Author: Billy Camden

Ten colleges which once held contracts to deliver apprenticeships with small employers were not awarded funding in the recent non-levy tender. The figure, revealed by academies minister Lord Agnew in an answer to a parliamentary question yesterday, comes amid political campaigns to overturn the decision from high-profile unsuccessful colleges such as Exeter. Lord Agnew explained […]

The £170 million funding pot for new Institutes of Technology will not enable them to have a significant impact on the skills system, the FE commissioner has told a parliamentary hearing. Richard Atkins (pictured above) was asked about the role of the government’s new project during a House of Lords economic committee hearing on the […]

Off-the-job technical qualifications can now be included in apprenticeships, the Institute for Apprenticeships has officially announced, confirming a significant U-turn which FE Week revealed last week. It is one of a number of reforms from the IfA to make the approval of new apprenticeship standards “faster and better”, after skills minister Anne Milton admitted that […]

Two former professional footballers and two other men have been found guilty of scamming colleges out of £5 million in apprenticeship funding, through a con which involved “ghost” learners. Mark Aizlewood (above right), who played for Wales 39 times in the 1980s and 1990s, and Paul Sugrue (above left), who played for clubs including Manchester […]

Around £25 million was given to providers entering the apprenticeship market for the first time in the controversial non-levy tender, Anne Milton has revealed. In her first monthly column for FE Week, the skills and apprenticeships minister makes a robust defence of the government’s approach to the procurement exercise, explaining how it was unavoidable due […]

Cash incentives of £1,000 are being offered to every employer who takes on apprentices caught up in the collapse of Carillion. The payments have been sourced by the Construction Industry Training Board in a £1.4 million package that sees firms receive £500 upfront, and a further £500 after six months if they’ve retained the displaced […]

Learndirect has entered redundancy talks with an unknown amount of its staff. A consultation on job losses was launched on Thursday, and is directly linked to the termination of its ESFA contracts which will end in July. “We have entered a period of consultation with a number of colleagues,” a spokesperson for the nation’s biggest […]

Colleges have been warned that they could be stripped of funding if they do not comply with the government’s new careers guidelines. Updated guidance was published this afternoon by the Department for Education following the unveiling of the long-overdue careers strategy in December, which said colleges need to meet eight “Gatsby Benchmarks”. It states that […]