Investors at Lifetime Training have parted ways with CEO David Smith and replaced him with FE stalwart Charlotte Bosworth.
Staff were told today that Smith, who took on the top job at England’s largest apprenticeship provider in July 2023, has left the company.
Bosworth has led Innovate Awarding – part of the Lifetime Group – for the past eight years.
She will be Lifetime’s fourth CEO in the past three years.
Group chair Mike Thomas said: “We are delighted to announce the promotion of Charlotte Bosworth to group CEO. As the apprenticeship sector continues to change and evolve, we are excited to have someone of Charlotte’s ability and deep understanding of the industry at the helm to drive the continued growth of the group.”
Lifetime Training is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted and latest accounts show a healthy financial position following a period of instability that involved lender Alcentra taking over the company from previous private equity owner Silverfleet Capital and waiving £100 million worth of debt.
Smith was headhunted for the CEO gig as a turnaround specialist. He previously ran big-name companies from outside the FE sector including the Post Office, Parcelforce, Royal Mail, City Link, Serco and estates management company The Bellrock Group.
Thomas said: “We would like to thank David Smith for all his hard work and dedication in stabilising Lifetime and for his efforts in ensuring Lifetime achieved an Ofsted 2 rating at our recent inspection.”
Bosworth has worked in the education and skills sector for around three decades, including 10 years at exams board OCR.
She is vice chair at Walsall College having held a position on the board of governors since 2018. Bosworth is also chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies and sits on the board of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.
She previously held board positions at David Nieper Education Trust, Career Colleges and the Learning and Work Institute.
Lifetime Training was founded in 1995 and has become the largest apprenticeship provider when it comes to starts in England, training apprentices for big-name employers including the NHS, McDonalds, Wetherspoons, B&Q and David Lloyd, as well as the civil service.
The company recorded 16,330 starts in 2023-24 and latest stats shows 6,500 starts for the first two quarters of 2024-25. It holds a qualification achievement rate of 40.5 per cent.
Lifetime Training had been led by former CEO Alex Khan for 10 years before he was replaced by Jon Graham in June 2022. Graham held the post for a year before Smith was brought in.
During an interview with FE Week last year, Smith said the company was planning to grow the commercial training side of the business and explore other training routes like skills bootcamps amid the Labour government’s plans to turn the apprenticeship levy into a growth and skills levy which can fund non-apprenticeship training.
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