bootcamp evaluation rings spending review alarm bells

FEWEEK.CO.UK | @FEWEEK FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2021 | EDITION 367

In-depth, investigative journalism, determined to get past

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THE SECRETSKILLS BOARD

• One year since DfE launch Skills and Productivity Board

• Seven silenced members

• Seven meetings

• No public minutes

EXCLUSIVE

EXCLUSIVE

Page 29

THE STAFFROOM

Narrow curriculum focus is undermining pedagogy

Pages 8-11

Bootcamp evaluation rings spending

review alarm bells

Colleges Week news & campus roundup

2

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The system should recognise successful college drop-outs

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5


DO YOU HAVE A STORY?

CONTACT US [email protected]

The Department for Education has been

criticised for failing to release board

minutes for a new group of experts who

heavily influence skills policy.

The Skills and Productivity Board was set

up in October 2020 and has met seven times

to date.

It includes a chair and team of six “leading

skills and labour market economists” who

provide independent “expert advice” on

how courses and qualifications should align

to the skills that employers need post-

Covid-19.

Despite being launched 12 months ago,

the DfE has not published a single set

of board minutes for any of their seven

meetings.

A department spokesperson said minutes

would be published in “due course” – a

line they have told FE Week for the past six

months.

FE Week has attempted to contact

individual members of the Skills and

Productivity Board for information about

their work, but they have been sworn to

secrecy and told not to talk to the media by

the DfE.

Sue Pember, a former top skills civil

servant in the DfE who is now the policy

director of adult education network HOLEX,

said she had “forgotten about the board”

because it has “been invisible”.

“I would have thought they would have

asked us to contribute to the evidence on

what is needed locally to support adults

into new industries etc,” she added. “I’m

surprised they are not publishing minutes

or publishing interim reports.”

Toby Perkins MP, Labour’s shadow

minister for further education and skills, is

concerned about the secrecy surrounding

the board’s work.

He said: “This is a government that has

been plagued by insider meetings and crony

contracts. This cannot be allowed to extend

to other areas of policy making.

“At a time when skills shortages and

post-16 education has been at the forefront

of the political agenda, transparency

about government policy making should

be paramount. These minutes must be

published without delay.”

Stephen van Rooyen, an executive vice

president at international broadcaster Sky,

was named as the first chair of the Skills

and Productivity Board in September 2020,

but he left the position because of “family

reasons” in August 2021.

He has been replaced by Angela Noon,

chief financial officer and executive director

of industrial manufacturing giant

Siemens. Noon chaired her first meeting

with the board last month.

The board’s “remit for 2020 to 2021”

was published in November 2020. It was

told to prioritise answering the following

questions over the next 12 months:

• Which areas of the economy face the

most significant skills mismatches or

present growing areas of skills need?

• Can the board identify the changing

skills needs of several priority areas

within the economy over the next

five to ten years?

• How can skills and the skills system

promote productivity growth in

areas of the country that are poorer

performing economically?

Then education secretary Gavin

Williamson said the evidence and

analysis the board produces will play a

“significant part in addressing the most

pressing gaps in our knowledge and

understanding of the labour market,

helping to rebuild our economy post-

Covid-19 and deliver a bold skills agenda”.

‘Why so secret?’: Skills and Productivity Board faces challenge on its silences

News

“Transparency about government policy making should be paramount”

BILLY [email protected]

FROM FRONT EXCLUSIVE

6




The government is oblivious to how

many people from the first wave of its

flagship skills bootcamps secured a job or

received a pay rise due to unreliable data,

researchers have found.

Sector leaders have warned this will ring

alarm bells in the Treasury ahead of next

week’s spending review, which will decide

whether more taxpayer cash is invested in

the programme.

A process evaluation report for the

first digital skills bootcamps, which

began delivery in six areas in England

in autumn 2020 at a cost of £8 million,

was published by the Department for

Education yesterday.

Researchers found positive results from

qualitative interviews and analysis of

management information: 81 per cent

of participants successfully passed their

assessments.

Most encouraging was that 48 per

cent of people enrolled were women

– a much higher proportion than

seen in the digital workforce, which

has reportedly sat at around 20 per

cent for some time. The finding

will help ease sector leaders’ fears

about bootcamps becoming male

dominated.

However, the researchers warn

that the data obtained by the DfE

from training providers did not

cover all the bootcamps and “more

problematically” did not consistently

cover all of the geographic areas

involved.

They therefore “cannot be viewed as

an accurate picture of all bootcamp

provision” and instead “offer an

illustrative overview of the bootcamps

that submitted full data”.

The data obtained showed that over

2,500 people applied for bootcamp

courses and of these, 820 gained a

place.

While characteristics of participants,

attendance and completion data

could be drawn from the sample, the

researchers found incomplete data on

job and salary outcomes, even though

the DfE specifies this information must

be captured.

The report said: “It seemed likely that

these data had not been completed

consistently (if at all) by providers, since

there was no data on starting salaries

and three learners were recorded as

gaining a job.”

It added that employment outcomes

could be reported up to six months

following the start of training so this

“may have represented outcomes not

yet being achieved, or providers not yet

being able to evidence them”.

The researchers carried out surveys

with some bootcamp learners to get

a better idea of their progress in the

absence of reliable management

information.

Concerningly, 81 per cent (56) of 69

respondents who had completed their

course said they were not offered a job

interview at the end of their course,

even though this is supposed to be a

guaranteed part of the programme.

Just nine per cent had been offered

an interview with an employer, while

ten per cent said they “did not know”.

The DfE previously told FE Week that

bootcamp data will not be submitted


Poor data collection may undermine bootcamps’ spending review hopes

News

“Without proper

data we don’t know if

they’ve succeeded in

their aim of helping

people into work”

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

FROM FRONT EXCLUSIVE

7




through its individualised learner records

(ILR) and instead providers will submit

their own data through a form on a

monthly basis.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of

Learning and Work Institute, said

bootcamps are a “good idea” but without

“proper data we don’t know if they’ve

succeeded in their aim of helping people

into work”.

“That makes it more difficult to know if

they should be rolled out further and to

persuade the Treasury to provide further

funding,” he told FE Week. “With the

need for skills and jobs only increasing,

the DfE needs a much more robust

approach to gathering data so we know

whether bootcamps are working.”

Some mayoral combined authorities

that managed bootcamp contracts for

their area even failed to gain consent

from learners for their data to be used.

Simon Ashworth, director of policy

at the Association of Employment and

Learning Providers, said: “There are high

expectations on providers to achieve

good outcomes for unemployed adults.

“It’s shame that the dataset is

incomplete, especially with a critical

decision on whether to expand

bootcamps expected as part of the

spending review. The Treasury will want

evidence to support this decision.”

The researchers’ report says the DfE

must make “amendments to the data

collection sheets given to the providers”

to measure success of bootcamps, and

officials must relay the “importance of

clear, accurate and timely information”.

A DfE spokesperson claimed “robust”

data collection on outcomes for

wave one has been “ongoing from

March to September 2021”. This data

is “currently being validated and will

be published by the end of November

2021” – a month after the spending

review.

Prime minister Boris Johnson

announced the first wave of skills

bootcamps in September 2020,

plugging them as part of his new

lifetime skills guarantee. A further

£36 million has been invested in the

courses since.

The courses run for up to 16 weeks

and are free to unemployed people,

or where employed, their employer

would pay a 30 per cent cash

contribution.

Across the six areas in wave one,

digital provision operated in all areas,

and covered topics ranging from

digital marketing, women in software

engineering, cloud services engineer,

computer-aided design (CAD), coding,

cybersecurity, IT, social media and

digital leadership.

Of the management information

available, only 16 per cent of

participants were already qualified to

level 2 or below and 63 per cent were

already in work or self-employed.

The DfE spokesperson pointed to

the researchers’ learner survey which

“indicated that nearly four-in-five (79

per cent) were satisfied with their course

overall”.

However, only a little over two-in-

five (44 per cent) survey respondents

agreed that their bootcamp training and

provision would be sufficient for them to

apply for a job in their industry.

The DfE spokesperson said: “We are

pleased that this early evaluation report

shows that wave one skills bootcamps

were well received by all stakeholders

involved and that there is overwhelming

support for skills bootcamps to

continue.”

News

“The DfE needs a

much more robust

approach to gathering

data so we know

whether bootcamps

are working”

“We are pleased that

this early evaluation

report shows that wave

one skills bootcamps

were well received by

all stakeholders”

CONTINUED

Boris Johnson announces bootcamps wave one at Exeter College

8




COLLEGES WEEK

College leaders have warned that the

government’s net zero target will fail unless

all courses for 16-to-18-year-olds are changed

to include compulsory modules on climate

change.

They also want an additional £1.5 billion

capital investment in the next three years to

sustainably transform their estates and invest

in technology required to train for green jobs.

Their demands have been made in a letter

signed by 150 college bosses to prime minister

Boris Johnson and education secretary Nadhim

Zahawi. It comes less than two weeks before

world leaders meet in Glasgow to discuss how

to reduce the effects of climate change at the

COP26 summit.

The government published its Net Zero

Strategy on Tuesday, which details how

ministers plan to reduce greenhouse gas

emissions to reach an aim of net zero by 2050.

Some colleges have made their own

commitments to become net zero by 2030 but

there is currently no sector-wide target that all

colleges have signed up to.

Ministers are also aiming to “support up to

440,000 jobs across net zero industries in 2030”

and say in this week’s strategy that colleges will

be “key” to this goal.

College leaders believe the net zero ambition

is “likely to fail” without making education on

climate change and sustainability part of all

study programme courses.

A curriculum audit from their

membership body, the Association

of Colleges, has found that less than

one per cent of post-16 students are

currently on a course with broad

coverage of climate education.

The college leaders say the

Department for Education and Ofqual

should urgently work with stakeholders,

such as awarding bodies, to review all

qualification specifications and ensure

that they describe how education for

sustainable development (ESD) is addressed.

AoC chief executive David Hughes said:

“The government’s plans for the transition

to net zero simply will not work without

aligning education policy with climate

and sustainability priorities – that includes

embedding climate modules in all study

courses.

“College leaders and students have been

crystal clear this is something they want and

is necessary to meet the emerging skills needs

of a greener economy.”

Colleges are also calling on the government

to establish national centres of excellence in

low-carbon skills.

These would be hubs of experts in colleges

which “could enable collaboration and

sharing of best practice across the sector, with

an easily accessible and well-known point for

employers and people to engage with”.

Additionally, ministers should “urgently”

fast-track the lifelong loan entitlement for

training in priority green sectors.

The entitlement is currently set to launch in

2025 and will allow people to access funding

for four years of study between levels 4 and 6,

either in full years or as modules throughout

their life.

One hundred and forty universities, all part

of Universities UK, committed this week to

cut their emissions by at least 78 per cent

by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. They have

committed to net zero by 2050. Both targets

are identical to those set by the government

for the whole economy.

Neither the college leaders’ letter nor the

Leaders call for compulsory modules on climate change

AoC’s Green College Commitment report

commit to a hard target for when all college

campuses will become net zero.

But some have committed to doing so by

2030.

Gloucestershire College is one that has

signed up to the target. It is planning to

undergo a £4.8 million energy “retrofit”,

which is being partly funded by a £2.8

million grant secured through the Public

Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

The project will involve installing ground

source heat pumps, solar panels for the

college to generate its own renewable

energy, followed by battery storage and

smart energy controls.

Matthew Burgess, Gloucestershire

College principal, said it currently takes

the equivalent of 13 million kettles being

boiled to run his campus every single day,

so becoming carbon zero is the “biggest and

most important goal we can have”.

Other colleges committed to becoming net

zero by 2030 include Craven College and

Harrogate College – both located in North

Yorkshire.

Colleges want a £1.5 billion injection in

the next three years to develop sustainable

campuses. This would be in addition to

the £1.5 billion already committed by this

government over this parliament for college

capital projects.

The AoC estimates that 237 English

colleges hold 8.5 million square metres,

which they say “presents a significant

opportunity for [net zero] impact”.

A DfE spokesperson said: “As we build

back greener from the pandemic, we

are committed to supporting people to

get the green skills they’ll need for the

careers of tomorrow.

“From skills bootcamps to

apprenticeships, T Levels and

traineeships, our programmes will create

the talent businesses need in key sectors

and help people at all levels to get the

skills they will need for the green jobs of

the future.”

News


9




An abundance of talent has been on full

display during Colleges Week, with four

colleges having won the national Share the

Love / Love Our Colleges competition this

year.

Bicton College, Cornwall College,

Newcastle College and Orchard Hill

College will each receive a £50 shopping

voucher to share between the winning

students.

For the event, which uses the hashtag

#LoveOurColleges, Bicton’s students put

forward a video of military and protective

services students marching into the shape

of a heart.

Cornwall College entered photos of an

illuminated metal sign in the shape of a

heart, Newcastle College 3D printed a

Love Our Colleges sign, while Orchard Hill

College baked a themed cake.

The competition was part of Colleges

Week, an annual celebration of the further

education sector run by the Association

of Colleges, which this year took place

between October 18 and today.

As well as the competition, students, staff

and sector cheerleaders have been marking

the week with visits, campaigning, and

written pieces.

Shadow education secretary Kate Green

visited City of Westminster College on

Wednesday to meet learners, tweeting to

the college afterwards: “Huge thanks for a

brilliant visit today. From public services to

plumbing, our colleges are giving young

people the skills and work experience the

country needs for the future.”

The National Union of Students and the

British Youth Council held a digital day

of action to kick off lobbying for several

demands that are part of the union’s

#NewVisionforEducation campaign. The

demands include maintenance support

for learners and investment so students

can access digital

devices.

The Department

for Education has

also published a blog

this week called “5

Reasons to Love

Our Colleges”. The

reasons include

the fact that they

“provide flexible

courses to fit around

you”, with the blog

stating: “Gone are the

days where a long

university course was

the only expected

route to success.”

Another reason

is that colleges

“offer exciting,

varied and wide-

ranging courses”,

with the DfE

referencing T Levels,

apprenticeships

and traineeships as

examples of “up-to-

date qualifications

designed with the

needs of learners and

employers in mind”.

Colleges

themselves have

also been celebrating the week, with

St Helens College hosting a breakfast

for local schools’ careers advisers so

they could be updated on campus

redevelopments and curriculum changes.

City College Plymouth fired up its

3D printer, one of just five of its kind in

the UK, to “create an anatomical heart

offering a fun twist on the popular heart

theme often seen promoted during

Colleges Week”.

The opening of multiple new college

buildings was also timed to coincide

Four winners share the love our colleges prize

with Colleges Week, including City College

Norwich’s £11.4 million digital skills building.

Opening the “digi-tech factory” during

Colleges Week was a “natural link to

make,” according to principal Corrienne

Peasgood, “as a key strength of FE colleges

everywhere is our ability to move with the

times.”

Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi

visited Barnsley College on Thursday to

open its new SciTech Digital Innovation

Centre, where Zahawi paid tribute to a

“truly inspirational team and students”.

News

COLLEGES WEEK

Competition runner up Duchy CollegeDoncaster College motor vehicle students

Bicton College

City College Plymouth 3D printed heart

FRASER [email protected]

Cornwall College winners Matthew and Ed with their illuminated metal sign

10




Successful outcomes should

not just be grade-related,

writes Alfie Payne

I loved being in education,

so when I had to drop out to

focus on growing my business,

I was gutted. I’d gone from

being an engaged student to

college drop-out in just a year.

Now, ten months after

dropping out, I’ve got six

employees, a client and

partner list of 80 brands across

four countries, and last month

we at Ape Technology hit

the mark of earning our first

£100k.

This is an achievement I’m

proud of – and it’s one I do

not feel I could have achieved

without the “leg up” of the

education system (we don’t yet

have investors, so it definitely

isn’t that).

I couldn’t have asked for my

college experience to have

started any better, studying

a BTEC in creative media

production and getting

distinctions in all my course

work. I was making great

friends and being taught by

great lecturers. Then, Covid

hit; I need not explain the

challenges and changes that

brought to student life.

The pandemic exposed what

I now recognise to be my

entrepreneurial personality:

organisations that hadn’t

previously needed it, now

needed an online presence –

and they needed it fast.

So, I started helping them to

do this by designing websites

and devising marketing plans

(using the skills I’d been

picking up from college). Then,

people started paying me.

Then I had more work than

I could handle by myself, so I

needed other people to help

– and I started paying them.

Suddenly, I had a business.

It’s not been an easy ride,

and I have to make difficult

decisions as MD every week.

One of the most difficult to

date was last December, when

I dropped out of college. It

was a frustrating decision to

make: I’d outgrown the system

and it appeared unable to

accommodate my journey

further.

The system wasn’t

recognising my commercial

success as educational success

– despite the efforts of the

likes of our media technician,

who did everything to

expand my coursework and

assignments to stretch and

challenge me further. The

college itself even introduced

clients to Ape.

The education system

had been invaluable to me

throughout my life, so to

have to leave it behind was

devastating.

Success should be measured

in many ways, rather than

just by your grades. My team

and I were having a real-world

impact on organisations and

generating them revenue,

yet because it wasn’t work

produced for an assignment

brief, it wasn’t recognised.

As MD, I was leading a

team, while also dealing

with legal, financial and HR

matters, but it wasn’t formally

acknowledged by the system.

What will have been

acknowledged, though, is

when I dropped out: I’m a

failure, a bad mark, a black

spot in the statistics. The

student who was getting full

marks had suddenly left –

that’s not going to look good.

Education helped to realise

my goal of having the business,

yet it shot itself in the foot

because it couldn’t grow with

my success. For the system to

only be geared towards a set of

fixed outcomes for progression

is very damaging.

We’re constantly hearing

about the cry for synergy

between employers and

colleges – so why is there

not more support for young

people who run their own

businesses? Surely the system

should recognise, and support,

self-employment as an

outcome?

For me, one area of

improvement for FE is

teaching students proper

commercial awareness.

Having an (at least basic)

understanding of how a

company and business work

helps you to understand the

impact your work has on a

company.

Employers are keen to work

with students and colleges

on this – but because it’s not

marked in an assignment, I

fear colleges may not see it as

a priority.

It all comes back to the same

problem. The system must

adapt to widen its scope of

“successful outcomes”.

“Leaving the education system behind was devastating”

Opinion

Former college student and managing director, Ape Technology

ALFIE PAYNE

The system should recognise successful college drop-outs

COLLEGES WEEK

11




FE staff will be funded to take a Masters

or PhD by the Association of Colleges and

NCFE, under a new scheme to fill research

gaps in the sector.

Research Further will fund ten

scholarships in the first year of a three-year

scheme, focused on areas such as adult

education and tackling inequalities.

The association’s senior policy manager

for research and evidence, Julia Belgutay,

said the FE sector has “historically had a

limited amount of research to tap into

when we consider reports, data and general

knowledge around FE and skills”.

She said the “ground-breaking”

collaboration between AoC and NCFE will

“support practitioners from the chalkface,

those who know the sector best, in helping

fill this gap and ultimately improve practice

and the sector as a whole”.

The AoC has also announced the launch

of a new research unit to “coordinate,

commission and utilise high-quality

research to support informed post-16

teaching practice and policy development

at scale”.

Both announcements come during

Colleges Week, an annual event intended

to celebrate the FE sector which this year is

taking place between October 18 and 22.

Proposals to research digital and adult

education particularly welcome

Research Further will fully fund tuition fees,

with commitments being made annually,

though the AoC could not say how much

funding the scheme will have in total.

While there are no specifications on

what scholars must focus on, proposals to

research areas such as digital, plus areas

likely to be effective with specific subjects

or with specific cohorts, adult education

and tackling inequalities will be particularly

welcomed.

Proposals should also demonstrate there

is a gap in existing evidence for the area

the scholar wants to explore.

Applicants should have contacted the

university at which they would like to

study, though they can be assisted to

identify the most appropriate one.

Existing Masters or PhD students can also

apply, and part-time and full-time projects

will be considered.

The scholars’ work will be disseminated

through a webinar series. New findings

about pedagogy or policy will be shared

through think pieces, reports, articles and

blogs.

Project will ‘power impact-focused

research’

NCFE chief executive David Gallagher

is seeking “high-quality data” that can

“identify gaps” and allow the sector to

“collaborate to tackle the changes that are

needed within the education eco-system”.

Research Further will “power impact-

focused research that will drive excellence

and innovation in FE and make the greatest

possible positive difference to learners’ lives,”

he said.

The scheme is being supported by an

advisory board made up of representatives

from Ofsted, education technology company

Jisc, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the

government, college leaders, research

practitioners and the four nations of the

UK. The precise membership is yet to be

confirmed.

The board will advise on research themes

and which applications will be funded.

This is not the first proposal supporting

extra research in the FE sector: the Social

Mobility Commission recommended in

January 2020 the government spend £20

million on a research centre to explore

“what works” in the sector and where extra

investment is needed.

Applications for AoC-NCFE scheme are now

open and close on November 19. Applicants

must work for an AoC member college

and provide confirmation from their senior

managers that they will be allowed to spend

at least one day a week on their course.

The application form is available from:

https://www.aoc.co.uk/research-further

News

AoC and NCFE launch 10 funded Masters and PhDs for research on FE FRASER [email protected]

COLLEGES WEEK

https://www.aoc.co.uk/research-further

REGISTER YOUR PLACE AT THE BIGGEST EVENT IN THE FE SECTOR

Reconnect with sector colleagues from across the country for our first face-to-face conference in almost two years.

Book now at: aocannualconference.co.uk

Speakers include:

Secretary of State for Education

After the challenges of the last two years, the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with colleagues is long overdue.

AoC Annual Conference provides us with excellent team building and best practice sharing environment…The impact of meeting and connecting with colleagues again will be more beneficial this year than ever before.

Gerry McDonald, Group Principal and CEO New City College.

Yana Williams, Chief Executive, Coleg Cambria.

Gerry McDonald, Group Principal and CEO New City College

Former international footballer and lawyer

With many more still be announced.

Nadhim Zahawi, MP

Eniola Aluko

16-17 November - ICC, Birmingham

OVER

PRACTICAL BREAKOUT

SESSIONS AND HOT TOPIC

DISCUSSIONS

13




1‘Consistently’ collect and analyse socio-

economic data on apprentices

The toolkit places a big emphasis on

gathering data on the social and economic

backgrounds of learners. This data provides

an employer’s “foundation” since “comparing

your data to relevant external benchmarks

can be a great way to shape and drive

your strategy forward”.

According to the toolkit, employers can

ask a simple but key question: what was

the occupation of your main household

earner when you were about aged 14?

The answers can then be broken

down into three categories: professional

(teacher, nurse, business leaders);

intermediate (clerical workers and small

business owners); and working-class

(technical and routine workers and long-

term unemployed people).

This question “is easy to understand, gets

the highest response rates in testing and

is applicable to people from all ages and

countries”. Employers should aim for a 66

per cent response rate.

2Apprentice minimum wage

‘too low to live on’

The toolkit calls on employers to pay

the living wage set by the Living Wage

Foundation “wherever possible”. This is

£9.50 per hour for those aged 18 and

over, or £10.85 in London, compared to

the current apprentice minimum wage of

£4.30.

“Not offering more will exclude anyone

who doesn’t have a financial cushion to

tide them over,” the toolkit warns.

One of the toolkit’s authors, Anna

Morrison from Amazing Apprenticeships,

believes the £4.30 wage “completely

undermines the value of apprenticeships”

and “creates an immediate barrier” to

would-be applicants.

Abolishing the rate “will mean that for

many low-income families, apprenticeships

become a viable opportunity for their

children”.

Fellow author Alex Miles from West &

North Yorkshire Learning Providers believes

the rate ought to be retained for 16- and

18-year-olds, as “there is a lot more

learning and development needed to do

the role”, but that it ought to be abolished

for adults.

She said apprentices at all ages are taking

on extra jobs in chip shops or supermarkets

to “top up” their wages, which are “simply

not enough to support living costs”.

Large employers transferring unspent

Diversity toolkit launched to broaden apprenticeship intake

levy funds (up to 25 per cent of their total

sum) to smaller employers so they can offer

apprenticeships could attach non-binding

criteria that the receiving employer pays

apprentices the living wage.

3Provide more level 2 apprenticeships

That level 2 courses do not require

pre-existing achievements in English and

maths makes them “a great way of creating a

pathway for people who have not had access

to many opportunities”.

Level 2, or intermediate, apprenticeships

declined by 6.4 percentage points between

August 2019 and April 2020 and the same

period in 2020/21.

4More flexible apprenticeships

encouraged

Working from home can be a “great enabler”

for parents, carers and people who are

disabled, who have additional needs or aren’t

able to relocate. Opportunities to meet

colleagues is also “a powerful way to create a

sense of belonging”, though.

For apprentices who are remote working,

employers are encouraged to check they

have the right equipment, fast enough

internet, appropriate conditions and

the technical skills for it. They should

“proactively” offer a budget to purchase kit,

fast internet and also provide training.

Bosses should also consider the needs

of parents, carers and disabled apprentices

and find a schedule to accommodate their

needs. Part-time apprenticeships can be

offered if the programme’s overall duration is

extended, the toolkit says.

5Offer apprenticeships

to all employees

Offering apprenticeships to every worker,

including any frontline staff, will “help

staff progress in their career and gain new

skills” and identify talented individuals

within the workforce.

Apprenticeships should also be

“connected” to progression opportunities,

but they have to be offered “in a way that

works for staff”.

Monthly line manager meetings are

an “ideal place” to advertise upcoming

training and encourage people to sign up.

Employers have been handed a toolkit to

improve diversity in their apprenticeships,

as the latest statistics show little

improvement in the proportion of ethnic

minority starts.

Sector experts have produced an 82-

page document with the Social Mobility

Commission, with recommendations

on hiring, progression and leadership to

improve the socio-economic, ethnicity,

disability and gender diversity of cohorts.

The report states that the apprenticeship

workforce is “overwhelmingly white”.

Apprenticeship data released last month

shows black, Asian and minority ethnic

(BAME) apprentices made up 14.2 per

cent, or 35,100, of starts between August

2020 and April 2021.

That compares to 13.1 per cent for that

period in 2019/20.

The proportion of female apprentices

increased by 4.4 percentage points, from

48.5 per cent to 52.9 per cent, between

the two periods, while the proportion

of people with learning difficulties

decreased by 0.5 points, from 12.6 to 12.1

per cent.

FE Week has collated five key

recommendations from the toolkit:


APPRENTICESHIPS THAT WORK FOR ALLA practical toolkit for employers, training providers and apprenticeship practitioners

October 2021

14




The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill is

one step closer to becoming law having

completed its “report stage” in the House

of Lords.

Amendments, including a beefed-up

Baker clause and focussing a proportion

of apprenticeship levy funding on young

people at lower levels, were passed into

the bill against the government’s wishes.

Lord Baker beat the government by

50 votes to make legislation requiring

secondary pupils to experience

“mandatory encounters” with technical

training providers legally enforceable and

prescribed within law.

Baker once again commanded support

from government and opposition peers for

his amendment.

Baroness Wilcox, speaking for Labour,

said the government’s aim to use

secondary legislation, i.e., regulations,

to determine the frequency and content

of technical education careers guidance

wasn’t acceptable because it would mean

that the government’s plans couldn’t be

scrutinised.

The Lord Bishop of Durham, with

the Green Party’s Baroness Bennett

of Manor Castle, won another vote to

prevent benefit rules causing problems

for adults seeking education and training

opportunities if they are unemployed and/

or in receipt of universal credit.

Despite a defence from a government

minister, who highlighted various ways

in which universal credit claimants could

be supported through learning loans,

bursaries and various exemptions within

universal credit regulations, a cross-party

coalition of peers generated a government

defeat of 16 votes.

Commenting on the universal credit

amendment, Association of Colleges chief

executive David Hughes said: “Cutting

universal credit whilst blocking people’s

ability to train and upskill their way into

good jobs is just plain wrong at any time,

but when employers are crying out for

people with skills, then it is even more

baffling.

“This is an important moment as the

House of Lords rejects the government’s

muddled approach and forces them to

think again. We need an urgent review into

the system to make sure that the welfare

and skills systems are working in tandem.”

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Addington

successfully passed an amendment

that would require special educational

needs training within FE teacher training

programmes.

Former MP Ken Clarke, now Lord Clarke

of Nottingham, passed an amendment that

would require employers to spend two-

thirds of “apprenticeship funding” on level

2 and 3 apprenticeships for under-25s.

Government amendments to outlaw

essay mills and allow for the conversion

of 16-to-19 sixth-forms with religious

character to academies were passed

without opposition.

The House of Lords began proceedings

at 12.30pm yesterday afternoon and were

still debating at the time of going to press.

The Lords will have a final opportunity

to amend the bill on October 25. It will

then begin its journey through the House

of Commons. With a Conservative Party

majority in the Commons, it is unlikely that

all of the amendments passed by the Lords

will be passed in to final legislation.

News

More government defeats as Lords debate careers, universal credit and apprenticeships

“This is an important

moment as the House

of Lords rejects the

government’s muddled

approach and forces

them to think again”

“Cutting universal

credit whilst blocking

people’s ability to train

their way into good

jobs is just plain wrong”

SHANE [email protected]

Lord Kenneth Clarke

15




Transparency of subcontracting deals

in further education has “taken a step

backwards” following devolution of the

adult education budget (AEB), an FE

Week investigation has found.

The Education and Skills Funding

Agency publishes a list of declared

subcontractors annually for nationally

funded provision and tells prime

providers to refer to it for due diligence

purposes.

But a big chunk of subcontracted

training is now hidden as eight of the ten

mayoral combined authorities, which

have taken control of the AEB for their

region from the ESFA, publish no such

information.

Just two of them told FE Week they

release equivalent subcontractor lists

for their areas. The eight that do not

account for almost £600 million of

public skills funding.

Those who don’t publish subcontractor

lists include London, Manchester and

Liverpool.

An experienced auditor working in

the FE sector, who wished not to be

named, said: “Subcontracting is the

provision at highest risk of fraud, so

transparency is critical.

“Oversight appears to have taken a

step backwards since devolution and

should be urgently addressed by all

mayoral combined authorities.”

While the agency does continue

to publish a list of subcontractors, it

has reduced in transparency. It used

to break subcontracted deals down

by apprenticeship provision and

other funding streams, but now only

publishes deals for post-16 provision

in general.

It also only publishes cumulative

values of £100,000 and over.

The ESFA has embarked on a series

of reforms to substantially reduce the

amount of subcontracting in FE in

recent years to tackle “poor oversight

and fraud”.

They include a cap on volumes and

a new externally assessed “standard”,

which all providers will need to meet in

order to subcontract agency funds.

The ESFA is also creating a new list

of independent training providers –

any provider not on the list will not

be granted funding agreements or be

allowed to subcontract with another

provider who is on the list.

Six mayoral combined authorities

and the Greater London Authority

began taking control of their AEB from

2019, followed by three more MCAs in

subsequent years.

While they vary in the level of

transparency, all require declarations for

subcontracted delivery annually.

The largest authority with AEB is

London, which controls £323 million

annually. A spokesperson did not

explain why they do not publish a list of

subcontractors, but said “less than ten

per cent” of its provision in 2020/21 was

subcontracted.

The two MCAs that do publish lists of

subcontractors are West Midlands and

Tees Valley.

Liverpool City Region said it plans to

introduce its own list this year.

Asked whether it plans to place any

requirement on MCAs and the GLA to

publish their own list of subcontractors,

the ESFA said: “They are each

responsible for the management of any

AEB subcontracting arrangements in

their respective areas.”

Devolved subcontracting in the dark


“Subcontracting

is the provision

at highest risk

of fraud”

EXCLUSIVE

16




An employment expert has warned the

sector to “be careful what you wish for” after

universal credit claimants were given extra

time to access longer periods of training.

Department for Work and Pensions minister

Mims Davies told a Learning and Work

Institute event on Wednesday claimants will

be given until the end of April 2022 to access

up to 16 weeks of training while still receiving

benefits.

The flexibility, originally announced as a

six-month pilot in March 2021, increased the

amount of time claimants could study full-

time, work-focused courses while still receiving

payments from eight weeks to 12 weeks.

This went up to 16 weeks if the claimant

was on a skills bootcamp – which train adults

aged 19 and over in fields such as digital,

construction and green skills and include a

guaranteed job interview.

Extending the timeframe “means UC

claimants are now in an even better position

to access sector-specific training as part of the

Department for Education’s Lifetime Skills

Guarantee and the skills bootcamp initiatives,”

the employment minister said.

She added: “It allows people across Great

Britain to take part in work-related training

to get them those key skills and be ready with

them for what employers really value and

need.”

The move has been welcomed by Institute

for Employment Studies director and former

Treasury head of employment policy Tony

Wilson. He called it a “pretty sensible and

pragmatic step” and most people “will wonder

why this wasn’t the case already”.

The eight-week universal credit rule was

criticised by the Association of Colleges in

a report published in June for “preventing”

claimants from “developing skills that would

allow them to get into better-quality, more

stable, better-paid employment over the

longer term”.

But Wilson warned the sector “to be careful

what we wish for” with the training extension,

highlighting the lack of a maintenance

support system for young people on low

incomes who are out-of-work and want to

take up training to get a job.

Instead of creating one, the DWP has

“repurposed universal credit”, which Wilson

says has two

problems. “First,

it does nothing

for people on

low incomes

who aren’t on

UC.”

Wilson

questioned

whether the

scheme would

extend to

claimants who

are in work but

on a low income,

are claiming

while they raise

a young child

or have a health

condition and

are preparing

for work, and

those who are

not required to

work.

The DWP was

approached for

comment on

this.

The second

problem, he says, is that it “puts entitlement

to financial support at the discretion

of Jobcentre Plus work coaches”, who

shepherd claimants into jobs.

“At its worst,” Wilson said, “it could mean

work coaches checking up on whether

people are still attending their training

and potentially cutting their benefit if they

don’t show up.”

A report published by the IES and the

Institute for Public Policy Research this

week recommended a single system of

universal youth support, including an 18-24

youth credit to financially support young

people taking part in “purposeful” training

or an “intensive job search”.

The latest DWP data reveals 5.8 million

people were receiving universal credit in

September 2021.

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18






18

FE Week 10th Anniversary

Across ten years, we’ve

published over 12,000

articles covering the FE &

skills sector. I want to reflect

on the very first published

story. This piece marked

the start of FE Week’s

commitment to shining

a spotlight on issues that

short-changed learners.

Over subsequent editions,

we published a series of

articles highlighting the

enormity of the problem.

Working with trade bodies

such as AELP, our journalism

convinced government

there was a need to change

the law, and a minimum

duration was implemented.

This story paved the way for

FE Week to be a newspaper

reporting on the sector,

without fear or favour, to

better the sector.

Our biggest and best stories through the years

SHANE MANNMANAGING DIRECTOR

My favourite stories to work on

at FE Week, which will probably

come as no surprise to our

readers, are the hard-hitting

investigations. One of our most

important was without a doubt

the Learndirect saga, which

exposed how the then largest

training provider in England

was the victim of catastrophic

mismanagement and a betrayal

of students.

We battled, in court, against

a gagging order to eventually

expose how Learndirect had

lost a legal fight with Ofsted

to overturn an ‘inadequate’

rating. This led to a series of

investigations into how the

government deemed the

provider “too big to fail” and led

to inquiries

from the

Public

Accounts

Committee

and National

Audit Office.

Our reports

received a “highly commended”

accolade in the Press Gazette’s

awards for “specialist media

publication of the year” in 2018.

I’d started on features for FE

Week during the pandemic

and had far too few chances to

speak to students – I was stuck

in a land of policy wonks and

chief executives, mainly because

college visits were out. It was

a shame, because students are

the reason FE exists and, really,

the reason FE Week does its job.

They are, in the end, the ultimate

stakeholders, and some of them

are very vulnerable.

No feature brought this home

to me more powerfully than

when I wrote about Northern

College, the beautiful, old adult

residential provider in Barnsley.

I probed the reasons for the

government threatening to

pull its funding. One student in

particular stuck with me – Lee,

who told me how he’d beaten

a drug addiction to pursue his

fascination in

history, only

made possible

because his

classroom

was

accompanied

by a bedroom.

He couldn’t hear me swallowing

down the phone.

Afterwards, Northern College

emailed to say they thought FE

Week coverage had helped. That

was a proud moment.

FE Week is at its best when

it throws its weight behind a

cause and campaigns, with

its readers, for change in the

face of injustice. I remember

following, and supporting, FE

Week’s campaign to clear the

learner loan debts of students

whose training provider had

gone bust.

The issue was thrown into

the spotlight in 2016 when

John Frank Training suddenly

went into liquidation, leaving

hundreds of learners in limbo.

Learners without anywhere to

go to complete their training

continued to be liable for

thousands of pounds in learner

loan debts.

It wasn’t until July 2019,

following

a lengthy

cross-party

campaign led

by FE Week,

that new

powers were

afforded to

the secretary

of state to cancel learner

loans of learners who found

themselves in the lurch.

I made this my pick for top story

not just because it involved me

having a nice dinner in a foreign

country, but because it shows

skills in action.

So much of what is written

about this sector, rightly, is

about what government,

providers and sector groups

are doing to improve or expand

training provision generally.

Yet at FE Week we try to talk

just as much about what is

actually delivered and what skills

learners take away from courses,

whether that be adult education,

apprenticeships, traineeships,

bootcamps or T Levels.

In this story, I tried to get

across the skills that were on

show from the

competitor,

talking about

how he distilled

the wine and

how the judges

were checking plates were

served at the right temperature.

It demonstrated, I hope, the

actual effect of training on a

young person who had been

skilled to take up a career.

BILLY CAMDENDEPUTY EDITOR

FRASER WHIELDONSENIOR

REPORTER

JESS STAUFENBERGCOMMISSIONING

EDITOR

SHANE CHOWEN

EDITOR

11@FEWEEK WWW.FEWEEK.CO.UK@PEARSON

FE Week reporter Fraser Whieldon sampled the high life by taking part in the restaurant service competition at WorldSkills 2019 in Kazan.

For someone whose idea of fine dining is eating pasta at the kitchen table, rather than in bed in front of the telly, I was a

little sceptical of it and wondered whether I would enjoy all the pomp and ceremony.

Nevertheless, I kept my reservation at the restaurant service competition area for 11am, from when I would be served a four-course meal.

My apprehension was not lessened when, on approach, I saw the competitors crafting elaborate shapes out of napkins – what’s the point of that, I wondered. They would be unravelled as soon as we sat down!

My reason for this brief foray into the high life was that fine dining is one of the areas of the WorldSkills restaurant service competition, which also includes coffee, bar service and casual dining.

Team UK was represented in the restaurant service competition by Collette Gorvette of Gell College.

However, competition rules forbade us from being served by a competitor from our home country – so having arrived at the fine dining area, myself and three other diners were escorted to our table by our server, French competitor Louis Cozette.

He first brought us bread and served some water, along with a shot of vodka (it was Russia after all!) and then the Gewürztraminer wine for our salmon and caviar aperitif, which was served on a teaspoon.

That was followed by a shrimp cocktail for a first course; a Russian okroshka soup consisting of raw vegetables, boiled potatoes, eggs, and cooked meat for second course; a beef stroganoff with a glass of cabernet sauvignon for third; and a cheese board paired with a ruby port for the fourth and final course.

All of the meals, by the way, were

prepared by Louis next to the table – and were to die for. As was the booze – I squirrelled away a note of the Gewürztraminer’s brand for the purposes of good journalism and to see if I could pick up a bottle after I flew home…

And it was my immense disappointment as a Team UK supporter to find… that Louis was very good.

Attentive, helpful and informative, he kept everyone’s glass topped up, he answered my question about why he twice distilled the Cabernet Sauvignon (it’s basically to artificially age the wine), and did not wait until my mouth was full of food to ask if I was enjoying my meal.

DAY TWO – DINING OUT ON WORLD-CLASS SKILLS

However, it wasn’t me he needed to impress, it was the experts, who were checking every detail.

They even tested the temperature of the plates Louis was serving the food on, and corrected him when he tried to serve us a selection of cheeses rather than the full board.

Whilst I doubt that I’m going to be giving up my own approach to fine dining, I am much closer to becoming a convert to Louis’ way than I was before.

Yes, there is a lot of pomp and ceremony and yes, I had to keep telling myself not to put my elbows on the table, but it is a great experience – and free as well!

Restaurant service competitor Collette Gorvett

Fraser Whieldon (far right) pictured at the fine dining

The shrimp cocktail course

@FEWEEK 3EDITION 283 FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2019

FEWEEK.CO.UK

News

Victims of a long-running FE loans scandal are set to benefit from new legislation that gives the education secretary powers to clear their debt – representing a huge win for FE Week’s #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign.

From July 1, 2019 the government will be able to cancel all or part of an advanced learner loan for learners left in debt when their provider goes bust.

FE Week has revealed horror stories involving hundreds of students suffering from such circumstances since early 2017. Many of them, who were training to be, for example, carpenters or chefs, were left with debts amounting to thousands of pounds but no qualification when providers such as John Frank Training and Edudo suddenly went out of business.

The government refused to write off their loans, even if the learners couldn’t move on to other providers.

It sparked the launch of #SaveOurAdultEducation which demanded justice for those affected and has now been hailed as a success by Robert Halfon, who was skills minister at the time and is now education select committee chair.

"I’m delighted that students with advanced learner loans will no longer need to be penalised for the actions of bust training providers when suitable

alternatives are not available for them,” he said.

“This was something I pushed for as a minister and campaigned for alongside FE Week. I really welcome the hard work of Anne Milton and Damian Hinds in making it happen.”

After our campaign’s launch, the Student Loans Company deferred repayments for the affected learners, but as FE Week has previously reported, money has still been taken out of their accounts in repayments.

The provider central to the scandal was John Frank Training. The London-based firm went into liquidation on November 30, 2016, leaving no assets, despite recording a profit of £1.3 million in the first half of 2016. Around 500 learners were affected.

The situation resulted in the Education and Skills Funding Agency reviewing its audit framework for loans-only providers and changes were made, including the banning of subcontracting for these providers.

The ESFA did not report John Frank to the police because no fraud was identified as part of the original

investigation.Asim Shaheen was among the ex-

learners at the provider. The trainee chef still had an outstanding debt of £8,000, plus interest, when the firm collapsed and could not find another provider with whom to complete his training.

After being told the news of incoming legislation to protect learners, Asim told FE Week: “After more than two years of stress and worry, this is great news and I now expect the government to cancel my loan in full at the first opportunity.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “In a very few cases, a small number of students with advanced learner loans are unable to

complete their course as a result of provider failure. Our priority in these cases is to ensure those students have the opportunity to continue their studies elsewhere.

“However, we recognise that this is not always possible. In recognition of this we have introduced new legislation to allow the Secretary of State to consider cancelling all or part of an advanced learner loan in such circumstances.”

Skills minister Anne Milton told FE Week: “At the heart of everything we do is the interests of students and learners.”

A spokesperson for the Student Loans Company confirmed repayments for learners affected by the liquidation of John Frank Training “have been deferred for a further year until April 2020”.

Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden was a firm supporter of

#SaveOurAdultEducation and hosted its launch event in Parliament. He also put in numerous written questions to pressure the DfE into action.

“It’s welcome news that finally two years on, the Secretary of State is taking steps to find a solution for the many learners affected by the collapse of their training providers – left with huge debts and no qualifications through no fault of their own,” he said.

“It’s disappointing that these learners have been left with the stress and worry of having these repayments hanging over them for so long, without adequate solutions coming forward from the department or the ESFA.

“That is why it is vital that Damian Hinds follows through urgently on this new legislation and writes off their debt to finally end the nightmare for these learners.”


DfE amends law following FE Week campaign to protect loans learners

“At the heart of everything we do is the interests of students”

From front Exclusive

#SaveOurAdultEducation launch. From left: FE Week publisher LSECT’s managing director Shane Mann, former top skills civil servant Susan Pember, FE Week editor Nick Linford, shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden, David Lammy MP, chief executive of the Workers’ Educational Association Ruth Spellman, Rob Marris MP, Kate Green MP, Margaret Greenwood MP and Helen Goodman MP

Asim Shaheen confronts then skills minister Robert Halfon at the #SaveOurAdultEducation launch

Amendment of the Further Educations Loans Regulations 2012 2.—(1) The Further Education Loans Regulations 2012(b) are amended as follows. (2) After regulation 24 (overpayments of fee loan), insert—

“Cancellation of fee loan

25.—(1) Where this regulation applies the Secretary of State must cancel all or part of a fee loan. (2) The circumstances mentioned in paragraph (1) are that—

(a) an eligible student has taken out the fee loan in relation to a designated further education course at an institution; (b) the course to which the fee loan relates is no longer available at the institution; (c) the student has applied in writing to the Secretary of State for cancellation of all or part of the fee loan; and (d) the Secretary of State considers it appropriate to do so.

The legislation to protect loans learners

25

@FEWEEKEDITION 353 | FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2021



As Northern College fights for survival,

Jess Staufenberg asks – is the government

overlooking a big opportunity to ‘level up’?

Lee Hughes was 29 years old when he signed

up to Northern College, one of just a few adult

residential providers in the country, hidden

away in expansive grounds in Barnsley. “It’s a

bit of a story,” he begins. “It were quite rough at

my school and I thought, if I just play the fool,

I’ll get by, which I did. But I left school with no

qualifications whatsoever.”

Aged 16, Hughes was living alone. “I got a

job in a warehouse, and that was it, I was just

drifting. I got into drugs. One of my hang-ups

was that I’d not tried my best – that I’d let an

opportunity slip through my fingers.” He’d

done electrical engineering for a year at the

nearby general further education institution,

Barnsley College, but left. “I was just doing it

because everyone else was.” He then got a job

in a call centre. “I kept getting disciplinaries

for reading books, history books. I was on

my final warning at work, and my manager

said, ‘You’re wasted in this work. Go and do

something with yourself.’ It was a really key

moment in my life.”

Hughes turned up at Barnsley College once

again. “But as soon as I walked in the door,

it was just kids. Some of them weren’t much

older than my son.” He’d also been recently

made homeless and so the receptionist,

hearing his circumstances, told him about

Northern College. Like 95 per cent of learners

there, Hughes qualified for a means-tested

free place. The college offers two- or three-

day short courses, an adult educator training

route, maths and English GCSEs, functional

and digital skills courses, and two main access

routes into higher education: a humanities

and social sciences route, and a computing

route. A criminal investigations route, leading

into police work, is launching this year and

a healthcare access route is in development.

Hughes took the humanities route.

“I did well, really, really well, I were

absolutely flying.” Hughes became the student

union president at the college, got a distinction

in his course, and was accepted on to a history

BA at Sheffield Hallam University. He went

on to a research masters, and is now applying

to PhD positions, aged 36. “If I hadn’t had the

opportunity to move into Northern College, I

wouldn’t be having this conversation with you

right now.”

Adult education is already under huge

The slow death of high-quality adult residential education?

Focus: Adult residential education

We take a look back

at our favourite and

most influential

stories from the

past decade. 2011-2021Celebrating


FE Journalism

19






19


Just as FE takes the political

centre stage, mainstream

coverage is looking thin,

writes Ann Limb

How do journalists write about

themselves impartially and

independently?

Well, they don’t, and shouldn’t

– which is why this “old woman

of FE” wants to raise the flag and

speak up about a decade of media

coverage of FE.

No one has put me up to this.

You don’t tell Ann Limb what

to do. Everyone who knows me

well can attest to the strength

and authenticity of my own voice

since I started in FE in the late

1970s.

Let’s start with FE Week. My

comments here may not make

me popular in some quarters.

Over the past ten years, FE

Week has, in the words of its

founder, Nick Linford, done a fair

amount of “pushing, probing and

challenging” – of all of us in the

sector.

Mostly quite rightly, I say.

This has sometimes made

uncomfortable reading for

individuals, colleges and providers

– some of them my colleagues,

friends and even my former

employer.

But this is to be welcomed. A

mature, confident and forward-

looking sector benefits from

external scrutiny and challenge.

This helps keep us on our toes and

highlights areas for improvement

in the quality of all we do.

However, some angles and

stories have led to controversy,

particularly in terms of their

effect on the people involved.

Malpractice needs exposing,

arrogance checked and egos

pricked, but some in FE are not

so robust in their self-confidence;

some FE leaders need only to be

“stirred not shaken”. They only

needed a nudge, not a take-down

blow.

There were times when some

in the sector felt FE Week had

shaken some leaders too hard.

Journalism and readership are

two sides of the same coin. They

need each other.

Reporters write week in and

week out in the full glare of the

government and the scrutiny of

their readers. Sometimes they

take huge risks, revealing the best

of their journalistic instincts, to

get their stories out.

In its best example, this includes

FE Week’s courageous exposure in

2017 of the scandalous practices

at Learndirect.

I know, too, from personal

experience that FE Week is read by

DfE officials and No 10 advisers,

so it can have real impact. A

couple of years ago I received a

call directly from the PM’s office

enquiring about a story in FE

Week – they read it there first!

So, Nick’s founding goal of being

the “FT of FE” is to be applauded,

and stories like that show the

paper has frequently succeeded.

Now to other papers where

FE has been covered with any

reasonable consistency (don’t

worry, the list isn’t very long).

I lament the recent fate of

TES FE. What timing – just at

the point when skills are finally

centre-stage politically. In the

good old days at TES with Ian

Nash, FE had a profile when

it was barely covered by other

media, FE colleges were places for

other people’s children, and FE

Week was just a twinkle in Nick’s

eye.

TES reporting was reliable,

middle of the road, steady as

she goes – and then it went!

The journalistic careers of two

fabulous women writers, Julia

Belgutay and Kate Parker, were

cut dead by TES’s crazy decision

to end coverage. You couldn’t

make it up.

And finally, The Guardian (being

Mancunian and generally on the

left, I am a lifelong subscriber to

the paper). However, where are

the references to colleges? All I

read about is “schools, schools,

schools”. I sometimes wonder if

an editor sits there reading copy

and removing references to “and

colleges”. Is it just me? Am I that

paranoid?

Now, more than ever, we

need respected and respectful

journalism. It is an essential

element of the free and

democratic society in which we

live.

So, just like college leaders, FE

Week’s culture and practices must

always be shot through with

integrity. Over to you, Shane.

“All I read about is ‘schools, schools, schools’”

Founder, Helena Kennedy Foundation

ANN LIMB

Top FE journalism is needed now more than ever

Shane Mann, Anne Milton, Kate Green and Toby Perkins at the 10th anniversary celebration

Shane Chowen speaking at the 10th anniversary celebration



FE Journalism

20






20


As the sector’s only dedicated newspaper,

FE Week has an important responsibility

to reflect the diversity of the FE and skills

community. It’s my job as editor to make

sure our readers can see themselves in our

pages and that we do our bit to hold the

sector to account for its diversity deficits,

especially in leadership positions.

That’s why this is the first of what will

be an annual diversity audit of FE Week’s

pages. This is our first step to show our

readers how we are performing in reflecting

the diversity of the sector. As such, I am

reporting our analysis now as a baseline,

and we will publish our performance at the

end of the year to our readers.

We are initially reporting how many

women and people from Black, Asian

and ethnic minority (BAME) backgrounds

were visible on our front page, as opinion

columnists and as people on whom we

write profile interviews.

The number of leaders from BAME

backgrounds in our sector is scandalously

low. Official participation statistics show

that 23 per cent of FE students are from

Visibility matters – FE Week will do its bit

non-white

backgrounds, and

the Education

and Training

Foundation’s last

published analysis

of workforce

data showed that

BAME staff make

up 15 per cent of

the workforce.

Despite that, it’s

estimated that

only 5-6 per

cent of college

principals and chief executives are from

BAME backgrounds.

In our last full year of publication, 35

editions between September 2020 and July

2021, 112 faces appeared on the front cover

of FE Week. Of those, 55 per cent were

women and 18 per cent were BAME people.

Over that period, only 11 per cent of FE

Week opinion columns were authored by

BAME writers. We will work hard to increase

that this year; however, this does reflect the

significant under-representation of BAME

people in positions across the organisations

from which we typically source expert

columnists. Those

organisations

include the sector’s

national bodies, trade

associations, political

parties and think

tanks. This year, we

have introduced “The

Staffroom”, a new

space for the sector’s

front-line to write for

us within our expert

opinion roster. In

addition, we have set

ourselves an internal

target for at least one

BAME columnist every

fortnight.

Our profile interviews

are a great way of

getting to know

influential figures in our sector. Over

our 2020/21 publication year, FE Week

published 22 profile interviews. Four of

them were BAME interviewees and 13

were women.

Visibility in our pages matters, and

so do the issues and topics that we

cover in them. FE Week is in a unique

place to report on and investigate the

progress of sector leadership bodies at

improving representation within their

own organisations and the impact they

are having on the wider sector.

As well as being the place where the

difficulties and challenges in diversifying

the senior leadership make-up of FE and

skills is properly examined and debated,

FE Week can also be the place where

progress and learning is marked and

celebrated.

The quality of official information on

the diversity of the sector’s workforce

is poor. We have only a rough

understanding of the gender and ethnic

make-up of senior leaders in colleges,

and we know even less about the people

running training providers, and even less

about other diversity characteristics,

such as disability, sexual orientation and

gender identity.

I hope others will join us in contributing

to the open and honest conversation the

FE sector needs to continue to have with

itself to better reflect the communities

we serve.



FE Journalism

SHANE [email protected]

0

10

20

30

ENGLANDWORKING

POPULATION

FEWORKFORCE

COLLEGEPRINCIPALS

FESTUDENTS

FE WEEKFRONTPAGES

FE WEEKEXPERTS

FE WEEKPROFILES

18%18%23%

15%14%

6%11%

BAME representation in FE Week 2020/21 compared to population data

GENDER FEMALEMALE

PROFILES

59%41%

EXPERTS

47%53%

FRONT PAGES

55%45%

WHITE/BAME WHITE

FRONT PAGES PROFILESEXPERTS

89%

11%

82%

18%

82%

18%

FE Week diversity audit 2020/21

BAME

21




England’s “largest” NHS trust has been

slapped down by Ofsted for taking on

too many apprentices while failing to

recruit enough tutors to train them

properly.

In a report published on Tuesday,

Manchester University NHS Foundation

Trust was found to be making

‘insufficient progress’ in all three areas of

a monitoring visit undertaken in July.

Inspectors slammed leaders at the

employer, which has 386 apprentices,

for a “failure to put in place many of the

principles of an apprenticeship”.

Despite this, “leaders continued to

recruit large numbers of apprentices,

even though they knew they would be

unable to meet all the requirements of

an apprenticeship”.

At the same time, a “small number”

of tutors were responsible for a “large

number of apprentices”, so could not

support all of them “effectively”.

A large majority of apprentices study

the level 2 healthcare support worker

and level 3 senior healthcare support

worker standards, but others studied

the level 3 team leader and business

administrator courses.

Insisting the provider’s problems

could not be blamed on the pandemic,

the report highlights how “none of the

areas for improvement identified at

the previous inspection has been fully

resolved”.

The trust, which boasts on its website

of being the largest in England, was

given a grade three in a full inspection

report published in February 2020.

That report told trust bosses to “rapidly”

reduce the number of apprentices

“who leave before completing their

apprenticeship or continue in learning

beyond their planned end-date”. Also,

they were advised to include employers

more in the planning of apprentices’

learning and to ensure staff delivering

functional skills courses use apprentices’

starting points to plan the curriculum.

This week’s follow-up monitoring report

finds that when apprentices do not attend

functional skills sessions, leaders did not

intervene quickly enough. This meant

“too many apprentices fall behind in

their learning and routinely exceed their

planned end-dates for functional skills”.

Apprentices’ line managers “do not

know” what they need to do to help

apprentices apply skills and knowledge at

work, because the provider’s assessors do

not involve them in planning courses.

Leaders were criticised for not ensuring

assessors and tutors use apprentices’

starting points to plan and develop

apprentices’ English and maths skills and

put in place actions for apprentices to

complete their functional skills courses in

a timely manner.

The provider has brought in new

processes to improve the collection of

apprentices’ starting points, including

one-to-one meetings to determine

what learners already know at the start

of their programme, the report reads.

Leaders and managers had not

ensured apprentices receive high-

quality careers information, advice and

guidance, it was also found.

“Most” apprentices told inspectors

they have not had the chance to

discuss progression opportunities,

even though the large majority have

“clear and aspirational career aims”

to become nurses or operations

department practitioners, working

to prepare patients and operating

theatres’ equipment for surgery.

Under Ofsted’s inspection handbook,

providers, like Manchester University

NHS Foundation Trust, that receive

a ‘requires improvement’ judgment

should expect a full reinspection within

“12 to 30 months”.

The trust failed to respond to requests

for comment at the time of publication.

News


Ofsted slams major NHS trust for rapid apprenticeship recruitment

ProSuite

https://httpslink.com/gpjj

23




New networks in college are

having a ripple effect, writes

Arv Kaushal

We make a big fuss of our

children or partners on their

birthday, but we actually do so

because we love them all year

round.

This is the 95th year of

celebrating Black History

Month, and it’s time we looked

at it the same way – something

to be especially commemorated

each October but also to be at

the front of our minds for the

other 334 days of the year.

Now that’s an easy aspiration

to have and to express, but at

Milton Keynes College Group,

we’ve been trying to build

structures and processes to

make it a reality.

We’ve set up a series of

employee resource groups to

look at the way we work, and

we’ve appointed chairs, which

makes that responsibility an

opportunity for individuals

to grow and progress in their

careers.

These are people who are

already passionate and eager to

try to create that better future,

but who have never really had

a mechanism through which to

achieve it.

Each network also has an

internal executive sponsor to

give guidance and to be that

essential voice at senior level.

They are all people with strong

voices within the organisation.

Our director of marketing

sponsors the cultural diversity

employee resource group, while

our chief people officer looks

after the LGBTQ network.

The principal for MK College’s

prison education arm supports

the women’s network and the

principal at College and South

Central Institute of Technology

does the same for the men’s

network.

Meanwhile our senior

operations director supports

the disability group.

Gradually, people who’ve

had no other alternative but

to “cheer from the sidelines”

when it comes to issues of

diversity and equality have a

reason to get more involved,

to go to those external events,

to look for opportunities for

change.

To give even greater weight to

the networks, we’ve brought in

external mentors who’ve kindly

volunteered their services free

of charge. So we’ve been hugely

fortunate to win support from

some highly knowledgeable

people, each with a very

specific understanding of the

areas covered by each network.

Among these we have some

senior civil servants and highly

experienced people from

industry. These include Justin

Placide, from the Department

for Business, Energy and

Industrial Strategy, who is co-

chair of the Civil Service Race

Forum; and Hayley Brown, co-

chairwoman of the Ministry of

Defence Gender Network.

Caroline Eglinton from

Network Rail is the company’s

disability and access

ambassador and LGBTQ

specialist; and Meena Chander,

founder of Events Together Ltd.

The reaction has been so

encouraging. At the beginning

I was contacting people and

asking, “Do you know about

this event?”, or “Do you think it

might be good to speak to this

person?”.

Now the networks are getting

in touch with me, telling me

about the places they’ve been

and the people they’ve met and

the ideas arising from them.

Based on a model of allyship,

the groups are taking on lives

of their own and each network

is already creating a gentle

ripple effect running through

the whole college.

This approach can only hope

to succeed with buy-in from

the top. Management in many

organisations can be reluctant

to see employee networks of

this kind grow in confidence,

just in case they call for

uncomfortable or expensive

change.

It’s a risk, and we’re fortunate

enough to have unstinting

support from the executive

level to the extent that the

chief executive, Julie Mills, is

the executive sponsor for the

whole initiative. This leaves

no one in any doubt as to the

group’s commitment to positive

change.

Black History Month is about

celebrating individuals who

achieved greatness in spite

of the prejudice they faced.

It is an aspiration but also a

challenge, to make the fight for

equality, diversity and inclusion

in all its forms a 365-days-a-year

campaign.

Black History Month should

be regarded as a signpost,

to black presents and black

futures.

One day, we won’t need to

remember it exclusively any

more. Hastening that day, is

surely what remembrance is all

about.

“The groups are taking on lives of their own”

Opinion

Equality, diversity and inclusion manager, Milton Keynes College Group

ARV KAUSHAL

Make Black history matter for the other 334 days of the year

24




MPs have launched an inquiry into the

government’s decision to defund level 3

qualifications that overlap with T Levels.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group

for Youth Employment, chaired by

Conservative MP James Daly, will spend

three months exploring how the decision

“will impact the choices available to young

people and what that will mean for their

employment prospects and outcomes”.

Sector experts, young people and

employers will give evidence, including at

meetings on November 23 and 26.

This comes after the Department

for Education concluded its review

of level 3 and below qualifications

by announcing such courses

would need to prove they give

employers the skills they need to continue

to be publicly funded.

The DfE said at the time it expected

applied general qualifications, such as

BTECs, will become “rare” when a new

system is phased in between 2023 and

2025.

This new system will make T Levels,

A-levels and apprenticeships the main

options for post-16 qualifications.

Ministers and officials are under mounting

pressure over this decision, with a group of

school, FE and apprenticeship organisations

starting the Protect Student Choice

campaign to ensure applied generals

“continue to play a major role in the

future qualifications landscape”.

The campaign group is running a

petition, calling on the government

not to withdraw funding from

BTECS, which has over 38,000

signatures at the time of writing.

As part of the campaign, 118 MPs and

Lords penned a letter to education

secretary Nadhim Zahawi this month asking

him to “recalibrate” his department’s plans

for BTECs.

The questions the APPG will attempt

to answer include what impact the

removal of funding will have, and will the

government’s proposed ambition for T

Levels, apprenticeships and A-levels support

the needs of young people and employers

in the future economy.

Written evidence submissions are being

accepted and should be emailed to josh@

youthemployment.org.uk by 5pm on

December 3, 2021.

The inquiry will run from this month to

January 2022, when a minister will be

invited to give evidence and receive the

APPG’s report.

BTECs: MPs to probe effect of defunding level 3 courses on learners

Developingexcellence in teaching andtraining 24-25 Nov 2021

CPD event

Register today

James Daly


https://www.worldskillsuk.org/educator-resources/developing-excellence-in-teaching-and-training-cpd-event/?utm_source=FE_week&utm_medium=Ads&utm_campaign=CPD

25




Jon Collins, who is six months in as chief

executive of the Prisoners’ Education Trust,

explains how prison teachers feel cut off from

their college colleagues

Perhaps it’s because Jon Collins, the new chief

executive of the Prisoners’ Education Trust, is such

a calm, precise and mild-mannered person that

the scale of the scandal he describes in prisons

sounds so shocking.

I have unsuccessfully tried for six years to get

sign-off from the Ministry Justice to go into a

prison classroom.

Setting aside the outrage that would follow if

the Department for Education controlled access

for journalists to colleges – there’s a safety aspect,

of course, but it smacks more of a fervent desire

to avoid scrutiny – the secrecy makes it difficult

to understand what prison education really is

like. There will be excellent practice, but it seems

inexcusable not to be able to describe it.

Collins, who is now six months into the job, is

able to provide some proper insight. Of course,

there have already been major leaks: back in

2014, the-then chief inspector of prisons said

he was “very concerned” by the “extremely

serious” situation in jails. By 2018, several

prisons were described as in a “dangerous state”.

Then in November last year, the education

select committee announced an inquiry into

prison education, with Robert Halfon, the chair,

JON COLLINSChief executive, Prisoners' Education Trust

‘Prisons and collegesmust link up more – for inmates and teachers’

JESS STAUFENBERG@STAUFENBERGJ

INTRODUCING

Profile

26




particularly frustrated by the high proportion

of prisoners with special educational needs who

were neither assessed on arrival or properly

supported during their sentences.

By last month, Ofsted and Her Majesty’s

Inspectorate of Prisons published a joint

commentary that “little improvement has been

made” since the raft of reform recommendations

from the landmark Coates review of prison

education in 2016.

The bar could barely be lower: between 2018

and 2019, Ofsted judged only 38 per cent of

prison education as good, 44 per cent required

improvement and 16 per cent were inadequate.

Compare that to FE colleges, where 68 per cent

are judged to be good or better. And that’s before

we talk about Covid.

Collins has seen a lot of the criminal justice

system. He’s got a masters in it, has worked for

NACRO, the crime reduction charity, for the

Fawcett Society on women in prisons, was a

director at the Criminal Justice Alliance and

was deputy director at the think-tank The Police

Foundation. More recently he’s been chief

executive of the Restorative Justice Council and

before his current role, was chief executive of the

Magistrates’ Association. It’s his first time working

on prison education. He’s not a man given to

hyperbole – but then, the subject doesn’t need it.

“It’s a very, very limited offer,” he replies drily,

when I ask him what prison education entails.

A brief overview: it’s usually level 2 English and

maths (with no guarantee of GCSE provision, let

alone A-level, T Level or BTECs), some “digital

skills” training that doesn’t necessarily lead to

a qualification (“it’s more just how to use basic

equipment”, Collins says) and some English

courses for speakers of other languages.

The Prisoners’ Education Trust runs online

courses – in 2020, the most popular was an

Open University access module, followed by a

business start-up course. But the numbers are

tiny: 52 learners on the OU module and 47 on

the business start-up course, out of a prison

population in England and Wales of more than

79,000. Four providers are in charge of prison

education, including two colleges: Milton Keynes

College, Weston College, Novus and People Plus.

“Not only is it a very limited offer, but when

you combine it with the way education is

delivered, it’s extremely challenging for prison

teachers,” Collins says. Classes tend to be three

hours long, because moving people around the

prison is difficult. Regimes can also be inflexible –

inmates have to be in their cells at certain times

of day.

“So you’re challenging teachers on how they

can constructively use a block of three hours

for people who have often not had a positive

experience of education before.”

Teachers also face having to get prisoners who

need a level 2 qualification to attend the non-

compulsory classes, while “it’s very possible that

people who have already got qualifications are

doing the classes anyway to occupy themselves.

One of the biggest challenges is how to engage

and stretch these learners.”

It sounds like a nightmare. The surveys speak

for themselves: 70 per cent of prison teachers are

intending to leave in the next five years, a joint

report from the Prisoners’ Learning Alliance

and the University and College Union found in

August. The teachers point to “no progression”

and feeling like “hidden voices” in the teaching

profession. What about Unlocked Grads? I ask,

referring to the Teach First-style scheme that

parachutes ambitious future leaders into prison

officer roles. Is there something similar for prison

teachers? Collins shakes his head.

“In terms of prison teachers, there’s not really a

staightforward progression route in the same way

[…] there’s no equivalent to becoming a prison

governor, if you’ve not been a prison officer.

Prison teachers wouldn’t really go up via that

Profile

Prison education in HMP Bronzefield in 2017

Collins presenting in London in 2018

“There’s not a

progression route

for teachers to

become a governor’”

Phot

o cr

edit

- Ian

Cut

hber

t and

PET

27




route.”

So despite the Coates review calling for more

autonomous prison governors who prioritise

education, Collins says the focus of most is not

on teaching. This seems unsurprising if governors

are mainly coming up through the prison officer

route.

“Governors want good prison education, but for

most, education is not their top priority. It’s about

keeping people safe - and the challenge is how

you can deliver good prison education in that

environment. I’m really hoping the Ofsted review

will give strong pointers on that.”

The challenges of accessing education have not

gone unnoticed among inmates either. In the

Chief Inspector of Prisons annual report for 2020-

21, just 22 per cent said they could easily access

education, while just 12 per cent said the same

about vocational skills or training.

Prison learners also face various legal hurdles.

At present, only prisoners within six years of

release are eligible for student loans to cover

tuition fees, a fact the Higher Education Policy

Institute has said “beggars belief”.

“We think that rule should be removed

altogether,” Collins says, pointing out that jail

terms have lengthened, with the government

last year scrapping automatic release half way

through sentences for serious crimes. “If you’ve

got someone who’s come into prisons quite young

on a long sentence, and you’re trying to think

about how to use that time constructively, not

being able to study for a degree doesn’t seem the

most effective way of managing that.”

Would-be apprentices face similar hurdles

with complexities around inmates

being classed as employees. The

government proposed a “prisoner

apprenticeship pathway” in 2016, with

close involvement from the Association

of Employment and Learning Providers

– but in 2019 the association was still

calling for the pathway to get off the

ground.

To top it off, prisoners sometimes

turn their back on learning because

they can earn money in a prison job

instead, Collins says with a grimace.

Then Covid hit. The pandemic revealed

prisons are in the “digital dark ages” in terms

of remote learning, the Prisoners’ Education

Trust has said. Launching its five-year strategy

this week, it pledged to increase the number of

inmates accessing its distance learning courses

while calling for a “major investment” in digital

technology in prisons.

It criticised the government’s plans to roll out

in-cell technology in just nine of 117 prisons

next year. “But that mustn’t come at the expense

of face-to-face education,” Collins says. “It must

complement, not replace, face-to-face teaching.

Many prisoners need a lot of support from prison

teachers and officers to become learners.”

It seems that prison education, a bit like

FE, is all the vogue right now. There’s a select

committee inquiry, an Ofsted review, the 2019

Conservative manifesto promised a “prisoner

education service”, and every justice secretary has

made the right noises. But little has changed.

Collins is clear: “What’s currently on offer is as

far as the money will stretch. If it’s going to be

broader and better, that needs to be paid for.”

A complete revamp of the prison teacher

career path, with better links between prisons

and mainstream education, might also be long

overdue.

“If you deliver education just for prisons, you

end up with a one-size-fits-all approach,” Collins

says. “But if prisons and colleges linked up more,

then there would be access to a broader and

more personalised curriculum. That’s one way

you could move prison education closer to the

mainstream.

“There’s also not a lot of thinking about how

being a prison teacher fits into a teaching career.

Could people do teaching in prisons as part of a

more structured career?”

It’s a powerful suggestion. Distance learning

is a commendable goal, but the Prisoners’

Education Trust is still trying to engage prisoners

in institutions that largely don’t see education as

the top priority. Perhaps Collins and others like

him should be backing an exciting scheme akin

to Teach First to support trainee teachers to the

top in prisons. Then, culture change might begin

from the leadership down – and the scandal of

our prisons, finally, will start to be resolved.

Profile

Prison education in HMP Bronzefield in 2017

Collins presenting a Magistrates Association’s award in 2018

“We need to move

prison education

much closer to the

mainstream”

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29




THESTAFF ROOM

FE’s educational ethos is being overshadowed by market logic

Dispatches from the frontline of FE

The vocabulary of employability

and finance is taking over,

writes Zahid Naz

In recent years there has been a

shift away from the social values

of education towards a form

of economic rationality with

two main concerns. This can be

seen in the strategic direction of

policy initiatives, such as the 2019

education inspection framework

(EIF) and the 2021 FE white paper.

First, the educational ethos –

which fosters an orientation to

curiosity – seems to have been

overshadowed by the demands of

the market.

Second, little attention has

been paid to the socio-economic

constraints within which FE

colleges operate.

Framed within this economic

rationality, the role of further

education providers has become

inextricably linked to being a

solution to the skills deficit. This

is, of course, an absolutely vital

part of FE’s role. But as a result of

this hyper focus, the curriculum

“intent” of FE providers is being

constructed around the vocabulary

of employability and finance.

Yet education also encourages

the development of students’

emancipatory, political and

aesthetic potential. We need to

focus on teaching and learning

practices from the standpoint

of pedagogical, rather than

marketised, logic.

The overemphasis on a model

of education dedicated to the

economy works to dwarf the

significance of abstract and

powerful knowledge in humanities

and social sciences.

It also undermines the core

education values of intellectual

independence, imagination and

selflessness.

The underlying rationale for

this perspective may well lie in

an assumption about FE students’

intellectual ability. It could also

reflect assumptions about their

previous grades, which could

reflect a range of socio-economic

factors rather than act as real

markers of “intelligence”.

So, it would be unreasonable

to assume these learners are not

developmentally ready to process

“difficult theoretical knowledge”

and therefore need only be

employment-ready. Instead, we

could combine technical and

academic knowledge, which could

make the latter more accessible for

FE students.

The inclusion of “powerful

knowledge", through subjects such

as history, politics and philosophy,

can add value to vocational

curricula. However, the Skills

for Jobs white paper makes no

mention of this.

For example, it says the key

focus is on economic growth and

jobs, which will be delivered by

“putting employers at the heart

of the system so that education

and training leads to jobs that can

improve productivity and fill the

skills gap”.

But an approach that valued

powerful knowledge would not

only enhance FE learners’ ability to

meet civic obligations to the public

and the market, but also make FE

qualifications a better progression

route into higher education.

We know from figures on access

to university released by the

government last week that the

entry gap between disadvantaged

and more affluent students is now

the widest it has been in 15 years.

Another concern I have is

how the education inspection

framework, which mainly

draws on research from school

settings, puts FE at a considerable

disadvantage.

FE is a complex environment,

and the demographics of FE

colleges are different from schools.

FE provides its learners with a

chance to continue their education

at whatever level is best suited to

them.

We know from evidence that

the personal skills wanted

by employers and education

institutions are social competences

often shaped through previous

experiences. This includes

experiences informed by social

class and gender. Students will

display these competences to

different degrees.

It’s for this reason that

differentiated assessment tools

should be applied to colleges,

rather than a universal inspection

framework based on a one-size-fits-

all perspective.

The market-based rationality is

also embedded in the EIF, which,

like the white paper, links the

role of FE to employability skills.

It also functions to obscure the

significance of powerful socio-

political knowledge as well as

vitally important traditional

educational principles.

For example, the key focus is on

the attainment of “qualifications,

skills and behaviours that enable

students to find employment”. The

onus is on a college to ensure that

learners recognise that their skills

are transferable.

Overall, a reform in FE

policymaking that puts pedagogy,

not just market needs, at the

forefront of FE curricula is long

overdue.

Teacher trainer and curriculum manager

ZAHIDNAZ

“This approach may well lie in an assumption about FE students’ intellectual ability”

THE STAFF ROOM

Dispatches from the frontline of FE

Got views from the classroom?

Anecdotes about apprenticeships?

Insights into how the sector really works?

Get in touch with us about The Staffroom!

Statistics and policy documents can only ever tell part of a story. The Staffroom is the place where policy and practice collide.

This is a brand-new column from FE Week, in which your thoughts will be read by thousands of readers. You will offer on-the-ground perspectives on and experiences of the issues of the day. Importantly, we are looking for contributors in teaching, learner support and professional services roles across the breadth of FE and skill providers and institutions. Why do it?If you’ve ever stopped while doing your job and thought to yourself, “I can make this work better”, now is the time to consider writing for us. You will get to boost your professional profile, shake the sector up a little, make your colleagues laugh and prompt senior leaders to think hard about your insights from the frontline. There are opportunities to become a semi-regular columnist and to share your views on a range of topics such as:

• the curriculum• subject and training areas• leadership and management• diversity and inclusion on campus

and in the workplace• environment and sustainability• pastoral and safeguarding issues• widening participation• addressing achievement gaps• student experience

Introduce yourself to usWe want to hear from everyone, and would particularly welcome pitches from people from an under-represented or minority background. Do tell anyone who might enjoy giving it a go to get in touch with us. In exceptional circumstances we could discuss you writing under using a pseudonym. Anyone who wishes to become a Staffroom opinion writer should pitch their ideas to the contact details below. We will then help you to make it take shape!

Write to commissioning editor Jess Staufenberg on [email protected] or find her on Twitter @StaufenbergJ

31




Since apprenticeship reforms,

providers have had to front

up more of the costs, writes

Jane Hickie

The pandemic has had a

disproportionate impact on young

people and their employment and

learning opportunities.

Since the advent of the 2017

reforms, fewer young people have

participated in apprenticeships.

So the right balance of

incentives and funding premiums

are needed to encourage

businesses in their decision-

making process, while equally

supporting social mobility.

Before the apprenticeship

reforms in 2017, 16-18 apprentices

were fully funded and apprentices

19 onwards were co-funded at 50

per cent by the state.

The government also ran an

incentive scheme: Apprenticeship

Grants England (AGE), where

employers could apply for a £1,500

government for recruiting an

apprentice aged 16-24.

In 2016, the government also

removed employer liability

for class 1 national insurance

contributions for apprentices. This

is still available, but it has not

been well advertised.

When the apprenticeship

reforms were introduced, funding

rates between young people

and adults were equalised and

the AGE incentive scheme was

replaced by a £1,000 “additional

payment” incentive solely for

16-18 starts, paid to both the

employer and the provider.

This has meant that employers

are less incentivised to take

on younger apprentices, and

providers have had to front up

more costs.

And we can see it in the very

worrying figures.

In the last academic year, adult

apprentices aged 25+ accounted

for more than 50 per cent of all

apprentice starts for the first time.

Meanwhile, 16-18 apprentices

accounted for just 20 per cent of

all new starts.

The government could do

three key things to “level up”

apprenticeships. These would help

to increase entry-level starts and

the number of young participants,

while providing crucial support

for SMEs.

1Give cash incentives

to employers

The AGE scheme supported

thousands of employers to

take on young apprentices.

The incentives made available

through the Plan for Jobs have

also been a fantastic success.

More than 100,000 new jobs

have been created so far, of

which 76 per cent have been

for 16-24-year-olds. This is

significantly more than the starts

on the much pricier Kickstart

scheme.

Cash incentives give employers

flexibility to choose how they

invest the grant, whether that’s

an indirect wage subsidy or

investment in infrastructure to

support the apprentice.

So we need a longer-term

employer incentive scheme

to build on the success of the

Plan for Jobs. However, after

January 2022, this should be

targeted at the 16-24 age group

and maintained at £3,000 per

apprentice.

Apprenticeship job creation

also means long-term sustainable

employment, as over 90 per cent

of apprentices are retained as

staff.

2Fund 16-18 apprenticeships

from the 16-19 budget

This would remove these

apprenticeships from the scope

of either co-investment or levy

funding and support more

employers to employ younger

apprentices.

3Double the cash incentive

for training providers

After all, training providers are

the government's salesforce for

apprenticeships.

Training providers were

previously able to access greater

funding for 16-18 apprentices.

This was important, as the

cost of finding, recruiting and

supporting a young person

in the workplace along with

training and assessment is higher

than supporting an adult already

employed in the workplace.

The government needs to

enhance the incentives it

currently offers to training

providers to support young

apprentices through a young

apprentice funding premium.

There is a £1,000 provider

“additional payment” incentive

for 16-18 apprentices. But this

is not high enough to drive

effective positive change. The

current £1,000 training provider

“additional payment” incentive

should at least be doubled.

Funding premiums should

properly reflect the additional

investment required to provide

high-quality and attractive work-

based learning for young people.

With these changes, the

government could show it’s

walking the walk, and not just

talking the talk, about boosting

apprenticeships.

“We need a longer-term employer incentive scheme”

Opinion

Double the cash incentives so more young people get apprenticeships

Chief executive, Association of Employment and Learning Providers

JANE HICKIE

32




There are far too many barriers

for the unemployed and low

paid to get into learning, writes

Chris Morgan

There is a critical need to help

the 3.7 million adults in the UK

in low-paid and insecure work.

Sixteen per cent of adults have

poor literacy skills, and one in

three have no qualifications.

One in three adults who have no

qualifications live in poverty.

This week the WEA launched

our 2021 Impact Report, which

reveals the extent to which

community learning helps adults

improve their employability and

life chances.

The research highlights the

importance of learning for

both boosting career prospects

and its physical and mental

transformative effects.

We have identified five areas

for minimising these disparities –

and have written to the Treasury

in advance of its spending review.

We must:

1 Maintain the current level

of funding for the adult

education budget

This comprehensive spending

review is long overdue and is

the first realistic opportunity for

Treasury to set budgets for three

years ahead. A budget maintained

at current levels for three years

would offer providers a level of

stability that has been lacking

from the funding system for some

time.

As well as setting out its very

ambitious plans for the funding

& accountability framework, the

Department for Education (DfE)

has also consulted recently on the

national skills fund.

This all adds up to a period of

considerable change for further

education, including community

learning.

2Create a distinct fund for

adults who need essential

employability skills

The DfE is proposing to create a

single skills fund that combines

the adult education budget and

national skills fund. The thinking

behind this is to give providers

more flexibility and autonomy.

However, in adult community

learning we already have quite

a lot of flexibility and autonomy.

What we lack is visibility.

Our concern is that the single

fund will see level 3 provision

eclipsing community provision at

lower levels. This could result in

a very top-heavy model that does

not serve those furthest from the

job market.

Rather than a single pot, we

would prefer to see two distinct,

but inter-linked funds, including

an essential skills fund supporting

those who need most help.

3Remove the economic

skills trap that creates

barriers to study

There are so many barriers to

the unemployed and low paid.

For example, many learners miss

out because they are earning

just above the threshold to

qualify for financial support. If

you need more than one level 3

qualification to enter a career, the

national skills fund will not fund

the second one.

And to gain access to level 3

study funded by the national

skills fund, you need to meet

entry criteria that many do not

have, such as level 2 English,

a 4 in GCSE maths, subject

knowledge and work placement

experience.

We are encouraging the

government to break these

barriers down. Some devolved

mayoral authorities, such as

Liverpool and Cambridgeshire

& Peterborough Combined

Authority, are already starting

to lift them, opening doors to

opportunities for thousands of

adults.

4Launch a national

awareness campaign

highlighting adult learning

financial support

Visibility is one of the sector’s

biggest concerns. Multiple studies

have shown adults are unaware

of the education provision

available, or the funding support

to cover fees and childcare.

A national awareness campaign

would be especially effective in

the most disadvantaged areas.

5Legislate for specialist

designated institutions

to have equal rights to

grant funding

Since 1992, the WEA and other

community learning providers

have been classed as specialist

designated institutions (SDIs).

This status means that SDIs are

eligible for grant funding in

exactly the same way as general

further education colleges. With

such root and branch reform of

the funding system taking place,

it would be easy to overlook the

complexities.

So we ask that that the

government legislates for SDIs

to have equal rights to grant

funding, or at least confirms on

record that the current status still

stands.

Then we can keep advocating

for adults, arguing that it is

critical they are not forgotten.

“Adult community learning lacks visibility”

Opinion

Director of employability and skills, WEA

CHRIS MORGAN

Five urgent tips for the DfE on adult education

33




Last month, I came across an informative and insightful article by Sallyann Baldry titled Considering Changing EPAO? A guide to ensuring a smooth transition. A positive and constructive discussion on the topic, Sally provided an interesting perspective for customers to consider when choosing to work with an end-point assessment organisation (EPAO).

The information shared highlighted the value of factoring in all elements when changing EPAO, outlining to providers and employers what should be considered important to their organisational requirements.

Following this article’s publication, our team here at NCFE took the opportunity to review the information listed in Sallyann’s comparison grid and decided to use this as a framework to carry out an internal quality check against our own offering.

We performed this check to assess whether we’re meeting the current needs of the sector and, most importantly, to ensure that we’re providing the best service we can - one that continues to keep the apprentice, employer and independent training provider (ITP) at the heart of everything we do.

Evaluating our own offering

As an experienced and Ofqual-recognised EPAO, we hold ourselves to a high standard. We’re therefore delighted to confirm that our offer exceeds the expectations of our current and potential customers, including what is widely recognised as a top-rated end-point assessment (EPA) provision with specialisms in health, care, education and business.

To demonstrate NCFE’s EPA offer and its various elements, we’ve created our own comparison table, allowing providers and employers to see at a glance the service that we provide.

We’re proud to share that our offer surpasses many of the comparison grid’s requirements, such as the provision of a named contact within the relationship team to work in partnership with; customer support available across multiple levels; a system that is easy to use with no integration required; and access to a range of resources and guidance materials covering the end-to-end EPA journey via our customer resource library.

Our advice when changing your EPAO

As stated by Sallyann, there are many considerations when thinking about switching your EPAO. Here are the key requirements that we recommend being aware of:

• Customer service: access to support and guidance across multiple levels

throughout the EPA journey will be essential.

• Collaborative working: it’s important to work with an EPAO that is forward-thinking, proactive and keen to work in partnership with customers.

• Communication: the importance of the apprentice, employer and ITP having visibility and an open line of communication throughout the EPA journey can’t be understated. In my experience, support, guidance and feedback are imperative to successful outcomes.

Changing EPAO can be a smooth and stress-free transition when the right organisation is chosen, as well as being a decision that can deliver many benefits for you as a provider of apprenticeships to the next generation.

Find out more about our end-point assessment offer:Email: [email protected]: 0191 2408950

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CALL 02081234778 OR EMAIL [email protected] TO SEE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU ADVERTISE YOUR VACANCIES

EDITION 367 | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2021

HCUC (Harrow College and Uxbridge College) is a highly successful FE College in West London, presenting the highest 16-18 Achievement in London over three years with all 14 Subject sector areas above national average. HCUC is proud to be delivering the only London T-Level and Transition Courses pilot across a growing number of pathways and has the West London Institute of Technology targeting STEAM Levels 3 to 5.

Working alongside the Group Deputy CEO & Principal, you will provide strategic and operational leadership to HCUC’s curriculum & quality approaches, further develop and implement strategies for raising standards to maximise student achievement, and impact on learner outcomes. You will drive and inspire improvements in teaching and learning, ensuring quality procedures are rigorous and completed uniformly, and monitor their impact.

You will be an experienced teacher, with significant

experience in implementing strategies for raising performance standards across a large volume and complex provision. You will have a sound understanding of quality management processes and post-16 inspection requirements, be highly organised, an effective communicator, with the ability to lead and influence others.

The College has recently introduced a Working from Home policy. It may be possible to work a proportion of your work time from home where this does not adversely impact on operational needs.

Closing date: 31st October 2021

Assistant Director – Academic StandardsSalary in the range of £55,392 - £58,639 per annumincluding London Weighting

Uxbridge/Harrow campuses

For further details and to apply, please visit:

Jobs & Careers at Harrow College and Uxbridge College

Deputy Principal – Curriculum

£75,000 plus relocation package

Joining a highly effective senior leadership team which includes four senior post holders who form the executive team, you’ll have primary responsibility for the design, delivery and quality improvement of the entire curriculum offer and will also be expected to play a significant part in the wider strategic deliberations of the SLT and executive team. The college will support the post holder in their personal career development. You will work closely with colleagues and a supportive Board of Governors at a strategic level.

Solid experience across a broad curriculum offer is a prerequisite, with experience of successful A level provision highly desirable. The role will demand a detailed understanding of the quality agenda and highly developed data analysis skills to underpin the drive towards greater consistency and continuous improvement. The College plays an active role in partnership work in the borough and beyond and it is expected that the new Deputy Principal will take on some of these ambassadorial and liaising duties as well as working closely, alongside the other members of the SLT, with the Governing Body.

Executive Director Finance and Estates

£60,000 to £70,000 plus relocation package

You will work with the Principal to strategically lead the college finance and estates function, working with a professional team and college managers on the accommodation strategy and live projects, whilst leading on internal and external audit functions with the Principal and Clerk to the Corporation and on the college’s response to GDPR.

A qualified accountant with strong technical skills; ideally (although not essential) with solid experience in a post 16 education setting, you’ll have a detailed understanding of the financial agenda in FE or can quickly get up to speed on this; and highly developed data analysis skills to underpin the drive to protect our outstanding financial health and lead on the capital projects for planning and execution.

Click here for more information on each role and to apply

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Interim Managers & Consultants Required

Click is an established and respected provider of interim management and quality improvement services to colleges and training providers. Due to high levels of demand from our client organisations, we are looking to add to our team of expert associates. If you are looking for a flexible and varied approach to working life as a Click associate and want to make a positive difference in colleges, then we would like to hear from you.

We are looking to recruit senior and middle managers with experience in all curriculum and support areas, in particular specialists in finance, exams, MIS, HR, SEND, engineering and current inspectors.

Click offer competitive rates and the support of a friendly central team.

In the first instance, please send your CV to Annette at [email protected]

0121 643 8988 | www.click-cms.co.uk

Trainer Assessor Senior Healthcare Support Worker Salary: Up to £24,390.78 per annum depending on experience

‘Would you like to be part of a team that aims to create the extraordinary?’

Nelson and Colne College Group is a beacon for educational excellence, made up of a family of colleges – Nelson & Colne College, Lancashire Adult Learning & Accrington & Rossendale College.

We are looking to appoint a full time Trainer Assessor- Senior Healthcare Support Worker to join our talented and learner focused Business Unit Apprenticeship team on a permanent basis, working 37 hours per week. This role will be based at our Accrington & Rossendale College campus.

Working with learners placed in hospitals across Lancashire, the successful candidate will be committed to work-based learning provision, with an appreciation of the fact that the role of a Trainer/Assessor can make a massive difference to the life choices our learners will have in the future. Supporting a caseload of learners through their qualifications, the successful candidate will have a “hands-on” approach; coaching and demonstrating best practice in line with the new Senior Healthcare Support Worker Standards.

Closing Date: Midnight – Wednesday 3rd November 2021

Interview Date: TBC

Click here for more information and to apply

Ravensbourne University London is exceptional. A world-class digital destination developing talented individuals and leading edge businesses though learning, skills, applied research, enterprise and innovation.

We are based at Greenwich Peninsula in an iconic building next to The O2. Our aim is to become a portal for talent across London driving growth in the knowledge economy and creative industries.

We are looking to strengthen our team with the following appointment:

Programme Director Pre-Degree and Apprenticeships A new opportunity for dynamic leadership in a pivotal role as Ravensbourne University London embarks on an ambitious and challenging period of strategic growth. A key element is widening our offer of pre-degree courses and ensuring that student recruitment and academic attainment targets are met for students to successfully progress.

As a valued member of the leadership team the role will contribute to building upon a foundation of exceptional industry relations and actively develop current and new apprenticeship courses that provide real-world connections and experiences for students; and will further establish Ravensbourne University London as a preferred partner and collaborator.

A vital element of the role is previous knowledge and understanding of the funding and standards applicable to pre-degree and apprenticeship courses as is all related compliance and academic quality and standards required by external agencies and regulatory bodies.

Closing date: 31 October 2021

Interviews: 8 November 2021

To apply: http://careers.rave.ac.uk

For further details: [email protected] 020 3040 3622

If you are disabled and want to know more about job opportunities at Ravensbourne, please email our Disability Advice Line [email protected].

We welcome applications from suitably qualified people from all sections of the community in our desire to reflect the diversity of the community we serve

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Changing Perceptions of Mental FitnessAs part of our commitment to supporting an education-led approach to mental �tness, we are currently funding the use of Fika’s ‘7 Skills of Mental Fitness’ curriculum for 85 FE centres. Fika is an innovative app that allows users to develop 7 mental �tness skills.

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38




that sees their face in front of a screen and keyboard

more than the young people they are charged with

supporting!

Rob Smith, website

I totally agree. In over 20 years of working with

apprenticeship I have seen the amount of documented

evidence increase so much that time spent doing the

important training with my learners has been depleted.

Unfortunately, there is no trust in training providers

due to the years of less professional providers abusing

the system. I agree more funding in place per learner

would reduce caseloads and increase the quality of

delivery. This can only improve the standards within the

sector.

Lea-Ann, website

The government’s FE policy is dangerously

wishful thinking

Great to see a college leader coming out unequivocally

on this. FE can’t let the allure of more £s in the sector

blind them to the things that really matter: the power

to shape lives locally. When the govt wants to run

everything from the centre.

Tom Bewick, Twitter

Activate unveils new chief exec and plans for

another merger

Delighted for you and Activate Learning, Gary

Headland. I am sure you will build on the innovative

leadership of Sally Dicketts. I’m looking forward to

continuing to work with you in this new and exciting

role.

Paul Eeles, LinkedIn

Wow. Congratulations, Gary. You deserve it! Here’s

wishing you and colleagues – across both organisations

– the best of luck and even more exciting times ahead!

Drew Richardson-Walsh, LinkedIn

Paperwork threatens to take over the job I love

I am absolutely in agreement with this article and

the bureaucracy is now biting hard! I manage a

team of people who are absolutely dedicated to the

achievement of apprenticeships and am seeing these

already hard-working team members beginning to

look at whether they can manage to remain in a role

The government’s FE policy is

dangerously wishful thinking

REPLY OF THE WEEK

A really helpful

summary of a very

sorry state of affairs.

Having recently

moved from FE to

the schools sector

I am seeing first-

hand how much

more responsive

government seems to

schools. So much of

the great innovation in FE seems to flow

in spite of government policy, not because

of it. Policymakers need to better model

the kind of skills they keep asking the FE

sector to deliver.

Jeremy Wilsdon, website

READERS REPLY

39




Movers & ShakersYour weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving

Bulletin

Start date: June 2021

Previous job: Head of automotive and

electrical installation, South and City

College Birmingham

Interesting fact: He took three years

out of his career in FE to be a full-time

politician in Birmingham and spent a

“brief spell” resolving a refuse workers’

strike in 2019.

Brett O’ReillyHead of innovation

for construction

technologies, NCG

Start date: August 2021

Concurrent job: Freelance FE specialist

and senior research fellow, Learning and

Work Institute

Interesting fact: She likes wild swimming

and walking in Cornwall.

Cheryl TurnerTrustee, Central

YMCA

Start date: August 2021

Concurrent job: Deputy chief executive,

Exeter City Council

Interesting fact: She started her career

in further education, as an economics

and business studies lecturer at City of

Westminster College.

Bindu ArjoonChair, Exeter

College

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 [email protected]

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