Nick Linford | FE Week

Advertorial | Area review: how can digital technology help your college transform?

Colleges are facing a tough period of transformation, with area review implementation presenting an unavoidable challenge for all, while for some, mergers will be an immediate concern. As a result, FE leaders like you will be making big decisions that will affect the long-term future of colleges. The opportunities that technology can afford will be […]

Conservatives are lying about 3m apprenticeships for young people

The Conservative manifesto has repeated the pledge from 2015 to “deliver our commitment to create 3 million apprenticeships for young people by 2020.” This target description remains at best grossly misleading, and now they’re repeating it two years later, I think it’s fair to call this a lie. Why? Because in reality they are aren’t […]

ESFA need to fess up to their ‘mistake’

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has dug itself a huge hole. Incredibly, it’s still digging. As readers will know, it was in the interest of “stability” that it decided to pause the non-levy tender, after demand from over 1,000 providers well outstripped the paltry £440 million that was available. Instead it is extending pre-May […]

What secret grade did you get?

This week we expose the ESFA’s top secret four-level grading system that gets applied to every one of just over 1,000 post-16 providers that they fund. We learned that funding agency staff use what’s called a ‘profile and assessment tool’ to assign every prime provider one of four ‘intervention status categories’. On the face of […]

Editor asks: Halfon answers three key questions after snap election announcement

Tonight, the Institute for Apprenticeships held a launch event in London at Mansion House. The apprenticeships and skills minister, Robert Halfon, was there to deliver a congratulatory speech. Afterwards, against a backdrop of the snap election announcement and as the event continued around us, I had the opportunity for a short interview and asked him […]

Editor Asks: Amanda Spielman, chief inspector, Ofsted

With ‘inadequate’ verdicts fatally undermining many FE providers, the stakes have never been higher on Ofsted inspections. The new boss, Amanda Spielman, admits this places huge pressure on her inspectors, and didn’t rule out reintroducing a capacity-to-improve caveat for certain providers. The new register of apprenticeship training providers has brought the dire consequences of a […]

Making sense of the 20% off-the-job apprenticeship funding rule

One of the most important apprenticeship funding rules from May is the requirement that every apprentice “spends at least 20 per cent of their time on off-the-job training”. This simple sentence actually raises a series of questions, such as how to define “their time” and “off-the-job training”. We understand the SFA will shortly publish dedicated guidance about […]

SFA apprenticeship funding rules strengthened to deter employer kick-backs

The apprenticeship funding rules, which come into force from May, have now been updated by the SFA to deter employer kick-backs. In early March the SFA expressed concern over “emerging delivery models that are contrary to the policy intent. “For example, some providers are offering incentives for employers by paying or re-funding them for certain aspects. These […]

Exclusive: New Ofsted chief ‘worried’ about apprenticeship register

The new chief inspector at Ofsted, Amanda Spielman, has spoken to FE Week of her concern following publication of the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers. In a wide ranging interview on March 17, Ms Spielman was asked about the impact RoATP would have on Ofsted’s resource, given it represents a near doubling of the number of providers that […]