Sports students have helped children with physical, sensory and learning disabilities experience their favourite sports at the ProjectAbility festival.
Hosted at Truro and Penwith College, the annual festival is the inclusive arm of the Cornwall School Games, a Youth Sport Trust initiative that gives primary and secondary school children across the region the chance to compete in a range of sporting activities throughout the year.
More than 60 secondary students took part in the event, in sports including wheelchair basketball, boccia, cricket, football and archery. The college’s own sports students helped referee and oversee the running of the games.
“The event was brilliant – the smiles on their faces said it all; we’ve had fist pumps and high fives,” said Steve Hillman, inclusion sports officer at Cornwall Sports Partnership and Special Olympics Cornwall. “A massive thanks to Truro and Penwith College for hosting us.”
Instead of a thought-out comprehensive strategy for further and adult education and skills, the government has merely delivered more short-term tinkering, says Jill Westerman
We expected a budget for Brexit. The statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer fell some way short.
The budget was an opportunity for Mr Hammond and the government to demonstrate that they have a bold, positive vision for the Britain that will emerge from Brexit. It was a chance to show that they have a handle on the huge challenges posed by an ageing workforce, a dwindling supply of European workers and a UK in which social divisions are becoming ever more present and damaging.
Addressing these problems calls for more than a few bright wheezes and a modest shuffling of resources. It demands a profound change of course. There were a few good ideas but the Chancellor conspicuously failed to deliver meaningful, coherent change on the scale our society, economy and education system needs.
The news for the further education sector was not especially bad. There were no further cuts to funding and some extra cash to support colleges in preparing for T-levels. There was also an additional £600 for schools and colleges for every extra student who studies A-level maths and continued funding for unionlearn.
The emphasis on digital skills was also welcome (though online learning, while important, can only ever be part of the story). But where was the expansive, forward-looking vision for the future of the sector? Where was the recognition that increased reliance on homegrown talent requires a step-change in investment in education for adults as well as young people? And where was the extra funding needed to reinvigorate a sector which has been battered by cut after cut over the past decade?
The words ‘deckchairs’ and ‘Titanic’ spring to mind
Instead of a thought-out comprehensive strategy for further and adult education and skills, underpinned by an evidence-based understanding of changing needs and a changing sector, we had yet more short-term tinkering, often to ameliorate the damage done in previous rounds of education cuts, and little joining up of new measures.
The words ‘deckchairs’ and ‘Titanic’ spring to mind. Unless politicians get better at understanding the sector, and its critical role in improving lives, developing communities, growing skills and boosting productivity, and begin to think expansively about its future and what it can contribute, we are likely to find ourselves revisiting the mistakes of the past in the policy-making equivalent of Groundhog Day.
The government’s failure to do this – and, with the present difficulties our society and communities are facing, they had every reason to change tack and think bigger and differently about the future – is not only a blow for further education, it is calamitous for social mobility and social inclusion.
The loss of educational opportunities for young people and adults, at all levels of study, is a blight on lives and communities, particularly for the least advantaged. What was there in the Budget to give hope to those at the bottom of the heap? Where was the support for adults with poor basic skills – all nine million of them – or for the millions unemployed or in insecure work? Where was the recognition of the benefits that adult education can bring to the health and well-being of both young and old, and the consequent savings to the health budget?
This chronic underinvestment in adult education has an obvious impact on our capacity to meet the future needs of the labour market.
With too few 18-year-olds entering the labour market to take up future jobs and the supply of labour from the EU soon to be cut off, we desperately need more opportunities for adults to train and retrain, to adapt to new technologies and to navigate the challenges of later pensions and longer lives. Where is the provision to meet these urgent needs? Where is the evidence that the government even takes these pressing concerns seriously?
Warm words about skills and further education are not enough. We need a long-term, well-funded strategy, which engages providers, students and future students, local government, local enterprise partnerships, employers and civil society, so the sector can finally play its full role in creating the foundation for the future prosperity of all our people. It’s time we stopped thinking of the future as somebody else’s business.
Jill Westerman is a trustee of the Further Education Trust for Leadership and principal of the Northern College
Learndirect’s apprenticeship achievement rates have continued to fall, Ofsted has found in its first monitoring visit to the provider since its grade four earlier in the year.
Inspectors revisited the nation’s biggest FE provider at the end of October, and noted several improvements, while highlighting various areas of concern.
One of the most concerning findings was that its apprenticeship achievement rate has fallen again for 2016/17.
The provider’s achievement rate has dropped considerably for apprenticeships over the last three years and was at 57.8 per cent in 2015/16 – below the ESFA’s minimum standards threshold of 62 per cent and resulting in a notice of concern.
It is not yet known what Learndirect’s final overall achievement rate is for 2016/17.
“Managers of the apprenticeship provision have established successfully systems and procedures to enable them, for the first time, to be confident about how they monitor and report on the progress of apprentices,” Ofsted said.
“This improvement was not established quickly enough to prevent the final overall achievement rates for apprentices in 2016/17 being even lower than in the previous year.”
Learndirect received an overall ‘inadequate’ rating from Ofsted, including for apprenticeships, after it was inspected in March and had its report published in August following a judicial review.
In its report, Ofsted heavily criticised managers at the provider and said that around a third of learners on apprenticeships “do not receive their entitlement to off-the-job learning” and fail to develop “the skills they require to progress to the next step in their career”.
Today’s monitoring visit report said it still “remains unclear” what off-the-job training has taken place at the provider.
Senior leaders have overseen the “phased introduction” of a new policy to clarify how assessors are expected to plan and record apprentices’ off-the-job training, but this did not start until two months after the grade four.
Almost half of apprentices are “identified currently as being behind target, and a further fifth are at risk of falling behind target”.
“Managers have begun to use this information to identify actions for improvement and support, but it is still too early to see the full impact of these actions.”
Inspectors did however praise directors for exerting “greater control and oversight” over the performance and quality of provision over the last few months.
“Managers have developed a set of challenging performance indicators to measure the success of their actions,” they said. “They are starting to use these effectively to manage the performance of their staff and subcontractors.”
However, the quality-improvement plans for the apprenticeship programme and the adult learning provision “do not take account of these indicators”, and are “too focused on the completion of actions and the development of processes”.
As a result, these plans “do not provide managers with an effective means to drive improvement, or a means to evaluate success”.
As previously revealed by FE Week, Learndirect was handed around £45 million to deliver adult education training despite its grade four. It is not yet known how much the provider has been given for its apprenticeship provision as it was left off of the government’s allocation spreadsheet for 2017/18.
Inspectors said the pace of improvement to Learndirect’s adult learning provision has been “quicker”, and its impact has been “greater”, than that for the apprenticeship provision.
Adult learning managers “acted quickly” to implement a range of initiatives immediately after the inspection that began to address the main areas of weakness.
They have “introduced successfully a new system for monitoring the attendance of learners, so they can now intervene more swiftly at the many centres where attendance is still too low”.
A spokesperson for Learndirect said: “The board is pleased that Ofsted has noted that performance across all the provision offered by Learndirect Limited is improving.
“While it regrets that success rates for SME Apprenticeships for 16/17 have dipped, Ofsted, the ESFA and Learndirect Limited were aware that this would be the case.
“The business is focused on ensuring the best outcome for those apprentices currently on programme and the report recognises the work done to achieve this. This has been a consistent theme in discussion between the company, the funding body and the inspectorate.”
The national minimum wage for apprentices will rise again in April, from £3.50 to £3.70 per hour, the chancellor announced in his budget statement today.
It will now increase by a further 20 pence, after Philip Hammond accepted recommendations from the independent Low Pay Commission.
This is a 5.7 per cent rate increase, above UK inflation which rose to three per cent in October, and is larger by proportion than all other minimum wage groups.
For 18- to 20-year-olds, the increase is from £5.60 per hour to £5.90, while 16- to 17-year-olds will see their minimum wage go up from £4.05 per hour to £4.20.
And for 21- to 24-year-olds, it is going up from £7.05 per hour to £7.38.
The Living Wage Foundation, which estimates the real cost of living, suggests that the national minimum wage should be £8.75 per hour outside London, or £10.20 in the capital.
Mark Dawe, the boss of the AELP, welcomed the news, but with caution.
“We have no issue with the youth rate of the national minimum wage being raised because social mobility is as much about a young person being able to afford to live as the offer of a job or apprenticeship,” he said.
“But over the longer term, with the downgraded growth forecasts in mind, we must remain mindful of what employers can afford – there is a balance to be struck.”
Business students from Abingdon & Witney College are attempting to deliver 100 coats and jackets to those in need in the area over Christmas.
The #100coats project has been launched by level two business students, who will use what they’ve learned about getting messages across and creating visuals during their course to promote the initiative.
The students are aiming to gather at least 100 clean winter coats or jackets by December 13, and are also asking donors to attach a luggage tag with a message to the recipient of the clothing.
A charity, Oxford Homeless Pathways, will be helping them distribute the clothing, and local business suppliers Aston & James are offering space to store any donations.
“It’s really important for our business students to gain real-life practical and employability experience to support their academic studies,” said Tracey Lee, a business lecturer at the college. “I’m incredibly proud of their commitment to the campaign which will help keep local homeless people warmer this winter.”
The government’s commitment to three million apprenticeship starts by 2020 is increasingly out of reach, exclusive FE Week analysis of new statistics has revealed.
Average monthly starts are 17 per cent lower than where they need to be to hit that target by that year.
Previous start figures had only been available on a quarterly basis, but the Department for Education has now released a monthly breakdown as part of its final statistics for 2016/17 this year, published November 23.
Worse yet, starts have even shown their first fall since 2013/14, and the government’s flagship target – first introduced in 2015 and reiterated in this year’s manifesto – is in trouble.
A spokesperson for the DfE insisted that “progress should not be judged on the basis of a few months’ worth of data” and that it remained “committed to reaching three million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020”
She declined to comment on whether it was still confident it would reach that target.
She did say that feedback the department had received from employers has shown they were “taking their time to plan ahead and maximise the opportunities the apprenticeship levy can bring” and “they plan to increase their demand for apprenticeships”.
Mark Dawe, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, urged the government to take action to boost numbers, including “appropriate flexibility of off-the-job training”, and removing the charge for non-levy paying employers training apprentices aged under 25.
“Without these actions, we do not believe the government will reach their manifesto commitment,” he said.
In order to hit the target of 3 million starts by 2020 there would need to be an average of a least 50,000 starts a month.
But the average over the first 28 months stands at just 41,470 a month.
A further 1,880,300 starts are needed to hit the target – meaning the average needs to increase by a whopping 42 per cent, to 58,760 per month over the remaining 32 months.
But with fewer starts in 2016/17 than in either of the two previous years, that’s looking increasingly unlikely to happen.
There were 494,000 starts last year, down from 509,400 in 2015/16 and 499,900 in 2014/15.
All of that drop was at level two, which was down 11 per cent compared with the year before, while starts at higher levels were both up – 4 per cent at level three, and 35 per cent at level four and above.
Today’s figures also confirmed the widely-held belief that starts rocketed the month before apprenticeship funding changes – including the introduction of the levy and employer co-payments – took effect, and then fell off a cliff edge the following month.
There were 78,000 starts in April this year – almost double the figure from the same month last year – but by May this had tailed off to 12,900.
The Baker clause, which forces schools to open their doors to FE providers to let them advertise their services to pupils, will take effect from January, according to guidance published this morning by the Department for Education.
The amendment to the Technical and Further Education Act, which came into law in May, was proposed by the former education secretary Lord Baker, who acknowledged the move was likely to be universally hated by schools.
“From January 2, 2018 all local authority-maintained schools and academies must give education and training providers the opportunity to talk to pupils in years 8 to 13 about approved technical qualifications and apprenticeships,” the DfE said.
“Schools must have clear arrangements in place to ensure that all pupils have opportunities to hear from providers of post-14, post-16 and post-18 options at, and leading up to, important transition points.”
All schools must also publish a policy statement outlining how providers can access them, the rules for granting and refusing access, and what providers can expect once granted access.
Lord Baker, the architect of the controversial UTC programme, proposed his amendment while the bill was passing through the House of Lords in February.
He accused schools of “resisting” those who tried to promote more vocational courses to their pupils, and insisted that “every word” of his proposed clause was needed because it would be “met with great hostility in every school in the country”.
The decision by the minister for the school system, Lord Nash, not to challenge the amendment, was met with surprise as it is considered unusual for the government to accept an amendment in this manner.
The amendment also went unchallenged when the bill was passed – meaning that the requirement became law.
However, there is still no sign yet of the government’s long-awaited careers strategy.
Skills minister Anne Milton outlined the four main pillars of the strategy earlier this month, and later promised delegates at the Association of Colleges annual conference that it was on its way.
The government will invest an extra £20 million to help colleges prepare for the introduction of T-levels, the chancellor has announced in his autumn budget speech.
“We are introducing T-levels and today I announce a further £20 million to support FE colleges to prepare for them,” he told the nation.
It is thought this cash injection will come on top of the £50 million Justine Greening revealed in July, that is to be available from April 2018 for “capacity building” ahead of the launch of the new technical qualifications in 2020.
It’s also in addition to the annual £500 million investment in T-levels announced by the Treasury in March, which will come into play from 2022.
Gordon Marsden
Gordon Marsden, Labour’s shadow skills minister, said Mr Hammond’s announcement did not go far enough and more detail is needed.
“Hammond says #Budget2017 he will give £20 million to FE Colleges to bring in T Levels but no time frame given,” he tweeted. “It’s a fleabite compared to cuts Colleges have suffered – and FE needs far more funding to support CPD for staff which we’ve pledged.”
He later told FE Week he wasn’t even sure if it was new money.
“In the ‘new money’ columns of the full budget document for skills there is no mention of this extra £20 million for T-levels, there is a mention saying they will spend £20 million on T-levels but they don’t say where it is coming from. My assumption is that this is a sleight of hand, first that it is very small and second it is not new money.”
The chancellor also used his autumn budget speech to say the government would keep under review the “flexibility” apprenticeship levy payers have in spending their levy cash.
“Meeting the challenge of change head-on means giving people the skills to reap the rewards from it and we have a plan to do so,” he said.
“We are delivering three million apprenticeship starts by 2020 thanks to our apprenticeship levy, and I will keep under review the flexibility levy payers have to spend this money.”
It was also revealed that Unionlearn, an organisation of the Trades Union Congress to boost learning in the workplace, will receive £8.5 million over the next two years.
This is in addition to its grant from the Department for Education, which is usually £12 million per year but was expected to be cut this year. The Treasury’s investment will mean Unionlearn’s annual government funding will remain at around £12 million.
One of the most prominent campaigns to get extra funding for FE is Support Our Sixth-Formers, which has been backed by various organisations including the AoC and the SFCA, demanding a £200 “SOS uplift” in 16-to-18 per-pupil funding rates.
Campaigners have said the autumn budget was a “missed opportunity”.
“Schools and colleges will welcome the Chancellor’s decision to introduce a £600-per-student maths premium, as sixth-formers in England are chronically underfunded compared to other countries and other phases of education,” the groups said in a statement.
“However, the chancellor has missed the opportunity to address the fundamental underfunding of sixth form education in England. The government’s priority should be to ensure that schools and colleges receive the funding they need to provide young people with a rounded, high quality, education – irrespective of the subjects they choose to study at A-level.”
David Hughes, chief executive of the AoC added: “I said last week that the Chancellor should take a long term and moral view of investment in young people and adults to address the skills challenges which he has so eloquently described in today’s Budget. Unfortunately, he has chosen to make short term decisions which tinker at the edges.
“The chancellor did miss the opportunity to address the chronic underfunding of all 16 to 19-years-olds in education and training”
University and College Union general secretary, Sally Hunt, said that even though Mr Hammond spoke “warmly” about the importance of skills in his speech today, the “pockets” of funding announced for T-levels and a national retraining scheme will “do little to plug the hole in college finances left by cuts in recent years.”
AELP boss Mark Dawe “welcomed” the new investment in digital skills and said the levy review should be “very short” review because it is “far too early to dilute levy spend on anything other than apprenticeships, especially after a 61 per cent drop in programme starts since the levy was introduced“.
When the Treasury later released its full budget statement, it revealed it wants to find ways to improve resit outcomes for learners, by launching a new pilot scheme.
“The budget announces support for maths, given its crucial role in preparing the next generation for jobs in the new economy,” the document said.
“The government will test innovative approaches to improve GCSE maths resit outcomes by launching a £8.5 million pilot, alongside £40 million to establish Further Education Centres of Excellence across the country to train maths teachers and spread best practice.”
Since 2013, all 16- to 19-year-olds without at least a grade C in GCSE maths or English have had to enrol in courses alongside their main programme of study.
This requirement was tightened in 2015 to require all of those with a grade D – now a 3 – in those subjects to sit a GCSE course, rather than an equivalent stepping-stone course such as functional skills.
David Hughes, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said it was “excellent news” about the government’s new pilots.
“I’m very pleased they have been listening to the feedback we have been giving them on the need to understand what works for GCSE resits and support colleges to get this right,” he said.
But Gordon Marsden, Labour’s shadow skills minister, described the announcement as a “fudge”.
“It sounds all very worthy but it is not going to at any time soon deal with the issue of maths people having to resit,” he said. “There is no commitment in there to actually stop the resits and introduce functional skills.
“I think this is a fudge because of the competing views of skills ministers and Nick Gibb who of course is absolutely wedded to the GCSE resits policy.
“There isn’t any mention of English resits and I think people concerned about the humanities side of technical education should be concerned about that. Maybe he [Mr Hammond] didn’t have the money or think it was important enough but either way it is not great.”
