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13 May 2026

SFCA welcome significant funding win for two year courses

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 […]

Detail of apprenticeship levy audit regime revealed

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 […]

Greening: T-Levels will ‘create an army of skilled young people for British business’

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 […]

Exclusive: Halfon to run for education select committee chair

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 […]

AEB contracts extended as tender results delayed further

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 […]

DfE publish long awaited off-the-job training guidance

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 […]

New skills minister brings welcome news as apprenticeship reforms suffer slow start

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 […]

Apprenticeship vacancy adverts in May lower than last year

Update 1 : At 17:45 the DfE responded by saying the data they published for May is not full the full month. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The data published did not reflect the full vacancy figures for May, and was only for the first few days of the month. The updated data covering the […]