Technical and Further Education Bill (First sitting)

Tracy Brabin Excerpts

Committee Debate: 1st sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 22nd November 2016 Public Bill Committees

[The Chair]

I remind Members that we have only 12 or 13 minutes for three further questioners, so could questions be brief and answers pithy? Thank you.

[Tracy Brabin (Batley and Spen) (Lab)]

Q I applaud your desire to reach out to learners and have a conversation with them during the teething process. However, there does not seem to be a specific requirement in the Bill to have learners on the board, talking to you. They are going to be the guinea pigs. This will be up and running very soon; April seems five minutes away. Can you specify how learners are going to be connected to the board?

Peter Lauener: I cannot specify that in detail at the moment, because that is, properly, something that the board should discuss. With my deputy chief executive, Mike Keoghan, I am making a plan of board activities during January, February and March, to allow the board to focus on all the aspects of its remit and to think about the governance as well. I mentioned earlier that we expect to consult on a draft strategic plan for the institute for 2017-18, and I am sure that that will be an occasion to raise the question and get lots of views back. The board can then discuss it in the January to March period before coming out with its final plan, I hope right at the beginning of April, so that it is clear from the start of the institute’s operation exactly how it will operate across a broad range of activities, certainly including the one that you have mentioned.

[David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)]

Q The Bill supports the occupational categories of quality apprenticeships set out in that excellent document, the “Post-16 Skills Plan”; they include construction, and engineering and manufacturing. That is fantastic and a real step forward. Do you both believe that the Bill provides an effective ability to redefine those categories as economic sectors evolve? Secondly, do you believe that the mechanisms are in place to enable businesses and employers to have a meaningful role in redefining those categories as things progress?

Lord Sainsbury: It comes back to the original question. You have to have a certain amount of flexibility. As far as I can make out, that flexibility is there, and it is important. Of course, it is also important that we do not let the system degenerate, whereby everyone goes back to saying, “I want something specifically for my business or a very small group of businesses.” It is very important that one keeps down the number of routes, but exactly what categories they include will have to be for the people running those routes to say. I think we have made quite a good stab at doing that, but there are one or two cases where you can certainly argue about whether we got the right job in the right route.

Peter Lauener: It is absolutely vital that the institute actively manages the system of apprenticeship standards. For the past couple of years, while new standards have been developed by trailblazer groups, we have not had that picture of what the overall system would look like. Lord Sainsbury’s report helps enormously with that. An early priority for the institute is to develop that map, communicate it, review it actively and spot areas that need updating. I imagine that one or two of the early standards will, with hindsight, look a little bit narrow, so they ought to be reviewed. Every standard has a review date anyway, but the institute, through its route committees, will need to actively manage that.

One of the great virtues of the German system is its absolute clarity about the number of apprenticeships, routes into apprenticeships and things like that. If you talk to people in Germany, they often say, “We’d like the system to be more flexible.” I think the institute has the opportunity from the start to build in that flexibility and responsiveness to the changing labour market.

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[Gordon Marsden]

Q You are talking about length. There have been a lot of conversations, some of them a bit semantic, about the pre-apprenticeship route, particularly if we want young people to get good-quality apprenticeships. There is obviously the traineeship issue, or call it pre-apprenticeship, or whatever. Are you saying, Professor Fuller, that the actual process needs to be longer or that there need to be more preparatory steps to get young people—not only them, though they are the key component—who would not otherwise be able to compete for some of the high-quality apprenticeships that will be on offer?

Professor Alison Fuller: Probably both. If you look at attainment at 16, we have just had recent figures that show that still it is only just over 50% of young people who are achieving five GCSEs A to C grades, including English and maths. We know that those who are achieving that benchmark tend to stay on in the school route and take A-levels or a combination of A-levels and BTECs, which are sometimes called applied A-levels. That particular route has been quite successful in supporting social mobility and particularly progression to higher education.

Unless we start to eat into that population, we are talking about young people who have not attained that level at 16. We are proposing what we would all want to be a very high-quality technical education route within two years to get to what point? That is where we need to take a check and be realistic about what we might be able to achieve in two years on those kinds of numbers of contact hours and that kind of period.

We know that a good-quality level 3 standard is a really strong platform for career progression and engagement with employment. So for a good majority of our young people at 18 or 19, that is the kind of real aspiration we should be aiming for. It seems to me that without a much stronger commitment to what the resources are going to be, and what the container is going to be, if you unpack what a route is, we could end up with young people who have not made sufficient progress to reach the platform where they are going to have a secure stepping stone into the labour market and good-quality apprenticeships.

We know that at the moment 60%-plus of apprenticeships are at level 2 and that not many 16 to 18-year-olds are doing them—I think it is about 130,000. So there is quite a lot to do to ensure that all apprenticeships are as good quality as the fantastic ones that we know do exist.

[Tracy Brabin]

Q David, I have been told that in some circumstances members of staff such as receptionists without relevant qualifications or training are carrying out careers guidance in colleges as a tick-box exercise. Are you concerned that there is no careers guidance provision in the Bill?

David Hughes: I am very concerned if that story about reception staff is true, because it is an incredibly important area of education and, of course, it does not start at 16; it starts a lot earlier. I would echo a lot of what Alison was saying. We need to think about key stage 4 rather than just look at age 16-plus, because the decisions that get made by young people and their parents and carers are critical to their future. We need to think about introducing them to the world of work rather than just providing them with some information about courses, so the work experience and work placements that the Sainsbury report and the skills plan rightly concentrate and focus on are really important to consider for key stage 4, rather than just waiting until 16. We want some of the best young people with good achievements at GCSE at 16 going into the technical route and apprenticeships rather than what we have now, which is mostly that if you do well at GCSE at 16, you take an academic route.

We know that probably about £1 billion is wasted when young people go on an academic route for a year and then move off it because they find it is not suitable for them. We need to stop that happening because that wastes money and, more importantly, young people are using up a year of their life on something that does not stimulate them or motivate them. We have got to go back into key stage 4 rather than just wait. It is critical that we get college information, advice and guidance right, but let us think about careers education through school, not just right at the end, and let us think about persuading the best young people to do technical if that is the right thing for them, because it should be high-quality to attract them.

[Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)]

Q What David Hughes and Professor Fuller have been saying is striking. I recall comparisons made some 25 years ago by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and Professor Sig Prais between technical education in Britain and in Germany, Italy and Spain in particular, where they had up to 30 hours a week of contact-intensive pedagogic teaching over a period. In Britain it was nothing like that.

The underfunding of technical education and 16-to-19 education is noticeable. By contrast, at universities—I went there many years ago—you have a few lectures and a couple of seminars and tutorials, so the contact hours are much lower but the funding is much higher. Do you not think we have got this the wrong way around?

David Hughes: For lots of the technical routes, we are getting 12 to 14 hours of contact time, and that pales into insignificance compared to most of our competitors in the OECD. It is a really important issue. It is not just for technical, though; we have now got young people being offered only three A-levels rather than four AS-levels, and that is really shameful. It means that their opportunities to explore at 16 have been limited.

We really must address the investment issue to get the level of support that is required for young people. We are talking about young people who might have careers lasting 50 years-plus. They need a broad education to allow them to become learners, to think about continuous professional development, to change career probably two or three times and to be able to move when technology moves. I do not think that 12 to 14 hours of contact time for the 16-to-19 phase is enough. I do not think that the quality will be high enough or that the choice, even on A-level routes, is good enough, given the funding that is available.

Professor Alison Fuller: I am sure others will want to speak, but I would hate to say, just because we maybe think there is a big contrast in the numbers, that higher education is overfunded. I certainly would not want that message to come through.

There are a couple of other points. One is that a lot of vocational education—I still say that—happens in universities. The expansion of higher education has largely been in relation to vocational higher education courses in applied areas. A big cost of that is in equipment—lab space, technology, machinery and so on—and that same argument is behind suggesting that further education should really be better resourced. Good-quality technical education does not come cheap; the reality is that it is extremely expensive. We need very highly qualified vocational teachers—I include those who are moving in and out of employment, and I am sure Richard will speak about that, because he was part of the very influential report a couple of years ago from the commission chaired by Frank McLoughlin. It is a case of being serious about what it costs to provide a good-quality technical education, in terms of the people, resources, equipment and facilities.

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[The Chair]

Bill Watkin, if you can be short, I would be grateful, because Tracy Brabin wants to come in with a question.

Bill Watkin: Yes. I would like to draw together the strands of merger due diligence and the insolvency regime. The insolvency regime has an impact before insolvency is even a reality. Since the publication of the insolvency regime, banks and pension fund managers have been responding differently to colleges. A group of colleges in the south-east, for example, immediately after the publication of the insolvency regime—which I should say colleges welcome—were upgraded to a maximum risk rating in terms of their pension contributions, which of course means that they are able to divert less money to teaching and learning and have to negotiate less favourable repayment terms. It is the same thing with bank loans. Banks and pension fund managers are all being more cautious because of the insolvency regime, and that is having an immediate impact.

[Tracy Brabin]

Q Thank you for squeezing me in very quickly at the end, Mr Bailey. I would like to pick up on something that was said earlier. You said there is no cliff edge when it comes to insolvency. If students are already on the course, how swiftly will they be moved to better provision so the lights are not turned off and there is not asset stripping around them? How much transparency will there be for prospective students if a college is under review and about to be declared insolvent?

Richard Atkins: I will start, because I would be likely to be involved—or my team would. I really hope that this legislation is not used, but it is very important to have it in the cupboard. I agree with Bill. Most principals welcome this. There is a lack of clarity in the 1992 legislation, which has led to some colleges getting exceptional funding on a long-term basis, which is not awfully good for neighbouring colleges or the sector and stops people getting their house in order. Generally speaking, people welcome this but hope it will never be used, and that is my position.

If it were ever used, there is a special administration regime, and the Secretary of State can declare that within 14 days and step in. The administrator, who would be commercially appointed, would almost certainly turn to me and my team to do just what you have said. My primary interest would be the welfare of the students. First, we would want teaching and learning to continue in that place, and we would certainly want students to complete their courses. Secondly, we would want to find the best institutional solution for that organisation, which would not necessarily be shutting it down and moving all the students. There is a range of options—a merger is one, but there are others.

I would like to think that this would be the absolute last resort and might never be used, but it might focus governors and principals very firmly on their financial responsibilities as well as their educational ones, and it might enable me and my team to intervene earlier. Earlier intervention is a key part of this to prevent things from getting to the position where, by the time we arrive, there have already been successive exceptional funding payments, which leads to an unhelpful culture of money just being paid out. David will remember from when he was involved in these sorts of rescues that if you get into a cycle of exceptional funding payments, that is not helpful. This draws a line. I hope it is a line that never needs to be crossed, and I and my team would always be there, working with the funding agency to look after the very best interests of the learners and not disrupt their programmes.

Ian Pretty: Clause 14 of the draft legislation sums it up well—in particular clause 14(2). What is quite critical to me—I am very supportive of it—is that it puts the loan at the heart of what is going to happen. That gives protections.

[The Chair]

Order. I am sorry to have to interrupt, but it is necessary for me to do so to conform to the programme motion. If you would like to submit in writing any further comments you might have made, I am sure that the Committee would be happy to consider them. I thank all the witnesses on behalf of the Committee. It has been a very comprehensive discussion.