Author: Nick Linford

This afternoon, as promised, Ofqual has published final details for their “exceptional arrangements for awarding qualifications this summer”. Click here to read the announcement and download the accompanying documents. Sally Collier, Chief Regulator, Ofqual, said: “In the unprecedented circumstances we face this summer, these exceptional arrangements are the fairest way of making sure students have […]

A “formal” request for more than £16 million to be “reimbursed”  has been submitted by awarding organisations (AOs) to the Department for Education to pay for extra resources needed to implement an alternative to summer exams, FE Week can reveal. The Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB), which represents over 100 AOs, has written to the […]

The government is working on a plan to bring colleges in England back into public ownership, FE Week understands. Work has begun on a White Paper to be followed by legislation, after recent attempts to financially stabilise the sector with an area review programme and restructuring funds totalling around half a billion pounds were deemed […]

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has finally confirmed that the national minimum wage requirement for a furloughed apprentice applies to just the “training hours during the furlough period”. In an email from a senior manager in the funding policy team, seen by FE Week, an explanation with two worked examples is provided (see below […]

Apprenticeship starts for the month of February 2020 fell 11 per cent on the previous year, figures published this morning show (see below). The statisticians at the Department for Education said: “Apprenticeship starts reported to date have decreased to 198,600 from 214,200 in the first two quarters of 2018/19, a decrease of 7.3 per cent.” […]

The government has finally confirmed that apprentices can continue with funded training when employers use the job retention scheme, subject to being paid the apprenticeship minimum wage “for all the time they spend training”. HMRC guidance published today (click here),  says: “Apprentices can be furloughed in the same way as other employees and they can […]

Training providers in London are to receive “advance payments” to “support provision and recognise the disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak”, the deputy mayor of the Greater London Assembly (GLA) has revealed this evening. The two letters signed by Jules Pipe (pictured), sent to providers with devolved adult education budget (AEB) and European Social Fund […]

The proportion of apprentices that last year passed the new style ‘standard’ has been revealed as just 46.6 per cent, something the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education said was to be “expected”. Figures (see below), published this morning by the Department for Education, show that many of the most popular standards had achievement rates […]

The overall achievement rate for apprenticeships fell last year by 2.2 percentage points to 64.7 per cent.  National achievement rate tables (NARTs) published this morning by the Department for Education reveal the fall comes after three stable years when just over two thirds of apprentices passed the course (see table above and click here for […]