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.
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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.
The review into FE funding announced just two days ago by the skills minister might not actually go ahead – at least if remarks made by her boss are to be understood.
Emma Hardy, the MP for Hull West and Hessle, asked for more information on the review at a meeting of the education select committee, after warning that successive funding cuts had had a grave effect on FE provision.
“Clearly there is a problem with funding for FE. On Monday your department announced a review of FE funding,” she said. “What are the timescales for this and how will it feed into the ongoing post-18 review?”
His response baffled the MPs who were present.
“I didn’t announce a review on Monday,” he said.
He spoke generally about the importance of maintaining a “resilient” FE sector.
“We said quite rightly that we always need to be looking at the resilience of the sector – different parts of the education system including FE colleges,” he said. “The comprehensive spending review will come when it comes and that will be in 2019, but we do know already that with the growth of apprenticeships funding, colleges will get a big slice of that, T-levels will also provide funding.”
Ms Hardy then cut in, saying: “Thank you, so it appears there isn’t a plan to review FE funding.”
Emma Hardy
Mr Hinds did not correct her, and FE Week asked the the Department for Education for urgent clarification.
They said the review would be going ahead – but it would only be “internal” rather than “external” of the department.
Ms Milton announced the review during education questions on Monday, after she was asked what the DfE had made of “recent trends” in education funding for 16- to 19-year-olds.
Alongside the post-18 review of education funding, she said “we are also looking at the efficiency and resilience of the FE sector”.
“We need to make sure that existing and forecast funding and regulatory structures meet the costs of high-quality, first-class provision,” she continued.
“I’ve asked my officials to assess how far the current funding system meets the costs of high-quality provision in the further education sector and will update the House shortly.”
An independent panel, chaired by Philip Augar alongside five other experts, is therefore seeking evidence on “how to support young people in making effective choices between academic, technical and vocational routes after 18”.
It also wants to work out how best to “promote a more dynamic market in education and training provision”, “ensure the post-18 education system is accessible to all”, and “encourage the development of the skills that we need as a country”.
It will be looking at how students and graduates contribute to the cost of their studies, to “ensure funding arrangements across post-18 education in the future are transparent and do not stop people from accessing higher education or training”.
An interim stage will be published this year before the government concludes the overall review in early 2019.
“This is an ambitious and wide-ranging review. We begin with no preconceptions. Our priority is to undertake a thorough examination of the evidence and to hear from a broad range of stakeholders who like us are committed to ensuring the system works for everyone,” Mr Augar said.
Association of Colleges boss David Hughes celebrated the decision.
“The review is significant because it is the first proper review of higher education, post-18, level four-plus provision I have ever seen,” said Mr Hughes, who was provider services director for the Skills Funding Agency until 2011.
He believes that the government is open to presenting colleges with potential opportunities to expand in to the higher education market.
“That includes opening up fair funding to incentivise people to consider level four, five and six part-time flexible learning as well,” he continued.
Jisc’s Paul Feldman argues that to boost completion rates, we first need to understand why apprentices are dropping out
The government’s desire to have three million people start apprenticeships by 2020, and its moves to widen access through last year’s careers strategy, are both steps in the right direction. These measures will feed into the government’s industrial strategy and its drive for social justice.
But the Skills Commission’s recent report into ‘Apprenticeships and social mobility’ have highlighted a few problems. More than 30 per cent of people who start apprenticeships in Britain do not complete them and, more worryingly, that situation is getting worse every year. The question is: why is this the case?
The commission noted that there is some evidence that young people from more affluent backgrounds, who have the social capital and credentials to navigate the skills system, are most likely to start higher-yield apprenticeships.
But the commission also recognises that more evidence is needed. One of the largest gaps in our knowledge is the lack of comprehensive data on the social backgrounds of people who are enrolling and then dropping out.
Improving employability and social mobility are two policies in which FE is expected to take a leading role
The commission recommends that data collection on social background and progression for apprenticeships should mirror that which already exists for – and benefits – HE and FE institutions, taking for example the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s outcome-based success measures data.
Learning analytics is another form of data that could be useful. Jisc’s work to develop access to learning analytics for higher and further education has shown that such data analysis can help improve retention rates.
For example, should a learner stop engaging with their virtual learning environment, a red flag is raised. Timely and appropriate interventions can then be made to support at-risk students to stay engaged with studying, which improves their experiences, their retention rates and their chances of a successful outcome.
In higher education, data has also been used predictively to identify any students who might be at risk of dropping out or not meeting their full academic potential.
We are looking at what we can do to adapt our system for apprenticeships. Indeed, it is our aim to enable data to be gathered from all stages of the apprenticeship journey, including attendance at training, progress, topic coverage, as well as data from systems such as student records, the VLE and e-portfolios.
We are already working with the Department for Education to use apprenticeships data, which has helped to confirm our belief that college providers need better information on which to base decision-making – especially if they are to help meet the government’s goals in the skills arena.
Indeed, improving employability and social mobility are two policies in which FE is expected to take a leading role.
At the moment, the government’s three million target, despite its ambition, doesn’t provide enough incentive to address the high non-continuation figures because it only measures starts.
In recent years, the HE sector has been encouraged to adopt a “student lifecycle” approach to access. In practice, this means that institutions must ensure that students from non-traditional backgrounds are successful following enrolment.
But the first step is to get the data, which is why we support the commission’s call for the government to improve data collection for apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships benefit a range of individuals including those who find accessing the labour market difficult, from care-leavers to the long-term unemployed. If we can understand the needs of these learners we can help them to fulfil their ambitions and potential, creating millions of talented workers ready to plug the skills gap.
