Author: Nick Linford

If you were the funding agency responsible for apprenticeships and looking to take on your own recruits, which college or training provider would you choose? FE Week wanted to find out, so asked the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and it turned out they didn’t pick just one or two. In fact, for their 26 apprentices […]

Before the Annual Apprenticeship Conference (AAC), FE Week asked delegates for their views on the government’s apprenticeship reforms. More than 210 representatives from colleges, independent training providers, local authorities, employer providers, awarding organisations and others responded to the survey, which asked for their views on issues such as quality, the impact of the levy and […]

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has defended his controversial views about education for 16 to 19-year-olds, but denied that he is biased against the FE sector. He made the remarks following his speech on Thursday, the second day of FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference at the Birmingham International Convention Centre. “It’s not a bias, […]

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned government plans for a 10 per cent top-up to monthly levy contributions will only benefit a small minority of employers. The top-up plans were unveiled in a budget report published by the Treasury after George Osborne finished his speech to MPs on March 16. It will mean, […]

This year’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference (AAC), held at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre from March 16 to 18, featured an action packed agenda. FE Week went to press onsite at the end of the second day, so what follows is a roundup of the first two days’ highlights. David Hill, the most senior civil servant working […]

FE providers may have to fulfil a new set of criteria in order to be approved by the government as fit to work with employers on delivering apprenticeships, FE Week has found. In the coming months, the government will hold a consultation with providers about the requirements of the Skills Funding Agency’s (SFA) register of […]

Ofsted looks set to consult with FE providers on removing separate graded judgments on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, FE Week can exclusively reveal. The consultation plan was revealed in a Department for Education white paper, called Education, Excellence, Everywhere, published on March 17 that indicated it would only apply to schools. But […]