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”.

Employers were told they could transfer a maximum of 10 per cent of their annual funds, which is “worked out from the total amount of levy declared”.

“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.”

Mr Hardie is due to deliver his speech at 4.30pm.

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.”

 

We are pleased to welcome @mantralearning to the Chartered Institution for Further Education this month.https://t.co/rc6SxZFqzo

— 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.

“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.

Anne Milton announced the review in the House of Commons on March 19, but the education secretary Damian Hinds, whom she reports to, refused to acknowledge it at a committee meeting this morning – casting considerable doubt on whether or not it’s a going concern.

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.”

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.”

The providers that will be protected from adult education budget devolution have been announced.

Certain providers will continue to be funded nationally by the Education and Skills Funding Agency for two years between 2019/20 and 2020/21 after devolution goes ahead, the skills minister confirmed in Parliament last week.

They have now been named, and feature providers which qualify for a “residential uplift” for their learning provision, which receive more than two thirds of their income from the AEB, and which “predominantly target their provision at the most disadvantaged in society”.

They are Fircroft College in Birmingham, Hillcroft College, which now part of Richmond and Hillcroft Adult and Community College in London, Northern College in Barnsley, and Ruskin College in Oxfordshire.

A government spokesperson said that this will be “to aid their transition to devolution/delegation given their specialist nature and reliance on AEB”. 

Traineeships for 19- to 24-year-olds will meanwhile “remain a nationally funded programme” with allocations provided by ESFA, regardless of where trainees live.

But providers were advised to prepare for widespread handover of responsibility from local to central government.

“Providers who wish to deliver AEB provision, post devolution/delegation, in one or more of the mayoral combined authorities and Greater London Authority areas should start to build, if they have not already done so, effective working relationships with the relevant authority,” the spokesperson said.

The “final AEB to be devolved” to the mayoral combined authorities and delegate the AEB to Greater London Authority for the 2019/20 funding year “is expected in early 2019”, once “the functions necessary for the delivery of adult education have been transferred” and the AEB budget for that year has been finalised.

There has been widespread dismay at the lack of information on how AEB devolution will work in practice.

FE Week reported in February that the regional mayors tasked with overseeing devolution had met the Department for Education to “voice concerns” over the process.

High among their issues was a lack of influence over the budgets, and not enough funding funding during the transition year, as well as what were described as “challenging” timescales for the handing over of power.

“As part of the preparations for devolution/delegation the DfE has issued illustrative AEB allocations for 2018 to 2019 to MCAs and the GLA,” the spokesperson added.

FE Week has asked to see the illustrative allocations.

“These illustrative budgets give MCAs and the GLA an indication of the AEB they can expect to receive in the funding year 2019 to 2020,” they said.

“The budgets are based on 2016 to 2017 actual grant delivery and assumed 2017 to 2018 independent learning providers’ delivery to learners resident in MCAs/GLA areas.”

The government is launching a review into how the current system of funding for FE meets the costs of “high-quality” provision, Anne Milton has revealed.

The skills minister announced the plans in the House of Commons today during educations questions, after she was asked what the Department for Education 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.”

The Sixth-Form Colleges Association has claimed this is a “significant win” for its ‘Support Our Sixth-Formers’ campaign, which was backed by FE Week.

One of its main objectives has been to secure a review of sixth-form funding to ensure it is linked to the “realistic costs of delivering a rounded, high-quality curriculum”.

James Kewin, the association’s deputy chief executive, described the announcement as an “important step on the road to ensuring that 16-to-19 providers are fairly and sufficiently funded”.

“We look forward to working with ministers and officials on the detail of this project and have already shared some of our existing evidence base with colleagues in the DfE,” he added.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We are looking at resilience, funding, regulation and the institutional structures within the sector to make sure that we can deliver high quality provision.

“This is not an external review, but it will draw on the views of providers across the sector.”

The Support Our Sixth-Formers campaign was dealt a blow in January when the DfE ruled out an increase in funding for 16- to 18-year-olds next year.

In a letter to providers, the department said the national base rates of £4,000 per full-time student aged 16 to 17 and £3,300 for 18-year-olds were to be “maintained for academic year 2018 to 2019 as are the part time funding rates”.

The Support our Sixth-Formers campaign, also backed by the Association of Colleges, has been calling for a £200 “SOS uplift” in 16-to-18 per-pupil funding rates.

The SFCA claimed in November that sixth-form colleges were at “tipping point” after their overall Ofsted ratings fell for a third year running, largely as a result of funding pressures.

And Amanda Spielman, Ofsted chief inspector, said during her speech at the launch of the Ofsted annual report in December that the “sector will continue to struggle” without an increase in the base rate funding for this age group.

This is the sixth year that the funding rate for 16- to 18-year-olds has remained unchanged – meaning that providers have faced a real-terms funding cut over that time.