This afternoon the Institute for Apprenticeships advertised for a chief executive. The IfA launched this month and is expected to have an annual budget of around £8m and up to 80 staff.
Perhaps surprisingly it is only a fixed term contract, of up to five years, with a salary of up to £142,500.
The advert says a key role will be “to guide the Chair and Board through the tension inherent between being an independent Crown body and one that is funded by public money. This is a tension with which the board is likely to be unfamiliar and successful navigation through it will be key to the organisation’s success.”
FE Week understands the government wanted the IfA to have a permanent chair in place, which was recently announced as Antony Jenkins, before advertising for a chief executive.
The minimum wage for apprentices changed on April 1 this year, soaring from a measly £3.40 per hour to a princely £3.50 per hour.
And though this extra cash – which represents an impressive 2.9% increase – is probably very welcome for young apprentices, we at FE Week started to wonder whether employers were paying attention, after the new rate came in without much fanfare.
So we set ourselves a challenge: could we find 15 job adverts on the government’s own apprenticeships portal advertising the wrong rate in 15 minutes? If we could, we reckoned that might constitute a problem.
In the end, a 15-minute scan on April 12 uncovered 11 separate apprenticeship adverts featuring illegal wages – not total endemic, but not statistically insignificant either.
We reported these to the providers, including Vision West Nottinghamshire College, which was listed as provider for seven of the adverts.
The other three providers affected were the London Hairdressing Apprenticeship Academy Limited, Bexleyheath-based Skills for Growth, and Walsall-based Performance Through People.
To be fair to them all, when we alerted them, they did quickly acknowledge and correct the errors.
We decided to take our findings to the labour market tsar Sir David Metcalf, who was appointed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in January to help protect apprentices paid below the minimum wage.
We wanted to know what action he would be taking to crack down on employers who pay their apprentices illegal wages – and why these inaccurate adverts had been allowed on the site.
A spokesperson for Sir David at BEIS said he was still putting together a strategy for his priorities, and that it would be available in due course.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “Employers are responsible for ensuring that their apprenticeship vacancies comply with the minimum wages,” we were told. “As soon as we become aware of any adverts which do not comply, we ensure these are taken down.”
As soon as we become aware of any adverts which do not comply, we ensure these are taken down
Employers not paying apprentices the minimum wage would “face the legal consequences”, she added.
Our little experiment came almost a year after a major survey on apprentice wages and training kicked off, with results long overdue.
Even though FE Week has learned that the final draft of the 2016 Apprenticeship Pay Survey was given to the government way back in January by the researchers who carried it out, its results have still not seen the light of day.
The survey, announced in May by the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, aimed to help the government monitor whether employers were paying the national minimum wage.
Interim “high-level” results were released in October as part of a report for the Low Pay Commission – indicating that the proportion of apprentices earning below the NMW had gone up – but the full findings are still under lock and key.
Mark Winterbotham, the director of the firm which carried out the survey, told FE Week that he didn’t know why it hadn’t yet been published.
He described the project as a “large scale survey of 9,422 apprentices, conducted by telephone from early June 2016 to the end of July 2016”.
He insisted that his organisation had handed the final drafts of the reports over to the government in January, but admitted he had “not had any communication since early March” with the research team at BEIS, which replaced BIS in July.
“They’d be the only ones able to say why it’s not been published yet,” he said.
But the government, asked this week when the report could be expected and what had caused the hold-up, would only say it would be published “in due course”.
The survey was described by BIS as an “important research project providing information on training, hours and pay from current apprentices”.
The survey findings were to be “used by government to help set pay policy generally and make improvements in apprenticeship training” and would “enable us to look at wage levels nationally, measure changes with previous years and monitor whether employers are adhering to the rules on fair pay”.
According to the Low Pay Commission’s report: “The 2016 survey shows that the vast majority (83 per cent) of apprentices, where an assessment can be made, are paid at or above the appropriate NMW rate” – suggesting that 17 per cent were not.
This is up from the 14 per cent found during the 2014 survey, which was based on telephone interviews with 9,367 apprentices.
In 2012, the Apprenticeship Pay Survey, which takes place every two years, found that 29 per cent of the 5,635 apprentices it interviewed were underpaid.
Learners left with huge loan debts and no qualifications when their providers went bust have had their repayments deferred for a year in a partial victory for FE Week’s campaign for loan justice.
We have been demanding government action on the issue since January, when we discovered hundreds of learners were on the hook for thousands of pounds in FE loans they couldn’t use after their provider John Frank Training suddenly went bust – and the government wouldn’t write off their debt.
We soon found many more learners affected by the collapse of Hampshire-based Edudo Ltd and Darlington’s Focus Training & Development Ltd, and immediately launched a campaign to force the government to let them off their debts – part of #SaveOurAdultEducation.
Now, after months of sustained pressure, the government has indicated for the first time that it could be softening its position.
FE Week has seen a letter sent to the thousands of students affected by provider collapses, telling them that the government will “defer your repayment status for one year”.
“Our priority is to help support affected learners and make sure they can transfer to a new provider as soon as possible and continue with their learning,” said a spokesperson for the Department for Education.
“To ensure affected learners are supported, we have written to the Student Loans Company asking it to take appropriate steps so that any loan repayments will be deferred during the April 2017 to March 2018 tax year.”
He added the department was “considering whether any further action is needed to avoid learners being unfairly disadvantaged”.
We have written to the Student Loans Company asking it to take appropriate steps so that any loan repayments will be deferred
An SLC spokesperson also conceded that “in some cases, repayments had already started and SLC has notified the employers of those in this situation to stop any further payments being taken”.
He added: “SLC has written to all students affected to confirm that their repayments have been deferred for one year.
“If they do not meet the criteria for repayment in April 2018 we will not start to make any repayments until they are eligible to do so.”
Asim Shaheen, aged 49, was a former learner with John Frank Training who was left more than £8,000 in debt after it went bust under murky circumstances in November.
He works nights as a chef and told FE Week that his bosses at a restaurant in Stoke had recently received a letter from the SLC asking them to start deducting loan repayments from his wages. Another was sent a week later, saying there had been a mistake and that deductions were not necessary, he claimed.
Mr Shaheen also received the letter sent to affected learners, which said: “We can confirm that we will defer your repayment status for one year.
“This means that if you meet currently meet the criteria for repayment of your advanced learner loan, or meet the requirement within the next tax year, we will not start to take any payments before April 2018.
“This is to allow you sufficient time to make alternative arrangements to complete your qualification.”
He told FE Week that he was pleased the government had recognised the leaners’ plight and had held off on repayment demands.
However, he insisted that “they haven’t solved the problem”, and “are just putting it on hold for a year. It isn’t fair of them to carry on demanding repayments in the long term, and I hope the deferment gives them time to think and do the right thing: write-off our loans.”
FE Week will continue campaigning for the loans to be scrapped, so watch this space.
It’s a bumper Ofsted watch this week, with a total of 15 full FE and skills inspection reports published since our last round-up.
What’s more, over half of these inspections resulted in a grade two rating or higher.
These included HIT Training, which was rated ‘good’ across the board – holding onto the same overall rating it’s had since 2009 – in a report published April 13 and based on an inspection in March.
Inspectors praised the West Sussex-based national provider for its “strong leadership” and its “highly motivated” apprentices and learners, a “large proportion” of whom complete their qualifications.
And West Midlands-based engineering apprenticeship specialist In-Comm Training and Business Services Limited earned a rare ‘outstanding’ across the board in a glowing report published April 11.
Gravesend-based TDLC earned a grade two across the board in its first inspection, carried out in March and published April 12.
Learners, many of whom were unemployed, were found to be “highly motivated” and to “take pride in their learning”, with the result that they become “highly skilled” in bookkeeping and progress onto work following their courses.
London-based Big Creative Training boosted its previous ‘requires improvement’ rating to ‘good’ across the board, in a report published April 20 and based on an inspection in mid-March.
Staff and leaders at the provider, which specialises in study programmes for 16 to 19-year-olds, were commended for their ability to “successfully ignite young people’s enthusiasm for learning” – many of whom were “disadvantaged” or had “a poor experience” of education.
Also up from a grade three to a grade two across the board this week was Nottingham-based SR Education, in a report published April 20 and based on an inspection in mid-March.
Leaders at the apprenticeship provider were found to have “put a range of effective strategies in place to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment” with the result that a “high proportion” of adult apprentices achieved their qualifications.
Surrey-based MIT Skills Limited was rated ‘good’ across the board – holding onto its previous rating – in a report published April 12, and based on an inspection in March.
A “good proportion” of learners found jobs or moved onto further education after their courses, while leaders were praised for the “strong employer-focused approach” to provision.
Sheffield-based Open Door Adult Learning Centre was also given a grade two across the board, in a report published April 10 and based on an inspection in mid-March.
Staff at the adult and community learning provider were commended for supporting the “hardest to reach, isolated and most disadvantaged” to “engage in education”, while achievements were “now high”.
Employer provider Veolia Environment Development Centre Limited was also awarded ‘good’ across the board, up from its previous ‘requires improvement’, in a report published April 21 and based on an inspection in March.
“Ambitious” leaders and managers put “improving workforce skills” at the heart of the London-based company, while apprentices were “highly motived and enthusiastic” and “develop good technical and work-related skills”.
Berkshire College of Agriculture held onto its grade two rating in a report published April 20, based on an early-March inspection.
“Most students” benefit from “good teaching, learning and assessment”, and develop “very good practical skills”.
But the quality of apprenticeship provision – the only area not to have been given a grade two – was found to be “not improving rapidly enough”.
The Manchester College went down from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ this week, in a report published April 21 and based on an inspection in early March.
Its apprenticeship provision was rated ‘inadequate’, while “too many” learners on study programmes did not make “rapid enough progress” and teachers took “insufficient account of learners’ individual starting points”.
Also dropping from a grade two to a grade three this week were Richard Taunton Sixth Form College, and independent training providers Francesco Group (Holdings) Ltd, and YH Training Services Ltd.
Independent providers DV8 Training (Brighton) Limited and ProCo NW Limited held on to their grade three ratings this week, while two providers – Sunderland Engineering Training Association Limited and Halton Borough Council – retained their ‘good’ grades following short inspections.
Finally, a monitoring report for Tresham College of Further and Higher Education – its second since its inadequate report published last August – was published on April 18.
Supported learners at East Kent College has taken part in a fashion show celebrating and supporting diversity in the industry.
The students, based at the college’s Folkestone campus, created a collection of second-hand clothing which they debuted on the catwalk.
The collection, called Altered Images, was created from clothes sourced from charity shops, and promoted the idea of cost-effective fashion; hair and make-up students from the college’s Dover campus were also on hand to provide styling for the event.
The show was organised by charity ARRCC – which supports people with physical and sensory impairments.
Jackie Clancy, the college’s programme director of supported learning, said: “It takes a lot of courage to stand up on the catwalk. It has done wonders for their confidence and they have all expressed creativity and enhanced their design skills.”
ARRCC’s deputy CEO Trish Bishop said: “We are doing our best to get the message across that the fashion industry is prone to excluding people with disabilities and we would like that to change.”
Two students from Gloucestershire College have hand-painted a 5ft hare statue that will become part of the annual Cotswold Hare Trail.
‘The Strawberry Thief’
The challenge places more than 80 hare statues across 20 villages, towns and cities in the Cotswolds, with the students’ creation – named ‘The Strawberry Thief’ – positioned in the reception of the college’s Cheltenham campus.
Each hare is sponsored by a local business, individual or community group, and hand-painted by local artists; this year the design brief was the culture, history and heritage of the Cotswolds.
Art foundation studies students Lauren Dutson and Ciara Hinchey painted their hare in the style of the designer William Morris, who lived in the Cotswolds for most of his life and is still celebrated for his floral textile and wallpaper prints.
Florence Beetlestone, founder of the Hare Trail said: “I’m so delighted that the students have got involved, as the Hare Trail is very much about working with art and young people and developing public art education”.
The trail began on March 25 and will run until September. The hares will all go up for auction in October, with the proceeds going to National Star, a disability charity, and to local historical projects in Cotswold towns.
An English college will extend its involvement with the Saudi Arabian Colleges of Excellence programme, squashing rumours that the controversial project was on the cusp of being wound down.
FE Week approached all the English FE providers involved with the scheme, after rumours circulated online that the entire project – to boost technical and vocational training in the middle Eastern country – was set to close this year.
A spokesperson for Lincoln College issued a steadfast denial and said the college “remains committed to operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for at least the next 20 years”.
He challenged the suggestion that CoE, which was launched in 2013 involving a number of English providers, could close this year. The programme was “in no sense in jeopardy”, he added, and was now focused on “the expansion of existing programmes and the opening of new colleges”.
He told FE Week that Lincoln College International had taken over a Technical Trainers College in Riyadh in 2016, increasing student numbers, and introducing a new senior management team. LCI is also in the middle of a tender process to operate this TTC for three more years, and this month it signed a new contract with CoE to deliver English language training in the health sector.
The rumours began in January, when EL Gazette, an international news and media company for the English Language Teaching industry, featured a piece by an English teacher working in the Gulf who reported on “struggles” with the flagship programme.
“Unconfirmed reports on social media suggest this programme, worth £1 billion to the British economy alone, may be scrapped in 2017,” suggested the report.
In total, six FE colleges and an educational organisation in Oxford all confirmed to FE Week that they intend to continue working with CoE.
North Hertfordshire College and Hertfordshire Regional College, which operate together in Saudi as the Hertvec consortium, insisted they would continue supporting their three colleges in the region.
An NHC spokesperson said: “We are proud of the work we are doing to support our Saudi students, and are actively engaged with CoE as they think about the future of technical education in the kingdom for the medium and long-term.”
HRC continues to be Hertvec’s lead shareholder, despite suggestions in 2015 that it might abandon the venture altogether.
However, minutes from an NHC corporation board meeting on September 7, 2015, read: “We have agreed with HRC a 90-day option, to mid Sept, to replace them as a partner in Hertvec.” However, a spokesperson at HRC told FE Week that it is still “totally committed to the joint venture”.
The North East Surrey College of Technology established another Saudi consortium, together with Burton and South Derbyshire College, Highbury College, Birmingham City University and the University of Hull.
The consortium secured a £75 million contract in 2013 to run Saudi Arabia’s first women-only vocational college in Jeddah, and a spokesperson told FE Week that this deal currently extends until July 2018. He said the consortium was “unaware of any specific threats to the future of the [CoE] initiative”.
A spokesperson for Burton and South Derbyshire College said the Nescot Consortium had “worked hard from the outset to understand the needs of students, parents and prospective employers on the ground in the kingdom”.
BCU was unable to comment by the time of going to press, while Highbury College and the University of Hull did not respond to our attempts to make contact.
The final UK consortium, the Oxford Partnership, is chaired by Sally Dicketts, chief executive of Oxford-based educational organisation Activate Learning.
It was created with GEMS Education and Moulton College, and runs four women-only colleges in the kingdom. Ms Dicketts said the colleges are “making a huge impact on the lives of hundreds of women”.
FE Week also attempted to contact CoE, and requested a comment from the Department for International Trade, but neither replied by the time of going to press.
Troubled history of English involvement
But a number of providers dropped out of the programme early on as challenges with operating in the region became apparent.
Colleges of Excellence was founded in 2013 to boost technical and vocational education and training in Saudi Arabia through partnerships with international providers.
Lincoln College was the only college in England to enter the CoE programme on its own, and was awarded a huge contract worth £250 million in 2014 to establish three colleges in the Kingdom.
One of Lincoln College International’s colleges in Saudi Arabia
But Lincoln announced in January 2016 that its two colleges in the Al-Aflaj region would be closed by the end of the month, as was subsequently reported in FE Week.
A statement on its website said: “Unfortunately, the number of students able to participate in this unique education in Al-Aflaj is not sufficient.”
Lincoln also faced some financial hardship in the process of getting its Saudi project off the ground.
In March last year a spokesperson told FE Week there had been “exceptional costs” related to the “initial mobilisation and recruitment for a male college, which was discontinued by CoE and replaced with the female college in Al-Qatif”.
However, when speaking to FE Week on April 19, the spokesperson said: “Lincoln College International will make surplus from 2017 onwards.”
The Hertvec consortium also faced initial challenges in Saudi Arabia after it rapidly lost a member.
The partnership, between Hertford Regional College and North Hertfordshire College, was supposed to be supported by the University of Hertfordshire and the Samama Holdings Group, a Saudi Arabian company specialising in construction and facilities management.
But an enquiry from FE Week revealed the university had pulled out shortly after a bid for the contract was made.
HRC audit committee minutes from March 2015 also showed that a payment of £713,000 due from Saudi Arabia had been delayed for a period.
A Hertvec statement described the first year of the project as “a challenging one, from which we take many invaluable lessons”.
Nescot found itself under a cloud last year when its then-principal Sunaina Mann left her post, after FE Week reported she had paid her husband almost £200,000 in a contract for consultancy work in Saudi Arabia.
FE Week understands Ms Mann still heads the Nescot Consortium’s Jeddah Female College in Saudi, despite cutting ties with the college in the UK.
According to Moulton College corporation board meeting minutes from Jan 26, 2017, the Oxford Partnership recently underwent significant changes, after GEMS Education dropped out and was replaced by a new partner.
The minutes said: “TOP had received final confirmation from the CoE that approval had been given for the new partner Global Dimension for Education Training and GEMS had formally withdrawn from the partnership.”
Both Sally Dicketts, the chair of the partnership, and Moulton College declined to comment, while GEMS Education was unable to respond by the time of going to press.
*Main image: Lincoln College Group chief executive, Gary Headland, with guests and higher education graduates at a graduation ceremony in Riyadh in March this year
The presenter of Channel 4 series First Dates, is heading up a new programme to get young offenders filling hospitality skills gaps.
Presenter Fred Sirieix – who previously worked in Michelin star restaurants as a maître d’ – has established an initiative called ‘The Right Course’, which aims to get prison restaurants operating like high street establishments.
The initiative, which is funded by donations, will prepare young offenders for the world of work, and give them the skills they will need to get into the hospitality industry upon completion of their prison term.
The initiative will be run in partnership with offender learning and skills company Novus, as well as the DM Thomas Foundation, and has already started at HM Prison Isis, an institution for male offenders.
“The whole aim is to reduce reoffending and teach prisoners about service and cooking within prisons so that they can join our industry upon release,” said Sirieix.
“The work we do together with Novus and the DM Thomas Foundation gets young learners to practice delivering high standards that will ultimately make them great professionals.
“Prison environments should be about forgiveness and redemption. We should be educating these young people and instilling strong values within them to underpin it all.”
Main image: Fred Sirieix, centre, with Novus and prison representatives
The principal of Portland College is celebrating a decade at the helm by taking 10 different challenges over 10 months to raise money for a new activity centre.
Mark Dale has been principal of the specialist college in Nottinghamshire since October 2006, and wanted to mark his decade of service by doing something different.
Dressing up as Robin Hood
He hopes to raise £1,000 to pay for a new woodland activity centre at the college with an accessible climbing wall, a zipline and walking paths, which will enable disabled students to access Sherwood Forest nearby.
So far, Mr Dale has dressed up as Robin Hood, and recorded a music video while performing the song ‘I’m Too Sexy’ – a challenge set by students.
Other challenges in the pipeline include losing two stone by September, using a wheelchair for a day and letting learners throw pies at him.
Speaking of his fundraising campaign, dubbed ‘Challenge Mark’, he said: “When the learners challenged me to a series of 10 challenges over 10 months I had to take it up.
“Portland has a wonderful woodland campus in historic Sherwood Forest, linked with the legend of Robin Hood. I am really proud to draw attention to our exciting plans to open up our woodland to disabled people.”
