Author: Billy Camden

An end-point assessment organisation is facing a potential fine of £50,000 after “technical issues” affected its delivery of apprenticeship assessments. The notice of intention to impose a monetary penalty on the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx), published today, is the first such fine floated by Ofqual. CILEx, an EPAO for two apprenticeship standards, admitted […]

Police investigating high-profile leaks of Edexcel A-level exam papers in 2017 and 2018 have passed their first case to the Crown Prosecution Service. Pearson, the exam board’s parent company, has announced today that officers “have made progress in their investigation” from the first “limited” breach in 2017, and have referred their first case to prosecutors. […]

Thousands of nursing apprentices who have less than a year before they finish their training can breathe a sigh of relief as an organisation has finally been found to assess them. However, there is likely to be concern over whether enough assessors will be recruited to meet demand seeing as there will be close to […]

A major retailer is scrapping all of its level 2 provision in a move that will see a huge fall in apprenticeship sign-ups across the business and nearly 50 job losses. Halfords, a large employer that sells motoring and cycling products and has over 8,250 staff across the UK, began delivering its own apprenticeship programme […]

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has once again awarded its long-term external quality assurance (EQA) contract to Open Awards. The decision sees a continuation of service from the awarding body who has been delivering quality assurance for apprenticeships assessment on behalf of the institute since 2017. Its previous long-term contract came to an […]

Employers with a payroll of £3 million or more made their first monthly apprenticeship levy payment in April 2017 and if they do not use it by the end of this month they will lose it forever. But despite many apprenticeship courses still in the design phase, the government will not reconsider taking the funds […]

The country’s national statistics regulator is investigating whether the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s apprenticeship achievement rate data can be trusted. Last Thursday the national achievement rate tables published for 2017/18 came with a list of more than 30 apprenticeship providers with “unreliable” data that have been included in the headline figures. The ESFA says […]

One-third of apprentices on standards were not ready for their planned end-point assessment last year, the government has revealed. The Department for Education released the national achievement rate tables for 2017/18 last week which showed the slower than expected pace at which learners are completing the training part of the new “more rigorous” apprenticeships. For […]

Yet another university technical college will close later this year, taking the total to 10 for the troubled programme. Wigan UTC, which is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted but has had a chequered history, has announced it will shut at the end of August 2019 after failing to recruit enough students to become financially viable. The […]