Author: Billy Camden

Peter Lauener, the busiest man in FE, has bagged himself yet another job, this time as chair of one of the largest college groups in the country. The former ESFA and Institute for Apprenticeships boss will take up the role at NCG in the spring, taking over from Jamie Martin. He retired from both government […]

The country’s top three apprentices and six best employers have been celebrated at the 14th National Apprenticeship Awards. London’s Grosvenor House hosted a stellar ceremony on Thursday night, using the theme of ‘Bright Future’, hailing individuals and employers for their commitment to apprenticeships. To be crowned winners at the national final, apprentices had to beat […]

FE providers are rallying to help more than 1,000 apprentices affected by the collapse of the outsourcing giant Carillion, but many more places are needed to ensure everyone’s qualifications are saved. The UK’s largest employer of construction apprentices went into liquidation on Monday, leaving the future of around 1,400 trainees, mostly 16- to 18-year-olds, uncertain. […]

Learndirect’s boss has admitted he was “surprised” his provider was handed such a large allocation in the adult education budget tender fiasco, after it tactically withdrew its bid. Andy Palmer made his astonishment known about the £45 million contract at last night’s Public Accounts Committee hearing on the nation’s biggest FE provider. Responding to a question […]

The UK’s largest employer of construction apprentices has gone into liquidation, leaving the future of hundreds of 16 to 18-year-old trainees uncertain. The move for construction giant Carillion, whose training division held a £6.5 million Education and Skills Funding Agency contract for apprenticeship provision last year, came after talks between the firm, its lenders and […]

A Northamptonshire-based training provider with a near £2 million government skills contract is closing down, leaving nearly 3,000 learners facing an uncertain future, FE Week has learned. TQ Workforce Development Ltd, which dropped from a ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ Ofsted rating in July, started telling around 30 staff members they were losing their jobs last […]

Learndirect was “bizarrely” granted a super injunction during its judicial review against Ofsted which suppressed the inspectorate from speaking with the government about the provider’s damning grade four inspection. Chief inspector Amanda Spielman made the staggering revelation this evening during a Public Accounts Committee hearing on the Learndirect saga. She said that this “unfortunate position” […]

Two training providers pulled themselves away from ‘inadequate’ ratings this week, but one went the other way and plummeted to the inspectorate’s lowest possible grade. The Wiltshire Council and Norman Mackie & Associates Ltd, based in Manchester, both received the good news they were hoping for and climbed from a grade four to a three. […]