The Further Education sector may have avoided additional cuts in the Budget 2016 announcements, but we’re not out of the woods yet. The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) could end full funding for 524 qualifications – around 20% of the total qualifications currently fundable.
The SFA held a consultation between 10 and 29 February on removing full funding from a number of qualifications for 19-23 year olds; this was met with criticism from the sector, including the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) because 5 of those working days fell during half term. FAB has complained directly to the SFA, as the timescale made it difficult to garner the required support from colleges and training providers.
Our Policy Leader Andrew Gladstone-Heighton agrees, stating: “We don’t think this short timescale was sufficient for a consultation of this nature. A longer timescale would have allowed for a more meaningful conversation and a quality response, which would have been significantly more beneficial for centres and, ultimately, learners.
“I wrote a letter to the SFA to voice both mine and NCFE’s concerns about this consultation. In it, I’ve said: ‘We feel it is unrealistic to expect Awarding Organisations to gather the required evidence in such a short period of time. This is particularly poorly planned as the period covers half term, during which a large percentage of the institutions listed above will be closed’.”
Stephen Wright, Chief Executive of FAB, argued that the time period, regardless of being in half term, was unrealistic, stating: “I don’t even think they consider a 14 day deadline sufficient for this exercise, especially considering the period covered the half term break.
“For each qualification to be included in the legal entitlement, Awarding Organisations have not only been asked to gather letters that support the expected learner demand from colleges, but also either an endorsement from a professional body or a reference in a local skills strategy.”
He also believes the repercussions of this will negatively impact learners: “The result is that important qualifications will fail to be included, not because they don’t provide value to learners but because, for example, a letter from a college wasn’t received in time.” I wish I could disagree, but the truth is that the result of this will most likely affect learners adversely.
The majority of the qualifications that could lose full funding are at Level 2 (69%), with Level 3 qualifications making up the rest (31%). This feels like an attack on lower level qualifications, which have long been perceived as less significant. However, research revealed that Level 2 vocational qualifications boost the earnings of those undertaking them by 12%, and Level 2 Apprenticeships by 10%.
The SFA has said that “the timetable for the consultation was designed to enable the SFA to publish, before the end of March, a final list of entitlement qualifications. This is aligned to the publication of our funding rules, and is intended to allow sufficient time for colleges and training providers to finalise their 2016/17 offer.” However, as my colleague Mr Gladstone-Heighton pointed out, many centres have either already completed their 2016-2017 curriculum planning, or they are about to.
At NCFE we’re very vocal about the value of vocational qualifications, and while the Budget 2016 didn’t contain any further cuts for the sector, it still feels like we’re under attack. The potential removal of over 500 qualifications from the funding catalogue can only be detrimental to learners, particularly when it’s focused on 19-23 year olds. Many of these qualifications can be used as stepping stones to higher level study, and it’s disappointing that they don’t seem to be very highly regarded.
We want to reassure you that we’re resubmitting a number of our qualifications in order to get them funded for next year. We’re actively pursuing this to make sure we get as many NCFE qualifications funded as possible to help both you and your learners.
