Author: Billy Camden

A training provider in Somerset that found itself at the sharp end of the adult education budget debacle has unsurprisingly won a special procurement worth £2.6 million to deliver “community learning services”. The Education and Skills Funding Agency launched a tender specifically for the area in May following a campaign by Somerset Skills and Learning, which […]

The skills minister is expecting a “slow take-up” when T-levels are launched, and admitted that as a parent she would tell her children to “leave it a year” before studying a brand new qualification. Anne Milton left one member of the commons education committee “staggered” by her comments on the post-16 technical qualifications during an […]

Battle lines have officially been drawn by the Federation of Awarding Bodies, after it outlined its intention to launch a judicial review of the government’s T-level implementation plans. The legal action began with a letter sent to the Department for Education and the Institute for Apprenticeships yesterday setting out FAB’s grounds, following a unanimous decision […]

A feisty commons education select committee meeting, held this morning, saw Anne Milton quizzed on a number of pressing FE topics. The skills minister offered a few outlandish opinions while updating MPs on her progress in areas such as funding and subcontracting. FE Week has the main findings:   1. Milton may ask colleges to […]

The recent sale of Learndirect Apprenticeships Ltd is causing some of its large levy-paying customers to take their business elsewhere, FE Week has learned. William Hill, the world’s biggest bookmaker, has signalled its intention to look for alternative providers to train their apprentices. It is understood that the betting company may transfer its business to […]

A little-known entrepreneur, Wayne Janse van Rensburg, has overnight become one of the most powerful figures in FE after taking the reins at Learndirect. He’s watched from afar as, over the past 12 months, the nation’s biggest FE provider lost a battle with Ofsted to suppress a ruinous grade four inspection report, with the fallout […]

Apprenticeship funding bands currently under review by the Institute for Apprenticeships will be given a minimum two-month notice period if their funding rate is reduced. But in the case of standards whose funding rate increases, the change will be immediate. Lucy Rigler (pictured), the IfA’s acting deputy director for funding policy, revealed the extra detail […]

A membership body representing universities has written to the skills minister to say it would be a “massive mistake” to water down policy on employer fees for apprenticeships. The University Vocational Awards Council issued the warning to Anne Milton this week. The letter argued that the 10 per cent co-investment fee for non-levy payers is […]

The chair of an influential committee of MPs has hit out at the rushed pace of T-level implementation – after Ofqual gave the sector just four weeks to respond to its consultation. Meg Hillier, head of the Public Accounts Committee, pronounced the timescale “ridiculous” when the exams regulator began asking for views on July 10 […]