What counts as ‘non-qualification’ hours?

1. What counts as ‘non-qualification’ hours? Suki Gill 16-19 Planning Manager

2. Aims of the session • Understand the principles of non-qualification hours in accordance with EFA and Ofsted guidance • Understand what ‘counts’ as non-qualification hours and evidencing them

3. Importance of non-qualification hours • The Wolf review of Vocational Education (March 2011) • EFA 2014/15 Funding regulations guidance (June 2014) • Ofsted Study Programme guidance (January 2014)

4. The Wolf Report - 5 Key Labour Market Characteristics • Full-time education or training to age 18 is now the dominant pattern • Change in the youth labour market, employment-related regulation, and employers’ assumptions about school-leavers’ skills • Valuing and rewarding employment experience and not just formal credentials • Good levels of English and Mathematics • Students need general skills and the educational system needs to respond quickly and flexibly to change

5. The Wolf Report - Recommendations • Wolf Report recommendation 5: ‘The overall study programmes of all 16-18 year olds in ‘vocational’ programmes should be governed by a set of general principles relating primarily to content, general structure, assessment arrangements and contact’ • Wolf Report recommendation 6: ‘Programmes should include at least one qualification of substantial size (in terms of teaching time) which offers clear progression either in education or into skilled employment’ • Wolf Report recommendation 9: ‘Students who are under 19 and do not have GCSE A*-C in English and/or Maths should be required, as part of their programme, to pursue a course which either leads directly to these qualifications, or which provide significant progress towards future GCSE entry and success’

6. The Wolf Report - Recommendations • Wolf Report recommendation 11: ‘Funding for full-time students age 16-18 should be on a programme basis, with a given level of funding per student. The funding should follow the student’ • Wolf Report recommendation 21: ‘DfE should evaluate models for supplying genuine work experience to 16-18 year olds who are enrolled as full-time students, not apprentices, and for reimbursing local employers in a flexible way, using core funds’

7. Ofsted Study Programme guidance (Jan 2014) What extent do leaders and managers: • allow for meaningful work experience (related to the student’s vocational area) or other non-qualification activity to develop personal skills and/or prepare for further/higher education, training or employment In inspecting and reporting on students’ achievement in the sixth form, inspectors should consider: • how well students’ personal, social and employability skills (communication, teamwork, leadership, taking responsibility, problem-solving, reflective thinking, independent enquiry) are developed to prepare them for their next steps (further/higher education, training or employment), including the contribution of ‘non-qualification’ activity

8. EFA Study Programmes

9. Qualification hours • For funding purposes only qualifications approved for teaching to 16-19 year olds under section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000 (s96), or any alternative list which may be published by DfE in the future, can be included within a study programme as qualification activity • Qualifications not approved under S96 cannot be taught in schools, but can be delivered by other providers

10. Non-qualification hours Hours that: • do not count towards a qualification counted above; and • are delivered towards informal certificates or other non-qualification activity (including activity to give young people the skills they need to live more independently and be integrated within their community); or • are for tutorial purpose; or • are spent on work experience, other work-related activities • volunteering and/or community activities or enrichment activities organised and quality assured by or on behalf of the institution whether paid or not, including activity such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award that might lead to an award but is not listed on s96

11. Examples of activities that are not funded • Voluntary extra-curricular activities and clubs delivered during breaks or outside the normal working pattern; • Study that is homework or independent study/research that is not timetabled; • Time spent in employment and or work experience organised by anyone other than by or on behalf of the organisation; • Time spent on volunteering and/or community activities that are not organised by or on behalf of the institution.

12. ‘Planned’ hours (540+ to achieve FT learner status) and Funding • Made up of qualification hours and non-qualification hours • The total of both hours fields are used to determine the full or part time funding rate for the student\ • When entering the planned hours on data returns institutions must ensure that the hours entered are realistic and deliverable to each individual student. These need to be supported by auditable evidence of eligible timetabled activity • Evidence required for ALL activities (hours)

13. Study programme design Stage 1 (Qualification hours) • Progress to a level of study which is higher than their prior attainment; • Take qualification(s) which are stretching ; • Take qualification(s) judged to be of suitable size & level to enable progression Stage 2 (Qualification hours) • Achieve English and maths GCSE A*-C, or functional skills that will progress towards this if this has not already been achieved; Stage 3 (Non-qualification hours) • Participate in value-added non-qualification activity & work experience whenever appropriate

14. Study Programmes Principles Within each stage learning must be: • Relevant • Planned (timetabled) • Organised and / or supervised • Within normal working pattern Calculate Planned qualification hours (Stages 1 and 2) Calculate planned non-qualification hours (Stage 3) and consider the quality aspects

15. Study leave and time spent in exams • Study leave counts ‘subject to the activity meeting the published criterion of being planned, explicit in the student’s learning plan/ timetable, and supervised and/or organised by a member of staff’. • The EFA would expect that any study leave is focused on a defined exam or assessment, such as leading up to the summer exam season; that it is time limited and that the weekly number of hours does not exceed the student’s planned weekly hours for the overall study programme. This applies to study leave in year 12 and in year 13.

16. Study leave and time spent in exams • Study leave should be supervised or organised by the institution, for example by requiring the completion of structured revision or practice papers that are marked by a member of staff and where the student is given feedback • The time when the student is taking the exam can also be included in the total planned hours

17. Questions

18. Evidencing ‘non-qualification’ hours

19. Evidencing non-qualification hours • Ofsted 16-19 Study Programme guidance • Wolf Report • For the non-qualification element of the funding total, institutions are reminded that for an activity to be entered on the data set as publicly fundable they should be able to evidence that they have incurred a recognisable cost in delivering that activity • Institutions will need to show through experience in the workplace and participation in other activities of value, which do not necessarily lead to qualifications, but enable progression to higher levels of study and/or into employment.

20. EFA Evidencing student existence & eligibility

21. EFA Assurance and reporting EFA Bulletin June 19 - Planned hours review this summer: Who will complete the return - • Institutions that have had the most significant increase in full time programmes • Institutions selected for funding audit that have had an increase in full time programmes

22. Evidencing requirements • Must meet the Study programme principles (planned, organised….) • 3 stages (qualification & non-qualification hours) • Opportunity cost of doing one activity over another? • Process to manage FT/PT hours (spreadsheet) • Evidence at programme level (hours, scheme of work, lesson plans) and student level (Individual Learning Plan (ILP) and/or Learning agreement and enrolment forms) • Recognisable cost? • Links to progression? • Hours – realistic and deliverable?

23. Questions

24. Non-qualification hour activity • Any virtual learning element of the study programme should be planned, timetabled and organised by the institution • Other activity, such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award, that might lead to an award but is not listed on S96 will not count towards qualification hours, but can count towards non-qualification hours

25. Non-qualification hour activity • Tutorials/registration • Planned community service • Twilight sessions • Enterprise • EPQ • Private study time/supervised study* • Work experience*

26. Supervised study School A – Average teaching per A2 subject is 5 hours (33 weeks) = 165 hrs 2 /3 students, school decides to restructure the subject to 3hrs direct teaching (33 weeks) = 99 hrs with 2 hrs self-study each week • 66hr deficit - Do the self-study sessions need to be supervised? YES

27. Supervised study • Does the supervision arrangement need to be timetabled as proof? YES – timetable or Individual learning plan • Can they be supervised by the librarian (in the library) or another teacher from another department? • Answer – No right or wrong answer from the EFA – follow the principles from the guidance!

28. 2014/15 This does not include homework or independent study/research that is not timetabled…… So, what if the independent study/research is timetabled? • Demonstrate impact • Evidencing requirements • Support during these sessions • Quality of hours (EFA & Ofsted)

29. EFA Question and AnswersSection 1Qualification and non-qualification hours

30. Work experience

31. Work experience (not a funding requirement) EFA in December 2013 letter: ‘ Work experience is a key area within many students’ study programmes and provides the greatest benefit for students where it is substantial and with external employers. Only work experience with external employers should be counted towards and recorded as a work experience learning aim from 2014/15. Simulated work environments should be separately recorded as non-qualification activity’

32. Work experience EFA in March 2014 letter: ‘ We strongly encourage work experience as part of study programmes. We have received a number of questions and concerns about the eligibility for funding various types of work experience in different contexts, and how these hours should be recorded on the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). Following recent discussions with representative bodies, Ofsted and policy colleagues within the Department of Education we will shortly issue a note providing further information and clarity on this issue’ So we await ‘clarity’ on what does and does not count as work experience

33. Information required for work experience provision • Where the work experience is a specific element, stipulated in the structure of the qualification by the awarding organisation, it can be recorded, alongside the planned qualification hours, in the Planned Learning Hours field • A specific work experience learning aim must be entered identifying the student as undertaking work experience, also provide an hours range attributable to the work experience • Planned work experience hours must not be double counted • If you are not offering work experience what are you doing to promote employability skills?

34. EFA Question and AnswersSection 2Work experience

35. EFA Question and Answers Section 3Data

36. Further support needed? Please contact suki.gill@hertfordshire.gov.uk Direct line: 01438 845050 EFA South YPSouthern.EFA@education.gsi.gov.uk

37. Thank youQuestions