GMLPF has been discussing the increased numbers of unfunded learners with the ESFA, other northern networks, and AELP.

Anecdotally, it seems members who deliver apprenticeships have seen a significant increase in unfunded learners (and more learners on breaks in learning). This is due to learners being unable to complete functional skills, occupationally relevant exams or EPA.

The issue was raised with ESFA again today in a Northern Skills Network meeting, with reference to a looming crisis for large parts of the sector.

ESFA have now asked us to provide tangible examples of the difficulties providers (colleges and ITPs) are having due to the pandemic and lockdowns. So, could I urgently ask if you could provide me with some examples (the whats, whys and impacts) of how providers are suffering from:

• High levels of unfunded learners – please give the approximate percentage of learners who are unfunded; is this figure increasing?
• Early leavers – have you seen a deterioration in retention rate; what the reasons are for this?
• EPA backlogs – are you seeing a backlog; is this in particular sectors eg I am aware it is a particular issue in hairdressing?
• FSQ (English & maths) assessment delays – is this an issue?
• Barriers to completing license to operate qualifications – is this an issue; is it specific to certain sectors ie I am aware that the need to pass a driving test may hinder completion of transport related Apprenticeships
• Has/will the increase in unfunded learners affect your organisation’s finances and accounts this year and, in turn, impact on your ESFA financial assessment? I ask this question with the RoTAP refresh in mind, and the need to flag this up and convince the ESFA that the financial assessment may need to be more relaxed this year.
• Any other issues which you think would be of value ie what is the monthly monetary cost associated with increasing numbers of unfunded learners

It would be helpful if you could e-mail by return to [email protected]  any useful intelligence so that I can share it with NSN who can then share it with ESFA and raise it with ministers.

GMLPF attended a sub-group of the Employment and Skills Board last week that looked specifically at Apprenticeships in the LCR. The purpose of the meeting was to allow the CA to understand what was working well, what was working less well and what could be done better.

Whilst the above points were useful for group discussion GMLPF made a number of strong points that it felt the CA needed to be aware of, both for its local work but also lobbying of DfE and ESFA. These included:

• The need for a clear vision for Apprenticeships locally – not another strategy rather a simple set of agreed principles around which providers, stakeholders and employers could cohere and which would provide a point of sail for the next few years
• The need to boost SME demand for Apprenticeships as much as possible at the moment whilst continuing to support the process of Levy transfer. The LCR CA area has traditionally started more Apprenticeships than it would do on a population share basis. Much of this was driven by SMEs. Decreased SME participation in the Apprenticeship programme however caused by a number of factors including less non-levy allocation, the complexities of the Employer Account (and to some extent the cap of 10) has driven down starts locally, in particular for 16-18-year-olds. The LCR CA has done some valuable work in facilitating unspent levy transfers which has been welcome but this rarely benefits the smaller SME bracket of employers or 16-18 year olds. If we want a model that encourages the participation of all age groups then more needs to be done locally to boost SME involvement in the City region and a loosening of the current cap levels.
• A closer and more operations driven working relationship between GMLPF and the Be-More team was suggested to support the above and to be better able to link employers and providers where training needs exist. Current levels of co-operation aren’t sufficient to retain all of the opportunities they source within the local provider base.
• The need to protect Traineeships and promote pre-Apprenticeship provision for 16-18-year-olds
• The local and national policy shift is towards higher-level technical qualifications, which is understood and creating excellent technical education opportunities locally. To achieve this, it requires investment in the provider base and, reflecting on the recent FE White Paper, opportunities for all providers to be able to secure skills capital funding. It was made clear that ITPs are significantly disadvantaged in this regard as the FE White Paper and previous tendering rounds (bar the last one which was managed by the CA) has limited ITP access to this funding stream.

A further follow-up meeting will look at how we can, through closer collaboration, look to stimulate demand for Apprenticeships.

 

GMLPF represents members on the local Employment & Skills Board. The ESB is required by Government to publish a Local Skills Plan for 2021/22 which sets out the current needs and opportunities in the City Region together with a Skills Action Plan to address these issues. In recent years, the LCR CA has produced a series of Skills Investment Statements which have done largely the same job, to identify the key trends and employment and skills needs that providers locally and nationally should respond to.

The Local Skills Report is largely analytical and is based upon the summary presentation on the current labour market. There is a lot of detail that Government guidance dictates must be in the plan but the LCR CA is keen to obtain feedback from stakeholders and our members on the plan as it stands. The current working draft sets out this data and narrative: we are still working on a number of the issues that you have raised over recent weeks e.g. what support is available for 18-year-olds, updated sectoral actions. Alongside the plan is a template for feedback which you can complete and return should you so wish.

The deadline for feedback is Wednesday 6 January 2021. The feedback will then be discussed at the next ESB meeting on the 20th January 2021.

In order to obtain a clear sector-wide view on the plan as it stands, GMLPF will hold a consultation session next week. I propose to hold that on Wednesday 17th December at 11.30 for an hour. I will give a quick overview of the plan but will be focusing on getting feedback from members on the strengths, weaknesses and gaps within the plan and looking at the consultation questions. Please feel free to join us and apologies for the short notice but this is being driven by external factors.

I would urge you to book onto this consultation as this plan will shape and inform investment in skills over the coming year. We must ensure that it is fit for purpose.

Book now

 

Over this Parliament and from 2021-2024, the government is planning on investing £2.5 billion in the National Skills Fund. The National Skills Fund will help adults to train and gain the valuable skills they need to improve their job prospects. The NSF aims to support economic recovery and address future skills needs by boosting the supply of skills and addressing employer skills needs.

 

The Chancellor announced an initial £375 million for the National Skills Fund at the Spending Review in November 2020. This includes £95 million in funding for a new level 3 adult offer and £43 million to expand skills bootcamps.

 

Level 3 adult offer

From April 2021, any adult aged 24 and over who wants to achieve their first full level 3 qualification, (equivalent to a technical certificate or diploma, or two A levels) will be able to access almost 400 fully funded courses. This is part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee which was announced by the Prime Minister in September 2020.

Courses will be available in a variety of lengths, to support adults to get the skills they need to boost their careers.

 

Sector subject areas and courses available

A range of funded courses will deliver a wide range of skills in many jobs and sectors.

Download the complete list of qualifications 

All of the qualifications have been carefully chosen to help adults improve their job prospects, meet the needs of the economy, and cover some critical areas where skills needs exist, namely:

Engineering; building and construction; manufacturing technologies; transportation operations and maintenance; business management; public services; accounting and finance; medicine and dentistry; horticulture and forestry; health and social care; ICT practitioners; ICT for users; mathematics and statistics; science; agriculture; nursing and vocations and subjects allied to medicine; child development and wellbeing; environmental conservation; teaching and lecturing;

warehousing and distribution.

More detailed information on how to access the offer will be available in early 2021. We believe the DfE will run this programme nationally.So what does it mean for providers in the Liverpool City Region?

 

• Allocations

We would expect to receive about 4% of total funding or £3m plus, and we understand that that the LCR CA may administer this. We will work with the LCR CA  to establish how it might be developed and managed locally, and to ensure that this funding is accessible to all providers.

 

• Awarding organisations, Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority will be able to suggest additions to the list through the qualifications funding approval This can be done on an ongoing basis.

Looking at the list of qualifications, there is a possible risk that this funding may not increase the number of adults starting a Level 3 qualification locally. In fact, this new programme may simply displace Adult Learning Loans, which is a real concern. We will explore this further and work with the LCR CA to ensure that the new programme does not displace and also undermine local provider stability. GMLPF will seek to ensure that this funding sits outside the current AEB procurement model, i.e. funding is not channelled exclusively through the existing grant-funded and procured provider base as that would be too limiting and restrict choice and opportunity.

 

Skills bootcamps

As part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, the Prime Minister also announced the expansion of the skills bootcamp programme, i.e. running local digital skills bootcamp. Skills bootcamps will complement the level 3 adult offer, providing free, flexible courses of just 12 to 16 weeks. They give the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, and fast-track to an interview with a local employer.

 

Subject areas

A range of bootcamp models will be established: Digital; Welding; Engineering; Construction

 

The Liverpool City Region will be a pilot area for the new bootcamps. Again, we are awaiting more information and will liaise with the LCR CA to discuss the local rollout. If anybody is interested in knowing more about the welding, engineering and construction bootcamps, please contact [email protected] to discuss further

Last week, Ofsted published its annual report for the year 2019/20.

It should be noted that this report covers the year when the new EIF was introduced and when inspection activity has been affected by the pandemic.

Some key messages that may be of interest to members are:

Learning Loss
Disruption to learners’ education as a result of the pandemic has been significant, especially in schools. In the pre-16 education sector, time spent in lockdown accounted for some 3% of an individual’s education. The disruption to education during that, and subsequent lockdown, period meant that learners made little progress.

In relation to the FES / Post 16 sector:

• The proportion of ILPs judged good or outstanding declined for the fourth consecutive year. Whereas, the proportion of Adult and Community Learning providers judged good or outstanding continued to increase and FE remained broadly stable.
• The proportion of new providers, receiving new provider visits, receiving an Insufficient Progress award increased. Primary reasons for this included: poor use of assessments to support planning of learning, lack of logical curriculum sequencing, insufficient OTJ learning and apprentices not assisted to develop enough new knowledge, skills and behaviours as part of their apprenticeship, instead merely accrediting existing skills that they already have.
• Governance remains a key issue and concern for Ofsted – “governance was not in place or was not sufficiently challenging in holding senior leaders to account to identify the aspects of the provision that needed to be improved. We also saw leaders, managers and the governance function not moving swiftly enough to implement the recommendations made at a new provider monitoring visit.”
• Apprenticeship provision is considered to be the weakest, where one in 10 providers are judged inadequate. Almost a quarter (24%) of providers that received new provider monitoring visits in 2019/20 had at least one insufficient progress judgement. Key factors in this were weak leadership and a lack of co-development of the curriculum with employers.

Liverpool Combined Authority recently launched the Digital Skills for the Workplace project, funded by DfE until 31^st March 2021 as part of the Digital Bootcamps initiative.

As part of this project, they can provide full funding for digital skills training which is at least Level 3 standard (or equivalent) and up to 12 weeks in duration. They can support employers in the Liverpool City Region who are experiencing digital skills gaps (to upskill, repurpose or recruiting), and individuals in the Liverpool City Region aged 19+ who are looking to upskill/reskill. Additionally, they are working with interested Training Providers to develop suitable digital skills programmes.

Below are links to three PDFs which contain an overview for each audience – Employer, Individuals and Training Providers.

Each PDF has an online link which takes the reader to the relevant registration of interest link. Submissions will be received at a shared mailbox [email protected] which will be picked up by a member of the project team.

 

Employer overview 

Individuals overview 

Training Providers overview