A training provider has gone bust after the government and several mayoral authorities terminated their adult education contracts – leaving unemployed learners in the lurch without certificates.
Some adults who trained at Free To Learn (F2L) after a referral by JobCentres have been waiting for more than a year for proof of their qualification achievement and now fear the worst.
The company, which also owns a separate apprenticeship and FE loans provider called British Academy of Jewellery that appears to not have been affected by the collapse, had more than 100 staff and has secured about £20 million in public funding for Adult Education Budget (AEB) courses since 2019.
F2L’s insolvency, posted on Companies House last month, follows an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted judgment in which inspectors found some teachers “coach” students to pass assessments.
Inspectors also sounded the alarm after finding “too many” learners who completed a pre-employment course to get into the security industry “do not receive the required licence for working in the sector, despite this being their reason for joining the course”.
There were 235 adult learners at the time of the inspection. Several adults who recently completed their security guard course at F2L told FE Week that communication about expected certificates dried up last month.
F2L was one of fewer than 60 private providers to land a national AEB contract with the Department for Education in 2023’s controversial tender. The contract, worth £1.5 million, was granted a one-year extension for 2024-25 before being terminated in October.
The company also held AEB contracts with the West Midlands and South Yorkshire combined authorities. Both funders have now ended their agreements.
The British Academy of Jewellery (BAJ), a subsidiary of F2L, is a registered apprenticeship provider that also advertises diplomas, and a degree in jewellery design and manufacturing.
Over the past two academic years the BAJ received £2.4 million in advanced learner loans.
Certificates ‘being dealt with’
The company’s ultimate owner, Free To Learn Group Ltd, which is controlled by Damian Gherscovic, and the BAJ, remain solvent.
Chief operating officer Gabriel Gherscovic told FE Week that F2L’s bankruptcy would “definitely not” affect BAJ’s operations or publicly funded contracts.
However, he declined to comment on the cause of the bankruptcy.
Gherscovic said he was “not aware” how many students were waiting for certificates, or how long some had been waiting.
“I’m not dealing with operations, but I’m perfectly aware that it’s being dealt with. It’s taking time, but it’s being dealt with,” he added.
The businessman said the company was in “a normal process” of winding down and suggested that learners would receive their certificates “in the correct manner”.
In a separate email, company spokesperson Sahad Azad said a single “dedicated staff member” is still working on processing certificates “with care and urgency”.
Learners waiting
Online reviews of F2L suggest that issues emerged with learners not receiving contracts as early as 2021.
Speaking to FE Week, Elena Georgiou, 42, said she took an AEB funded security guard course in Hackney, which started in September and should have lasted five weeks but “dragged on” until November.
Her class has only received first aid certificates and has not heard from the company since December 20 – three days after its bankruptcy notice was published.
She said: “I’m absolutely fuming – we all need to apply for jobs and we’re still waiting – it’s definitely affected me financially.”
Brian Bellot, 52, said he was left “disheartened” after a south London JobCentre referred him to what he believed was a forklifting course at the company’s Hackney office in 2023.
But when he arrived, he claimed he was told he would first need to study three courses with “no relevance” to forklift operating, such as level 2 customer services, for which he has never received a certificate.
He told FE Week: “It was disappointing that I did something I didn’t want to do and didn’t get the certificates to say I actually achieved it.”
Matt Bromley said his son, who has special needs, completed an online Construction Skills Certification Scheme course with F2L in 2023 but waited nearly a year before he was booked on a test.
He said: “I don’t think he’d ever have heard from them again. They never contacted us. I was contacting them and making complaints.”
His son, who he has asked to remain anonymous, was eventually booked on to a test after his father complained to the JobCentre that referred him to the course.
Who is F2L?
The company was set up in 2010 and grew its turnover – which includes BAJ’s finances – to more than £11 million by 2022-23.
F2L bought BAJ, formerly known as Holts Academy of Jewellery, in 2016.
Its income appears to have come from a combination of FE college subcontracting, before it secured direct contracts in 2019.
F2L went on to earn at least £20.6 million from the DfE, the Greater London Authority and several other mayoral combined authorities for the next five year to deliver adult education courses.
A spokesperson for Buckinghamshire College Group said it had had a “long-standing” subcontracting relationship with F2L – worth £1.4 million last academic year – but began winding this down “in early 2024”.
The spokesperson added: “Whilst Free To Learn has now gone into administration this does not affect the administering of the final certificates to learners, which Free To Learn is still working through.”
The DfE declined to comment on whether BAJ’s skills contracts could be at risk, given that it is run by the same owner of F2L.
The Department for Work and Pensions, which manages JobCentres, was contacted for comment.
I am one of the learners Elena Georgiou and to give you an update, we are still waiting for certificates and qualification. All we’ve been told is they are waiting for the awarding body to go in and check our work. Which contradicts their email in December that stated they were waiting for the reports back from the awarding to confirm if we had passed. I have missed out on a job opportunity referred to me by my brothers and his workplace and have been affected financially for all the months I could of been working. I will be taking legal action