Billy Camden | FE Week

Carillion, largest employer of construction apprentices, goes into liquidation

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 […]

Fears for nearly 3,000 learners as large provider folding

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 […]

Super injunction meant Learndirect gagged Ofsted from speaking to ESFA

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” […]

Ofsted watch: Two providers climb out of ‘inadequate’ but one slumps the other way

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. […]

Government search site is flooded with hundreds of ‘locations’ for the same providers

Training providers are flooding the government’s Find Apprenticeship Training website with hundreds of locations they have no permanent presence in, to get around a search function that only allows employers to filter geographically. FE Week found one provider listing itself as having nearly 400 different sites from where it can deliver training, most of which […]

Was government support of Learndirect sale legal?

> MPs demand answers over ESFA approving sale of Learndirect Apprenticeships in 2016 > PAC inquiry to quiz Ofsted on decision to delay inspection month before sale collapsed MPs furious at the long-running Learndirect debacle are asking the public accounts committee to find out why the government supported the sale of the provider’s apprenticeships business, […]

Non-levy tender appeals are lucky for some

Multiple providers have successfully overturned the government’s decisions not to award them contracts in the controversial non-levy tender – including several big hitters. The ESFA last week began contacting organisations that had appealed the outcome of the procurement before Christmas. Among the winners were Focus Training Group, which has a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted, Basingstoke […]

Grade two provider wins non-levy tender appeal

A provider has successfully overturned the government’s decision not to award it a contract in the recent controversial non-levy tender. Focus Training Group, which is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted and has delivered apprenticeships in the south-west for 20 years, was originally told it had not reached the minimum threshold score to secure a contract, but […]

Institute for Apprenticeships to lose its deputy chief

The Institute for Apprenticeships is losing a vital member of staff, one who was “instrumental” in setting up the organisation. Michael Keoghan, the Institute’s deputy chief executive, will leave at the end of this month to take up a new job as chief economic adviser at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He […]