Home schooled

Paul Augarde knows the benefit of a good education. The community investment manager at Thames Valley Housing has been promoted several times over the past few years and believes a Chartered Institute of Housing course he took has played a big part in that success.

‘It gave me that space in which to install the knowledge that complements the stuff you are doing on the ground as it happens, with the ringing phone and busy day-to-day nature that is housing management,’ says Mr Augarde.

His previous employer, Richmond Housing Partnership, sponsored his CIH Level 3 certificate in housing at Thames Valley Housing’s training centre. The course, which offers students a mix of theory, policy and practical skills needed for a career in housing, cost about £1,000.

‘I went from a customer liaison officer role to housing manager, and now I have progressed to community investment manager at Thames Valley Housing. I think a lot of that was due to having both the front-end experience and time to understand the [socio-political] context [of social housing].’
Yet changes to the way such valued qualifications are funded threaten to leave many students unable to pay the fees and force colleges into cancelling courses (see box). So, what changes are planned and what is the likely impact on the sector?

Mind the funding gap

The Learning and Skills Council previously subsidised the affected ‘developmental’ courses, which include the CIH Level 2 and 3 certificates in housing, through its ‘adult learner responsive’ funding stream. This contribution has been decreasing year-on-year but would have been 50 per cent of the full course cost, with the student or their employer paying the rest.

However, the LSC is withdrawing all funding from ‘developmental’ courses from August 1, leaving everyone involved facing an immediate doubling of the bill. It says it is unable to provide a breakdown of how much funding housing courses receive each year. A CIH level 3 course costs roughly £1,200 - although this does vary - and the number of people taking CIH courses has been increasing - up from 1,500 in 2005/6 to 2,337 last year, of which 1,156 took the Level 2 certificate in housing and 634 took the Level 3 certificate in housing.

Errol Lawrence, the CIH’s head of education, fears the numbers will now drop. ‘It is just as important now, in the midst of an economic downturn, that we keep investing in our people, but I think employers feel they are not able to pay the kind of money they may be asked to pay in the long term,’ he added. ‘I think it will affect the skills and knowledge profile of the sector.’

Lewisham College opted to run the CIH Level 3 certificate in housing without subsidy from 2008/9, in anticipation of the cuts. This led to a halving in students (from 36 to 16) in the first year. However, Christine Waring, programme area leader for housing, business and retail, says widening the pathways on offer - students choose pathways such as supported housing in which to specialise - helped to keep numbers ‘reasonably buoyant’.

The college saw a recovery in its numbers this year but six of its 36 students dropped out ‘because they kidded themselves they could afford the fee’, she adds.

Ms Waring says the college, which operates in a deprived area of London, maintained LSC funding for Level 2 courses because they offered ‘a good way into work’ for unemployed people. The certificate is heavily oversubscribed, with more than 100 applicants for the 18 places on offer every six months.

Currently people on benefits can claim a full concession on the course fee but this will end with the government funding in August. The change means an unemployed person will go from paying £30 in administrative costs to the full fee of £900.

‘We may, as a college, go on subsidising the course,’ adds Ms Waring. ‘If we don’t, we may not be able to go on running it’.

Struggling students

Both Level 2 and 3 certificates in housing form part of arm’s-length management organisation Wigan and Leigh Housing’s training programme, in addition to supporting its apprenticeship programme.

Senior human resources manager Alison Hatch says the qualifications are important because they give housing recruits a better understanding of housing policies, procedures and career progression.

She says she is worried rising course costs could negatively impact on the skills base within the sector.

‘We are now recruiting people who have housing qualifications that underpin experience,’ she added. ‘We ask for qualifications for all jobs, so there is concern this will impact on our recruitment in the future.’

Lewisham student Charlene Young, a trainee housing officer at Merton Priory Homes, received full funding - of about £400 - for Level 2 while on maternity leave and a low income. She had been ‘struggling to get into housing’ prior to the course but was short-listed for jobs after adding the qualification to her applications.

While Miss Young’s employer is funding her current Level 3 course, she said some of her Level 2 classmates were unable to continue to the higher qualification after failing to find sponsorship.

Between two-thirds and three-quarters of Birmingham Metropolitan College’s housing students are employer-sponsored. Leigh Winfield, course tutor for housing studies, said his ‘prime concern’ was employer funding would suffer because of public sector cuts.

A complicating factor for colleges and housing providers trying to plan ahead is that, despite the LSC’s decision, the funding situation remains confused.

Like other awarding bodies, the CIH has ‘reviewed and revised’ its qualifications to fit the government’s new Qualifications and Credit Framework. It took the opportunity to make its certificates ‘full’ as opposed to ‘developmental’ in the hope they will, therefore, be eligible for ‘adult learner responsive’ funding.

However, Mr Lawrence claimed the LSC was telling colleges the courses will still not get funding ‘because they [were] not a priority’.

The way forward

Steven Proudfoot, UK operations director at Asset Skills, is ‘actively working with the Learning and Skills Council to try to get a resolution’ and hopes for clarification early this week.

A spokesperson for the LSC, which the Young People’s Learning Agency and the Skills Funding Agency replaced on 1 April, says it plays ‘no role in prioritising funding for individual sectors’.

She adds the council is aware of ‘new QCF provision at Levels 2 and 3 for housing’ and has been ‘in discussions with Asset Skills with regards to which of these qualifications may be suitable for funding within [national skills service] Train to Gain’.

For Hackney Community College, which needs to save £1.25 million from its overall budget this year, any decision may come too late. Kathryn Lammas, curriculum team leader for housing, believes no CIH courses will feature in a proposed new structure ‘unless something dramatic changes in the next few weeks’.

‘For us it’s a timing issue…the college has to make decisions now to make money,’ says Ms Lammas, who resigned from her job last week. ‘It’s sort of “watch this space”.’

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