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12 April 2026

Author: Nick Linford

Household names get SFA budget cuts

Government funding budgets for training at major UK firms has been slashed, new figures have shown. Firms such as British Gas, BT and McDonalds all under-delivered on the training they had been expected to deliver, according to the latest quarterly allocation figures from the Skills Funding Agency. British Gas had its 16 to 18 apprenticeship […]

Education Funding Agency to publish 16 to 18 payments

The Education Funding Agency is to start publishing information on the value of providers’ 16 to 18 delivery, FE Week can reveal. The agency already goes public with annual allocation details, but it doesn’t release information about the value of provision actually delivered. However, following an FE Week request for figures on the value of […]

EFA name first seven colleges allowed to recruit full time 14 and 15-year-olds

Seven colleges will be taking up the opportunity, for the first time, to directly enrol full-time 14 and 15 year olds in September. The Education Funding Agency (EFA) has now confirmed  the seven colleges which “meet the entry criteria as at 15 July 2013 to commence delivery from September 2013″ are: Central territory: Halesowen College. Local authority: Dudley North […]

College sell-off hit by ‘summer closure’ delay

Uncertainty continues to hang over the future of K College, which is being broken up following a “failed merger”, after the tendering process was delayed. Invitations to tender (ITT) were due to be sent out by the Skills Funding Agency between July and September to organisations interested in taking over the college’s provision. An email […]

Apprenticeships reforms ‘precisely what’s needed’

Proposals to reform the apprenticeship funding system have been welcomed by former Dragons’ Den investor Doug Richard, nine months after his own review called for tax breaks for employers. Three funding ‘models’ have been proposed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the first of which is for a direct payment model where businesses […]

Government says sorry to college

A Dorset college that was wrongly labelled as under-performing in official statistics has won an apology. Kingston Maurward College, in Dorchester, was ordered to improve in May having apparently fallen below the Education Funding Agency’s (EFA) new minimum standards for key stage five. The land-based college, according to the Department for Education (DfE), failed to […]

Minister ‘behind’ action over inadequate provider

Moves to tackle poor provision by Elmfield were ordered personally by Skills Minister Matthew Hancock before its inadequate grading from Ofsted had even been published, FE Week can reveal. The minister is understood to have been furious with the provider following success rates, as reported in FE Week two months ago, showing just 47.5 per […]

Could Prospects be first to join college sector?

An Essex-based charity is understood to be in talks to become the first independent training provider to be legally reclassified as a college. Prospects Learning Foundation, which has two centres in Basildon, one in Southend-on-Sea and one in Canvey Island, is thought to be looking at the move. The charity, which has around 250 staff, […]