FE Week - 12 January 2015

Apprenticeship reforms ‘not in long grass’ — Boles (p3) – The Skills Minister is under pressure as it was confirmed this week the government has gone back to the drawing board with plans to route apprenticeship funding through employers.

Boles has had a tough week, he was in front of the Education Select Committee following the publication for the government’s plans for Apprenticeship funding, where he admitted that time was running out for the funding reforms, and that any announcement might be delayed until after the General Election (which, as you all should know by now, is 7 May).

He also let slip his feelings for his predecessor Matthew Hancock’s reforms saying "you’ll understand if we do more homework. Bluntly we don’t want to go off half-cock again."

The ‘pause’ in the reform of apprenticeship funding has been welcomed by Industry and Further Education leaders alike, and I think the Minister is right – we’d like to hope for some clarity before the next election.

British Gas cutting flow of 16 to 18 apprentices (p6) – British Gas has failed to deliver 89% of its allocation for 16-18 apprenticeships in the last academic year (from a contract worth around £2.5million).

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) figures show that British Gas received only 11% of its original allocation for Apprenticeships it had delivered. British Gas has claimed that the reason for the underspend was an increase in recruiting from other age groups, with the average age now being around 25.

This presents an interesting tension – the government are keen to incentivise the delivery of apprenticeships to 16-18 year olds, but here a key employer is claiming it has greater demand for Adult Apprentices. Will the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BI listen?

Schools Week - 16 January 2015

PISA test results will measure exam reform success (p2) – The government has announced that it will use the UK position in the international PISA tests to evaluate the success of its exam reforms.

It follows an appearance by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan in front of the Education Select Committee, in which she was asked how government changes to GCSEs and A Levels would be measured. Although Morgan could not initially say how success would be measured, The Department for Education (DfE) later responded, stating "we will listen carefully to the view of employers and universities to assess how successful the reforms have been in preparing students to succeed in life in modern Britain… [and] measure the increased performance of the schools system as a whole by reference to international tables of student attainment, such as PISA."

FE Week - 26 January 2015

Call for more powers to track 16 to 18s (p3) – Local Authorities will need legal powers to share information on the education and training status of 16-18 year olds. The Governments Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has made the recommendation after finding that up to 20% of young people’s activity and participation was unknown among some local authorities.

This is particularly relevant as the raising the Participation Age legislation requires 16-18 year olds to be participating in further education or training, but without data and tracking of these individuals, it’s hard to see how this is being done.

In a time of decreasing budgets, will local authorities have the budget to be able to track these learners? Is this something the Further Education sector could help with?

TES - 23 January 2015

Use tax data to find subjects ‘worth’, Morgan says (p7) – Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has hinted that she could link qualification achievement with tax data to highlight the ‘true worth’ of studying different subjects, as well as tracking student achievement after they leave school.

No further details have emerged on this as yet, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on moving forward.

Ofqual seeks to ensure all things are equal in maths (p14) – pupils are being put through a series of mock exams at the request of Ofsted in attempt to alleviate concerns over the new GCSE standards in maths.

This follows allegations that some exam boards’ standards accredited by the regulator were too easy, with Ministers furious that more could be done to prevent a ‘race to the bottom.’

The TES has heard that Ofqual has written to schools asking them to submit Year 11 students for sample 90 minute tests from each of the 3 exam boards, to ensure consistency across the range.

The controversy has seen the government vocally reconsider "introducing single exam boards for each subject, so the competition cannot affect standards," with a DfE Minister saying that this was a "perfect example of standards being lowered for the goal of securing a greater market share."

Ofqual are under pressure as first teaching is to begin on these new standards from September – a significant challenge for one of the government’s flagship education reforms.