A senior Ofsted figure has admitted the inspectorate needs to focus more on apprenticeship providers and will ask employers for feedback on how to improve in the coming months.

It published a new five-year strategy at the end of September, in which it committed itself to being “a force for improvement through intelligent, responsible and focused inspection and regulation”.

Now, its director of corporate strategy, Luke Tryl, said it wants to find out how it can serve FE better.

“Our FE workforce is pretty balanced towards colleges at the moment, and we do need to bring in some new people with specialist apprenticeship experience,” he said.

“There has been a huge expansion of growth in this sector. We need to focus what we do and make sure we follow it in the right direction.

“I think, on balance, our system has favoured the college sector and it’s something we need to address.”

Ofsted has been holding focus groups with parents around the country to find out how to improve reports for different audiences.

Mr Tryl said the next step would be to do the same with employers, and that he hopes to have wrapped this up by January 2018.

“We want the 2019 common inspection framework to be the best it can be. If companies don’t think the current framework works, we want to hear from them,” he added.

“Right now our reports are targeted at three different audiences – institutions, the government and the public. Having a report that does three things is difficult. Maybe we need to make sure we present different information with different prominence to difference audiences.

“There’s potential for looking for new ways of presenting information across our remit and through digital means.

“We want to establish with employers what they need from our reports, what needs to change and how best to give them the information.”

The government already has a ‘Find apprenticeship training’ website, but Ofsted’s previous FE and skills data dashboard was closed down in 2016, just two years after it was launched with a promise to help governors and members of the public keep a check on the performance of providers.

However, Mr Tryl insisted that Ofsted wanted to develop something new.

“A dashboard approach might not be the right way to go. People might want a more narrative approach, although perhaps that won’t appeal to employers so much,” he continued. “We are in a time of limited resource. We aren’t going to invest where we don’t need to.

“We are going to ask how we can do this better. I’m convinced we can do it better.”

Scarcely half of eligible employers have signed up to use the government’s apprenticeships system, new statistics published today suggest.

Just 10,500 apprenticeship service accounts were registered on the system by the end of August – well short of the estimated 19,150 levy-paying companies that are eligible to use the service.

The apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton admitted earlier this week that she was “flabbergasted” to learn that many large companies were unaware of the levy, even though they were paying it.

Today’s experimental statistics, published by the Department for Education, demonstrate that the number of employers signing up to use the service is tailing off.

FE Week reported in July that 8,300 employers had registered by the end of May.

In the three months since, the number has increased by just 2,340 – with 910 companies signing up in June, 740 in July and only 690 in August.

A Twitter survey run by the Education and Skills Funding Agency suggests that the DfE is concerned by this lack of take-up.

The survey, run by the @ESFADigitalService account, asks levy-paying employers why they’re not yet registered for the apprenticeship service, and gives four options: “not currently recruiting”, “no framework/standard”, “need skilled staff” and “other”.

But as this story was published, just an hour before the survey was due to close, there had been just six votes.

Are you a levy-paying employer? Not yet registered for the #apprenticeshipservice? Please tell us why

— ESFADigitalServices (@ESFAdigital) October 4, 2017

Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative party conference this week, Ms Milton said she had been “quite flabbergasted” to find out that many large businesses were unaware of the apprenticeship levy, despite paying large amounts of money into the pot.

She said she’d had meetings with at least one managing director who “didn’t know anything about it”, and admitted more needed to be done to promote the levy.

The apprenticeships service is the online system that levy-paying employers use to manage their funds, including registering “commitments” or apprentices, and paying for training.

Currently only large employers that are subject to the apprenticeship levy – those with an annual wage bill of at least £3 million – can use the service.

Figures published by the DfE in August 2016 indicated that 19,150 companies – representing just 1.3 per cent of all employers – would be eligible to pay the levy.

Today’s statistics show a total of 26,700 fully confirmed commitments – meaning that both the employer and training provider have agreed the apprenticeship start – were registered through the service by the end of August.

The same @ESFADigitalService Twitter account is also currently surveying non-levy paying employers, ahead of a planned expansion of the service to include all employers by April 2019.

The DfE recently ran its fifth consultation, which closed on Tuesday, on how reforms to apprenticeship funding are affecting employers and training providers.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Through our reforms to apprenticeships, we are making sure that millions of people have access to life-changing skills they need for a successful career.

“We have been working hard to support employers, and help them understand the benefits that high-quality apprenticeships and the apprenticeship levy can bring. Our records show they are engaged and ready to use their funds, and we will continue to work with them so they can invest in high-quality training.”

The leader of a troubled college has stepped down just 18 months into the job – and will be replaced by the ex-principal of another formerly struggling institution.

Derek Headrige [pictured right] was appointed campus principal at Totton College in April 2016 following a period of turmoil that saw it merge with the social justice charity Nacro.

But he has now resigned and is being replaced on an interim basis by the former principal of LeSoCo, Maxine Room [pictured left], the college announced today.

Ms Room led Lewisham College, and then LeSoCo – the short-lived name for the merged Lewisham and Southwark colleges – for five years until May 2014, when she stood down after the college’s leadership was heavily criticised in an FE commissioner report.

Lisa Capper, director of education at Nacro, said she was “delighted to welcome Maxine to the team”.

She praised the work Mr Headrige has done since her took over, and said Totton College “has improved its Ofsted rating and results and has introduced a number of high-quality technical courses and apprenticeships to match the needs of the local community and industry demands”.

A spokesperson insisted the resignation was not connected to the college’s recent Ofsted inspection, in which it improved by just one grade to ‘requires improvement’ in July, and said he was leaving to take a “promotion to a new role within the education and training sector”.

The college joined Nacro in the wake of an ‘inadequate’ across-the-board Ofsted rating in April 2015, amid concerns over its financial situation.

The charity uses skills and training to reduce crime and reoffending in English and Welsh communities.

That merger went ahead in December 2015, and was followed by a period of turmoil as the college consulted on a restructuring plan that threatened jobs.

It was during this time that Mr Headrige, the former group academy dean at BMW, took over as campus principal.

A return visit by the education watchdog in June resulted in the college receiving a grade three across the board.

“Since the transfer of ownership to Nacro in December 2015, the pace of change has been slow,” noted the inspection report.

Ms Room was in charge of Lewisham College from 2009, and oversaw its merger with Southwark College in 2012.

But when the new body was inspected in November 2013, it was branded ‘inadequate’ – a verdict that occasioned a visit by the FE commissioner Sir David Collins in January 2014.

His report noted that a lack of action to address the weaknesses identified by Ofsted “leaves serious doubts about the capability of the leadership team”, and that there was a “lack of confidence” in the leadership team among key stakeholders.

Despite a recommendation that the college board “develop and implement a succession plan for the post of principal”, it wasn’t until May that Ms Room announced she was stepping down.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Ms Room has been working in a variety of consultancy roles since leaving Lewisham Southwark.

She will be supported in her new role by Hannah Avoth, who is being promoted to vice-principal.

“This is a strong set of appointments and I know they will take the college to the next stage of its successful development,” Ms Capper said.

 

The skills minister will be speaking at this year’s Association of Colleges annual conference.

Anne Milton’s address is guaranteed to be one of the highlights of this year’s event, which will be held at ICC in Birmingham on November 14 and 15.

The news of her appearance at one of the FE sector’s biggest annual events comes days after she spoke at the Conservative party conference, at which she discussed the need for “flexibility” in the new apprenticeships system.

We are pleased to announce @annemilton, Minister of State will be speaking at #AoCConf
https://t.co/9uc0PLSJdi pic.twitter.com/XEw0PkK9g9

— Assoc of Colleges (@AoC_info) October 4, 2017

David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said he was “delighted” that Ms Milton would be speaking at the conference.

“It’s such a good opportunity for her to set out the government’s vision for education and skills and the critical role colleges will play in achieving that vision. I know that AoC members will be looking forward to hearing from her and posing their questions.”

Other confirmed speakers at the two-day conference will include Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman, and the writer and broadcaster Matthew Syed.

This is only the second time the sector will have had the chance to hear from the apprenticeships and skills minister directly, after she spoke at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers conference in June, just days after she took up the role.