Weston College governance failure allowed ‘concealment’ of £2.5m payments to former principal

Governance failures at Weston College allowed the “concealment” of £2.5 million in undeclared payments to England’s highest-paid former principal Sir Paul Phillips, a damning FE Commissioner investigation has found.

Newly published financial accounts by the college, also published this morning, revealed Phillips was paid an eye-watering total pay package of £1.898 million in 2023, including a “significant” retention payment of £909,000, which his son as chief operating officer “resisted” paying.

A long-awaited intervention report into “funding irregularities” at Weston College published by the FE Commissioner today highlighted failures by the then board of governors to have proper accountability over public funds.

Regular payroll procedures were “bypassed” to make direct payments to the ex-principal, who also provided “partial information” to external auditors and believed full details of his remuneration package could be withheld from disclosure.

It comes after DfE fraud investigators began probing the former college principal’s salary last June, following an FE Week investigation in 2023 questioning a specially created “presidential” role for Phillips upon his upcoming retirement.

Between 2017 and 2023, Phillips was paid £2.5 million more than was officially declared through a combination of bonuses, allowances and benefits, including the £909,000 retention payment. The report said the “majority” of these undeclared payments were not approved by the board of governors.

Weston College remains in intervention amid a separate ongoing DfE investigation into “other aspects” of financial controls at the college.

Principal and CEO of Weston College Pat Jones said: “Staff and the wider college community will understandably be concerned and dismayed about the remuneration package revealed by this investigation, and we recognise those frustrations.”

“We want to reiterate that the focus of the investigations and subsequent financial notice to improve are about past issues dating back to a period concluding in the summer 2023. The financial notice to improve does not relate to our sustainability, to the high quality of education we deliver, or to our general finances, which are in good health.”

The college told FE Week it has not been asked to repay any funding off the back of the FE Commissioner’s findings.

Payments bypassed normal procedures

The FE Commissioner said it was clear from the evidence they uncovered that Phillips “believed that the full value of his annual remuneration could be withheld from publication”.

Investigators found evidence that the college had a “deliberate” policy of maintaining a monthly pensionable salary that was declared in the official accounts. 

Phillips then received additional direct payments, which bypassed normal payroll procedures to achieve an undeclared total actual remuneration package. 

“This led to a failure of proper governance processes and to poor decision-making around the best use of public funds,” the report said.

The process was a blatant breach of ESFA (now DfE) funding and regulating rules to fully disclose every component of personal payments to the principal and CEO of a college.

The report also revealed there was a small group of trusted governors who made decisions on the previous principal’s pay in the remuneration committee, which were never reported to the full board for approval.

“Some members of the committee expressed surprise at the actual sums of money paid to the previous principal, despite being party to decisions on remuneration of the senior post-holder,” the report noted.

Weston College was awarded the AoC beacon award for excellence in governance in 2022/23. 

FE Commissioner Shelagh Legrave placed Weston College in intervention in May 2024, installing advisor Tim Jackson to chair the board. Weston’s long-standing chair, Andrew Leighton-Price, stood aside at that point and resigned from the board.

Jackson said: “[The current governors] believe the remuneration sums at this level are unacceptable and agree with the FE Commissioner intervention report concerning this being a matter of a failure of proper governance processes and poor decision making around the best use of public funds, which we note were made by a past membership of the board of governors.”

He added: “I would like to thank those members of staff, who were brave to raise concerns with regulators in relation to this matter as and when these were discovered and who prioritised the integrity and interests of the college, their colleagues and students.”

Millions raked in by former principal

The college’s delayed 2023 financial accounts were published alongside its statement about the intervention report, outlining Phillips’ restated 2022 and 2023 earnings.

Phillips held the title of England’s highest-paid principal whilst he was in post, from an originally stated remuneration package of £362,000 in 2022. 

The accounts now show his basic salary was not £258,000 but £348,000. Alongside this, he was paid a previously undisclosed performance bonus of £395,000 and £13,000 in other salary-related payments.

In 2023, Phillips’ basic salary was £349,000. His other salary-related payments shot up to £128,000, and he was paid a £370,000 performance bonus and a £909,000 retention payment.

Including other benefits and pension contributions, Phillips took home £1.898 million in total in 2023. 

Additionally, the FEC report outlined three years of unused holiday allocation payments made to Phillips, despite “his contract of employment specifically did not allow for such payments”, as well as £15,000 in annual car allowance which was not fully used each year.

Phillips’ £369,000 bonus in 2023 included £105,000 for “historic annual unused elements” of this car allowance.

Finance team refused to pay six-figure retention package

Phillips’ retention payment of £909,000 appeared to cause some contention amongst staff, investigators also revealed.

The report said the board of governors signed a retention agreement in 2011, which allows for an “annual accrual” of retention value for Phillips to keep him in post. Phillips served as principal of Weston College for 22 years.

The payment was calculated by multiplying total annual salary package by 10 per cent and by number of years’ service and various other unspecified conditions.

In November 2022, Phillips was paid the £909,000 as a severance payment, including a £190,000 pension adjustment and £30,000 as a tax-free element.

“The reasons that the combined payment for retention payment and pension adjustment was made as a severance payment are unclear. The payment was made whilst the principal was still the accounting officer for the college,” the report said.

The report added that Phillips’ son Joe, the chief operating officer (COO), resisted paying the retention payment to his father in his capacity as chief operating officer, according to evidence investigators found in the remuneration committee minutes. 

The finance team also refused to make the payment, and Joe Phillips supported his team in their refusal.

Instead, the payment was initially made directly by the governors “under the authority of the remuneration committee”.  

On at least one occasion, the previous clerk to the board processed additional payments outside Phillips’ monthly salary “under the authority of the remuneration committee” because the finance team refused to do it. 

Joe Phillips was appointed COO of the college from May 2023 until January 2024. His promotion at the time to lead the college’s finances sparked concerns of poor governance and conflicts of interest.

The FEC report stated: “There is no specific disclosure of this close family relationship in the financial statements, nor is it set out in the annual regularity self-assessment questionnaire.”

A spokesperson from the Department for Education said: “Weston College is currently subject to an ongoing investigation by the Department for Education. As this is an active matter, we are unable to provide further comment at this time.”

Improvement orders

Today’s report, dated June 2024 but only published today, lists 13 recommendations for the college to bring its governance and financial process in check.

Decisions on senior staff remuneration must now be set out in a formal scheme of delegation and terms of reference must be updated so senior pay can only be approved by the full board.

Non-confidential board minutes have to be published in a “timely fashion”, and the college must ensure all salary payments follow standard payroll processing with “no exceptions”.

Interim chair of governors Tim Jackson, who was appointed by the FEC, said the board approved “significant” changes in July 2024 to strengthen governance.

These include the appointed of a governance professional who does not report to the CEO/Principal, a review of the terms of office for all governors, and more “robust” reporting procedures. 

The FEC also recommended the college undergo a skills audit of the current board of governors, review the governor induction process and always have a qualified accountant on the audit committee.

‘Loyal servant’

Phillips did not respond to requests for comment from FE Week.

However, in a statement to BBC News he said the undeclared payments were “contractually due” to him and blamed governors for failing to manage funding correctly.

Phillips disagreed with the five year period alleged in the report, arguing that some of the payments related to a “recompense for pension errors and a retention package” for his 22 years at the college, due only after he retired.

“During my extensive tenure at the college, approaches from other organisations occurred and therefore the college introduced a retention scheme to retain me”, he added.

He claimed governors had refused to pay him the £909,000 retention payment on an annual basis.

He said the pension error correction was “insisted upon” by college auditors, and he was under the impression legal advice had been obtained.

He added: “All of this information was provided to the FE commissioner and it is regrettable their report was not corrected prior to publication.

“As the FE commissioner’s report clearly states, this is a ‘governance issue’ of which I played no part in other than being a loyal servant to the college for over 20 years.”

DfE seeks job share director to oversee T Levels and level 3 reforms

The Department for Education (DfE) is advertising a job share role for the civil service role responsible for T Levels and level 3 qualification reform.

This weekend, the DfE posted an advert for a part-time director of technical qualifications and essential skills to share with current permanent director Kiera Harper.

The role includes being the senior responsible officer for T Levels, a DfE major project with a “substantial” £1.6 billion overall budget – currently rated ‘amber’ by government infrastructure project experts.

It also involves oversight of the DfE’s reforms of level 3 and below qualifications, which has faced controversy due to its proposed axing of popular vocational courses, such as some BTECs, that “overlap” with T Levels.

At three days a week, the role has a full-time equivalent salary of £98,000 per year and comes with a civil service pension contribution equivalent to £28,390 per year.

Harper, who is currently on maternity leave, is hoping to find a job-share partner to work with when she returns.

Since going on leave in June 2024, her role has been covered by job sharing interim directors, Jane Belfourd and Rebekah Chatwin. Harper replaced previous director Sue Lovelock in 2023.

High profile job sharers

If appointed as planned, the job share will be the second announced in recent months, following the appointment of Skills England joint chief executives Tessa Griffths and Sarah Maclean, who have held the same roles together for almost two decades.

The civil service, which aims to be “the most inclusive” employer in the UK, promotes job sharing in senior roles, believing that benefits include an improved work/life balance and promoting gender equality, particularly for women.

It has created a ‘job share notice board’ for finding a job share partner and published practical advice for candidates and hiring departments in 2020.

In recent years government blog posts have promoted case studies of senior job sharing roles in various departments, including current director generals for policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, who have shared for fifteen years.

The T Level challenge

It comes shortly after the National Audit Office (NAO) cast doubt on the scalability of T Levels after finding student number forecasts were missed by three quarters.

Following the NAO report, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said a lack of widespread awareness, declining pass rates and challenges securing industry placements show a risk to the DfE’s “ability” to scale up T Levels.

According to the description posted on the Civil Service Jobs website, the role is a “challenging and high profile” that needs an “extraordinary leader” who can think “strategically and at pace” about a complex policy and delivery landscape.

The DfE hopes to recruit someone with “strong financial management and Major Project discipline” due to the “substantial amount of public funding” the director is accountable for.

The directors will oversee a team of around 160 staff across multiple sites and will report to Julia Kinniburgh, director general for skills.

As a senior civil servant, the successful candidate will be expected to commit to a minimum duration of three years “to enable them to deliver on the agreed business outcomes”, although this is not a contractual requirement.

Applications must be submitted by April 28, ahead of interviews and assessments in May.

Luminate boss to retire

The chief executive of one of England’s largest college groups will retire at the end of the year.

Luminate Education group chief executive Colin Booth has announced he will step down in December after a decade at the helm of the Leeds-based college group.

Booth’s retirement comes after a 40-year career beginning as a teacher in Surrey to heading up one of the country’s largest college group.

Colin Booth, chief executive, Luminate Education Group

Booth said: “I’m incredibly proud of everything we have achieved together at Luminate as a team of staff and leaders and together with all of our key partners.

“Our collective efforts have not only ensured the continued success of our institutions but have also had a profound impact on the communities we serve.”

He began his career teaching at Carshalton College in Surrey, and then moved onto establishing courses for learners.

His four-decade career in education includes stints at South Thames College and Newcastle College and working as a part-time Ofsted inspector.

Booth also spent seven years steering Barnsley College from its ‘satisfactory’ (now known as ‘requires improvement) rating to an Ofsted ‘outstanding’ in 2010. He moved to Leeds City College Group in 2015, which became Luminate three years later.

He also used his expertise to advise other colleges, working with the FE Commissioner as one of the national leaders of further education since 2020.

Over his time at Luminate he has spoken out on a range of issues, most recently on the lack of growth funding to meet demand for the rising number of 16 -18- year-olds in Leeds. His efforts appear to have paid off as Leeds was one of two areas to have been awarded £10 million last week for additional capacity.

John Toon, Luminate Education Group’s chair of governors, said: “Personally, it has been my pleasure and a privilege to work closely with Colin over the last eight years.

“He has raised expectations around innovation and excellence and has driven teams to exceed expectations, improving the financial and quality performance of all organisations he has worked for.”

Applications for a new Luminate CEO will close on May 5.

Ministers funding LSIPs until at least September

Funding for local skills improvement plans has been confirmed for the next six months, as the sector awaits long-term financial decisions expected at the Spending Review.

Each employer representative body leading England’s 38 local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) has been awarded £100,000 to continue working from April to September.

The Department for Education originally allocated £20 million, or £550,000 per employer representative body, to manage the plans from 2023 to last month.

The government is thought to be planning the commissioning of new LSIPs, with increased input from local mayors and other strategic authorities.

Exactly how much funding will go towards LSIPs from October is understood to be being considered as part of the Spending Review, expected in June this year.

However, in her spring statement last month, the chancellor announced an additional £20 million for LSIPs to “form partnerships between colleges and construction companies.”

A key aim will be increasing the number of teachers with construction experience to “train the next generation of workers.”

Last year, the British Chambers of Commerce urged the previous government to commit to funding until “at least” 2028, to provide businesses with long-term certainty about input into skills training in their areas.

Gareth Thomas, who advises the East Midlands Chamber on developing the LSIP for Leicester and Leicestershire, said he understood there would be a “competitive process” to decide who will deliver the next round of plans.

He added: “This is partly, at least, due to some changes in geographic boundaries, such as Rutland being aligned with Leicester and Leicestershire moving forwards.”

“We understand these will be led by employer representative bodies.

However, in areas with mayoral strategic authorities in place, the approach to be taken will require agreement from the authority.”

“The details of such mechanisms are still to be communicated.”

Thomas warned that while the government can “see the value” in LSIPs, there should be collective agreement that local authorities, mayoral authorities and others should not “duplicate” work when engaging local businesses.

He added: “Collectively, we need to gather the intelligence once and use it to support the development of local growth plans, LSIPs, and work and health plans as they come to fruition.”

The DfE confirmed the £100,000 funding extension but declined to comment further.

T Levels for adults ‘under review’ amid ‘very little interest’

There are no plans to roll out T Levels to adults after a pilot scheme attracted just 14 people, FE Week understands.

Former education secretary Gavin Williamson made an “absolute guarantee” to Parliament in 2020 that the flagship two-year technical qualifications, designed for 16- to 19-year-olds, would be available to adults in the future.

A trial of the idea was launched in 2022 with a target of recruiting 150 adults at 11 FE colleges.

But only 14 were enrolled due to “very little interest.”

The Department for Education hoped to learn “valuable lessons” about supporting adults to access T Levels before a potential wider rollout from September this year.

Final adult education payments to providers for 2022-23, published this week by the DfE, showed three colleges out of the 11 that initially volunteered for the pilot received £97,000 between them, with no further funding allocated the following year.

The DfE told FE Week it was keeping the T Levels for adults idea “under review” while being “focussed on ensuring the programme succeeds for learners.”

Adults prefer ‘intensive’ learning

One principal told FE Week adult students at their college preferred courses tailored for older people and delivered in more “intensive” time frames than T Levels.

Only Exeter College recruited a full group of adult learners – 12 in total – who were taught separately from their 16- to 18-year-old cohort between 2022 and 2024.

They studied the digital production, design, and development pathway.

Principal John Laramy said: “Exeter College did pilot an adult T Level.

“It was a discreet group and the pilot came to an end and was not continued.”

East Sussex College Group (ESCG) recruited only one learner who joined its wider cohort of younger students that year.

A spokesperson said: “East Sussex College opted to be part of the T Level adult pilot in 2022, but this unfortunately attracted very little interest and only one adult T Level student was recruited.

“The T Level funding we retained as part of this pilot covered the programme delivery costs for this one student.”

ESCG’s principal and chief executive Rebecca Conroy previously told FE Week low recruitment was partly due to the small number of subjects offered and the limited time the DfE gave to promote the pilot.

A single rate of £10,000 per learner was available, split over two years, with an additional £1,000 provided for learning support.

TEC Partnership, the third college involved in the pilot and which only claimed £5,000, did not respond to requests for comment.

The adult T Level recruitment and payment figures suggest some of the 14 participants did not complete their course.

No demand

The aim of the pilot was to understand adult learners’ appetites for T Levels and whether any flexibilities would encourage them to enrol.

A DfE spokesperson failed to respond when asked about the findings of an “evaluation” that officials were understood to have made following the pilot.

T Levels gained national attention in recent weeks after the DfE axed three more of the courses due to low demand.

The National Audit Office also last week revealed the enormity of the take-up failure for the qualifications, which are designed to be the technical equivalent to A-levels.

The NAO found that student number forecasts for 16- to 19-year-olds were missed by three quarters – resulting in a near-£700 million spending shortfall.

MPs on the Public Accounts Committee warned the DfE it had “much to do” to convince people of T Levels’ “worth as a desirable and valuable” qualification.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 493

Lucy Auchincloss

Director of Operations, Remit Training

Start date: March 2025

Previous Job: Partnership Development Director, Lifetime

Interesting fact: Lucy’s greatest passion is music and especially Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones, both of whom she’s seen live multiple times across 3 continents

Jeremy Kerswell

Chair, Landex

Start date: March 2025

Concurrent Job: Principal & CEO, Plumpton College

Interesting fact: After graduating from Reading Uni, Jeremy worked in a lab in which was the first place to recreate the polio virus this side of the Atlantic

Ben Owen

Start date: March 2025

Vice Principal (Business Growth, Skills and Partnerships), DN Colleges Group

Previous Job: Vice President of Customer Services, Lightcast

Interesting fact: In his spare time, Ben can be usually found either walking the South Yorkshire countryside with his wife and dog or attempting to play golf

It’s not only Leeds and Manchester desperate for demographic boom help, say leaders

News of cash to help two northern cities meet a surge in FE students has prompted pleas to help the rest of the country.

This week, the Department for Education revealed it would hand £10 million each to Leeds City Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to help post-16 institutions cope with a demographic bulge of young people.

It also announced £302 million in condition funding ring-fenced for repairing colleges’ “leaky roofs, broken windows and dilapidated buildings.”

But while the capacity funding given to Leeds and Greater Manchester was welcomed by college sector leaders, it is understood England’s seven other core cities are facing high levels of demand due to a “demographic boom.”

‘We need a plan’

Association of Colleges (AoC) deputy chief executive Julian Gravatt said: “With 16-to-18 student numbers having risen by 7 per cent this year and forecast to rise by 5 per cent nationally, the government needs a plan for technical education growth.

“The funds for Leeds and Manchester will help, but there are pressures in other cities and towns across the country.”

The number of 16 to 18-year-olds is estimated to have grown by 230,000, or 13 per cent, between 2017 and 2024. It is projected to increase by a further 110,000, or five per cent, by 2028.

Government capital capacity funding was last released between 2021 and 2023. Around £230 million was shared between 89 colleges and sixth forms with the aim of creating additional capacity by September 2024.

‘Bursting at the seams’

The DfE said Leeds and Greater Manchester got funding this time around based on their levels of demographic growth and college capacity pressure.

Population pressures on education are kept under review, a spokesperson added.

But Sixth Form Colleges Association deputy chief executive James Kewin said: “Many of our members are bursting at the seams, but there is currently no capital funding available to support expansion projects.

“The funding announced for Greater Manchester and Leeds is welcome, but the demographic boom is not limited to those two areas.”

He told FE Week that one of the government’s spending review priorities “should be to create a capital expansion fund for sixth form providers that operates on an annual basis,” adding that the alternative is “cramming more students into already overcrowded classrooms or turning students away.”

Positive development

Colin Booth, chief executive of Luminate Education Group, called the £10 million in funding for Leeds a “positive development” that could go “some way” to tackling rising numbers of young people not in education, employment or training.

He said: “Over recent years, post-16 capacity constraints in Leeds have resulted in growing numbers of young people being unable to access suitable forms of post-16 education.

“The announcement represents forward-thinking investment that could benefit both the local economy and young people right across the city.”

However, he warned funding should be “targeted” at growing capacity for high-demand courses such as level 1 and 2, and some technical courses such as health and care, rather than local sixth forms or other providers offering A-levels.

He said: “In Leeds, there is an oversupply and competition between sixth forms for A-level students.

“But in the most disadvantaged postcodes of Leeds, fewer than half of 16-year-olds are able or want to study A-levels.”

Condition funding

The £302 million in further education college condition allocations (bizarrely, the exact figure given was £301,999,999.98) announced this week will be shared between England’s 179 college groups based on a methodology that takes into account learning hours in the last academic year, space requirements for each subject, modelled non-teaching space, residential space, local construction costs and total expected space.

While the methodology does include apprenticeship delivery, it excludes learning aims such as distance learning, higher education, T Level occupational specialisms or end-point assessments.

Large college groups such as NCG and Capital City College will receive more than £7 million each, while 48 smaller institutions such as Calderdale College and Capel Manor College will get less than £1 million each (see full list at FE Week).

Gravatt said the £302 million investment was a “significant and crucial step” towards improving colleges and praised the DfE for using a formula to allocate funding “for the first time in 20 years.”

Creating ESOL courses isn’t ‘voluntary work’, says tribunal

A London college group has been ordered to pay over £30,000 to a part-time ESOL lecturer for treating her less favourably than full-time workers.

Capital City College (CCC) agreed to compensate Mrs R King who was not paid for developing two English for Speakers of Other Languages courses. Bosses attempted to argue she carried out this extra work “voluntarily”.

King had been an ESOL lecturer at the now-merged College of North East London from 1989 to 2016 when she was made redundant. She then enrolled on an early years teacher training course at University College London (UCL) for two years.

In September 2018 she was hired again by CCC as an hourly paid lecturer in the School of ESOL under a zero-hours contract and is still employed by the college group.

She brought an employment tribunal claim in 2023 for direct age discrimination, less favourable treatment of part-time workers and a breach of her particulars of employment. 

The tribunal found her complaint of less favourable treatment under the part-time workers regulations 2002 was well founded.

In the summer of 2021, King agreed with her manager she would develop two new ESOL courses named “learn to read and write” and “foundation to pre-entry”, but was not paid for the work.

The court found the college “relied” on King creating the curriculum because “no one else did it” and the college subsequently ran the courses.

King claimed she only received three hours’ pay for the extra work but did not specify how much time it took to develop the courses.

The college argued that because King had an interest in phonics for adults and her previous study at UCL, it meant she did the work voluntarily.

The judge threw out the college’s claim, saying it was not a case where King went “off on a frolick [sic] of her own” to create materials of her volition without telling CCC.

“We do not accept that having expertise and skills to do something and having an interest in it makes it voluntary,” the judge wrote.

“The only other aspect was that the claimant was not paid for the duties and it seems she was told she would not be paid. We do not accept that denying payment makes something voluntary that would not be otherwise,” they added.

‘Significant failure of HR’

A claim of age discrimination was brought against the college for not offering King a fractionalised agreement, whereby institutions must offer salaried contracts to hourly paid lecturers if they work 432 or more hours per annum, averaged over three years.

Ultimately, the judge threw out the claim that King was denied a salaried contract because of her age but ruled there was a “significant failure of HR” regarding a lack of communication with hourly paid lecturers over the fractionalisation process.

The report said: “We accept that the decisions about fractionalisation were made around the summer near the end of an academic term so that somebody was fractionalised or given a salary contract during the summer and then came back salaried in September and this may have taken the claimant by surprise.”

Her key duties were to teach, prepare lessons, mark students’ work and attend meetings if required. An hourly paid lecturer was not expected to develop curricula, invigilate or participate in professional development, unlike salaried employees.

King carried out the duties that were not part of her contract between 2021 and 2022, such as providing training sessions to colleagues and taking class trips.

The college accepted these duties were beyond those of an hourly paid lecturer but again argued she was doing the extra work voluntarily.

“We find that these were duties that fell within the duties of the comparator and to that extent were broadly similar,” the report noted.

Overall, the tribunal found King suffered less favourable treatment in relation to pay as her comparator would have been paid for the curriculum duties, and she was not.

The report concluded: “It still remains that the full-time comparator pro rata’d would have received pay for more hours (six hours per week for non-teaching duties) resulting in more pay than the claimant received for carrying out broadly similar duties. It is the non-payment of these six hours per week which is the less favourable treatment relating to pay.”

King will be paid a gross sum of £30,531.58, comprising over £23,000 in basic pay, £1,370 in sick pay and over £6,000 in employer pension contributions.

A CCC spokesperson said: “This matter is being considered through the appropriate legal process. We have no further comment to make.”

Kaplan tops apprenticeship revenue charts as level 7 verdict looms

Kaplan Financial Ltd remains the biggest earning apprenticeship provider despite recording less than a third of the number of starts of a competitor.

Department for Education figures published this week revealed the finance giant generated £51.7 million from levy and non-levy-funded apprenticeships in 2022-23.

Moving up to second place was QA Ltd, which rose three positions from the year before with total revenue of £47.5 million compared to £35.3 million in 2021-22.

Kaplan recruited 5,610 apprentices in 2022-23 and QA enrolled 4,690 – but both were dwarfed by Lifetime Training’s 16,990 starts.

While Lifetime cemented its position as market leader in terms of sheer volume, the provider was the third highest for revenue, generating £45.2 million (full table below).

Kaplan and QA mainly offer apprenticeships that attract higher funding bands than Lifetime. Three quarters of Kaplan’s apprentices are on the level 7 accountancy or taxation professional standard, which attracts maximum funding of £21,000. QA’s apprenticeships are mostly in IT and business, administration and law at advanced and higher levels.

Lifetime Training’s delivery is focused on hospitality, retail and adult care, with many apprenticeships at level 2.

All three providers are judged ‘good’ by Ofsted.

Notably, Multiverse Group Limited, the rapidly growing tech-driven apprenticeship provider founded by Tony Blair’s son Euan Blair, moved up to fourth in the provider earnings rankings.

Founded in 2016 it earned £44.1 million from apprenticeships in 2022-23, up by a huge 54 per cent from £28.7 million in 2021-22 following a shift to higher level programmes.

Multiverse continues to attract national media attention, with a string of outlets reporting this week that the company’s expansion into America and artificial intelligence had boosted turnover but increased losses to £60.5 million.

BPP Professional Education Limited, another major player in the professional services training sector with a large proportion of its apprenticeships being level 7, rounds out the top five. 

The government announced in September it would be asking employers to fund a “significant” number of level 7 apprenticeships themselves, outside of the apprenticeships budget or levy-funded growth and skills offer.

A final decision on which level 7s are in and which are out of scope of levy funding will be made in “due course”, the DfE said this week.

Both BPP Professional and Kaplan Financial are likely to be significantly impacted by the move.

Making up the top 10 in the earnings table in 2022-23 was Corndel Ltd and JTL, alongside public sector bodies of the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, whose presence in the rankings highlights the importance of apprenticeships in military training.

The Open University was the highest earning university, placing 11th with £19.8 million, while the college that generated the most from apprenticeships in 2022-23 was Bridgwater and Taunton College, placing 30th with £11.3 million.