Nick Linford | FE Week

DfE finds much needed apprenticeship monitoring cash

When the ESFA published the list of providers on the apprenticeship register in March 2017 we reported that the entire sector was shocked. Hundreds of companies, many never having filed a set of accounts, had successfully applied to a register that would give them unlimited access to apprenticeship funding. In an interview with me the […]

AELP leaps to defence of level two apprenticeships

Low-level apprenticeships should not be rubbished by “commentators and policy makers”, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has claimed in a new report. The body wants ministers to use government spending and post-18 education reviews as an opportunity to “reverse the sharp fall in level two apprenticeships since May 2017”. The apprenticeship levy is […]

Only lawyers are guaranteed to win in the T-level AO tender

With all eyes on the 52 providers taking care of wave one of the T-level delivery in 2020, the process to decide which awarding organisations will get their custom might seem like a comparative sideshow. In fact, removing providers’ choice of awarding organisations is not only controversial, it is where legal challenge seems most inevitable, […]

Nursing apprenticeships ‘too expensive’, warning for MPs

Nursing degree apprenticeships are too expensive and fraught with difficulties for widespread roll-out, senior figures from the NHS are expected to warn MPs. The Education Committee is dedicating a special session at 10.15am this morning – which can be viewed here – to what more can be done to get more people signing up for […]

T-level full roll-out delayed until 2023, DfE confirms

The full roll-out of T-levels has been delayed until September 2023 after concerns were raised about the planned pace of the scheme. However, the T-level pilot, which will involve up to 52 colleges delivering courses in digital (digital production, design and development), childcare and education and construction (design, surveying and planning), will still begin from September […]

Is pushing ahead with T-levels fair on young people?

The top civil servant at the DfE, responsible for the “feasibility of public spending” has concluded that T-levels need delaying for a second year. Jonathan Slater’s formal “ministerial direction” means the civil service feels the need to tell the National Audit Office, the Treasury and the Public Accounts Committee there are “feasibility and consequential value-for-money […]

Devolution means cutting courses to pay for more pen-pushers

There’s a degree of inevitability about watching local government top-slicing FE funding as part of the devolution agenda. The DfE’s “protection” of the adult education budget at £1.5 billion per year will end when the mayoral combined authorities get their hands on the money from August 2019. We now know the mayor of London, Sadiq […]

Ed Fest

Annual Apprenticeship Conference 2018

Now in its fourth year, FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference is firmly established as the pre-eminent event for anyone interested in apprenticeship policy and practice. This time last year the sector was on the cusp of its biggest change in many years: the apprenticeship levy was just weeks away, ushering in an entirely new funding […]