Education select committee launches inquiry into apprenticeships and skills training

A new inquiry into the quality of apprenticeships and skills training has been launched by the House of Commons education select committee.

Former apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon, who now chairs the committee, will confirm this during a speech at The Skills Show in Birmingham today.

A spokesperson for the committee said: “While many independent training providers and further education colleges are providing excellent training, too much provision is poor. For example, Ofsted last year reported that 37 per cent of apprenticeship providers were less than good.”

The inquiry will look into whether employers, learners and tax payers are getting sufficient value for the time and money invested in training, and whether more needs to be done to detect poor-quality provision.

The inquiry will also look to uncover barriers faced by the socially disadvantaged in accessing skills training and consider how government funding can be used to remove these barriers.

Mr Halfon said: “Social justice and productivity is at the heart of the work of the committee and high quality apprenticeships and skills training should play a key part in helping people climb the ladder of opportunity.

“Encouraging more people to pursue training is vital to the future health of our economy, but too much of what is on offer does not live up to the standards that people deserve and will do little to boost our productivity. I am particularly concerned about the quality of training provided by some subcontractors.”

He added that through this inquiry, the committee will examine not only the quality of training but also how effective the current monitoring system is at rooting out “those courses which are not up to scratch”.

“We will also be looking at how government funding should be distributed to ensure we’re filling skills gaps, rewarding great providers and punishing poor ones,” he added.

“Finally, amid worrying reports that pursuing apprenticeships and other forms of training is prohibitively expensive for some, we will be looking at what can be done to ensure that they are truly open to everyone, regardless of background.”

The committee’s inquiry will look at all forms of government-funded apprenticeships and skills training funded by the Education & Skills Funding Agency.

The committee is inviting written submissions on the following issues:

  • The quality of current provision, how this varies by sector, level and region, and the impact of this on learner outcomes;
  • The effectiveness of the quality monitoring system, in particular the role and capacity of Ofsted;
  • The role of the ESFA in ensuring value for money, and the impact of different funding models;
  • Quality and oversight of training provided by subcontractors; and
  • Quality of training received by the socially disadvantaged, and barriers to them undertaking this training

The deadline for submissions is January 5. This link can be used to submit written evidence.

Weston College takes two gongs at the AoC Beacon Awards

The AoC Beacon Award winners, which recognise innovative and outstanding activities in colleges across the UK, have been announced.

The ceremony took place this evening on the opening day of the AoC annual conference at the ICC in Birmingham.

Among the winners was Weston College, which achieved a double success, winning awards for improving functional, vocational and transferable skills amongst the disadvantaged and for those with disabilities.

The college was praised for initiatives that helped to reach the most disenfranchised learners.

Its ‘Creating brighter futures’ initiative reflects “the best in adult further education within the community” and “inspires the most educationally disadvantaged to engage, improve their skills, discover and fulfil their potential and increase their life and work opportunities on release or repatriation”.

The judges were impressed by its commitment to “a safe learning environment where all learners are valued and thrive regardless of background and level to meet individual needs, which if not addressed can impose a lifelong sentence of reoffending, underachievement, frustration and continued disadvantage for themselves and their families”.

“The benefits extend beyond individuals and families to the wider community and society in general as providing the aspiration and aptitude to seek and gain legitimate employment.”

 

 

Portsmouth College took home the award for effective use of technology.

The college’s ‘Curious and creative’ project was based on providing all full-time 16- to 18-year-old students with an Apple iPad Mini, “creating a sophisticated yet personalised learning experience”.

“This was combined with a radical change to the college timetable, redesigned learning spaces, high density wi-fi across the campus and the ability to mirror iPads to classroom projectors and large-format display screens,” an AoC spokesperson said.

City of Wolverhampton College was recognised for its careers education and guidance.

The college’s ‘Hub’ project “focused on developing effective careers information, advice and guidance for all young people in the city”.

What impressed the judges was the way it is “directly transferable to other colleges and providers, and the lessons learnt from implementing the project are valuable to other providers working with this range of young people in the further education and skills sector”.

Abingdon and Witney College was also handed the award for practical teaching and learning.

The college was recognised for preparing students to become “effective employees of the future”.

The judges were “particularly impressed by the college’s commitment to developing a moral and social code with the aim of improving employability prospects and leading to an ethos of respect and responsibility”.

 

The full list of winners:

Edge Award for Practical Teaching and Learning – Abingdon and Witney College

Award for Students with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities – Weston College

JISC Award for the Effective Use of Technology in Further Education – Portsmouth College

Award for the Promotion and Delivery of Successful Apprenticeships – Gloucestershire College

City & Guilds Award for Staff Development – Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education

RSM Award for Leadership and Governance – Bridgend College

AoC Award for Mental Health and Wellbeing – Truro and Penwith College

AoC Award for College Engagement with Employers – Sunderland College

Skills and Education Group Award for Transition into Post-16 Education and Training – Cardiff and Vale College

The Careers and Enterprise Company Careers Education and Guidance Award – City of Wolverhampton College

Gateway Qualifications Widening Participation in Learning Award – Weston College

Chief executive standing down from troubled college group

Bradford College has confirmed that its group chief executive is stepping down after it received both a financial notice to improve and an Oftsed grade three in short succession.

Andy Welsh, who became group chief executive in August 2014, is stepping down at the end of this academic year.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency financial health notice to improve was published this afternoon, a day after Ofsted released its ‘requires improvement’-overall verdict on the college – which has fallen one grade from its previous inspection in 2014.

The chair of the college corporation, Richard Wightman, thanked Mr Welsh, and praised his contribution.

“We are grateful for the support Andy has provided in his time as group chief executive and his contributions as a member of the senior team in the previous decade,” he said.

“In his role as CEO Andy has made significant efforts to improve and raise the college’s external profile and has fostered strong links with businesses and local communities.

“We are confident our executive team is wholly committed to addressing the issues facing the college and supporting and guiding our ongoing journey.”

In his own statement, Mr Welsh said he was proud of the work he had done.

“I have completed three years as CEO, and 14 years at the college in total. I feel it is now time to move on to pursue other goals,” he said.

“During my time in post, I have been proud to see the college position itself as a true partner of business, communities and individuals in Bradford.

“It has been great to see the increasing esteem in which the college is held and that the brilliant work of our students and staff is well recognised.”

A spokesperson for the college would not confirm whether there would be redundancies as a result of the college’s financial problems or the related intervention from the FE commissioner Richard Atkins.

But she conceded that the college “must now make significant financial savings, the timescale of which is yet to be determined”.

“The college is committed to mitigating the impact on staff and students, and has assured staff it will provide open and honest communications, consultation and support during this difficult period,” she said.

The college appointed a new director of finance and central services at the start of this academic year.

Chris Malish joined after almost nine years at the University of Bradford, in roles including interim finance director.

“Chris will now lead the college’s financial recovery plan and operational implementation working with the ESFA and FE commissioner,” she said.

The college, which enrolled just over 15,000 learners last academic year, was allocated around £14.7 million for 2017/18 by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, as of November.

According to the financial notice to improve, the college “must work with the ESFA and the FE commissioner and his advisers to undertake an independent assessment of the college’s capability and capacity to make the required changes and improvements”.

Authorities must undertake regular reviews of potential cashflow requirements, and must supply the ESFA with monthly management accounts.

Earlier this academic term the college informed senior managers that financial savings would need to be made. Predicted savings in 2016/17 were not fully realised, while other factors, including lower-than-expected HE student numbers, capital repayments and the need to increase cash holdings alongside predicated inflation rates, have led the college to seek financial support from the ESFA.

Kirklees College, rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted, was also issued with a financial notice to improve at the same time, which said it had been referred for FE commissioner intervention. 

Oftsed confirmed in a report published yesterday that Bradford College had slipped from ‘good’ overall to ‘requires improvement’.

Only its adult learning programmes and apprenticeships were considered to be grade two.

Inspectors said that leaders and managers needed to ensure that learner attendance improves “especially in English and maths lessons”, and that they should “assess the quality of teaching, learning and assessment more realistically”.

“Too few learners make the progress of which they are capable from their starting points,” it warned.

BREAKING: Institute for Apprenticeships appoints board member as chief executive

The new chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships is military man Sir Gerry Berragan, who was previously unveiled as a board member.

He was a career soldier for 37 years, finishing as adjutant general, responsible for all army personnel matters, serving between August 2012 and August 2015.

Sir Gerry had been appointed the army’s apprentices ambassador in 2008, to lead the effort to make the army the largest apprenticeships provider in the country, offering more than 45 schemes.

He was unveiled as one of the IfA’s board members in January, when it was also revealed that former Barclays chief executive Anthony Jenkins had been appointed as shadow chair.

Anne Milton, the skills and apprenticeships minister, said she was “delighted that Sir Gerry has been appointed”.

“He will drive the Institute to meet the challenges ahead, and I look forward to working closely with him. Having met Sir Gerry, I know that he will make sure that high-quality apprenticeships, available for everyone, will be at the heart of the Institute’s work,” she said.

“I am honoured to have been appointed as chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships,” said Sir Gerry, who will start in his new role on November 27. “I was closely involved in delivering high-quality apprenticeships during my army career and I have been an Institute board member from the outset earlier this year, so I understand the challenge.

“I look forward to working with employers to deliver high-quality apprenticeships to meet their needs, while providing excellent opportunities for people and employers across the country.”

The search for a full-time successor to outgoing IfA boss Peter Lauener, who is also coming to the end of his stint as chief executive of the Education and Skills Funding Agency, began in April.

The original closing date for applications was in late May.

It was revealed at the time that the position would be on a fixed-term contract of up to five years, with a salary of up to £142,500.

The initial recruitment round proved to be fruitless, with apparently no suitable candidates identified, so the IfA turned to headhunters in July.

They carried out a second round of interviews over three weeks up to the end of the first week of October.

The IfA has many important responsibilities, including developing and maintaining quality criteria for the approval of apprenticeship standards and assessment plans, which it also publishes, and quality-assuring the delivery of end-point assessments.

The DfE announced in October last year that Mr Lauener had been installed as the IfA’s shadow chief executive.

He had been planning to retire after permanent replacements were found to all three of his senior jobs, but it emerged last week that he will take over at the Student Loans Company later this month, after its chief executive departed suddenly under a cloud.

According to a statement on the SLC’s website, he will start in an interim capacity on November 27.

He will remain in the post until a permanent replacement for Steve Lamey is recruited.

Spielman: Ofsted to begin hunt for ‘scandalous’ apprenticeship providers

Ofsted will conduct early monitoring visits at new providers entering the apprenticeship market to sniff out any “scandalous” attempts to waste public money, the chief inspector has said.

In front of hundreds of college leaders at the AoC Conference this afternoon, Amanda Spielman announced new measures to ensure that situations like the Learndirect debacle are not repeated.

She was speaking just six months after the launch of the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers, where hundreds of new providers, some with no experience of running apprenticeships at all, were put in a position to receive millions in public cash.

“While it is early days in terms of understanding the volume of new providers entering the apprenticeship market, I do want to reassure you, our existing and experienced providers, that Ofsted will be monitoring these newcomers closely,” she said.

“I can tell you today that I have asked my inspectors, over the coming months, to conduct early monitoring visits to a sample of new providers. This will allow us to evaluate how well prepared these providers are.

Ofsted will be monitoring these newcomers closely

“With the recent experience of Learndirect fresh in all of our minds, I have no doubt all of you are acutely aware of the risks faced when large sums of money appear to be washing around the system, with insufficient quality control.

“We surely all remember the lessons of the Train to Gain initiative and the problems that were encountered with Individual Learning Accounts. Insufficient oversight and quality assurance undoubtedly resulted in too many poor outcomes for learners, not to mention the scandalous waste of public money.”

She added that when it comes to the new apprenticeship programme, the sector can be “confident that Ofsted will do all within our power to bring any such practice to light”.

And with all of the apprenticeship reforms, she expects that some providers will “adopt different approaches” to delivering qualifications. She told delegates that she had already launched “some pilot inspections” to “test these new ways of working”.

She also announced that the inspectorate was changing its “presentation and use” of performance data.

Ofsted chief stresses ‘real challenge’ with apprenticeships register

“I realise that the college sector is full of different measures and that, depending on the provision you offer, some are more useful than others,” she said.

“That is why I have asked our data teams to review the way we present our data dashboards for inspectors to use.

“I want it to be clear to everyone, inspectors and providers alike, which measures are meaningful and significant and which are less significant at an institutional level.”

Ofsted also is reviewing arrangements for its existing ‘support and challenge’ visits to all providers rated ‘requires improvement’, which FE Week reported last week.

The proposed changes include conducting a single monitoring visit, normally between seven and 13 months after the original inspection. The inspectorate is also proposing to publish these monitoring visit reports, so that “students, employers and the public are aware of the progress providers are making”.

Lastly, the chief inspector lastly told delegates that Ofsted would soon publish a curriculum and study programme report.

This “substantial” piece of research is based on visits to ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ colleges, interviews with employers linked to those colleges and the views of students at those colleges. From these visits, Ms Spielman said Ofsted has “been able to put together a picture of what the best level two study programmes look like”.

The full research paper will be released “in the New Year”.

FE Week is the premier media partner at this year’s AoC Conference. You can follow live coverage of the event by following @feweek on Twitter and using #AoCConf.

Over 70,000 to attend sixth annual Skills Show this week

More than 70,000 visitors are expected to pack out the sixth annual Skills Show in Birmingham this week, and qualification for next year’s EuroSkills competition and the continental leg of a major cooking competition are high on the agenda.

The event, held at the NEC arena, will run until Saturday, November 18, and sees 500 apprentices and students competing in 55 national skills competitions, from whom the squad for EuroSkills Budapest 2018 and Kazan 2019 will be selected.

There will also be a cook-off on Saturday between five top chefs bidding to represent Britain in the prestigious international Bocuse d’Or competition. Brian Turner, the UK team president, a famous TV chef in his own right, will lead the jury.

Dr Neil Bentley, the chief executive of WorldSkills UK, is looking forward to the event, which is free to attend and starting to take shape as seen on Twitter.

 

“Over the three days of the Skills Show we will welcome over 70,000 people from across the country, young people can speak with leading employers, colleges and independent training providers about opportunities available to them and also try their hand at a wide range of skills,” he said.

“We have a great showcase with the WorldSkills UK national finals taking place,” he added. “We will celebrate our most talented apprentices and students, some of whom will go onto represent the UK at international skills competitions.”

The five chefs competing in the Bocuse d’Or are Adam Thomason, the executive chef for Deloitte London, Chris Hill, the premier sous chef, at The Ritz in London, Frederick Forster, the executive chef, at the Don restaurant in London; Tom Phillips, head chef at Restaurant Story, and Tony Wright, a senior lecturer at University College Birmingham.

They will have to prepare a fish dish using Fjord trout and lobster as the main products, and a meat platter using a short saddle of lamb.

The successful candidate will go on to compete in the European final of the Bocuse d’Or in Turin, Italy in June next year.

There will also be over 25,000 job and training opportunities on offer from exhibitors including BAE Systems, Dyson, HS2, Health Education England and colleges including BMet, South Cheshire College and West Cheshire College and South and City Birmingham and Bournville College.

Mr Bentley said this year would also see “our very first Youth Summit, where young people will be presenting their ideas on careers advice to a senior panel of industry, education and government representatives”.

This will take place on the opening day and involve around 100 young people, aged 16 to 24, discussing the challenges of careers advice. It will feature Kieran Milne, a young entrepreneur, and Ashleigh Porter, the winner of BBC Young Apprentice.

Summit to launch ‘skills revolution’ with employers

The government will host a special summit at the end of this month to launch a new ‘skills partner’ programme with employers to help develop technical and vocational education reforms.

The Department for Education announced that the Skills Summit event will take place on November 30.

The education secretary will lead the event in London, which is backed by the Confederation of British Industry.

The summit will “see the launch of a new partnership between employers and government to deliver a skills revolution”, it said.

“The skills partner programme will see employers working with government to design and deliver reforms to technical and vocational education, so that British businesses have the home-grown skills they need to compete globally.”

It is clearly very early days, as the LinkedIn group on which the announcement was made had just nine followers at the time it was published.

“A skills partnership – between government and business – can create a skills revolution,” said Justine Greening. “It’s time to set ourselves a collective challenge: to develop our homegrown talent.”

The Skills Partner page on LinkedIn also explains that the summit “will help people, communities and businesses to achieve their potential.

“We are creating a world-class technical and vocational education system that will be as prestigious as our leading universities, creating opportunities to help everyone reach their potential, regardless of their background. “We are working with employers and education providers to design and deliver these reforms so that British businesses have the home-grown skills they need to compete globally.”

It advises people to follow the page for updates on the summit and more information on how to register your organisation’s interest in the programme.

The extent to which employers will be involved with policy reform remains to be seen, but it seems to be the government’s latest attempt to get employers involved in skills training.

Employers have previously been encouraged to help design new apprenticeships through the Trailblazer programme.

The skills minister Anne Milton referred to the event during her speech at the AoC conference in Bimingham today, during which she pleaded with sector leaders for closer collaboration over technical education reforms after years of turbulence that have “put too much distance between us”.

“At the Skills Summit later this month we will be focusing on developing our partnership with employers,” she said. “Today, I’d like to talk about our partnership with you.”

The CBI declined to comment.

Post-16 funding inequality has consequences

Nick Linford considers the extent to which poor college performance can be blamed on government interference and a lack of investment.

If Ofsted inspection reports are to be believed, we should be very concerned that the college sector has been going downhill for three years in a row.

This week we’ve crunched the figures and revealed that its annual report is expected to say next month that the proportion of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ general further education colleges will fall to 69 per cent.

That means nearly a third of colleges are classed as failing their learners, so what’s going on?

Constant reform

For several years now Ofsted has warned of the policy complexity faced by colleges, saying in its annual report last year: “Area reviews, reforms to apprenticeships and the ‘Post-16 skills plan’, following Lord Sainsbury’s review, are all very significant projects that will see fundamental changes made to the further education and skills system. With both performance concerns and ongoing large-scale changes to the system, again this year many general FE colleges face a period of continuing turmoil.”

Since then, the new chief inspector Amanda Spielman hasn’t shied away from highlighting the challenges colleges face from wide scale reforms. Answering questions from MPs on the education select committee last week, she said that compared to schools, colleges have “a much more complex job to make sure that there is the right pathway for everybody, with changes in qualifications, programmes of study, apprenticeships and reforms in practically all areas, keeping your handle around seeing people through the existing and introducing the new ones. There is no question – it is an enormous amount of work for colleges at the moment and a big challenge.”

And while “we’ve never known so much change” is an often repeated sentence at FE conferences, it is likely to be heard more than ever at the AoC conference next week.

So, the Department for Education and five skills ministers in as many years perhaps need to recognise that constant reform of rules and policies is translating into poor provision for learners.

Funding inequality

As a former college curriculum planner myself, I’ve seen first-hand how a lack of financial resource makes it impossible to deliver a high quality curriculum.

And this resource is being squeezed for all colleges, with 16-to-18 funding rates stuck at 2013 levels despite ever-rising costs.

As a result, and as a recent survey conducted by the Sixth Form College Association has corroborated, many colleges have been forced to increase class sizes, reduce teaching time and cut student support.

This may help balance the books, but it would be very surprising if Ofsted hadn’t found the learner experience was starting to deteriorate.

Colleges have the biggest funding challenge

The chief inspector seems all too aware of the potential significance of funding levels on quality, telling the education select committee that “colleges have the biggest funding challenge”.

And when asked by one committee member about the “consequences of the funding inequality post-16”, she said “we see quite disappointing outcomes at inspection for FE, compared with pre-16”, and would not rule out funding inequality from being to blame for this “correlation”.

Putting it bluntly, the college sector is being left behind when it comes to resources, and no amount of T-level planning will improve the outcomes for learners today.

The budget at the end of the month is an opportunity for the chancellor to recognise that colleges are at a tipping point.

In practical terms, and as a minimum, money should be found to increase the 16-to-18 per-pupil funding rates by £200, as the Support Our Sixth-formers (SOS) campaign wants.

FE Week has officially joined the campaign, joining big beasts like AoC, ACSL, SFCA and NUS, because every year that the funding rate goes unchanged represents ever deeper real-terms cuts.

And these disappointing Ofsted outcomes increasingly suggest the sector has reached that tipping point.

All the evidence points to a simple fact: additional investment in colleges is long overdue and desperately needed, now.

Nick Linford is the editor of FE Week

AoC Conference: Milton pleas for renewed ‘partnership’ with colleges

Anne Milton wants a refreshed “partnership” between FE and the government to help with the technical education reforms.

The skills and apprenticeships minister used her speech at this year’s Association of Colleges conference to plea with sector leaders for closer collaboration after going through past turbulent years that have “put too much distance between us”.

“I know that words like ‘partnership’ and ‘working together’ come with historical baggage,” she told delegates. “There have been times in the past when our partnerships have been tested. 

“But as we face new challenges, the way in which we work together will also need to change.”

Ms Milton insisted that she was not coming with a “blueprint” for how the partnership between FE and government should work from now on, but spoke of three “emerging themes”.

Together, we have a determination to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities that lie ahead

The first of those was “support: from government, for the sector”. 

“We are, and will be, asking a lot of you over the next few years. It is only right to make sure that you can get the support that you need,” the minister said.

“Wherever we can, we want to deliver that support by harnessing the capacity within the sector.  Improvement through collaboration, rather than competition alone. That’s what we are doing with the National Leaders programme, and through the new Strategic College Improvement Fund.  

“Where that capacity for support does not already exist within the sector, or needs to be strengthened, we will invest, strategically, in its development.”

Second, she said she wants government to play “an active role”, but was clear that she does not think those in power “always knows best” or can do it on their own.

“Just as an active role for government is central to our approach on industrial strategy, we need to adopt the same mindset when thinking about how we achieve the world class FE provision. ‘By the sector, for the sector’ is not, on its own, always the best response to many of the biggest challenges we face together.

“There are some issues where government has a unique set of levers and resources that can help find solutions to shared problems.”

You want more money, everyone wants more money and I will bang the drum for you 

And thirdly, Ms Milton asked for “whole system co-ordination”.

“We need a better co-ordinated approach, both within government, and between the government and the sector,” she said. “I am looking to the new College Improvement Board, chaired by the FE Commissioner [Richard Atkins] to help deliver that in strengthening quality, for example. 

“We need to ensure that targeted support for quality improvement works in tandem with wider support for FE teachers and leaders. We need to harness the insights from inspection by Ofsted to help identify improvement needs.

“We need to reform the accountability system to make it work better. And we need to ensure that our ambition is matched by providers who are financially resilient.”

The minister wrapped up her speech by giving a heartfelt message of optimism for the times ahead for FE.

“Partnership is a much over-used word. But if meant, if felt by both sides, if it is meaningful, genuine and balanced, it does work.

“This is a hugely exciting and challenging time for colleges and for FE, as it is for government. You want more money and I will always lobby for that. 

“What I know is that together, we have a shared ambition for all of our learners, for all of our communities and for our country. 

“Together, we have a determination to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities that lie ahead. Together I know we can make this happen.”

FE Week is the premier media partner at this year’s AoC Conference. You can follow live coverage of the event by following @feweek on Twitter and using #AoCConf.