Addressing delegates at the Association of Colleges (AoC) annual conference in Birmingham, Ofsted’s Chief Inspector will say that many of the 170,000 young people doing level 2 study programmes are facing narrow options and limited flexibility.

Ms Spielman’s comments come as Ofsted publishes a major report on the curriculum available to students taking level 2 study programmes at further education colleges. Often these young people do not have 5 good GCSEs and there are gaps in their understanding of English and maths.

The report says that these young people’s life-long employability depends on the ability of teachers to redirect their education into a course that stimulates and motivates them, and which offers the prospect of further study, training or work. However, it finds that for too long they have been seen by policy makers as “other people’s children” and, as a result, their needs have not always been met.

In her speech to the AoC, HM Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman will say the report found that the colleges that were thinking most deeply about curriculum did 3 important things:

• collaborate with local employers to design and deliver curricula that set up leaders for good local jobs
• recognise the importance of personal, social and employability skills
• evaluate the benefits of their study programmes by properly tracking destinations and feed that back into curriculum design

Today’s report also outlines concern about the number of courses on offer that do not lead to good local jobs. Ofsted found that many colleges collected little data about learners’ destinations. But those colleges that did were able to give Ofsted a view about which courses had the best and worst employment prospects.

Art and media courses were seen by students as having the least chance of leading to a job, but at least 3 colleges surveyed by Ofsted reported these courses as having the most applicants.

Ms Spielman will say in her speech:

Arts and media does stand out as the area where there is greatest mismatch between the numbers of students taking the courses and their future employment in the industry. There is a point up to which courses that engage learners have value but ultimately there have to be viable prospects at the end.

Yet even with the poor prospects, course adverts often listed potential jobs in the arts which are, in reality, unlikely to be available to the vast majority of learners but underplay the value of other skills these courses develop.

These colleges risk giving false hope to students. It raises the question: are they putting the financial imperative of headcount in the classroom ahead of the best interests of the young people taking up their courses. If so, this isn’t acceptable.

Ofsted has already announced that there will be a stronger emphasis on the curriculum in the new Education Inspection Framework, which will take effect in September 2019. There will also be a new judgement for ‘quality of education’. This will replace the current ‘outcomes for pupils’ and ‘teaching, learning and assessment’ judgements with a broader, single judgement. The Chief Inspector will use her speech to the Association of Colleges to outline how these plans will relate to the further education and skills sector.

Ms Spielman will continue:

Inspectors will still judge the progress that learners are making from their starting points, but will evaluate this in terms of how they have developed new knowledge, skills and behaviours rather than the amount of progress they have made towards achieving a component of a qualification.

In the new framework inspectors will want to make sure that learners are developing a deep understanding of the subject and that this is embedded in their long term memory. Inspectors will want to see that learners are able to recall information and have the skills to complete tasks routinely, rather than simply for a one-off assessment or test.

We want to send a clear message that teaching to the test to achieve high achievement rates is not good practice, and there is no need to continually assess learners to predict likely achievement grades. That time is far better spent making sure learners accumulate all the required knowledge, skills and behaviours.

As a result, today’s report recommends that colleges should:

• engage actively with employers, who should co-design and implement aspects of the curriculum and assess learners
• review their current minimum requirements for level 2 and level 3 study programmes to make sure that they are appropriate
• ensure that teachers are up to date with the practices and jobs available in their industry
• arrange work experience so that they are relevant to learners’ programmes of study
• give clearer feedback to learners on their progress
• not focus too much on qualification outcomes
• evaluate whether level 2 learners improve their progression into careers by progressing to a level 3 study programme

Ofsted also recommends that the Department for Education should provide guidance to colleges about the information they should publish on their websites about student destinations, and evaluate the impact of the policy requiring students to re-sit their English and mathematics GCSE.

Janice Rogers (61) and Elizabeth Dagg (70), both from Northumberland, were directors of Auto Testing Limited (ATL). Incorporated in February 2007, ATL operated as a car mechanics, fuel station and convenience store.

There was also a third boss, Stewart Rogers. But the 72-year-old from Northumberland had been previously disqualified for five years in January 2011 in relation to his conduct as director of a separate company, Northern 4 x 4 Centre LTD, and should not have been managing the business.

The company entered voluntary liquidation in October 2016 and the Insolvency Service were tipped off to Stewart Rogers’ involvement.

Investigators were able to gather evidence which showed that Stewart Rogers had been running ATL and Janice Rogers, Stewart’s current wife, and Elizabeth Dagg, his ex-wife, had been aware of his disqualification.

On 17 October 2018, the Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Stewart Rogers, after he admitted acting as director whilst disqualified. His ban is effective from 7 November 2018 and lasts for 11 years.

On the same day, the Secretary of State accepted disqualification undertakings from Janice Rogers and Elizabeth Dagg, after both admitted allowing Stewart Rogers to act as director whilst disqualified. Both bans are effective from 7 November 2018 and last for 5 years.

Robert Clarke, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

Our investigation showed that Stewart Rogers was acting as a director of Auto Testing Limited in direct breach of the earlier disqualification undertaking he had given, and that Janice Rogers and Elizabeth Dagg had allowed him to do so.

The Insolvency Service will vigorously pursue directors who ignore disqualification restrictions against them, as well as those that allow such directors to act. The length of the undertakings in this case sends a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated.

Stewart Rogers is of Morpeth, Northumberland, and his date of birth is October 1946.

Janice Rogers is of Morpeth, Northumberland, and her date of birth is June 1957.

Elizabeth Dagg is of Morpeth, Northumberland, and her date of birth is April 1948

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7637 6498

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

Two garage bosses banned after they allowed a disqualified director, who happened to be their husband and ex-husband respectively, to run their company.

Colleges must work more effectively with local employers to help unlock the unrealised potential of young people taking level 2 study programmes, Amanda Spielman will say in a speech this afternoon.

Peter Dewfall was previously with DXC Technology where he held several senior roles leading delivery of services to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) – completing significant transformations in both the secure and high secure sectors of the MOD.

During his 20 years of IT experience, Peter has led the delivery of services to a wide range of customers. He has been involved in delivering digital transformation in the health sector, transforming Cambridge University Hospital into an all-electronic records hospital, and the migration of the MOD into a private cloud Office 365 environment.

Welcoming the appointment, BPDTS Chief Executive Officer, Loveday Ryder, said:

I’m delighted that Pete Dewfall has joined the company as our new Head of Digital Service Management. He brings a wealth of experience in delivering high quality digital services to customers, at scale. I’m very much looking forward to working with him drive delivery of world class service to the Department for Work and Pensions.

Published 21 November 2018