Tag: Robert Halfon

The speech made by Robert Halfon, the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, at the Mansion House in London on 28 March 2023.

The speech made by Robert Halfon, the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, in London on 27 March 2023.

Introduction

Thank you, Ambassador [Miguel Berger, German Ambassador and Patron of German Industry UK] for that introduction. I’m delighted to be here today, in such good company, to talk about my favourite subjects: apprenticeships and skills education. I want to explain why they are valuable to the United Kingdom and to me – and what we are doing to ensure their value is widely recognised.

German technical education

Let me start by saying that I love German technical education – whether that’s the dual system or full-time vocational schools. Presenting technical routes alongside academic ones from adolescent means there is no false hierarchy between the two. There is less snobbery about studying for a technical or vocational role, one that will advance industry and, by extension, the economy. And there is no hesitancy about showing the world of work to younger teenagers – an environment they are expected to take seriously, but where they’re also taken seriously too.

When I visited Germany in 2018 I found it inspiring. 14 year olds on placements with local companies, getting their first taste of the real working world and the respect that comes with skilled labour. Being shown the iterative process of building their understanding and technical abilities simultaneously.

I remember asking businessmen at the Chamber of Commerce why they were providing placements. After all, there was no financial incentive to host these youngsters.

I was met with incredulity.

“What do you mean, why?”

“We must do this, it’s for the next generation!”

So ingrained is the German sense of civic duty to pass on an understanding and respect for industry, they didn’t understand the question.

I truly admire that meshing of business and education culture.

“Eine Symbiose” you might say.

A common acknowledgement that one feeds the other, and both benefit.

The figures speak for themselves.

More than 40% of young Germans’ highest qualification is a vocational one. And more than a third of these are Higher Technical Qualifications. Around a quarter of our young adults have a vocational qualification as their highest, with only a quarter of these being a Higher Technical Qualification.

Just 8% of your young people are classified as not in education, employment or training. And the German vocational education system opens up many more career paths than equivalents in other OECD countries, because it’s been developed hand-in-glove with local industries for many decades. This results in your exceptionally low unemployment rate for school leavers, of just 3%. Overall youth unemployment in Germany was just 5.7% in January this year, the lowest in the EU.

I want the United Kingdom to have a piece of this pie. I have championed apprenticeships throughout my time in Parliament – for their social good as much as what they can give to commerce. Having been Minister at the start of our skills reforms in 2016, it’s great to be back in government to see them bearing fruit.

Apprenticeships and the Skills Revolution

In the last half decade we have revitalised the apprenticeships system in England, alongside establishing Institutes of Technology to provide prestigious Higher Technical Qualifications. We’ve also introduced T Levels, a new high-quality Level 3 qualification for 16 year olds. With time spent in the classroom and on industry placement, these new courses emulate some aspects of your dual system. Responsibility for education is devolved to the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and they too are committed to delivering high quality skills education and apprenticeships.

Whenever I talk about skills education, I present my vision through the Ladder of Opportunity. It’s a framework for what we need to build a robust technical education system, to raise skills levels and boost economic growth. Crucially, the ladder must bring progression opportunities to the most disadvantaged in society, so they can reach the top to enjoy sustainable, skilled, high-waged employment.

I won’t take you through the whole framework, but I’ll focus on those parts that have driven our reforms and my enthusiasm for apprenticeships.

Social justice is a key pillar of the Ladder of Opportunity, one that holds the whole thing up. I don’t know what the discourse is like in Germany, but here we can spend too much time talking about ‘social mobility’. I think this can have class connotations, suggesting that those who are ‘mobile’ can pull themselves up by their bootstraps to get on in life. Social justice is about bringing opportunities to the people who need them most.

The most disadvantaged, who may not have done well at school, and may not have good connections at home – or even a steady homelife. People to whom the education system must bring opportunities, because no one else will. The bottom line is that no one should feel their circumstances leave them unable to improve their skills and employment prospects.

Apprenticeships are an excellent conduit of social justice. They have a clear progression path, which can be built on to reach degree-level expert roles. Apprentices earn while they learn, without acquiring student debt. And as well as introducing learners to an industry, apprenticeships also introduce them to an employer. In Germany, 74% stay on at the firm where they did their apprenticeship. This rises 82% in manufacturing, 87% in construction, and a whopping 96% in public administration.

I think this is an often overlooked part of apprenticeships’ unique value. For those without guidance or connections to where they want to work, it is so important. That is why we provide additional funding to employers and providers who take on apprentices who are young, have disabilities, or were cared for by the state. And this year we’ll raise the apprenticeships bursary we provide to care-leavers to £3,000, to help cover living costs that are usually met by family.

One rung of the Ladder of Opportunity is the quality of skills education – something we set-out to raise with our reforms. In the early 2010s we had lots of people doing ‘apprenticeships’ that weren’t worth the name, devaluing the brand for both learners and employers.

To reinvigorate apprenticeships we went back to basics. What skills were employers seeking? What training had fallen away, and what was newly needed? We worked closely with industry to answer to these questions and design new apprenticeship standards. We now have over 600, carefully constructed to meet employers’ needs. They are rigorous and challenging for learners, to build respect on all sides for the programme. As in your technical education routes, the standards are complemented by a thorough end-point assessment, where apprentices must demonstrate full competence in their role.

Training is now delivered by registered providers that are regularly inspected to ensure quality is prioritised. And we’ve put apprenticeship funding on a sustainable footing through the Apprenticeship Levy, increasing investment to £2.7 billion by 2024-25.

Another a key rung on the Ladder of Opportunity is to champion apprenticeships and the skills employers need. We still have to get the word out about what we’re doing and why. While some established companies have a fine tradition of nurturing apprentices (much like the civic duty I mentioned earlier) many newer businesses don’t recognise their relevance. It’s key that we engage these, so the programme can fulfil its purpose to supply people with the skills needed right now.

We’re particularly keen to get small and medium enterprises (or SMEs) onboard, who are more likely to employ younger apprentices and those from disadvantaged areas. We’re doing this by heavily subsidising the costs of training and assessment for their first 10 apprentices, exempting those below age 25 from National Insurance employment tax, and reducing these companies’ administrative hiring burden.

Future challenges

I believe our skills education reforms were long-over due. Skilled workers drive productivity, a problem we have struggled to solve. Your economy remains 19% more productive than ours.

But the need for an alert, flexible education system, that responds to the shifting jobs market, has become ever more acute. We are all part of a more competitive, global skills market. The way we work has changed, particularly in the last two years. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has already created new jobs and rendered others obsolete, making career change inevitable. The skills required today may not be the same as the skills needed tomorrow.

We want our apprenticeship standards to keep pace with what’s required of workers. So we’ve asked the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to prioritise developing and reviewing the standards most crucial to meeting our future skills needs. This includes apprenticeship roles that support our target to decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy by 2050, so we can become ‘net zero’. By the end of this month [March 2023] about 15 per cent of published standards will have been revised to reflect these needs.

We’re also keen to promote new solutions for workers wishing to change careers, and employers wishing to retrain or upskill employees to fill skills shortages. Our Skills Bootcamps are free, sector-specific courses that last up to 4 months, with a job interview at the end. In the 2021-22 financial year, 16,000 people participated in Bootcamps. They are a different approach for matching workers to skills gaps, and cover training in construction, digital, and green economy skills – such as heat pump engineering. We hope to expand these opportunities through the skills devolution measures just announced in the Spring Budget.

Just as we’re still refining our apprenticeships programme, I know you are not resting on your heels either. A key solution for both of our countries in this new, dynamic system is reforming the careers advice we provide.

Careers empowerment is the first rung on the Ladder of Opportunity – the first step into the world of work. We owe it to young people to arm them with good information on what they can to expect at the end of their schooling.

I know that in Germany, job coaches from the local Agency for Employment get to know pupils in the technical lower secondary schools from age 12-14. This helps them, with the school, to build a path forward for each pupil, be that full time TVET [technical and vocational education and training] or an apprenticeship.

I am determined that careers information here becomes quality-assured, and always includes work experience, apprenticeships and other skills options. To help students find their path in life, we need to engage with them early, as you do, clearly presenting their routes and requirements for heading onwards and upwards.

We’re also reforming the structures that have previously siloed technical and academic education. In a couple of years students will be able to apply for apprenticeships on the same online platform as university courses. From 2025, our Lifelong Loan Entitlement will allow flexible, modular student finance that facilitates lifelong learning, to respond to the economy’s changing demands. Our broader vision is to develop a one-stop-shop, where citizens can explore all their career and training options at any point in their lives.

Conclusion

As you can tell, we still have a way to go to build a globally competitive UK skills education system. But we are grateful for the useful example and generosity of spirit you have shown us. Whatever waves have crashed around Britannia in the last few years, those interested in this area have never lost sight of the work to be done, and of what we can learn from our neighbours. Most recently a group of our officials visited North-Rhine Westphalia to discuss technical education implementation with the regional Chamber of Commerce.

You’ll be hearing shortly from Sir Michael Barber, who has been advising our government on the skills reform programme. I was delighted to read recently that Sir Michael sees this is as a moment when the stars are aligning for apprenticeships. We have a Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Education Secretary (the first to hold a degree level apprenticeship) and a Skills Minister (yours truly) who genuinely want to prioritise skills education across government. I’m glad to be in the right place at the right time to see this through, and will continue to look to your country’s globally-recognised “gute Praxis” in order to do so.

The speech made by Robert Halfon, the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, on 23 March 2023.

Hello everyone. I’m sorry that I can’t be with you today as planned, as I’m in Parliament for the Lifelong Loan Entitlement Bill.

Please accept my apologies – because I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about the brilliant work you do. I talk a lot about the Ladder of Opportunity. It’s a framework to support everyone, but especially disadvantaged people, to gain valuable skills and qualifications to enter good employment. Such progression should be a widely held aspiration. But low attainment and lack of confidence often hold people back from making a start. You are doing the real groundwork, helping those at the very bottom of the ladder take their first steps to build their capabilities.

And this is alongside supporting 1000s more to gain essential skills for life, work and further learning.

All progression is good progression – whether a person aspires to an apprenticeship, better reading ability, or improved mental health and community participation. All of these outcomes hold tremendous value, for society and the individual. You help to bring them about.

For me Adult learning has 5 pillars: Community Learning, Careers, Adult learning for Jobs, the Lifelong Loan Entitlement, and Skills Devolution.

I’ll talk about our offer to those who complete your courses and want to do more. But I will return to the intrinsic social value of your work, and how we’ll protect it in our future plans for adult education.

Community Learning and basic skills

Firstly, I want to acknowledge your dedication to the communities you serve.

One area of your work, Community Learning, plays a vital role in helping adults of all ages and backgrounds gain skills, confidence and motivation. Getting reluctant people to step forward to enrol is not easy, particularly if they struggled in school or employment, or don’t speak good English. Your enthusiasm welcomes them in and persuades them to stay. Social justice, a key part of the Ladder framework, is about bringing opportunities to the people who need them most. I want to thank you for everything you do to help change people’s minds about what they can accomplish. I have seen this in practice in my own constituency of Harlow, where community education was moved to the local library, which became a state-of-the-art centre for adult learning.

Alongside its social value, your work provides a vital stepping-stone to further learning, training and employment. This includes the delivery of the English, maths and digital skills that everyone needs to navigate adult life – a key demonstration of the value of Adult Community Learning in combatting unseen disadvantage.

National Careers Service

A lot of your work is about building people’s confidence, helping them to realise their potential, and signposting them on where to go next. I’m sure many of you have close links with your local National Careers Service advisers, who are based in jobcentres and other community settings.

A quick reminder of what the Service offers! It is relevant to many of the adults on your courses. Anyone can use National Careers Service online, but this in-person support is specifically for adults with recognised barriers to finding work – such as those with special educational needs and disabilities, single parents or the low skilled. These career advisors are trained to work with adults; they are skilled at identifying their potential and motivating them to succeed. They help customers to build a career and skills action plan for their short, medium and long term goals.  Your learners may have already been referred, but it’s always worth asking if they’ve heard of the service or considered using it.

The National Careers Service celebrated supporting one million adults into a job or learning outcome in 2022. I’m really keen that it lives out its purpose to connect disadvantaged adults with the skills and jobs they need to succeed. We are currently considering its future focus, and there will be opportunities for you to share your views on how the Service can effectively provide appropriate support.

Adult Learning for Jobs – Free Courses for Jobs & Skills Bootcamps

The Multiply numeracy programme, announced in 2021, has so far reached almost 10,000 learners. We know the need is out there, and we want to reach far more, which is why we’ve boosted funding up to £559 million over this parliament. I am grateful for your response since the launch, and your crucial role in bringing learners to schemes like this – helping them take their first steps in skills that most of us take for granted.

It’s really important to me that when people want to change career or boost their earning power, there’s a broad eco system of learning options available, offering clear rewards.

Free Courses for Jobs is an initiative to provide adult learners with valuable skills to fill jobs-market gaps. They do exactly as the name suggests, providing Level 3 qualifications that lead to higher wages and better work. They have proved popular, with over 35,000 enrolments between April 2021 and October 2022, significantly increasing the number of adults taking these Level 3 qualifications. We invested £95 million in these courses last financial year (2021-22), with further investment via the National Skills Fund announced at the Spending Review.

We’ve now expanded eligibility to include all unemployed adults, and those earning less than the National Living Wage. The qualifications available were chosen for their strong wage outcomes and key skills in high demand. The programme also includes shorter options to help workers progress in the labour market. If any of your learners are looking to upskill, retrain or switch sectors, please nudge them towards the Free Courses for Jobs qualifications list – it’s been handpicked with them in mind.

Another thing I must flag are Skills Bootcamps – specialised training that links learners directly to their chosen industry. These free, flexible courses of sector-specific skills last up to 4 months, with a job interview offered on completion. In the financial year 2021-22 (latest available data) 16,120 people participated in Skills Bootcamps. We hope to further expand these opportunities through the skills devolution measures announced in the Budget last week.

Skills Bootcamps have the potential to transform the skills landscape for employers seeking  career-changers. Once again, demand has been strong. There are now over 900 Bootcamps, including training in construction, logistics, digital skills, and those that support the green economy – such as heat pump engineering. We will continue to expand Skills Bootcamps, with up to       £550 million funding over 2022-25. Again, my message to you is that this could be the perfect opportunity for those ready to step towards a new career – particularly if they know their abilities but lack confidence at interview.

Lifelong Loan entitlement

Also, I want to mention the Lifelong Loan Entitlement, the vital fourth pillar of Adult Education, which I’m very excited about. This will unify Higher and Further education finance under a single system. From 2025, financial support equivalent to 4 years post-18 education (£37,000 in today’s fees) will be available for individuals to use over their working lives.

Now, a new student finance system might seem rather distant from the needs of your learners. But it will enable access in a way that hasn’t been possible before. Learning and paying by module will present new opportunities for those unable to commit to a long course. Unifying education finance under one banner will create a cultural shift in how vocational courses are perceived and accessed. Each learner’s personal account will display their remaining education finance balance, but also act as a portal to information to guide their learning pathway.  Like getting on and off a train, they’ll be able to alight and board their post-school education when it suits then, rather than being confined to a single ticket.

Our broader vision is to fully integrate the skills education our economy is crying-out for, into the formal systems that direct people towards and through the jobs market. Our eventual aim is a one-stop-shop, where all can explore their career and training options at any point in their lives

Devolving Adult Skills & learning

We don’t want to stand in the way of local leaders commissioning the adult education that’s needed in their area. That’s why we’ve already devolved approximately 60% of the Adult Education Budget to 9 Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Mayor of London. These authorities are now responsible for the provision of AEB-funded adult education for their residents, and allocation of the AEB to providers. We are committed to devolving further from 2025-26, and are already working with new areas to support their devolution deals.

And you’ll know from last week’s Budget that we’re putting Mayors at the heart of economic growth in their regions. We announced two Trailblazer devolution deals with Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. These Combined Authorities will work closely with government, FE providers and colleges, using all available levers to align their local skills offer with local needs. Further Education voices, such as yourselves, will be central in shaping this strategy – with a focus on sufficiency, capacity and clear curriculum pathways for learners.

Conclusion

I want to end by thanking Holex and everyone here for your continued advocacy for adult education, and your engagement with the Department. Dr Sue Pember has been a consistent champion of this important work – whether in the classroom or in local government, leading policy in my department or for you.

I’m particularly grateful for your responses to our consultation on funding and accountability. Funding reform necessarily includes looking at provision that does not result in a qualification. We recognise that individual learner journeys are different, and that a formal qualification is not always best for those furthest from the labour market. But we want to ensure this provision is the right choice for learners, and that it provides value for money and contributes to wider skills and employment needs.

We’ve listened carefully to the views of the sector. The core aim of the Skills Fund will remain progression to further learning and employment. But I hope I’ve made clear that we also recognise the wider benefits of adult learning – such as health and wellbeing, and stronger communities. The Skills fund will continue to support these aims, with more detail in our full consultation response later this year.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day at this networking event. I look forward to continuing to work with you all to shine a spotlight on the transformative power of community education.

The speech made by Robert Halfon, the Higher Education and Skills Minister, to the University UK’s conference held on 1 February 2023.

The statement made by Robert Halfon, the Minister of State at the Department for Education, in the House of Commons on 10 January 2023.

Today, I am notifying Parliament of the next stage in the Government’s review of post-16 qualifications at level 3 in England—the publication of new criteria for alternative academic and technical qualifications funded from 2025.

In July 2021, we published the Government response to the second stage consultation of the review of post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below. Here, we made clear our intentions to streamline the qualifications landscape, simplify choices for students and only fund qualifications that are high quality and lead to good progression outcomes. It is vitally important for social mobility to ensure that everyone, no matter their background, is able to access the education and skills opportunities which lead to good jobs.

The reforms are taking place in three stages.

In July 2022, we completed the first phase of streamlining the qualifications landscape by removing funding approval from around 5,500 qualifications at level 3 and below in England that had very low numbers or no new students enrolled on them.

By August 2025, we will also have removed funding approval from qualifications that overlap with our new, highly rigorous T-levels, so that T-levels have the space they need to flourish as the main technical route for 16 to 19-year-olds. In October 2022, we published details of the first 106 qualifications that will have funding approval removed from 1 August 2024 because they overlap with a T-level in Education and Childcare, Digital, or Construction and the Built Environment. Funding approval will also be removed from qualifications that overlap with the Health and Science T-levels and we will publish this list once the review of the outline content of those T-levels has concluded. Funding approval will be removed in August 2025 for qualifications which overlap with T-levels in waves 3 and 4—Legal, Finance and Accounting; Engineering and Manufacturing; Business and Administration; Hair and Beauty; Catering and Hospitality; Creative and Design; and Agriculture, Environmental and Animal Care. A provisional list of these qualifications will be published in spring 2023.

From August 2025, all alternative academic and technical qualifications in scope of the review will be required to demonstrate that they serve a clear and distinct purpose and meet new quality and funding criteria, irrespective of the T-level overlap assessment process. Details of the new approval process, which all qualifications at level 3 in scope of the review must go through in order to be publicly funded from 2025, are being published today. This includes full details of the types of qualifications and subjects that we will fund, and the criteria that awarding organisations must meet to secure funding approval.

For academic qualifications, this includes progression to higher education, evidence of demand and a clear statement of why the qualification is needed. Technical qualifications will be required to meet new occupational relevance and employer demand tests developed by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE). This will ensure that technical qualifications deliver the content that truly matters to employers, and that the skills system is simpler for learners, training providers and employers to navigate. All qualifications must also meet regulatory requirements set by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual).

Our reforms do not constitute a binary choice between T-levels and A-levels. We have listened to feedback and recognise the need for additional qualifications, including alternative qualifications such as some BTECs designed to be taken as part of a mixed study programme including A-levels. These alternative qualifications are an important part of how we will support diverse student needs and deliver skills that employers need for a productive future economy, in areas that A-levels and T-levels do not cover. In addition, the T-level Transition Programme provides a high-quality route on to T-levels, for students who would benefit from the additional study time and preparation that it will give them before they start their T-level.

The Government also recognise that there are still too many people who are being held back by poor maths. The Prime Minister has set out his intention that all students in England should study some form of maths to age 18, to ensure they are better equipped for the jobs of the future. Further detail on this measure will be set out at a later date.

Today’s announcement marks the start of the final stage of the reforms to post-16 qualifications and will give the education sector clarity on the shape of the future post-16 qualifications landscape.

I look forward to engaging with parliamentarians and colleagues in awarding bodies and further education as we implement these important reforms.

The statement made by Robert Halfon, the Minister of State at the Department for Education on 13 December 2022.

As part of the Government’s commitment to provide a comprehensive and clear skills offer for employers and individuals, the Government have decided to integrate the Traineeship programme into 16-19 study programme and adult education provision from 1 August 2023. Integrating Traineeships into general provision means the Department for Education will no longer fund the delivery of Traineeships through a standalone national programme. All the elements of the Traineeship programme—English and maths, work experience, employability and occupational skills, and qualifications—will continue to be funded for 16-19 year olds as part of the national 16- 19 study programme, and for adults through the adult education budget. This means that providers with access to funding can choose to continue to offer Traineeship programmes for young people who need support to get into work, apprenticeships or further learning.

In addition, there are other great alternative opportunities provided by other programmes such as T-levels and the T-level transition programme, Bootcamps, Apprenticeships, and Sector-Based Work Academies.

In areas where the adult education budget has been devolved, Mayoral combined authorities and Greater London authority will decide on how best to support young adults in their areas.

Integrating the national Traineeship programme will simplify the skills landscape making it easier to navigate for young people and employers. It will also enable employers, training providers and local authorities to tailor their programmes, as they will have greater flexibilities to design a Traineeship around the learner or business need as we will be removing the national framework which sets strict requirements on providers, in how they must deliver a Traineeship. This will better support individual learners and focus on local needs to support growth at a local level, and help young people gain the skills they need to get into apprenticeships and sustainable employment.

The Traineeship programme has been running for nearly 10 years and the number of starts has remained relatively low. To encourage growth, we introduced occupationally specific Traineeships, an employer incentive and featured Traineeships within various communications campaigns. However, the 17,400 starts achieved in the 2020-21 academic year and the 15,500 starts in 2021-22 remains a small number of starts for a nationally administered programme. It is right, therefore, that we focus our offer on our mainstream provision. This change will make it easier for young people and employers to navigate our skills offer and will enable providers to better tailor their programmes to deliver the key skills needed to drive growth in local communities.

The statement made by Robert Halfon, the Minister of State at the Department for Education, in the House of Commons on 29 November 2022.

Today the Office for National Statistics published its decision to reclassify the further education sector and its subsidiaries as part of the central Government sector.

The ONS is an agency independent of Ministers, and it periodically reviews the classification of all sectors of the economy for the purposes of national accounts. More information on classification and how the ONS has reached this decision is available on its website.

This means the statutory further education sector—FE colleges, sixth-form colleges and designated institutions—and its subsidiaries are treated from today, 29 November 2022, for financial and accounting purposes as part of the central Government sector, with my Department as the principal Department responsible for ensuring the sector complies with financial and accounting rules. In practice, this means that colleges are now subject to the framework for financial management set out in the parliamentary document “Managing Public Money”, guidance on senior pay and other relevant central Government guidance.

The mission of colleges—to continue to fulfil their role at the heart of their communities, working in partnership with employers, local government and other providers to meet the needs of learners and the labour market—has never been more important. The decision to reclassify the FE sector will not alter these strategic aims. Colleges will continue to play a leadership role in England’s skills system. My officials will work to make sure that they provide the world-leading skills infrastructure that our country needs while adequately demonstrating that we are managing public money well.

My officials said at the start of the review that we wanted to ensure that if colleges were reclassified, it happened in as seamless a way as possible, maintaining continuity and stability for the sector where possible. We have taken the time to get these changes right; to give colleges the support that they need as the transition takes place; and to explore the ways that colleges, learners, employers and communities might all make the most of this change. Colleges will retain many of the flexibilities they currently have and day-to-day operations will continue with minimal changes, so colleges can maintain a smooth delivery.

With that in mind, my officials are publishing the Government’s response to this reclassification decision today, which sets out how my Department will continue to support colleges following the ONS’s decision.

To support and protect colleges, we will be:

Investing £300 million of payments before the end of the current financial year to eliminate the current deficit in funding experienced by March and move to a profile of funding that better matches need, recognising the challenging environment the sector faces;

Providing an additional £150 million of capital grant funding in 2023 to 2024 to support and protect colleges planning to invest in their infrastructure/estate where previously they would have borrowed from commercial lenders;

Allowing colleges to retain flexibility on using surpluses and sale of assets, ensuring that colleges can continue to invest in their estates while complying with the “Managing Public Money” framework; and

Working in partnership with the sector to develop the future approach to financial reporting, and a new college handbook

This means that how colleges report to and interact with Government will change. Colleges will be required to ensure their systems of financial control support public sector standards of accountability.

“Managing Public Money” is clear that public sector organisations may borrow from private sector sources only if the transaction delivers better value for money for the Exchequer. Because non-Government lenders face higher financing costs, in practice it is very unlikely that central Government bodies—now including colleges—will be able to satisfy this condition for future private sector borrowing. If colleges have any proposals for new private sector borrowing, they will now need Department for Education approval—we will update college learner grant agreements to include this as a condition of funding.

In recognition of the limitation on private sector borrowing that reclassification as part of central Government imposes, and in response to feedback from the FE sector and stakeholder groups, I am pleased to confirm that my Department will be investing an additional £150 million of capital funding in further education and sixth-form colleges. This change means that although colleges will have only very limited access to private finance, they will benefit from additional grant funding to improve the condition of the college estate. From the research we have done with colleges, I understand this is one of the main reasons that colleges currently seek private finance, so I hope it will be welcomed by the FE sector.

Furthermore, to help colleges manage their cashflow, my Department will address the historical issue of uneven monthly payments from central Government, which leave colleges out of pocket by March each year. My Department will invest £300 million in bringing forward payments into this financial year to enable us to smooth out the funding, so we have a new even profile for colleges from 2023 to 2024 for both the 16 to 19 and adult education budgets.

I can also confirm that colleges will retain the flexibility to carry over surpluses from one year to the next, and to keep and spend the proceeds from the sale of assets, subject to certain conditions, and this will be kept under review.

Many colleges have subsidiaries, some of which are profit-making entities with commercial operations. Subsidiaries play an important role in the college system, both in delivering provision and generating commercial income. Colleges will also retain the ability to operate their trading subsidiaries, which the ONS has reclassified to the central Government sector.

Regarding financial reporting, colleges will continue to produce their own annual report and accounts as normal for the year ending 31 July 2023. The Department will eventually be required to consolidate the accounts for all FE colleges into one. This means we will require additional information from colleges. We will be working with the sector to ensure that the impact of this request is manageable.

My officials will begin work to write a new college financial handbook and engage with representatives from the sector from the outset, with a view to sharing it in draft with colleges and sector bodies in autumn 2023 for consultation so that they are clear what is expected of them and build their understanding and support. In parallel, my officials will set up the necessary processes and data collection systems to operationalise the new MPM requirements. The handbook will be finalised for publication in March 2024, ahead of an effective date of August 2024 to coincide with the start of the financial year.

The changes will be explained in more detail in a letter from the accounting officer of the Education and Skills Funding Agency to all college financial directors and will be followed by further guidance to help colleges comply with the “Managing Public Money” framework and other central Government guidance as quickly as possible.

I am also writing today to college principals to explain the changes that need to be made and to thank them for the important role they will play in the public sector.

We have taken the opportunity of reclassification to strengthen our arrangements for, and invest more in, this hugely important sector, which is now more obviously than ever a vital part of the Government’s skills agenda for the future.

The Government’s response ensures we use this opportunity to continue to support colleges to do what they do best, while balancing this against the need to adequately demonstrate that we are managing public money well.

The statement made by Robert Halfon, the Minister of State at the Department for Education, in the House of Commons on 17 November 2022.

Today I am laying regulations under section 71 of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. These regulations will enable the Office for Students (OfS) to charge a fee for the investigation of providers’ compliance with quality and other requirements, where the investigation results in certain regulatory action or specified outcomes. These regulations will come into effect on 8 December 2022.

Improving the quality of higher education is a manifesto commitment, and one of my highest priorities. This Government are committed to ensuring that students and the taxpayer see returns on their investment and receive value for money. Accordingly, my Department is working with the OfS to implement a rigorous regime of investigations and in-person inspections that ensures robust action is taken where quality conditions of registration have been breached, or are at risk of being breached. I am also committed to ensuring the majority of providers, which are not in breach of the regulatory conditions, experience minimal regulatory burden.

The OfS will identify providers for investigation using a range of information sources, including outcomes data, student notifications, and other monitoring. My predecessor asked the OfS to put “boots on the ground” where necessary, and investigate universities where there are concerns about the quality of provision. These investigations will examine a range of quality matters, including whether courses are sufficiently up to date and academically challenging; whether students receive enough face-to-face engagement; and the extent to which providers secure positive outcomes for students.

Where the OfS finds that a provider’s performance just is not good enough, it may choose to take enforcement action. This could involve a sanction such as a monetary penalty or, if necessary, even go as far as the removal of a provider from the register. This work will effectively tackle pockets of poor-quality provision, and ensure all students, regardless of their background, can benefit from high-quality, world-leading higher education.

In order to fund this regime sustainably, as well as deter against the growth of poor-quality provision, these regulations will allow the OfS to charge a fee for the investigation of providers’ compliance with quality and other requirements, where the investigation results in certain regulatory action or specified outcomes, such as the imposition of a specific ongoing condition of registration. Doing so will help to ensure that the costs of investigations will fall on those responsible for their necessity, and that those in good standing face a more proportionate regulatory burden than would be the case if we did not lay these regulations.

The speech made by Robert Halfon, the Minister of State at the Department for Education, on 2 November 2022.

It is a pleasure to serve under you, Mr Stringer. I congratulate the hon. Member for Stirling (Alyn Smith) on a very thoughtful speech. I love what he said about science and technology. I have a picture of President Kennedy on my wall in the Department for Education, because he put a man on the moon, and moved the whole engine of government, universities and science to achieve that purpose.

There has been a fair bit of doom and gloom, but our higher education sector has an extraordinary reputation. Four of the top 10 universities in the world are in the UK. It is no surprise that Britain is such a destination of choice for students around the world. We had the ambition of housing at least 600,000 international students in the UK per year by 2030, and we met it, for the first time, nearly 10 years early. There are 68,180 international students in Scotland. The hon. Member for Glasgow North West (Carol Monaghan) talked about EU students, but my figures show that, according to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, EU-domiciled student entrants increased by 4% in 2021 compared with the previous year. I am guessing that the hon. Lady’s figures are based on UCAS applications.

It has rightly been highlighted that international students contribute £25.9 billion to the economy, which is quite extraordinary, and are the source of over 60% of the UK’s education export earnings. Every resident is about £390 a year better off as a result. On the question asked by the hon. Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield), the net economic impact per student was estimated to be £95,000 per typical international student in the 2018-19 cohort. In other words, every 11 international students generate £1 million-worth of net economic impact for the UK economy over the duration of their studies.

I want to be clear that the target remains 600,000 students. That is something to be proud of. I am as keen on soft power as the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green). She gave an example of meeting somebody who had studied in the UK. I have met many people as well. When I was over in Taiwan, I met an incredible person who started showing us slides of the Beatles. He was in charge of national security, and we were wondering what was going on. He said, “I went to the University of Liverpool, and that is why I love your country.” I get it. I have seen people from Iraq—I know that the hon. Member for Stirling has been involved in Iraq. I have seen the incredible work that goes on with Kurdistan in northern Iraq, particularly; so many of the leaders came to this country. I completely understand why international students are so important. I am a liberal interventionist: I believe in soft power as much as hard power.

I accept what the SNP spokesperson, the hon. Member for Glasgow North West, said about relying too much on one cohort, or on people from certain countries. Just as a business should be cautious about being overly reliant on a single supplier, universities should be cautious about having a single source of income.

I remind Members that the Government appointed Sir Steve Smith as the UK’s international education champion. His job is to make the most of the opportunities in key priority regions. We have roughly 84,000 Indian students in our country, and he is exploring the opportunities for UK skills partnerships.

The Government should be proud of the Turing scheme. I know it is for students further afield, but it supports our students to go to places such as Germany or Spain, and all over the world. The Turing scheme is much wider than the Erasmus scheme and has students in vocational education. Some £100 million is being invested in it, and it has more than 38,000 students—not just from universities, but from further education providers and schools.

The hon. Member for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady) talked about Glasgow City College in his constituency, which was very interesting.

Carol Monaghan

City of Glasgow College.

Robert Halfon

Sorry, the City of Glasgow College, which has worked with Indonesian polytechnic colleges on skills for the maritime sector. That is what motivates me—skills and apprenticeships, and higher education—which is why the Turing scheme and other schemes are so important.

Of course, there are pressures on the overseas aid budget. I absolutely get that, and hopefully things will return to normal as soon as the financial conditions allow, but look at what we are doing to support Ukrainian students in the UK. A lot of work has gone into that. There is a twinning initiative set up by Universities UK and the Cormack Consultancy Group, which partners with a Ukrainian university. There are partnerships with higher education providers, including the University of Glasgow, Cardiff University, Queen’s University Belfast and Sheffield Hallam University, and there is the work of the University of Stirling. I saw that it won sporting awards not so long ago, and it is offering Ukrainian students the opportunity to apply to transfer on to courses matching their original programmes.

In England, we have extended access to higher education student support, the home fee status tuition caps, advanced learner loans, and further education funding for those who are granted leave under one of the three schemes for Ukrainians that have been introduced by the Home Office. If that is not soft power in action, I do not know what is. It is all about spending our overseas aid money wisely, and migration changes.

I want to make it absolutely clear in my last few seconds that we remain committed to working towards our ambitions, which are set out in the international education strategy, to host at least 600,000 students per year in the UK by 2030. We will continue to welcome and attract international students to the UK in order to enable our domestic students to experience and hear fresh perspectives, and to allow our HE sector to thrive.