So it comes as no surprise that it has been a hot topic this week at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference, where many still single it out as the main barrier to greater employer engagement.
Sue Husband from the government’s national apprenticeship service was clear during her question and answer session (page 9) that significant training is central to quality apprenticeships.
We don’t want to return to low-paid apprentices not even knowing they are on a training course.
Like Ofsted, I think providers and employers need to publicly embrace the training requirement as an “entitlement” to the apprentice: make it a selling point rather than a sticking point.
Otherwise, will employer demand pick up enough to achieve the three million starts target? It felt very appropriate to include a presentation at AAC from a futurologist, but truth be told, nobody really knows how the reforms will unfold.
Official figures since May last year clearly show a major dip in demand, but I remain optimistic. Many more large employers, particularly in the public sector, will, I believe, recruit new and existing employees as apprentices in significant volume as new standards finally come on stream.
It’s always nice to be at a big conference with people passionate about learning, skills, training and apprenticeships.
The FE Week Apprenticeship Conference at the ICC brings together a vital part of the education system: independent training providers, colleges, universities, awarding organisations, students and employers.
The diversity of the audience is part of its strength particularly given that everyone here wants make sure that the apprenticeship programme advances social mobility, improves productivity, enhances economic development, helps employers be successful and gives people real career opportunities
Back in 2011, when I was leading NIACE (now the Learning and Work Institute), we ran an inquiry with AoC and 157 Group (now Collab) chaired by Margaret Sharp, called ‘Colleges at the heart of their communities’.
It’s vital that colleges can confidently assert what they are good at
The report set out a simple but compelling vision to place colleges at the centre of the education system, working in partnership with local businesses, charities, local authorities and public-sector organisations. The college role was described as the “the dynamic nucleus” supporting and working with independent training providers, local authorities, universities and schools.
The report is still worth reading because unfortunately the years of austerity since then have got in the way of properly implementing this vision, as has the competition for scarce resources.
It’s vital that colleges can confidently assert what they are good at. However, they must also acknowledge, applaud and promote the distinct, vital and complementary roles played by school sixth-forms, independent training providers, local-authority adult education services, other colleges and universities.
As I visit AoC members around the country I see time and again, mutually beneficial partnerships between colleges and others.
In every case, success is dependent on clarity of purpose and outcomes with clear benefits to the learners, students, apprentices and employers. Meeting their needs often requires more than the college can do on its own, and every community needs a range of organisations to meet its needs.
Schools work with colleges to make the transition to post-16 learning smoother through careers guidance and taster days, and collaborate to ensure a wide curriculum offering to all young people.
Independent training providers subcontract or partner to meet the complete spread of needs for employers and the local or national labour market. Adult-education services develop outreach and progression pathways into college courses. Universities validate higher education and support students to move on from levels four and five into degree studies.
Partnerships are not of course the only thing happening between this set of organisations – in many cases, colleges sponsor academy schools and UTCs, bring training providers into the overall college group, manage the adult-education services directly and collaborate with universities on joint ventures.
We can agree or not about whether colleges are the “dynamic nucleus” – though as chief executive of the AoC, it won’t be difficult to work out my view on that one – but I am certain that we can agree that we need a range of different organisations to be effective in every community to have the lifelong learning culture we’re all striving for.
David Hughes is chief executive of the Association of Colleges
Ofsted will expose training providers who rip-off apprentices by collecting subcontracting management fees without taking “responsibility for quality”, the chief inspector has revealed.
Amanda Spielman made the promise in a fierce speech at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference, warning prime providers that the inspectorate would not stand idly by while poor provision goes unmonitored.
“Our message here is simple: as the direct contract holder, you are responsible for your learners,” she told delegates.
“If you subcontract, for whatever reason, you are still responsible for making sure your apprentice gets high-quality training.
As the direct contract holder, you are responsible for your learners
“If you are sitting back and collecting the money without taking proper responsibility for quality, you are failing your apprentices. We are determined to expose this in the system.”
“We expect the first of these to be published in the next couple of weeks,” Ms Spielman said.
Subcontracting has been a hot topic for all in the sector over the past few years.
Lead providers often claim that steep fees are needed to cover administrative costs, but many, including the education committee chair Robert Halfon, believe that too much money is being siphoned out of frontline learning.
Ms Spielman also discussed Ofsted’s approach to monitoring “untested” new providers which have entered the apprenticeships market.
“I know that many of you have concerns about the number of untested providers entering the market and the effect this could have on quality,” she said.
“Well, rest assured we are not standing idly by and waiting for new providers to fail.
“It is essential that poor-quality provision is spotted and tackled quickly, so that it doesn’t damage an individual’s prospects or the overall apprenticeship brand.”
Rest assured we are not standing idly by and waiting for new providers to fail
She mentioned the early monitoring visits that have been used to assess the quality of these new providers, the first of which was published last week – and made for embarrassing reading for bosses at Key6 Group.
Inspectors described the Merseyside-provider as “not fit for purpose”, where apprentices complained they are “not learning anything new”.
However, Ms Spielman insisted that a single report should not be taken as a sign that every new provider is similarly inept.
“It is important that we don’t over-interpret this one result as a judgment on all new providers coming on stream with the levy,” she told the conference.
“We are doing more monitoring visits of this type. And I very much hope that positive results will significantly outnumber the disappointments.”
The credibility of a major new government progress measure is at stake after a college labelled as one of the worst in the country for teaching 14- to 16-year-olds has been rated ‘outstanding’ for its provision by Ofsted.
The watchdog couldn’t praise Leeds City College highly enough for its “direct entry” provision in a report published on March 16.
Students make “excellent progress from their starting point” – even though many are from “very challenging backgrounds that are characterised by an episodic experience of education”.
And now, voices from across the sector are redoubling their efforts to get colleges and other providers exempted from the government’s flagship Progress 8 measure – which they say is unrepresentative of the work their do with children in the 14-to-16 bracket.
The measure looks at the progress a pupil has made between the end of primary school and the results of eight GCSEs, comparing their achievement with other students of similar ability.
The Association of Colleges say it is unfair to publish colleges’ results next to those of schools. FE providers only recruit their key stage 4 students in year 10, and thus only have responsibility over their learners for two of the five years that Progress 8 measures.
Such a measure fails to capture the real development these young people need
Direct entry at colleges also mostly caters for young people who have not thrived in a mainstream school setting.
The latest Progress 8 data set, published in January, showed that the 17 colleges which offered direct entry last year scored -2.10 on average, well below the government’s floor standard of -0.5, and by far the lowest of any type of educational institution.
The national media subsequently ran stories listing “the worst schools in the country”, in which colleges such as Leeds City – which received a score of -2.02 – were included.
“We do not dispute its value to students in schools,” Lewis Freer, the head of the 14+ apprenticeship academy at Leeds City College, told FE Week.
“However, for those who require a more bespoke approach, such a measure fails to capture the real development these young people need.”
He added that while league tables “may not recognise the positive impact we make, it is reassuring to know that Ofsted certainly does”.
The college was rated ‘good’ overall but ‘outstanding’ in three headline fields, including for its direct entry provision.
Inspectors found that every one of its 172 full-time 14- to 16-year-old students, who have a “record of low prior attainment and poor attendance”, made “excellent progress” onto further education and training.
“Students follow an engaging curriculum that meets the statutory requirements for key stage 4, combining the study of core GCSE subjects alongside vocational qualifications,” the report states.
Inspectors added that staff are “highly qualified and experienced” to deliver the range of qualifications they offer.
They provide “intensive and effective levels of pastoral support to students, some of whom are from very challenging backgrounds that are characterised by an episodic experience of education”.
Mr Freer said that by keeping class sizes down and “focusing on the individual needs” of learners “we are better able to identify and overcome the many barriers to learning these young people experience” at school.
Progress 8 was established by the Department for Education in 2016.
Schools are judged against the measure every year, and are considered to be below the floor standard if their pupils’ average score in a complex points system comes in at -0.5 or under in eight GCSEs.
FE Week revealed in February that two huge colleges – London South East and NCG – have ditched their own 14-to-16 provision because they say the “unfair” measure is too damaging to their reputation.
The area reviews of post-16 education and training ended last March. They were designed to establish “fewer, often larger, more resilient and efficient providers”, but one year on from that final meeting of the steering group, there are more than a few financially challenged still struggling to find merger partners. FE Week looked at what’s going on at the colleges in need of rescuing.
It’s always the ones in the direst straights: a college whose very survival is reliant on government bailouts and another that was told a year ago it could no longer survive on its own are among those desperately seeking new merger partners.
Accrington and Rossendale College came out of the Lancashire area review in February last year told to merge with Burnley College by May 1.
But the plan fell through, and it has since then depended on the largesse of the Education and Skills Funding Agency while it desperately searches for a new partner.
Epping Forest College is also now on its second merger hunt, after the FE commissioner told it a year ago that it was no longer sustainable on its own.
One of the conditions of its financial notice to improve, issued in December after it was rated ‘inadequate’ for financial health, was that it merge by the start of this August.
Richard Atkins
Other colleges in search of a partner include Guildford College, which was recently told it needed to merge after its second FE commissioner intervention.
Kirklees College, waiting for intervention after it received a financial notice to improve in November, may also have to go down the same route.
In fact, merger is generally seen as the best and only option for a college whose financials are in a twist.
For many – particularly for those whose review-recommended merger has fallen through, or which have come into trouble since the reviews ended – it entails a structure and prospects appraisal (SPA) led by that man again, the FE commissioner Richard Atkins.
In an interview with FE Week in November, he described his process as a “much more meaningful way” for a college to find a partner than the area reviews ever were.
The difference is “the focus it brings on an individual college”, which “tends to lead to meaningful mergers”.
He’s putting his money where his mouth is, too: this week he said he’s working “around the country with a number of colleges” to find merger partners.
“The purpose of the area reviews was to create larger, more sustainable, more successful colleges, and the process we’re currently going through with the SPAs supports that policy,” he told FE Week.
Click to enlarge
Several colleges have indeed managed to pull themselves back from the brink after Mr Atkins helped them track down a merger partner.
Last month Stratford-upon-Avon College, which he had told last March to merge in order to survive, joined forces with Solihull College.
And Lambeth College has this week reaffirmed plans to meld with London South Bank University’s “family” of institutions, after going through a SPA to fully assess its options.
Monica Box, Lambeth’s principal, said the move “heralds the beginning of an exciting new era for Lambeth College”, which had also relied on ESFA handouts, including a reported £25 million from a fund designed for colleges to implement post-area review changes.
In August 15 mergers involving 31 colleges and sixth-form colleges went live on a single day – five of which were financially weak, according to the Association of Colleges.
Some financially weak colleges have merged with stronger counterparts
These included a partnership between debt-ridden Central Sussex College, which was £36.9 million in the red according to its 2016/17 accounts, and Chichester College, which Ofsted rates ‘outstanding’.
However, the AoC is not totally happy with the status quo. It warned in its spring statement on college finances this month that the financial health of the sector had deteriorated in the past six months.
While “some financially weak colleges have merged with stronger counterparts”, a further 35 still hold financial notices of various kinds.
There has been a recent flurry: nine have been handed out to eight colleges since November.
But despite the AoC’s warnings, Mr Atkins insisted the sector’s ability to take on and support struggling colleges shows no signs of waning.
“At present, every one of the structure and prospects appraisals is bringing forward colleges that would wish to merge with them,” he said.
The clock is ticking for cash-strapped colleges without a partner, however.
The insolvency regime, which will allow colleges to go bust for the first time, will be introduced later this year – at which point the exceptional financial support tap will be turned off.
And funding from the restructuring facility, which many colleges have been drawing on both to cover the costs of mergers and for longer-term sustainability, is only available until next March.
The structure and prospects appraisal process can continue “as long as the restructuring fund exists”, Mr Atkins claimed. “After that it’s a policy decision.”
Epping Forest: Four notices and an ‘inadequate’
Epping Forest College was told by the FE commissioner a year ago that it could not survive on its own – but is now on its second search for a partner.
The college has three notices of concern and a financial notice to improve from the ESFA, and is currently rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.
Mr Atkins and his team visited for the first time in January last year, because Ofsted had awarded it an across-the-board grade four after an inspection the previous November.
That intervention led placed it into ‘administered’ status, as a result of “emerging financial challenges” and “serious governance problems”.
This was followed by a structure and prospects appraisal “owing to the significant instability still facing the college”.
The college’s 2016/17 accounts reveal that the process concluded with a firm recommendation that the college merge: “its prospect as an independent corporation was not sustainable”.
There’s no mention in the accounts of the college having to resort to exceptional financial support from the ESFA, or of a restructuring facility application.
Three of the college’s notices of concern date from early last year.
The first, for inspection, was issued January 9, and the second and third arrived in March, for ‘administered’ status and for its apprenticeship minimum standards.
The fourth notice, for financial health, was issued in December after the college was rated ‘inadequate’ for its financial health in 2016/17. It ruled that the college must agree a plan to “achieve a merger by August 1”.
So last July the college duly announced a formal partnership with Barnet and Southgate College.
But while the two said they intended to “strategically collaborate”, there was no mention in the joint announcement of a proposed merger.
However, a spokesperson told FE Week that while they had intended to merge, the two boards had “decided not to pursue” this option in the autumn.
She gave no reason why.
“Epping Forest College is working with FE commissioner team to choose a new merger partner,” she continued.
But with just four months to go until the merger deadline and no new partner announced, it’s not clear whether it will be met – nor what will happen to the college if it isn’t.
However, the spokesperson insisted college authorities are “confident” it would find a new partner in time.
Accrington and Rossendale College: Eternal financial support
Accrington and Rossendale College is reliant on ESFA bailouts while it searches for a new merger partner, after the collapse of its plan to join forces with Burnley College last year.
According to its 2016/17 accounts, the college received “loan funding of £1,921,000” during the year, “bringing total exceptional financial support to £2,247,000”.
It had also “received a commitment from the Education and Skills Funding Agency that they will provide a further £1,228,000 of funding in the period to March 2018”.
The college was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted at its most recent inspection in January, but it’s ‘inadequate’ for financial health.
This it blames on “historic low levels of cash reserves, declining recruitment, in particular that relating to 16- to 18-year-olds, and relatively high levels of borrowing”.
In addition to a financial notice of concern from November 2015 and its dependence on EFS, the college had also breached the covenants on its bank loans in 2015/16 and 2016/17.
Accrington and Rossendale came out of the Lancashire area review told to merge with Burnley College by May 2017, but this plan never came to fruition.
The college is now led by an interim principal, Lynda Mason, who was appointed after the college’s former principal Sue Taylor stepped down in preparation for the merger that wasn’t.
It’s now “actively pursuing a merger with the support of the FE commissioner” through a structure and prospects appraisal, intending to “enter into an agreement to merge in 2017/18”.
A spokesperson for the college told FE Week that it’s “exploring a range of options that will enable us to build on our inspection success”.
“A final decision will be based on a clear and coherent curriculum vision that will meet local needs, backed by an investment and resource plan which secures financial security for the long term.”
The apprenticeship levy is “not fit for purpose” and the sector needs much more flexibility on spending the cash it raises, the deputy head of the CBI is to warn the FE Week Annual Apprenticeships Conference.
Josh Hardie will use his keynote speech in Birmingham today to give large employers more latitude on levy money – including using it to establish training centres.
“The levy’s design faults are serious, but not insurmountable,” he will say. “Ministers should immediately loosen the rules on what happens to the levy cash itself – next month’s 10-per-cent transfer rule simply isn’t enough.
“Companies should be able to draw down far more from the levy pot – over 50 per cent – and use it to work with others to create centres of excellence for training.”
Companies should be able to draw down far more from the levy pot – over 50 per cent – and use it to work with others to create centres of excellence for training
Employers which pay the levy will be able to transfer funds to other organisations for the first time from April.
Large employers have so far only been able to spend the funding generated on their own apprenticeships, but guidance on gov.uk explained how this will change.
There are “no restrictions about who you can transfer funds to”, except that “they have to be registered on the apprenticeship service”.
“Providers should also lead from the front and make sure that they’re offering high-quality apprenticeships that suit local businesses – reacting to employer demand, not going back to an old system,” Mr Hardie will say to delegates.
He wants the government to “redouble its commitment to quality provision” as it pushes ahead with the reform programme.
This should include giving the Institute for Apprenticeships “proper teeth as an independent skills regulator”.
“We need a system where business and people are able to influence changes, and a real focus on the commercial understanding that people and companies are customers, and providers are suppliers,” he will say.
We need a system where business and people are able to influence changes, and a real focus on the commercial understanding that people and companies are customers, and providers are suppliers
“There’s been a 41-per-cent drop in apprenticeship starts over the past year. It shows that the levy in its current form isn’t fit for purpose.
“Recently, a big investor in R&D told me they pay the levy and want to get more apprentices on board.
“They’re based in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor – so you’d think they’d be spoilt for choice when it comes to local training. But they aren’t: it’s all retail apprenticeships, and the levy doesn’t allow them to fund a local business initiative to change that.”
He will also bring up a large insurer, which runs a successful and expanding apprenticeship scheme.
“Alongside it, they also run internships, traineeships and work placements – all well-established programmes developing talent, but none of it levy-compliant,” he will say.
“The levy isn’t flexible enough to pay for any of that extra learning. It’s simply not working as it stands.”
A twelfth provider has achieved FE chartered status: Manchester’s Mantra Learning.
The floodgates have seemingly started to open at the Chartered Institution for Further Education, after three attained the status last month: WMC – The Camden College, Trafford College, and Burton and South Derbyshire College.
They are all rated either ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ by Ofsted.
“We are delighted,” said Mantra’s CEO Mark Currie. “The award of chartered status is testament to the high quality of teaching and learning that we deliver day in, day out across the north-west.
“As a specialist logistics training provider, we work with a number of large apprenticeship levy-paying employers to upskill their staff to achieve higher productivity with skills such as fuel-efficient driving, faster order picking and reduced errors.”
— The Chartered Institution for Further Education (@FEcharter) March 21, 2018
Mr Currie plans to “motivate some of the other first-rate colleges and providers in the north” to apply for membership and gain “the recognition they deserve”.
Mantra Learning has been offering learning and skills programmes to support the logistics, automotive and business sectors for over 40 years.
CIFE was first conceived back in 2012 to get high-achieving FE providers the royal seal of approval.
Chief executive Dan Wright told FE Week in January that his goal was to make CIFE self-sufficient by 2019.
There is still a long way to go, as he believes it would need 80 members to be “completely free” of government subsidy.
The CIFE has already received more than £1 million in public subsidy, and is still being propped up by £210,000 a year.
John Hayes
“We are very pleased to welcome Mantra Learning into membership,” said Mr Wright. “Having passed a rigorous application process, it has demonstrated a commitment to excellent provision and has confirmed its position as a leading performer and influencer in the sector.
“As our membership continues to grow, we look forward to working with Mantra and the National Logistics Academy to promote excellence within the further education sector and to celebrate what it does well.”
Members of CIFE gathered at Apothecaries’ Hall on March 8 for a ceremony to welcome new members.
In attendance was the John Hayes, who was welcomed as an honorary fellow. FE chartered status was a pet project of his as skills minister.
Any colleges or training providers with an overall grade one or two in their most recent Ofsted inspection and which receive funding from the ESFA are eligible to apply for membership.
“They will need to demonstrate as part of the application process that they can meet the Institution’s quality standards,” a CIFE spokesperson said.
Cap for main pic: CIFE chair with Lord Lingfield with Mark Currie
Apprenticeship achievement rates have been shown to have risen for 2016/17, in the latest statistics released by the Department for Education.
The figure for all apprenticeship levels went up by a full percentage point on the previous academic year, according to new National Achievement Rate tables published this morning, from 66.7 per cent in 2015/16 to 67.7 per cent.
Higher-level apprenticeships saw the biggest increase in the period, from 58.3 per cent to 61.9 per cent.
While there were rises across all levels, the lowest was at intermediate level, which only increased from 66.2 per cent to 67.1 per cent.
Among providers with a cohort of 1,000 or more apprentices, GP Strategies Training, the Royal Navy, and Skills To Group had the most impressive achievement rates last academic year.
Their completion figures were 88.9 per cent, 87.1 per cent and 86 per cent respectively.
The DfE also provided a breakdown for different sectors: the education and training sector fared best in 2016/17 with a 76.5-per-cent rate.
After that was information and communication technology with 75 per cent, and then leisure, travel and tourism with 73.7 per cent.
The lowest achievement rates were in the arts, media and publishing sector, at 64.8 per cent.
Apprenticeship achievement rates by age and level:
A “very small number” of apprentices could reach the end of their course in the next year without an organisation in place to deliver their final exams, the Institute for Apprenticeships’ boss has admitted.
But Sir Gerry Berragan, who gave the opening address at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeships Conference, promised the IfA was “on the case”.
“Of the apprentices that are due to undertake their end-point assessment in the next 12 months, 99.1 per cent are on a standard with at least one end-point assessment organisation in place,” he told the audience.
But a “very small number of apprentices” [0.9 per cent of those due to do EPA in the next 12 months] are on eight standards which don’t yet have an assessor organisation in place.
“In each case the Education and Skills Funding Agency and the Institute are working with prospective assessment organisations to resolve this,” he said.
But Mark Dawe, the boss of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, later pointed out that simply having an EPA organisation in place wasn’t enough.
“We know of many EPA organisations registered but not yet ready to deliver, and the external quality-assurance above them also not ready,” he said during the Q&A session that followed.
The issue of apprentices on standards without an EPA organisation in place has been a hot topic for sector leaders, including Sue Pember, director of policy at Holex, who has previously said it’s “disrespectful” for any apprentice to start on a course without anyone to deliver the final exams.
But Sir Gerry acknowledged today that there will “always be newly approved longer standards” with no EPA in place.
“We know the assessment organisations don’t want to be on the register of end-point assessment organisations too far in advance of EPA taking place because they don’t want to invest in the development of EPA materials several years before they’re used,” he said.
He also defended the early days of the apprenticeship reforms, in a speech in which he attempted to bust certain “myths” around apprenticeships.
These included plummeting starts over the past year: while admitting that starts are down, he said the fall is now closer to 30 per cent than the 60 per cent that had been feared.
In addition, starts on standards are “currently running at 800 per cent up on the previous year” and now represent 40 per cent of all starts.
“Despite the headline drop in starts seeming negative when look beneath the headline what you see is a reform programme that’s delivering on its objective,” he said.
Sir Gerry outlined the measures the Institute had put in place to speed up the process of standards approval.
The IfA now wants 80 per cent of all new standards “to be approved in eight months of first proposal coming forward”, he said. A total of 244 standards were currently ready for delivery.
“By the end of this year I predict we will have a total of over 350 standards approved for delivery and that figure will probably rise to around 500 by 2020,” he added.
FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference runs from March 21 to 23 at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, and features headline speakers including skills minister Anne Milton, and Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector.
For live coverage and reaction, follow #FEWeekAAC2018 on Twitter.
