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Attending to the problem

While the Covid pandemic forced students out of classrooms, it seems that five years later colleges are still struggling to get them back in.

Ninety per cent is widely perceived as the minimum acceptable attendance level for learners to maintain.

But anonymised attendance data exclusively shared with FE Week shows that, instead of bouncing back after Covid, attendance at general FE colleges dropped from 90.3 per cent in 2020-21 (when classes were held remotely) to below 89 per cent for every academic year since.

According to a survey by the National Association for Managers of Student Services (NAMSS), attendance and punctuality were the most common types of challenging behaviour that got worse in colleges in the past year, cited by 52 per cent of 63 college respondents.

However, colleges are also fighting tooth and nail to reverse the trend – by ramping up involvement with parents, bolstering enrichment and pastoral support and even offering students vouchers for showing up.

Depressing data

Attendance fell in the three years to 2023-24 across age groups. But there was a particularly steep drop for adult learners who, because of the cost-of-living crisis, were often working more to make ends meet.

Data from FE software provider VLE Support covering 40,000 students shows that for 16 to 18 year olds, attendance fell from 91 per cent in 2020-21 to 89 per cent. For 19 to 23 year olds the drop was 92 to 90 per cent, and for those 24 and older the decline was 93 to 89 per cent.

Department for Education data shows attendance is even worse in school sixth forms. Last year attendance across years 12 and 13 hit 88.5 per cent, its lowest level since lockdowns, and 0.9 percentage points lower than for year 11.

In contrast, overall attendance in secondary schools rose by 0.1 percentage points last year to 91.1 per cent.

Sixth formers also had record levels of persistent absence. Over one-third (37 per cent) missed 10 per cent or more of lessons compared to 29 per cent of year 11s.

Meanwhile, A-level attendance for 16 to 18 year olds has also dropped in general FE colleges – by almost four percentage points since 2020-21 to 91.6 per cent last year.

Diane Booth, vice principal of West Nottinghamshire College, told a meeting last year that its 1.2 per cent drop in year 13 A-level attendance was “linked to some students preferring to study at home rather than in college, once the exams have commenced” although doing so was “not supported by the college”.

‘Disengaging’ from maths and English

It will come as no surprise to college leaders that English and maths GCSE retake classes have the worst attendance rates of all. A 2023 Association of Colleges survey found almost a quarter of learners were missing classes.

Ofsted reports frequently reference poor attendance in those subjects, with construction and hairdressing courses also commonly highlighted as problematic.

Tuition charity Get Further’s interim CEO Dr Alice Eardley says the problem springs from English and maths cohorts often having “complex support needs”, with many having “negative prior experiences of education”, and resit students needing better support to drive progress and reengagement.

But from September, colleges must deliver 100 hours of teaching for maths and English during the academic year as a condition of funding – which could worsen attendance figures further.

The government has just axed a requirement for adult apprentices to do functional skills. But adult attendance on maths and English functional skills courses in colleges has been better than for younger cohorts – at 89 per cent for each subject since Covid, compared to 87 for maths and 86 per cent for English for 16 to 18s.

T Level attendance has also waned, from 98 per cent when they were piloted in 2021-22 to 94 per cent last year.

Muddled measures

Building a clear picture of college attendance is tricky. Unlike schools, there is no national benchmarking system or agreed guidelines for authorised and non-authorised attendance.

Some colleges capture attendance at every lesson, others measure it once a day. And consistency within groups isn’t guaranteed either.

For example, in June Trafford & Stockport College Group reported English and maths attendance of just 62 per cent. But it said attendance for the hubs it launched for those subjects – which are “used ad hoc as an additional support measure” – was “good”.

Furthermore, suspended and excluded students are not included under absence data.

Why are learners not turning up?

NAMSS chair Lisa Humphries believes the biggest contributor to absenteeism is more students perceiving they are anxious, which becomes “a reason not to do things and facilitates them becoming more disconnected”.

She believes poor attendance is a “symptom of the issues young people are facing in society”, including being “over-stimulated with technology” and exposed to unchecked, extreme views.

In a 2023 Association of Colleges survey of 68 colleges, nearly 90 per cent cited poor mental health as the main reason for absenteeism, up from around 50 per cent in 2019.

That same year, an NHS report suggested 22 per cent of 20 to 25 year olds and 23 per cent of 17 to 19 year olds had a mental disorder, up from 10 per cent in 2017. The rate was twice as high for females.

The absence rate is higher for female sixth formers, research last year by ImpactEd found, but in FE colleges the gender split is fairly equal.

Colleges have witnessed a spike in mental health referrals since Covid. Salford City College reported a fivefold increase over the five years to 2023, and a “significant increase” in safeguarding incidents.

Heart of Yorkshire Education Group’s last published accounts reported a “significant legacy from Covid-19” in terms of behaviour and mental health, “consistent” with information from its partner feeder schools and other FE providers.

Relentless efforts

Last year, level 2 electrical student Carl (not his real name) was skipping more classes than he turned up for at Leeds College of Building – his attendance was 47 per cent.

His “chaotic homelife, police run-ins and ongoing mental health challenges resulted in behavioural issues and disruptive behaviour throughout his school life”, says the college’s vice principal of curriculum, quality and innovation Rob Holmes.

Fortunately, Leeds is one of many colleges to prioritise attendance, partly in response to a March 2024 Ofsted inspection that flagged attendance as “too low”.

A monitoring visit this year praised the college for being “relentless in tackling poor attendance” through a “less punitive approach” which was helping students on entry-level and level 1 courses make “substantial improvements”.

Following parental and staff meetings, target setting, extensive coaching, meetings with safeguarding and police contacts and interventions from cultural agencies, Carl’s attendance rose to 82 per cent. His behaviour and mental health have improved too.

Efforts to tackle absenteeism appear to be sector-wide. Most Ofsted observations about attendance between 2022 and the start of 2024 were negative. Since then, reports have frequently cited the huge efforts colleges are making.

For example, Oldham College was praised for designing a summer school for students who did not attend school or experienced school exclusion. This improved their attendance “considerably”. Management also recruited additional staff such as youth workers who “carry out home visits and provide individual support”.

Inspectors noted that Moulton College in Northampton arranges transport for persistently absent learners “rather than withdraw them and risk them not being in education, training or employment”.

At Cambridge Regional College, staff “understand the safeguarding risks in the local area” so leaders “monitor attendance of vulnerable groups robustly to ensure students and apprentices are safe if they are absent”.

Tackling mental health first

Many college attendance strategies have focused on helping learners feel less anxious.

When learners returned to Trafford and Stockport College Group after the pandemic, strategies included “time-out cards and the use of breathing techniques to reduce their anxiety”, Ofsted inspectors found, which helped learners “improve attendance and achieve well”.

Harlow College, recognising a “stigma with male mental health particularly in the construction trade”, embedded a level 1 mental health course into its construction course. The college also signposts learners to e-learning modules in mental health first aid and advocacy in the workplace.

At City of Sunderland College,students who struggle to attend due to physical mobility or mental health issues were receiving “high-quality resources to use remotely”.

And at Wigan & Leigh College, principal Anna Dawe says her pastoral specialists are “on the doors in the morning, on the corridors at lunch time and as lessons change over” to tackle attendance, and also liaise with parents.

Parental engagement has stepped up considerably since Covid.

At Sandwell College in West Bromwich,staff make announced and unannounced home visits to discuss attendance with learners and their parents.

At Leeds College of Building, Holmes says a “key part” of their strategy was creating a “shared responsibility for student success” with parents.

And at Macclesfield College, parents receive absence alerts by text, and 80 per cent engage with an online portal to review attendance.

Enrichment solutions

In recent years, budget cuts and staffing constraints have squeezed enrichment activities at many colleges. But some are bringing them back to boost attendance.

Harlow College went from having no enrichment programme to 40 per cent of its first-year students engaging in such activities last year.

Chichester College Group bolstered its enrichment offer to “foster a sense of belonging” and “motivate young people to spend more time on campus,” says its director of student experience Nick Mercado.

When a group came back from Wales they loved each other

The group’s director of pastoral support, Matt Wright, takes groups with low attendance on excursions such as “a day at the watersports centre as a minimum” or “a week in Wales as a maximum”.

“What you would find, without question, is that when a group came back from Wales they loved each other, and the teachers that went with them,” he says. “They wanted to come back to college and be in lessons.”

But some popular enrichment activities, such as gaming, can also cause barriers to attendance.

Steve Harrison, local college director for Castleford, part of the Heart of Yorkshire group, says his college experienced challenges with students gaming during class time.

“We had to keep constantly checking the timetable to see if they were meant to be in their lessons. We now have more control over that.”

Carrots, not sticks

NAMSS chair Humphries says colleges try to treat learners “as adults”, and “differently” to how they may have been treated in school through “positive behaviour management” rather than punishment.

Engagement specialist Kheron Gilpin believes that today’s technological and social context means capturing young people’s attention is “becoming more and more challenging”.

He recommends colleges “celebrate people for being present” and added: “Letting them feel a sense of achievement just by showing up proves quite effective.”

Some colleges are providing extra incentives as carrots, which are praised in Ofsted inspection reports.

At Bolton College, students with high and improving attendance are entered into a draw for vouchers. Its strategies have resulted in increased attendance for 16 to 18 vocational courses and GCSE English and maths.

On USP College’s level 3 engineering course, in Benfleet, Essex, teachers run a competition for the best attendance record.

Gold stars

Capel Manor Collegestaff in North London “promote good attendance” through trips, certificates of achievement and celebration parties.

East Surrey College’s positive incentives include bursary schemes, gold stars and sports club memberships.

And after RNN Group identified that students’ reasons for poor attendance included bus cancellations, financial struggles and anxiety, its managers liaised with bus companies, provided bursaries and assigned anxious learners with buddies to accompany them at college

It says the strategies are “beginning to have a positive impact”.

St Helens College’s attendance incentive strategies include not only a free breakfast but “monetary vouchers”. An attendance league table pitting courses in the construction department against each other created an “atmosphere of friendly competition,” Ofsted inspectors said.

“The quality team has now identified this as good practice, and there are imminent plans in place to implement this initiative across the college.”

NAO reveals enormity of T Level take-up failure

The UK’s spending watchdog has cast doubt on the scalability of T Levels after finding student number forecasts were missed by three quarters – resulting in a near-£700 million spending shortfall.

MPs today warned the Department for Education it had “much to do” to convince people of T Levels’ “worth as a desirable and valuable” qualification after a National Audit Office (NAO) report revealed starts this year were 75 per cent below an initial target of 102,500.

The independent body highlighted “significant risks” to expanding T Levels after revealing secret DfE estimates that show places could be limited to just 48,000 due to teacher and employer “capacity constraints”, and that there may be 6,500 learners unable to find industry placements in 2027-28.

It is the first time any DfE modelling and projections on T Levels have been put into the public domain.

The NAO told the DfE to develop “ways to understand the potential impacts on the demand, benefits and cost of T Levels” before it makes “wider strategic decisions” around the development of the technical qualifications landscape, amid plans to defund competing courses like BTECs.

The DfE’s calculations on assumed student numbers have been “inaccurate” and “lacked transparency”, the NAO said, causing financial losses to awarding organisations delivering the so-called “gold standard” qualification.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said a lack of widespread awareness, declining pass rates and challenges securing industry placements show a risk to the DfE’s “ability” to scale up T Levels.

“For T Levels to be a success, the department has much to do to convince students and providers of their worth as a desirable and valuable qualification,” he added.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “Today’s report is clear that the Department for Education cannot yet measure whether T Levels are achieving their aims. Until it can, we believe the department should change its current policy to allow medium and large applied general qualifications to co-exist with T Levels.”

The DfE doubled down on its “clear commitment” to T Levels, designed to be the technical equivalent to A-levels.

A spokesperson said: “T Levels continue to grow, with nearly 60 per cent more young people taking them last year than in the previous year. Based on employer-designed standards and with a substantial industry placement on every course, T Levels will be important contributors to our mission to grow the economy.”

Targets missed to the tune of £688m

The DfE has always claimed it never set student number targets for T Levels. However, the department told the NAO it does hold forecasts.

In June 2021, the DfE set a figure of 100,000 enrolments by September 2025 but has now revised this down to 49,700 by September 2027.

In 2020, the first year of delivery, the number of starts almost met the 1,300 prediction, missing by 10 per cent, but the gap has since widened every year.

In 2023-24, 16,081 starts were recorded, 78 per cent lower than an original forecast of 72,200.

Student starts in 2024-25 rose to 25,508, but based on original 2021 estimates given to the NAO, the DfE believed 102,500 students would start a T Level this year.

The DfE had an original budget of £1.94 billion to spend on T Levels up to the end of 2024-25, but it has only spent £1.25 billion, as revealed by FE Week earlier this week.

It means the DfE underspent £688 million due to low student take-up.

Underspends are usually returned to the Treasury but can sometimes be reallocated to wider education priorities, the DfE said.

The NAO said the department has “not yet estimated how much T Levels will cost beyond March 2025” given the upcoming spending review.

Of the 16 T Levels that launched by September 2022, the NAO found actual student starts were lower than the DfE’s assumed numbers in all but one subject.

DfE estimates were used by awarding organisations to inform their pricing.

For T Levels such as digital business services, numbers were 98 per cent lower than the 4,500 predicted. Even popular courses like the education and early years T Level missed a 6,500 forecast by 35 per cent.

Awarding organisations told the NAO that the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), the quango tasked with rolling out T Levels, “lacked transparency” in sharing information on student numbers.

“Two awarding organisations told us they could not challenge the assumptions. Awarding organisations were locked into the prices they had set throughout the contract,” the report said.

The report found across seven contracts IfATE recently retendered, which include a new “adaptive pricing” feature, that fees payable by providers for T Level students will shoot up by between 26 per cent and 243 per cent.

And it revealed the government had struggled to convince awarding bodies to get involved in T Levels, stating that IfATE considered low student numbers, the brief announcement of the Advanced British Standard which would have replaced T Levels but has now been ditched, and “delays defunding larger overlapping qualifications” had “affected market interest in T Levels”.

Secret limit on available places

The NAO report revealed the DfE has doubts about its ability to increase student numbers and had estimated in August 2023 that the number of T Level places could be limited to around 48,000 because of “constraints imposed by shortages of teachers and industry placements”.

The department told the NAO that “any estimate of the future capacity of the system to support students was uncertain”.

“[DfE] told us that it has limited evidence regarding teachers’ availability and whether teachers would prioritise teaching T Levels over other qualifications,” the report said.

“It also estimated available industry placements based on what employers could theoretically offer, with limited data to estimate constraints across different T Levels or geographical areas.”

The DfE has not updated this estimate but has “continued to use it in its internal reporting”.

The report also revealed that the DfE estimated in 2023 there could be around 6,500 students per year without an industry placement in 2027/28.

Industry placements of at least 45 days are a mandatory component of T Levels. The sector had warned from the outset there would not be enough employers to offer placements when the qualifications were fully rolled out.

The NAO report added the DfE now expects to achieve “steady state” in September 2029, when all T Levels have been rolled out and overlapping qualifications are defunded.

“Based on its latest model, DfE’s central estimate is for 49,700 students in September 2027, and 66,100 in September 2029, with upper estimates of 60,000 and 80,000 respectively,” the report added.

Despite there not being any student earnings data yet on T Levels, the DfE told the NAO its “best judgment” is that T Levels will be “25 per cent more valuable (around £23,000 per student over their lifetime, in 2019-20 prices)” than other level 3 qualifications.

Pass rates on the qualifications are around 90 per cent but almost a third of students drop out before completing their course.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Although the Department for Education has made progress in delivering the wide range of courses available, efforts must be made to increase student numbers and realise all the potential benefits of T Levels.”

Joyce’s interim replacement at Ofsted revealed

Ofsted has appointed Denise Olander as temporary deputy director for FE and skills following the resignation of Paul Joyce.

Joyce’s departure was announced last month after 20 years at the watchdog. He will become deputy principal at North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College this summer.

Olander’s appointment was announced internally on Thursday. She starts immediately and is expected to be in the role for around six months while the inspectorate advertises for a permanent replacement.

The change in FE leadership at Ofsted comes amid plans to replace current inspection reports with new-style report cards. The plan has attracted early criticism as while it removes overall judgments, the watchdog wants to introduce potentially 20 areas where colleges will be graded.

Lee Owston, Ofsted’s national director for Education, said: “I am pleased to announce that we have appointed Denise Olander HMI as our temporary deputy director, post-16 education, training and skills.

“Having worked with Denise for some time now, I know she will bring a wealth of skills, experience and knowledge to the role.”

Olander has worked as an inspector since 2014 in the FE and skills team.

Her biography on Ofsted’s website states that she is a qualified teacher with a master’s degree in leadership and management.

Prior to working for Ofsted, Olander worked at multiple large colleges with responsibilities including provision for learners aged 14 to 16, foundation learning, ESOL, looked-after children, NEET, adult community and subcontractors and college franchises.

“Denise has particular expertise in leading inspections of general further education, sixth form and independent specialist colleges and offender learning,” Ofsted’s website added.

Olander said: “I am very excited to be stepping up to the role of deputy director post-16 education, training and skills for the next six months.

“Having worked across FE colleges for over 21 years and across FES and ITE HMI roles for over 10 years, I look forward to taking on this new role. This is a very important time for the sector, and I am looking forward to working closely with you.”

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 492

Ciara O’Donnell

Board Member Youth Employment UK

Start date: March 2025

Concurrent: Technical Author

Interesting fact: Ciara has solo travelled to Bali and swam with Manta rays

Jennifer Coupland

Board Member, Youth Employment UK

Start date: March 2025

Concurrent: Pro-Vice Chancellor (Skills Portfolio), London South Bank University

Interesting fact: As a child, Jennifer played the daughter of a bigamist in a Greek language film – suffice to say it was not a speaking role!

Shane Mann

Board Member WorldSkills UK

Start date: March 2025

Concurrent: Chief Executive, EducationScape

Interesting fact: Shane hiked the Atacama desert in 2023 – reaching an altitude of 5,600 meters on the Cerro Toco Volcano

We can’t leave Andrew Tate to educate our working-class boys

With the rise of the manosphere and social media influencers such as Andrew Tate, the outcomes of working-class boys in education – and their behaviour in wider society – has become a regular subject of debate.

We’ve known about working-class men’s educational ‘failure’ for nearly half a century. But still today only 40 per cent of young men who were eligible for free school meals achieved grades from 9 to 4 in GCSE English and maths, data shows.

For FE colleges, that means a big proportion of the 280,000 students undertaking Level 2 English and Maths resits each year will be working-class young men.

In my book Lost Boys: How Education is Failing Young Working Class Men, I engage with why this is happening, and what can be done.

Social codes

The reasons are complex. They’re linked to preconceptions held by educators, and the messages transmitted to young men through our societal structures: a strict code of expectations surrounding what being a man ‘should’ mean, especially if you are from a working-class background. For decades this complexity has been overlooked.

Rather than being discussed as young men with a broad array of likes, interests and hopes for the future, they have been positioned as anti-authoritarian, morally lacking, aggressive and lacking aspiration.

Political speeches and newspaper headlines communicate messages which are slowly moulded into a collective understanding.

In short, we’ve done an incredible job of convincing ourselves that they are the problem. That their educational ‘failure’ is a conscious, independent choice.

In the caricature we have created, there is no room to see, let alone understand, the link between the young men and the inequalities they experience.

Working class boys’ masculinity is eroded by pernicious social actors

For years we have shied away from work and projects which directly target resources toward working-class boys because of fears over perpetuating gender-based inequalities further.

However, in the gap left by our collective inaction, we now find education of another form. Taught through mobile phones and three-minute videos, young men learn their traditional role as breadwinners is under threat. That their masculinity and power is being eroded by pernicious social actors who wish to emasculate them.

All the while, our collective inaction plays right into their hands. The emergence of Tate and his cronies demonstrate that, rather than targeted work with young men being optional, the rise in misogynistic social media content has made it a necessity.

The first step has to be recognition that until now, we’ve been getting the conversation badly wrong. As an educational community we need to understand that the patriarchal structures of the world around us are a sword that cuts both ways.

They harm young men and women alike in ways which are distinct, but wickedly complementary.

For men, the injuries relate to mental ill health and suicide, entry into the criminal justice system and homelessness. For women they rear their ugly head in gender pay gaps, sexual harassment and violence against women and children.

It is a set of societal conditions which benefits very few. It is imperative that we create opportunities for young men to connect in spaces where their voice is valued and valuable. Not by focusing on perceived deficiencies, nor by focusing on what they can be in the future. But by focusing on who they can be in the future. By working to cultivate the conditions where a happy, healthy future isn’t an abstract hope or ambition, but rather an expectation.

Boys’ impact

For the last 10 years I’ve been reflecting on the need for equitable change in the educational ecosystems surrounding young men. This led me to become the founder of Boys’ Impact in 2023.

As a network of educators, researchers and practitioners, we create ecosystems in research, policy and practice which enable boys and young men who experience socio-economic inequality to flourish. We’re still very much at the beginning of our journey.

This year we’ve conducted over 25 pilot projects in schools. Next year, we’d love it if FE colleagues would join us.

Lost Boys: How Education is Failing Young Working Class Men is published on July 11 by Policy Press

Preorder here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/lost-boys

Amid cuts to adult education we must focus on financial literacy

Professor Becky Francis’s interim curriculum review confirms a truth that every employer in the UK would agree with: too many young people are leaving education without the skills they need for life and work.

Beyond the ability to communicate, the skills that provide the greatest benefit in the workplace and for driving social mobility are functional numeracy and financial literacy.

It’s reassuring to see that “applied knowledge and skills, such as finance and budgeting” are likely to be given more weight under the proposed reforms.

This welcome ray of sunshine came in the same week that the education committee’s consultation into improving vocational and skills-based learning and qualifications received feedback from FE leaders.

With a number of changes to the skills landscape being announced or consulted on, it’s vital that we remain focused on the outcomes we’re trying to achieve.

We need to ensure that everyone has practical skills relevant to their daily lives and that these skills break down barriers and open doors to successful and fulfilling careers.

Decades of failure to align functional maths with applied finance in schools has come at a price. A significant proportion of adults still struggle with financial literacy – anywhere between a third and four-fifths of the population, depending on whose research you read and what level of understanding you measure.

That’s a significant proportion of the workforce not equipped for the challenges they face in the workplace or indeed in their home life.

Providers of further education and adult skills training are the natural partners to deliver the retraining and upskilling that the workforce needs to deliver on the government’s growth agenda.

The opportunity is to give adults of all ages the functional skills they need to kick off their careers, get back into work, to retrain into in-demand occupations – such as accounting and financial services – or even start their own businesses.

But with a 6 per cent cut to adult skills funding looming, the last government’s Multiply scheme ending this month and concerns that funding settlements for post-19 education will be limited, it’s getting harder to see how the upskilling that is required can be achieved.

The lifelong loan entitlement is a welcome signal that the government remains committed to the upskilling and reskilling agenda despite budget challenges. However, at present it only offers financial support for modular and flexible learning for qualifications at levels 4-6. Making lower-level qualifications available, particularly those which lead directly to employment or higher technical education, would help young people aged 19 to 24 not in education, employment or training, take their first step into their future careers.

Flexibility of funding is also essential: the modular funding approach within the lifelong loan entitlement has been shown to work, and a similar modular approach could be delivered effectively for lower qualification levels.

Another consideration is how to better incentivise employers themselves to invest in financial and digital training for their employees.

At a time when many employers are feeling a squeeze from a rise in the National Living Wage and employer’s national insurance contributions, particularly for employees on lower pay brackets, it’s not a good time to ask them to shoulder the burden.

The benefit, however, is a workforce with an expanded skills base, equipped to deal with the challenges of the modern economy.

One thing is certain: basic finance and numeracy training must be protected from cuts to the adult skills funding budget. Focusing on embedding real-world skills will benefit people regardless of job role or their level of previous education, and ensure we have a labour market to support the government’s growth mission.

Everyone’s T’eed off, so let’s dig in to make T Levels work

There’s no such thing as bad publicity, as the old adage goes. But with newspapers calling T Levels a “disaster”, a grilling at this week’s Education Committee and now a National Audit Office report which could be summarised as “must do better”, it’s becoming hard to swallow that adage. College marketing departments are holding their heads in hands over yet more setbacks for the beleaguered “flagship technical education qualification”.

The NAO report doesn’t hold back on stating that DfE must do more to address student take up. At TSCG’s careers conference last week, delegates didn’t hold back either: parents don’t get them; schools don’t promote them, and young people don’t want them. Yet, the recently published curriculum and assessment review interim report still refers to them as the “gold standard”.

The last government’s approach of saying it was switching off all alternatives may have resulted in more students adopting T levels. It would also have likely resulted in higher drop out rates, lower attainment and even more NEETs (not in employment, education or training) given the reduced alternative options. However, retaining the status quo of qualifications with T Levels as an addition would have resulted in them at best becoming niche, or more likely quietly ditched like the old 14-19 diplomas – remember them?

It doesn’t seem like we know what to do with them. There’s desperation from policy makers for them to succeed, but so many barriers to overcome. As well as the uptake challenge, the NAO correctly identifies scalability problems for industry placements. Plus there is the issue around university progression given lukewarm admissions departments, despite directives from government.

For my part, I keep wrestling with a central question. What is precisely the purpose of T Levels? Despite the lack of universal university take up, this does seem to be the favoured destination of many T Level students – when A Levels and applied general qualifications already serve this perfectly well. If the purpose is primarily progression into skilled employment, I think the jury is out so far– gold standard or not.

The arguable failing from the off was that policy makers attempted to take a complex landscape of technical education and shoehorn it into a one size fits all advanced level Key Stage 5 box. This isn’t how technical education works. It’s not what happens in general FE colleges. Many technical education courses start below Level 3 – and need to. Many don’t fit into a quasi-academic style qualification – and shouldn’t do. To an extent, this has now been realised with the ditching of T Levels in areas such as on-site construction, catering and beauty therapy.

So, where do we go from here? First, I’m not advocating for one minute we should give up. There are parts of the post-16 education system that wish these things would just fizzle out like a bad dream. I’m not one of them. Here’s my roadmap:

First, we must resolve confusion over where T Levels sit in the qualification landscape. There’s a reason the education and early years route is enjoying successful uptake whilst the science one isn’t. We need to achieve consensus and be clear on exactly which pathways are best suited to T Levels, which to technical occupational qualifications and which to applied generals. Otherwise we’ll just exacerbate the complexity of navigation for young people, employers and influencers.

Second, to achieve scalability we need to accept in practice that T Levels serve a different market to A Levels. They must be more accessible to those students who do not want to pursue an academic route, because the “competition” for T Level take-up isn’t so much applied generals as A Levels. Recent government announcements regarding the review of some specifications is a step in the right direction. It must go further.

Third, we need to be clear on the intended progression from T Levels – whilst not closing off individual choice. Here in Greater Manchester, universities engage collectively with colleges on T Level progression. However, there’s a huge opportunity to position the T Level proposition as a continuum through to Level 4 and 5 technical routes, through HTQs and via a classroom or work-based option. It’s currently a missed opportunity.

Finally, if we want to make T Levels succeed, we must take the responsibility for leading collaborative local and regional solutions. In Greater Manchester, we’re collectively supporting the awareness-raising in schools through our colleges’ ‘festival of technical education’. The combined authority is tackling scalability of industry placements through galvanising the employer base at a city region level, supported by a central vehicle for sourcing opportunities whilst complementing the efforts of individual colleges. It is accepted that these solutions might not work in all localities, but collaboration in whatever form is key.

Yes, T Levels have come in for some stick lately with lots of barriers still to overcome. But we’ll do what we always do so well in FE – make the bloody things work!

DfE revises 2023-24 T Level pass rates

The proportion of students passing T Levels last year has risen to 91 per cent after the government took resits and marking reviews into account.

Figures released on exam results day in August said the pass rate dipped to 89 per cent in 2023-24.

But a revision to the data published this morning showed a 2.3 percentage point rise to the pass rate to 91 per cent, from a total of 7,421 students in the third cohort of T Level students.

The pass rate increase was due mainly to the Department for Education reflecting late completions of industry placements but also outcomes to reviews of markings and appeals between August results day and November 1.

The additional student numbers include some learners from previous cohorts that had to resit some of the T Level components.

The dropout rate stayed at 29 percent.

DfE also revised figures for previous cohorts. A total of 3,559 students were awarded a T Level in 10 pathways in 2022/23, a 3 per cent rise from previous data releases. The pass rate for the year has now been revised up by 3.4 percentage points to 93.9 per cent.

A T Level has three parts – the core component involving a core exam and employer set project, the occupational specialism and the minimum 315-hour industry placement.

The proportion of students completing their industry placements declined slightly. Revised figures for 2022-23 show 96 per cent finished a placement, dropping to 95.5 per cent in 2023-24.

DfE has also released provider-level data on T Level achievements for the first time (see below).

Today’s data included results from 162 providers, 61 of which taught T Levels from 2022 for the first time.

It showed 33 providers had 20 or more T Level students enrolled, comprising mostly FE colleges. Their pass rates for 2023-24 varied between 77.5 per cent to 98.8 per cent.

Leicester College had the largest intake of learners, with 192 students, 83.1 per cent of which achieved a pass or above.

Meanwhile, Exeter College students were awarded the highest pass rate, with 98.9 per cent of its 159-cohort getting a pass or above.

See the full provider list here:

Apprenticeship achievement rates 2023-24: what you need to know

With the overall apprenticeship achievement rate now passing 60 per cent, FE Week has dived into the data to see what trends and patterns are hidden beneath the headlines…

ITPs jump 6.5 percentage points, but specialist colleges improved the most

Apprenticeship achievement rates improved in each provider type except schools in academic year 2023-24.

Three in five (63 per cent) apprenticeships recorded as leavers were trained by independent training providers (ITPs). Achievement rates in ITPs increased to 57.7 per cent. While 2.8 percentage points shy of the overall average, this was a 6.5 percentage point increase from the year before.

Achievement rates in further education colleges also improved, but at a lower rate than ITPs, to 62.3 per cent up from 57.8 per cent. Around one in five leavers trained with a further education college in 2023-24.

The largest achievement rate rise was in specialist colleges which increased by 10.1 percentage points, from 54.2 per cent in 2022-23 to 64.3 per cent in 2023-24.

Officials categorise universities which deliver degree-level apprenticeships in an “other” category, which also includes local authorities. Achievement rates for this group improved from 65 per cent to 68.6 per cent with around 16 per cent of the cohort.

Large providers (mostly) improve

With over 14,000 leavers recorded for 2023-24, England’s largest training provider scored a 40.5 per cent achievement rate, up from 35 per cent the previous year.

Lifetime Training delivered 47 apprenticeship standards in sectors including care, hospitality and retail. It improved its achievement rate after a 10-percentage point dip between 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Notable improvements among large-volume training providers also include Multiverse, 59 per cent up from 51.8 per cent and Corndel, 74.9 per cent up from 64.7 per cent.

Among the providers with the highest achievement rates for 2023-24 was League Football Education. Its 600 leavers for that year were all on the level 3 sporting excellence professional standard and scored an achievement rate of 95.3 per cent.

However, it wasn’t good news across the board. Ixion Holdings clocked up an extra 600 apprentice leavers in 2023-24 but saw its achievement rate decline from 50.4 per cent to 21.8 per cent.

For colleges, Bridgwater and Taunton had the highest number of leavers (1,250) across 102 apprenticeship standards and improved its achievement rate from 64.3 per cent to 70.2 per cent.

Level 6 reaches achievement rate target

Level 6 apprenticeships have surpassed the government’s 67 per cent apprenticeship achievement rate target. They were already the highest performing apprenticeships, but saw their achievement rate increase to 69.1 per cent in 2023-24, up from 65.7 per cent in 2022-23.

Apprenticeships at level 4 saw the largest achievement increase, jumping 10 percentage points from 46.9 per cent to 56.9 per cent.

Level 7 apprenticeships are the next closest group to the target, now standing at 62.5 per cent.

Each of the top 10 most popular apprenticeships saw their achievement rates increase, except the level 7 accountancy and tax professional standard.

The level 3 team leader, which had the highest number of leavers in 2023-24 (12,570) had an achievement rate of 61.5 per cent, up from 54 per cent the year before.

Meanwhile the level 3 business administrator became the only top 10 apprenticeship to have surpassed the government’s 67 per cent target, with an achievement rate in 2023-24 of 68.6 per cent.

The lowest performing standards in the top 10 were the adult care worker and lead adult care worker. The level 2 adult care worker standard improved from 39.6 per cent to 46.1 per cent. For the level 3 lead adult care worker, the rate increased from 38.5 per cent to 44.8 per cent.

LLDD achievement up, but so is the gap

The achievement rate gap between learners with learning difficulties and disabilities (LLDD) increased slightly to 4.5 percentage points in 2023-24 compared to 4.3 in 2022-23.

Data shows 14 per cent of apprentice leavers in 2023-24 were LLDD, a similar proportion to the year before. The achievement rate for those apprentices was 56.7 per cent, up from 51 per cent the year before.

Overall ethnicity achievement gap falls

New achievement rate data shows the gap between white and ethnic minority apprentices has narrowed to its lowest level in three years.

There was a 5.3 percentage point gap in favour of white apprentices in 2023-24, down from 6.8 the year before. The combined achievement rate for ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) was 56 per cent, compared to 61.3 per cent for white apprentices.

Data shows the gap has narrowed across each ethnicity has narrowed, though the largest gaps remain between white (61.3 per cent) and Black / African / Caribbean / Black British (53.9 per cent). This 7.4 percentage point gap for 2023-24 was 10.2 per cent in 2022-23.

The smallest gap, 3.3 percentage points, was between white and Asian / Asian British apprentices (57.2 per cent).

Achievement gap between most and least deprived narrows overall

The overall achievement gap between apprentices from the most and least deprived postcodes continues to narrow slowly.

Officials use the index of multiple deprivation (IMD) to classify the home areas of apprentices into five quintiles of relative deprivation.

In 2023-24, the achievement rate for apprentices from the most deprived areas was 56 per cent – an improvement from 49.5 per cent the year before. For those from the least deprived, the achievement rate increased to 63.9 per cent from 58.4 per cent.

This means there was a 7.9 percentage point gap in achievement rates, down from 8.9 in 2022-23 and 9.8 in 2021-22.

However for 16- to- 18-year-olds, the gap grew very slightly from 8.4 percentage points in 2022-23 to 8.5 in 2023-24.