A total of 714 training providers have won contracts in the £650 million non-levy tender – nearly a third of which did not have an apprenticeships allocation last year.

The ESFA has released a list of all the winners from the much-anticipated procurement to fund apprenticeships at small employers.

It reveals that 714 providers have been handed contracts for the period between January 2018 and March 2019.

Although the document does not state the value of the contracts for individual providers, FE Week checked the ESFA’s allocations spreadsheet for 2016/17 and was able to filter which of them did not previously have an apprenticeships allocation.

This revealed that 227 (32 per cent) of the 714 are on their first apprenticeships contract.

A Department for Education spokesperson said it was unable to comment on exactly how many providers applied in the non-levy tender as it was still a “live procurement”.

Results for the £650 million procurement, for which apprenticeships minister Anne Milton has already apologised after its aborted first attempt and delays to the second, were finally released last Thursday (December 7) by the ESFA.

FE Week launched a survey immediately after the release, to encourage providers to tell us their outcomes, and we were able to work out the proportion of non-levy funding awarded by age and region.

Our analysis shows that London has been worst hit; providers from the capital have generally only received a third of what they applied for.

At the other end of the spectrum, providers in the east of England came out on top, and were awarded nearly two thirds of the values of their bids. These variations came about as the ESFA attempted to manage demand across the country.

You can fill in FE Week’s survey telling us about your experience here.

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