14 July 2016 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Post 16 Skills Plan

The Government has just published its Post 16 Skills Plan, which sets out proposals for the radical reform of technical and vocation education which is expected to be in place by 2020.

The Plan sets out a clear ambition for every young person, after their general education in the core academic subjects and a broad and balanced curriculum to age 16, to be presented with two choices: the academic or the technical option. The academic option is A’ level study in school sixth forms and sixth from colleges and the technical option will be 15 new routes and qualifications, based around apprenticeships, and provided by FE Colleges. The technical option at age 16, or age 17 following a transition year, will prepare individuals for skilled employment which requires technical knowledge and practical skills developed in college-based and employment-based (apprenticeship) education. This route can also lead to degree level qualifications.

Employers will sit at the heart of the system and take the lead in setting the technical standards. Crucially, standards will be designed by considering what is needed to move to skilled employment and then working backwards.

There will be a common framework of 15 routes across all technical education. The routes will group occupations together to reflect where there are shared training requirements.

There will be fewer but higher-quality technical qualifications which match employer-set standards. A new, employer-led Institute for Apprenticeships will regulate quality across apprenticeships and its remit will be expanded to cover all technical education. Routes will begin with high-quality, two-year, college-based programmes, aligned to apprenticeships. Within these programmes, there will be only one approved tech level qualification for each occupation or cluster of occupations (which could also be used within the relevant apprenticeship).

The Plan insists that the system must work for all groups of students. This will include ensuring that individuals who are not ready to access a route at age 16 (or older if their education has been delayed) can access up to a year of tailored and flexible support based on their prior attainment and aspirations.

Young people will be given a choice as they approach the last two years of compulsory education or training. Around 50% choose A levels at age 16, and around a third of young people enter full-time ‘vocational’ study at age 16. The Plan sets out proposals to cater for all young people that do not follow an academic option at age 16. The technical option is intended to be a distinctive, prestigious, high-quality offer which provides an excellent technical education to address the current position whereby a significant number of young people work their way through a succession of often low-level, low-value qualifications that lead at best to low-skilled, low-paid employment. Securing a step-change in technical education is vital for the productivity of the country and the economy.

It will be possible for young people to switch between these two options so as to avoid a situation whereby 16 year-olds make choices that drastically close down future options. Those who have started on the technical education option may conclude at age 18 that they would be better suited to academic study at a university or other provider; someone who has done A levels may prefer to go on to do a higher apprenticeship. Flexible learning will be important to learners of all ages, given the changing labour market. There will be bridging courses to make movement between the two options easily accessible.

Each programme will include a ‘common core’, which applies to all individuals studying that route and is aligned to apprenticeships (including English and maths requirements, and digital skills), followed by specialisation towards a skilled occupation or set of occupations.

The timeline is to establish all 15 technical education routes as soon as possible, and to phase in the reforms progressively so that ‘pathfinder’ routes will be ready for first delivery in September 2019, with additional routes becoming available for teaching in phases between 2020 and 2022.

Implications for Kent Schools

While this is a very welcome development to ensure there is a high quality technical education route for more young people, leading to skilled employment, and similar to the successful models available in Finland, Germany and Holland, there are significant implications for Kent Secondary Schools. Recent developments to provide a more blended offer of academic and vocational options in school sixth forms will cease, as the more regulated technical options move to the FE sector. This will impact on the range and quality of the learning offer in many sixth forms, as it will be focused on academic qualifications only, and it will reduce the numbers of students as more move to the FE sector for the technical route. This may require some re-organisation of school sixth form provision in Kent, especially for small sixth forms.

Apprenticeship Levy

The Government is introducing a new apprenticeship levy from April 2017, which will need to be paid by all employers with an annual pay bill of more than £3m. This includes schools. The levy is to increase funding for the training of apprentices by ensuring employers make a contribution which the Government will top up.

We estimate that this will be an additional cost pressure for Community and Voluntary Controlled maintained schools, amounting to about £1.7m overall, which will be felt in higher salary costs through employers NI contributions. It will also affect academy schools.

Either schools or the DSG will have to pick up this cost. We are hoping that the DfE may increase DSG to reflect this pressure as it is likely to affect medium and large size MATs and all stand along academies, foundation and VA schools with a payroll cost of more than £3m per annum.

If the DfE does not provide any additional funding, there is not likely to be “spare” DSG for this levy due to our continued pressure from High Needs funding costs. At the same time we do not yet know the impact of the introduction of the new National Fair Funding proposals, which may or may not help with the funding position of the DSG overall and individual schools’ budgets.

We will lobby the DfE about this additional cost pressure for schools as part of the second stage consultation on the new funding arrangements. This has already been delayed, and if it does not happen in September there will not be time for the funding changes to be in place for April 2017. There is also some suggestion that the apprenticeship level may be put off for another year to April 2018.

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director Education and Young People’s Services