Author: Nick Linford

The government has been urged to set private contractor targets to boost the number of female apprentices in sectors traditionally dominated by men. The Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee report Women in the Workplace also criticises careers guidance as promoting academic rather than vocational career paths and calls for action to improve female representation […]

The Skills Funding Agency has demanded “immediate action to safeguard the welfare of all trainees” at a Midland-based provider after Ofsted reported physical and verbal bullying, harassment and exploitation. The education watchdog’s inspection of National Farrier Training Agency (NFTA), in Peterborough, claimed learners suffered at the hands of approved training farriers (ATFs) and “in a […]

Officials from the National Audit Office are investigating the Education Funding Agency to “consider whether it is prepared to meet future challenges”. The investigation into the Department for Education’s (DfE) delivery agency for funding and compliance is underway with a report due in the autumn. An audit office spokesperson said: “The agency distributed more than […]

A report that called for a “culture change” on careers guidance has been criticised for shying away from “difficult underlying issues”. The National Careers Council’s first report, An Aspirational Nation: Creating a culture change in careers provision, featured seven recommendations including a significant expansion in the work of the National Careers Service (NCS). “A culture […]

Concerns remain about a Skills Funding Agency policy aimed at “smoothing” the impact of its new payment regime, despite it ditching plans to cut provider earnings rates by up to 25 per cent or more. The agency wanted to introduce protection measures for colleges and training providers to stop earnings rocketing or nosediving in the […]

The Association of Colleges has questioned the conclusions of a report calling on the government to bring back polytechnics, abolished by the Conservatives in 1992. The final report of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, published by think-tank IPPR, suggests that large FE colleges, in which most students are on higher education courses, […]

The Association of Colleges and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) are backing research into the delivery of part-time higher education courses in FE colleges. The £246,000 programme will aim to identify barriers in recruitment to part-time degree level courses in colleges, which has been declining for the past six years. It fell […]

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has produced a ten-point action plan aimed at “driving an economic recovery based on skills acquisition and jobs”. The association mini manifesto was launched today — day one of its annual conference — and calls for government to keep up spending on education, employment and skills at […]