Billy Camden | FE Week

Minister calls on IfA to ‘collaborate’ and be ‘more responsive to training provider needs’

The government’s apprenticeship quango needs to start viewing training providers as their “clients” and become “far more responsive” to their needs, the skills minister has said. Speaking to FE Week ahead of today’s Association of Employment and Learning Providers conference, Anne Milton called for a more “collaborative relationship” from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical […]

The four new key judgments of our inspection framework

Dr Chris Jones sets out the focus of the watchdog’s new framework, which will be in place from September It is always a great pleasure to attend, deliver workshops and speak at the AELP conference, especially now, as we all prepare for the new inspection framework that comes in this September. The new Ofsted framework […]

Procured funding is unfair to independent training providers

Ian Ross explains why he has asked the education select committee to launch an inquiry into adult education budget funding It is now two years since the Education and Skills Funding Agency launched its procurement exercise for adult education budget (AEB) funding. While colleges and local authorities receive an annual automatic funding allocation, colleges can […]

Should college governors be paid for what they do?

The subject causes heated arguments, but surely the newly professionalised world of college governance would benefit from paying those with oversight, says Sue Pember There is a long history in the UK of the voluntary principle for the governance of public services and charities and, until recently, this has worked well in most instances. The concept of […]

Milton in interdepartmental talks to set up new youth pre-employment programme

Skills minister Anne Milton wants to launch a new youth pre-employment programme as early as next January. In an exclusive interview with FE Week, Milton revealed she is already in cross-departmental discussions with ministers about the programme, which would prepare 16- to 25-year-olds for employment, whether that be apprenticeships or another route. She said: “I […]

Is 3aaa’s Marples back in the education game?

The co-founder of a disgraced training provider that is subject to an ongoing police investigation has launched a new consultancy firm that “specialises” in schools growth and apprenticeship levy strategy. Peter Marples (pictured) stepped away from Aspire Achieve Advance (3aaa) in September in the midst of a second government investigation into the firm, which he […]

Put the entire adult education budget out to tender, says AELP

The entire £1.5 billion adult education budget should be put out to tender owing to “persistent annual underspends and too much poor-value subcontracting”, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has said. It wants the “now totally discredited system” of allocating funds abandoned, including in devolved areas, which are set to take control of half […]

T-level providers share ‘extremely tight’ timescale concerns

“Extremely tight” delivery timescales, a lack of viable industry placements and limited public transport are among the key challenges facing the first providers set to deliver T-levels, according to research shared exclusively with FE Week. Speculative fears about how the new post-16 technical qualifications could falter have been widely reported since they were first mooted […]

College in fight to avoid merger after second grade 4 report published by Ofsted

A troubled land-based college has officially been rated ‘inadequate’ for the second time in a row, with Ofsted criticising leaders and governors for failing to improve its performance. FE Week revealed last month that Moulton College, which is attempting to avoid a merger, was heading for another grade four after the education watchdog found it […]