Author: Billy Camden

The police has today launched a formal criminal investigation into disgraced apprenticeship firm Aspire Achieve Advance (3aaa). It follows a meeting between the Department for Education and police yesterday where a number of allegations of fraud against the firm were discussed. FE Week understands the allegations against 3aaa, which had over 4,200 learners and 500 […]

Outsourcing giant Interserve is reportedly going to be put into administration today with nearly 5,000 apprentices on its books. However, the company has insisted this will not be a Carillion-style collapse and it is very much business as usual, with no big job losses anticipated. Shareholders at Interserve, which employs 45,000 people in the UK, […]

West Nottinghamshire College entered the public eye last year when it ran into financial difficulties that led to government bailouts, substantial job losses, and, ultimately, the resignation of its longstanding, high-profile principal, Dame Asha Khemka. An FE Week investigation has now uncovered more details about the scale of trouble at the beleaguered college   Bailouts […]

University Technical Colleges are being pressured to join multi-academy trusts after the programme’s architect Lord Baker U-turned on previous warnings that they will be “watered down” if they do. FE Week can reveal that Lord Baker and academies minister Lord Agnew wrote to principals and chairs of all UTCs last month urging them to join […]

A provider that trains civil servants has been slammed by Ofsted for putting science graduates on apprenticeships that are a rebadge of its old commercial management courses – with no thought for if they need the training. The Business Portfolio (UK) Limited (TBP), which teaches 32 apprentices employed at the government-owned National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), […]

The 10-per-cent fee that small businesses must pay when they take on apprentices will be halved from April 1, the chancellor has finally revealed. In his Budget speech in October, Philip Hammond announced that the contribution non-levy paying companies pay towards apprenticeship training would fall to 5 per cent. But since then no start date […]

The government will fund free sanitary products for all students in colleges and secondary schools from September. Chancellor Philip Hammond made the announcement in his Spring statement today in an effort to tackle period poverty. “In response to rising concern by headteachers that some girls are missing school attendance due to an inability to afford […]

Ofqual has ruled itself out of delivering the apprenticeship external quality assurance service for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. Sally Collier, the chief executive of the exams regulator, told the Commons education committee during an accountability hearing this morning that her organisation would like to expand its role in monitoring apprenticeship end-point assessment […]

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has reminded providers to conduct prior learning assessments when taking on apprentices, and warned they will be audited to ensure price reductions are being made. New guidance on the rule was published today, and follows the launch of a tender by the agency in February to find a researcher […]