Author: Billy Camden

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. […]

> 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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A community learning provider in Somerset that found itself at the sharp end of the adult education budget debacle has been handed a lifeline, with a vital funding meeting with the ESFA. Somerset Skills & Learning, which teaches around 10,000 students but had its funding cut by £1 million last year, will meet officials on […]

Two large colleges in the south-east, which teach a combined total of nearly 30,000 FE students every year, have announced plans to merge. Bracknell and Wokingham College will join the Activate Learning group – which currently encompasses Reading College, City of Oxford College and Banbury and Bicester College – from August 2018, subject to a […]