Allocating apprentices to colleges most able to teach the required skills
Information about the provider
B-wbl is a work-based learning consortium led by Pembrokeshire College, consisting of 11 providers including six colleges of further education and five private training providers. At the time of inspection in June 2015, the consortium was delivering training programmes to 5,000 learners across a range of higher apprenticeship, apprenticeship, foundation apprenticeship, traineeships and engagement programmes.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
The allocation of contract to individual consortium members is predicated on their quality of provision. A Learner Outcome Report (LOR) of higher quality will result in additional numbers of places for learners on the training programmes. The consortium devised and agreed this innovative and quality focused allocation methodology prior to the contract award in 2011 to ensure that all parties received a fair allocation. The allocation methodology ensured that providers with higher quality profiles received a greater weighting in the allocation provision, thus ensuring that learners would receive the highest quality training. The model is designed to allow the allocations to vary annually as quality profiles change. New consortium members have also signed up to this model. This reward based model has seen quality and standards that learners achieve improve from 79% to 86%. It also reduces the management charges payed by consortium members to reflect the lower intervention that will be required by the consortium management team.
Consortium members signed collaborative agreements in July 2010 prior to the initial Welsh Government tendering process. New members, as they have joined the consortium, have also signed up to these agreements. Key policies were agreed at this time, including Health and Safety and Equality and Diversity. The allocation methodology was also agreed and approved at this stage so that, once the overall contract was awarded, individual provider allocations could be easily and quickly determined and awarded.
The consortium has implemented an allocations model that is linked to quality outcomes and the level of management fee that is paid.
The management fee charge is linked to the performance of individual providers and the level of support that is required to support their improvement. If a greater degree of support is required from the B-wbl management team, then a higher percentage of their contract value is paid as a management fee. Consortium members receive a wide range of support that enables them to improve their performance, and members who have a history of performing well and who need little or no support receive a greater contract allocation and pay the lowest management fee.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
Overall, combined consortium framework success rates show a continuously improving trend over the past five years from 73% in 2009-2010 to 79% in 2010-2011, 83% in 2011-2012, 86% in 2012-2013 and 86% in 2013-2014 against national comparators of 80% in 2009-2010 and 84% in 2013-2014. The overall improvement of 13 percentage points over the five year period has been achieved due to the commitment of consortium members; targeted development in key areas; continuous investment in learner support; vision, drive and energy from leaders; and a contract methodology based on quality.
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