The government’s preferred candidate to chair the Social Mobility Commission has told MPs that the FE sector needs a “complete overhaul”, and reviewing vocational education would be one of her key priorities.
Dame Martina Milburn appeared before the education select committee this morning.
She made it clear that she is not impressed with the FE sector at present, and one of her top priorities in her first year in post would be to have a “real look” at vocational education.
“The whole FE sector I think needs a complete overhaul,” said Dame Martina, who is a governor for Capital City College Group.
“It’s not just about money, it’s about the leadership, it’s about the courses they are doing, it’s about the way they engage on a local level with local businesses, and finding where the jobs are.”
Her comments provoked former skills minister and committee chair Robert Halfon to jump to the sector’s defence.
“Just picking up on one thing on FE, people say it is the Cinderella sector, and I reply she became part of the Royal family. It’s important to challenge ugly sister of snobbery and intolerance,” he said.
Robert Halfon
“FE has an incredible burden. A huge amount of its students come from disadvantaged backgrounds. They are burdened with compulsory maths and English GCSE resits, sorting out the problems from schools.
“They have been starved of funding compared to other parts of the education sector.”
This is the sixth year that the funding rate for 16- to 18-year-olds has remained unchanged – meaning that FE providers have faced a huge real-terms funding cut over that time.
As previously reported by FE Week, Amanda Spielman, Ofsted chief inspector, said during her speech at the launch of the Ofsted annual report in December that the “sector will continue to struggle” without an increase in the base rate funding for this age group.
“There are incredible colleges up and down our country doing incredible things,” added Mr Halfon today.
“I wouldn’t just say it’s about leadership, there are a lot of colleges that are good and we need to look at how we can support them more, we just need to learn from good leadership to help those colleges that are struggling.”
Dame Martina took on board what he said, but reflected on the mixed picture she has seen of the sector.
“We’ve all spoken to the enlightened heads who have local businesses who sit on their boards, and then you talk to others who say ‘yes we sat on their boards it was a complete disaster and no-one would listen to me’.
“We all know the good things, and you can showcase those good things and say this is the way to make it all better.”
She conceded that “funding is a big issue”. “I know from sitting on the bard of Capital City College – it something we as governors talk about all the time,” she said.
“But I don’t think just putting money in will make the difference, I think to needs to be a number of things.”
All four members of the board of the government’s Social Mobility Commission stood down last December in protest at the lack of progress towards a “fairer Britain”.
Education select committee MPs stressed the importance of Dame Martina not being a stooge for the establishment, if she takes on the top job.
She started her career as a journalist, and in 2000 became the chief executive of the BBC Children in Need Appeal, a post held for four years, before taking the top job at The Princes’ Trust.
She is still a director of Prince’s Trust Trading, and vice-chair of the Government’s Youth Action Group, which brings together national youth charities to advise ministers and officials on developing and carrying out policy for disadvantaged young people.
The names of more than 60 FE colleges set to play key roles in new hubs, which the education secretary Damian Hinds has said will transform careers education across England, have been unveiled.
But question marks have been raised over how viable it will be for the colleges to implement the required changes, as the hub support fund amounts to just £1,000 per provider.
This is despite the Department for Education announcing an overall allocation of £5 million over two years to support the hubs’ development.
There will be 20 careers hubs in every region outside of London, which will comprise colleges working with local schools and universities, training providers, employers and career professionals to pool their expertise on improving careers education.
These form a central part of the government’s careers strategy, published in December, which focused the need to implement eight key “Gatsby benchmark” standards.
The careers hubs announced today will support young people with the right advice to help them make decisions about their future by building better links with employers
“The careers hubs announced today will support young people with the right advice to help them make decisions about their future by building better links with employers and providing practical guidance and support to improve the provision of careers advice,” said Mr Hinds.
The Careers and Enterprise Company, which has led efforts to establish the hubs on behalf of the government, has told FE Week the names of all the general FE and sixth-form colleges involved (see table below).
It also revealed that they will have access to funding, including a “central hub fund of equivalent to £1,000 per school or college”.
When asked if the CEC believed this amount would be sufficient, a CEC spokesperson said: “The central hub fund is one part of the money they will receive, but not the only strand. The exact funding per college will vary.”
Other financial support on offer was said to include funding of up to £3,500 for 15 colleges and schools in each hub to train a “careers leader”.
In areas facing “the greatest need”, schools and colleges will also “have access to a ‘virtual wallet’” of up to £5,000 each to fund what CEC calls “employer encounters” – which enable contacts to be established between employers and learners.
“Obviously the funding is really important, and we’re delighted to be able to offer this support to colleges and schools,” the spokesperson added.
“But it’s also worth highlighting the benefit to the colleges and schools of the joined-up approach, mutual support and sharing of best practice that comes with being within the network.”
Catherine Sezen, senior policy manager at the Association of Colleges, spoke positively of the new initiative. “To make informed choices for the future, young people need high quality, impartial careers information about all post-16 education and training options,” she said.
Catherine Sezen
“We have long been calling for an improvement to the system and welcome the changes outlined.”
The North East Local Enterprise Partnership piloted the careers hub model from 2015 to 2017.
The government asked the CEC to “scale up” their model by establishing hubs across the country.
The north east is, however, the only region that will get a college-only hub.
A spokesperson for the regional local enterprise partnership said this was because they “know there are different challenges of scale and structure for colleges, which schools will not necessarily understand with regards to implementing the Gatsby benchmarks”.
These markers, set out through the Gatsby Charitable Foundation’s Good Career Guidance, include the need to link curriculum learning to careers, and to learn from career and labour market information.
The CEC was launched in 2015 to lead efforts on behalf of the government to connect more young people with the world of work.
Claudia Harris, the CEC’s chief executive, said: “Careers education has come a long way over the past few years. The Gatsby benchmarks have shown us what ‘excellent’ looks like.
“Creating these careers hubs is the next step on that journey,” she said.
“The new careers hubs announced today are an important step towards colleges being better equipped to implement the 8 Gatsby benchmarks set out in the careers strategy,” added Deepa Jethwa, careers policy lead at the Sixth Form Colleges Association. “The hubs will enable colleges to pool local expertise and secure high quality, impartial careers advice for students.”
Ofqual has today launched a consultation about how it will regulate T-levels – but has only given the sector four weeks to respond.
The exams regulator is asking for views on how it should frame its rules, including on issues such as how assessments should be set and marked, when retakes can be taken, and certification requirements.
Its mammoth consultation document is 71 pages long with 52 questions, but in the latest piece of evidence that the new technical qualifications are being rushed, it is only offering up time for responses until August 6 – half the usual period it sets aside.
Ofqual itself recognised this was a short deadline and is recommending respondents only answer particular areas of interest, including setting and marking assessments, results and certification, and retakes.
“We recognise that given the scale of our proposals, respondents may not wish to respond to the whole consultation,” the regulator said.
Its consultation document gave an insight into why the time frame is so short.
It explains that the first three T-levels will be introduced for teaching in 2020, and the Department for Education plans to launch an invitation to tender in September 2018 for awarding organisations wishing to bid to offer them.
Following the completion of today’s consultation, the exams regulator has to announce its decisions about how it will police the technical qualifications in September alongside the launch of the invitation to tender.
It will follow this with a more detailed technical consultation, “seeking views on the exact wording of the conditions and guidance we propose to use to implement our approach”, which is expected to run for eight weeks from September.
Based on responses to this, Ofqual “intends to publish our final conditions and guidance for technical qualifications in December so that awarding organisations are clear, as they develop their technical qualifications, what conditions and guidance they will have to meet”.
Ofqual consultations are typically eight weeks long, and can stretch to 12 weeks for those of high-profile – such as its GCSE reform consultation in 2013.
FE Week has asked for more detailed comment on why the current T-levels consultation is so short.
Mark Dawe, boss of the AELP, wasn’t impressed with the four-week deadline.
“I appreciate that the DfE has a tight timescale, and at least this is four weeks rather than the four days from the Institute for Apprenticeships,” he said.
“It is a shame, that on the surface, it would appear that the DfE is not treating these ‘gold standard’ qualifications with the same care as they did with A-levels.”
This isn’t the first piece of evidence that T-levels are being rushed through.
In May, the IfA initially gave the sector just five working days to respond to its consultation on the draft content for the first three T-levels – and it was during half term. It only extended the feedback period following outrage from FE leaders.
But speaking about the launch of today’s consultation, she said: “This consultation will help ensure that technical qualifications, and the T-levels of which they form a part, are set up to succeed.
“I would encourage anyone with an interest in these new qualifications to give us their views on the proposals we have set out.”
Three events to support the consultation are being run on July 23, 24 and 31. You can find out more here.
Leaders at Learndirect have been criticised by Ofsted for causing “confusion and uncertainty” over the transfer of their apprentices to other providers.
But “insufficient progress” is being made in Learndirect’s efforts to ensure a “smooth transition” for apprentices transferring to other training providers by the end of July, when its government skills contracts finally end.
“Leaders’ negotiations to transfer all apprentices on directly delivered programmes to one large provider ended unsuccessfully in March 2018,” Ofsted said.
Leaders’ lack of clarity about the transfer process has caused confusion and uncertainty
“Leaders are now approaching the final stages of the process to transfer these apprentices to five other providers and have allocated the large majority.”
However, while most apprentices appear to have been allocated to providers, they “are still waiting to be re-enrolled with the new providers so they can continue their programmes”.
Leaders at the provider were blamed for this. Their “lack of clarity” in their communications about the transfer process has caused “confusion and uncertainty” among employers and apprentices.
“Too many employers are dissatisfied by the lack of information that they have received and have concerns that their apprentices will not achieve their qualifications,” Ofsted found.
The inspectorate said that some employers were informed that Learndirect would continue to work with their apprentices until the end of July 2018 to complete their programmes, but were then told that the apprentices were transferring to a new provider.
As a result, “a few employers have approached other providers independently to ask them to complete their apprentices’ programmes, thereby compounding the confusion about the transfer arrangements”.
The process for transferring those apprentices whose programmes are delivered by Learndirect’s existing subcontractors has however been “much more effective”.
But a “small proportion” of apprentices have still not yet been allocated to a provider, and there is a “risk” that a very small number of apprentices will “not be able to complete their programmes if they are not accepted by a new provider before the end of July 2018”.
“Throughout the process of transferring apprentices to other providers, Learndirect Ltd has been working closely with ESFA to ensure that all transfers are managed in the interest of the learner, employer and in compliance with ESFA rules,” said a spokesperson for the provider in response.
“Whilst a small number of transfers have been delayed for a short period of time, the majority of large volume transfers have progressed without issue. The sample size of apprentices used for the Ofsted report was too small to capture the fact that the majority of the transfers were well managed and undertaken with minimum disruption to both learners and employers.
“All of this has been achieved in the challenging context of closing delivery centres and reducing staffing, as acknowledged within the Ofsted report. It is worth noting that Ofsted commends learndirect’s progress in three out of the four other areas in this report.”
Learndirect received an overall ‘inadequate’ rating from Ofsted, including for outcomes for learners, after it was inspected in March and had its report published in August following a judicial review.
It has since been “winding down its contracts” to deliver apprenticeships and adult learning until July 2018.
Ofsted praised leaders for having “sustained the improvements” to the quality of the provision that were identified at the previous monitoring visit – which found “significant improvement” was made in increasing proportion of apprentices and adult learners who now achieve their qualifications.
“They have achieved this in the challenging context of winding down their main funding contracts, closing delivery centres and significantly reducing staffing,” the watchdog said.
Too many employers are dissatisfied by the lack of information that they have received
“Staff at all levels of the organisation have demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting learners and apprentices to complete their qualifications.”
Managers of Learndirect’s adult learning provision have meanwhile “tackled successfully” some of the “more intractable areas for improvement” from the previous inspection.
Leaders have meanwhile “reduced further the number of subcontractors in response to concerns about the quality of the provision”.
Their monitoring of the progress of apprentices at subcontractors has been “intensified”.
Contract managers “of the 39 adult learning subcontractors have overseen continuing improvements in learner achievement rates, levels of attendance and the proportion of learners progressing to employment, education and training”.
Lastly, Ofsted said leaders have “continued to improve” their use of the apprentice tracking system that they developed after the last inspection to “enable them to monitor effectively the progress of the remaining apprentices”.
At the time of this monitoring visit, Learndirect had 2,892 apprentices – down from 17,000 in 2016/17 – and 7,276 adult learners on programmes.
The embattled chair of a London college that was at the centre of a bitter row with staff and local residents over its merger plans has dramatically resigned.
Mary Curnock Cook (pictured above), chair of Kensington Chelsea College, was said to have walked out of a governors’ meeting last night after announcing she was stepping down with immediate effect.
The college is looking for a new partner after its previously planned merger was called off following direct intervention by the FE commissioner Richard Atkins, which was triggered by fallout from the fire tragedy at nearby Grenfell Tower.
Ms Curnock Cook’s resignation with immediate effect was confirmed this morning.
Following discussions about her “continued chairmanship with the FE commissioner, the principal and the deputy chair” she said she had “come to the conclusion that the end of the academic year is the right time to stand down and allow new leadership to take the college through the next phase of its development”.
“I thank all members of the corporation and staff at KCC for their service while I have been chair and wish students and staff every success in the future,” she said.
She later tweeted that she “had always said she would stand down if her chairmanship was more of a hindrance than a help”.
I always said I would stand down if my chairmanship was more of a hindrance than a help in steering @KC_College to a secure future. https://t.co/gLPz4hGGTq
— Mary Curnock Cook (@MaryCurnockCook) July 10, 2018
Ian Valvona will step up as interim chair until a permanent replacement is appointed.
Ms Curnock Cook, the former boss of the University and Colleges Adminissions Service, took over as chair at KCC in May last year.
There was huge public outcry as it emerged that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea planned to build housing over most of the site, with a much-reduced space for learning.
That prompted the Save Wornington campaign, with local residents – some of whom were caught up in the Grenfell Tower fire which claimed 72 lives in June last year – fighting to save their local campus.
Ms Curnock Cook became a focus for much of the embittered comments from staff and residents at a series of public meetings on the plans.
She eventually reached an agreement with RBKC to pause the redevelopment, but she repeatedly refused to cancel the merger.
Campaigners opposed this due to fears the resulting super-college would not retain the contentious Wornington campus in the long term.
The following month, the college board conceded “there was more we could have done to secure local community support for last year’s merger plans”.
It confirmed the college would co-operate with a new commissioner-led structure and prospects appraisal seeking a different merger partner.
At the time she vowed to stay on as chair, insisting that she had the full backing on the board.
“I have always seen my role to steer KCC to a secure and successful future,” she said. “This continues to be my priority.”
A college spokesperson paid tribute to Ms Curnock Cook, and said she had “worked tirelessly to help lead the college through an unprecedented period of change and challenge. It is testament to her efforts that the college has retained a successful focus on improving teaching, learning and student achievements”.
Her “commitment to public service at such a complex point in the College’s history has been exemplary” and the college thanked her “for the key role she has played over the past year and wishes her well for the future”
KCC has yet to announce who its new merger partner is.
In a statement last week, a spokesperson said it was “continuing to work closely with the FE commissioner’s team on its structure and prospects appraisal to secure a new strategic partner”.
The Careers and Enterprise Company has responded to savage criticism from MPs over secrecy by finally agreeing to publish its board minutes.
Its chair Christine Hodgson and chief executive Claudia Harris were grilled in May over the CEC’s lack of transparency, during a bruising appearance before the Commons education select committee, where CEC was called an “over-bloated quango”.
The company, launched in 2015, is leading efforts on behalf of the government to connect more young people with the world of work. But MPs raised grave concerns over a lack of evidence relating to the impact it has made so far, while committee chair Robert Halfon questioned why the CEC had never exposed itself to proper scrutiny by publishing board minutes.
A message has now appeared on the CEC website saying: “From July 2018, we will be publishing minutes of our board meetings.”
A spokesperson for the company also confirmed to FE Week the intention to publish minutes of future meetings.
We have always aimed to be a transparent organisation and have welcomed feedback on how best to achieve this
“We will be publishing on our website from our next board meeting at the end of July,” said a spokesperson. “We have always aimed to be a transparent organisation and have welcomed feedback on how best to achieve this.”
However, publication of previous board minutes is “still being considered”.
This stems from concerns that there may be a “generic issue around retrospective publication of minutes if board members were not made aware of that at the time of the meeting”.
The announcement was welcomed by Mr Halfon.
“We had serious concerns about a lack of transparency when we questioned the CEC, so we are pleased they have taken our concerns on board and finally decided to publish board minutes,” he said.
“Any organisation that receives public funding must always be as open and transparent as possible. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and the public has a right to know how decisions are made.”
A freedom of information request lodged by our sister paper FE Week has confirmed that the CEC has so far received £40.8 million of government funding since 2015, and is expected to be given at least £18.8 million in each of the next two financial years.
Funding for the next two years has not yet been agreed, but it is understood it will be more than the £18.8 million handed to the organisation in 2017-18.
Future funding is expected to “reflect the expanded role that the company now has implementing the careers strategy”, a DfE spokesperson said.
Robert Halfon
After asking in the select committee hearing in May why the CEC’s board minutes were not yet published, Mr Halfon added: “Given that you get money from the government, shouldn’t you publish them?”
Ms Hodgson and Ms Harris agreed to “take that away” as a point worth investigating.
FE Week has persistently pressed the company for details of the colleges that it works with, and how it is engaging them.
In December 2016 we revealed a postcode lottery for FE coverage, with 15 local enterprise partnerships not covered in the CEC’s “enterprise adviser network” – and no London FE and sixth-form colleges at all. Ms Harris insisted during the May hearing that the company is now working with 40 per cent of FE colleges, which works out at around 140.
The Institute for Apprenticeships has yet to carry out any formal review of duplicate, narrow or low-skill standards – two years after being urged to do so by influential peer Lord Sainsbury.
Demands are growing for the institute to “take stock” and focus on quality rather than numbers, with 300 standards now approved for delivery and a target of 400 set for next April.
But two years after Lord Sainsbury called for a review of “all existing apprenticeship standards” at “the earliest opportunity”, the IfA remained tight-lipped when asked by FE Week what action it had taken.
It would confirm only that a limited review will begin this summer.
In his report of the independent panel on technical education, published in July 2016, the peer made clear he was concerned about standards that overlapped, were too job-specific, or lacked enough technical content to justify 20 per cent off-the-job training.
The government’s strategic guidance to the IfA, published at the time of the institute’s official launch in April 2017, also states that its core functions include “at regular intervals, reviewing published standards and assessment plans”.
However, no such review has yet taken place, despite the IfA’s boss Sir Gerry Berragan (pictured above) saying in February he was aware that there had been “some price and quality compromises made early on to get some momentum into reforms”.
An IfA spokesperson said it will “look to conduct a review of existing standards”, and has recently advertised for a ‘Standard Review Lead’ post-holder.
“The first review will take place this summer on the digital standards,” she said.
Both Sir Gerry and Ana Osbourne, the IfA’s deputy director for approvals who will be leading this summer’s review, declined FE Week’s request for an interview.
Nor would the spokesperson confirm if the review would address Lord Sainsbury’s recommendations. Instead, she said details would be announced “shortly”.
“The IfA appears to think that we should all be impressed by the number of standards they are approving and how much faster they are approving them than before,” said Tom Richmond, senior research fellow at think-tank Reform, and former senior adviser to two skills ministers.
“That is of little comfort to apprentices who are being put on narrow, often low-skill, training courses that do not offer them genuine career progression.”
Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, urged the government to take stock of the number of standards approved. He warned it would soon be well above “leading apprenticeship systems” like Germany.
“An apprentice being trained to carry out a ‘job role’ is not the same as one being trained to work in a whole industry,” he said.
FE Week’s own analysis of standards in development or approved for delivery found 26 for different manager roles from levels three to seven – even though a generic team leader/supervisor also exists.
Nine of these are at level four, including hospitality manager and facilities manager, both approved this year, and retail manager, approved in 2016.
Yet a number of overlapping level three engineering and manufacturing standards were withdrawn in March 2017 before the IfA launched. They were replaced with a catch-all engineering technician standard, covering a number of different specialisms.
This approach appears to be at odds with the IfA’s target of 400 published standards by April 2019 – part of its drive to be “faster and better”.
According to the institute’s 2018-19 business plan, it should have “due regard to appropriate coverage of the occupational maps and the priorities and diversity of the modern economy” in reaching this target.
The same business plan reveals that Ms Osbourne is tasked with “designing and implementing a long-term plan for standards review”.
Sir Gerry has also compared the number of standards ready for delivery with those of “very mature apprenticeship systems”.
“Switzerland has 249 standards and Germany has around 330,” he said.
His predecessor, Peter Lauener, conceded last year that the institute would have to tackle the overlap between different standards.
He expected there would be “somewhere in the regions of 700 to 800” standards, reflecting “links to the number of occupations”.
Apprenticeships may not be a magic bullet, but neither are they the poisoned chalice the Royal College of Nursing would have us believe, argues Lucy Hunte
I recognise there are challenges with the implementation and roll-out of the nursing degree apprenticeship, but they are not for the reasons the Royal College of Nursing stated in their article in last week’s FE Week (“Nursing apprenticeships won’t work how the government wants”). Here are some of the claims made, and why I believe they are wrong.
Myth – The nursing apprenticeship is a poor-quality programme that risks reducing the quality of care.
Fact – The nursing degree apprenticeship is subject to exactly the same regulations as the traditional programme and can only be delivered by Nursing and Midwifery Council-approved higher education institutions. The only difference is that it is now funded by the levy.
Myth – Degree-based training is safer.
Fact – The Nursing Apprenticeship is a degree programme.
Myth – The apprenticeship levy does not cover the full cost of training.
Fact – The levy does cover the full cost of the degree, but not the backfill payments for the release time for when the apprentice nurse is away from the trust on placement or in learning.
Myth – Apprentice nurses will not have the same practice hours or placements.
Fact – They are subject to exactly the same NMC requirements as the traditional route, which includes supernumerary time.
Myth – The nurse apprenticeship is reducing access for mature students or those from diverse backgrounds.
Fact – The majority of the first wave of apprentice nurses are mature students from very diverse backgrounds. The apprenticeship could in fact widen participation as the apprentices will be employed and earning a salary. Many are existing healthcare assistants who, following the removal of the bursary, could not afford to give up work to study.
Myth – Apprenticeships are not the solution, with only 20 starts this year.
Fact – Approximately 400 nationally are due to start this year, with more to come in 2019. The removal of the bursary remains a concern and the apprenticeship is not the sole solution, but it is an alternative route to registration.
Backfill (the cost to cover staff when they are attending training) is an issue when many trusts are already under financial constraints, but this is only the case if you look at the nursing apprenticeship in isolation. If you look at it as part of a trust-wide workforce and apprenticeship strategy, then it becomes more viable. For example, trusts in North Central London have agreed an apprentice pay policy whereby all band 1 – 4 roles should be considered as apprenticeship opportunities, with new recruits receiving 70 per cent of the pay band for that role. This still puts the salary at well above the national apprentice wage, but the savings made can therefore go into a pot to help cover backfill.
We know the 20 per cent off-the-job element is sometimes difficult, but in reality the time required for off-the-job training is closer to 60 per cent for apprentice nurses and this is the real challenge – not the quality of the programme or the apprentices.
There have also been considerable delays due to procurement and HEI readiness, but we are seeing movement now and the appetite from employers is increasing. The National Apprenticeship Service has said that the nursing apprenticeship has been one of the most enquired-about programmes since its launch.
If you still have doubts, I would recommend talking to apprentice nurses!
If you still have doubts, then I would recommend talking to the apprentice nurses! I have had the pleasure of hearing a number of them speak at events over the past few months and quite often there is not a dry eye in the house. They are delighted at being given this opportunity to fulfil their dreams without having to take out student loans. Nurses are nurses, whatever training route they take, and the sooner the apprenticeship is given the parity of esteem it deserves, the better for all involved.
Some may argue that as the apprentices are employed and part of the workforce – unlike a university student who simply comes in for a placement – they could even be better, as an apprentice gets far more hands-on clinical and patient experience. The apprentice (unlike a traditional student) also does not have to undertake part-time non-related work just to pay
their bills.
The motion: This house believes the fall in apprenticeship starts since last May and the unspent levy proves urgent policy changes are needed
The first in a series of FE Week and Pearson Great Debates was held in parliament this week, with nearly 300 sector leaders arguing over whether further reforms are needed to the apprenticeships system.
It was chaired by Shane Mann, managing director of FE Week publisher LSECT. Leading the call for action was Sue Pittock, chief executive of Remit Training, while FE Week editor Nick Linford was against.
They were joined by skills minister Anne Milton, who listened in, and chair of the education select committee Robert Halfon, who delivered an impassioned speech.
The debate focused on the impact of the apprenticeship reforms one year in. Hotly discussed were the reasons starts were down 52 per cent in March compared with the same period in 2017, and why employers have used just 10 per cent of their levy funds in the first 12 months since the levy was introduced.
The vast majority of the audience voted for change at the start of the debate, but Mr Linford managed to win over two individuals by the end. Here’s our summary of what happened:
For the motion
“Enhancements not wholesale changes” in three main policies are urgently needed to address the fall in apprenticeship starts and the unspent levy, argued Sue Pittock.
The chief executive of Remit Training, a private provider that delivers apprenticeships in a range of industries from automotive to hospitality, called for “flexibility” on the 20 per cent off-the-job training requirement.
She also backed dropping the 10 per cent co-contribution, and wanted “some consistency” in end-point assessment.
Sue Pittock
She said these shifts are needed because small businesses are “dropping fast and disengaging” with apprenticeships, noting that two years ago her business had 90 per cent penetration among small and medium enterprises, but it has dropped to 40 per cent, with the rest being levy clients.
The 20 per cent off-the-job training requirement is one of the main causes of the drop, according to Ms Pittock, who called it a “huge commitment” not only for smaller employers, but for larger ones too.
“We need flexibility around how much is delivered in paid time and how much of a commitment the apprentice puts in,” she told the audience.
“An employer puts their skin in the game by giving people the opportunity to do an apprenticeship and that chance of training.”
She added that apprentices should also have some skin in the game by being allowed to have self-study time count towards the 20 per cent.
In terms of the 10 per cent fee that small businesses must pay when taking on apprentices, Ms Pittock wants it scrapped for level two apprenticeships for 16- to 24-year-olds.
“We are seeing level twos at 16- to- 18 really suffer, so our social mobility is really taking a hit,” she said.
“We are seeing a 500 per cent increase in management programmes. Do we want a society that ends up delivering management programmes as opposed to giving our young people coming out of the schools system a foot on the ladder to do a level two programme?”
And lastly, on end-point assessment, Ms Pittock called for consistency.
“I have one employer group that has a six-day EPA for a level two programme,” she said.
“You could be 17, get in a car and pass your driving test in one afternoon; potentially if you were the wrong person and not competent, you could kill somebody. But we are going to take six days to assess somebody on a level two programme.
“There needs to be consistency, and the IfA needs to provide that framework so we don’t end up with massive EPAs that disadvantages learners.”
Also calling for change was Karen Bailey, head of competence development at Volvo Group UK.
There is a level of bureaucracy that colleges and private providers are used to working with, but large employers aren’t
She said she doesn’t know many employers that can cope with the complexity of FE-level funding rules and regulations on apprenticeships.
“It is exceptionally difficult, it is exceptionally time-consuming, and I would argue that a lot of employers do not see it as good value and would rather not bother with apprenticeships,” she claimed.
“We currently have over 400 apprentices and five different ways they can be funded. The complexity is absolutely ridiculous.”
Ms Bailey also thinks that having a levy pot is encouraging employers to behave “exceptionally badly”.
“I’ve heard a lot about employers who have removed their training budgets and have instead put in an apprentice levy pot manager whose only job is to spend that levy,” she said.
“To me that is not the idea. People are seeing it as their pot; it’s not their pot. It’s not your money, it is a tax and we need to treat it as a tax and look at it for the good of our economy.”
Final speaker for the motion on the panel was Cindy Rampersaud, senior vice-president for BTEC and apprenticeship at Pearson.
She agreed with Ms Pittock that although no “wholesale change” is needed, some refinement is, particularly where the levy is concerned.
“I spent 20 years working in industry, and I look at the levy and think if I was back in one of my older roles in the media, how easy would this be as an employer to implement?” she said.
“There is a level of bureaucracy that colleges and private providers are used to working with, but large employers aren’t.”
Against the motion
Nick Linford called for a much-needed period of stability.
Wearing his “author of an apprenticeships book hat”, he urged Ms Milton to stand firm on the reforms already introduced, mainly because there is not yet enough evidence on the causes of the drop in starts.
“Many of you in the room continue to complain about change and you want the S word; you want stability,” he said.
“It is interesting to hear Sue [see page 8] suggest that nobody wants wholesale change. I’m not sure that is true.
“We just heard from Karen saying she wants a complete rethink from an employer’s perspective of this tax in terms of the levy pot.
Nick Linford
“We have a long list from organisations such as the AELP that want to scrap co-investment for 16- to 24-year-olds at level two and three, or to increase framework rates at level two where there is no alternative standard.
“They want a ring-fenced budget for non-levy, they want to increase functional skills funding to be double where it is now, plus sector-by-sector 20 per cent off-the-job changes.”
However, there are many other organisations saying they want opposite changes, Mr Linford continued.
“The AoC for example says scrap the three million target.
“Then we have employer body groups such as the CBI pushing for much of the apprenticeship levy funding to be spent on things that aren’t apprenticeships, which sounds like wholesale change to me.
“Then the Federation of Small Businesses want a more generous employer incentive, and then the metro mayors are saying ‘unspent levy – give that to us; we’ll spend that on other things’.
“Talking about more wholesale change, the Lords economic affairs committee have come out and said, scrap the Institute for Apprenticeships.”
On top of this, the Department for Education is demanding that the Institute for Apprenticeships review and change 30 of the most popular standards because funding for those standards is said to be too high.
“My argument boils down to this: there is a huge amount of pressure on the minister at the moment from all corners, but I think more time is needed,” he said.
“Possibly the most important message is that if you change things you lose the confidence of the employers. You lose the confidence of the training providers.”
He added that there is only 11 months’ worth of evidence since reforms were introduced last May, and in that time there has been 309,000 starts, an average of nearly 30,000 a month.
“I would argue relative to 10 years ago, this is an incredibly buoyant programme,” Mr Linford said.
For me stability and investment is what is needed
“For me stability and investment is what is needed.”
Sean Williams, chief executive of Corndel, backed Mr Linford’s argument.
“We need to look back at why the changes were made in the first place,” he said.
“It was first and foremost to make apprenticeships employer-led.
“The market has changed. I hear a lot in this room about providers who haven’t noticed that the market has changed.
“I think we need stability in order for the market to move to those high quality employer-led apprenticeships which really deliver. I plead for stability because it is only stability that will give us time to move forward.”
Fiona Aldridge, assistant director for research and development at the Learning and Work Institute, also agreed with the need for stability.
“I am conscious that if we continue to change the system, we will have young people, parents and teacher who don’t know what it is and therefore won’t engage,” she said.
“A Sutton Trust report said two thirds of young people are actually thinking about apprenticeships now, but only a third of teachers are promoting that opportunity. Lots of them say that is because they don’t have the right information and don’t know what the benefits are.
“My concern is that while we absolutely have to get the system right, constantly making big churning changes means people will not think this is worth speculating on for their children.”
Halfon in the middle
Admitting he “sounds like a politician”, Robert Halfon struck a note of compromise in his speech.
The former skills minister agreed there isn’t enough evidence for major apprenticeship changes, but significant problems cannot be ignored.
“I think it is right to talk about the number of starts and right that perhaps after 11 months we don’t have the whole picture about what is going on,” the chair of the education select committee said.
“It is also right that we shouldn’t change the levy into just a general skills pot because I think there would be huge gaming of the system.”
However, Mr Halfon conceded that the “package does need some change”, particularly where the levy is concerned.
Robert Halfon
From next month large employers will be able to transfer up to 10 per cent of their unspent apprenticeship levy funds to multiple businesses. Mr Halfon wants this proportion drastically increased.
“I am sympathetic to the idea that you increase that to 50 per cent because I think it would benefit a lot of non-levy payers,” he said.
Under current rules, levy payers must spend their levy pot within 24 months. Mr Halfon wants the government to also look at extending this “to possibly 36 or 48 months”.
But overall he believes the levy was never going to transform apprenticeships in England alone, as there are many other “deep rooted” issues that need fixing alongside it.
“I think the apprentice levy should have been accompanied by much wider reforms in general,” he told the audience.
“The problem is the levy is seen as the answer to everything when actually there are deep rooted problems in terms of having more disadvantaged apprentices, and there are deep rooted problems around careers advice in our country – it is not skills focused.”
He also touched on issues with the government’s three million starts target.
“In terms of the three million target, I always thought it was a good thing because I thought it concentrated the mind of the Treasury,” he said.
“My one fear having thought about it a lot is that what it means is that it is a substitute for quantity over quality. I want to see a lot more quality and progression.”
In conclusion, Mr Halfon said, the “apprentice ladder of opportunity only works if the levy is included in a whole load of things and not just seen as the answer to everything.
“I hope we make some changes to the levy but not to the foundations. If you imagine it was a house, I’d like to make changes to some of the rooms.”
