Adrian Cottrell, Deputy principal, Waltham Forest College
Start date: January 2018 Previous job: Interim vice principal for finance and resources, Amersham & Wycombe College Interesting fact: Adrian wants to take up shepherding with his own flock of sheep. He hasn’t told his family yet.
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Dominique Unsworth, SME ambassador for Apprenticeships, Apprenticeship Ambassador Network
Start date: October 2017 Previous job: Managing director, Resource Productions (ongoing) Interesting fact: Dominique used to work at Slough Museum and co-wrote a book on the modern history of Slough, called The Changing Face of Slough.
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James Bagley, Principal, Gateway College
Start date: November 2017 Previous job: Vice-principal for curriculum and quality, Gateway College Interesting fact: James loves spicy food and grows a range of chillies to dry, cook with, and make into sauces.
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Joe Crossley, CEO, Qube Learning
Start date: December 2017 Previous job: Business development director, Qube Learning Interesting fact: Joe is a car enthusiast and his favourite car is the classic Porsche.
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Angela Walsh, Group apprenticeship coordinator, NEC Group
Start date: September 2017 Previous job: Tutor and assessor, Solihull College and University Centre Interesting fact: Angela’s perfect Friday night involves Italian food and a large glass of red wine.
If you want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college, training provider or awarding organisation please let us know by emailing news@feweek.co.uk
A studio school in Manchester plagued with financial and performance problems since it opened three years ago faces closure, after its schools commissioner admitted turning it around would be a “challenging task” for any new sponsor.
The regional schools commissioner, Vicky Beer, has written to everyone involved with the Manchester Creative Studio to inform them of a consultation on whether it should be closed or passed to another sponsor, according to the Manchester Evening News.
If closed, it will be the eighteenth studio school to shut, leaving just 34 nationwide.
The institutions are an alternative to mainstream education for 14- to 19-year-olds, taking on cohorts of up to 300 pupils.
They provide a work-related curriculum with pupils receiving vocational and academic qualifications, as well as work experience, and like the similarly-troubled university technical colleges, are viewed by many in FE as unwelcome competition.
Ms Beer said in her letter that making the Manchester studio school viable would be “challenging” for any academy chain that took it on, and the school now says the option of closure is being “strongly considered”.
An original plan was made to rebroker the school and its sister institution, the Collective Spirit free school in Oldham, in January, after Manchester Creative Studio was handed a financial notice to improve and Collective Spirit was placed in special measures.
The option that is being strongly considered is that the school will close at the end of this academic year
But Collective Spirit closed in the summer and the Manchester Creative Studio, which is also in special measures, deliberately avoided taking on new pupils in September, in preparation for a potential closure at the end of the academic year.
Both free schools were founded by Raja Miah, the former charity head who won an MBE for his social integration work in 2004.
The school has received support from another academy chain, the Laurus Trust, for the past six months, and claims to have made some progress in strengthening its position.
However, Martin Shevill, who took over as chair of the school’s board in July, said it had become “increasingly clear” that the school “does not have the capacity and resources to continue this trajectory over a sustained period of time”.
“The school has significant financial challenges and the reality is that, without considerable support from outside bodies, it is unable to deliver on its educational aspirations,” he said.
“The option that is being strongly considered is that the school will close at the end of this academic year.”
In a letter from Beer, the commissioner said the school would need a new sponsor “that could reverse its falling pupil numbers to make it financially viable”.
“The difficulties in securing the necessary viability would be a challenging task for any trust in the school’s current circumstances,” the RSC wrote.
“We have therefore decided to consider the possibility of closure of the school, subject to conducting a ‘listening period’ to gather views on the proposed closure.”
Since their inception, 17 studio schools have closed, leaving just 35 open nationwide.
Meeting records show that Nash met the Studio Schools Trust in March, with the purpose of the meeting listed as being “to review the concept of studio schools”.
The main issue for the 14-19 institutions is their battle to recruit enough pupils, just like UTCs.
Since the UTC movement began in 2010, a total of eight of the technical institutions have now closed.
We are already looking at the supply of skills training, writes Fiona Aldridge. Now we need to encourage people to want grow these skills.
In yet another busy news week for the sector, it can be easy to miss some of the most interesting developments, especially when they’re launched without the major fanfare of an industrial strategy, or the wider news appeal of a decline in apprenticeship numbers.
For me, one such development was last week’s government foresight review into the Future of skills and lifelong learning, bringing together an impressive body of evidence to consider the policy implications for five of our most important challenges: low levels of literacy and numeracy, work-readiness of labour market entrants, mismatch in the demand for and supply of skills, low skills equilibriums, and how we support learning across the life-course.
This will be a valuable evidence base for many years to come. It has already played a role in shaping one of the more overlooked announcements in Justine Greening’s speech at this week’s Skills Summit.
One million fewer adults are learning than five years ago
Alongside a series of announcements aimed at developing the skills of young people – a new skills partnership, the T-level consultation, the Institutes of Technology – a £10 million investment was announced to “test the best ways of incentivising adults to train in the skills that their local economy needs”. This is important; if we are to address the skills needs both of today and the years to come, we must focus on those who are already in the labour market, not just those who are entering it.
This is the second announcement in as many weeks, detailing how the £40 million “career learning” package, first mentioned in last year’s spring budget, will be spent. The £10 million Flexible Learning Fund is designed to address a range of challenges in the supply of adult skills provision. This investment is focused on increasing demand.
Over the coming months, Learning and Work Institute will be working with local partners in Leeds, Devon and Somerset, Lincolnshire, Stoke-on-Trent and the West Midlands to design and support a range of outreach and cost pilots. Each pilot will explore different approaches to engaging more adults in learning. It will also trial and test ways of overcoming some of the financial barriers that adults face. Our learning about what works will inform the National Retraining Scheme.
As the foresight review shows us, the challenge is significant. One million fewer adults are learning than five years ago, and many lower-skilled workers say that they aren’t interested in developing their skills, that they feel too old or don’t have the confidence to learn new things.
But it also shows that the prize is high. Learning benefits not just the individual, but also their families, their communities, their employer, as well as the wider economy.
Developing your skills is associated with higher wages and a greater chance of being employed and progressing at work. And as our local partners recognise, it is critical in addressing skills gaps, boosting productivity and stimulating growth. These are exciting times and we look forward to sharing progress with you as the pilots develop.
Fiona Aldridge is assistant director of research and development at the Learning and Work Institute
Technologies like Canvas can help learning providers deliver a flexible, student-centred learning approach that focuses on meeting the market’s changing need, which is why we are offering a free trial of our teaching and learning software.
Independent Learning Providers (ILPs) have one of the most interesting and challenging jobs in education. Teaching everything from yoga to degree-level apprenticeships, ILPs have to cater for a diverse and eclectic student base with a range of very different needs.
They’re also in the midst of a period of substantial change, as apprenticeships hit the headlines and public attention is firmly on the power of vocational education.
Organisations that rely on public money must be able to prove their worth
Organisations that rely on public money must be able to prove their worth, and ILPs must offer flexible, scalable solutions that deliver value to learners, industry and beyond. Cautionary tales like Learndirect, which has faced ongoing difficulties, demonstrate the importance of being both accountable and innovative, and capable of providing the best training now and for the future.
So, quality is the watchword for ILPs, and we know that our own customers in this space have three main priorities.
First, to attract students: being able to persuade potential recruits and/or employers that vocational training will meet their needs, and prepare them adequately for employment.
Second, with student engagement and insight, providers must ensure an immersive and valuable learning experience.
This leads onto the third: course completion. Learning providers are often financially incentivised by completion rates and, of course, their reputation and ability to compete in a fast-moving market depends on the success of their students.
Preparing for the unknown and embracing new delivery methods
To prepare for market changes and to meet unprecedented demands from employers, ILPs must future-proof as much as possible. We know that up to 80 per cent of jobs that will exist in 2025 don’t exist today, so training providers have to prepare learners for a working world that’s uncertain. Diversification, and the ability to pivot and adapt to the market’s changing needs, are key.
Changes to funding have also prompted providers to reconsider how they deliver training. Several providers have gone so far as to claim that they will go out of business if they don’t adopt blended learning.
So ILPs’ focus is moving away from rote learning towards self-directed and independent study, which prioritises critical thinking skills and readies students for an unpredictable workplace. And no longer will technology be a luxury in vocational education, rather than an all-important necessity.
Technologies like Canvas can help learning providers change teaching and deliver a flexible, progressive and student-centred learning approach that focuses on meeting these demands.
Technologies like Canvas can help learning providers change teaching
Importantly, technology can power a collaborative, self-directed learning environment where students are able to develop new skills, apply knowledge, get better feedback, establish links with industry – and undertake crucial on the job training while maintaining a focus on their studies.
Introspection for progress
So, to deliver a more valuable education, in the face of dwindling budgets, increased scrutiny and heightened competition, learning providers must first evaluate the type of learning they provide, and the delivery methods they employ, and assess whether they’re fit for purpose now, as well as fit for an unpredictable future. Introspection needn’t mean inertia; instead, a clear view of the tools available to ILPs, and the methods they’ve already used, will allow for informed planning for the future.
Ultimately, an employment market that is changing at an unprecedented pace in the wake of globalisation and automation means that teachers need to provide education and skills for jobs which may not even exist yet. But technology like Canvas allows ILPs to focus and to do what they do best: providing great teaching experiences which create independent and flexible learners, able to cope with an uncertain future.
There are two ways to enjoy a free trial of Canvas: a two-week trial account preloaded with course content, or can alternatively build your own class in Canvas to teach, and use it for as long as you want, free!
The Careers and Enterprise Company and the National Careers Service should be brought under a single umbrella to avoid duplication of resources, Robert Halfon has said.
“We need to transform careers advice into careers skills advice, avoid the duplication of the National Careers Service, Careers Enterprise Company and the like, and reallocate the many millions of pounds that go to careers and create a one-stop shop of a National Skills Service,” he said during a keynote address for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation this morning.
He told FE Week that “there’s so much duplication of what’s going on” and “so many different agents”.
These include the CEC, the NCS and the National Apprenticeship Service, and he claims teachers find it difficult to navigate their options.
His proposal would not represent a merger of the different bodies, but would instead integrate the services each currently offers, Mr Halfon, who now chairs the education select committee, explained.
That document – originally promised two years ago – includes an expanded role for the CEC, which was launched in 2014 to provide careers and enterprise support for people aged between 12 and 18.
The company will support schools and colleges to meet all eight of the benchmarks for excellent careers advice outlined by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation – up from the two on which it had previously concentrated.
The National Careers Service website will also be revamped so that, from 2018, all government careers information will be available in one place – including over 800 job profiles, and an interactive course directory.
Other careers strategy announcement included £4 million to ensure every school and college has a careers leader, and £5 million to develop 20 careers hubs.
“It matters to me that we give people from all backgrounds the best possible preparation to move into a job, or training that enables them – whatever their background or wherever they live – to have a fulfilling life,” Ms Milton said.
But her Labour shadow Gordon Marsden said the government had “belatedly put together a jumble of ideas without the necessary funding or resources”.
“It is vital that we give both young people and adults the knowledge of opportunities available to them,” he said.
“Unfortunately with just pocket change offered to already over-stretched services the government is letting them down again.”
The long-awaited careers strategy was revealed to the world in a conference hall in Solihull earlier today. FE Week was there for the first exclusive interview with the skills minister who brought it – at last – to fruition.
Anne Milton admitted that there will be those in the sector who still think that more money is needed to make the careers strategy work, and will review it next year, based on its outcomes.
Just moments after walking off stage to encouraging, if not ecstatic, applause, she acknowledged that when it comes to government policy, there is “always something else”.
“Everybody would like more money. I know everybody would like more money,” she told FE Week, adding: “But a strategy should be reviewed, shouldn’t it?
“I think we should always look at how it’s going. Somebody asked me what success looks like. Well, we need to see some progress in a year’s time.”
Key points in the strategy, which was launched at the Career Development Institute’s annual conference, include £5 million for developing 20 careers hubs in disadvantaged areas and £4 million for a career guidance leader in every school and college in the country.
Milton also used her speech to apologise for such a late launch, but talked passionately about social mobility and creating a country where everyone is free to “fulfil their dreams”.
Last year, FE Week reported that the Careers and Enterprise Company, set up in 2015 to connect young people to the world of work, was creating a postcode lottery for FE coverage: 15 LEPs were not covered and London was completely absent.
Today’s careers strategy outlined plans to allow all colleges to access an enterprise advisor by 2020. Are the issues with CEC coverage in FE now being addressed then?
Milton answered “yes”, and insisted the organisation was “brilliant” at “harnessing the skills of employers”.
“The drive comes from both directions really. Us pushing schools to make sure careers advice is good, that people who provide technical education and know about apprenticeships come into schools, and also employers from the other side,” she said.
“I think the two together will hopefully squeeze young people into a place where they will get all the information they need. But I think we haven’t made the best use of labour-market information and I think colleges have quite an important role to play in the use of that information.
“You can go to college or do A-levels in a certain subject, or go to university or do a degree at a college, but actually what you need is labour-market information. There are very few people who can afford the luxury to study for the sheer enjoyment of it,” she added.
Responding to questions from delegates at the end of her speech, Milton also insisted that “joined-up government thinking” is integral, and that it wouldn’t be just another “political cliché that people mention from time to time”.
“We’re at a new beginning. We will see where we are in years’ time, but I think we will have made considerable progress,” she insisted.
The process of closing the old-style apprenticeship frameworks to new starts began in March 2016, but only those with few or no starts have so far been affected.
That’s about to change, as two of the most popular frameworks – health and social care, and hospitality – are due to be withdrawn at the end of December. FE Week found out whether providers are ready.
The most popular apprenticeship framework in 2016/17, responsible for around 17 per cent of all starts, is about to be switched off.
Even though the level two and three health and social care framework clocks up 86,500 starts last year, Skills for Care and Development announced in April that it would be closed from December 29.
Replacement standards are available, but starts are low.
So what will happen when the framework is switched off? And is it a good thing it’s being closed?
Expense was a major issue that was raised by providers.
A spokesperson for MiddletonMurray said it hadn’t yet started to deliver the level two adult care worker or level three lead adult care worker standards that replace the health and social care framework, citing cost as a major barrier.
The framework attracted between £1,500 and £2,000 per learner, depending on the pathway, while the standards have a funding cap of £3,000.
But, she said, this is “economically unviable for training providers” when factoring in “the costs of qualification registrations and claims, delivery hours, resources, functional skills delivery and examinations, and the end-point assessment” together with the longer duration of the standards than the frameworks.
With the standards you don’t make any more money
However other providers, including Barnsley College and Sheffield College, have already switched over either entirely or in part to standards, a decision they said was led by employer demand.
One provider which did not want to be named said it would have been “impossible” to deliver the minimum government requirement for 20-per-cent off-the-job training on the funding available for the frameworks.
“With the standards you don’t make any more money, but it enables us to deliver that requirement,” they admitted.
The off-the-job training requirement became mandatory for all apprentices this May, as one of a number of changes introduced alongside the levy, including an employer contribution from non-levy paying employers.
These changes have hit the health and social care apprenticeship market hard, a number of providers said.
Care homes are “a predominantly small- and medium-sized enterprises market”, the anonymous provider said, and many “aren’t prepared to pay the 10 per cent”.
For those that are willing to pay, “some providers have stayed on frameworks purely to keep that 10-per-cent contribution lower, but I don’t know how they financially deliver the 20-per-cent off-the-job delivery model”.
Richard Goodwin, the managing director at the JGA Group, said starts across both frameworks and standards had been “flat as a pancake” since May.
Julie Carrigan
“I think it’s all migrating over to loan-funded learning, because what they really want is the diplomas for professional reasons,” he said.
However, not all providers are so pessimistic about the future for health and social care standards.
Julie Carrigan, the curriculum and quality manager at Acacia Training, said she was “excited” about the switchover.
With the new standards, “the assessors are going out and focusing on key areas, it’s allowing them to look above what the standards are asking”.
“It gives them some more time with the learner to focus on what’s important,” she said.
“Both of these frameworks are being withdrawn by the issuing authorities, a strong indication of the sector’s desire for the standard to be taken-up,” said a Department for Education spokesperson.
“We have been actively encouraging employers and the authorities in question to work with us when moving across to the new, high-quality standards.”
Skill for Care and Development declined to comment on the withdrawal of its frameworks.
Poised to deliver with hospitality
The hospitality framework, which had 25,440 starts across levels two and three in 2016/17, is due to be switched off on December 31.
John Hyde (pictured above), chairman of HIT Training, was positive about the changeover to standards – a move he said HIT had started over a year ago.
“We’ve not had a single complaint from the employers – they love them,” he said.
But, he conceded “they are a lot harder work to deliver”.
How can you deliver a quality programme at that price?
The hospitality framework was funded to the tune of £1,500 to £2,500, depending on the level and pathway, which Mr Hyde said was “peanuts”.
“How can you deliver a quality programme at that price?” he asked.
The replacement hospitality team member and hospitality supervisor standards each have a cap of £5,000.
“In all honesty you’re not going to make an easy buck – you have to do twice as much work,” he insisted.
Not all providers are quite as ready to deliver the standards as HIT, however.
Mr Hyde, who chairs the AELP hospitality group, said he had been “quite worried” at the group’s last meeting a few months ago, as it was “very apparent” that a number of small providers hadn’t looked at the standards.
Annette Allmark, director of strategic policy at People 1st, said the decision to withdraw the frameworks had been taken following a “thorough consultation” involving employers and training providers.
“The majority of feedback, particularly from employers, was to withdraw the frameworks as soon as possible in order to focus on the new apprenticeship standards,” she said.
The long-overdue careers strategy has finally been unveiled by the apprenticeships and skills minister, at the Careers Development Institute’s annual conference this morning.
This includes £4 million to support every school and college to have a careers leader, and a further £5 million funding to develop 20 careers hubs, which will be led by the Careers and Enterprise Company.
It explains that the National Careers Service will provide specialist advice for adults who need it most, including the long-term unemployed and those with additional needs, and will also have an updated “one-stop shop” website.
“Without access to the best possible careers support, some people will miss out on the opportunities available,” Ms Milton said.
“They will continue to be held back if they don’t have the right advice, at the right time to make informed decisions about their future, or may not have access to the broader experiences and role models to help them develop as people.
“It matters to me that we give people from all backgrounds the best possible preparation to move into a job, or training that enables them – whatever their background or wherever they live – to have a fulfilling life.”
According to today’s announcement, the £4 million is to ensure that every school and college has a dedicated careers leader in place by the start of the new academic year, who can give advice on the best training routes and up-to-date information on the jobs market and help young people make decisions about their future.
Schools and colleges will also be “expected to publish details of their careers programme for young people and their parents” by September 2018, it said, when Ofsted will also have to “comment in college inspection reports on the careers guidance provided to young people” from.
Plans from the same launch date were also announced that are set to involve the the CEC launching “a new investment fund of £5 million to support the most disadvantaged pupils”.
The document added: “To target more support on those who need it most, the government will invest £5 million during 2018 in a new round of the CEC’s investment fund. This will help disadvantaged pupils to get the additional support they need to prepare for work, including opportunities for mentoring and guidance.”
The 20 careers hubs will be developed in the areas of the country most in need and will link schools and colleges with local universities and employers to help broaden pupils’ horizons.
A new website, to be launched by the National Careers Service next year, will bring together careers information to support people at the start of their careers or who want to retrain or upskill.
The Careers and Enterprise Company will also have an expanded role to support schools and colleges to meet the eight clear benchmarks for good careers advice, as set out by the Gatsby charitable foundation.
Today marks the end of a two-year wait for the careers strategy.
It was promised as far back as in December 2015, by the former education and childcare minister Sam Gyimah, who said the Department for Education would “publish a comprehensive careers strategy in the coming weeks”.
Nothing materialised, however.
Robert Halfon, Ms Milton’s predecessor as skills minister, also promised that a strategy was on its way at a meeting in parliament in January, when he claimed it would appear the following week.
The four pillars of the strategy are ensuring a “high-quality careers programme” in every college and school; making sure employers “are an integral part of our approach”; making sure everyone can benefit from “tailored support”; and making the most of the “rich sources of information about jobs and careers that exist”.
The government’s timetable for change, taken from the new careers strategy:
The government has been swamped with complaints about its malfunctioning apprenticeship payment systems, which are incorrectly demanding cash from levy-funded employers.
Numbers providers have been leaving anguished and irate messages on the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s online FEConnect forum.
One of many to leave a message is Chris Bradley, who showed FE Week an apologetic message he recently received from the ESFA’s business operations service centre.
It recognised that the apprenticeship funding system had been incorrectly expecting cash contributions from levy-funded employers, in a case relating to Nottinghamshire-based provider SREducation, where Mr Bradley is data and contracts manager.
It is the people in control that have no clue. Heads need to roll in my view
“We have identified an issue with the funding calculation which is incorrectly classifying learners as co-funded and reporting an expected employer contribution for learners who should be fully funded,” the message stated.
“We are working on a fix for this. Once this is live it will correct any future payments, but a further change, which will be made at a later date, will be required to correct the payments already made.
“Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.”
Only employers with an annual payroll of at least £3 million contribute to the levy, which was launched in April this year, and their training is funded using this pot.
Meanwhile, smaller firms also have to contribute to training costs for their first time under the new system, through a 10-per-cent co-investment model, which should involve the government paying 90 per cent of costs from leftover levy revenue.
Mr Bradley warned on FEConnect about “confirmation from period-end reports” that levy-payers had been “coming through as 90-per-cent ESFA and 10-per-cent employer contribution due”.
He went on to express sympathy for staff working on the ESFA’s service desk, saying it was “not down to them”.
“It is the people in control that have no clue. Heads need to roll in my view,” he added.
Another user of FE Connect concurred.
“I don’t feel I am being unreasonable here, but I would like to be able to reconcile funding summary reports, remittance advice, monthly co-funding reconciliation reports so that it all agrees. Am I the only one pulling my hair out?” they said.
An ESFA “known Issues” document dated November 28 lists nine apprenticeship funding-related problems with its software.
It notes: “This issue has been raised with our technical team as a defect and they are working on a fix.”
Neither the DfE nor the ESFA were available to comment on the complaints or issues with the payment system.
