Author: Billy Camden

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has paid a further quarter of a million pounds to a firm that had its training contracts terminated following an undercover FE Week investigation. Talent Training, which was based in South Tyneside and claimed to have £130 million of apprenticeship levy business, was caught offering banned inducements in the […]

A second batch of apprenticeship standards will have their funding bands put up for review from tomorrow. The Institute for Apprenticeships informed trailblazer groups of the plan on Friday, but it is not known at this stage how many standards will be included. It follows the launch of the institute’s first funding band review in […]

Multiple awarding organisations are investigating an apprenticeship provider to church community groups after Ofsted raised potential misuse of funding concerns in a damning ‘inadequate’ report this week. Inspectors found that Touchstone Educational Solutions Ltd, which has Education and Skills Funding Agency contracts totalling more than £2 million, worked with employers who did not recognise the […]

The chair of the education select committee has laid into the Careers and Enterprise Company for believing it has a “magic money tree” growing in its garden. Robert Halfon (pictured) offered the heavy criticism during an event about the future of careers guidance in Parliament this morning. It followed the organisation’s second hearing with MPs […]

Ofsted’s view that colleges are giving students “false hope” by putting them on courses where there are slim job prospects has been criticised by a leading principal for being based on “anecdotal” rather than robust evidence. Chief inspector Amanda Spielman (pictured above) questioned whether some colleges are chasing income over students’ best interests at the […]

The Education and Skills Funding Agency is clamping down on employers who fail to pay the 10 per cent co-investment fee for apprentices, by withholding completion payments from providers. A change to a calculation in the agency’s funding software will enforce the new rule from early next month, which will see nearly 20 per cent […]

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 […]