opportunities for me, and that getting another qualification would help me progress,” he says. “Some roles require you to have QTS or QTLS, so it was a necessity.”

He chose to undertake QTLS – a six-month ‘professional formation’ that required him to build an online portfolio to benchmark his practice, create a professional development plan, record his CPD, and reflect critically on the development of his teaching.

It was QTLS’ practical focus that appealed to Hardy: “I could have taken the QTS route, but QTLS suited me better. In my environment, I knew it would be beneficial to build a profile of the students, reflect on my own practice and think about how I could improve.

“And now I’ve achieved it, the school is exploring additional opportunities and responsibilities for me.”

Gaining professional recognition

For Jeminiyi Ogunkoya, Qualifications and Development lead for disability and mental health organisation Certitude, QTLS offered a way to gain recognition of her professional status and commitment to developing her own and others’ practice.

“I need to set an example in terms of how I measure the practice of the teachers, trainers, and assessors I work with,” she explains. “My organisation needs someone who knows how to carry out teaching and learning training, and develop the staff.

“Through QTLS I was able to reflect on and align my own practices with the needs of my learners. Now I know that whatever I am doing is in line with the [professional] standards.

“I recently had an inspection rated Outstanding. When my tutors and trainers come and shadow me, they can pick up on good practice. Through standardisation, I can tell them, ‘this is how we’re going to share it.’

Building confidence, benefiting learners

Liam James, Sports Lecturer and Course Co-ordinator at Weston College in Weston Super Mare, says that QTLS not only boosted his confidence and skills, but also had a positive impact on his learners.

“It made me reflect on how I teach,” he says. “There were things I was doing just because I’d learned them in teacher training, but having that chance to step back and think helped me to adapt each session, because not everyone learns in the same way.”

“Now I’m always discussing ideas, trying to be a bit more innovative and make things better suited to the learner.”

James has also applied that approach to the coordination of the course as a whole. “I’ve raised my standards and the culture to a more professional level,” he says. “Now more employers want to work with us, and the feedback we receive when our learners go into the industry is that they are ready for work.”

All three professionals say that getting QTLS has improved their practice, benefitted their learners and had a positive impact on wider organisational culture.

“I’m giving a better service to the students now,” says Hardy. “They’re more comfortable in the learning environment, and making more progression.”

Ogunkoya encourages anyone considering QTLS to take the plunge. “You’ll develop your knowledge, and help the people you work with to develop theirs. You will not regret it.”

 

For more information about undertaking QTLS, visit set.et-foundation.co.uk/qtls. Registration is open now.

 

Revealed: The 21 colleges that will share £40m Maths Centres of Excellence cash

The names of the 21 colleges selected to receive funding as Maths Centres of Excellence have been revealed.

The centres are designed to test and share new ways to teach students who are re-sitting their maths GCSEs, and will share £40 million over the next five years.

The programme will be expected to design new and improved teaching approaches, develop teaching resources, build up teachers’ skill and spread best practice through maths networks.

Plans for the centres were first announced in last year’s Autumn Budget to improve the quality of basic maths provision for low attaining post-16 learners.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, welcomed the announcement “not just of additional funding, but of the recognition that colleges are best placed to support people to achieve the skills they need to be successful in work and in life.”

He added: “However, we are in the middle of a teacher recruitment and retention crisis. If we want to keep great teachers teaching, government needs to not just focus on teacher development, but teacher pay – and that requires proper investment in colleges.”

Colleges were eligible to apply to become a Maths Centre of Excellence in May if they had at least 250 students with prior attainment in GCSE maths that is below grades 9-4.

At the time, the Department for Education said the programme would work “through trialling pedagogical approaches and sharing this expertise across the post-16 sector.

“At this stage, we expect that the centres could be grant funded with a minimum of £140,000 per annum and up to a maximum of £300,000 per annum, depending on the total number of centres that the panel wishes to fund and the quality of the agreed plans.”

If the £40 million funding is divided equally, each of the 21 institutions will receive over £38,000 a year for each of the five years.

The 21 colleges selected are:

New College Stamford, Lincolnshire

Leicester College

Cambridge Regional College

Harlow College, Essex

Leyton Sixth Form College, London

Newham College of Further Education, London

Christ the King Sixth Form College, London

Gateshead College

Lakes College West Cumbria

Tameside College

Nelson and Colne College, Lancashire

Fareham College, Hampshire

East Kent College

Greater Brighton Metropolitan College

Weston College of Further and Higher Education, Somerset

City College Plymouth

Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group

Warwickshire College Group

Leeds City College

Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education, Lincolnshire

Wilberforce College, Hull

Hinds reveals £38m T-levels capital funding boost

The education secretary will announce a £38 million capital funding boost for schools and colleges in the first wave of T-levels.

Damian Hinds (pictured) is expected to tell the Conservative party conference in Birmingham today the government will be investing the money in “cutting edge equipment and facilities”, including computers and equipment for those studying digital pathways and heavy plant and machinery for those taking construction.

The funding is expected to be available from spring next year, before the first T-levels begin in September 2020.

There are three different pathways in the first wave of the new post-16 technical qualifications: digital (production, design and development), childcare and education and construction (planning and design).

Although 54 providers have been selected so far to deliver the digital and childcare and education pathways, those chosen for construction are still unknown. A spokesperson for the Department for Education said more information on the remaining providers should be available this month.

This means the £38 million will be shared between an unknown total number of providers, with each likely to receive less than £700,000.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, called the announcement “a sure sign that the government is pushing ahead with its plans” but warned that T-levels will not be “a silver bullet solution”. 

“We must, though, be realistic as well,”  he added. “T-levels, particularly in the early years, will involve relatively small numbers of young people. There will remain hundreds of thousands of 16-18-year-olds and more than a million adults in colleges across England on different routes that also need capital and better revenue funding if we are to deliver a successful economy and strong communities post-Brexit. 

“The government can’t continue to overlook these in the hope that T-levels will be a silver bullet solution. In isolation, they will not be. 

“There is a genuine commitment across government to deliver a world class technical education system. To do that, we need to invest in every college, across the breadth of their students.”

T-levels have been designed to increase the prestige of technical qualifications, as match for A-levels.

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

A subsequent announcement in October 2017 revealed that pathways in just three subject areas would go live in the first year. The remaining subject routes will be fully rolled out by 2023.

In May this year, it emerged that Mr Hinds had refused a request from the DfE’s permanent secretary Jonathan Slater to delay T-levels until 2021.

In a letter to Mr Slater, he said he was “convinced of the case to press ahead”.

 “The delivery of T-levels in 2020 is focused in a measured way on a small number of T-levels in a small number of providers,” he added. “I want us now to put all of our collective weight behind delivering these T-levels to begin in 2020.”

The names of 21 colleges chosen to be Maths Centres of Excellence were also announced today. The colleges will share £66 million over the next years with 32 schools selected to be regional English hubs.