IfA funding rate review: Customer service set for 13 per cent cut

Yet another popular apprenticeship standard is set to have its funding cut, following the Institute for Apprenticeship’s rate review.

The level two customer service practitioner standard will have its funding cap reduced by 13 per cent – from £4,000 to £3,500 –  according to documents shared with FE Week.

It’s currently the third most popular apprenticeship standard, with 6,500 starts in the first nine months of 2017/18.

The decision is not being challenged by the employer group that developed the standard, according to its chair.

Dean Ashton, standards and accreditation associate at the Institute of Customer Service, told FE Week the group had instead “asked the IfA to monitor any trends in uptake/decrease in the number of apprenticeships”.

The group will also keep an eye on starts and report back to the IfA “any evidence that suggests this funding review will affect the take up and support for customer service”.

According to the letter sent to Mr Ashton from the IfA, the decision to reduce the funding band for the standard was based on a number of factors.

These included information provided by the Trailblazer group, providers and assessment organisations; the “cost and funding bands of any equivalent frameworks”; and the “initial funding band that would have been allocated to the standard” under the IfA’s new funding approach.

The group’s “nominated training providers submitted information about the cost of training delivery, with totals ranging from £3,937 to £4,960” while the “nominated end-point assessment organisation submitted assessment costs of £545”.

“If this were a new standard, the Institute’s initial band (allocated at proposal stage) would have been £2,000,” the letter said.

The customer services framework, which has “similarities” to the standard, has a “funding band maximum of £1,500”, it said.

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

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

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

The employer group behind three management standards, including the level three team leader supervisor, responsible for the highest number of starts of any standard, revealed on Friday that it was planning to appeal after being told that all three would have their rates cut.

This includes the chartered manager degree apprenticeship, which is set to have its cap slashed from £27,000 to £22,000.

And the hair professional standard is also set to have its funding rate reduced from £9,000 to £7,000.

All funding rate cuts are subject to final approval by the education secretary, Damian Hinds.

The 31 standards under review

A spokesperson for the IfA  said: “Following a request from the Department for Education, we are conducting a funding band review on 31 existing standards using the new 30 band structure and the Institute’s funding process. We have contacted 19 trailblazer groups to inform them of our recommendations.  Throughout the process, we worked with trailblazers to ensure the process and outcome was fair and appropriate for each standard.

“We will submit our recommendations to the Department for Education, who will make the final decision.”

Read the IfA’s letter here.

Funding rates to be slashed for popular management apprenticeships

The management degree apprenticeship standard is set to have its funding slashed by a massive £5,000.

And funding rates for two other management standards – including the most popular standard, for team leader/ supervisor – will also be reduced.

The employer group behind the standards, led by the Chartered Management Institute, is planning to appeal the cuts, according to an email seen by FE Week.  

All three, which between them accounted for almost 20,000 starts in the first nine months of 2017/18, were part of the Institute for Apprenticeship’s funding band review, which began in May.

According to documents seen by FE Week, the level management degree apprenticeship will have its funding cap cut from £27,000 to £22,000, pending approval by the education secretary Damian Hinds.

The band for the level five operational/departmental manager standard will go from £9,000 to £7,000, while the level three team leader/ supervisor standard will be capped at £4,500 – down from £5,000.

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

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

Petra Wilton, director of strategy at the Chartered Management Institute, hit out on social media to say that “cutting funding for new high-quality apprenticeships that are working – runs counter to all commonsense”.

And Sean Williams, chief executive of training provider Corndel, warned that the funding cuts would have a “catastrophic effect”.

The Trailblazer group has said it is intending to appeal the decisions, warning that if implemented they would hit the quality of training and the reputation of apprenticeships, and would lead to a drop in the number of starts.

According to the letter from the IfA to the leadership and management trailblazer group, seen by FE Week, the decision to cut the funding band for the degree apprenticeship was based on a number of factors – including information provided by the Trailblazer group.

This included quotes from a range of providers, stating that it would cost between £27,000 and £28,994 to deliver, and one quote from an end-point assessment organisation with a cost of £1,169.93.

“You told us that a reduction to funding would lead to providers exiting the market and reduce provider ability to deliver high quality training provision,” the letter said.

The news comes on the same day as the Trailblazer group behind the hair professional standard, another of the 31 under review, revealed that they’d been told their funding was being cut from £9,000 to £7,000.

The Institute for Apprenticeships declined to comment.

Read the IfA’s letters to the Trailblazer group in full:

Popular apprenticeship standard to be hit with £2k funding rate cut, claims employer group

One of the most popular apprenticeship standards is in line for a more than 20 per cent funding rate cut, according to the employer group that developed it.

The level two hair professional standard was one of 31 named by the Institute for Apprenticeships in May as part of its funding band review.

It had 4,940 starts in the first nine months of 2017/18, making it the seventh most popular standard, and currently attracts a maximum funding rate of £9,000.

However, this is set to be cut to £7,000, according to the Trailblazer group behind it.

“The government’s aim was to have a flagship apprenticeship programme which cannot be achieved if there is insufficient funding,” said Wendy Cummins, who chaired the group.

“The hair professional standards took two years for employers to develop, with constant policy changes which were both frustrating and time-consuming. Just as the industry is adopting the new style standards, this blow falls.”

Trevor Luker, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ sector lead, urged the government to leave the standard “as it is” until “there is more empirical evidence to support a review, based on known costs and outcomes”.

Mr Luker is a director of the London Hairdressing Apprenticeship Academy, and would therefore be hit by the funding cut.

It is understood that any decision to change the funding band will need to be signed off by the education secretary, Damian Hinds.

The IfA has also committed to a minimum two-month notice period before the changes come into effect for any new starts.

The launch of the funding band review in May followed an earlier announcement that the number of bands would increase from 15 to 30 – a move that the Department for Education said was because employers did not “feel able” to negotiate on price.

According to the published standard the hair professional apprenticeship has an estimated duration of 24 months.

But many of the vacancies listed on the government’s Find apprenticeship training website list the duration as between 12 and 18 months.

Of the 4,940 starts between August and October 2017/18, almost 90 per cent – or 4,330 – were for 16- to 18-year-olds.

Given that most salons are likely to employ fewer than 50 people, and therefore don’t have to pay an employer contribution, it is unlikely that any will have negotiated on the price.

Furthermore, training the youngest apprentices attracts a £1,000 provider incentive – which means that providers could be claiming a total of £10,000 to deliver a 12- to 18-month apprenticeship.

The 31 standards included in the IFA’s funding review:

Is degree apprenticeship a viable alternative to university?

There’s been a lot of talk of degree apprenticeships as a great alternative to university. Just this morning, education secretary Damian Hinds tweeted that there is a “huge range of opportunity” for students collecting results today, “whether it’s university, college, starting an apprenticeship or entering the world of work”.

With degree apprenticeships typically paying salaries of £15,000 – £20,000, compared to annual tuition fees of £9,000, the finances make sense. Plus, you get to work in your chosen field for three to five years, become proficient on the job, receive time off for training and study and still come out with a degree.

So what opportunities are there for A-level students looking for degree apprenticeships today?

Disguised as 18-year-olds (or parents of the same…) FE Week did some mystery shopping, and here’s what we found.

1/ There are virtually no degree apprenticeships available

On A-level results day, are only 117 places currently being advertised for degree apprenticeships across the whole of England, compared to over 30,000 university courses with places still available this morning, according to UCAS (after 411,860 places were accepted).

In fact, degree apprenticeships at level 6 (equivalent to a standard university undergraduate degree) make up only 0.3 per cent of all apprenticeship adverts on the government’s Find an Apprenticeship service.

Level 4-7 apprenticeships make up just 1.8 per cent of the total (359 adverts), with level 2 and 3 occupying a whopping 98.2 per cent (19,677 adverts).

Apprenticeship adverts by level on the government’s Find an Apprenticeship service 16/08/2018

FE Week found only five civil engineer degree apprenticeship positions listed for England: three in London, and one in each of Norwich and St Ives. The civil engineer degree apprenticeship is a five-year course, with a typical annual salary of  around £15,000, with entry requirements ranging from ‘BBC’ to three ‘A’ grades at A-level.

There were no results for professions such as solicitor or architect.

Eight positions are listed for the three-year level 5 laboratory scientist apprenticeship starting this autumn, in various locations from Scunthorpe to Slough. The standard requirement is 80 UCAS points (BB or CDD at A-level) including A-level biology, although some employers state they are more flexible, allowing A-level equivalents such as BTEC. There is just one five-year level 6 laboratory scientist apprentice opening.

Other degree apprenticeships that are likely to see more opportunities in the near future include manufacturing engineer, digital and technology solutions professional or chartered surveyor.

2/ The National Careers Service doesn’t offer additional advice

The government is pushing the National Careers Service as the place to look for careers advice, but they don’t offer any additional advice on where to find degree apprenticeships.

The NCS website pushes users towards the Find an Apprenticeship service, and when FE Week asked a helpline advisor about degree apprenticeships, we were told again, to check the Find an Apprenticeship website, the UCAS website or the Institute for Apprenticeships website (which again, redirects to Find an Apprenticeship).

UCAS is currently advertising just 121 higher and degree (level 4-6) apprenticeships across England.

The NCS helpline advisor also told us that employers sometimes advertise independently, and that more degree apprenticeships will be available soon.

3/ There are no nursing degree apprenticeship vacancies

Aspiring nurses will have to apply via the university route, which costs £9000, or wait until the January intake, when more nursing degree apprenticeship opportunities will become available, said Lucy Hunte, National Programme Manager for Apprenticeships at Health Education England. She added that Imperial College in London will advertise about 50 nurse apprenticeship openings “in the next few days”.

There are several reasons for the lack of nurse apprenticeship positions. One is that the first wave of apprentice nurses have all been existing healthcare assistants within the NHS. “We did have a lot of healthcare assistants that aspire to be nurses but with the removal of the bursary they couldn’t resign from their jobs and go down that route,” Hunte told FE Week.

Another is that it has been “a huge battle” to get universities to adapt their programmes to the new apprenticeship standard, she added. The Nursing & Midwifery Council then has to approve each university apprenticeship provider, which is adding to the backlog.

This is despite there being around 40,000 nursing vacancies across the country.

4/ Many degree apprenticeships are still under development

Degree apprenticeships are new, so the available places are currently low. The number of people starting apprenticeships at all levels has been dropping since the government reformed the system, despite their intention for an increase in apprenticeship places.

But the good news is that more degree apprenticeship standards are being developed, and as more employers and universities develop their courses, the number of opportunities is likely to grow rapidly over the next few years.

Apprenticeship standards approved by level on 16/08/2018

Over 90 per cent of universities have joined the government’s register of apprenticeship training providers, which suggests that they are intending to provide them at some juncture.

What seems to be missing, however, is for more employers to sign up to provide them – as FE Week recently found out. A university is unable to run a degree apprenticeship without an employer willing to take on the apprentice (and pay their wage!).

 

So, what should A-level students looking for degree apprenticeships do?

  • Keep an eye on the Find an Apprenticeship service. New opportunities are appearing all the time.
  • If you know which industry you want to go into, why not approach an employer directly? If they’re not sure how to go about taking on an apprentice, you can point them to the government’s Hire an apprentice website.  
  • And if you want to be really proactive, you can check out the Institute for Apprenticeships website to see which new apprenticeship standards have been approved, and point your potential employer in the right direction!
    The IfA’s list of approved degree-level apprenticeships includes professions such as: Digital and technology solutions professional, Aerospace engineer, Nuclear scientist and nuclear engineer, Clinical trials specialist, Geospatial mapping and science, Paramedic, Podiatrist, Police constable and Professional economist.

Ofsted given final say over new apprenticeship provider quality

Ofsted has officially been given the final say over poor-performing apprenticeship providers following an early monitoring visit, the Education and Skills Funding Agency has confirmed today.

FE Week reported back in May that the move was on the cards, following embarrassment for the government over apprenticeship accountability.

According to the ESFA’s ‘Removal from register of apprenticeship training providers and eligibility to receive public funding to deliver apprenticeship training’, updated today, any provider making ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one of the themes under review will be barred from taking on any new apprentices – either directly or through a subcontracting arrangement.

They can continue to work with existing apprentices, but must tell the employers, and any lead providers, about the monitoring visit outcome.

These restrictions will remain in place until the provider has received a full inspection and been awarded at least a grade three for its apprenticeship provision.

The ESFA can only overrule this guidance if it “identifies an exceptional extenuating circumstance”.

FE Week reported in May that Ofsted was set to be given these new powers – along with up to £7 million more cash to visit every new apprenticeship provider.

That followed an Education select committee hearing at which skills minister Anne Milton admitted it wasn’t clear who was accountable for quality at these new providers.

There had been considerable dismay at mixed messages from the ESFA, which recently permitted a provider to recruit apprentices once more – just two months after Ofsted branded its provision “not fit for purpose”.

FE Week has asked Ofsted if it has received the additional resources, and how soon after a monitoring visit a provider deemed to be making ‘insufficient progress’ would receive a full inspection, but has yet to receive a response.

North-east training provider on the verge of collapse

A training provider in the north-east that held subcontracts worth more than £3 million last year is on the verge of collapse.

JB Skills Training Limited, based in Sunderland, is in talks about bringing in the administrators, according to its managing director Dave Macmillan.

He told FE Week it was “highly likely” the provider would be closing down within weeks.

JB Skills Training, set up in 2014, delivered mainly functional skills provision on behalf of 10 lead providers in 2017/18.

According to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s most recent list of declared subcontractors, these contracts were worth a combined total of £2.8 million, with the largest being £781,150 with HIT Training.

In addition, it held one subcontract to deliver apprenticeship provision worth £378,000 on behalf of one lead, Brooklands College.

It also had its own non-levy contract worth £686,492, having secured a place on the register of apprenticeship training providers in May 2017.

Mr Macmillan told FE Week that the provider’s demise followed an investigation by the ESFA between August and December 2017.

That was prompted by a “whistleblowing” incident, which he said proved to be “unfounded”.

Nonetheless, all the provider’s prime contractors except HIT Training “withdrew funding” while the investigation was ongoing, during which time “we continued to support learners at our own costs”, he claimed.

Although the other lead providers returned once they got the all-clear from the ESFA “it was too late to be able to recover from the period where there were no earnings,” Mr Macmillan said.

Falling apprenticeship numbers were also partly to blame, he added.

The provider has just 11 learners on programme at the moment, all of whom are on apprenticeships, he said.

“We are working with the ESFA to find new providers who will continue with the learners positively.”

Jill Whittaker, managing director of HIT Training, confirmed that JB Skills Training had delivered functional skills training on their behalf.

Their completion rates were “very high”, and HIT’s own internal compliance team “rated them as grade two”.

“I am sorry to see them go as they are a good organisation with the interests of their learners at heart,” she added.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We do not comment on any investigations, ongoing or otherwise.”

Tight deadline for ESFA survey on non-levy transition period for providers

Providers are being asked for their views on the expansion of the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s apprenticeships service– but they only have four days to respond.

The agency emailed all those currently on the register of apprenticeship training providers today, inviting them to complete a survey asking for their views on the “best way to manage the transition from the current system to one where all new starts are funded through the apprenticeship service”.

The deadline for completing the survey is midday on Monday, August 20.

Currently only large, levy-paying employers have access to the apprenticeship service. Starts with smaller, non-levy funded employers are still funded through contracts held by just 683 providers.

The plan had been for all employers to be able to use the service to access apprenticeship funding from April 2019, but the ESFA announced last week that this move had been put back by at least a year.

According to today’s survey, the agency is “exploring options for gradually phasing in the move to the digital system for non-levy employers – rather than moving instantly from the current system of funding through contracts to only funding new starts through the apprenticeship service”.

It is proposing a period of time in which any provider – regardless of whether they hold a non-levy contract – would be able to use the apprenticeship service to deliver starts with small employers, while those providers with a contract would be able to continue with their existing allocations.

“Over this period of time, we would aim to reduce funding starts through contracts and increase funding through the apprenticeship service,” today’s email said.

The agency is also “looking to develop the apprenticeship service to meet the needs of small businesses”.

Simon Ashworth, chief policy officer at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “While the time pressure over the holiday period is a little unfortunate, it is good that providers are being given the chance to contribute views on what the transition should look like and provide feedback on their own perceived state of readiness.”

He said he was “delighted” that a dual-running system was “now a real possibility”, as this was something the AELP had “been lobbying hard for”.

“Of course, we don’t know yet what the design of the digital system for non-levy employers will look like and how much support these organisations will need from providers to navigate it but the ambition should definitely be a transitional process rather than waiting to put all non-levy employers on the system at the end of the 2020 timelines being discussed,” he said.

Access the survey here: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/ESFA0818/ 

Allow UTCs and studio schools to select pupils, argues Toby Young

University technical colleges and studio schools should be allowed to select pupils on the basis of aptitude, a controversial new report authored by Toby Young has argued.

Furthermore, such a move would be legal and would only require a change in policy, according to ‘Technically gifted: How selection can save technical and vocational education’, published today by the Centre for Policy Studies.

Its author, Toby Young, was forced to resign from the board of the Office for Students in January following numerous offensive tweets, and subsequently relinquished his role as head of the New Schools Network. 

“If the government is serious about creating a revolution in technical and vocational education, it needs to allow the 14-19 specialist schools to select for aptitude so these institutions can become beacons of excellence, sending a message that this type of education is not for children who struggle in mainstream schools, but a valuable pathway for those with a real flair for it,” he wrote.

Such a change would only require a change in policy, rather than a change in the law, even though it would affect pupils from the age of 14, Mr Young argues.

This is because UTCs and studio schools are academies, and the requirement for them to comply with the School Admissions Code – which bans selection – is included in their funding agreements rather than the provisions of the 2010 Academies Act.

“That is a policy decision, not a legal requirement,” he wrote.

“There is no statutory duty imposed on the Secretary of State to insist that academies comply with the code or admissions law relating to maintained schools.”

The “poor performance” of UTCs and studio schools is “largely due to the fact that they cannot select pupils but must take all-comers”, Mr Young argued – which in practice means they are used as “dumping grounds” for badly-behaved and low-attaining pupils from nearby schools.

By allowing selection by aptitude, the schools would be able to choose the pupils who demonstrate a talent for their specialism, and turn away those who don’t.

While this would reduce UTC and studio school numbers in the short-term, “it would lead to a swift improvement in their GCSE results and a corresponding improvement in their Ofsted ratings – which, in turn, would make it easier to recruit in future years,” the report said.

Furthermore, selection by aptitude at 14 would help to increase the success of T-levels and apprenticeships, as it would “signal that it [the government] regards this type of education as suitable for children of all abilities, not just those who find themselves without the necessary qualifications to do three A-levels”.

UTCs and studio schools have both struggled with poor performance and low student numbers since they were first introduced in 2010.

In total, 26 studio schools and nine UTCs have either closed or announced plans to shut.

Of the 36 UTCs to have been inspected by Ofsted, 10 have been rated ‘inadequate’ and a further 13 have been rated ‘requires improvement’.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said while he agreed “with the premise that technical education should not be seen as a second choice to academic subjects” the report “falls far short in addressing what is a longstanding and deeply-rooted cultural and social issue”.

“In order to raise the prestige and profile of technical education and training we need much more investment of time, money and focus by government, employers and education providers at all levels,” he said. This included more funding for colleges, and more encouragement for employers to work with them. 

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said Mr Young’s proposal “requires a significant leap of faith in the power of selection”.

UTCs and studio schools are “most likely to work when they are part of coordinated local education plans,” he said.

“For too long our technical education has not had the same parity of esteem as our academic system, with many courses undervalued by employers and failing to provide students with the skills they need to secure a good job,” a Department for Education spokesperson said.

“This has to change which is why we are focused on creating a world-class technical and vocational education system that offers people a real choice of high quality training.” 

Monthly apprenticeship update: 3m starts target slips further away with just 22,300 starts in May

Apprenticeship starts for May are down 40 per cent compared with the same period in 2016 – but up 9,400 on last year.

There have been 22,300 starts recorded so far in May 2018, compared with around 36,700 in May 2016 according to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s monthly apprenticeship statistics update, published this morning.

The 2016 figures are final, whereas the 2018 figures are provisional. May 2016 is a better comparator than May 2017 given that there was a huge drop in starts following the introduction of the levy. 

These are the first statistics published in which the year-on-year comparison is against post-levy figures. 

Comparing first recorded starts for May 2018 to May 2017 gives an increase of 9,400 or 72 per cent, which is the first year-on-year increase since the introduction of the levy last May.

However, starts for the month in 2017 were down 65 per cent on May 2016, according to final statistics for the year. There were just 12,900 starts in May 2017, compared with 36,700 in 2016.

Simon Ashworth, chief policy officer at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “On A level results day, it’s particularly disappointing to have further confirmation that the levy reforms have led to a massive drop in apprenticeship starts which mean opportunities are limited for those young people who want a debt-free alternative to university. 

“The picture looks no better for those getting their GCSE results next week who will want to start earning while learning instead of staying on in sixth form or college.

“When ministers return from their holidays, they really must get a grip on this if they are serious about social mobility and improving ‘home grown’ workforce productivity in a post-Brexit economy.”

Skills minister Anne Milton said: “Our reforms have driven up investment in the quality of apprenticeships to build skills and give people more opportunities to succeed. I’m pleased to see the number of people starting our new high quality apprenticeships – created in partnership with businesses and employers – continuing to rise.

“In the last 12 months more than 100,000 more people have started these new apprenticeships, putting them on the path to success in a range of cutting-edge and exciting industries such as aerospace engineering, nuclear science and architecture. As young people across the country receive their A level results today I would encourage them to consider the opportunities an apprenticeship can provide.

“Today’s figures also show more businesses are also getting on board with the new system and the chance to use their levy funds to kick start amazing apprenticeship programmes that will change their businesses – and people’s lives – for the better.”