Author: Billy Camden

The government’s apprenticeships quango has U-turned on plans to grade end-point assessment organisations (EPAOs) without sharing the results with them. However, the information will still be kept a secret from the public, and EPAOs will not be allowed to advertise their ratings unless they’re granted special permission. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s (IfATE) […]

A senior policy advisor from the Department for Education has warned providers against using external bid writers to apply for a place on the refreshed apprenticeships register. Sheila Sturgeon (pictured), who marks many of the submissions, has also urged applicants to not “nick” policies from other providers and claim it is their own while forgetting […]

Employers lost access to £11 million of their apprenticeship levy funds in May – the first sun-setting period for the policy, the government has revealed. The amount is 8 per cent of the £135 million they paid in May 2017, which is slightly lower than what officials had previously predicted. As per the levy rules, […]

The first organisations to be added to the government’s refreshed apprenticeship provider register have been revealed. An update to the register of apprenticeship training providers was published today and showed 23 new firms have been enlisted. The number isn’t as high as was expected, and strangely, all of them are only “supporting providers”. FE Week […]

Apprenticeship end-point assessment organisations are to be graded by quality assurance providers and given a “risk rating” – but the results won’t be published or made available to them. The move was revealed in the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s new framework published today that “sets the standard” for external quality assurance (EQA). While […]

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education will start charging £40 for every apprenticeship external quality assurance check it does from September. Robert Nitsch, the quangos chief operating officer, told the Association of Employment and Learning Provider’s conference this afternoon that charging for their work, which is currently free, is the “right thing to do”. […]

One of most “palatable” decisions the government could make to constrain the apprenticeship budget is introducing a pre-apprenticeship salary cap, the skills minister has said. Anne Milton was quizzed on the future affordability of the programme after what is likely to be her last speech in post, at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers […]

A funding rule that is preventing large employers from transferring levy funds to smaller employers to train 16 to 18-year-old apprentices is being reviewed by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Keith Smith, the agency’s director of apprenticeships, revealed this was an area he hopes to address “quite soon”, during today’s Association of Employment and […]

A college that is dependent on government bailouts to survive has been hit with a fourth consecutive grade three rating from Ofsted. Lambeth College finally merged with London South Bank University in February after a two-year delay and leaders were praised by the inspectorate for working “hard” since then to “change the culture of the […]