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19 April 2026

Author: Fraser Whieldon

Keegan stands firm on keeping levy funding for apprenticeships

The skills minister has restated her stance that apprenticeship levy funding should only be used for apprenticeships, insisting it has proven to be the best way to build a “solid” skills pipeline. Gillian Keegan’s comments, made on the second day of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers national conference, deals a blow to the […]

Government careers agency bemoans lack of Baker Clause compliance

The head of the government’s careers quango has bemoaned how independent providers have not been given enough access to schools to talk up technical education. Speaking at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers national conference today, Oli de Botton (pictured, right) committed the Careers and Enterprise Company to this year making sure more students […]

Sir Kevan Collins resigns as government education recovery tsar

The government’s education recovery commissioner Sir Kevan Collins has offered his resignation after ministers allocated just £1.4 billion in funding for the next phase of their catch-up plan, it has been reported. In his resignation letter to prime minister Boris Johnson, published by Tes, Collins warned he did not believe it was “credible that a successful […]

Prison educators plan further strikes in health and safety dispute

Another wave of strike action by educators has been announced at 49 prisons and young offenders’ institutions.  The University and College Union (UCU) said staff will take action on Thursday 10 and Wednesday 23 June, following two days of strikes in May.  This has all come about due to a dispute between workers and Novus, […]

Revealed: Government plans to expand 16-19 Covid tuition fund

The government has published plans to expand the 16-19 Tuition Fund as part of a £1.4 billion package of measures to support education recovery.  £222 million is being allocated to the existing 16-19 tutoring programme, which originally launched last July with £96 million for providers to hold “small group tutoring” for disadvantaged 16 to 19 […]

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 355

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving. Vicki Stott, Chief executive, QAA Start date: October 2021 Previous job: Executive director of operations and deputy chief executive, QAA Interesting fact: She is a “keen” runner and during lockdown last summer, she ran 1,000 miles in a virtual race across Tennessee (and so put more […]

Colleges publish ethnicity pay data in bid to increase diversity

Colleges are revealing the pay gaps between their staff’s ethnic groups in a bid to tackle under-representation in the sector. Three colleges in England have so far committed to publishing the data annually as signatories to Business in the Community’s (BITC) Race at Work Charter. Jeff Greenidge, joint-diversity director for the Association of Colleges (AoC) […]

Lessons learned from training through the pandemic

College leaders have shared the key lessons and insights they have learned from delivering training through the pandemic in a new report. The Collab Group of colleges has published “Reflections from Further Education Leaders on the Impact of Covid-19” to share best practice from the past year. It is based on interviews with leaders including […]

Legal apprentice provider penalised by watchdog

A leading commercial training provider for the legal profession has been reprimanded by Ofsted for being too “inexperienced” to deliver high-quality apprenticeships. Datalaw Limited, which has provided professional development for law firms for more than 20 years, made “insufficient progress” in two areas of a new provider monitoring visit conducted last month. The company moved […]