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Exclusive: Still no assessment organisations approved for over half apprenticeships

More than half of apprenticeship standards approved for delivery still have no approved assessment organisation, FE Week analysis of latest government data has shown.

Former top skills civil servant Dr Sue Pember, who is now director of policy at adult learning provider membership body Holex, said it was “morally wrong” of the Skills Funding Agency to let learners to begin new apprenticeships without an approved AO for their end point assessments.

She hit out after FE Week found there were only 63 standards with an approved AO to do the end point assessment, out of 147 granted final approval by the government and are therefore available for learners to start on.

Our analysis of figures out today on AOs has now shown there are still 78 standards without one, which amounts to just over 50 per cent of the total approved for delivery (see table below).

The lack of progress is despite assurances last month from apprenticeships minister Robert Halfon, as well Skills Funding Agency boss Peter Lauener, that the government was working hard to speed up the approval process – with the current state of play described as “not ideal” but “manageable”.

After being presented with our analysis, Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, told FE Week this morning: “Our concern is that there will still be a major shortage when the levy starts.

“The new system also adds significantly extra cost to delivering an apprenticeship and without a good choice of EPA organisations, monopoly or duopoly pricing for EPA will take funding away from providing high quality training for the apprentice.

“More importantly, it is simply wrong for an apprentice to start a programme without knowing how they are going to be assessed.”

Mr Halfon was grilled by MPs on the topic during a sub-committee on education, skills and the economy evidence session on apprenticeships on November 2.

He told MPs: “Even where there isn’t an assessment organisation yet, we’re pretty sure that by the time they’ve finished their apprenticeship, which could be on year, two years, they will have the assessment organisation in place.

“Huge amounts of resources are being put in in terms of working with the providers; a lot of work is going on with the employers to make sure of that.”

Mr Lauener provoked a dismayed reaction the previous day at the AELP winter conference, when he told delegates that having no approved AOs for over 40 per cent of learner starts was not a major problem.

He added: “There are 4,200 starts on standards, and there are 800,000 apprentices, so come on, let’s get this in proportion.”

“We don’t expect any of the apprentices that are in training at the moment to reach their end-point assessment without having an end-point assessor provider rightly in place,” he said.

“That’s what I would regard as a disgrace, if we were to get anywhere near that – we’re not in position, we don’t think we will get to that position as of the changes we’re making.”

Dr Pember was highly critical of government progress with this back in October.

She said: “I think it’s really morally wrong to start an apprentice on a programme when you don’t know how they are going to be tested at the end.

“You wouldn’t start somebody on the equivalent of an A-level without knowing the assessment at the end.”

An SFA spokesperson said: “We are making sure that all end-point assessments meet our rigorous quality standards and we carefully scrutinise every application to ensure this is the case.

“Of those standards with current apprentice starts, 86 per cent have an end-point assessment organisation available to them. This rises to 96 per cent of all apprentice starts who are expected to reach their gateway within the next 12 months.

“We are working towards all standards having end-point assessment organisations by the time the apprenticeship reforms begin in April.”

Mass delays to publication of special needs learner plans spark calls for government intervention

“Very concerning” delays with councils delivering education health and care plans (EHCP) for young people with special needs, which could deprive many of FE support from January, have sparked calls for a government crackdown.

Local authorities are legally obliged to put in place the new plans for young people in FE and training – which are different to previous learning difficulties assessment (LDA) recommendations.

They were given until the end of August to do this for 19 to 25-year-olds.

An extension until December 31 was subsequently provided by the Department for Education – but this was only supposed to apply in “exceptional circumstances”.

Despite this, freedom of information request responses indicate that less than 30 local authorities across the country had transferred all their learners by the August deadline – with 10 failing to transfer a single one by that date.

Sue Pember, director of policy and external relations at local authority community learning services membership body HOLEX, told FE Week: “EHCPs trigger the right level of support and funding.

“They are there as the key tool to help ensure our most vulnerable young people have the right education and training.

“If the local authorities can’t do it, then DFE should step in and sort the issue out.”

She added: “Because there is no fundamental issue with the actual task of doing an EHCP, the only reasons we can see for them not being done is local authorities not prioritising and not having a enough ‎trained staff.

“The‎ reason behind giving this job to them was supposedly they were best placed to do it. They would/ should have known the student from a young age and would have been supporting them through school and therefore reassessment at 16 should have been relatively straightforward.”

Liz Maudslay, policy manager for special education needs at the Association of Colleges, which launched a ‘year of mental health’ in colleges at the organisation’s annual conference last month, said: “It is very concerning that a number of local authorities have not yet transferred students with learning difficulties and disabilities, who have an assessment, onto an education heath and care plan.

“Local authorities must do much more to help get the right support in place as soon as possible.”

Thomas Mitchell, a specialist education law solicitor at Simpson Millar, which lodged the FOIs, added urgent action was needed to stop young people with special needs bearing the brunt in the new year, if their ECHPs have not been completed.

He warned: “If all EHCPs aren’t in place by December 31, these young people could find themselves without the necessary college support or placements.”

The DfE told local authorities over the summer that justification for delaying EHCPs in “exceptional circumstances” should “avoid any disruption to high needs support”.

But it stressed: “These cases should be the exception not the rule, and cases where an EHCP assessment is still underway by September 1 should be particularly exceptional.”

The FOI responses by 136 local authorities indicated that almost as many learners did not have an EHC by the original deadline, as the number who had one – 4,529 compared to 5,336.

LDAs were replaced with EHCPs for all new FE learners with support needs from 2014.

Previous guidance for local authorities, published by the DfE, said: “All young people who receive support as a result of an LDA who will continue in FE or training beyond September 1, 2016, must have an EHCP by that date where one is needed.”

A DfE spokesperson told FE Week today: “We have brought about the biggest changes to special educational needs and disability provision in a generation and are increasing overall high needs funding.

“We allowed some funding flexibility in exceptional circumstances for local authorities in transferring 19 to 25-year-olds who had LDAs last year to ECHPs. This was to safeguard the interests of young people and ensure their high needs provision was not disrupted.”

She added that “19-25 year olds need the plans to be eligible for high needs funding. However, we allowed some funding flexibility to this rule, ‎in exceptional circumstances”.

The Local Government Association declined to comment on the delays.

New plans for police constable apprenticeships unveiled

A police constable degree apprenticeship could help aspiring officers to meet new requirements for a degree level qualification to enter the profession from 2020, according to an announcement from the College of Policing today.

The apprenticeship would be paid for by the force and take three years to complete, with the aim of better preparing officers for the “increasingly complex” nature of police work.

Graduates would be able to take a six month graduate programme, which would also be paid for by the police force, and there would be other opportunities to study a specific policing degree at university.

The promotion structure within the police force would also change, to support officers to gain further qualifications as they climb the ladder.

All newly promoted sergeants, for example, would undergo a 12-month higher-level apprenticeship in leadership and management and be confirmed in post when they completed the course.

Newly promoted superintendents would complete a master’s apprenticeship, and officers seeking the rank of assistant chief constable or above will require a master’s before applying.

Chief constable Alex Marshall, the College of Policing chief executive officer, said the nature of police work “has changed significantly”.

He said: “Cyber-enabled crime has increased. So has the need for officers and staff to investigate and gather intelligence online and via information technology.

“Protecting vulnerable people has rightly become a high priority for policing. Officers and staff now spend more of their time working to prevent domestic abuse, monitor high-risk sex offenders and protect at-risk children.”

He added: “We recognise that the strengths of policing include its accessibility as a career to people of all backgrounds and it being a vocation. We want to preserve these strengths.

“But we also want to ensure that the increasingly complex activities undertaken by people working in policing are properly recognised.”

The College of Policing recently carried out a consultation on a programme of work to design a Policing Education Qualifications Framework.

It received over 3,000 responses, almost 80 per cent of which were from police officers.

Nearly three quarters of the respondents in policing said they were interested in gaining accreditation for their existing skills.

If approved the planned changes are expected in pilot form in 2017, when the College of Policing will also publish a directory of education qualifications for officers and staff, including guidance as to how their on-the-job experience counts towards recognition.

The directory will also include advice on what funding may be available to support them.

Mr Marshall said: “Our plans will future-proof policing so that, as it becomes more complex, officers will be accredited to the appropriate standard.

“Regardless of which force they’re in, they’ll know that their skills and knowledge match those of colleagues elsewhere in the country.”

Governors back first sixth form college merger with multi-academy trust

Governors from the Sixth Form College Solihull have voted to press ahead with plans to join forces with a network of local schools – in what looks set to be the first ever union between a SFC and multi-academy trust.

The merger with Ninestiles Academy Trust – which currently includes seven schools across Birmingham and Solihull – is expected to complete before the start of next academic year, depending on final government approval.

The SFC was most recently rated ‘good’ by Ofsted in 2013, while the trust’s lead school, Ninestiles An Academy, was graded ‘outstanding’ in the same year.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association (pictured left), told FE Week: “Having a high performing SFC at the centre of a multi academy trust means that students will receive a seamless, specialist education at all levels.

“This makes a lot more sense than secondary academies establishing their own sixth forms as we know that many lack the expertise or scale to thrive.”

The SFC and academy trust first began merger talks in early 2015 and a spokesperson said the proposal was backed by the government following the Birmingham and Solihull area review, between September 2015 and March 2016.

At separate meetings held simultaneously yesterday on December 13, both boards voted to move forward to the next stage of their merger.

It means they will now jointly submit a formal application to the DfE, requesting the college converts to academy status and joins the trust.

Paul Ashdown, principal of the SFC (pictured above), said: “I believe strongly that this merger would bring together our existing and complementary strengths to create an all-through expertise which would drive and sustain a system of excellence.

“As part of a strong trust, we would also be able to secure and enhance the outstanding educational opportunities we provide to young people from schools all across Birmingham and Solihull.”

Martyn Collin, interim chief executive officer at Ninestiles Academy Trust, said: “By joining forces, we would be able to offer children the unique opportunity of accessing a learning pathway which will lead them on a journey remaining within one network of educational establishments from aged three right up until they are 19 years old.”

Other SFCs have moved into mergers in the last year, including Prior Pursglove College, in North Yorkshire and Stockton Sixth Form College, in Stockton-on-Tees, which joined together as Prior Pursglove and Stockton Sixth Form College in May.

The resulting institution is currently pursuing academisation.

Shrewsbury College also joined forces with Shrewsbury Sixth Form College in July, with another merger proposed between Hartlepool College and Hartlepool Sixth Form College.

Mr Kewin said: “SFCs are at various different stages of the academisation process, and some at the most advanced stage have already concluded their formal consultation.

“Most are likely to establish their own multi-academy trust and will use this as the vehicle to help drive up standards in local schools.

“A smaller number will join an existing multi-academy trust or establish a single academy trust.”

Minimal impact of schools’ careers advice on progression to FE exposed

Careers advice in schools is having little to no impact on young people’s decisions to stay on into FE, a new study has revealed.

The disappointing results of Edge Foundation and City & Guilds report come over 18 months since the government launched the Careers and Enterprise Company, to help 12 to 18-year-olds “access the best advice and inspiration about the world of work by encouraging greater collaboration between schools and colleges and employers”.

It showed that 62 per cent of 16 to 19-year-old respondents believed the decision to study in FE would help them to go on to get a good job.

But just one per cent said careers advice at school had been the most important factor in their choice to study in the sector.

Around a quarter of young people in FE, the findings also indicated, still rely on their parents as their main source of careers guidance, while only 16 per cent of learners would turn to their institution’s careers service for information about the job market.

Over 30 per cent of apprentices said their employers were their first port of call for details about the workplace.

Well over half (57 per cent) of respondents said they wanted more information from employers, while 44 per cent called for more presentations by representatives of colleges and schools.

The findings make up the first wave of results from a longitudinal study of learners in vocational education undertaken by the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick and commissioned by the Edge Foundation and City & Guilds.

Further waves will focus on employment status, job satisfaction, wages and intentions towards further study.

Over 600 young people aged 16-19 took part, including college-based students in full or part-time study and apprentices engaged in work-based learning.

Chief executive of the Edge Foundation, Alice Barnard, said: “The poor quality of careers information, advice and guidance is compromising students’ choices and leaving a significant proportion of young people with no sense of direction for their future.

“Naturally you expect young people to seek advice from mum and dad, but many parents and carers will just not know enough about the range of career or learning opportunities to be the main influencer in such an important decision.

She added: “There are currently over 650,000 19-24 year olds who are not in education, employment or training, and I fear this number will rise further unless young people can access quality careers information.”

Kirstie Donnelly, managing director of City & Guilds (pictured right), added: “Sadly these findings come as no shock to me.

“Last year we commissioned a study among 14-19 year olds and found a similarly worrying picture of patchy or incorrect careers advice, and a complete lack of understanding among young people about the breadth of the jobs market.”

She said: “This report adds to the growing canon of evidence that there is a postcode lottery for careers advice for young people.”

On December 2, FE Week reported that the colleges and local enterprise partnerships included in the Careers and Enterprise Company’s “enterprise adviser network” also revealed a postcode lottery for FE coverage, with 15 LEPs not covered – and London completely absent.

Claudia Harris, the company’s chief executive, confirmed that it did not work with any of the capital’s 44 FE and sixth form colleges.

She said the company was working with “nearly all” local enterprise partnerships across the country, but the list of colleges that FE Week saw listed just 24 of the 39 LEPs.

MPs investigating how colleges can better support students over mental health issues

A new joint parliamentary select committee inquiry, into how education can help prevent mental health problems among young people, will look at issues faced by college students.

MPs from both the education and health committees will look at how a broad range of education providers, including colleges, can help prevent, or minimise problems through early intervention.

This will include looking into how teachers and other professionals can be trained to recognise signs of mental illness and support pupils when problems occur.

It comes after Ian Ashman, Association of Colleges president, announced in November that he would dedicate his term in office to tackling what he described as the “massive increase” in mental health support needs of college students.

The inquiry, which has been welcomed by the YoungMinds charity, will also look into how far social media and the internet, through cyber building and peer pressure, contributes to such issues among young people.

Neil Carmichael MP (pictured above), chair of the education committee, said: “The undoubted increase in the number of young people suffering from mental health issues is extremely alarming.

“Children are not able to access the services and get the help they need at an early stage. Some only receive support from under pressure mental health services once their condition has worsened.”

He said that colleges have a “key part” to play in tackling this problem, and the joint committee will examine what their role – alongside schools – should be.

“It could be providing better access to counselling, promoting responsible social media use and training teachers to spot early warning signs, for example.

“But they cannot be expected to do this alone, so we will also be considering what support and resources these education settings will need if they are to successfully boost the emotional wellbeing of pupils and prevent the development of mental health issues.”

Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, chair of the Health Committee, said: “In the last Parliament I chaired an inquiry into children’s and adolescents’ mental health services.

“The service has long been seriously underfunded and is unable to meet demand, leaving many young people without the help they need. Lack of timely help means that young people can sometimes only access help when they have become seriously unwell.”

Sarah Brennan, chief executive of YoungMinds warned of the “huge range of pressures” faced by students.

This, she explained, ranged for example from exam pressures to body image worries and “bullying and around-the-clock social media”.

“These pressures can take their toll on the mental health of young people with wider impacts on their education and wellbeing,” she added. “Childhood and teenage years are a critical period of development. So a child with good mental health is much more likely to have good mental health as an adult.

Mr Ashman welcomed the inquiry, and said: “We are pleased to see that the Education Select Committee is launching an inquiry into the role of education supporting young people to help prevent mental health problems.

“Colleges are perfectly placed to help local NHS services to tackle issues of mental health, but sadly this opportunity is not taken up equally across the country. There is a postcode lottery in whether the local NHS trusts make use of colleges to support their work, but where it is done, it’s very successful.

“Supporting young people with mental health issues can be a very sensitive issue but colleges also promote wellbeing across their campuses to help all students to develop resilience and be prepared for whatever life throws at them.”

The committees are inviting written submissions on the following via the inquiry webpage:

Promoting emotional wellbeing, building resilience, and establishing and protecting good mental health
Support for young people with mental health problems
Building skills for professionals
Social media and the internet

How big should the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education be?

It’s time to create a directory of all the apprenticeship standards and technical qualifications that need to be developed, says Graham Hasting-Evans.

In order to establish how big the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education should to be, we need to know how many apprenticeship standards and technical qualifications will have to be developed, quality-assured and managed.

There are currently some 1,700 existing apprenticeship job roles in England, excluding higher and degree apprenticeships, and the best estimate is that if we continue with the present Trailblazer approach, there will eventually be up to 2,500 standards.

And, as Peter Lauener, the interim CEO of IfA-TE, said at the recent AoC conference, the government does not, as yet, have a list of apprenticeship standards that will be needed.

Now let’s look at the other component: technical qualifications. In June 2016 Ofqual reported that as a result of the way such qualifications are recorded between England and Wales, the total number of registered qualifications has risen from 21,676 to 31,600.

This means that the number of technical qualifications likely to come out of the Post-16 Skills Plan process – bearing in mind that already there appear to be duplications between the ideas in the Sainsbury Report and what is happening in Trailblazers – could be very large indeed!

This all presents a worrying, complex picture. No wonder employers and learners find it confusing.

So how are we going to reform the skills system and avoid ending up with a different but equally confusing picture?

No wonder employers and learners find it confusing

I believe we have to start by recognising how people get into and develop their careers. Government is planning to have four main career path routes to our destination (or ‘first-base’) job, namely:

‘Academic’, or what might be seen as the traditional route, following GSCEs, A-levels and university.

‘Apprenticeships’, which in essence is a defined period of learning and skills development that results in qualifying in a defined job role.

‘Technical education’, which involves learning beyond A-level but not necessary to a full degree level.

‘Work-based learning’, where someone gets a job and, generally, goes through a short training course, perhaps supplemented with additional ad-hoc training at a later stage.

We have to understand which route is the best for what employers and the economy need.

The government is about to appoint 15 sector chairs to the IfA-TE. This is an opportunity to confront the issue.

I believe their first task must be to bring together a range of experts who understand the needs of their sector, to analyse what is required across the four main routes.

Step one of the analysis will be to establish a comprehensive-yet-condensed list of ‘destination’ or ‘first-base’ jobs – using occupational mapping for common job types, for example ‘manager’, to avoid duplication when designing technical qualifications and apprenticeships. The list cannot be too rigid, as it will have to flex with any changes that happen in the larger economy.

The government is about to appoint 15 sector chairs to the IfA-TE. This is an opportunity to confront the issue

Once we have a reasonable list, the sector chairs and their employer groups can establish which of the four routes explained above is the primary (best) route, and which could be a secondary route for each job role.

This in turn will produce a directory of those apprenticeship standards and technical qualifications that need to be developed.

This must be robustly managed and challenge the desire to specialise too early; for example, we want to produce a ‘scientist’ rather than a ‘space scientist specialising in Mars exploration’.

If done well, this plan should result in a manageable, focused directory, and clearer career pathways for apprentices, employers, learners and careers advisers.

From this list we can then prioritise which standards and qualifications need to be developed and rolled out first.

We can also better understand from this analysis what we might need to do to support upskilling of the existing workforce, recognising that the majority of this will need to be delivered through the work-based learning route.

Academic and technical education will also contribute, but we can expect only a limited number of people doing more than one full apprenticeship in their life.

Once all this analysis is done, we will be in a position to rationally estimate the likely staffing levels needed in the IfA-TE.

Graham Hasting-Evans is managing director at NOCN

Movers & Shakers: Edition 193

Your weekly guide to who’s new, and who’s leaving.

Specialist food awarding body FDQ has announced Terry Fennell as its new chief executive.

FDQ has been a recognised awarding-body for more than 14 years and is regulated by Ofqual, the CCEA and the Welsh Government.

He will be responsible for the strategic direction of FDQ’s delivery of qualifications and be the authoritative point of contact with Ofqual and other regulatory bodies.

Mr Fennell first joined FDQ as its operations director in 2013. He will work in the new role alongside the duties of his current position as group operations director at FDQ’s parent company, the Food and Drink Training and Education Council, a role he has held since 2014. He was also recently appointed vice-chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies.

Prior to his work at the FDQ, he worked for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers as head of delivery, and has experience in the food industry through 25 years of working on the provision and development of food-related apprenticeships.

Speaking of his appointment, he said: “I am delighted to be leading FDQ into a new era that will see new qualifications in food and drink coupled with exciting products and end-point assessment services for apprenticeships.”

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Sian Wilson has been appointed director of sales and marketing at national awarding organisation, NCFE.

In the newly created role, Ms Wilson will be responsible for overseeing business development, marketing and customer experience across both the NCFE and Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education (CACHE).

She has over 17 years of experience in the training and education field, and has managed projects and business-growth initiatives for training providers, colleges and employers in the apprenticeship sector.

Before this, she has held numerous senior positions across the UK, including director at the BWB Group, and most recently as head of apprenticeship services at the Tech Partnership.

In the role, Ms Wilson hopes to help develop the “further growth and diversification” of the NCFE.

Commenting on her appointment, she said “I’m delighted to be joining NCFE at a time of significant change and development in the further education sector and for awarding organisations.

“I was keen to be part of an organisation that not only has a strong reputation nationally for awarding and customer service, but that also has ambitious plans for the future.”

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Paul Batterbury has been appointed interim principal at Lincoln University Technical College (UTC) following the resignation of its current principal Rona McKenzie.

The UTC in Lincolnshire opened in 2014 and caters for 14 to 18-year-olds. The college offers a specialist curriculum that allows core subjects such as maths and English to be combined with specialist studies in engineering and science.

Mr Batterbury, who is currently head of science at the college, will step in as interim principal in January 2017, staying on until the end of August.

With a teaching career spanning 30 years, he has worked across a number of schools, holding the position of head of secondary school at the British School in Kathmandu, Nepal, and head of the international school at Chase Grammar in the West Midlands.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Batterbury said: “I will be working with the excellent and loyal staff to ensure we continue to deliver great opportunities to our students to ensure that each and every one experiences success.

“Lincoln UTC offers a unique education but at its core are its students, and these shall remain our primary focus.”

If you want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college, training provider or awarding organisation please let us know by emailing news@feweek.co.uk

Young author aims to raise awareness of autism with his new book

A media student from New College Durham has written a book that he hopes will raise awareness of autism.

19-year-old Nathan Alexander Kennedy, a level three media student, has drawn on his own experiences of having autism to write the book, which features an autistic teenager called Foster Graham as the main character.

The book's cover art — The book’s cover art

Nathan describes his book – entitled ‘The Subtlety of the Obsession’ – as a gritty coming-of-age story with “heavy elements of suspense and suspicion”, and it took him a total of two years to write alongside his studies.

Nathan said: “With this book I wanted to tell a good narrative but I also wanted to raise awareness of autism. It’s an invisible disorder that no-one really understands. The main character Foster has autism but he’s just a normal guy.”

Stuart Drummond, the course tutor for Media at New College Durham, said: “It’s great to see a young person so fully engaged with an ambitious project such as this, outside of their normal studies.

“Nathan balances his writing well with his media course at New College Durham.”

‘The Subtlety of the Obsession’ by Nathan Kennedy is currently available on Amazon as a Kindle edition.

Featured picture: Author Nathan Alexander Kennedy at New College Durham