Tougher one-third success rule for ASF programme

At least one third of learners must secure new or better jobs after rules were toughened up for a new £35 million adult skills programme.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) has raised the achievement bar from 20 per cent to 35 per cent for its latest London Talent Pathways programme, which is delivered mostly by independent training providers.

The move is part of a growing drive from government and devolved authorities to ensure publicly funded adult education is worth the investment.

Providers told FE Week the greater focus on employment was welcome, alongside changes that widen the salary range of jobs triggering incentive payments, and the inclusion of zero-hours work for the first time.

Nishan Rajput, head of skills and employment at Big Creative Education, said London Talent Pathways was “much stricter” on job outcomes than its predecessor, Jobs and Skills for Londoners, which ran from 2023 until this year.

But he said the target appeared “achievable” based on his organisation’s past performance and changes to payments.

The GLA has introduced a two-tier system that replaces a single £400 payment for learners securing a job paying at least the London living wage.

Providers will receive £500 if a learner secures ‘good work’ paying at least the London living wage, or £300 for ‘other work’ paying above the national minimum wage.

Rajput said: “The change provides greater flexibility around the types of employment outcomes that can be recognised.”

Qualifying jobs must now last at least 12 consecutive weeks, up from four, while zero-hours contracts will qualify if the learner “explicitly consents”.

‘Sensible and pragmatic’

The £35 million-a-year London Talent Pathways programme, which began last month, will focus on getting learners from groups including ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and older people into jobs in London’s seven priority growth industries.

Funding was competitively awarded to 55 ITPs, local authorities and colleges, with allocations of up to £1.2 million. The programme is worth about 10 per cent of the GLA’s £336 million Adult Skills Fund (ASF) budget this year.

The GLA distributes about £288 million to London’s colleges and local authorities through grants. It judges their performance against delivery plans that measure participation and economic and social outcomes.

London Talent Pathways aims to train 17,690 learners, with a target of 6,210 moving from unemployment into work or securing a new or better-paid role.

The GLA’s previous Jobs and Skills for Londoners programme paid out £1 million of the £2.6 million available for job outcomes in 2024-25, representing about 2,500 learners.

But its Mayor’s Skills Academies programme paid just £142,000 from an available £5.4 million across the four years it was offered.

FE Week previously revealed that providers “baulked” at the paperwork and found the salary threshold was too high.

Richard Goodwin, group chief executive at JGA Group, said the two salary tiers were “a sensible innovation” that reflected the realities of the labour market while incentivising providers to “do their best” for learners.

He added: “So long as the training provider is doing good work and making all reasonable efforts to live up to commitments, then the GLA is content.

“But the provider can’t shirk and can’t be seen to have tried to pull the wool over their [GLA’s] eyes at the tender stage.

“If employment outcomes aren’t achieved, then funding related to those outcomes clearly can’t be drawn down, and longer term this will probably impact the overall allocation.

“Providers do have to take on board that the world has changed – skills and employability have become more integrated and will continue to be so.”

Targets and incentives trend

The system of job outcome payments to training providers has grown since devolution, with at least five authorities with control over adult skills now offering extra incentives for getting learners into work.

FE Week understands some commissioners write key performance indicators into contracts, while others set out expectations during contract management meetings.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) pays £150 when a learner starts work and £400 after 13 weeks through three programmes. One programme also offers a £500 incentive payment to employers.

For its ‘construction gateway’, WMCA has a target of 65 per cent of learners who complete the programme moving into employment for 13 weeks.

Its ‘into-employment programme’ offers payments when a learner secures continuous employment of at least 7.5 hours a week, related directly to skills acquired on the course, for at least four weeks.

Temporary assignments lasting less than four weeks can qualify if there is confirmation that further assignments will follow.

The authority, which has the second largest adult skills budget in England after the GLA, also offers a £400 ‘path 2 apprenticeships’ payment to providers for each ASF learner who progresses to an apprenticeship.

West Yorkshire’s non-ASF Skills Connect programme, where courses were worth between £1,050 and £4,500, linked 30 per cent of funding to “positive career progression”, including a promotion, new job or pay rise.

Liverpool City Region offers £300 for unemployed or economically inactive learners on pre-employment or sector-based work academy programmes at level 2 or below who secure work lasting more than four consecutive weeks. Zero-hours contracts are excluded.

South Yorkshire’s sector-based work academy programme, running since 2021, offers up to £250 for learners who stay in work for 13 weeks after completing training, with no criteria about salary levels or contract types.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has offered £100 when a learner starts work and £250 after 13 weeks since 2024-25, alongside £400 payments for employment resulting from ASF-funded HGV courses.