Billy Camden | FE Week

Government’s new crackdown on illegally low wages for apprentices

Rogue employers who illegally underpay apprentices have been threatened with severe jail sentences, under a new government crackdown on abuses of workers’ rights. Sir David Metcalf (pictured above), the government’s new director of labour-market enforcement, today warned that the worst offenders could face prison sentences as long as two years. The crackdown comes just days after […]

Tendering launch time for Institutes of Technology revealed

Tenders for developing the government’s new Institutes of Technology have been put off until the autumn, skills and apprenticeships minister Anne Milton has revealed. She made the announcement in a letter sent to FE leaders yesterday, in which she also told them that teaching of the first T-levels would be delayed by a year to […]

T-levels crisis: DfE report warns single awarding organisation ‘unviable’

The T-levels crisis has deepened after a new report claimed Lord Sainsbury’s recommendation to have one awarding organisation per qualification would not be viable. Research on the strengths and weaknesses of the vocational qualifications market in England was released this morning by the Department for Education. In his review of technical education, which paved the […]

Minister announces T-levels delay

The first T-levels will be delayed until September 2020 – a year later than planned – the government has announced The first two pathfinder qualifications were supposed to be approved by February 2019, with teaching to commence from that September, according to England’s post-16 skills plan, published July 2016 and based on the recommendations from the […]

Ofqual to investigate DCS qualifications fraud

The country’s exams regulator has begun an investigation into “direct claim status” in an attempt to tackle qualifications malpractice in FE. Last year, Ofqual launched an inquiry into qualifications fraud in the private security sector after a sting by the BBC found staff at Ashley Commerce College, in Ilford, were prepared to sit exams for […]

Breaking: Apprenticeship pay survey exposes rise in proportion paid illegal wages

Nearly a fifth of apprentices at level two and level three are illegally paid less than the minimum wage, according to the government’s long-delayed apprenticeship pay survey. Eighteen per cent were found to be paid below the appropriate national minimum wage or national living wage (for workers aged 25 and above), up from 15 per […]

Almost 400 staff face uncertain summer through post-merger job cuts plan

Nearly 400 staff at one of the largest colleges in the country face an uncertain future while post-merger restructuring gets underway, a union has claimed. Nottingham College, a new body formed formed between New College Nottingham and Central College Nottingham, which finally merged on June 8 after a 10-month delay, is currently consulting on a […]

Government breaks deferred loan repayments promise

Learners stuck with heavy loans debt but no qualifications, after a training provider went bust, are still being forced to make repayments, even though the government promised these would be deferred. The situation has been brought to FE Week’s attention by nine learners affected by the demise of Hampshire-based Edudo Ltd, which we reported in […]

Learner satisfaction still highest with private providers

Private training providers have maintained their near 10-point lead over colleges in the government’s annual learner satisfaction survey, which was published this week. The Department for Education released the results of its annual survey, which had 364,589 respondents, representing 18.2 per cent of all learners, on June 13. Private providers scored 90 out of 100 […]