Author: Alix Robertson

The controversial new apprenticeship levy was drawn up in “a darkened room”, leading FE organisations to feel they were left “outside the tent” during the drafting process, according to speakers at an FE Week parliamentary debate. The event, which was hosted by shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden and sponsored by OCR, featured a panel including […]

One of the UK’s largest legal firms has turned its back on new apprenticeships as a way of training lawyers. Clifford Chance told FE Week that it had rejected the three Trailblazer apprenticeship standards for lawyers, which are now approved for delivery by the government, because they were “not the right model” for its training […]

Funding is still the biggest source of worry, the latest FE Week and Policy Consortium survey of over 730 sector leaders has found. It topped the list of concerns once again in the third annual FE Week sector survey — which was carried out by FE and skills experts from the Policy Consortium. The latest […]

Charities are caught in a “conflict of legislation” over the government’s apprenticeship levy, a senior sector figure has warned. The requirement for charities to ensure their funds are spent directly on their missions will put them in conflict with the levy, according to Beth Brook (pictured above), the chief executive of Fair Train, the group […]

The government has delayed publication of a new skills white paper that is supposed to spell out its technical and professional education (TPE) reform plans, FE Week has discovered. The last 14-19 education and skills white paper to be released by the government came out over 10 years ago, in 2005. However, in February the […]

Questions are being asked about the ability of the new Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) to police new Trailblazer standards — after FE Week discovered it is only set to have 40 members of staff by 2019/20. A leaked document called ‘BIS2020 — Finance and Headcount outline’, seen by FE Week, indicated that the IfA would […]

A college principal in the north-west has left his post unexpectedly, but his former colleagues remain tight-lipped as to why. Michael Sheehan (pictured) first took charge at Wigan & Leigh College, which has recently been part of the Greater Manchester area review, in August 2014. A spokesperson for the college told FE Week that Mr […]

The Common Inspection Framework was revised by Ofsted in September 2015, which introduced short inspections for grade two providers. In a series of provider type reports, we take a look at the grades for independent training providers (ITPs). Of the 85 published inspections since September, 61 (72 per cent) were full. In terms of grade […]

The director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) wants the April next year launch date for the apprenticeship levy to be delayed unless the government backs down on its phased implementation plan, FE Week can reveal. Carolyn Fairbairn said in an exclusive interview that the CBI was concerned about “a large number of […]