Another early monitoring report uncovers insufficient progress

Another Ofsted early monitoring visit to an apprenticeship provider has resulted in a verdict of ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one area – but the Department for Education has refused to say whether it will take action.

The watchdog’s report into Mears Learning is the fourth of the 11 monitoring reports so far published to have found a provider is below-par in at least one area.

Leaders at Mears Learning, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the housing and social care provider Mears Group, were deemed not to be meeting all the requirements of successful apprenticeship provision.

It joins a rogue’s gallery of Key6 Group, Mooreskills, and Apprentice Team in failing to come up to scratch.

“We will always take action to protect apprentices if a training provider is not fit for purpose,” a spokesperson for the DfE said.

It is “assessing Ofsted’s findings” and will contact the provider to “set out any action we will be taking”.

FE Week exclusively reported last week that Ofsted will have the final say over apprenticeship quality, after the government was embarrassed on accountability at a select committee hearing earlier this month.

Skills minister Anne Milton, along with officials from the Education and Skills Funding Agency and Ofsted, admitted they weren’t quite sure who is responsible for policing apprenticeships.

They were responding to a series of questions about the ESFA’s decision to allow Key6 Group to continue to recruit apprentices just two months after Ofsted branded its provision “not fit for purpose”.

“I think the relationship between the ESFA and Ofsted over quality is quite difficult to define and I think we need to define that more clearly,” Ms Milton admitted.

Once it comes into effect, the change will give Ofsted the final word on quality: a monitoring visit resulting in an ‘insufficient progress’ verdict will see a provider booted off the register of apprenticeship training providers.

The visits to new apprenticeship providers are intended to sniff out “scandalous” attempts to waste public money.

So far 11 have been published – the majority for providers that aren’t actually new to apprenticeships.

It’s not clear if Mears Learning is one of these.

Founded in 2015, it started delivering levy-funded apprenticeships in May 2017.

Prior to that it subcontracted for a number of providers, including RNN Group and CITB. However, it’s not clear if any of this was for apprenticeships.

Mears Learning has been approached for a comment.

According to the report, the provider currently has 53 apprentices, all of which are Mears Group employees, on courses in leadership and management, gas engineering and construction.

Leaders’ “self-assessment of the quality of provision and their quality improvement planning” are “not sufficiently evaluative”.

Furthermore, the self-assessment report failed to identify “areas of weakness well enough”, while “actions in the quality improvement plan are not specific enough”.

“As a result, improvements to the quality of provision are too slow,” the report said.

Leaders were also criticised for failing to “take enough action to improve the practice of teaching staff”.

However, the report was more positive on other aspects of the provision.

Leaders ensured that “apprentices receive their entitlement to on- and off-the-job training”, while “teachers and assessors are well qualified and all have relevant industry experience”.

The provider was found to be making “reasonable progress” in establishing and maintaining high-quality apprenticeship provision, and in ensuring that safeguarding arrangements were effective.

T-Levels: Reform should be a marathon not a sprint

With the design consultations for the three early T-level routes continuing at breakneck speed, Julie Hyde makes the case for pumping the breaks

Like many in the sector, my bank holiday weekend was spent digesting the latest developments in the government’s plans for T-levels.

The ministerial direction last Thursday, setting out concerns about the feasibility of delivering the first T-levels by 2020, was extremely telling. Described as “the nuclear option”, the very fact Damian Hinds used it tells you all you need to know about where we are with these crucial reforms.

Frankly, it isn’t that surprising. For months, voices across the FE sector have repeatedly expressed concerns about the short timelines for delivery, and the real risk that without more time and thought, T-levels could be next in a long line of unworkable vocational qualifications, abandoned as quickly as they were introduced.

But will this be enough to make the government think again? So far, it seems not. Indeed, since Thursday’s warning, the reforms have continued at pace.

The government will press ahead with the three routes for delivery in 2020. On Friday, the Institute for Apprenticeships released the outline content for these three routes, and launched a consultation – alarmingly giving providers just a week to feed back, over half term no less! Happily, the deadline has since been extended, but the very short timescale remains unusual for such an important policy.

On Sunday, the government published a response to the consultation on the implementation of T-levels. This recognised some of the key challenges and delayed the rest of the 15 routes until after 2022, which is positive. However, it did little to address the fears of those in sectors like education and childcare, digital and construction, all three of which will still launch in 2020, with mountains of detail yet to be worked out.

The response acknowledges that work placements must be accessible for learners, and proposes a bursary to support students on the first routes. This is extremely welcome, but the practicalities of ensuring that the placements give learners the experience they need go largely unaddressed.  

With time ticking, how long can such important decisions be delayed?

A one-size-fits-all approach for placements in vastly different sectors simply will not work. How can a young person studying childcare gain enough practical experience to be ready to work in an early-years setting after just 45 days? Likewise in other routes, we know a 45-day placement is excessive and unrealistic.

The response also acknowledges the need to ensure that young people with T-levels can progress into higher education, allowing learners to accrue UCAS points. It is now “considering” this, but has not made a definitive decision on the way forward.

With time ticking, how long can such important decisions be delayed?

Young people who are currently in year 9 and considering a vocational route in the three early routes will be expected to study T-levels that do not yet exist, picking them after their GCSEs. By rushing the reforms, the government is risking their future and that of three hugely important sectors crucial to our economy and society.

Overall, recent developments underline a fundamental lack of expertise in terms of qualification design. This is evident in the proposed grading system. Sector best practice is to develop the content for a qualification, before determining a grading model. We have seen the government doing the opposite.

The proposed model seems to add a new layer of complexity. Why award two grades distinguishing between a learner’s knowledge and technical skills? Do we not risk one element being more important than the other when employers are recruiting, rather than creating well-rounded, respected qualifications?

We understand the importance of running a fair and impartial procurement process to facilitate the new licensing model, and to select a single awarding organisations (AO) to deliver each qualification. But this is just one part of the reforms and by focusing too much on one aspect of the Sainsbury Review’s recommendations, the government has essentially ended up cutting AOs – the very experts they need – out of the process entirely, beyond rudimentary consultation.

We fully support the aims behind T-levels and want them to succeed. However, if the three routes introduced from 2020 are going to deliver, the government must act quickly to make the reform process more open and transparent. As a matter of urgency, the government should actively seek advice from vocational qualification specialists including AOs, and particularly those with expertise in these three sectors, to get the qualification design right. Otherwise, Thursday’s warning is in very real danger of becoming reality.

Julie Hyde is director of CACHE

Applications for maths centres of excellence open now

FE providers are being asked to apply to become centres of excellence for “basic” maths – as part of plans to address the controversial forced GCSE resits policy.

In November, the Treasury pledged £40 million to establish these centres across the country to “train maths teachers and spread best practice”.

The Department for Education began the invitation process today, expecting to fund around 20 centres over an initial three-year period.

There will be options to extend the centres’ grant funding annually, up to a total of five years.

To be eligible to apply, an institution must have a minimum of 250 pupils with prior attainment in GCSE maths that is below grades 9-4.

“The programme will provide grant funding to build teaching capacity and spread best practice on what works to improve basic maths for learners over the age of 16 with low prior attainment,” the DfE said.

“This will be 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.”

Each centre of excellence will be led by an “exceptional” post-16 institution, and their networks will be “supported by a central delivery partner” with maths and programme management “expertise to develop improved teaching methods for this cohort”.

To ensure the programme covers the breadth of the country the DfE said it will aim to select at least one centre per English region, with no more than three in any region.

“The ambition of the programme is to increase the number of young people leaving compulsory education with the necessary maths skills for work, learning and life and to see a marked increase in the numbers of students passing their maths GCSE resit and equivalent level two maths qualifications,” the department added.

In July 2017, a review by Professor Adrian Smith said the government’s controversial policy on post-16 GCSE resits should be rethought.

The plea was quickly rejected, but the new centres of excellence are being created to address his concerns

Applications should be submitted to Centres.forExcellence@education.gov.uk “no later than 5pm” on July 10.

The DfE aims to publicly announce successful institutions in September 2018, and it is expected they will be “operational shortly after they have been notified”.

In December, FE Week speculated on where the centres of excellence might be built. Based on analysis of national achievement rate data for 2015/16, we identified the top 10 best performing-colleges for maths in the country, which you can read here.

DfE begins T-level tender process for single awarding organisations

The controversial tender process for T-levels’ awarding organisations has been launched, and will begin with two “market engagement” events next month.

The government is ploughing ahead with its contentious plans to use just one AO per qualification, as per Lord Sainsbury’s recommendation in his review of technical education, despite high-profile concerns.

On Friday, the Department for Education launched the first part of the process to recruit the organisations by publishing an “open early engagement”.

It tells potential AOs that two market engagement events will be held on June 11 and 14.

The Sainsbury Report, which paved the way for the new T-levels, recommended that a single body or consortium should “deliver each qualification under an ‘exclusive licence’ that would be awarded for a fixed time-period following open competition”.

The purpose of the procurement will be to “select and appoint an awarding organisation to be responsible for developing and delivering each of the wave one T-levels, under an exclusive licensing approach”.

An AO will be responsible for designing the content of the qualification, upskilling providers, providing learning and teaching materials, updating content and assessing qualifications.

There will be three individual tenders launched in the autumn – one for each pathway expected to be delivered from 2020, which includes digital (production, design and development), childcare and education, and construction (design, surveying and planning).

On Sunday, the DfE said it recognised “concerns” that issuing a licence to only one awarding organisation could “reduce market competition, choice and innovation”.

A licence period of “about five years” is considered “appropriate in order to ensure consistency but prevent the risk of complacency”.

“However, there was concern about awarding organisations’ ability to retain capability in a sector in which it is not working for the length of the licence period,” it added in its response to the recent consultation on T-levels.

“We will make sure that there are effective exit arrangements at the end of each licence to enable licences to transfer smoothly from one AO to another.”

The DfE “understands” there are concerns about the “resources needed to bid” for T-level licences “without any guarantee of success”, so it will consider a “contribution to the development costs”.

The single-provider model is a controversial component of T-levels, and fears were first raised in July.

Research conducted by Frontier Economics on behalf of the DfE concluded that limiting access to a single AO may create a “risk of system failure” both in the short- and long-term.

It warned that if a single AO fails, it may be that no alternative AO can step in.

Then in February, Ofqual, the body that regulates qualifications in England, said it “advised on the risks related to the single provider model”.

72 apprenticeship frameworks with replacement standards to stay until 2020

There are 72 old-style apprenticeship frameworks with direct standard replacements, the government has confirmed – but they’re not going to be switched off until 2020.

The list of 72 – which includes 47 different frameworks at multiple levels – was published today by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

It had sought feedback on switching the frameworks off, which its analysis “suggested would be well covered by new apprenticeship standards”.

“As a result of that feedback exercise, we are confident that the frameworks listed below are covered by new apprenticeship standards that have been approved for delivery,” a spokesperson said.

Despite this, the frameworks won’t be closed to new starts until 2020, meaning that the ESFA will fund both the framework and the replacement standard for another two years.

The process of closing old-style apprenticeship frameworks to new starts began in March 2016, and the original intention was to switch them all off by August 2017.

But this cut-off was dropped at the end of 2015, and replaced with a “migration from apprenticeship frameworks to standards over the course of the parliament”.

Three waves of frameworks have so far been switched off.

However, earlier this year the agency announced it would pause this process and it wouldn’t close any further frameworks to new starts until 2020.

By then “we expect that employers and providers will have completed the transition, and that all starts will be on standards, so all frameworks will be withdrawn to new starts at that point,” the announcement said.

Issuing authorities will still have the power to close off these old-style frameworks, as a number have already done.

These included two of the most popular frameworks: hospitality, and health and social care, both of which were closed at the end of 2017.

Starts of apprenticeship standards have shot up over the past year.

According to government figures, as of the end of March this year there have been 90,300 such starts in 2017/18, compared with just 24,600 for the whole of 2016/17.

That’s an increase from just under five per cent of starts, to almost 40 per cent.

 

IfA extends T-level content consultation deadline after sector criticism

The Institute for Apprenticeships has extended the deadline on its latest T-levels consultation by four working days, following outcry from the sector at such a quick turnaround.

It is seeking suggestions for the content of new pathways in digital (production, design and development), childcare and education, and construction (design, surveying and planning).

However, it infuriated the sector by allowing just one week for answers, until June 4, during half-term when many in FE will be on holiday.

It has now extended that deadline until June 10.

“The original deadline was in line with our current process and we will need the outcomes to inform the route panels,” a spokesperson said.

“We have actually extended the deadline until June 10 as we recognise this will be the first time stakeholders will be seeing the final outline content and want to give them more time.”

The sector reacted with anger and confusion when FE Week revealed the original consultation deadline would span just five working days.

“An absolute joke… policy making in technical, vocational, further and adult education one long narrative of disjointed incrementalism…” tweeted Bob Harrison.

Bob Rose said: “Such an important piece of work for #FE to review with a deadline when most colleges area closed? Priceless! Have a coffee and surely speak to one another to get the best result! #communication #collaboration #CommonSense.”

And Suzanne Offer added: “Education sector has been waiting for substance re the T-Levels since Jan 2017 – it now has one week to respond to @IFAteched. Standard that @educationgovuk consultations are issued at 5pm pre bank holiday. Our children’s futures are not a career plaything @AnneMilton @DamianHinds.”

Mark Dawe, the chief execuitve of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, branded the deadline “staggering”.

“While we know that the T-level panels contain many experts, the experience of the apprenticeship trailblazers offers serious lessons on why proper consultation is needed before content is signed off,” he told FE Week.

“So it’s staggering that the institute is only giving the sector five working days to submit views on whether the content is right. Even worse it’s over a bank holiday and half-term, so you can’t help wondering how serious they are about getting feedback.”

Readers can view the draft content here.

T-levels have been designed to increase the prestige of technical qualifications.

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

In October she revealed that pathways in just three subject areas would go live in the first year.

It was then announced on Sunday that the remaining subject routes will now be rolled out in 2023, another year later than planned.

There have been worrying signs of slippage in the timetable, and many leaders, including the IfA’s chief executive Sir Gerry Berragan (pictured above), have voiced concerns.

Last week it was revealed that the education secretary Damian Hinds had in an unprecedented step refused a written request from his permanent secretary to delay the initial roll-out another year until 2021.

Association of Colleges backs down on 2018/19 pay negotiations

The Association of Colleges has backed down in its argument with the FE unions on next year’s pay claim – even though disputes over this year’s deal are ongoing.

Earlier this month the AoC said it was “not minded to consider” a pay claim for 2018/19 while members of the University and College Union were still taking action “over the 2017/18 round at any AoC member college”.

This was deemed “unacceptable” by the union, which described the refusal as an “unnecessary provocation” that risked undermining the AoC’s “credibility and relevance to the sector”, according to a joint letter from the unions to AoC boss David Hughes.

But the association has now agreed to accept the 2018/19 pay claim, even though five colleges still have strikes planned in the coming weeks.

Sally Hunt, UCU’s general secretary, welcomed the AoC’s change of heart.

“We always think the best place to resolve any issue is at the negotiating table,” she said. “It is time for them to come to the table with a decent pay offer for staff who have seen their pay held down for too long.”

Mary Vine-Morris, the AoC’s London director, said the move was “in the best interest of the sector as a whole that national pay negotiations continue”.

“It is more beneficial for the sector that we focus on the bigger picture and jointly campaign to improve sector funding,” she said.

“The industrial action at a small number of colleges” was a “challenge for AoC” that “inevitably undermines productive working relationships”.

“We are glad that this is now down to a handful of disputes by local UCU branches, which we hope will soon be resolved,” she added.

London was a hotbed of industrial action last week, with staff at five colleges walking out in an ongoing dispute over a below-inflation pay offer of one per cent in 2017/18 made by the AoC in September.

Staff at Lambeth College, City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College, and the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London had walked out twice already this year over the offer, which the UCU described as “disappointing”.

And Lewisham Southwark staff joined them for the first time, in protest at being told by their paymasters at NCG in the north that they won’t be getting any pay rise at all this year.

UCU members at all five are set to walk out again in early June.

But elsewhere the union has claimed success.

A three-day strike at Sandwell College was called off at the last minute earlier this month, after college leaders agreed to a “sector-leading” pay rise worth six per cent over three years.

And a strike at Bradford College was halted last week after the college agreed to reopen its voluntary redundancy scheme at the eleventh hour, a move it said would “avoid the need for compulsory redundancies for lecturers”.

 

T-level full roll-out delayed until 2023, DfE confirms

The full roll-out of T-levels has been delayed until September 2023 after concerns were raised about the planned pace of the scheme.

However, the T-level pilot, which will involve up to 52 colleges delivering courses in digital (digital production, design and development), childcare and education and construction (design, surveying and planning), will still begin from September 2020, after it was delayed by 12 months last year.

T-levels development will be overseen by the Institute of Apprenticeships (IfA), who describe them as the “Government’s new two-year, technical study programmes available across 11 industry routes…one of the three major options available to students aged 16 – 19, alongside apprenticeships and A levels.”

The 12 month extension to implementation schedule means the government is now expecting the phased introduction of the new qualifications to take four years, as opposed to the three years originally planned.

The delay was revealed in the Department for Education’s response to the T-level consultation, published today, which said that some respondents including the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) had “raised concerns about the capacity of the system to respond to this pace of roll-out.

“We recognise these concerns. Our priority is to deliver high quality programmes and therefore we have decided to extend the full roll-out of T-levels beyond 2022.”

A spokesperson for the DfE confirmed it had been pushed back by 12 months. She said: “We are extending the further roll-out of T-levels to September 2023. This is in direct response to the feedback we received.”

Neil Carberry, the CBI’s managing director of people and infrastructure, told FE Week that T-levels “have the potential to be game-changing, but only if the quality is right.

“Extending the roll-out shows the DfE are focused on not making the type of design errors that have afflicted the apprenticeship levy,” he added.

Graham Razey, principal and chief executive at East Kent College, said T-levels were a “fantastic opportunity to bring parity of esteem to technical education” but warned that “we must not waste it”.

“If this delay allows for a more effective implementation and roll-out I am supportive, but we cannot have unnecessary delay in introducing this much needed reform.”

In March, Sir Gerry Berragan, chief executive of the IfA, warned the timeline for delivering the initial three pathways in 2020 was “worryingly tight”.

And in a widely criticised move, the IfA has begun to consult on the content for the first T-levels with just five working days to reply.

However, it was revealed last week that Damian Hinds, the education secretary, had refused a request from his permanent secretary to delay the pilot until 2021.

In a letter published on Thursday, Jonathan Slater asked Hinds to push the pilot back, warning that “it will clearly be very challenging to ensure that the first three T-levels are ready to be taught from 2020 and beyond to a consistently high standard”.

However, Hinds insisted he was “convinced of the case to press ahead” and told Slater: “I want us now to put all of our collective weight behind delivering these T-levels to begin in 2020.”

Ian Pryce, principal and chief executive of Bedford College, said he has previously been “critical of the way the DfE has rushed change” but Slater’s request for more time “suggests lessons have been learned”.

“I would support a more leisurely, measured rollout. Big initiatives usually stand or fall on their initial success or failure, so caution is a good thing.”

 

Nine things we learned from the DfE’s T-levels response

The Department for Education has today published its response to its consultation on T-levels.

It sought opinions on the planned implementation of the new post-16 technical qualifications, which the government claims will set a new “gold standard” in training, the first of which will emerge from 2020.

The consultation generated 430 responses, weighing in on numerous sticking points. FE Week has pulled out the nine main findings:

1. Colleges and employers will receive targeted support for work placements, and students will get initial financial help

The 45-day minimum work placement component are an “essential part of T-levels”, according to the government.
However, it is aware of concerns over the capacity of some employers and providers to offer industry placements, as well as the availability of placements in rural areas with poor public transport links, travel time and cost.
The DfE has committed to putting in place a “comprehensive programme of support”.
This includes “significant funding” through the Capacity and Delivery Fund, and offering an advice and support service for employers, including a “simple referral and matchmaking service” to providers through the National Apprenticeship Service.
The DfE will also provide “additional bursary funding” in the 2018/19 academic year to help students travel to industry placements, and produce a “clear and simple ‘how to’” guide for employers and providers.
 
2. English and maths will be funded in addition to a T-level

Over 80 per cent of respondents want the government to provide additional funded hours for maths and English on top of a student’s T-level hours, rather than providing the study from programme hours.
“We therefore intend to fund maths and English for students who have not yet achieved level two in addition to the hours required for the technical elements,” the DfE said in response.
“This means that students who already hold the minimum exit requirements will have fewer hours of study in total, but it will mean that we avoid disadvantaging students with lower prior attainment.”
 
3. An overall pass grade will be used, but certificates will include two component grades

“In response to the desire to keep things simple, and make sure the significance of completing the T-level programme overall is properly recognised, we will introduce an overall pass grade,” the DfE said.
This pass grade will only be awarded if a student successfully completes the industry placement, attains the technical qualification, and achieves the other specified elements of the T-level programme.
On the T-level certificate, the technical qualification will be given a grade from a six-point scale (A*-E), and occupational specialisms will get a three-point grading scale (distinction, merit, pass).
The DfE said it is exploring how higher overall grades could be awarded above an overall pass, such as merit and distinction.
 
4. Students are likely to be able to take an A-level alongside their T-level

“In principle, we believe that a student should be able to take an A-level alongside their T-level, particularly if it supports progression outcomes for their chosen T-level,” the government said.
Officials are “particularly supportive” of “high-attaining students” who want to take core maths or an A-level in maths alongside their T-level.
 
5. No legal requirement to pay learners, but employers can if they want

There is “no legal requirement or expectation that T-level students will be paid,” the DfE said.
But the department does “recognise that for some employers, any type of unpaid placement would discourage them from taking part in the programme”, so they are “able to pay students should they wish to”.
The DfE is working with the Department for Work and Pensions to make sure that students, including those and their family who already receive benefits, are not “negatively affected by undertaking an industry placement”.
 
6. Allocating UCAS tariff points to T-levels is being explored

When learners complete a T-level, they will be able to choose between moving into a skilled occupation, higher-level apprenticeships, or higher education.
Consultation respondents suggested that allocating UCAS tariff points to T-levels would support progression into HE, an option which the DfE is now “exploring”.
 
7. There is still not much detail on the transition year

What happens to students not ready to start a T-levels at 16 has been a key issue.
The DfE plans to offer a “transition” to help learners get to the standard required to start a T-level, but its consultation response did not explain how this will work.
“We will do further work throughout 2018 to gather evidence on existing good practice of similar transition programmes, how the offer might meet employer needs, and what the role of the Institute for Apprenticeships might be,” is all the department said.
 

8. DfE is committed to upskilling staff to be ready for T-levels

Respondents to the consultation said the main challenge for providers delivering T-levels will be making sure that staff have “sufficient expertise, as providers will need to upskill current teaching staff and recruit additional skilled staff, especially in STEM subjects”.
The DfE will be “working closely with the sector to design and develop a programme of support to help providers and teachers” to prepare for delivery, which includes an investment of “up to £20 million to help make sure teachers are ready to deliver new T-levels”.

9. Full roll-out of T-levels delayed until 2023

The government has confirmed the full roll-out of T-levels will not actually take place until 2023.
The initial roll-out will still be in 2020, but in the T-level action plan the DfE proposed introducing another 13 courses in 2021 and the remaining nine in 2022.
A spokesperson confirmed the full delivery would be delayed until 2023 in “direct response to the feedback we received.”
A number of respondents to the consultation, including the Confederation of British Industry, “raised concerns about the capacity of the system to respond to this pace of roll-out.”