Imagine a world in which the speed limit was changed on a road from 40mph to 30mph. OK, we might be a bit peeved, but we’d get used to it. Then imagine that the council retrospectively viewed speed camera footage and fined everyone who had driven at 31-40 mph over the previous years. Well, that’s what the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has done with the unjust retrospective recalculation of achievement rates.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ chief executive, Mark Dawe, called it “harsh”. That’s a polite way of putting it.
I, like many providers, had been labouring under the belief that we had accurate data. We calculated our achievement rate at 86.6 per cent for 2015-16. The SFA’s new qualification achievement rate had us on 85 per cent. I was and remain rather disappointed at losing 1.6 per cent. However, this disappointment was nothing compared with the anger at the national statistics. Putting aside which measure we use, whether it is 67 per cent or 71 per cent, the national rates are rubbish. I’d genuinely expected a rise in the national rates to somewhere around 75 per cent. The fact that rates haven’t gone up and are actually under 70 per cent is profoundly disappointing.
We need to take a stand on apprenticeship standards
Back in June 2016, I pointed out that there were thousands of apprentices enrolled with colleges and providers whose achievement rates were below 50 per cent. These institutions drag us all down. They put through sufficient volume of dross to counteract the very good work done by some excellent colleges and providers. This appears to be continuing. Once again, the latest SFA growth requests asked for no data on achievements. Conceivably, poor providers received growth over good providers. Is that in any way sustainable or fair? Is it a good use of taxpayers’ money?
For me, achieving an apprenticeship is an essential benchmark of quality. I’ve never met an employer or an apprentice who started their programme with the intention of failing. Apprentice achievement rates are as much a benchmark of quality for providers as GSCE pass marks are for a school, or the percentage of people passing their driving test for an instructor. Yet, we appear to have tolerated not only lacklustre achievement rates but an absence of leadership in the area of quality. I’m totally fed up. The razzmatazz around digital accounts, trailblazers and employer ownership masks a deep-rooted problem when it comes to apprenticeship delivery. No attention has been given to learner outcomes. Nothing has been done at a national level to drive up achievement rates because resources have been ploughed into the reforms. The result has been style over substance, all fur coat and no knickers. Well, I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it any more! I call upon all good providers and colleges: we need to take a stand against a leadership culture that not only tolerates poor provision but actually allows it to thrive.
Three-step approach to regain our credibility
The SFA talks the talk when it comes to quality. Now it is time to walk the walk. If we are serious about quality and not just paying lip service then we (and by “we”, I mean the SFA) need to do something about it. Here’s what could be done:
- Set an achievement rate aspiration. Let’s have some actual leadership inspiring the sector to reach high standards. I’d begin with a target of 70 per cent in 2016-17, 75 per cent in 2017-18 reaching 80 per cent or over by 2020.
- Dump consistently poor providers. Those who have an average of 50 per cent or lower for the past three years - boot them off the Register of Training Organisations and disqualify them from the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers. Transfer their learners to stronger colleges and providers. Enforce action on minimum standards more robustly and be seen for doing so.
- Implement more frequent and intensive interventions from Ofsted for providers with low achievement rates. Instead of reinspecting good provision, channel resources to quickly intervene with providers where rates fall below the national average.
As we enter conference season, I’d like to see the narrative focus more on quality outcomes and less on the whistles and bells of the reforms. I’d like to see the SFA set out a strategic plan for improved achievement rates in which good provision is rewarded and poor provision punished. Most of all, I’d like to see the problem acknowledged. I know it’s uncomfortable, I know it’s embarrassing, but, nationally, achievement rates are poor.
Time to get serious
Anyone who believes that the reforms commencing in April will, alone, reverse our malaise is labouring under a false impression. Changing from a framework to a standard doesn’t change the premise that a failed or an incomplete apprenticeship is poor quality. Employers will still want the majority of their apprentices to fully complete their programme. Parents will want their children to fully complete their programme. In short, if we don’t change our mindset and approach to achievements, we’ll continue to experience dismal outcomes for learners. Add into the mix the prospect of a raft of new and inexperienced providers and we can only guess what will happen.
It is time to get serious about the very heart and soul of an apprenticeship programme. It should be substantial, it should be transformative, and it should be achieved. After all, if we aren’t here to ensure that apprenticeships are achieved, then what are we here for?
Matt Garvey is managing director of West Berkshire Training Consortium. He tweets @WBTCNewbury
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