Billy Camden | FE Week

Public accounts committee wants top-slicing action by August

The government should publish guidance on how it expects management fees to be applied by August, the public accounts committee has said, piling pressure on ministers to act faster on subcontracting. The demand came in the committee’s report on Learndirect, which is published today and slams the provider for charging “unusually high” top-slices of 40 […]

The incoming subcontracting tax bombshell

Our front-page story will make for very uncomfortable reading for principals, chief executives and accountants at hundreds of colleges and training providers. In fact, a mild panic may set in after reading that HMRC has tasked over 20 of their specialist inspectors to sniff out unpaid VAT on management fees for subcontracting. And all the […]

Ofsted confirms new stricter rules for grade 3 providers

Ofsted has confirmed it will apply stricter rules to FE providers judged ‘requires improvement’, and will now carry out monitoring visits to them and publish the results. The education watchdog confirmed the crackdown this morning in its response to the consultation it ran in November on the rule change. Under previous rules, providers that were […]

‘Ghost learner’ football scammers jailed for over 25 years combined

Two former professional footballers and four of their colleagues have been sentenced to a total of over 25 years in prison for defrauding colleges out of £5 million in apprenticeship funding. Mark Aizlewood (pictured right), who played for Wales 39 times in the 1980s and 1990s, and Paul Sugrue (pictured left), who played for clubs including […]

DfE hands out £2m for more levy research

An FE-focused research centre has been given the ministerial nod to continue its work until 2020, and the apprenticeship levy will be particularly in focus. The Centre for Vocational Educational Research had its mid-term review at the beginning of this year. After an initial £3 million grant from the Department for Education in May 2015, […]

Employer satisfaction surveys to be audited for the first time

The government will audit the results of its employer satisfaction survey for the first time, due to concerns over the way it is distributed by providers. The ESFA said it would provide “additional quality assurance” in this year’s survey, in new guidance, in order to ensure the data is comparable between providers. It specifically wants […]

Council branded ‘inadequate’ after Ofsted warns of radicalisation risk

A local authority in the north-east has plummeted two grades to ‘inadequate’, in an Ofsted report which raised alarms about risks of radicalisation and severely poor subcontracted apprenticeship delivery. Sunderland city council, which was rated ‘good’ in 2014 and trains just over 3,000 learners, received the damning verdict this morning. Inspectors slammed its apprenticeships, which […]

Ofqual’s turn to raise T-level worries

The body that regulates qualifications in England has added its voice to fears about the government’s plans for T-levels. Ofqual is worried about proposals to use a single awarding organisation per qualification, and the FE sector’s ability to cope with yet another set of significant reforms. It made its concerns known in its response to […]

Huge VAT loans let-off after HMRC admits poor guidance

Private providers are being let off millions of pounds in unpaid VAT because the tax office gave them bad advice, FE Week can reveal. ITPs were meant to start adding a 20-per-cent charge to advance learner loans courses when the scheme was introduced in 2013, but it seems as though the rule has not been […]