The new education secretary will ensure that every apprentice affected by the collapse of outsourcing giant Carillion will be found new employment to complete their training, he has claimed.
Damian Hinds responded this afternoon to a letter sent last week by Robert Halfon, the chair of the education select committee, who asked him to guarantee that no learner would lose out, after the UK’s largest employer of construction apprentices closed down.
“Following Carillion entering compulsory liquidation, we have implemented contingency plans to protect learners,” Mr Hinds wrote.
“The Construction Industry Training Board has been identified as the best placed alternative provider for the training of Carillion apprentices.
“We will continue to work closely with the CITB to support apprentices to remain in existing placements or to find new employment with other local organisations, so they can complete their training.”
As the construction industry’s skills body, he said the CITB “should be able to maximise” every possible opportunity to secure new employment for Carillion apprentices in construction.
Mr Hinds added that if apprentices in the wider Carillion supply chain in England are affected, the ESFA has “well established processes to support them find alternative placements”.
Carillion went into liquidation on January 15, leaving the future of around 1,400 trainees, mostly 16- to 18-year-olds, uncertain.
Today’s commitment will be music to the ears for many former apprentices, who feel they have been left in the dark since the collapse.
Liz Green, the mother of one former Carillion trainee, told FE Week last week that the whole situation “is a mess” and “has been handled badly from the start”.
Mr Hinds claimed today that all apprentices and other learners have now been contacted to “reassure them and advise them on next steps for the transfer to CITB”.
He said that the CITB’s centres are “geographically situated within what is anticipated to be a reasonable travel time for the apprentices, and critically they have the capacity and capability to take on displaced apprentices and study programme learners”.
The CITB is also supporting any 16-to-19 study programme learners affected.
Carillion was the second biggest construction firm in the UK. Its apprentices learned at its training division, Carillion Training Services, primarily in bricklaying, carpentry and joinery.
It held a £6.5 million ESFA contract last year and was rated ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted in December 2016.
Peter Lauener, the busiest man in FE, has bagged himself yet another job, this time as chair of one of the largest college groups in the country.
The former ESFA and Institute for Apprenticeships boss will take up the role at NCG in the spring, taking over from Jamie Martin.
He retired from both government roles in November last year but then took on the interim chief executive role at the Student Loans Company after the sudden departure of Steve Lamey, and will see out that post until a permanent replacement is recruited.
“I am looking forward to taking up this new role at NCG and getting to know the different colleges and organisations in the group,” Mr Lauener (pictured above left) said.
There is nothing more important than developing the skills of all our people
“There is nothing more important than developing the skills of all our people and NCG has a critical role in supporting learners, businesses and communities.”
Mr Lauener is also the official delegate for Worldskills UK and was a key architect in establishing the IfA last year while he was interim chief executive.
Before leading the ESFA, his career included the implementation of the Youth Training Scheme and of adult training when working for the Manpower Services Commission in the 1980s, the setting up of Training and Enterprise Councils in the 1990s.
“Peter has played a leading role in the shaping of education and training in the UK for some years now,” said Joe Docherty, NCG chief executive (pictured above right).
“He has steered a course for the Skills Funding Agency and the Education Funding Agency through a period of great political and economic change, and consequently made a positive impact on the education and training of people across the country.
Jamie Martin
“Peter’s insight and experience across the top of tiers of the education industry will be hugely valuable to NCG as we continue to grow and develop our offering.”
Mr Martin is the managing partner of law firm Ward Hadaway and has held the position of chair at NCG for 11 years.
“It has been a great experience to have been involved with NCG’s expansion and growing success and to have seen the difference which it has made and continues to make to the career prospects and the lives of thousands of people not just in the North East, but across the country too,” he said.
NCG is comprised of Carlisle College, Kidderminster College, Lewisham Southwark College, Newcastle College, Newcastle Sixth Form College, and West Lancashire College. It also runs two training providers in Rathbone Training and Intraining.
Mr Lauener will take up his post from March 1, 2018.
Three providers have lost their ‘outstanding’ grades this week – while another earned the lowest possible grade at its first ever inspection.
Selby College, St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College and Aspire Training Team Limited all fell from grade one, while City of London College Centre for Advanced Studies was branded ‘inadequate’.
In its first full Ofsted visit for more than 10 years, Selby College was rated ‘good’ across the board in a report published on January 18 and based on an inspection in early December.
Leaders and managers at the college – which had held its previous grade since November 2007 – were praised for creating a “positive culture and ethos of tolerance and respect” and managing the “financial position of the college carefully”.
But while the 16-to-19 study programmes were deemed to “prepare learners very effectively for their next steps”, not enough of the teaching, learning and assessment on the programmes “challenges the most able learners sufficiently”.
And managers’ failure to “accurately” identify areas for improvement meant that any actions taken to address the issues were not “precise enough”.
St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College fell to ‘requires improvement’ also from a grade one it had held for more than 10 years, in a report based on an inspection in early December and published January 18.
“Too few” A-level students “achieve the grades expected of them” – with achievement rates having “recently declined on the majority of courses”.
Managers were criticised for failing to use their observations to “secure improvements in teachers’ practice”, while governors were found not to be using the information they received from managers “well enough to support and challenge the senior leaders effectively”.
But inspectors noted that high-needs students and those in need of extra help were “very well” supported, and students’ behaviour was “excellent”.
Aspire Training Team Limited was rated grade two across the board in a report published this week, in its first inspection since it was rated ‘outstanding’ eight years ago.
The “vast majority” of learners at the Bournemouth provider, which mainly delivers apprenticeships, “make good progress and secure full-time employment with their current employer” – and “most” also “grow in confidence quickly”.
Directors and managers were praised for providing “good development and training for staff which improve their skills in teaching and management”.
But inspectors also noted: “Learners’ achievement of functional skills qualifications in English, mathematics and information communications technology is not high enough.”
City of London College Centre for Advanced Studies was heavily criticised in a report, published January 15 and based on an inspection in late November, that branded it ‘inadequate’ in all areas.
Leadership and management at the independent learning provider was deemed “weak”, while safeguarding arrangements were found “ineffective”.
“Governors are not effective in holding leaders and managers to account and do not ensure that learners receive a good learning experience,” the report said.
There was better news for Leicester College and Lakes College – West Cumbria this week, as both went up a grade from three to two.
Leaders and managers at Leicester College were found to have “effectively tackled” the main areas of improvement identified at its last inspection, in a report published January 19 and based on a visit in early December.
The “large majority” of students make “good progress” thanks to “challenging and stimulating learning”, while apprentices “develop good work-related skills, which employers value”.
However, “too few” apprentices finished their courses on time.
Governors and senior leaders at Lakes College were praised for promoting a “culture of high expectations”, in a report published January 18 and based on a visit in early December.
Courses at the college “meet local, regional and national skills priorities very well” thanks to “highly effective partnerships with local and regional stakeholders”, the report said.
Learners’ and apprentices’ achievement was found to be “good”, and they “develop successfully the practical skills and technical knowledge they need for work”.
The Consortium of Vocational and Educational Trainers Limited held onto its grade two this week, in a report based on an inspection in mid-December and published January 19.
Apprentices at the Oxfordshire-based independent learning provider “develop a very good range of technical skills that prepare them well for working in prestige car dealerships”, and “benefit from supportive and effective off-the-job training”.
The small number of adult learners at the provider make “good progress and swiftly achieve their qualifications”, the report said.
City College Nottingham, an independent learning provider, received a grade three following its first inspection in late November.
The report, published January 17, noted that “quality assurance and improvement arrangements lack rigour”, and failed to “secure consistently high standards of teaching, learning and assessment”.
A “minority” of lessons were “uninspiring”, while learners’ “attendance and punctuality” was “too low.
However, managers were praised for developing a “curriculum that supports social and economic inclusion”.
The Workers’ Educational Association also held onto its grade two this week, following a short inspection.
Sir Gerry Berragan only has two years as chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships because he did not go through a full recruitment process, he has admitted.
A former IfA board member, he revealed that he was recruited in unusual circumstances during an in-depth interview with FE Week, published next week, and spoke candidly about the regulator’s struggles to find the right person for such a demanding role.
Sir Gerry, once a senior figure in the army, said he only decided to “throw my hat in the ring” after the institute endured a fruitless sixth-month hunt.
“All I know is that by mid-to-end October, it had reached a stage where they had not found a candidate that fitted all the criteria, and that was a frustration because we knew Peter Lauener was going to retire at the end of the year,” said Sir Gerry in his first media interview as chief executive.
The search for a full-time successor to the outgoing Lauener, who was also coming to the end of his stint as chief executive of the Education and Skills Funding Agency, and who now runs the Student Loans Company, began in April.
A breakthrough was finally achieved during a two-hour working dinner with two fellow board members, IfA chair and former Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins, and Dame Fiona Kendrick, who chairs Nestle UK.
“There was a bit of an imperative to get someone in place,” said Sir Gerry. “That’s when I said to the chairman ‘well, you know, if you want I’ll throw my hat in the ring’.”
A “mini-recruitment phase” followed.
“I went through interviews with the chairman and one of the other panel members, and also with the minister,” he continued. “Once that happened and I got the offer, which was only a couple of weeks, I resigned from the board at that stage.
“The only way they could appoint me was for a two-year period because I hadn’t gone through the formal recruitment process. After that, I’d have to go through another recruitment process if I wanted to stay longer.”
He was previously the army’s apprenticeships ambassador, and led efforts to make it the largest provider in the country, offering more than 45 schemes.
Last year’s original advert for the chief executive role said that the position would be appointed on a fixed-term contract of up to five years, with a salary of up to £142,500.
“Whatever happens, after two years I’d have to reapply. So let’s see when that comes,” he said. “I think two years is quite a long time, I think you can do quite a lot in two years. And we’ll see what happens after that.”
The government’s newest initiative couldn’t have come at a better time for a sector trying to blow open its gender gap, writes Ann Watson
2018 is shaping up to be a pretty important year for those of us involved in engineering skills, all things considered. The government has promised to “consult” on letting us use apprenticeship funding more flexibly, which will hopefully make it easier for bigger employers to support their supply chains to meet their skills needs.
The development of T-levels continues at pace, with the Institute for Apprenticeships set to take on the responsibility for their development by the year’s end. And a potential revolution in how we develop talent is set to start at the New Model in Technology and Engineering institution in Herefordshire, where creativity and aptitude will matter more than which particular A-levels applicants have got.
It’s all irrelevant if we don’t have people who actually want to become engineers
However, this is all institutional and governmental. It’s important that we get the right blend of policies to support employers and educational institutions in their quest to secure the skills base the engineering sector needs.
Given some estimates that we need around a million new entrants, we can’t afford to hang around, but it’s all irrelevant if we don’t have people who actually want to become engineers. And that’s why I’m delighted that 2018 is also going to be “the Year of Engineering”.
Government-created and industry-backed, the Year of Engineering is a year-long campaign to connect more young people with our sector. It’s a golden opportunity, perhaps once-in-a-generation, for us to show that the tired old stereotypes of men in dirty overalls handling spanners simply do not apply any more.
Modern engineering is a high-tech, skilled sector in which creativity and problem-solving skills are becoming increasingly important. A visit to a modern, state-of-the-art engineering facility can feel more like a visit to a hospital: they’re so clean and so controlled.
Modern engineering is about meeting society’s biggest challenges head-on, from ageing to water supply. It’s about making a real, lasting difference. Few careers can match it for satisfaction.
You may ask why, if engineering is such a great sector to work in, we have continuing skills shortages. And you may ask why, if engineering is a sector where anyone can get ahead, just one per cent of parents aspire for their daughters to become engineers, and why just six per cent of registered engineers and technicians in the UK are female (the lowest percentage in Europe).
Part of the problem is patchy careers advice
Part of the problem is patchy careers advice; the Year of Engineering needs to be the start of a consistent cycle of engagement between the worlds of engineering and education. We don’t just need careers talks and facility visits this year, we need them every year – this cannot be a one-year initiative.
It’s not just young people that we need to reach, of course. Parents exert a huge amount of influence over their children, and if their perception of engineering is outdated, it will be harder to convince their children. This is especially important in the case of girls. If we’re going to beat our skills shortage, and if we’re going to get the very best out of everyone who has the potential to be an engineer, then we need to bust through our massive gender gap, and quickly.
FE Week readers have an enormous role to play in making sure that the Year of Engineering is the success that it needs to be. If you’re working at a college, get involved. Throw open your doors for a local engineering company to come in and talk to your students. Take your students on a trip to a facility. Get parents in for an open evening where they can find out for themselves the reality of modern engineering. Colleges are the lifeblood of the skills system, and you have in your gift the potential to engineer a real difference to the future of your students, to the future of UK engineering, and to the future of our country.
An apprenticeship and graduate recruitment agency for schools has been accused of exploiting a tax incentive scheme after it emerged it has been advising schools how to become “better off’ by manipulating apprenticeship levy rules.
Qualified Schools proudly states on its website that schools can make “significant in-year budget savings” if they choose to enrol existing staff under the age of 25 onto apprenticeship training, as they will no longer have to pay national insurance contributions.
During a webinar held on Monday, a representative advised schools that converting their employees into apprentices would make significant tax savings, even if their levy pot ran out, because the saving is more than employer contributions.
However, a spokesperson for Qualified Schools, which is owned by Education Placement Limited, insisted it “does not encourage schools to spend more than their levy pot or provide financial advice about employer’s NI”.
“We simply make schools aware of government guidance documents and ensure they know all the options available to them so they can make an informed decision about how to spend the levy,” she said.
During Monday’s webinar, which FE Week heard in full without the company’s knowledge, participants were advised that if they have spent their levy amount, or do not pay into the levy, they can save money by training existing employees under the age of 25.
A Qualified Schools employee informed schools that, if they want to train two teaching assistants at a price of £5,000, then the government will co-invest 90 per cent of the costs, leaving the school with a bill for just £500.
He calculated that, by training up existing young employees, schools can make employers’ NI savings of £1,633 per person. By training two people this saving becomes £3,266 and, with the £500 factored in, a school would end up £2,766 “better off” for using the system.
“So while investing in training you’re actually making savings rather than spending, and even when you are spending you’re in a surplus rather than a deficit because of the amount of money you generated from the levy,” he told viewers.
The law changed in April 2016, and anyone employing an apprentice under the age of 25 on an approved UK government statutory apprenticeship framework is not required to pay employer’s NI contributions on their earnings below £43,000 a year.
The advice given by Qualified Schools is not illegal. However, the National Education Union’s joint general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, warned that the company should not be “encouraging” schools to “avoid paying national insurance”.
“We should also be concerned about any incentive to inappropriately badge existing school staff, who may have no say in the decision, as apprentices,” she said.
“On initial inspection this can be seen as corrupting the apprenticeship brand and is arguably a tax avoidance scheme, which has the potential for so much harm.”
However, the spokesperson for Qualified Schools insisted the company “does not provide financial guidance”.
“The core of the business is the recruitment of apprentices and graduates,” she continued. “Existing staff training and any related savings are not the focus of Qualified Schools but are simply part of a rounded discussion in line with informing schools of their options.”
FE Week also asked the company to its explain why the claim on its website that “training providers pay a subscription to be a part of our approved network”, which suggests it is operating a brokerage model of the kind which training providers are no longer permitted to participate in.
Qualified Schools has since removed the line, saying it had “clearly been misconstrued” and insisted it would update the site “so it is clear we are not brokering public funds”.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said it did not investigate third-party companies offering apprenticeship advice, but does investigate those suspected of paying for brokerage with money meant for apprenticeship training.
“We are clear that any government funding provided for apprenticeships must be spent on apprenticeship training and assessment only, against an approved network or standard, as set out in our funding rules,” he said.
“This ensures that all apprenticeships are high-quality and give each apprentice the skills and training they need to progress. We will investigate any organisation we suspect of using money meant for apprenticeship training to pay for brokerage.”
However, Qualified Schools insisted it was within Apprenticeship Training Agency (ATA) guidelines for charging training providers a fixed admin fee for every referral made, rather than charging the employer or school.
ATA guidance says a commercial charge should be placed on “the host employer and in some instances on the training provider”. However, Qualified Schools only places the charge on the training provider, and never on the employer/school.
In their own words: The Qualified Schools’ webinar
“I’m going to give you another example which will generate employer NI savings. I just want you to think that you’ve spent your levy amount and you’ve got absolutely no more to spend, or you’re an employer who doesn’t pay into the levy. What we’re going to say is you want to train up two TAs [training assistants] who are under 25. The cost of training for a TA through apprenticeship levy is £2,500 per person so that’s £5,000.
So assume you have no more money to spend through the levy or you’re an employer that doesn’t pay into the levy. So now what you’re doing is that cost of training of £5,000 goes down to £500 because the government will co-invest in training with you saving 90%. So jot down £500. Now if we take into consideration the employers NI savings of £1,633 per person.
What we’ll do is if you times £1,633 by two you will be saving £3,266 on employers’ NI saving. Minus the cost of training with the government’s co-investment of £500, you are actually £2,766 better off as a school than you would be before spending that money on training.
So while investing in training you’re actually making savings rather than spending, and even when you are spending you’re in a surplus rather than a deficit because of the amount of money you’ve generated from the levy.”
Almost all the university technical colleges have missed their recruitment targets and were overpaid by the government last year, leaving them with a combined debt of over £11 million, FE Week can reveal.
In fact the Education and Skills Funding Agency is attempting to claw cash back from 39 of 44 UTCs still open in 2016/17.
Alarmingly, 15 of them – owing a combined total of £5.7 million – couldn’t afford to refund the cash on the ESFA’s usual timescale, and one even admitted it would be three years before the government would get all its money back.
Despite this, the Department for Education has refused to say whether it expects all the funding to be returned.
While FE Week has reported extensively on UTCs’ ongoing struggles to recruit students, this is the first time the huge debts they’ve racked up in the process have been made public, courtesy of a Freedom of Information request shared with FE Week and our sister title FE Week.
A National Audit Office report has meanwhile found that £192 million has so far been spent on the UTC project, even though many have “failed to establish their position in the educational landscape”.
UTC funding is based on their estimated student numbers of 14- to 18-year-olds, so if their actual enrolment is lower than predicted, they have to repay money by the proportion they missed these targets by – a process known as “pupil number adjustment”.
The money is usually paid back in three monthly instalments – sometimes extended to six – starting in September of the next academic year.
According to the information FE Week received, 22 UTCs took this approach: 16 paid the cash back by November, and a further six are due to settle up next month.
But where repaying the cash over six months would cause a UTC “significant financial difficulties” it can arrange a “deferred recovery plan”, extending the repayment period by months or even years.
Fifteen UTCs have agreed such plans, including three with debts of more than £500,000: Derby Manufacturing UTC, Cambridge UTC (now known as Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology) and UTC@Harbourside.
Charles Parker
Andrew Hutchinson, chief executive of Parkside Federation Academies, which took over the Cambridge institution in September, said it had agreed a repayment programme “which will operate over the next three years”.
It owes £603,117 from its 2016/17 allocation alone, a figure that Mr Hutchinson blamed on failing to achieve “growth targets” that were set before it joined the federation.
Richie Wheatcroft, principal at Derby Manufacturing UTC, said its debt of £638,835 was based on an under-recruitment of 132.
This includes 35 in the sixth form – roughly a third of the 90 predicted students on which its 2016/17 16-to-19 funding allocation was based.
Other UTCs with massive debts include UTC Bolton and University Technology College Norfolk, which owe £678,131 and £599,917 respectively, to be paid back over six months.
“We have agreed recovery plans in place for most university technical colleges that have pupil number adjustments, and we are in discussion with the others about terms for recovery,” said a DfE spokesperson, who refused to confirm whether all the money is expected back.
But Charles Parker, chief executive of the Baker Dearing Trust, which backs UTCs, insisted that “UTCs will pay back amounts owing”.
He outlined a number of measures put in place by the government that would help boost UTC recruitment, including an extra £200,000 in “transitional funding” they can use to offset PNA debts.
“All these are having a positive effect and UTCs are filling up at KS4 [GCSE], which will feed through as these students stay on at UTCs for four years,” he said.
Eight UTCs have so far either shut down completely, or converted to become schools after failing to attract enough students to be financially viable.
These include Greater Manchester Sustainable Engineering UTC, which had its 2016/17 debt of £193,460 written off after it wound up at the end of the year.
A previous FE Week FoI request in April last year revealed that learner numbers at around two thirds of established UTCs had dropped in 2016/17 compared with the previous year.
The struggle to recruit students will not have been helped by Ofsted, which has so far rated more than half of the UTCs it has visited as less than ‘good’.
And last February, Michael Gove, who launched UTCs when he was education secretary, wrote in The Times that the project had failed as “other schools have seen them as destinations for underperforming children”.
Government measures that are having a ‘positive effect’ on recruitment
UTCs’ struggles to recruit enough students to balance the books are well publicised.
FE Week reports in 2016 and 2017 revealed that many UTCs open for at least three years were, on average, operating at around 50-per-cent capacity.
Eight have so far closed out of a total of 57, including three of the first four to be established in 2011 and 2012, citing low students numbers as the cause for their demise.
So how can they hope to turn this around?
Three measures introduced by the government are having a “positive effect” on recruitment, according to Charles Parker, the chief executive of the Baker Dearing Trust, and three of the UTC principals FE Week spoke to.
We look at each of these measures and the impact they could have.
1- Transitional funding
In April last year the Department for Education quietly announced – via an update to its guidance on UTC funding – an additional £200,000 in “transitional funding” for the 14-to-19 institutions.
This cash – which is on offer for three years from 2016/17 for those UTCs open at the time, and from 2017/18 for new institutions – effectively writes off a portion of their under-recruitment debt.
“The funding from year two will be net of any debt UTCs owe to the ESFA; UTCs will not receive additional income in future until any debts built up in the first year have been cleared,” the guidance says.
The funding is “subject to UTCs meeting annual conditions related to improving educational and financial performance”.
Based on the 49 UTCs currently open, this transitional funding will cost the Education and Skills Funding Agency almost £10 million in 2017/18.
2- Local authority letters
In early 2017, the DfE changed its school information regulations to require all local authorities in England to write to parents of pupils in year nine to inform them about UTCs.
The first letters went out in February and March, and in June the Baker Dearing Trust claimed this had led to a surge in demand for places.
The trust shared figures that showed applications in some UTCs for year 10 had almost doubled from the previous year, a change it attributed to the letters.
Mr Parker said last year that he’d been pressing the government to make the change for some time.
“The local authority letter carries weight and essentially gives parents and children permission to consider a change at 14 which they did not know was possible before,” he said.
3- Baker clause
The so-called Baker clause, which came into effect this month, is expected to have a similar effect on recruitment according to Mr Parker and the principals we spoke to.
It is a section introduced by Lord Baker, the architect of the UTC programme, in the Technical and Further Education Act, which forces schools to allow FE providers to speak to pupils.
“Schools must have clear arrangements in place to ensure that all pupils have opportunities to hear from providers of post-14, post-16 and post-18 options at, and leading up to, important transition points,” according to guidance published by the DfE in November.
Lord Baker insisted that “every word” of the clause was needed in the act because it would be “met with great hostility in every school in the country”.
The country’s top three apprentices and six best employers have been celebrated at the 14th National Apprenticeship Awards.
London’s Grosvenor House hosted a stellar ceremony on Thursday night, using the theme of ‘Bright Future’, hailing individuals and employers for their commitment to apprenticeships.
To be crowned winners at the national final, apprentices had to beat off tough competition in regional heats and demonstrate how they have benefited from their apprenticeship, before showing their contribution to their employers’ business objectives.
Shannon Green, from Althams Travel Services, won ‘Intermediate apprentice of the year’, while Heeran Basi, who works at Severn Trent Water, picked up the award for ‘Advanced apprentice of the year’.
Charlotte Hughes, from GlaxoSmithKline, was crowned ‘Higher or degree apprentice of the year’.
All of our winners have a bright future thanks to the enriching benefits that apprenticeships bring
Following these individual triumphs, six national employers also received gongs.
‘Small employer of the year’ went to Beauty Oasis Spa, the ‘Medium employer’ award was taken by Superior Seals, and Dale Power Solutions won ‘Best large employer’.
‘Macro employer of the year’ was won by the Royal Air Force, Lander Automotive was named as ‘Best newcomer SME’, and the award for ‘Newcomer large employer’ was claimed by YBS Group, also known as the Yorkshire Building Society.
Andy Tupman, the emerging talent manager at YBS, said he was “delighted” his organisation’s apprenticeships programme has been recognised on the national stage.
“Our apprentices are a credit not only to themselves but the whole organisation here at Yorkshire Building Society,” he added.
“For us, there’s no such thing as a typical apprentice. You could be just out of school, looking to change your career, newly graduated and looking for something different or just out of retirement.
“There’s no average age, no average background and no experience required: we are much more interested in finding applicants with the right values and passion for exceeding customer expectations.”
An award for ‘apprenticeship champion of the year’ was also presented to Sarah Barley from South Hunsley School.
She was recognised for the employer-led programme she developed, recruiting 50 local employers to support and inspire young people on their next steps, and planning open events to recruit employers interested in offering apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships minister Anne Milton lauded the awards ceremony as a “great opportunity to celebrate the work so many individuals and employers have done to champion apprenticeships”.
“I want to congratulate everyone that was a part of these awards for their contribution to apprenticeships in England,” she said.
“They are all fantastic advocates of hard work and ambition, and they highlight how apprenticeships are a great route into skilled employment for people of all ages and backgrounds.”
Sue Husband, the director of the National Apprenticeship Service, which runs the awards, added: “This year’s winners are all shining examples of how apprenticeships develop outstanding talent whilst enhancing the incredible work of employers.
“I am certain all of our winners have a bright future thanks to the enriching benefits that apprenticeships bring.”
Over 40 learners have come together for a charity fashion show at Nelson and Colne College, which raised more than £1,000 for Cancer Research UK.
A-level and vocational students from the college’s art and design, hair and beauty, and creative and media departments put their skills into practice to bring the Stand Up To Cancer fashion show together, which was attended by 100 guests and raised £1,059 for the charity.
Cerys Wrigglesworth
The event featured jewellery and clothing designed by students, alongside collections from the Clitheroe branch of M&Co and a local clothing store, Blue Ginger.
“I had a family member who has had cancer and I weaved her name into my pieces to give them a personal touch,” said Cerys Wrigglesworth, a 17-year-old art and design student. “I found it a really good experience.”
“It was great to see students working so professionally together on the night for such a great cause,” added Sarah Holmes, curriculum leader for art and design. “Alongside creating their fabulous garments, they have also learned such a lot about working in an environment like this under pressure.”
