FE Week - 23 February 2015

Government scraps ‘deterrent’ apprentice rule (p1) – the government has ‘scrapped’ the rule that requires Apprentices to re-sit any English & maths GCSEs they sat more than 5 years before the Apprenticeship start date.

The “Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) confirmed it had removed the rule — in place since 2009 — from the latest version of the specification of apprenticeship standards for England (SASE), but individual frameworks will need to be amended to reflect the change.”

The modification will come into effect for new starts from 6 April (subject to parliamentary process), following complaints and threats of legal action by providers.

Is this a move by the government to remove barriers for learners to apprenticeship programmes, and will it be reflected in the new Trailblazer written standards moving forward?

Funding fears as LEPS document reveals ‘relationship’ requirement (p2) – Colleges have been warned they could lose out on funding if Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) don’t engage with them.

The Skills Funding Agency outlined in its ‘Local Enterprise Partnerships: increasing their influence on skills budgets’ that “future funding agreements would require colleges to demonstrate a relationship with their LEP.” It also says that LEPs will get a say in how additional growth funding is allocated.

The report follows Ofsted’s annual report on FE and skills for 2013-14, which raised concerns that LEPs were “not collaborating sufficiently to ensure that vocational training is planned to help reduce skills shortages.”

There is a pressing need, therefore, for colleges and providers in receipt of SFA funding to engage with their LEP, both to help meet the skills need for their region & leverage funding through them.

FE Week - 2 March 2015

Sector chief tells of jobs fear as providers face 24% funding cut (p1) – the Association of Colleges (AoC) has stated his fears of job losses in FE and skills staff after it was announced that budgets could be cut by up to 24%.

This is all because the Adult Skills Budget is set to fall by 11% in 2015/16, but as Apprenticeships, Traineeships & English and maths budgets are prioritised, it could mean that those who don’t offer these see their funding allocation fall by up to a quarter.

Martin Doel, the Chief Executive of the AoC set out that “an additional major concern is how colleges, after suffering such considerable cuts, can continue to attract and retain the best staff. It is worth noting that the average college has made 105 redundancies since 2009/10 and we fear this figure will grow.”

Professor Wolf says more to be done on employer involvement (p9) - Alison Wolf, author of the influential Wolf report, has called for more employer involvement in college assessment and delivery following the latest report of her 2011 review of vocational education.

She started off the recommendation that assessment and awarding processes should involve local employers; “I’m not sure what else government could have done because our bizarre system it is to a large extent up to the awarding bodies and after that to Ofsted, but I don’t feel we have made as much progress as I would have liked in getting employers really involved in the assessment and delivery in 16 to 18 vocational education in colleges.”

Professor Wolf also defended Study Programmes, which were introduced following her recommendations, as they increased the numbers of learners undertaking a GCSE (or equivalent) in English and maths.

TES - 27 February 2015

Is it time to tear up apprenticeships? (p44) – a major report backed by the 157 group of colleges and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) argues that apprenticeships need to be ‘remade’ to put learning back at their core.

Professor Bill Lucas, professor of learning at the University of Winchester and co-author of the report set out his concerns that “details about learning and pedagogy are worryingly thin on the ground” in the major political parties rhetoric on apprenticeships. He feels that there is an undue focus on “sound bites about who can do more’ apprenticeships.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills responded to the report, stating that; “during this parliament there has been more than 2.1 million apprenticeship starts and more than 1,000 employers are now involved in designing and delivering new, high quality apprenticeships […] but it’s not just about the numbers, the government is reforming the apprenticeship system to drive up quality.”