Government research has found that colleges need to do more to motivate GCSE maths and English resit students. 

“Motivation is low for many students,” a new report out today has found, which notes that “providers almost invariably state that motivating students to learn English and mathematics is a major challenge”.

CFE Research was commissioned by the DfE to look into effective English and maths teaching for 16- to 18-year-olds resitting these subjects at FE and sixth form colleges.

Researchers determined that “for those who did not achieve the accepted standard of a GCSE grade C previously, this apparent ‘failure’ can lead to contrasting attitudes and different levels of motivation to re-engage with learning the subjects”.

“Providers often need to cultivate a positive mental attitude among students to increase motivation and confidence to retake their English and mathematics qualifications,” it explains.

Since 2014 all learners aged 16 to 18 without at least a C, or now a four, in both English and maths at GCSE have had to keep the subjects on as part of their study programmes.

In 2015 the policy was tightened so that learners with a grade D at 16 must resit the GCSE rather than an alternative qualification, such as functional skills.

The research claims the policy is “demotivating for some students as they are being asked to continue with a qualification that they perceive they have ‘failed’”.

In fact, it states, “motivating students in English and mathematics lessons is a central feature of further education teaching”.

Strategies adopted by colleges to encourage learners’ interest in the subjects include an “adult-to-adult relationship”, making use of the “different environment compared to schools in an attempt to change sometimes deep-rooted attitudes”, and “trying different methods” to “develop subject understanding”.

“Colleges also appear to operate more effectively when curriculum managers and teachers in other subjects value English and mathematics teaching,” it states.

It also questioned the “blanket policy” of forcing all D-grade learners to resit “regardless of their knowledge of English or mathematics fundamentals”, which is “problematic” for some learners.

“There were many examples given as evidence of students who lacked some primary school level knowledge on some topics, even for students with a D grade,” researchers say.

Other issues raised in the report, which is based on data, interviews and lesson observations from 45 FE colleges and SFCs, include the high numbers of learners with “additional support needs” such as dyslexia, autism or mental health issues for whom “additional resources and support are required”.

“Providers with large numbers of ESOL [English for speakers of other languages] students can struggle to provide the additional support that they require,” it finds.

Travel poses an additional challenge for colleges “in coastal or rural settings”.

The GCSE resit policy has proved controversial since it was first introduced.

After last year’s GCSE results – the first since the policy was tightened – showed large number of learners aged 17 and older had failed to improve their grades in resits, many in the sector demanded the government scrap the policy.

Last week’s budget included £8.5 million to pilot innovative approaches to improving GCSE maths resit outcomes.

The skills minister has offered her “sincere apologies” to FE providers which have been caught up in the non-levy tender debacle and insisted the delay is to ensure government “gets it right”, in an exclusive interview with FE Week.

Anne Milton admitted she understands the “frustration” the sector has been put through with this exercise, after the results of the second attempted procurement for funding apprenticeships with small employers were postponed.

Communication from the Department for Education and ESFA about the delay has been non-existent so far, but speaking to FE Week today, Ms Milton offered this message to providers: “I really understand people’s frustration. It is terribly frustrating when people expect deadlines to be kept, and the message is ‘I understand your frustration and you have my sincere apologies’.

“These exercises are not easy to run. Things will only be delayed to make sure we get it right,” she added.

“The other message is that there will be winners and losers. There always are. I understand one of the reasons we have to do this is because of a change of EU rules. I think it’s important people realise we wouldn’t necessarily do it like this, if we had our way.”

The latest postponement to the £650 million non-levy tender followed extended delays and ultimately an aborted first attempt, as more time was needed to evaluate a “high volume” of applications.

The ESFA has so far been unable to say when the results of this procurement would be released, and Ms Milton did not provide an answer today.

FE Week understands their release is imminent, however.

During today’s interview, the minister explained that procurement exercises have been the most challenging part of her role ever since she took on the skills brief in June.

“They’re really hard,” she said. “We as the government say what our priorities are and then there is an application process. It is essentially a competition, and about making sure that you have got bars set in the right place to make sure you get the best.

“But you also have to make sure you have a mitigation scheme for those that lose out. You run a procurement but as a result of that procurement you don’t want to destabilise the system.”

She feels the adult education budget and non-levy tenders have “not gone badly” but at the same time admitted that they have “not been great”.

“Whatever you say when you start a procurement, making sure people are clear about your priorities, that people understand how to do their bids, that there is enough available support to help people maximise their bids, is quite important but you do have to make a choice,” she said.

“Politics is about compromise but it is also about making choices, government is about making choices.”

You can read our full interview with Ms Milton in the next edition of FE Week which will be published this Friday (December 1).

It was ‘good’ news all round for FE this week as all inspected providers either maintained or improved their ratings to a grade two.

Two colleges, which previously hit the headlines for management issues, were celebrating after boosting from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’.

Its welcome news coming after FE Week revealed earlier this month that just 69 per cent of colleges had been rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in 2017 – which amounted to a fall for the third year running in what Ofsted effectively considers in its annual reports to be a passable standard.

North Hertfordshire College, which in 2015 found that success rates were artificially increased while former principal Fintan Donohue was in charge, returned to its grade two rating in a report published November 23.

Governors, senior leaders and managers were lauded for providing “inspirational leadership” and for having a “robust understanding of the quality of provision and have been effective in improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for learners”.

Inspectors highlighted that learners who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities benefit from “outstanding provision” that ensures that a “very high proportion excel, complete their programmes and gain highly effective independent living skills”.

They added that “highly effective” partnerships enable learners to “participate in high-quality work experience” and consequently, learners gain “good work-related skills that are valued by employers”.

The 10,500-learner provider was rated ‘good’ in all categories except for traineeships and provision for high needs students, which were deemed ‘outstanding’.

Earlier in the week City of Liverpool College, which has been battling a financial crisis, clawed its way up to a ‘good’ Ofsted rating, four years after it tumbled from the top grade to the bottom.

The provider has experienced a rocky few years since its current principal Elaine Bowker took over in 2011, including two interventions from the FE commissioner.

But in an Ofsted report published November 21, leaders were praised for identifying the college’s strengths and “areas for improvement” through a “comprehensive self-assessment process that involves all staff”.

Senior leaders set “measurable targets to improve, which they check regularly”, inspectors said, and there is a “culture of high expectations”.

They have “rectified most areas” that needed improving at the previous inspection in 2015, in which it received a grade three.

Meanwhile, the Construction Industry Training Board held onto its ‘outstanding’ rating from Ofsted.

The report, which looked only at its apprenticeship provision that is all run through subcontractors, returned grade ones across the board.

CITB was also rated grade one-overall in a report published January 2013.

The “exceptional” progress made by apprentices who “achieve well” was one of the areas highlighted for praise this time by inspectors.

“The proportion of apprentices who achieve their qualifications has increased and is now significantly higher than apprentices on construction programmes with similar providers,” the report said.

“Employers value highly the support they receive from CITB staff to make the most of these apprenticeship opportunities which benefit their businesses significantly.”

Fellow adult and community learning provider, Nottinghamshire County Council, retained its ‘good’ grade.

Inspectors said that adult learners participating in “non-accredited courses” achieve their planned learning aims “well; they improve their personal effectiveness, well-being and future employability very effectively”.

They added that leaders and managers “plan the range and location of courses very effectively to meet learners’ needs and minimise barriers to participation”.

There were also two monitoring visit reports published this week, the most high-profile of which was Learndirect.

Ofsted noted several improvements, while highlighting various areas of concern in their first visit to the nation’s biggest FE provider’s since its grade four earlier in the year.

One of the most concerning findings was that its apprenticeship achievement rate has fallen again for 2016/17.

Inspectors also met with Barnsley College, which was graded ‘outstanding’ in 2010, to review documentation relating to safeguarding and visited two college sites to ensure the provider is still performing to the highest quality.

Ofsted said the college’s systems and procedures for keeping learners safe are still “effective”.

One private provider, Leslie Frances (Hair Fashions) Limited, from Barnsley, maintained its grade two rating in a short inspection.

 

GFE Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
North Hertfordshire College	31/10/2017	23/11/2017	2	3
The City of Liverpool College	02/10/2017	21/11/2017	2	3
Barnsely College	26/10/2017	20/11/2017	M	M

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Learndirect Ltd	31/10/2017	23/11/2017	M	M

 

Adult and Community Learning	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Nottinghamshire County Council	16/10/2017	24/11/2017	2	2
CITB	10/10/2017	24/11/2017	1	1

 

Short inspections (remains grade 2)	Inspected	Published
Leslie Frances (Hair Fashions) Limited	18/10/2017	21/11/2017

The government has published its industrial strategy white paper this morning, with details of a national retraining partnership unveiled.

The document, called Industrial Strategy: Building a Britain for the future, has just been published on gov.uk, following up on the green paper published in January.

It elaborates on what is planned for the “ambitious rational retraining scheme”, involving a new partnership.

“To drive up adult learning and retraining, we will introduce an ambitious national retraining scheme in England by the end of this parliament,” it said.

“A high level advisory group – the national retraining partnership – will bring together the government, businesses and workers, through the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress, to set the strategic direction and oversee implementation of the scheme.

“The national retraining scheme will be informed by £40 million announced in the spring budget to test innovative approaches to helping adults up-skill and re-skill. The pilots will help us learn more about how to support and incentivise adults to learn skills that will help them, their local economies and national productivity.”

Starting next year, it adds, the national retraining scheme will “initially target skills shortages in key sectors, ensuring that we can develop much-needed digital and construction skills”.

A total of £30 million will be invested to test the use of artificial intelligence and innovative education technology (edtech) in online digital skills courses, so that students can benefit from this emerging technology.

“We will provide £34 million to expand innovative construction training programmes across the country, including a programme in the West Midlands, focused on supporting the country’s housing needs and building upon existing good practice.”

It is elaborating on retraining funding announced through the budget last week, although senior figures including Liberal Democrats leader warned more funding was still needed to make much of the industrial strategy work.

Lower investment, reduced research funding, reduced labour market access plus falling apprenticeships could cripple #IndustrialStrategy

— Vince Cable (@vincecable) November 27, 2017

The new document also reflected on performance measures.

“We will update school and college performance measures to ensure that students can make an informed choice between technical or academic education in time for the introduction of the first T levels, recognising them as equally valued routes,” it said. 

With regards to the apprenticeships levy it said: “From April 2018, we plan to allow levy-paying employers in England to transfer up to 10 per cent of their funds to another employer, including within their supply chain.” 

There was also a section reaffirming the government’s commitment to FE devolution.

“The government has a role to play in ensuring that the connections and capacity exist in local areas and regions to link educational institutions with labour market,” it said. “Devolution of
budgets and control within England plays its part, and we will devolve the adult education budget to mayoral areas in 2019.”

 

Building on the progress made since January, Business Secretary @GregClarkMP will launch the #IndustrialStrategy White Paper at 9:30am today pic.twitter.com/z2y2aICBlv

— Dept for BEIS (@beisgovuk) November 27, 2017

Another new document published this morning, called Industrial Strategy: the Five Foundations, said one of its key policies would be to “establish a technical education system that rivals the best in the world, to stand alongside our world-class higher education system”.

The government’s industrial strategy green paper was published in January.

It contained encouraging words for those, including Labour MP David Lammy, who had been campaigning for more funding for adult education and a return to widespread “night schools”. The white paper’s announcements on the national retraining scheme will be seen as further development of this.

The green paper acknowledged that there is a “growing challenge” with lifelong learning.

“People are living and working longer, but training across working life is going down,” it added.

It committed to exploring “ambitious new approaches to encouraging lifelong learning, which could include assessing changes to the costs people face to make them less daunting; improving outreach to people where industries are changing; and providing better information”.

The green paper also fleshed out what it expects from a “prestigious” new network of Institutes of Technology, set to be handed £170 million to improve higher-level technical education nationwide.

The government first announced plans for the institutes in July 2015, then again through its Post-16 Skills Plan in July.

The Prime Minister’s office confirmed in a press statement, as reported in FE Week and looking ahead to publication of the green paper called Building Our Industrial Strategy, that £170 million of capital funding would be spent on these.

The green paper itself stressed that these “institutes will increase the provision of higher-level technical education”, to ensure that it is available “in all areas”.

The green paper also acknowledged issues colleges are experiencing with maths and English and maths GCSE resits.

Since 2013 all 16 to 18-year-old students who do not already have a grade C in GCSE English and maths have had to continue studying these subjects – and in 2015, this was further tightened to require those with a grade D to only study GCSE rather than an alternative.

The Institute for Apprenticeships has defended the rise in management apprenticeships, amid stark warnings about the fate of those at level two from the boss of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.

“The number one reason for our lower productivity has been analysed as leadership and management,” said Dame Fiona Kendrick, an IfA board member, during the morning panel session of the University Vocational Awards Council conference in Birmingham on Tuesday (November 21).

“And that’s why some of the things we’re talking about today, particularly talking about the degree apprenticeship and investing in people in terms of the right management is so important, not just for individuals, not just for the company, but for the economy at large.”

However, AELP’s Mark Dawe (pictured above) disagreed, calling for a debate on how they are funded, particularly in light of the ongoing government commitment to social mobility.

“Someone having access to level two and moving on to a level three, that to me is what social mobility is about,” he said.

“When we’re talking about restricted resources we have to decide what the government pays for, what the employer pays for, what the individual pays for. There will have to be a debate, because there’s not enough money to cover all of this.”

Without changes, he warned, “you can say bye bye to level two”.

But, speaking to FE Week following the panel, Dame Fiona said that while there was a “very clear” shift to higher-level apprenticeships, it wasn’t “at this moment in time to the detriment of the level ones and twos”.

She insisted that the move towards them would “drive both productivity and social mobility”.

A focus on management apprenticeships “at least in the short- to middle-term” has “got to be good for the overall country”, she said, “but we need to make sure that that is managed in a fair and well-distributed way”.

The panel session, which also included Adrian Anderson, UVAC’s chief executive, and Nicola Turner, head of skills at the Higher Education Funding Council for England, focused on the future of degree apprenticeships.

The programmes, at levels six and seven, are very new, with the majority having only started this September.

But the most popular higher- or degree-level standards in 2016/17 were both in management: the level five operations/departmental manager, and the level six chartered manager degree apprenticeship.

The management framework soared in popularity over the same time period, to become the second most popular.

And levy-funded apprenticeships at higher or degree level jumped by a massive 424 per cent in September on the previous month, according to experimental Department for Education statistics, although it’s not clear which standards or frameworks these relate to.

Dame Fiona said the IfA wanted to “shift the apprenticeships up from levels one and two much more into the four, five and upwards”, and that degree apprenticeships were “absolutely key to this”.

Mr Dawe called degree apprenticeships “a game-changer” that had given apprenticeships a “brand” that “will lift us up”.

“There will be some very sharp-elbowed middle class parents knocking everyone else out of the way to get their kids into a non-debt apprenticeship with a degree and a salary,” he cautioned. “Why wouldn’t you do that?”

 

IfA: “A broad spectrum of apprenticeships”

The Institute for Apprenticeships’ strategic guidance sets out its commitment to boosting social mobility.

But will it take action if the inexorable rise in management apprenticeships gets in the way of this commitment, by edging out those at level two?

Dame Fiona Kendrick insisted that opening up “the whole apprenticeships brand across the spectrum” was the key to boosting both social mobility and productivity.

“At this moment we have got a broad spectrum of apprenticeships coming through, and it’s very clear there is a shift more to the higher levels, but we’re certainly not seeing that to the detriment of the level ones and twos,” she said.

The question of whether there can be too many management degree apprenticeships is “a tough one to answer”.

“What we do know is that we have to seriously upgrade our management capability,” she said, but any growth in this area should be “managed in a fair and well-distributed way”.

Nor does she think that apprenticeships would replace all management training.

“Every employer is quite clearly different, and every employer will have their own strategies on how they’re going to develop and train their managers. In certain cases, employers will continue to put funds in to do that.”

 

Higher education: Different sector, same issues

While apprenticeships are a new field for the HE sector, many of the issues raised during the UVAC conference were far from new.

Nicola Turner, head of skills at the Higher Education Funding Council for England, said one of her biggest concerns is qualifications being taken out of degree apprenticeships.

“It’s not what employers want, it’s not what apprentices want,” she said.

Ongoing delays to the non-levy procurement were described as a “complete nightmare” by at least one delegate. The issue particularly affects universities as many of them don’t have an existing contract for delivering to smaller employers.

And Chris Cherry, a senior associate at the Strategic Development Network, said that the 20-per-cent off-the-job training rule was causing a particular challenge at higher levels.

A number of delegates discussed the difficulty of managing employer expectations amid ongoing delays to standards being approved for delivery.

However, one HE-specific issue was raised throughout the day: the difficulty of getting other university colleagues on side, and to adapt their usual systems and ways of working to meet the demands of employers.

For this, Neeta Barot, the business development manager at London South Bank University recommended getting someone higher up at the institution – such as a vice chancellor – to act as an advocate.

 

The government should make sure employers are aware of the 20-per-cent off the job training rule, sector figures have said, after nearly a third were shown to be oblivious.

In a survey of just over 800 employers with apprentices currently on their books, the Learning and Work Institute found 32 per cent did not realise they had to allow their apprentices one in five days of training off the job.

A further 23 per cent did not know that this training time should be included in an apprentice’s contracted hours of employment.

Teresa Frith, a senior policy manager at the Association of Colleges, described the findings as “disappointing but not surprising”.

“Whenever there’s a big reform of education and training rules, employers struggle to keep up,” she said. “Colleges make considerable efforts to keep the employers they deal with up to date, but the task is huge and the activity is only funded if employers actually send apprentices for training.”

Dr Fiona Aldridge (pictured above), the LWI’s assistant director, said improving awareness “should be a priority for government, with training providers having a key role to play in supporting this”.

“It is concerning, both for quality and for apprentice pay, that nearly a third of apprentice employers appear to be unaware of the off-the-job training requirement and nearly a quarter are unaware that this should be paid,” she added.

The National Society of Apprentices, which helped with the survey, claimed the findings follow a “depressingly familiar” theme, of “apprentices not receiving the training they’re entitled to”.

“It is time for some evidence that this unacceptable situation is being taken seriously,” a spokesperson said.

According to the government’s guidance, off-the-job training must amount to “20 per cent of the apprentice’s contracted employment hours across the whole apprenticeship”.

In final apprenticeship funding rules for providers from May 2017 to March 2018, training is defined as “learning which is undertaken outside of the normal day-to-day working environment and leads towards the achievement of an apprenticeship”.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers called as long ago as April for the 20-per-cent minimum to include time teaching compulsory English and maths resits.

It also wants blended learning to be properly recognised within the definition, as “well supported distance learning should be supported and not discouraged”.

“It is still relatively early days for the 20-per-cent requirement amidst a raft of changes, and we would expect many more employers to be aware by the end of 2017, but we fundamentally disagree with its imposition as a rigid rule,” its boss, Mark Dawe, said.

A Department for Education spokesperson admitted it had “more to do”.

“We are undertaking a wide range of engagement activity to ensure employers of all sizes are aware of providing at least 20 per cent off-the-job training for apprentices. This makes an apprenticeship distinct from other work-based learning,” she said.

“Throughout the implementation of our reforms, we have continued to engage with thousands of employers and training providers, helping them to understand the benefits of this route.”

Awareness of the rule was found in the survey to be strongest in the education, IT & telecoms, hospitality, and leisure sectors, but much lower in media, marketing, advertising and sales.

The LWI commissioned the research, which involved 2,000 employers in total, including those without apprentices, after the government’s 2016 apprenticeship pay survey suggested one in five apprentices were paid less than their legal minimum wage entitlement. The government will from April increase the apprentice minimum wage from £3.50 to £3.70 per hour.

“The aim of the survey was to find out more about why there appears to be a problem with apprentice pay non-compliance,” said its chief executive Stephen Evans.

FE Week and AELP are proud to announce the launch of the inaugural AAC Apprenticeship Awards, which will be held at the next Annual Apprenticeship Conference to recognise the very best in apprenticeship provision.

The awards mark the fourth year of the apprenticeship sector’s biggest conference, run in conjunction with AELP and the Department for Education, which will also include six route summits, keynote speakers from across industry, government and civil service, and over 100 practical workshops.

Shane Mann, the managing director of FE Week’s parent company, said the awards were “a great opportunity to celebrate the amazing work of employers and providers in the apprenticeship sector”.

“This is a fantastic chance for all providers to receive some well overdue recognition for their efforts in providing world class apprenticeship learning opportunities for people across the UK,” he added.

The conference programme will created in partnership with the DfE, and in a close working relationship with bodies including AELP, the Institute for Apprenticeships, the University Vocational Awards Council and the Association of Colleges, to ensure it “opens the door for even more professional bodies to gain valuable insight and knowledge of what is happening in the apprenticeship sector”.

The AAC Awards include regional and national accolades, and regional winners will have the chance to compete for the national crown in their categories.

Regional winners will be announced at the FE Week and AELP parliamentary reception hosted by former skills minister Robert Halfon, now the chair of the education select committee, during National Apprenticeship Week next March.

The regional awards include recognition for providers in the categories of engineering and manufacturing, business and administrative, social care, childcare and education, construction, sales, marking and procurement and digital. 

Other regional categories include apprenticeships promotion campaign of the year, apprenticeship provider of the year and apprentice employer of the year.

Each regional winner will also receive a pair of tickets for the awards dinner for the national awards, which will be held on March 22.

Winners of the outstanding contribution to the development of apprenticeships prize in both the individual and employer/provider categories will also be announced at the dinner.

The AAC Conference will run from March 21 to March 23 at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham.

Nominations for the AAC Awards open today and will close on January 8, 2018. To nominate a provider or employer, or for more information about the conference, click here.