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15 May 2026

Author: Nick Linford

Education select committee to investigate subcontracting

The Commons education select committee will investigate subcontracting, and Learndirect is expected to feature prominently. The committee, now chaired by former apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon, met for the first time since the recent general election on September 12. Mr Halfon confirmed that it will place heavy scrutiny on FE. “We have agreed to […]

Government funding ‘high level’ T-level training for college staff

The Department for Education is forking out £95,000 to run “high-level message” sessions to train FE staff about T-levels. It has put out a tender looking for an organisation to create a “series of specialist events” to raise awareness about the reforms to technical education. These will also serve as information-gathering events for the public consultation […]

Minister ‘misled’ MPs over apprenticeships at Learndirect

MPs were “misled” in Parliament by the skills minister Anne Milton today, after she claimed apprenticeships are “no longer offered” by Learndirect. The minister was grilled by Labour’s Wes Streeting on the controversy engulfing the nation’s largest FE provider, which is increasingly seen as being offered highly preferential treatment by the Department for Education. Even […]

Non-levy tender: It will take over 8 hours just to read the current ‘clarifications’

The ESFA’s latest attempt at a non-levy apprenticeships tender now has over 100,000 words of ‘final’ clarifications. FE Week’s editor Nick Linford explores some of the reasons and pitfalls ahead of this Friday’s deadline The level of interest in the £650 million non-levy tender should come as no surprise. Around 800 colleges and providers will […]

ESFA £650m non-levy tender has ‘descended into farce’

The troubled second attempt at an ESFA non-levy apprenticeship funding tender descended into chaos last night as a series of  new “clarifications” and document updates were sent out. With little over a week until the submission deadline, bidders were informed that the tender cap calculation for existing apprenticeship providers should be based on a proxy […]

BREAKING: Non-levy apprenticeship funding tender deadline extended

The non-levy apprenticeship funding tender timetable has been “amended” by the Department for Education, and the deadline for submissions is now September 8. In a statement, following the controversial relaunch of the process just over a month ago, the DfE said: “We have been responding to a high volume of queries and to ensure everyone has sufficient […]