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Institute for Apprenticeships appoints new board members

The Institute for Apprenticeships has appointed two new members to join its board, six months after one former member, Sir Gerry Berragan, was promoted to become its chief executive.

Jessica Leigh Jones and Professor Malcolm Press will join the board from June 1, according to an announcement from the Department for Education today.

Ms Jones is an award-winning engineer and astrophysicist who works for Sony UK, while Professor Press is vice-chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University.

Ms Jones said she was “thrilled” to be joining the board.

Jessica Leigh Jones

“Technical education is very close to my heart having originally trained as an electrician, so I look forward to supporting the Institute as it takes responsibility for technical education in England,” she said.

“I look forward to playing a role in driving up the knowledge and skills base for the benefit of individuals, the economy and society,” said Professor Press.

Each will be paid £15,000 a year for a commitment of two days a month.

Anthony Jenkins, the IfA’s chair, said he was delighted to welcome the two new board members “at what is a critical juncture for the Institute as it prepares to take on responsibility for the delivery of technical education”.

Ms Jones and Professor Press “will bring an impressive blend of business, technical and higher education experience and expertise to the board, playing a key role in supporting the Institute during the next phase of its growth”.

The original eight board members were announced in January last year.

According to adverts posted by the IfA in December, the institute aimed to recruit up to three new members.

It sought senior figures with a background in technical education, as well as a proven track record of leadership and analytical skills, and an ability to command respect from employers.

The majority of board members represent employers, while two are serving college principals.

There is still no apprentice representation on the board, although former skills minister Robert Halfon announced in December 2016 that the IfA would set up an apprentice panel.

But it was revealed earlier this month that Mr Halfon’s successor, Anne Milton, had not met the panel more than 12 months after its first meeting.

Struggling Epping Forest College racks up another financial notice

An Essex college has received a second financial notice to improve in under six months by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The notice for Epping Forest College, for financial control, was published today alongside an inspection notice to improve for Moulton College, which Ofsted rated ‘inadequate’ last month.

EFC’s notice, dated March 23, was issued after it asked for exceptional financial support.

It joins the notice for financial health issued in December, to go with notices for both inspection and apprenticeship minimum standards from earlier in 2017.

The college must now “update and strengthen” its financial recovery plan “to address financial and management control issues identified by the college’s internal audit committee”.

That plan must “demonstrate that the college has an informed route to significant and sustained improvements” with “appropriate measures and milestones that support the college and ESFA in assessing progress being made”.

Meanwhile, it must “continue to submit management accounts” including “confirmation of spend above £20,000” on a monthly basis.

And evidence of an improvement in its financial management and control must be shown in its 2017/18 audited financial statements, to be submitted in December.

Consultation recently opened on plans for EFC to join forces with New City College, in the capital.

A merger by August this year was one of the conditions of the college’s notice to improve for financial health, issued in December.

The letter issued to Moulton College, dated April 5, makes it clear that the college is “in scope for referral to the FE commissioner”.

It was slammed for delivering “unsafe” training in “highly dangerous vocational areas” such as construction and equine studies in a damning Ofsted report published on April 3.

Today’s notice states that the college must improve “at reinspection to at least an overall effectiveness of grade three” in order to keep getting ESFA funding.

“If, on reinspection, Ofsted judges Moulton College to be overall ‘inadequate’ in whole or in part for a second time, the college will have failed to comply with the additional conditions”.

Such a failure would mean the ESFA would “pursue one or more of a range options” in its funding agreement with the college – although it “reserves the right to take further action”.

In addition, any recommendations made by the FE commissioner could be added to the notice following his intervention at the college.

Richard Atkins’ recommendations to Cadbury College were included in an updated notice to improve for financial health, reissued today but originally published December 15.

His report, published in March, reported a “series of financial items” that “could result in the college being at immediate risk”.

According to today’s notice, an FE commissioner-led structure and prospects appraisal should be undertaken “to examine if there is a sustainable future for Cadbury Sixth-Form College through the identification of an appropriate merger partner”.

Any merger should be completed by the end of December, the notice stated.

Sussex Downs College’s notice of concern for financial health, originally handed out on November 13, was lifted on March 29 due to the college’s merger with Sussex Coast College, according to a letter to the college published today.

“However, we expect that you will continue to take necessary action to address the reasons why the notice originally issued,” it said.

London Mayor plans £3m FE funding cut to pay for over 50 new bureaucrats

The mayor of London plans to top-slice £3 million from the adult education budget to pay for over 50 new bureaucrats from next year, instead of using it for frontline learning.

The money will cover the annual wage costs of a new administration to handle the AEB for the capital when devolution kicks in, including a £140,000-a-year assistant director.

The 53-strong team will form a skills and employment unit to dish out the budget from 2019/20, which will amount to around £311 million per year for London.

However, many of the tasks this unit will carry out will simply duplicate the work that the Education and Skills Funding Agency already does.

The GLA told FE Week that the ESFA has refused to give a “service offer”, which includes procurement, audit, contract management, direct access to data and changes to the Individual learner record systems.

These costs will be top-sliced from the devolved annual budget

London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan (pictured above), is asking the ESFA to reconsider, according to the GLA.

The Department for Education has been asked for comment.

Using AEB funding to pay for extra officials instead of learning will concern many in the sector.

However, a spokesperson for Mr Khan pointed out that “staff costs associated with this are less than one per cent of the budget being devolved to the mayor”.

The GLA is one of eight mayoral combined authorities with deals to take control of AEB spending in their regions from 2019/20.

In a document entitled ‘Proposed changes to the GLA establishment’ and released in March, the GLA explains how it will top-slice the AEB.

“The total annual gross cost of the creations is £3.245 million, for which £3.028 million is attributable to AEB and the balance of £0.217 million relating specifically to the core skills team,” it says.

“Going forward from 2019-20, once the programme has been devolved, these costs will be top-sliced from the devolved annual budget of circa £400 million per year.”

Among the staff will be one assistant director, whose annual pay packet will be £139,000. Four senior managers will be paid around £87,000 a year , while one other will be a senior project manager on £73,000.

The unit will also employ 16 principal policy officers, who will take home around £66,000 each, as well as 12 other principal project officers earning £61,000.

Ten officials will be senior policy and project officers with annual pay packets of £54,000, and eight people will hold support officer roles, paid £40,000.

READ MORE: Mayors raise concerns over weak adult education budget devolution powers

The last person on the team will be an assistant administrator, who will earn £37,000 a year.

The GLA told FE Week this team will be focussed on implementing the mayor’s skills strategy, which includes a “digital talent programme” to find and develop the next generation of home-grown tech talent, and developing the mayor’s construction academy so Londoners can access jobs in the construction industry.

“The Mayor is determined that all Londoners have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and are able to enjoy the capital’s economic prosperity,” a spokesperson said.

Devolution for the AEB has been on the cards for many years but plans have not gone smoothly.

The mayors from the eight regions with deals in place recently voiced concerns with the government over the impracticality of the process.

The seven other areas of the country to have devolution deals in place are the West Midlands, Liverpool City region, Greater Manchester, the West of England, Tees Valley, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and the Sheffield City region.

Skills minister under pressure on 16-to-19 funding

The skills minister has admitted to being “very aware of the funding pressures” that 16-to-19 providers are under, even though the government has today confirmed the rate will not change in 2018/19.

“We are looking at the resilience of the FE sector which includes sixth-form colleges,” Anne Milton told MPs at education questions in Parliament today. “I am very aware of the funding pressures, and I have to praise all those teaching in the sector because they’re doing an excellent job.”

She was replying to a question from shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, who asked her to confirm that the “real-terms” cut to the base rate for 18-year-olds amounted to more than £1,000 since 2013.

Ms Milton said she had “heard the points she makes”, and added that she was “very aware of the excellent job” that 16 to 19 providers do with “quite constrained finances”.

Gordon Marsden, her Labour shadow as skills minister, accused the government of “hiding behind reviews” while Ms Rayner highlighted “continuing lack of adequate funding for 16- to 19-year-olds”, in a tweet sent after today’s questions.

Funding for full-time learners aged 16 or 17 stands at £4,000 a year, while for 18-year-olds it’s just £3,300.

These rates were set in 2013 and have remained unchanged since –a real-terms cut for providers over that time.

Guidance setting out the funding formula for 2018/19 was published by the Department for Education this morning, although the actual rates were confirmed by letter in January.

In December last year Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, warned that the “sector will continue to struggle” without an increase in the base rate funding for 16- to 19-year-olds.

The Support our Sixth Formers campaign, backed by major players including the Association of Colleges and SFCA as well as FE Week, wants a £200 “SOS uplift” in 16-to-18 per-pupil funding rates.

The SFCA claimed in November that sixth-form colleges were at “tipping point” after their overall Ofsted ratings fell for a third year running, largely as a result of funding pressures.

Earlier this year Ms Milton prompted confusion by appearing to announce a government review into how the current system of funding for FE meets the cost of high-quality provision.

But just two days later, on March 21, Damian Hinds denied that such a review had been announced – and the DfE itself later confirmed it was an internal review within the department.

Other topics raised during today’s questions included the government’s promise, made in last year’s Conservative party election manifesto, to introduce significantly reduced bus and train for apprentices.

Robert Halfon asked Mr Hinds to “confirm that this is still a commitment and when will it happen?”

Mr Hinds’ response did not give any details.

“My right honourable friend rightly identifies the importance of making sure that apprenticeships are fully inclusive, and we do continue to look at making sure that such facilitation is available,” he said.

It’s up to colleges and providers to sell apprenticeships to parents

Parents are still sceptical about high-quality technical education. The entire FE sector has a duty to change their minds, writes Anne Milton

As exam time approaches and lots of young people will be thinking about their futures, I want to talk directly to colleges and providers about what they should be letting parents know about apprenticeships.

I’ve spoken to lots of fantastic and talented apprentices who said the support from their parents was really important in helping them make the decision to do an apprenticeship.

For lots of parents, a university education is still seen as the Holy Grail for their children, and apprenticeships as the second-class option to a traditional academic qualification. Perhaps that’s down to the fact that apprenticeships suffer from a long-held PR problem; if you ask most people about an apprenticeship they still think of plumbers and electricians.

This is exactly what needs to change.

Many parents don’t know that apprenticeships can lead to lots of different jobs in a wide range of industries – from cybersecurity, to banking, fashion and more. You can also now do an apprenticeship to become a teacher or even a solicitor.

Parents need to know that an apprenticeship is a real, paid job

So I want to change the way apprenticeships are seen in the eyes of parents for good. And to do that I need your help, because as providers and colleges you play a fundamental role in letting parents know about the various options and routes that are out there for their children.

Parents need to know that an apprenticeship is a real, paid job, and a young person on an apprenticeship will receive at least the national apprentice wage of £3.70 per hour.

Most employers pay more than the minimum – the latest pay survey estimates the average gross hourly pay received by apprentices in England was £6.70 an hour at level two and three, and £9.83 for higher level apprentices.

We are also rolling out more and more degree apprenticeships, combining a high-quality degree with an apprenticeship.

These degree apprenticeships are a great way to earn while you learn at some of the UK’s top universities and get a head start in long-term careers. And with the training completely paid for, no student loan is needed. Degree-level apprenticeships are available in a variety of sectors, such as engineering, digital, aerospace and nuclear.

They are also available across England, with universities including Newcastle, Salford, Derby, Birmingham, Bristol, Plymouth, London and Bournemouth offering them.

The lifetime benefits associated with gaining an apprenticeship at levels two and three are very significant, standing at between £48,000 and £74,000 for level two and between £77,000 and £117,000 for level three.

Those who gain a higher-level apprenticeship could earn £150,000 more on average over their lifetime compared to those with level three vocational qualifications.

These are really important messages that we need to get across to parents, so I’m calling on you as providers and colleges to reach out to them to help them navigate and understand the options available to their children.

To help with this the Education and Skills Funding Agency is investing £2m in the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge in Schools programme which provides schools and colleges with material on apprenticeships.

Providers and colleges can also point parents towards the National Careers Service’s job profiles, which can help their child consider what sort of career they’d like to pursue. There’s also the ‘Find an apprenticeship’ service on gov.uk, where up to 28,000 apprenticeship vacancies from employers across England are advertised. And there’s also the ‘Amazing apprenticeships vacancy snapshot’, where they can find out when applications open for apprenticeships at top companies and view employer profiles. The National Apprenticeship Service has also produced a guide: ‘How to write an award-winning apprenticeship application’.

It’s so important that we all do everything we can to make parents aware of the amazing opportunities that apprenticeships can bring their children, and encourage them to see apprenticeships as a first class option.

If you have any questions then do get in touch with the National Apprenticeship Service by clicking here and here.

Anne Milton is Minister for skills and apprenticeships

Rapid increase in providers forces expansion of ESFA audit team

The Education and Skills Funding Agency is beefing up its audit team amid mounting concerns about new providers entering the sector.

It has launched a recruitment drive for a “newly created market oversight unit”, including an advert for four auditor vacancies posted on the civil service jobs website.

They will operate directly under the leadership of Matt Atkinson, the ESFA’s director of provider market oversight.

The newcomers will not be replacing departing staff, and the recruitment drive is part of wider plans to plough more resources into audit and oversight.

Considerable numbers of untried and untested providers have hit the market recently, for example through the register of apprenticeship training providers.

“Matt Atkinson is leading a newly created market oversight unit,” a Department for Education spokesperson said.

“This highlights the critical role the agency plays in oversight of the education and skills landscape.”

I am worried about the number of providers that we may have to inspect

The advert for “assurance officers” states that the agency is looking for candidates with a “background in audit and financial assurance – to support the delivery of assurance activity at providers of education and training”.

Their team is expected to review “financial statements and management reports to ensure funds are used for the proper purposes and potential areas of irregular expenditure is identified”.

RoATP has been controversial since its launch just over a year ago.

Amongst the initially accepted providers, FE Week reported on three new companies with no track record on government apprenticeships, all run by one man from a rented office in Cheshire.

The proliferation of new providers has been criticised by Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman, who spoke to FE Week about the impact that this would have on the inspection service.

“It is clear there are a lot of would be new entrants, a lot of people with very limited experience and potentially quite a lot of fragmentation,” she said.

She and Paul Joyce, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills, both admitted to being concerned about how they would keep tabs on everyone.

“I am worried about the number of providers that we may have to inspect,” admitted Mr Joyce. “I’ve had conversations with the DfE about our resource.”

Ofsted subsequently embarked on a drive to keep more careful tabs on such newcomers to the apprenticeships market, through a series of early-monitoring visit reports.

The first of these published in March was brutally critical of training that is “not fit for purpose” at Key 6 Group.

The National Audit Office also expressed concern at the potential for abuse of the apprenticeship system back in 2016.

“DfE and the SFA are yet to establish what information they will need to monitor key behavioural risks and spot signals that these risks may be maturing,” its report said.

“While they might reasonably expect the vast majority of employers, training providers and assessment bodies to act properly in response to apprenticeship reforms, a small minority may behave in unintended ways”.

Strikes off at Sandwell College after improved pay offer

Staff at a college who had been due to go on strike for four days this week have called the walkout off following “positive discussions” with management for a new pay “agreement”.

University and College Union members at Sandwell College have already been on strike for five days since February, and were due to return to the pickets from tomorrow.

It was one of 10 colleges taking action over pay in the coming weeks during the busy exam season.

However, the UCU has said that positive discussions with the college management on pay have led to an “agreement in principle”, which is expected to be signed by both sides tomorrow.

“Following positive discussions on pay in recent days which have led to an agreement in principle, we have decided to call off the planned strike action for this week,” said Anne O’Sullivan, a UCU regional official.

“We expect to formalise the agreement with management in our meeting with them tomorrow.”

The UCU was unable to show FE Week details of the agreement before tomorrow’s meeting.

Now that Sandwell has called off its industrial action, all of the remaining colleges planning to strike in the coming weeks are in London.

The pay disputes follow a below-inflation pay offer of one per cent made by the Association of Colleges in September.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt has said that her members were “resolute” in their fight for better pay and conditions.

The argument between the unions and the AoC worsened last week, after the latter refused to enter negotiations while industrial action is ongoing.

The various FE teaching unions insist that the body which represents the sector has told them it is “not minded to consider” a pay claim for 2018/19 while UCU members “remained in dispute over the 2017/18 round at any AoC member college”.

This is “unacceptable” to the trade unions – which include the National Education Union, Unite, Unison and GMB as well as UCU – which have claimed in a letter to the AoC’s boss that he is “attempting to put pressure on some members of one union”.

In response, Mr Hughes said: “While a small number of local UCU branches are taking action on the national pay claim, it would not be appropriate to open negotiations on the 2018/19 claim.

“We have written to all the unions to explain our position and we are optimistic that these few remaining disputes will be resolved soon, allowing us to begin negotiations for the next pay round.”

Strike action at all other colleges is continuing as planned. Here’s the schedule:

PIC: Sandwell College’s building

ESFA misses own deadline to update providers on T-levels

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has missed its own deadline to let providers know if they will be among the first to deliver T-levels.

Providers who wanted to deliver the prestigious planned new qualifications in 2020/21 were invited to submit an expression of interest to the agency in January.

According to that invitation, all successful providers had been supposed to receive notification on April 27, along with confirmation of how many students would qualify for teaching that year.

Guidance subsequently published by the ESFA in early March said providers would be informed by early May if their application had been successful.

But providers have now been told the information will be released in due course, according to a spokesperson for the Department for Education.

There is also no sign yet of the government’s response to its consultation on the new qualifications, also promised in early May.

T-levels have been designed to increase the prestige of technical qualifications, as match for A-levels.

They were originally intended to be introduced from 2019 but in July last year Anne Milton announced that this had been put back to 2020.

It was announced in October that the first three subject areas to go live will cover digital, childcare and education, and construction.

A further eight subject “routes” should be launched by 2022.

This latest slippage will add to concern from across the sector that the tight T-level timetable is unachievable.

Sir Gerry Berragan, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships, voiced his concerns about the “worryingly tight” delivery timeline for the first three routes at an Ofqual conference in March.

“The last thing we should do is start the first three on the wrong footing and give them a bad reputation,” he said.

His views are particularly significant as the IfA is set to take over responsibility for administering T-levels later this year.

Sally Collier, Ofqual’s chief regulator, also spoke about the “ambitious” timeframe and the “risks” it carried at the same event.

And the Confederation of British Industry has also said it would like to see full delivery delayed until 2023.

Earlier this week Robert Halfon appeared to question the whole design principle behind the government’s designs for T-levels.

During a parliamentary debate on Tuesday the former skills minister, and now chair of the education select committee, asked whether 16 was too young for people to decide between an academic and a technical route.

IfA defends slowdown on apprenticeship standards

The number of new apprenticeship standards approved for delivery declined dramatically in March and April, FE Week analysis has revealed.

The Institute for Apprenticeships only cleared four standards in April and 10 in March, down from 21 in February.

The agency’s chief executive Sir Gerry Berragan (pictured) only launched its Faster and Better initiative in December to “streamline the approvals process”.

A spokesperson claimed the figures are not surprising, as the IfA expected recent reforms to slow things down temporarily ahead of an anticipated upturn.

“The Faster and Better programme is made up of a number of different initiatives that are being introduced over time,” she said.

“The impact of such initiatives will take time to be fully felt. However, we anticipate they will help to speed up the development process and improve the overall customer experience significantly in the second half of this year.”

The impact of such initiatives will take time to be fully felt

She explained standards applications are “reviewed on a six-week cycle”, and a “range of factors can affect how many are approved for delivery in a particular month, such as fluctuations in the volume of submissions”.

“We piloted our new online template for proposals and standards in February and rolled it out for all submissions in March, and we published completely overhauled and simplified guidance in March.”

The number of standards approved in total so far this year was said to be “a marked improvement”, as “between July and December 2017, we approved 37 apprenticeship standards for delivery”.

Apprenticeship standards, which are developed by groups of employers, are gradually replacing the old frameworks. Each contains a list of the skills, knowledge and behaviours an apprentice will need to have learned by the end of their apprenticeship.

The IfA website showed 271 had been approved at the time FE Week went to press.

There are, however, 268 more in development, of which 29 have assessment plans that haven’t been approved for delivery.

Sir Gerry launched Faster and Better to address complaints from employers and providers that the approvals process was far too slow and bureaucratic.

The Confederation of British Industry’s head of education and skills John Cope described the March and April figures as “disappointing”, but backed efforts to speed things up.

“Businesses support the IfA’s strategy to speed up the standards process and improve support for trailblazer groups – something the CBI has long called for,” he said.

“We need more rapid progress, but it’s also crucial we get them right,” added Stephen Evans, the chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute. The IfA needs to set out when they expect numbers to pick up so we can see if it’s on track.”

Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden pledged to monitor progress over the rest of 2018 “very carefully”.

“It is of course concerning that the approval of standards has slowed down. However I have personally spoken to the chief executive of the IfA who is confident the process will speed up in the second half of the year.

“This is a situation we will be monitoring very closely, not least because of the government’s track record in failing to deliver the resources and capacity the Institute has needed from day one.”