Author: Billy Camden

The country’s best individuals and employers who champion apprenticeships have been honoured at the 15th National Apprenticeship Awards – including a new accolade for ‘Rising Stars’. Old Billingsgate in London held the glitzy ceremony on Wednesday night which was co-hosted by apprentice Lois McClure and TV presenter, George Clarke. The awards were bigger than ever […]

The Edge Foundation has hit out at schools for focussing too much on academic subjects and said that Ofsted should save its coveted ‘outstanding’ rating for only those which excel in teaching technical education. The charity wants the watchdog to limit the top inspection grade to schools “that are able to demonstrate excellence in creative […]

The government has confirmed that the skills minister wants collaboration, not competition, between colleges and private providers. Eyebrows were raised on Friday when the Department for Education published Anne Milton’s speech from the Association of Colleges conference, as it claimed it was “exactly as delivered” but contradicted what she actually told delegates. “There is the […]

The Department for Education is seeking views on how funding should be distributed to providers for the delivery of T-levels from 2020, including plans for four new funding bands. A consultation, launched today, includes the indicative per student funding rates based on hours of study over the two-year programmes, which range from £4,170 to £5,835 […]

A college that fell two Ofsted grades from ‘outstanding’ last year has put 155 jobs at risk of redundancy and is planning to cut 41 of them. Blackburn College, which went 10 years without being inspected following a grade one in 2007, is consulting on the job losses after finding itself “under increasing financial pressure […]

The government’s new “tougher” apprenticeships register will reopen indefinitely from December 12, and will require all subcontractors delivering the programmes to be listed on it. This will include, for the first time, those subcontractors delivering less than the current threshold of £100,000 a year. The new requirement was revealed in an announcement about the refreshed […]

A London-based training provider worked with employers who did not recognise the names of their apprentices, according to a damning Ofsted report which rated it ‘inadequate’ in every category. Inspectors found that Touchstone Education Solutions Ltd, which has Education and Skills funding Agency contracts totalling more than £2 million, also does not withdraw learners in […]

During a hot-topic panel session at the Association of Colleges conference, several new college governors asked about how to avoid “serial offender” college principals. Nazir Afzal OBE became chair of Hopwood Hall College on September 1, 2018, after stepping down as pro-chancellor at Brunel University the previous month, before which he was chief crown prosecutor […]