Team UK for EuroSkills 2025 announced

Nineteen talented apprentices and students from across the UK will travel to Denmark this September to compete in their trades against Europe’s best at the EuroSkills competition.

The group, who are specialising in skills such as cabinetmaking, joinery, and hairdressing will go head-to-head against hundreds of their European peers in Herning from September 9 to 13.

The competition will bring together 600 young professionals to compete in 38 skills.

John Doherty, Euroskills 2025 competitor in mechatronics

In the lead up to the event, the team members, who have already undergone months of intense training, will ramp up their intensive training programme with pressure tests to push their capability to compete under pressure.

EuroSkills is the largest competition before the next global WorldSkills, which will take place next year in Shanghai, China.

John Doherty, the Euroskills competitor in mechatronics who trains at Southern Regional College, said: “I’m buzzing about the news, it’s going to be a brilliant opportunity.”

He added: “When I first started with WorldSkills UK three years ago, I didn’t think I would get this far but I have loved the thrill of competing and am really excited about taking part in EuroSkills.”

Accrington and Rossendale College learner Shelby Fitzakerly, who is a Team UK member in the painting and decorating skill, said: “It’s absolutely amazing to be selected for Team UK. Competing in Europe will definitely help my career, I’m so excited about this opportunity.”

Ben Blackledge, chief executive WorldSkills UK said the European competition is ultimately “a test of how internationally competitive UK skills are”.

“It gives us the impetus to raise standards at home and help more young people get high quality jobs,” he said.

Shelby Fitzakerly EuroSkills 2025 competitor in painting and decorating

He added: “We are so excited to be supporting and nurturing this fantastic group of young professionals as they head for Denmark to compete.”

Skills minister Jacqui Smith said: “Congratulations to all those chosen for the EuroSkills team, it’s a fantastic achievement and a unique opportunity to showcase the strength of UK skills on the European stage.

“These young people represent the ambition and expertise being developed through our further education system, which is central to building a workforce fit for the future.

“High-quality skills are at the heart of our Plan for Change, helping to grow the economy and support people into good jobs. WorldSkills UK does vital work to raise standards and ambition across technical education.”

‘Short-sighted’: DfE controversially cuts ASK careers scheme funding

The Department for Education has been accused of being “short-sighted” after it axed funding for a flagship careers programme focusing on apprenticeships and T Levels.

The Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) Programme is a national scheme aiming to raise awareness of career options with school and college students, teachers and parents since 2015.

Activities ASK funds include assemblies, workshops, mock interviews, training for teachers, and presentations for parents.

But the Department for Education (DfE), which ultimately funds ASK, has confirmed that funding will end from August this year.

In a letter sent to providers, DfE officials said funding will end “given the programme’s success and the tight fiscal climate”.

The news comes only one year after management of the programme was handed from the DfE to the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) – a non-profit quango that describes itself as the “national body for careers education”.

FE Week understands a handful of DfE partner organisations and services including the CEC are expecting cuts to their overall funding this financial year.

‘Truly shocked’

The news has been met with shock and disappointment from local providers, who say the programme has boosted social mobility by ensuring thousands of young people, teachers and parents are aware of their career options outside of academia.

Sharron Robbie, chief executive officer of Devon and Cornwall Training Providers Network, an ASK provider in the south west, said: “We are truly shocked at this news – careers advice especially advice that is impartial, based on local knowledge and expertise is absolutely key to ensuring young people are able to make informed choices about their futures.”

She added that defunding ASK is “short-sighted” as it has helped give apprenticeships “parity” over other post-16 options and helped young people from deprived backgrounds into “sustainable and rewarding careers”.

The DfE recently committed £3.4 million for ASK, with £2.14 million paid last financial year and £1.27 million this year, according to grant agreements published last year.

While ASK is managed nationally by CEC, supported by Amazing Apprenticeships, it is regionally overseen by four regional prime contractors, who in turn contract delivery out to a network of local providers.

A DfE spokesperson declined to comment on funding cuts to the CEC and other organisations, arguing that figures yet to be “finalised” and the department does not comment on “speculation”.

Support still exists

The spokesperson pointed to the volunteer apprenticeship and T Level ambassador networks as alternative sources of information.

They said: “Many schools and colleges have established links with technical education providers and networks.

“There is a range of digital and in-person support available to raise awareness of apprenticeships and technical education, including through the apprenticeship and T Level ambassador networks and other local support, coordinated through the Careers and Enterprise Company’s national network of careers hubs.”

A spokesperson for CEC said: “The Careers & Enterprise Company wants to extend its sincere thanks to all providers for their work in delivering this programme and supporting young people. 

“At CEC, we remain fully committed to ensuring every young person can access high-quality careers education and meaningful pathways into the world of work.

“Supporting schools and colleges in helping young people explore apprenticeships and technical education to help every young person find their best next step remains a core priority for us.”

Alex Miles, managing director of ASK provider Yorkshire Learning Providers, said it was “the wrong time” to withdraw funding given incoming apprenticeship reforms and rising youth inactivity levels.

She added: “I’ve agreed to invest some of our reserves to continue the activity because I think it’s completely wrong for social mobility that school engagement stops on a knife edge.”

Simon Ashworth, deputy CEO of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “Given that the government’s stated ambition in wanting more young people to take up apprenticeships or technical education pathways, we are disappointed that the Apprenticeship Support & Knowledge (ASK) programme will not be extended and will end this summer.

“This is a programme that’s helped raise awareness of apprenticeships in schools through thousands of bespoke interventions – not just for young people, but for teachers too.”

South west colleges reignite merger talks

Two south west colleges have re-opened merger talks ten years after first floating the idea of joining forces.

Governors at Devon’s Exeter College and Petroc have today said merging now would provide “additional resilience against funding reductions” and “an unmatched and nationally significant curriculum for young people”. They first explored merging in 2015.

The two colleges stressed that the merger is “voluntary” and will now enter a period of due diligence and public consultation with the aim of a final vote by both boards in November. 

Combining figures both colleges’ latest finances, the merged institution could have around 17,000 learners in total and a combined income of just over £96 million. 

In a statement today, the colleges said the new group would create “a regional education and skills powerhouse with the ability invest, innovate and deliver ‘the exceptional’ for Devon”.

Exeter College has been rated ‘outstanding’ in its most recent two Ofsted inspections and attracted just over 12,600 funded learners, mostly 16-18 year-olds, in academic year 2023-24. It recorded ‘good’ financial health in its latest accounts. 

In its most recent inspection, Petroc was downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’. Its latest financial health score was also ‘requires improvement’.

Merger proposals come almost a year after Sean Mackney suddenly quit as principal of Petroc. The college has been led since then by interim principal and CEO Kurt Hintz.

Both colleges promise “business as usual” as merger talks progress.

Another large college merger is in progress in neighbouring Somerset. 

Next week, a public consultation on the merger of Bridgwater and Taunton College and Strode College closes. The new group, proposed to be called University Centre Somerset College Group (UCS College Group) aims to form this August.

Eureka! Science trainer given Ofsted’s highest grade

A healthcare and science specialist training provider has been judged ‘outstanding’ after inspectors found students “excellently prepared for their future roles”.

Birmingham-based CSR Scientific Training Limited, which trains over 450 apprentices and 28 bootcamp learners online, was upgraded to Ofsted’s top mark in a report published today.

The watchdog praised the provider’s “highly ambitious” curriculum and “skilful” work with a “large range” of employers, such as the NHS, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Pfizer and the police service, to “co-design curriculums that align precisely to meet local and national skills needs”.

Adult learners “quickly develop important practical skills that are in very high demand” and develop “strong and worthwhile scientific and analytical skills that prepare them excellently for their future roles”, inspectors said.

CSR is a private company established in 2007 and was formerly known as Crime Scene Resources Limited. It gained its first direct contract to deliver apprenticeships in 2017 and moved into bootcamps delivery recently.

A spokesperson for the provider said: “CSR is incredibly proud of this achievement which is a true reflection of the hard work and dedication of our team, our learners and our employer partners.” 

Ofsted said CSR learners show “very high levels” of commitment to their studies and are “very ambitious for their futures and routinely achieve the highest possible grades in their qualifications”.

“Passionate” learners visit local schools to promote the benefits of studying an apprenticeship in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, compete in the “Pipette Olympics”, as well as participate in activities to promote women into STEM.

Leaders were praised for ensuring that learners and apprentices receive “beneficial career advice that informs them well about the range of opportunities available to them after completing their studies”, with a high proportion of apprentices joining professional bodies to become more employable.

And “well-experienced” governors hold leaders and managers to account. They have been “instrumental in supporting leaders to improve the quality of curriculums that they offer”.

CSR’s spokesperson said: “The hard work does not stop here and we will continue striving to deliver high quality, employer driven programmes within the booming STEM sector where our learners can continue to demonstrate their talents and hard work.”

Photo: CSR staff

From vengeance to compassion: The conversation that shattered my hate

I didn’t know a great deal about restorative justice before 2008. I was appearing as a guest artist at the ‘Get In’ Festival in Liverpool where I met Jim Moriaty, artistic director of Te Rekau community theatre company based in New Zealand. Jim’s commitment to theatre as a tool for change has helped transform the lives of many of his country’s most vulnerable people.

The company takes young offenders and puts them through a rigorous residential programme aimed at addressing the root causes of their behaviours and attempting to repair the harms that they have caused. This programme is carried out in partnership with the New Zealand justice system as an alternative to custodial sentencing; something that notable political figures including former justice ministers David Gaulk and Rory Stewart have called for here.

Jim had brought along a young person working with the company, devising and touring a performance to communities affected by offending behaviour. It was clear this process had had a remarkable effect on them. I’ve worked in many prison, probation and youth offending settings and rarely meet someone who has, in well-fitting cliched terms, literally ‘turned his life around’.

A year later my younger brother, aged 38, was murdered in a frenzied knife attack by a 17-year-old neighbour – someone he’d shown great kindness to, in recognition of the turbulent life this boy had endured.  So began an endless whirlwind of trauma, grief and despair navigating the criminal justice system.

Advised by counsel, he took a ‘manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility’ charge and five years later was knocking at the door of the parole board.

Two successful appeals later we were running out of options. After less than eight years in prison, he due for release on licence.

It had been a difficult few years. My brother’s beloved wife, adored two young sons and close friends had really struggled with the brutal and meaningless manner of his passing. I’d been the first person at the scene of the killing, and that sight will be forever in my mind. I’d never envisaged myself at a murder crime scene or in a morgue, courtroom or prison but all that was my new reality.

In my rage and pain, I had deeply disturbing dreams about the offender killing myself and my family. When my wife (DfE student support champion Polly Harrow) gently suggested we consider restorative justice, I thought she’d lost her mind. But she told me how we dehumanise and demonise through disconnection, separation and avoidance.  How the threat becomes so much bigger in your imagination.

The alternative, it seemed, was to continue through a living hell.

We went through months of thorough preparation with probation; I had to work out how to address the person I’d been harbouring such violent and vengeful feelings towards. Then there we were, sitting across a table from him, looking into his eyes in a ridiculously normal office with tired furniture: me, Polly, the probation team and his advocate.

Those two and a half hours literally changed my life. It was like pulling the curtain to find the Wizard of Oz was just an ordinary mortal with seemingly no ill intent. He was 24 and looked like a lost little boy.

Did he say sorry? Yes. Did he seem remorseful? Yes. Did his words help? How could they?

Were we meant to forgive, to forget, to understand? Could we?

As I spoke to him, there was a visible shift. I was beginning to feel emboldened and able to speak my mind clearly. I finally had empowered myself against this most dreaded of threats. He was finally confronting our truth and coming to terms, in the most personal and direct way, of the consequences of his murderous actions.

 Our last words to him were “You owe it to us, to his children, to make something of yourself, to be the best version of yourself, to cause no more harm and to live a good life”. We left in stunned silence as we digested what had occurred. We learned afterwards that he said “I want to do better…for them.” In that moment we had become his emotionally available adults, something he had little experience of in his fractured young life. We had shown him empathy, and the whole room felt the extraordinary weight of that compassion looking into the face of a murderer.

My young nephews had suffered with severe anxiety about his release and whether he would seek them out. I was able to tell them with certainty they no longer needed to live in fear. Out of all of it, that was the most significant thing I could have said to those heartbroken children.

I could not have entered or completed this life-changing process without Polly’s unwavering support and wisdom. In our professional lives, we have both gone on to advocate for and train educators in restorative practice to reduce issues of conflict with their students and help build their abilities to heal relationships. This is something we vehemently believe in; we know that it works.

Only builder bootcamps extended as scheme dismantled

National skills bootcamp contracts will only be extended for courses in the construction sector, the government has told providers. 

In an update email, the Department for Education said it would only “continue to fund” contracts procured via its national dynamic purchasing system in construction. 

A separate email to bootcamp providers for other sectors such as digital, health and care confirmed contracts will not be extended. 

The nationally contracted construction courses – which include skills such as groundworks, bricklaying, carpentry and heat pump installation – will be funded with £100 million for 35,000 learners, confirmed during the Chancellor’s Spring Statement last month. 

On Thursday, the DfE’s work-based learning directorate sent an email to providers with existing contracts saying they have until May 9 to request an extension that will be capped at 50 per cent of the original contract value. 

Meanwhile, providers of non-construction bootcamps were told: “We are grateful for the key role you play in upskilling and reskilling adults, and for your contribution and commitment to adult skills training, and will be continuing to work with you to support you to maximise completions and outcomes in your contract.” 

New contracts start in August 

Officials hope to reach a decision on construction bootcamps “by the end of June” with training to start in August and complete by March 31 next year at the latest. 

Mark Dawe, chief executive of bootcamp provider The Skills Network, which does not provide construction bootcamps, said: “While not a surprise, it is disappointing that such a popular programme will not be supported on a national basis when we have thousands of learners who we’re now unable to support.” 

The DfE update said extensions will only be available to providers that hit 50 per cent of their target starts, have dropout rates of 15 per cent or less, and an 80 per cent or above completion rate. 

However, it has chosen not to require a minimum level of positive job outcomes such as gaining a new role or new or increased responsibilities, which are a key measure of bootcamps’ success. 

The national contracts, awarded via a dynamic purchasing system, were worth over half a billion pounds between 2022 and 2025. 

Locally funded bootcamps continue 

Bootcamps commissioning for other sectors, such as creative industries or digital, will continue to be funded locally, via ringfenced grants that the DfE hands to mayoral combined authorities, the Greater London Authority and some local authorities. 

However, although grants to each authority were confirmed ahead of the current financial year, procurement is at different stages of planning or delivery across the country. 

Ian Ross, chief executive officer of bootcamp provider Whitehead-Ross Education, said: “With many local authorities yet to release their skills bootcamps tenders, we’re going to see a postcode lottery with some parts of the country having no skills bootcamps provision in place until the summer.” 

A DfE spokesperson said: “Skills Bootcamps remain an important part of government-funded skills provision and we recently committed £100 million of additional funding for Skills Bootcamps to address skills gaps in the construction sector.

“We are currently evolving the delivery of Skills Bootcamps through funding local areas directly, giving them more control over skills development and supporting more people into work.

“These ongoing changes will further develop Skills Bootcamps to make sure they deliver high-quality training.”

Weston chair felt powerless over £2.5m payments to former principal

The former chair of Weston College has admitted £2.5 million in hidden payments handed to former principal Sir Paul Phillips was an inappropriate use of public funds – but claimed he was powerless to stop them.

Andrew Leighton-Price (pictured), who stood down from the governing body last year following the launch of a government investigation, spoke exclusively to FE Week about the scandal that was exposed during the Easter break.

Earlier this month, FE Commissioner Shelagh Legrave’s report revealed serious “governance failures” at the seaside college, with £2.5 million of undeclared payments made to its then principal Sir Paul Phillips between 2017 and 2023.

But Leighton-Price refuted the FEC’s claim that governors “concealed” payments, and instead blamed college auditors and expressed a fear that Phillips would sue if he did not get what he was contractually due.

Leighton-Price joined the Weston College board in 2015 and became chair in 2019. He stepped aside in May 2024 when the FE Commissioner’s intervention began. He then officially stood down in October, claiming his eight-year term limit was up.

Presidential role

The Department for Education deployed fraud investigators to probe “funding irregularities” after an FE Week investigation in 2023 revealed Phillips would get a paid “presidential” role following his retirement.

The following month, Legrave and her team interviewed the former principal, ex-governors, former clerks to the corporation, and internal and external auditors.

The long-awaited report exposed board failures to ensure the college demonstrated value for money and accountability of public funds.

Phillips was secretly paid £2.5 million more than was officially declared between 2017 and 2023 through a combination of bonuses, allowances and benefits, including a £909,000 retention payment.

Corrected college financial statements, published on the same day as the FEC report, revealed Phillips was paid a staggering £1,898,000 when he retired in 2023.

The report said the “majority” of these previously undeclared payments were not approved by the full board of governors.

Instead, the college had a “small group of trusted governors” in a remuneration committee who made decisions on Phillips’ pay. These decisions were not reported to the full board.

Leighton-Price said he did not recognise the £2.5 million figure but admitted Phillips’ payments were an “awful lot of money”.

Now he’s no longer a member of the college board, he admitted he’d “probably say no”, the payments were not an appropriate or good use of public funds.

“My opinion didn’t really come into it if I’m honest. It was a legal agreement. We were given the figures by the auditors,” he said.

Phillips’ total earnings for 2022 were £837,000, up from an originally stated £362,000. This was due to a £90,000 increase in his basic salary and a £372,000 performance bonus. Leighton-Price could not explain the rise in Phillips’ basic salary.

He refuted that the payments were hidden from public disclosure or from auditors, as claimed by the FEC.

“The auditors were told everything that was in there,” he said.

“The board is given a set of accounts by the auditors, and they work with the finance department. They don’t work with governors, and we don’t make the accounts up.”

Leighton-Price added that governors would see the college accounts for “probably” an hour for discussion before they were approved.

“As chair of the board, I was fulfilling a legal agreement,” he said. So, was I culpable in that area? Yes.”

‘Easy to blame governors’

The FEC placed Tim Jackson as interim chair in May 2024.

Leighton-Price said he stepped aside as “protocol”. His subsequent cooperation with the investigation comprised a 30-minute interview with Legrave, during which he was asked about minutiae from board meetings from years prior. He added it would have been easier to provide information if he had been given “a little bit of warning”.

Did he think Legrave’s report was fair?

“How can I put this politely… Yes,” he said.

“My impression was that, following my half-hour interview with Shelagh, it was always going to be the governors that were going to bear the brunt of it.”

He was shocked by “most” of her findings and claimed that governors were “all being put down to try and ram home the point that governance was not good at Weston College”.

He claimed it was “very easy” to blame things on governors, and added: “There is really not a lot of safety for governors in these areas.

“Governance is such a tricky thing, you’re held to account and yet you don’t work there. You rely heavily on the information you’re given, and that’s all you can go on.

“I think governance probably hasn’t kept up with the demands of the modern FE college, if I’m honest.”

‘We had no other option’

Regarding the £909,000 retention payment, governors “had no other option other than to pay or be sued by Sir Paul Phillips,” the former chair told FE Week.

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

Phillips confirmed to BBC News that undeclared payments were “contractually due” and the retention scheme was needed because, “during my extensive tenure at the college, approaches from other organisations occurred and therefore the college introduced a retention scheme to retain me”.

Leighton-Price said he became aware of the retention package around “six years ago” when he became chair, and it was brought up in an audit committee.

“We did push back at the time when we initially found out about it, but it was pointed out to us, it was a legal agreement, and there was an element of course that Paul would not fulfil the requirements within the agreement,” he said.

In November 2022, Phillips was finally paid the £909,000 as a severance payment.

But it came with some strain. Phillips’ son Joe resisted paying the retention payment to his father in his capacity as Weston College’s chief operating officer, and supported his finance team in their refusal, according to evidence investigators found in the remuneration committee minutes.

Instead, the payment was initially made 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 would not do it.

Leighton-Price claimed the board sought advice from the college’s auditors – though he could not confidently determine the identity of the firm – to make direct payments to Phillips after the chief operating officer refused.

Phillips received “a variety” of bonus payments which were presented to committee members as percentages rather than raw values, compounding the “lack of clarity”, the FEC said.

“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 said.

When asked if Phillips deserved such a high payout, Leighton-Price said he was surprised at the cash value, but admitted he was aware of his total pay package as it had been presented by auditors.

“On one hand, you look at it, it was a successful college,” he said. “It’s gone from nothing to where it was. I can see why the original governors wanted to retain him. Personally, if it was me at that time, I probably wouldn’t have put in a retention payment.”

Leighton-Price said with hindsight, the retention package should have been run past officials at the Department for Education.

‘Money in his back pocket’

The FEC report caused a huge backlash amongst leaders and representatives in the sector.

Reacting to the negative public reaction, Leighton-Price said it was “very easy” to target Sir Paul, “whether he deserves some of it or not”.

“That’s up to those individuals who made those claims,” he said. “People always have a grievance against the leader of an organisation.”

In a post on LinkedIn, principal and CEO of Blackpool and the Fylde College Alun Francis labelled the episode “the worst example of unscrupulousness I have seen”.

He added: “When the college could have afforded a better pay rise, a small group of governors bizarrely thought it OK to stick it in the CEO’s back pocket – and even more bizarrely he thought it OK to take it.”

Weston College remains in intervention amid a separate DfE investigation into other undisclosed issues around financial controls.

Paul Phillips and the college’s former auditors were contacted for comment.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 494

Ian Ross

Non Executive Director, Federation of Small Businesses

Start date: April 2025

Concurrent: Chief Executive Officer, Whitehead-Ross Education

Interesting fact: Ian, who has held a private pilots license since 2004 and has over 300 hours of flying experience, has also been playing the trombone since school in various brass bands.

Susan Bonnet

Principal & Chief Executive, Morley College London

Start date: Summer 2025

Previous job: Principal, Ashford College (part of EKC Group)

Interesting fact: Prior to joining education, Susan spent 20 years as an international commercial film and media producer.

Safety trainer BSC fined for anti-fraud failures

A health and safety training group that failed to protect its qualifications against fraud has been fined by Ofqual.

The exams regulator issued the British Safety Council (BSC) with a £5,000 penalty after a string of failings around construction health and safety qualifications dating back to 2018.

Ofqual said the BSC committed “long running, repeated and systemic failures” when investigating malpractice around qualifications it knew were vulnerable to abuse.

Its probe into the BSC’s controls followed warnings from the Metropolitan Police and Construction Industry Training Board of widespread “centre-level certificate fraud” in 2018 that included 333 BSC level 1 health and safety in a construction environment certificates.

The regulator found the BSC, a registered charity, had failed to retain a workforce of “appropriate size or competence”, only conducted “around half” the centre monitoring visits it should have, did not check enough assessments to detect fraud or malpractice, and failed to keep detailed records of learners it awarded qualifications from 2017 to 2020.

The BSC also issued certificates despite “unresolved concerns” about suspicious pass rates, “anomalies” in assessments, evidence of falsified invigilation records and a failure to collect basic information about learners.

The charity failed to complete internal investigations into at least seven centres instead of following “obvious and reasonable lines of enquiry” or carrying out a “rigorous” inquiry into whether fraud or malpractice had taken place, as required by Ofqual.

The health and safety qualification, withdrawn in 2020, was key to obtaining a construction skills certification scheme (CSCS) card.

Construction was the deadliest sector in the UK last year with 51 fatal accidents including falls, people being struck by moving vehicles, or getting trapped by collapsing or overturning objects.

CSCS cards have long been targeted by fraudsters and centre malpractice due to skills shortages in the building trade.

Some test centres have been known to rig health and safety exams to guarantee passes by coaching learners or completing tests for them. Since 2020, around 10,000 health and safety and environment test results have been revoked by the Construction Industry Training Board.

In 2020, the BSC told Ofqual it planned to withdraw 12 qualifications, including the health and safety certificate, due to the level of risk from “surrounding alleged criminal activity” involving CSCS cards.

The cost of increased compliance checks after issues emerged meant the BSC was “in deficit” on the level 1 qualification.

The BSC, which has a £10 million annual turnover, admitted breaching rules and put forward several mitigation arguments, including that its failures were “not intentional” and its employees were not “complicit in the suspected malpractice”.

A BSC spokesperson told FE Week the charity has “accepted” Ofqual’s findings, but declined to comment when asked which centre were implicated in malpractice.

The charity, founded in 1957 and which claims to be “dedicated to making sure no one is injured or made ill through their work”, earned about £1.6 million from regulated qualifications and assessments before it began to withdraw from the market.

Ofqual accepted there was no evidence the failures were “primarily motivated” by a desire to save money, although the regulator noted “savings will have been made” and the BSC dropped the qualifications due to the increased cost of compliance.

When asked why it took seven years to publish the findings, an Ofqual spokesperson said: “A full and thorough investigation was required, which takes time, and the work coincided with Covid disruption which delayed investigation work.”

Other recent Ofqual fines for centre malpractice linked to construction safety cards have taken similar lengths of time to conclude.

Late last year – five years after issues occurred – the regulator publicly rebuked the Scottish government-owned Scottish Qualifications Authority for failing to “rigorously” investigate malpractice at seven training providers in England between 2017 and 2019.

Ofqual carried out two investigations into the BSC. The first concluded in 2019 and resulted in the BSC signing an undertaking to “remedy the issues” and commission an external audit of its new measures.

However, a second investigation was opened after the charity revealed it had failed to flag seven additional serious issues with centres that occurred during the same period as the first investigation.

The BSC blamed the failure to notify Ofqual on the “serious and sudden illness” of staff members responsible for reporting issues, although they had returned to work by the time the charity signed the undertaking.