Author: Billy Camden

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has missed its own deadline to make sure new providers approved to deliver apprenticeships are up to scratch. Even though its programme director outlined the checks and balances the ESFA was planning for untested firms on the register of apprenticeship training providers in June, FE Week has learned that […]

An apprenticeship provider created by the owners of Learndirect last year could be kicked off the purchasing system used by London hospitals, after a joint investigation by FE Week and The Financial Times found multiple irregularities in a tender application. In one recent bid to deliver apprenticeships at a London hospital, Learndirect Apprenticeships (LDA), a company […]

A refugee who fled Afghanistan alone at the age of 16 has been crowned ‘outstanding individual learner’ at this year’s Festival of Learning awards. The Royal Society of Arts in London will be the setting for today’s prestigious awards ceremony at which nine learners, employers and training providers will be singled out for their “inspirational” […]

Level two apprenticeships should be fully funded by the government at every age group, the AELP has said. This bold but uncosted recommendation is part of a “major” policy submission discussing the way the apprenticeship reforms are “undermining” the prime minister’s social mobility agenda. If actioned, it would mean the government was paying for around […]

Half a million pounds is on offer to run a new leadership training programme for senior FE managers looking to step up to top jobs. The Education and Training Foundation put a tender out three days ago, and it’s on the hunt for a provider with “an excellent track record” in executive leadership to develop […]

The Department for Education did not launch a funding audit of Learndirect at the end of March, even though Ofsted sent damning evidence that apprentices were not receiving enough training, FE Week can reveal. An experienced independent apprenticeship funding auditor confirmed Ofsted’s evidence should have raised significant concerns at the department. FE Week understands that […]

An ‘inadequate’ community learning provider has been caught breaching government funding rules, after Ofsted found most of its construction apprentices were unemployed. North Liverpool Regeneration Company Ltd, which trained around 129 learners last year with an Education and Skills Funding Agency apprenticeships allocation of more than £600,000, was given a grade four across the board […]

Private providers have given the government until the end of this week to find a solution to the “tragedy” of the botched adult education budget tender – or else they’ll launch legal action. The fallout from the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s contentious AEB procurement process has stoked “immense anger and frustration” across the sector […]