FE Week Reporter

UPDATE: The PAC has confirmed this hearing will start from 4pm on Monday January 15, and confirmed the witnesses will include Amanda Spielman, Andy Palmer, Peter Lauener, and Jonathan Slater The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has today said they want to hear the views of people that “had a problem with Learndirect” or those concerned…

14.35 Jan. 4th, 2018 | News

Ofsted has this morning published their inspection report for Learndirect, the largest training provider in the UK. Download here. This follows a failed legal bid by Learndirect to quash the grade four report, and FE Week’s successful overturning of a gagging order. Ofsted observed in their report that “directors and senior managers failed to take…

7.22 Aug. 17th, 2017 | News

This evening the Department for Education said that it will not, as would typically be the case, serve a three-month termination notice on Learndirect contracts when its Ofsted grade four is published on Thursday. During the judicial review hearing, as reported in FE Week, the Learndirect lawyer said they expected to be given a three-month…

19.05 Aug. 15th, 2017 | News

Funding for students that drop-out in the second year of their two year course will be doubled, under a temporary change the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association is claiming to have secured with the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Under current funding rules, if a student fails to finish their course (regardless of whether they achieve…

12.24 Aug. 2nd, 2017 | News

Apprenticeships funded from May will be included in the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s 2016-17 audit programme, FE Week can reveal. Annual ESFA financial assurance audits take place shortly after the end of the academic year, typically between mid-August and the end of October, and for the first time will include a separate section for…

10.15 Jul. 28th, 2017 | News

Education secretary Justine Greening will today plead with businesses to help develop and deliver T-Levels, as part of an overhaul of vocational education from aged 16. Speaking to business leaders at the British Chambers of Commerce Education summit in London, Ms Greening is expected to tell the audience: “I want to create an army of skilled…

0.00 Jul. 6th, 2017 | News

Former skills minister, Robert Halfon, is to stand for election to chair the House of Commons Select Committee for education, FE Week can reveal. Mr Halfon was reelected in May to his constituency of Harlow, but returned to the backbenches in a reshuffle after just under a year as minister for apprenticeships and skills. The role…

21.57 Jul. 3rd, 2017 | News

The delay to results for the Adult Education Budget (AEB) tender will last until the end of July, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has said this afternoon. Independent learning providers had been told last October that they would need to re-tender for around £110m of the Adult Education Budget for 2017/18. The tender took place between…

16.48 Jun. 28th, 2017 | News

This morning the Department for Education published additional guidance on the 20 percent off-the-job training rule for apprenticeships. Click here to download the guidance. The guidance says: “However the training is delivered, it is important to remember that the apprentice must receive off-the-job training for a minimum of 20% of the time that they are…

9.42 Jun. 26th, 2017 | News

The new skills minister, Anne Milton, has announced that the non-levy growth requests will be brought forward to July, at the AELP annual conference this morning. Providers that made a business case following the non-levy allocations will also be notified next week regarding any additional funding. Speaking of the paused tendering round, Ms Milton said it would…

10.32 Jun. 26th, 2017 | News