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BREAKING: Agency writes to apprenticeship providers with further details on non-levy pause

Today the Education and Skills Funding Agency has written to providers regarding non-levy funding for apprenticeship from 1 May (see full ESFA letter below).

After the pause to non-levy allocations, many providers will be relieved that “to maintain stability through the transitional period we will continue to apply current subcontracting rules to the delivery of new starts to non-levy-paying employers through to December 2017.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, told FE Week: “AELP has pressed really hard and constantly for the existing subcontracting rules to remain in place until the end of December because we need stability in the relationships between the main providers and the subcontractors. The Agency’s decision to respond positively to our call is very sensible; otherwise we could have seen massive shifts in relationships unless agreed by both parties.

“However while this element of today’s communication is very helpful, providers will only learn by 25 April what their allocations will be for the remainder of 2017. This is good news, but it only leaves 6 days until 1 May. The notification is vital because providers really need to know what funding they will have available for starts and carry-over learners.”

Full story to follow.

Dear colleague,

Re: Extension of existing apprenticeship contracts for delivery to non-levy employers

We recently published news about the procurement exercise for apprenticeship training provision. I am writing to provide you with further details on the actions we will take to extend existing contracts held by eligible providers. A summary of actions is included at the end of the letter.

Funding Allocations

By 25 April we will confirm your allocations for funding starts to non-levy-paying employers through to December 2017. Your allocation will be for the full 8 months and you will have flexibility to use it over this period. We will issue separate allocations for 16-18 and adult apprenticeships. We will continue our simple approach to calculating your allocations, based on your delivery track record. All existing apprenticeship contract holders will be informed of their allocation so that once they enter RoATP they are able to deliver.

We will also confirm the value of Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) available to you through to the end of July 2017. These will be calculated using our previous allocation method.

Contract Variations

Before 28 April we will vary your existing contract to include funding for new starts from 01 May. These starts will be funded in line with the Apprenticeship Funding and Performance Management Rules 2017 to 2018 and Apprenticeship Technical Funding Guide for starts from May 2017. This means that the rules on co-investment will apply and funding will be calculated using the new funding bands.

To maintain stability through the transitional period we will continue to apply current subcontracting rules to the delivery of new starts to non-levy-paying employers through to December 2017. This is an extension of the existing subcontracting rules with the exception that all subcontractors must have entered the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP) to deliver during this period where they are delivering in excess of £100,000 of apprenticeship delivery.

We will send variations to those providers who have entered the RoATP and have an existing apprenticeship contract. We are currently assessing applications to RoATP following the recent re-opening. Results will be notified and published as early as possible in May 2017. As soon as existing providers enter RoATP they will be able to deliver to non-levy paying employers and will receive a contract variation.

We will vary contracts again in June to extend the contract duration into the 2017 to 2018 funding year and fund new starts until the end of December 2017. This variation will be issued as part of our annual contract cycle.

Performance Management

We will update our Apprenticeship Funding and Performance Management Rules 2017 to 2018 to reflect these transitional arrangements to contract extensions. Our performance management approach will focus on ensuring stability over this period. The rules will set out that we will continue to reduce contracts where performance is below our expectation.

We will continue to update you over the coming weeks. If you have any questions, please refer to your Provider Manager.Your training provision for existing learners that start before 01 May is not affected by this.

Yours sincerely,

Agency boss writes warning letter to all college principals

The outgoing boss of the Education and Skills Funding Agency has fired a warning shot across the bows to all colleges on the importance of reliable financial and data management.

Peter Lauener (pictured above) reminded college principals– or “accounting officers” – of their responsibilities in this area and the consequences of failing to meet them, in a strongly-worded letter [click to read letter] dated April 13 and seen by FE Week.

“Your responsibilities for the regularity, propriety and value for money of your college’s spending decisions underpin the annual assurance given to Parliament about the public money invested in colleges,” he wrote.

“Often our interventions into colleges result because those accountable have not fully understood their personal responsibilities,” he warned.

The ESFA’s recent review of college financial statements indicated that issues with “weak governance, poor leadership by the principal, or ineffective self-assessment” often “contribute to instances of weak financial management”, the letter said.

Mr Lauener highlighted colleges’ ILR returns as an “area where data could be improved” as “rates of error have been higher than in previous years”.

It was “critical” for colleges to “set their budget accurately” and that “this process is subject to appropriate scrutiny by governors”, he said.

The ESFA’s review showed “more colleges under-forecast than over-forecast their current liabilities”.

Mr Lauener wrote: “Robust and accurate profiling of both long and short-term debt is key to institutions’ ability to deliver a sustainable offer to their students, and achieve the best value for money.”

Those colleges rated ‘inadequate’ for financial health “were the least accurate at predicting their final outcome”, he noted.

He urged the accounting officers to discuss the issues in the letter with their board, and set out a number of steps the colleges should take.

These included improving self-assessment, as “our work with colleges in financial difficulty often finds that weak, un-evidenced self-assessment has contributed to delays in spotting potential failures in financial management”.

Mr Lauener’s letter comes as 54 colleges currently have a notice of concern from the ESFA, according to the most recent list published April 13.

Hull College Group chief executive stepped down in March after a report by the FE Commissioner in February exposed a £10 million deficit over four years.

And leaders at City of Liverpool College were heavily criticised for incurring a £15 million deficit, in a letter from skills and apprenticeship minister Robert Halfon in February.

In the same month the Department for Education closed a number of loopholes in the ESFA’s qualification achievement rates calculation, which it said “artificially” boosted the scores for around a tenth of all providers.

Ones to watch at AoC Sport National Championships 2017

With just one day to go until this year’s AoC Sport National Championships kick off in Nottingham, FE Week profiles three of the regional teams tipped to feature prominently in the battle for college sporting supremacy, and what individual stars to keep an eye on.

[You can read full details of the national championships here]

South West

After finishing in top spot at the last two national championships, the south west look set to be strong contenders for the coveted Wilkinson Sword trophy, for the region that collates the most points overall, once again.

The reigning champion’s star team is tipped to be in Volleyball. Both the men’s and women’s sides come from Petroc, a college in Devon.

The women heading to Nottingham are the defending champions after winning the sport in 2016, and the men will look to improve on their bronze medal from last year’s competition in Tyne and Wear.

One to watch for the south west will be Richard Huish College’s men’s rugby team, who have taken the baton from Exeter College for the first time in a number of years.

Exeter brought a bronze medal back from the national championships last year so Richard Huish, in Taunton, know they have big boots to fill, but with pace and power from the likes of Jack Churchill and Vinny Gordon, the team hopes they can take a few teams by surprise.

“This is a great achievement for the players and coaching staff, we have no expectations on them and only ask that they learn and develop through the whole experience to make themselves better players,” said the college’s sports development manager, Matt Nolan.

“It has been a huge achievement reaching the champs for the first time in the college’s history (for men’s rugby), so we are happy to be there, although sneaking a medal would top it off.”

North West

The region was agonisingly close to a podium place at last year’s event but ended up in 4th place.

But they have reason to believe they can go even better this year with a strong line up ready to challenge for honours.

Their star athlete is Olivia Peet from Holy Cross College, who is the favourite for gold in the tennis competition.

At just 16 years old, the student has a hugely impressive background in the sport. She is currently ranked among the top 20 in the country at Under-18 level, and is the number one for her age group in Lancashire, and number two in the county’s women’s rankings.

Added to that, in December she won the Under-18 National Winter tour, and is currently competing in the women’s 15k tour events – the first step to playing on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tour.

Sharing the tennis court will be George Hutchings, from St Mary’s College Blackburn, who is hoping to replicate his brother Charlie’s success of winning gold at last year’s event.

The 16-year-old has represented Great Britain at every age group since Under-10, and is currently ranked number one in Lancashire for U18s, having been crowned the county’s junior champion an impressive seven times. He was also ranked number one nationally at both U12 and U14.

George is confident and believes the experiences passed on from big brother Charlie could serve him well.

“I was really pleased for Charlie to win it last year and it would be great to do the same this year,” he said.

“Charlie has given me some background info to how event is staged, and I have had lots of experience of playing on the Nottingham courts so I am confident of feeling at home when I play.”

Returning to the national championships for the north west will be cross country runner Jessica Rogers from Blackpool and thy Fylde College.

The 17-year-old is currently the number one ranked U20 in Blackpool in both 1500m and 3000m, alongside many other accolades. She has been named her region’s team captain and is hoping to bring home a medal this year after just missing out in 2016.

“Last year’s event was a great opportunity to meet and then compete with the top college runners from across the country and I’m hoping having experienced the event before will stand me in good stead for this year’s race,” she said.

East

Coming off the back of a fifth-placed finish last year, the region will be hopeful of getting among the medals this time out.

Their star athlete, Thomas Pudney from South Essex College, will be among the favourites, along with the north west’s George Hutchings, for the men’s singles tennis title.

The 19-year-old is no stranger to the national championships stage, having reached the semi-finals last year in Newcastle, narrowly missing out on a podium place – and that was while carrying an injury which meant he was originally only due to play one match.

In rugby the Seevic’s men’s team include eight players who took part in last year’s championships where they won silver so will be well versed for the competition this time round.

This year the team has made it to the AoC Sport Premier League play-off final as well as reaching the final of the Essex Cup.

Craig Davidson, head of learning for sport at Seevic, said: “Preparations have been hectic to say the least, but I know head coach Danny Cleare has had the boys in over Easter to start our preparations for the tournament.”

Winger George Griffiths is pipped as Seevic’s main danger man.

“George has electric speed and is returning for a second year having been an important part of the squad that won the silver medal last year,” Mr Davidson said.

The finals

Around 1,650 student athletes will compete in the national finals, described as the “pinnacle of the college sporting calendar”.

In total, there will be 10 regions competing for the Wilkinson Sword, the others being East Midlands, West Midlands, London, South East, Wales, North East, and Yorkshire and Humber.

Competitions in 13 sports will run from April 21 to 23.

FE Week will once again be there for the full weekend, as media partner, reporting on all of the developments.

£1.6 billion bids for ‘markedly oversubscribed’ non-levy procurement

The total value of bids lodged through the now-paused procurement for apprenticeship provision allocations for non-levy-paying employers was around £1.6 billion, almost four times more than the sum available, FE Week has learned.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency announced on April 12, that the decision over funding allocations relating to this procurement had been be paused, to allow more time for the situation to be reviewed.

Providers had been bidding for a share of a funding pot worth up to £440 million. But FE Week has now learned that interest in this funding stream appeared to be much higher than the government had anticipated, with actual bids amounting to around £1.6 billion.

The ESFA said, when it announced the pause, that “this procurement was markedly oversubscribed, a sign of the significant level of interest from the training provider market in the apprenticeship reforms.”

“In response, ESFA intends to pause the current competition. This will allow us to review our approach to ensure that we achieve the right balance between stability of supply, and promoting competition and choice for employers.”

The ESFA confirmed at the time that it would extend existing contracts held by current providers, to help minimise resulting disruption.

It said: “In order to maintain stability in the system through the start of the next academic year, in the interim period we will extend existing contracts held by all current providers until the end of December 2017.

“To maintain our quality standards, current providers with extended contracts will be able to undertake new starts on those contracts provided they are on the new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers.”

The government also announced at the time that it would notify providers of “specific arrangements shortly”, so that amended contracts are in place ahead of May 1.

FE Week asked the Department for Education and ESFA this morning, for clarification on when it would be providing the sector with any new guidance.

But a spokesperson said it could not at this time give a specific date, only that it would be published “shortly”.

The DfE, which had previously been due to release the non-levy paying procurement results on March 14, would also not confirm or deny the accuracy of the £1.6 billion figure.

A key area of extra guidance expected would relate to whether the EFSA will be delaying its planned rule changes towards subcontracting, and how the system will work in the interim.

The procurement pause left many of those who were applying for a contract for the first time frustrated, as reported in FE Week, with them claiming they now found themselves facing an uncertain future until further announcements are made.

FE Week estimates that as it stands over 400 main providers on RoATP (a third of the 1,303) will now not be able to directly deliver to over 98 per cent of the non-levy employers from May.

All main providers on RoATP without existing contracts, will be able to continue to subcontract with a lead provider to access the non-levy funding.

However, there has been no indication yet that the tighter subcontracting rules from May, whereby the lead provider must deliver some training for the employer, are being paused or delayed.

Reflecting wider concerns, when the announcement was made on April 12, FE Week reader Lee Morris also commented: “Does anyone know if non-levy employers will still have to make the 10 per cent contribution?”

This concern was reflected today by Mark Dawe, who warned this morning: “We need confirmation as soon as possible for the providers on the register that the co-investment rules will apply from May 1.”

The government announced last August that nearly all employers will only have to contribute 10 per cent to the cost of an apprenticeship from April 2017.

This meant the government would pay 90 per cent of the costs for 98 per cent of employers, those with annual wage bills below £3 million and thus not paying the levy.

Mr Dawe added today: “We believe that a pause in introducing the new subcontracting rules alongside the pause in the non-levy apprenticeship procurement does not involve a change in government policy and the ESFA can implement this by informing providers during the [general election] purdah period. Now is not the time to destabilize the provider supply base and good existing relationships between employers and providers.”

He spoke out amid sector concern that key apprenticeship reform announcements and other reforms could be disrupted and delayed, following the imposition of civil service purdah which FE Week understand will come into play from Friday.

This came after Prime Minister Theresa May announced today that she will call a snap election on June 8 this year, with resulting purdah limiting how the civil service announces politically sensitive matters until after the public ballot.

Editor asks: Halfon answers three key questions after snap election announcement

Tonight, the Institute for Apprenticeships held a launch event in London at Mansion House. The apprenticeships and skills minister, Robert Halfon, was there to deliver a congratulatory speech. Afterwards, against a backdrop of the snap election announcement and as the event continued around us, I had the opportunity for a short interview and asked him three topical questions.

Future of the 3m apprenticeship starts target

The Conservative manifesto in 2015 committed to three million apprenticeship starts by 2020. Given the snap election announced today, I asked the minister what happens now to the target.

The minister said he “wasn’t going to comment on that” as he “didn’t know what was going to be in the manifesto” but went on to say: “I’m very proud that we’ve got 900,000 apprenticeships in our country at the moment. Highest on record”

I pressed him on whether he wanted an apprenticeship starts target to be in the new manifesto, even whether it should be increased to 4m. He said it was “a very good question” but would only add that he “would love millions of quality apprenticeships – definitely.”

Lack of English and maths policy shift

Last November the minister and Secretary of State Justine Greening indicated at the AoC annual conference that the policy on forced GCSE English and maths resits for grade D students wasn’t working. The following month the Ofsted annual report was also critical of the policy that was introduced last year.

So, I asked why, as reported in FE Week, the 2017/18 rules on mandatory GCSE English and maths resits remain unchanged.

After a long pause, the minister would only say: “If there wasn’t an election [announcement] today I would say there is a lot more work to do and watch this space.”

Impact of the pause to the non-levy procurement process

The Education and Skills Funding Agency was due to share the results of the £440m non-levy funding procurement process on 14 March, but after a delay of nearly a month they announced last Wednesday they were ‘pausing’ the process until the end of 2017.

Those already holding an SFA contract would have it extended during the pause. But, as reported in FE Week, there are estimated to be around 400 providers (typically subcontractors) that in May will not have direct access to funding for more than 98 percent of employers, those that do not pay the levy. Many are hoping the agency will also pause changes to the subcontracting rules to allow existing arrangements to continue. Some, those with current allocations that did not make it onto the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers are also calling for its use to be paused.

Despite the promise of further guidance and clarification, nothing has yet been published.

So I asked the minister, about the “concern, confused and worried” providers after the pause was announced and what happens now.

He said “Well, exactly what we said in the press release that went out. It’s been paused until December”.

I pressed the minister on the hundreds of providers that applied for an allocation and now won’t have direct funding to non-levy funding in May. Do they go bust?

The minister repeated “we paused it until December and we will set out… well… again… election. If there hadn’t been an election [announcement] we would set out what was going to happen.”

I pressed again, asking what FE Week readers really want an answer to. Does the minister accept that following the procurement pause there are now several hundred apprenticeship providers that don’t know if they have a business from May?

“What I accept is that we’ve listened and we’ve extended this until December to make sure that we listened to the concerns that were set out and that’s exactly what we’ve done” said the minister.

Government to ‘formally intervene’ at 35 providers with achievement rate failures

More than 30 private training providers, colleges and councils have been slapped with a notice of concern or serious breach, for falling below qualification achievement rate thresholds.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has today published an update list of providers given the notice, which for the first time lists those providers now subject to formal intervention for failing 2015/16 achievement rate minimum standards. Twenty private training providers have been given a notice of serious breach and 15 colleges and councils a notice of concern (see list compiled by FE Week below).

The Approach to Intervention document states for training providers: “We will identify the colleges and other training organisations that have failed to meet minimum standards in apprenticeships or classroom and workplace provision. We will then decide whether to intervene formally.”

It adds: “If we issue a notice of serious breach, it will set out the conditions necessary to continue to receive public funds. Failure to meet the conditions in the notice will lead to contract termination.”

For colleges and local authorities that receive the notice of concern, it says: “We would not usually refer a college or institution to the FE commissioner for review if the only trigger it fails is minimum standards, but we reserve the right to do so.”

The qualification achievement rate minimum standard qualification achievement rate thresholds for 2015/26 for can be viewed here, and are repeated below.

No information has been published as to whether the notice was issued for apprenticeship and/or classroom delivery, nor if it relates to the revised achievement rate calculations that led to an overall fall, as reported in FE Week.

The National Achievement Rate Tables should have been published last month, which includes the rates for qualifications at providers. When asked this week about the 2015/16 NART publication delay, the Department for Education would only say they would be published “in due course”.

See next edition of FE Week for more information and reaction.

I have made member feelings abundantly clear to the Agency’s leadership about the non-levy pause

Statement to members, reproduced here with permission

Although most of the feedback from members that I have received about yesterday’s ESFA announcement supports AELP’s initial response welcoming the paused non-levy procurement, I am acutely aware of the level of frustration at the latest turn of events and that not all providers are happy about it. Last night I made those feelings abundantly clear to the Agency’s leadership.

We were hoping for some more clarity in a further statement today from ESFA. Arguably the biggest issue concerns the position of the new main providers who will be denied new direct business while the pause is in place. These providers can still deliver levy payers’ apprenticeships but we urgently need a statement on the subcontracting arrangements that will be permitted after 1 May.

To all providers who understandably feel that their considerable time and effort was wasted on the ITT, there are two things to say in response. Firstly in the Agency’s own words, this is a ‘formal pause before they recommence it’. In other words, the scoring of your bid may still be taken into account in the final outcome. But the important point to recognise, especially in the case of current main providers, is that the £440m tender was massively over-subscribed. So even if your bid scored top marks, there would have been very little chance of getting what you bid for. Yesterday’s announcement may even allow for contract growth between now and the end of 2017 and therefore most main providers will benefit from the pause.

We were hoping for some more clarity in a further statement today from ESFA

Some providers have been critical of AELP’s position but we would argue that we have been entirely consistent given what we have been told publicly and privately in recent months. We have regularly said that the DfE and ESFA have been far too ambitious in trying to introduce too many funding, quality, standards and assessment reforms for apprenticeships at the same time. Our watchwords were ‘evolution, rather than revolution’ and MPs on the joint Business and Education select committee for skills clearly agreed with us in their sobering report a fortnight ago. The decision to run the ITT certainly fell foul of those watchwords and AELP said months ago that existing contracts should be extended at least until August of this year.

With regard to the specifics of yesterday’s announcement, it is obvious that the government simply ran out of time and hence the lack of detail in it. No one should be in any doubt that the reaction to the publication of the first RoATP list had a direct impact on the planned release of the non-levy allocations. In fact it threw everything up in the air. Ministers and officials have burnt the midnight oil on a Plan B but in the end they had to concede that the pause was the most sensible solution available to them.

Some providers have been critical of AELP’s position but we would argue that we have been entirely consistent

Senior AELP colleagues and I have been literally in daily contact with DfE and ESFA officials since the Register was published and we have been trying to get answers to the questions arising from the RoATP application process being reopened immediately and the implications for non-levy contracts. They have been willing to share some information with us but, fearful of leaks to the press, not all. Any pertinent information has been passed on to members in Countdown. The problem though with the limited information being shared is that we are not always able to point out any obvious pitfalls in the government’s line of thinking before an announcement is made.

We said to the ESFA last night that they need to say something at least about the subcontracting rules. Without a pause in the changes to subcontracting rules, the proposed way forward will be significantly undermined. AELP has made this view very clear and the ESFA fully understands the concern. Having said that, we are unlikely to get clarity until next week. With the support of the AELP Board’s Funding Group, we are already logging some very important questions to put to officials early next week. If you have any that you wish us to consider plus any other views, please email: apprenticeships@aelp.org.uk.

We said to the ESFA last night that they need to say something at least about the subcontracting rules

Only a few months after the huge concerns arising from the August consultation proposals for funding 16-18 apprenticeships, I recognise that for some members your Easter break has been spoilt by these latest developments and that your strategic business planning has to be revisited again when all you want to be doing is going out to engage with new employers and take on new apprentices. But on balance, we feel that the ESFA announcement yesterday was the correct option and AELP will now do everything it can to work with the government to ensure that there is a long-term solution that is sustainable for employers of all sizes, those wishing to start an apprenticeship and for providers without whom the whole programme reform process would collapse.

I urge members to keep feeding us your views via the email address above and in the meantime, I hope you have a pleasant weekend.

Government adds Birmingham college to register of apprenticeship providers

After significant political pressure the Department for Education has added one of the Birmingham colleges onto the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP).

At least one provider had already gone bust when the register was first published, so FE Week yesterday asked the Department for Education why there had been no revision to the list of providers with permission to start apprentices next month.

Today the register was quietly revised, something only clear from the file name which was previously roatp-2017-03-18 and is now roatp-2017-04-13, although the provider that went bust was still included.

However, three new ‘main’ providers had been added, including South & City College Birmingham. The other two are private training providers: Norfolk Training Services Limited and The IT Skills Management Company Limited.

It is understood the change of heart follows a new DfE process to revisit applications in exceptional circumstances. In this case, we understand the rethink came about because of pre-existing Treasury Transaction Unit funding arrangements, which were agreed on the basis that apprenticeship delivery would be needed for a viable future.

In the case of Norfolk Training Services Limited, a source has told FE Week that the decision to overturn the rejection related to the way the RoATP Ofsted grade rules were being interpreted for an inspection which has yet to be published.

FE Week was first to report that none of the eligible major colleges in Birmingham (Birmingham Metropolitan College, Bournville College, South and City College and Solihull College) had made it onto RoATP when it was first published in March.

At the time David Hughes, AoC’s chief executive, said he was “concerned about the exclusion of some high-quality colleges from the register”.

And a spokesperson for South and City College said “we were very shocked to discover that our application had been unsuccessful, given our grade two Ofsted report and excellent track record.”

Several local Labour MPs had also expressed outrage, along with the shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden and the Labour mayoral candidate for the West Midlands Sion Simon, also reported in FE Week.

Gisela Stuart MP and Jack Dromey MP raised questions in parliament with Ms Stuart, the MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, saying their absence from the register was “destroying technical education for 16-year-olds in the West Midlands”.

And Mr Dromey, the MP for Birmingham Erdington, asked the skills minister Robert Halfon to meet with the 10 MPs representing Britain’s second city to discuss the issue. Mr Dromey told FE Week that the decision to exclude the colleges “on the basis of the answer to one question is inexplicable”.

“The process is fundamentally flawed and it is essential that the SFA thinks again,” he said. Roger Godsiff, the MP for Birmingham Hall Green, said the process for applying to the register “smacked of a box-ticking exercise”.

He told FE Week that the Birmingham colleges had been “given to understand that the SFA would engage with them if their application was deficient in some form” but “all of them say that the SFA didn’t”.

Meanwhile, Richard Burden, the MP for Birmingham Northfield, said the omission was “shocking and out of order” – but added that it “can be nothing other than a mistake”.

Sion Simon, the Labour candidate for mayor of the West Midlands, has launched a campaign to overturn the decision, after just three of the county’s 16 colleges made it onto the register. “This decision will all but end technical education for young people in the West Midlands as we know it,” he said.

Although the RoATP application process was immediately reopened following its first publication, it is not believed these new additions are a result of a second attempt at applying.

At the time of publication neither the college nor the DfE had been approached for comment.

So see the next edition of FE Week for further information and reaction.

Excitement builds ahead of AoC Sport National Championships 2017

Excitement is building for this year’s AoC Sport National Championships as around 1,650 student athletes make their final preparations for the major event that kicks off next weekend.

The sporting stars will head to Nottingham to compete in the 39th national championships, described as the “pinnacle of the college sporting calendar”, after successfully battling through regional heats during the autumn term.

Competitions will run from April 21 to 23 and following tradition, the golf tournament will swing proceedings into action at around 10am on the Friday, shortly followed by the start of the 12 other sports – including squash, football and hockey.

That evening the opening ceremony will start at around 8pm and will this year be compered by ex-professional wheelchair basketball player, Jordan Jarrett-Bryan.

Mr Jarrett-Bryan, who commentated on the Paralympics at Rio last year and is a sports reporter for Channel 4, will then be on hand throughout the weekend passing down his knowledge to athletes and volunteers working at the event.

Over the Saturday and Sunday the students from FE and sixth form colleges across England and Wales will compete in badminton, cricket, rugby, tennis, volleyball, basketball, cross country, netball, and table tennis.

While going for gold in their own sport, the athletes will also vie for points for their region.

The region whose teams and individuals accumulate the most points will win the coveted Wilkinson Sword trophy.

Last year’s competition, held across Tyne and Wear with over under 1,800 participants, saw the South West claim the trophy, with the South East in second place and West Midlands third.

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The winners of this year’s event will be awarded at the closing ceremony on Sunday afternoon which will start at around 2pm.

Looking ahead to the national championships, George Hutchings, a North West tennis player from St Mary’s College Blackburn, is hoping to replicate his brother Charlie’s success of winning gold at last year’s event.

“I was really pleased for Charlie to win it last year and it would be great to do the same this year,” he said. “Whilst there is always some rivalry between brothers, all I can do is play my best to beat what is in front of me.

“I am expecting the competition to be tough but I am confident that if I play my best I have a good chance of winning. I try to focus more on my performance than the result and I know from experience that matches are won on the outcome of a few decisive points.”

Meanwhile Dominic O’Neill, men’s basketball coach for Carmel College in the North West, is expecting a “fantastic experience” for his players.

Ahead of the event he said: “To have the opportunity to represent the North West region in only our second year of existence as a basketball program is a fantastic testimony to all the students and staff that have worked tirelessly to ensure these boys are successful on the court and off the court.

“Competing in the AoC Sport National Championships is going to be an excellent reward for not only the players and myself as a coach, but as a whole college going forward.”

The AoC Sport National Championships 2017 will be run in collaboration with Nottingham Conferences – the event delivery arm of the University of Nottingham – as well as Sport Nottinghamshire, Nottingham City Council and tourism agency Experience Nottinghamshire.

The University of Nottingham’s brand new David Ross Sports Village will host a number of sports throughout the weekend, while others will take place at the Nottingham Wildcats Arena, Trent Bridge, Nottingham Hockey Centre and Nottingham Tennis Centre.

AoC Sport managing director, Marcus Kingwell, said: “We are delighted to be able to confirm the University of Nottingham as hosts for the 2017 AoC Sport National Championships.

“Ours will be the first major multi-sports event to take place at the David Ross Sports Village, and we believe the standard of the facilities will provide students with an incredible experience.

“We could even see a future Olympic champion in action at the championships.”

FE Week headed to Tyne and Wear for the 2016 National Championships last April and will once again be there for the full weekend, as media partner, reporting on all of the developments with around 1,650 competitors expected.

AoC Sport is a membership organisation launched in August 2014 which campaigns for every college student to participate regularly in sport or physical activity.