More than 1,000 learners that failed their courses last year are now being told they’ve passed.

Under the previous widely accepted interpretation of rules for reformed level three applied general and tech level qualifications, introduced for teaching from 2016, learners had to pass all their externally-assessed exams to achieve their qualifications.

But that changed after Ofqual wrote to awarding organisations last month to ask them to create a “safety net” for learners that had narrowly failed one or more of their exams.

Awarding giant Pearson, whose BTECs account for the majority of the qualifications affected, has confirmed to FE Week that 1,300 learners at 270 of its centres have been affected by the rule change.

“Some learners who sat externally-assessed units in 2017 and 2018 are now eligible to achieve a qualification when previously they weren’t,” a spokesperson said.

“We have communicated with all providers about this change to ensure that all learners receive the qualification they deserve.”

This includes learners on the two-year courses, who are due to complete their qualifications this summer, as well as those on one-year foundation courses who finished their courses last summer.

FE Week understands that learners could be affected from other awarding organisations, including OCR, AQA and City and Guilds also offer their own versions of the qualifications.

The DfE has said this is not due to a change in the rules, but how they should be interpreted.

“We have always been clear with awarding organisations about the standard that is expected and nothing has changed. We recently reiterated the guidance to ensure consistency,” a spokesperson said.

“It is vital that qualifications remain challenging and rigorous, and we work closely with Ofqual to make sure that standards remain high.”

An assessment expert, who did not want to be named, told FE Week that the change would affect both providers and learners.

Providers’ achievement rates would have been affected by learners that failed under the previous rules, and for some the hit could have been “quite substantial”.

But he said the biggest impact was likely to be on the learners that have “lost out” on a year of education or training, having previously believed they’d failed.

Some would have dropped out of their courses after the first year, or are now needlessly repeating a year. Others would have been unable to progress onto other forms of training, including apprenticeships, he said.

According to Ofqual statistics, there were 144,855 tech level certificates issued in 2016/17, and 222,445 applied general certificates.

Pearson, through its BTECs, has by far the largest share of both: 79,970, or 55 per cent, of the tech levels and 180,225 or 81 per cent of the applied general.

Other awarding bodies to offer them include University of the Arts London and OCR, which had a nine and six per cent share respectively of applied general qualifications in 2016/17.

And City and Guilds was the second largest awarding body for tech levels, responsible for 31,945 or 22 per cent of certificates.

An Ofqual spokesperson said it was “pleased” that Pearson had applied the change to BTECs “to address the unfair disadvantage for students, in comparison with those taking older versions of the qualifications or A levels, when applying for university places”.

“In weighing up the need to make changes to their qualifications, we asked awarding organisations to ensure appropriate standards were achieved in these new qualifications.”

 

What is the rule change?

Reformed level three applied general and tech level qualifications, introduced for teaching from September 2016, include a proportion of external assessment, or timetabled exams.

Under the original interpretation of the rules, learners on these courses had to pass all of these exams in order to achieve their qualification.

This meant, for example, that a learner who gained a distinction in three out of four exams but who narrowly failed one exam would fail the overall qualification.

In a letter to all awarding organisations offering applied general and tech level qualifications, sent last month, Ofqual said it was “concerned that this may impact the validity of grades issued and is not fair to students who narrowly miss passing one or more units”, and it risked putting learners at a disadvantage compared with A-level students and those with older versions of the qualifications.

It asked the AOs to “provide a safety net for students who narrowly pass on one or more externally-assessed units” on these courses.

This would mean that a learner could still pass the overall qualification without having to pass all the externally-assessed exams – bringing them in line with other level three qualifications such as A-levels.

George Osborne, who as chancellor was one of the driving forces behind university technical colleges, would consider scrapping the starting age of 14 if he were still in charge at the Treasury.

The former MP told the Commons education committee that he had been examining early issues with the project just before he left office in 2016, and had come to the conclusion that they are in need of radical reform.

He was in Parliament today in his capacity as chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, attending a hearing on improving skills and training in the north.

His ‘Educating the north’ report, released in February, discussed the need for more workplace-based learning options for 14-year-olds in the region.

However, he has now admitted that UTCs have perhaps not been the best option.

The idea of the 14-to-19 technical institutions was born at the end of the Gordon Brown’s Labour government with the backing of former Tory education secretary Lord Kenneth Baker, though the subsequent coalition government expanded on it.

“There was a question mark at starting it at 14,” he told MPs. “There is an argument that I was digging into before I left office that moving school at 14 is not always the easiest thing and people are reluctant.”

He said the model “clearly hasn’t worked” in some cases and “if I was back at the Treasury I would be looking at that”.

UTCs are seen by many as unwelcome competition to more established general FE and sixth-form colleges, which consistently return a much higher proportion of higher Ofsted grades.

Eight have so far closed, largely due to recruitment issues, and one fifth of the UTCs inspected by Ofsted so far are rated ‘inadequate’.

A number have already been forced to switch recruitment age to 13 in order to harmonise with ordinary comprehensive schools. They say changing at 14 is too disruptive to GCSE learning.

If I was back at the Treasury I would be looking at that

Mr Osborne is the latest senior figure involved in the inception of the specialist technical education providers to admit that the model, as it stands, is in serious trouble.

Michael Gove, who launched UTCs in his stint as education secretary, acknowledged in February last year that “the evidence has accumulated and the verdict is clear” that UTCs were in trouble.

Three months ago it emerged that Mr Gove had been “forced” to create UTCs by Mr Osborne and David Cameron.

FE Week approached Lord Baker and the Baker Dearing Trust but neither were available for comment at the time we went to press.

Mr Osborne was present at this morning’s hearing with Lord Jim O’Neill and Henri Murison, the vice-chair and director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership respectively.

The trio spoke heavily on the need for further devolution of the adult skills budget, which was one of the main recommendations in their report.

“Skills is going to take years to fix,” said Mr Murison. “In skills what the north needs is to get on with showing what works in devolving funding. I believe the adult education budget is the start because what we really need is influence over the entire spend from 0 to 25 in an area and a place.

“I believe the local areas should have absolute influence in the skills system to make it for employers. Devolution is the solution.”

Mr Osborne even suggested the government might want to look at reintroducing the controversial individualised learning accounts.

The scheme was scrapped in 2001 after abuse by unscrupulous providers led to a reported £67 million fraud.

Mr Osborne said it has been a long time since the scandal and they could be used again in the future.

“I don’t know whether you could design them to be fraud-proof because in the human world you can’t create that, but you need to police it and punish those who offend,” he said.

“The problem with ILAs was the industrial scale abuse so whether you could revisit that policy and find a way I don’t know. It has been a long time and maybe revisiting that so the money can follow the individual and the individual can be more empowered, employers can ensure FE courses are relevant to them, I would be in the devolution space and I would introduce that.”

UPDATE: Strike dates have been set for May 22 and 23, the UCU has announced today (May 4)

Staff at a London college involved in a long-distance merger with one of the country’s largest college groups have voted to strike over pay.

Members of the University and College Union at Lewisham Southwark College had already been up in arms over the way they’ve been treated in recent years, but they claim things have got even worse since August’s merger with NCG – whose headquarters is 300 miles away.

They say that over the past five years they have had their annual increments taken away, as well as their London weighting – an allowance designed to help workers with the cost of living in the capital, which is higher than that of the rest of the UK.

On top of this, UCU insists that NCG has said there will be no pay rises this year, even though the Association of College has recommended all staff get a one-per-cent increase.

The row over staff pay is thrown into sharp focus when taking into account the salary of NCG’s chief executive, Joe Docherty, who enjoyed a £227,000 salary in 2016/17, along with £33,000 in pension contributions and £21,000 from benefits in kind, according to the group’s most recent accounts.

A letter about the ballot, seen by FE Week, reads: “Even in colleges that have agreed to all the AoC’s recommended pay increases since 2009, staff are now 24.7 per cent worse off than they were in 2009 when compared to inflation.

“However, Lewisham Southwark College is in London where costs have risen even more steeply and yet management still refuse to implement any of the AoC’s recommendations.”

It added that NCG was attacking “the welfare of FE staff at the core of the college with pay cuts for a decade, no increments and, unlike most London colleges, no London weighting”.

“This is against a backdrop of NCG acquiring – for no cost – over £100 million of London assets, and our CEO on a pay package of at least £278,000.”

101 disgruntled union members at the college were balloted on Friday and just under 95 per cent voted in favour of strike action. Strike dates are yet to be confirmed.

To prevent it, the UCU is demanding that NCG agrees to pay rises of three per cent plus RPI with a minimum uplift of £900, the reintroduction of London weighting and the reintroduction of annual increments.

“Staff at Lewisham Southwark College have seen their pay held down for years and they have had enough,” said the UCU’s head of FE Andrew Harden.

Staff have seen their pay held down for years and they have had enough

“In the recent ballot they overwhelmingly backed strike action in defence of pay and NCG needs to respond positively to that demand or risks facing disruption.”

A spokesperson for Lewisham Southwark College, said: “NCG is committed to working in collaboration with UCU, and we always try to find a resolution acceptable to all parties as outlined in our partnership agreement wherever that is possible.

“We of course respect the right of trade union members to participate in strike action following a ballot.

“Our first duty is always to our students and the college will work to minimise any impact during strike action.”

Lewisham Southwark College joined forces with NCG, based in Newcastle, on August 1.

This was despite the controversial nature of the plans, due to the distance between both, which provoked the London borough of Lewisham into questioning the sense of their local college joining with a group whose headquarters is 300 miles away from the capital.

As well as Lewisham Southwark, NCG is comprised of Carlisle College, Kidderminster College, Newcastle College, Newcastle Sixth Form College, and West Lancashire College. It also runs two training providers called Rathbone Training and Intraining.

PIC: UCU members outside Lewisham Southwark College