Author: Nick Linford

Providers have been left waiting, as the Skills Funding Agency admits to having “fully committed” the budget for the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) facility for 2015-2016. AGE 16 to 24 supports businesses that would not otherwise be able to recruit 16 to 24 year olds into employment through the apprenticeship programme. The facility works […]

The number of notices of concern issued to FE providers by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has more than doubled in the last year, FE Week can reveal. A total of 75 notices have been issued since 2010, with 53 per cent of these being given out in 2015 alone. Only 24 per cent were […]

One of the largest providers of apprenticeships has asked the Skills Funding Agency for permission to give cashback to employers, prompting the agency to say it would have “grave concerns” about any such arrangement. In an email about Trailblazer funding, dated 22 December and released to FE Week following an FoI request, JTL Training asked […]

Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, has made the controversial decision to only part-fund providers’ 16 to 18 apprenticeship growth requests, FE Week understands. The revelation comes less than two weeks after many providers were left short-changed after the Skills Funding Agency announced on February 5 that £25m additional funding would be available for 16 to […]

> Plans leaked to FE Week reveal ‘facility’ at Treasury until April 2019 > AoC welcomes ‘necessary’ support for area review transitional costs The Government is planning a fund worth more than £500m to help colleges put in place any area review recommendations, FE Week can reveal. But colleges will still be expected to shoulder […]

The Government has come in for criticism after rejecting attempts to ensure representatives from FE providers and trade unions sit alongside employers on the new apprenticeships policing body. Labour tried unsuccessfully on 11 February to get a clause inserted into the enterprise bill, which would have ensured the Institute for Apprenticeships, which will monitor standards […]

The government has spelled out what sixth form colleges (SFCs) need to do to convert to academies, in a document published this morning. The guidance, which comes after Chancellor George Osborne announced in the government’s autumn statement that SFCs could become academies “so they no longer have to pay VAT”, was welcomed by the Sixth […]