News

Charity set to announce purchase of People 1st

UPDATE: The Workforce Development Trust has confirmed the acquisition of People 1st. However, the Institute for Apprenticeships has said…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Apprenticeship qualifications: no uptake under new rules

No employer groups have taken advantage of the Institute for Apprenticeships’ new rules for including qualifications in apprenticeships, FE…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

IfA in talks with charity to take on EQA role after People 1st goes bust

The Institute for Apprenticeships is understood to be close to reaching a deal with an organisation to take over…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

College that needed huge bailouts set to merge

A college that has received millions of pounds in government bailouts has announced plans to merge. Accrington and Rossendale…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

AoC Sport National Championships: The south-east triumphs again

The south-east took the glory for the second year running at last weekend’s AoC Sport National Championships, retaining the…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Ofsted Watch: Royal Navy apprenticeships are ‘outstanding’

Everything about skills training at the Royal Navy is shipshape and Bristol fashion, after Ofsted judged the employer provider…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden


News

Mucklow tackles AEB devolution as director roles change at ESFA

The director of Young People and former sixth-form college commissioner has been given the mammoth task of devolving the…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Fresh round of redundancies at Learndirect as funding dries up

Learndirect Ltd appears to be on the brink of collapse, after a fresh round of redundancies belied the fact…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Special investigation: Why are colleges turning their backs on traineeships?

Colleges delivered less than a quarter of traineeships last year and nearly half across the country had no starts…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

UCU blasts 10% pay rises for ‘greedy’ college principals

College principals have been lambasted as “greedy and hopelessly out of touch” by the University and College Union, after…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

People 1st collapses, stunning the FE sector

People 1st, once a major sector skills council and a key player in the apprenticeship reforms, has entered administration,…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

Apprenticeship payments system breakdown finally ‘resolved’

The government claims to have finally fixed its malfunctioning apprenticeship payments reporting system, more than two weeks after it…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord

Must read

Qualifications

Revealed: V Levels incoming as axe looms for BTECs

New qualifications set to launch as ‘third route’ between A-levels and T Levels

Shane Chowen
Shane Chowen
Politics, Skills reform

DWP will take over apprenticeships, minister confirms

Shifting adult skills and apprenticeships policy will give “bigger emphasis on skills”, Jacqui Smith claims

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Colleges, Long read

Colleges on the frontline of a divided nation

As social media algorithms fuel intolerance and binary thinking, college staff increasingly find themselves dealing with the fallout. Jessica…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Colleges, Long read

Alun Francis, chair of the Social Mobility Commission

Deprived areas need vision – not victimhood – to level up, and Social Mobility Commission chair Alun Francis is…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Long read, Prison education

The prison that’s offering hope for a new life upon release

‘We’re saving people’s lives as well as turning them around’

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Apprenticeships, Politics

Phillipson to exempt young people from level 7 apprenticeships funding axe

Education secretary makes ‘important concession’ amid backlash from other government departments

Billy Camden
Billy Camden