Higher level (4 and 5) Technical Education

and Institutes of Technology

Elisabeth Cuthbertson, Deputy Director,

Skills Provider Base

Ian Caplan, Deputy Director,

Skills Strategy & Adult Education Policy

AoC breakout session - 14 November 2017

Skills, the Industrial Strategy, and Social

Mobility

• Sainsbury Panel recommendations and

Post-16 Skills Plan:

– Commitment to extend Technical

Education reforms to the highest

level

– Acknowledgement that some

existing provision aligns with

employers’ needs

• Commitments in 2017:

– “We will extend our reforms to the

highest levels of technical

qualification” (Conservative General Election

Manifesto)

– ‘A first class technical education

system for the first time in the history

of Britain’ (PM, Conservative Party Conference)

Why are we looking at Level 4 and 5?

Why a comprehensive review?• Learning from what is working well

– Employer engagement

– Colleges and local skills needs

– Growth in higher apprenticeships

• Fundamental problems:

– Low overall uptake

– Variable employer engagement,

brand recognition, and provider

capacity and capability

• Various complexities at Level 4 and 5:

– Competition from degrees

– Not just Technical Education

– Overlap with Higher Education

– Demographics

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16

Higher Apprenticeships (Level 4/5)

What does Level 4 and 5 look like now?

Why does Level 4/5 matter?

• Level 4 and 5 education contributes to:

– Addressing skills shortages.

– Raising productivity.

– Promoting economic resilience.

– Fostering social mobility.

• Responding to the skills needs of the

economy

– 77% of businesses expect to have

more job openings for people with

higher level skills

– Skills accounted for around a fifth of

growth before the financial crisis

% of adults holding Professional education and training

qualifications as their highest qualification

Complex, interconnected problems

Employers

use degrees

as a signal of

candidates’

ability

L6 minimum

requirement

for many jobs

“Degree or

Bust”

Many high

attaining

candidates

pursue L6

Many less

able

candidates

stop at L3 or

L2

Few learners

pursue L4/5

Complex

L4/5 funding

offer

Mixed-quality

L4/5

provision

Lack of L4/5

teaching

resource

Employers

don’t

understand

L4/5 offer

L4/5 not

meeting

employers’

needs

Employers

not

engaged

with L4/5

L4/5 offer

complex,

fragmented

Learners not

engaged with

L4/5

Mixed-quality

L4/5

qualifications

Mixed-quality

L4/5 offer

Lack of

demand for

skills in some

areas

8

Next steps

• We announced a comprehensive policy review on 31st October. As part of that

we will:

– Review the existing evidence

– Commission new research on the incentives and barriers

– Consider future trends

– Engage with stakeholders extensively

• We want to engage with the Association of Colleges, but we also want to talk

directly to you as providers.

• You can get in touch with us at level4-5.team@education.gov.uk

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Institutes of Technology (IoTs)

• Aim: to establish high quality and prestigious institutions which specialise in

delivering the higher-level technical skills that employers need across all

regions of England

• We are looking for innovative collaborations between employers and FE

and HE providers that capitalise on their different strengths, leveraging

their assets, resources and relationships to produce a new learning

offer

• Developed at a sufficient scale to achieve impact in meeting skills and

productivity challenges today and in the future and to support viability; this

means we expect them to operate at a regional or sub-regional level

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Institutes of Technology (IoTs) (cont.)

• Scale and offer will vary from area to area but must be designed to contribute

to the following core objectives:

1. Significantly increase the number of learners with higher-level technical

skills which are crucial to national, regional and local productivity

growth;

2. Attract a wide range of learners to maximise the social as well as the

economic impact of this new type of institution; and

3. Improve the occupational competency of learners to meet the needs of

employers now and in the future.

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Critical Success Factors for IoTs

• Both in the governance and leadership model as well as the design and delivery of curriculum.

Strong employer engagement

• At level 4 and above, creating a clear technical education pathway to high skilled, high wage employment

Specialise in technical disciplines, such as STEM

• Offer high quality industry-relevant teaching, using industry standard facilities and equipmentHigh quality provision

• To meet the current and future needs of local, regional and national industries, including upskilling the current workforce

Responsive and agile

• Create a prestigious and distinct identity for the institution and the offer to learnersDistinct identity

• Work collaboratively to harness the assets, resources and expertise of employers and FE and HE providers

Collaborative working

• Be financially viable and resilientFinancial viability

Process• Two-stages: stage one is appraisal of strategic case and outline business plan. Stage

two is assessment of full business case and capital application for funding.

• Vision is to have good coverage across country, whilst focusing on quality, not

quantity.

• Proposals would need to include the following working as part of a consortium:

• local employers;

• at least one FE College (FEC) or independent training provider; and

• a Higher Education provider. (Proposals should additionally involve an Applied

Research and Innovation Institution if this function is not covered by a HE provider)

• In order to achieve the right scale and impact, we would not expect to fund bids

which duplicate provision in an area. LEP or Combined Authority should confirm the

fit with strategic economic priorities and existing provision.

• Further details on process and application will be given when we launch

call for proposals later this year.

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Important role for FE

• We would expect FE colleges to play a major part in these collaborations to

ensure quality and continuity by building on the partnerships they have

established with employers, LEPs and Combined Authorities through the Area

Review process.

• We will offer flexibility for bidders and not a ‘one size fits all’ delivery model

so that bidders can adopt models best suited to the needs of learners and

employers in an area and the collaborative partners.

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Next Steps

• End of year: call for proposals launched. Prospectus and guidance

published. Bidders start to develop strategic case and outline business

case

• Spring 2018: stage one assessment against outcome based

assessment criteria. Initial due diligence on financial case and

deliverability

• Summer 2018: DfE to announce progress on IoTs. Bidders prepare full

business case and capital funding application

• Before end of 2018: stage two assessment. DfE assess full business

case. Financial due diligence. Capital funding approved. IoT status

awarded.

We expect the first IoTs to open during 2019

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Questions?

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