Author: Billy Camden

Apprenticeship starts for the month of March 2020 are down by a quarter while April plunged by 72 per cent on the previous year, new government data has revealed. Monthly provisional figures for both of those months were published by the Department for Education this morning and show the huge impact that the Covid-19 pandemic […]

Mark Dawe is stepping down as chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers to head up a major subcontractor to colleges. He began telling staff today that he is set to leave the role this summer after leading the membership organisation for four years. Current chief operating officer, Jane Hickie, has been […]

The prime minister has said he will “look at the idea” of giving young people aged 16 to 25 an “apprenticeship guarantee”. Boris Johnson made the commitment this afternoon after stating that apprenticeships “are going to play a huge part in getting people back onto the jobs market” from Covid-19. He was taking questions from […]

Labour has accused the government of failing to make a “serious attempt” to answer AELP’s claim that the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s supplier relief scheme was “unlawful”. Shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey and shadow apprenticeships minister Toby Perkins have expressed their “disappointment” today in a joint letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson that urged […]

The government’s response to a consultation that outlined plans to overhaul subcontracting rules in further education has been delayed by a month. Officials in the Education and Skills Funding Agency had planned to publish their decisions in May, but they announced today that their outcome will now be released in June. In their weekly update, […]

A former skills minster has described the “nonsense” of her colleagues setting up schools that competed with the struggling colleges she was then forced to bailout. Anne Milton has revealed the lack of joined-up policy decisions between ministers during her two-year stint in the Department for Education, which she says has “real problems”. In an […]

The latest webcast in FE Week’s series – further education sector’s response and requirements to the coronavirus pandemic – was broadcast yesterday. On the agenda was Shane Mann, managing director of FE Week’s publisher Lsect, in conversation with Association of Employment and Learning Providers boss Mark Dawe and three leaders of private providers – Brenda […]

The prime minister has unexpectedly announced a two week delay to when colleges can begin their wider reopening of campuses to students. Speaking during the government’s daily coronavirus briefing today, Boris Johnson said: “We intend from 15 June for secondary schools to provide some contact for year 10 and year 12 students to help them […]

The transfer to new ownership for the first colleges to be placed by the government into insolvency has been struck by a second delay as concerns heighten over the spiralling costs. The Education and Skills Funding Agency has failed to agree a financial deal with North Kent College to take over both Hadlow College and […]