Billy Camden | FE Week

IfA boss admits fears for tight T-levels timescale

The boss of the organisation that will be responsible for T-levels has admitted he has deep concerns at the “worryingly tight” delivery timeline. Sir Gerry Berragan, the chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships, made his fears known during a keynote speech at an Ofqual conference for vocational education awarding organisations in Birmingham this week. […]

The PAC’s five recommendations following its inquiry into Learndirect

The Public Accounts Committee has today published its report into the monitoring, inspection and funding of Learndirect. Members of the committee grilled the organisations who’ve been closest to the saga involving the nation’s biggest FE provider during a hearing in January. Learndirect was given an ‘inadequate’ rating by Ofsted in a report published in August, […]

That’s special treatment all right: Accounts committee lays into Learndirect

Learndirect was indeed given special treatment because the government considered it too big to fail, the Public Accounts Committee has concluded in its final report on the saga. The scandal engulfing the nation’s biggest FE provider has engrossed the sector for nearly a year, and the PAC’s round-up asserts that it still “holds the whip-hand” […]

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 […]