The success of Labour’s skills reforms hinges on employer engagement

Employers will be looking to the new Skills England body to help them overcome ongoing skills and labour shortages – and the stakes are high. Our own research suggests continued failure to tackle these could cost the economy up to £39 billion every year (just short of building two whole Elizabeth Lines) in lower GDP and productivity.

Report on Jobs is our regular monthly tracker of activity in the jobs market. Organisations like the Bank of England use it as a lead indicator on labour market performance.

In July’s report, recruiters highlighted skills shortages in accounting, blue collar, construction, engineering, executive/professional, hotels/catering, IT/computing, nursing/medical/care, retail and secretarial, among others.

In this labour market, it is right for the new government to act quickly. We have long said the apprenticeship levy is not fit for purpose.

Apprenticeship numbers are in decline, and equally importantly, the funds are only available to those who have the same employer for at least one year – the time it takes to complete an apprenticeship.

That excludes 960,000 of the one million temporary workers on assignment in the UK every day, a waste that leaves employers caught short on accessing talent.

Employers need more of a say in how the new growth and skills levy is allocated if we are to learn the lessons from the apprenticeship levy. The prompt announcement of Skills England will also need significant input from business leaders and labour market experts if it is to tackle the root causes of the problems we see.

Employers are demanding not so much a stick or twist from the new government on skills policies, but a complete reshuffle of the pack.

We need a skills system that is more responsive to local labour markets and job creation opportunities, one that reflects a world where people’s work and wants are different. This is achievable by local and national governments giving business leaders a fixed seat at the table and ensuring the voice of SMEs is regularly heard.

Employers don’t want a stick or twist but a complete reshuffle

Recruiters’ involvement in further education, employability and career development programmes and in Local Skills Improvement has paid dividends. Continuing this work so local leaders determine regional skills priorities in partnership is a great way forward.

The message from business leaders to Labour is that they want involvement in the education system. However, just as employers need to recognise the priorities and duties of training providers and colleges, so too must policy makers recognise how a business runs and sets its priorities.

Key to much of this is making sure people are ready to take up employment when they leave education. A step forward would be to build on the Gatsby Benchmarks to ensure every young person gets effective careers advice.

There must also be an emphasis on the ‘soft skills’ employers value. Surveys of employers often report that they are hesitant to recruit 16- to 18-year-olds due to concerns that they lack skills such as problem solving, communication or teamwork.

Sometimes, it is just about how they articulate their abilities in the hiring process. More emphasis on real-life work placements will help, something which the education system can work with employers and recruiters to achieve.

We need to replicate the great employer-education partnerships that already exist. After all, one-third of productivity improvement over the past two decades is explained by improvements to skills levels. This includes using schemes such as Restart to promote the uptake of digital and green skills training.

Our own Restart scheme with Maximus has placed more than 2,000 non-working people into jobs. Good labour market activation schemes are proven to enable people to ‘try’ different types of work in different sectors, picking up new skills and experience quickly.

Helping domestic talent to shine takes time, but it is time we in the business community are willing to give. In the interim and in parallel with the development of a more-responsive skills system, we need a fair and flexible immigration system.

Survey after survey shows people support the immigration of those who are here to work, pay tax and build a life.

To maximise economic growth, we need a combined skills and immigration policy that coordinates responses, and truly meets the needs of everyone.

NEET support programme extended with £2.5m boost

A pilot programme that provides targeted careers support has been given a £2.5 million boost and aims to help 1,500 more disadvantaged young people find a post-16 destination.

The trial, delivered by national careers education body The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) and funded by JPMorganChase, aimed to break down barriers faced by disadvantaged young people and prevent them becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training).

The investment bank initially funded the programme with £2 million and will now pump an extra £2.5 million into it after the initial pilot found more than nine in ten participants (94 per cent) successfully moved on to college or training courses after leaving school at 16.

More than 1,000 young people who faced barriers such as living in high deprivation areas, on free school meals, had poor mental health, low school attendance or were at risk of exclusion were given careers support through 10 of CEC’s 44 careers hubs across the country.

The initial funding gave schools access to careers coaches and mentors from the Careers & Enterprise Company’s careers hub. Each hub launched projects to provide bespoke guidance to the young people in each area.

Each project included activities that aimed to show students the variety of education and employment routes in their area. These included visits to FE colleges, parental engagement, one-to-one coaching, and talks from employers to give insights into the world of work.

For example, in Leeds, local businesses in growth sectors visited a group of girls on free school meals who had high absenteeism and were identified by their school as having low social capital, confidence and self-esteem. The pilot found 100 per cent of them went on to college or training and were still there after six months.

Labour’s early efforts to tackle youth unemployment are encouraging

Elsewhere, young Black men in London who were outside mainstream education in alternative provision or school exclusion units received intensive one-to-one coaching and business mentoring with aspirational role models they could relate to. The pilot found 93 per cent of the group were still in education or training after six months and 95 per cent believed they now had a trusted adult they could talk to about their future plans.

The careers education body said the pilot shows success of prevent young people from becoming NEET as national data shows 83 per cent of all young people are still on their post-16 courses after six months.

Phase 2 of the programme will target 1,500 more young people in London, Liverpool, West of England, East Sussex and Leicester.

“It’s fantastic to see the power and purpose of this programme – helping disadvantaged young people facing significant barriers find and stick with the education or training that’s right for them once,” said Oli de Botton, CEO of the CEC.

He added: “This programme shows how high impact careers support can transform the prospects of some of our most disadvantaged young people. It demonstrates how every young person can and should be supported to take their best next step – to be ready for work and life beyond school.” 

Hang Ho, head of international philanthropy at JPMorganChase said: “The results from the Effective Transitions Fund pilot phase show impressive impact, and we now have data-driven insights about how to best support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to access quality career pathways.

“We are proud to have been part of the pilot phase and have already committed to scale the work across England to support an additional 1,500 young people through the second phase of the programme.”

DfE pauses post-16 qualifications reform and BTEC defunding

The new government has partially paused reforms to post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below, halting this year’s planned defunding of some BTECs and other alternatives to T Levels.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, pledged to pause and review the reforms last year, as revealed by FE Week.

Today, she told the House of Commons she was “pleased to announce that the department will undertake a short pause and review of post 16 qualification reform at level 3 and below, concluding before the end of the year”. 

“This means that the defunding scheduled for next week will be paused.”

She added that the coming year “will also see further developments in the rollout of new T Levels, which will ensure that young people continue to benefit from high quality technical qualifications that help them to thrive”. 

“And I will update the house shortly with more detail tomorrow.”

While all BTEC and other level 3 vocational qualifications in line for the chop will now be reviewed, FE Week understands the pause only applies to courses set to be defunded from August 1, 2024.

The schedule to scrap applied general qualifications (AGQs) in 2025 and 2026 is still on the table pending the Department for Education’s review.

‘What government has announced today is no pause’

The Sixth Form Colleges Association, which co-ordinates the Protect Student Choice campaign, accused Phillipson of reneging on the party’s promise made in opposition after today’s announcement.

An SFCA spokesperson said: “We understand the short review planned between now and the end of the year will include AGQs and may or may not reverse some defunding decisions made by the previous government. Colleges and schools will not know until December this year what qualifications they can offer in September 2025, which is far too late. 

“The Protect Student Choice campaign set out a clear plan that showed why a two-year pause was required. What the government has announced today is no pause.”

The news follows growing concern in the FE sector over whether Labour would follow through with its pledge, which was not mentioned in its manifesto or after the party’s election victory.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown and T Levels architect Lord David Sainsbury waded into the debate last week to publicly urge Phillipson to “ignore” calls from those with “vested interests” to pause the reforms.

But others, such as former education secretary Lord David Blunkett who backed the Protect Student Choice campaign, warned that cutting courses would lead to the “collapse” of a pipeline of trainees to key sectors such as health and social care.

What is actually being paused and reviewed?

Under the previous government’s plans, the DfE was to defund 134 qualifications, which attract around 40,000 annual enrolments, whose content “overlaps” with the first 10 T Levels introduced in 2020 and 2021 from August 1, 2024.

This part of the reform has now been paused.

A further 85 qualifications that compete with the six T Levels introduced in 2022 were then put in line for the chop in August 2025, while another 71 courses that clashed with five more T Levels introduced over the past two years were also going to be defunded from 2025.

On top of this, a new DfE approvals process for retaining funding for other level 3 alternatives proposes to exclude other popular AGQs in health and social care, engineering, science and law.

FE Week understands both of these parts of the reform, which attract around 300,000 starts a year, have so far not been paused, but will be reviewed by the end of December 2024.

Analysis by the SFCA previously warned that at least 155,000 young people will be left without a suitable post-16 course from 2026 as a result of the government’s plans.

College leaders need certainty 

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, urged Phillipson to pause the reforms until 2027.

He said: “It is hugely welcome that the new government has listened to the concerns of the profession and announced this pause and review. Applied general qualifications, such as BTECs, are a really important qualification for so many young people, and help them progress to further study or employment.

“However, while the confirmation that the review will be concluded by the end of the year is very encouraging, there is not yet detail on how long the pause will be in place. School and college leaders, and their students, need certainty about the courses that can be run for the next two years. We therefore urge the government to extend the pause until 2027 for all of the current applied general qualifications.”

Simon Ashworth, deputy chief executive and director of policy of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “There is a degree of urgency over this – concluding this review by the end of the year is ambitious but necessary so that learners and providers understand where they stand.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said he is pleased Phillipson has been “listening and carefully examining the evidence”.

He added: “Pausing defunding and undertaking a rapid review of the implementation will come as a great relief to college staff up and down the country. It means that students wanting to attain qualifications in, for instance, social care and electrical will be able to do that and help meet the enormous skills shortages in those two sectors, and there are other subjects like that which will need to be carefully examined in the coming weeks.”

Our model for prison education could be key to reducing re-offending

In his new role as minister for prisons, James Timpson will be looking for innovative ways to reform the prison system, with a focus on improving rehabilitation and driving down re-offending rates. Skills development is self-evidently key to achieving that ambition, and one of our recent programmes offers an innovative approach that could be replicated system-wide.

At City & Guilds, we understand the life-changing link between skills development and social mobility, prosperity and success. Nowhere is this more the case than with our work in helping unlock the skills potential of the UK’s prison population.

When it comes to prisoners, the relationship between high-quality skills training, access to employment opportunities and community integration is obvious. At a time when employers are facing critical skills shortages and prisons are over-crowded, the economic and moral imperative to effectively and systematically strengthen that link has never been more urgent.

Re-offending costs the UK approximately £18 billion every year, and engagement with education and training has been shown to reduce re-offending considerably. Indeed, a report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in 2020 showed that the one-year re-offending rate among prison learners was 34 per cent, compared with 43 per cent for those who did not engage in any form of learning.

It’s deeply frustrating therefore that there remains a real gap in terms of high-quality in-prison skills and education programmes. Typical ‘success’ rates on these programmes are often cited in the 15 to 20 per cent range, which surely can’t be good enough.

To help address this, City & Guilds launched The Future Skills Commission for Prisons back in 2019, backed by a £1 million Big Ideas Fund. The fund works with UK charities, prison governors and local innovators to deliver transformative approaches to the delivery of skills both in and after prison.

One of the programmes to receive funding under this scheme is the work we do in partnership with HMP Highpoint. In 2022, through the City & Guilds’ Big Ideas Fund, HMP Highpoint opened their Rail Centre of Excellence.

The economic and moral imperative has never been more urgent

This state-of-the-art facility gives prisoners industry-standard training on rail infrastructure, and every successful participant is guaranteed employment on release – backed by leading employers from across the rail sector. Even better, the courses are funded via the DfE’s Skills Bootcamp initiative, creating a virtuous circle of funding into training into employment.

The results of this programme at HMP Highpoint speak for themselves. To date, over 75 per cent of our graduates are still in employment six months after release. As City & Guilds learner Ryan Hull explains, “When you live a certain lifestyle for so long it’s hard to break the cycle. This course offered me a different route away from that.”

We are now working to scale up this model dramatically, and we’re supported in this ambition by other donors. Most notably, colleagues at Clothworkers have donated funds that will help expand provision into exciting new areas such as signalling and telecoms.

We’ve also been hugely supported by our employer partners, including Balfour Beatty and Keltbray, who have contributed both employment opportunities and the high-quality kit that our learners train on.

The model that the team at HMP Highpoint have championed really does show the way for a more effective, impactful model of prison education. A model that truly unlocks the potential of the UK’s prison population, and helps keep people in high-quality employment for the long term.

That’s good for employers, for our criminal justice system, and for prisoners, their families and their communities. So as James Timpson sets out to fix our revolving prison doors, we hope he sees in this programme a key that he can copy.

Find more information on City & Guilds’ work within prisons here

Slash tuition fees to £6k to fix tertiary system ‘bias’, says think tank

Tuition fees for degrees should be capped at £6,000 to tackle the “financial bias” towards higher education in universities compared to colleges, a think tank has said.

In its ‘Augar Reviewed’ report published today, EDSK outlines why the post-18 education system in England remains “broken” and sets out an 18-point plan to “fix” it.

This includes rebalancing the cost and financial support available for further and higher education courses, including by radically cutting the cap on tuition fees for degrees, currently set at £9,250, by a third.

It comes at a time when universities are pleading with government to increase the fees amid widespread funding struggles.

Report authors – former adviser to skills ministers Tom Richmond and Eleanor Regan – argue that political instability has led to “little progress” being made since the 2019 Augar Review, an independent government report that addressed the “disparity” in funding between universities and further education.

They conclude that the Conservative government’s “experiment” with tertiary education has “failed” and led to “exorbitantly” high tuition fees for students, the “marketisation” of HE, slashing budgets for adult education, falling apprenticeship numbers and “further entrenching” the dominance of full-time university degrees over colleges and other tertiary provision.

To address “distortions and biases” in funding for post-18 education, Richmond and Regan say the government should integrate HE, FE and apprenticeships by switching to a “devolved model for tertiary education” that pushes providers to work together regionally.

Key recommendations include building a “new foundation” by formally recognising a single “tertiary” phase of post-18 education that is funded and overseen by a single independent body, in place of quangos like the Office for Students, that would act as a “steward for the whole system”.

Fees for all tertiary classroom-based courses should be limited to £6,000 and a single tuition loan system should established, with a “stepped repayment” system that would reduce monthly payments for low-earning graduates and save money.

The report argues that the government’s “uncoordinated” approach to post-18 education has led to duplication “hot spots” where hundreds of the same degree course are available in one region and isolated “cold spots” where education options are limited.

Addressing the recent change in government, and Labour’s repeated focus on “growth”, the authors wrote: “If the new Labour government wants to improve economic growth and productivity, increasing the skill levels of workers of all ages through a more effective and responsive approach to education and training will surely be a critical part of their agenda.”

The report is the last from EDSK, following Richmond’s announcement this week that the non-profit think tank will close after six years.

Here’re the key recommendations:

A new foundation for tertiary education

The government should formally divide education into four phases: primary, lower secondary, upper secondary and, for ages 18 and above, tertiary. This would cover all training and levels, including workplace training and apprenticeships.

A new National Tertiary Education Council (NTEC) would fund, regulate and oversee this.

Better deal for students

Alongside a “significant reduction” in the cap on tuition fees, a single loan system should be available to all students of level 4 to 6 courses.

Loans should be repaid through a “stepped” system that would aim to reduce the cost burden on those with low earnings by asking graduates to pay back different percentages of their earnings based on their total salary.

Coupled with lower tuition fees, this should reduce tuition fee and maintenance loan write-offs, freeing up “almost £2 billion” for a “student support fund” that would fund support for students from the poorest households.

Fairer funding

An apprenticeship and skills levy of 0.4 per cent on the annual payroll costs of all employers with at least ten staff would generate £4.1 billion a year to pay for apprenticeships and skills training.

A new £5 billion teacher support fund would pay for high-cost classroom-based courses in colleges and universities through two sources: The present £1.4 billion of teaching grants distributed by the Office for Students; and a new £3.6 billion employer levy of an additional 0.4 per cent Employers’ National Insurance contribution for organisations employing graduates.

EDSK said all HE and FE providers should also have access to a single capital funding pot.

Building a tertiary system

NTEC would set a “simple and transparent” funding system for HE and FE, with the more expensive courses receiving the most funding. The divide between HE and FE would be eliminated by offering sub-degree level 4 certificates and level 5 diplomas that learners could be awarded if they leave a course early.

A localised model

Devolved regions such as combined authorities should coordinate a local tertiary education plan for each area. They should also be given their proportionate share of the proposed new funding pots.

For greater stability, combined authorities should pay providers in three-year funding cycles and should also be given the power to licence providers receiving public funds to combat “inappropriate” franchising and subcontracting arrangements.

Rethinking the quality and regulatory landscape

For a more “coherent” approach to regulation, Ofsted should inspect all teaching up to level 5 and Ofqual should regulate all qualifications up to the same level. To improve the quality of apprenticeships, including degree apprenticeships, a new ‘national apprenticeship inspectorate’ should report to the NTEC.

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.

Meet the ministers: Starmer’s first DfE lineup confirmed

The new government has finally confirmed who is responsible for what at the Department for Education, nearly three weeks after Labour won the general election.

As reported, former home secretary Jacqui Smith leads on skills, further and higher education. Her confirmed title is minister for skills.

Smith was inducted to the House of Lords last week and is responsible for delivering Labour’s manifesto pledges to establish Skills England, reform the apprenticeship levy and introduce technical excellence colleges.

Catherine McKinnell is the minister of state for school standards, a brief the Newcastle MP shadowed in opposition before the election.

MPs Janet Daby and Stephen Morgan have been appointed parliamentary under-secretaries of state, the rank below minister of state.

Morgan was replaced by McKinnell as shadow schools minister last year, but is now responsible for early education in government.

Morgan is also responsible for safeguarding and counter-extremism in post-16 education settings.

Meanwhile, Daby, who was previously the shadow youth justice minister, is now the minister for children and families.

Daby will also answer on skills, further and higher education in the House of Commons, as Smith can only speak from the Lords.

In practice, the parliamentary under-secretaries carry out the basic functions of ministers of state such as leading legislation through parliament and answering parliamentary questions, but they are paid less.

As a cabinet minister, education secretary Bridget Phillipson receives a £67,505 top-up to her £91,346 MP salary. Ministers of state receive a £31,680 top-up, and parliamentary under-secretaries of state get an extra £22,375.

Skills led from the Lords

As the DfE’s minister in the Lords, Smith will be responsible for facing questions and seeing through any legislation across all of DfE’s remits in the upper chamber. She made her maiden speech on Friday introducing the education legislation from the King’s Speech.

Because equalities policy sits at cabinet level with Bridget Phillipson, Anneliese Dodds is listed as a DfE minister as minister for women and equalities. Dodds is also minister for international development at the Foreign Office.

Over at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Alison McGovern has been confirmed as the minister for employment overseeing skills programmes, labour market policy and devolution.

Stephen Timms, who used to chair the DWP select committee, is now the minister for social security and disability with responsibility for universal credit and cross-government disability policy.

Here’s what’s in each DfE minister’s brief…

Bridget Phillipson, secretary of state for education

  • early years and childcare
  • children’s social care
  • teacher quality, recruitment and retention
  • the school curriculum
  • school improvement
  • academies and free schools
  • further education
  • apprenticeships and skills
  • higher education

Baroness Smith of Malvern, minister for skills

  • Skills England
  • Technical qualifications, including T Levels
  • Higher technical education
  • Adult education and devolution
  • Careers advice and support for young NEETS
  • Apprenticeships, including the growth and skills levy
  • Technical excellence colleges
  • Local skills improvement plans
  • Governance, intervention and accountability of FE colleges
  • Education funding, provision and outcomes for 16-19 year olds
  • FE funding, including financial stability and workforce
  • Access to higher education, participation and lifelong learning
  • Quality of higher education and student experience (including OfS)
  • Student finance (including Student Loans Company)
  • International education

Catherine McKinnell, minister for school standards

  • School improvement, intervention and inspection
  • Teacher training, retention, pay and pensions
  • School leadership and governance
  • Core school funding
  • Qualifications, curriculum and assessment
  • SEND and high needs
  • Alternative provision
  • Admissions
  • Pupil premium
  • School uniform and transport
  • Faith schools
  • Access to sport, music and arts in education

Janet Daby, minister for children and families

  • Children’s social care
  • Children in care and children in need
  • Looked-after children
  • Child protection
  • Adoption, kinship care and foster care
  • Care leavers
  • Children’s social care workforce
  • Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children
  • Local authority improvement
  • Family hubs
  • Families support and parenting
  • Skills in the House of Commons

Stephen Morgan, minister for early education

  • Early years education including children with SEND
  • Early years workforce
  • Breakfast clubs
  • School food, including free school meals
  • Independent schools
  • Education estate
  • Environmental sustainability in education sectors
  • Safeguarding, online safety and serious violence prevention in schools and post-16
  • Counter extremism in schools and post-16
  • Use of AI and data in education

Driving employer engagement is key to apprenticeships success. Here’s how

This spring, we conducted a survey that revealed significant gaps in employers’ awareness and understanding of the long-term benefits of apprenticeships. Seven years after the introduction of the apprenticeship levy and extensive promotion of the scheme over that period, it’s clear we must do better to engage employers, but how?

Among our more striking survey results, we found that only 23 per cent of respondents understood how apprenticeships could help with succession planning. Less than one-third (a mere 29 per cent) recognised that apprenticeships could significantly enhance employee loyalty. 

We must do much more to demonstrate that apprenticeships can form the foundation of employers’ learning and development strategies. With Labour’s promised shift from the apprenticeship levy to a growth and skills levy, now is a crucial time to highlight the transformative power of these programmes.

During my time working in this sector, I’ve found a number of employer engagement approaches really work when building long-term relationships. Here are a few.

Guidance and support

Many employers don’t want to invest a lot of their own time into running apprenticeships, and many smaller and private-sector employers are looking for an easy step-by-step process to ensure they don’t feel overwhelmed. 

The system is ever-changing and difficult to navigate, so as experts in the space it’s our responsibility to guide employers through it. This is particularly true for critical elements like off-the-job training, and understanding how it can be incorporated into helping achieve business objectives.

Employers also prefer options which fit learning around project deadlines and work priorities. Indeed, ‘blended’ is the most popular search filter on the AAT’s ‘find a training provider’ feature. 

Return on investment

To secure a new employer partnership, providers should emphasise the return on investment they will see. I have found this especially true with private-sector partners who are generally more apprehensive about investing in their team through apprenticeships.

Take employers using apprenticeships for the first time. They often seek reassurance from market insights.  A couple of key facts that have helped us secure partners: 76 per cent of employers say that training existing employees through apprenticeships improves staff retention, and 62 per cent of apprentices stay working for the company that trained them after completion. 

Of course, securing meaningful relationships with potential employer partners is a matter of return on your investment too. We often attend employer events on behalf of our college partners and find them to be invaluable for making initial connections. However, implementing a thorough follow-up plan is an essential part of that initial investment. 

The ladder of opportunity

In a challenging labour market for everyone, using other employers as examples of best practice shows how apprenticeships are giving some organisations a competitive edge.

More than that, many public- and third-sector organisations can provide a scalable blueprint for businesses looking to use apprenticeships as the foundation for strategic learning and development pathways.

Among organisations to take inspiration from, the NHS is a real standout. It has achieved success in apprenticeships for vital clinical areas like nursing and midwifery and then made a strategic decision to expand apprenticeships into corporate and business support roles (where they were relatively much more straightforward to implement).

When advising employers on including apprenticeships in their talent strategy, start with a ‘ladder of opportunity’. The first rung on this ladder would be a baseline qualification which could be beneficial to a wide range of employees, for example business administration.

A level 2 or 3 apprenticeship allows employees to explore different pathways before progressing up the ladder, whether that’s to a general management qualification or a specialist pathway which will help the organisation fill skills gaps.

In summary, bridging the gap in employer understanding of the strategic benefits of apprenticeships is crucial to securing multiple apprenticeships opportunities with employers.

By using real-world examples, demonstrating a clear return on investment, and nurturing relationships by providing supportive, scalable frameworks, we can better engage employers and unlock the full potential of apprenticeships.

HE regulator puts 3 colleges on notice

Three colleges have been sanctioned by the government’s higher education regulator for high dropout and low completion rates.

The Office for Students (OfS) today has published a batch of improvement notices for courses in eight HE providers that have breached condition B3. The condition was refreshed in 2022 and sets numerical thresholds for students continuing and completing their course, and achieving successful outcomes after graduation.

Burnley College, Blackburn College and Croydon College were included and will now be monitored by the regulator for the next few years. They have been ordered to submit a “comprehensive review” in the next six months of the failings and actions to improve student outcomes.

The regulator examined performance data spanning the past decade.

Here’s what the OfS said about each college:

Croydon College

The OfS’ investigation into Croydon College found the poorest performance rates out of the three colleges put on improvement notice.

As of September 2022, the college recorded 28 per cent of part-time, other undergraduate students continuing their HE courses into the next year, achieving just half of the OfS’s 55 per cent benchmark.

Just 41 per cent of part-time students completed their degrees compared to the 55 per cent OfS benchmark.

The regulator accepted the college’s evidence that the low outcomes data among part-time students was due to the “historical withdrawal” of student recruitment on Higher National Certificate (HNC) in business course during 2014-15 and 2015-16.

This was due to a terminated partnership agreement with distance learning recruitment company Acquire Learning UK, following a 2015 investigation into the organisation’s recruitment processes by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and the Student Loans Company.

Meanwhile, for full-time first time degree students, the college recorded a 76 per cent continuation rate against an 80 per cent threshold.

The college also fell 11 percentage points behind the 75 per cent requirement for full time students to complete their first degree.

In its explanation following the OfS investigation, the college said it had made changes to its higher education portfolio since 2013-14, closing poor performing courses, focusing on the needs of local employers and developing courses within the Higher Technical Qualification and higher apprenticeship frameworks.

The college added that changes to its senior leadership since March 2018 meant the leadership team “did not know many of the historical reasons” for lower continuation and completion rates. 

But the OfS pointed out that while the continuation rate data investigated spanned from 2016-17 to 2019-20 and the completion rate data from 2013-14 to 2016-17, leadership team would have had access to historical documentation such as annual reports, minutes of meetings and handover notes. 

It concluded the leadership team would have had some historical information to analyse the areas of concern and reasons for poor performance, which “could have informed any improvement plans”.

The regulator added that it was not satisfied with the college’s improvement plan from 2018-19 for its HE provision and has mandated the college to undertake a review and submit to the OfS by January 31, 2025.

The regulator said the college was at “increased risk” of failing to achieve the benchmarks in future years. 

It will continue to monitor the provider’s performance until its outcomes data in spring 2027.   

Croydon College was downgraded by Ofsted to ‘inadequate’ last year after inspectors found “significant minority” of students reported instances of homophobic language and “taunting” behaviour. Its latest monitoring visit since has found reasonable progress made.

Blackburn College

At Blackburn College, the OfS investigated courses delivered by the college’s University Centre and found it breached the “student outcomes” conditions of registration as of September 2022.

Blackburn College’s proportion of full-time students on their first degree who continued their course from year to year was 75 per cent against the OfS’s 80 per cent threshold.

For full-time, other undergraduate students, the “continuation rate” was 72 per cent against a 75 per cent benchmark.

The college also failed in meeting the 75 per cent threshold for full-time students completing their degree (67 per cent).

The college submitted explanations for not meeting the benchmark values, such as the changes to its senior leadership since 2019 and actions like offering targeted pastoral support and staff development to improve the quality of its courses.

The OfS found that the contextual factors submitted by the provider justified its performance but concluded that there is an increased risk of the provider breaching the benchmarks.

The college will have to conduct a comprehensive review by January 2025 and bring its performance in line or above the OfS thresholds by spring 2028.

“We consider that this aligns with our commitment to undertake a ‘light touch’ approach in the first year of conducting revised B3 assessments by using improvement notices, rather than the more intrusive sanctions available to us,” the report said.

Rachel Tarplee, vice principal of curriculum and quality at Blackburn College, said the college acknowledges the findings and has taken the recommendations into account.

“We remain proud of our offering at UCBC. Our smaller student population enables us to provide a high quality and uniquely personalised local University education, encompassing a range of degree subjects that set our students up for successful futures,” she said.

“The focus for UCBC and the wider team at Blackburn College will be on continuing to deliver quality education that meets the needs of our students.”

Burnley College

The OfS found Burnley College was at “increased risk” of breaching two student outcomes, the continuation of full-time, first-degree student and the progression of full-time, first degree students.

As of September 2022, the college achieved a 76 per cent continuation rate, against an 80 per cent benchmark.

The OfS also found 50 per cent of full-time students on Burnley College courses progressed in managerial or professional employment, further study or other positive outcomes, 10 percentage points lower than the requirement.

The college explained the performance data was lower than the regulators’ benchmark due to the impact of the pandemic and “historical data quality issues at the college”, both of which the regulator rejected.

The OfS also found the college’s provision of financial, pastoral and academic support and a campus extension supported students provided “little evidence” that it had improved outcomes.

“While the college had already taken actions in relation to some programmes, these had not led to any noticeable improvement,” the report said. “For example, an allied health programme had been under significant review since 2017 and was only moved into critical review in 2021 after it became clear that previous actions had not been effective in bringing about improved and sustained outcomes for its students.”

The OfS will monitor the college until spring 2028 and has mandated a review of its current improvement plans by January 2025.

The regulator explained: “The actions the provider has taken have not yet led to substantial and sustained improvement in performance, and we do not consider the actions the provider plans to take are likely to sufficiently improve performance in an appropriate timescale.”

Croydon College and Burnley College were approached for comment.

Policy for 16-19 is finally catching up with the evidence

Since the mid-1990s, policymakers have tended to look earlier in the system for solutions to tackling persistent inequality in education. But not only has this come at the expense of post-16 education, new evidence suggests the approach of dismissing the later years needs reevaluating.

The rationale was fuelled by neuroscientific studies which first emerged in the 1970s and indicated that the first ‘window of opportunity’ for learning is in early childhood. As a result, many educators and policymakers came to believe that stopping gaps in cognitive outcomes emerging by the age of five would stop the attainment gap from appearing later in education.

But neuroscience today is not the same as it was in the 1970s, or even the 1990s. The latest studies show that late adolescence is, in fact, another window of opportunity for learning.

Moreover, robust early education studies show that the positive benefits yielded from intervening early are at risk of fading over time if there is a lack of support running throughout the education system.

Not keeping up with science has come at a significant cost to other parts of the education system. Back in 2014, when the Department for Education’s budget was cut, then-secretary of state Michael Gove decided that it was 16-19 funding that would reduce. He described this as ‘the least detrimental option’.

But this approach has seen further education experience the largest cuts in funding of any phase of education in the decade after 2010. Even now, further education remains a non-protected government budget.

Today, a new report by the Education Policy Institute reveals the damage this lack of focus and funding has had on state-education for 16- to 19-year-olds.

The report finds that students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds are over three grades behind their peers by the time they finish 16-19 education. This gap, it shows, is not only a result of the educational inequalities students from low-income families experience in school or earlier. These students are falling further behind during the post-16 phase.

The report also finds that as young people from disadvantaged backgrounds transition from secondary to post-16 education, the funding their college or sixth form receives to support their education drops by over one-third.

FE is effectively missing funding for over one-quarter of 16- to 19-year-old

In part, this is driven by the absence of pupil premium funding after the age of 16. Further education settings are effectively missing funding for over one-quarter of 16-19-year-olds. As the authors point out, the attainment gap continues to widen beyond the age of 16 and there is no clear rationale for this funding cliff-edge.

Remarkably, the report’s investigation shows that over the past two years, less than one-third of further education colleges used the existing tool available to them to identify which of their students were economically disadvantaged.

This would be unthinkable in a school. If Ofsted inspectors arrived and a school did not have this information about its student cohort, it would struggle to meet the criteria for a ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ judgment. Yet Ofsted judges 91 per cent of further education colleges to be in those two categories.

This is not the fault of colleges, whose leaders do their best with the few resources and little funding they have. The truth is that our accountability system, like the wider education system, simply doesn’t place the same significance on post-16 education as it does on other phases.

The Education Policy Institute is right to start with the absence of a 16-19 pupil premium to point this out, but there is much more evidence than that.

For example, one of the hottest topics in education policy in the run-up to the election has been the removal of the VAT exemption for private schools. But it has barely been mentioned that colleges – part of our state education system – are not exempt from VAT.

Meanwhile, teacher recruitment challenges are greater in colleges than in schools. However, college teachers are paid on average £7,000 less than their school counterparts and interventions to support schools like Teach First have never been given a contract to place teachers in further education.

Deprioritising a compulsory part of our education system is not just unethical, it is wrong. Science tells us that we can’t fix inequality in education early and avoid all problems later. Interventions to sustainably address education inequality must exist across the whole education system.

Post-16 education is the last moment in the compulsory education system to set young people up with the qualifications they need to thrive in life. The sector has tremendous potential to address existing attainment gaps and break down barriers to opportunity.

For all these reasons, I wholeheartedly endorse the Education Policy Institute’s recommendation for a 16-to-19 pupil premium. I hope policymakers take note.

Read the EPI report, Implementing a 16-19 pupil premium in full here