The names of the 19 training providers that have won contracts with Liverpool City Region to deliver its devolved adult education budget (AEB) have been revealed.
The combined authority will take control of an annual £50.35 million budget to deliver adult education from September.
Up to 30 per cent – or £15.11 million – of its overall budget was put out to competitive tender in October. The other 70 per cent will be dished out to colleges and other institutions that currently receive adult education funding via a grant from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
FE Week has been leaked the name of the 19 providers who’ve won a slice of the funding that went out to tender, but their contract values have not yet been revealed.
One of the providers included in the list includes Interserve Learning, the training arm of outsourcing giant Interserve that was put into administration two months ago.
With nearly 5,000 apprentices on its books, the company has offered reassurance that this was not going to be a Carillion-style collapse and it was very much business as usual, with no big job losses anticipated.
Administrators Ernst and Young were appointed on March 15 and the company’s assets were moved immediately to a group controlled by Interserve’s lenders, which is continuing its operations.
Another provider that won a contract in the Liverpool City Region AEB tender is Warrington and Vale Royal College, which received a grade three rating from Ofsted back in 2016 but has since been found to have made ‘reasonable progress’ in a monitoring visit.
The list features a number of grade two providers, including Aspire Education Academy and North West Community Services Training Ltd.
There is also a grade one provider on the list – Women’s Technology Training Limited. The adult and community provider has been commended by Ofsted for “outstanding governance” and a “strong impact on improvement, strategy and performance”.
Several providers which have won contracts have not been inspected yet.
The West Midlands was the first combined authority to release the winners from its AEB tender last week, as revealed by FE Week.
Meanwhile, there are delays to the procurement being run by the Greater London Authority.
Tees Valley Combined Authority is understood to currently be in the final stages of funding awards and is expected to make a decision in the coming months, and the West of England Combined Authority is making decisions on allocations at its next committee meeting on June 14.
The procurement exercise being run Greater Manchester Combined Authority is still live, according to a spokesperson. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s is also still ongoing.
The 19 winning providers in Liverpool City Region’s AEB tender:
Antrec Limited
Aspire Education Academy Ltd
B-Skills Ltd
Crosby Training
Innovative Alliance Ltd
Interserve Learning
Kickstart2employment Ltd
Mode Training Ltd
North West Community Services
Seetec Business Technology Centre Limited
South West Regional Assessment Centre
St Helens Chamber
Sysco Business Skills Academy
The Growth Company Limited
Three Dimensional Training
Vocational Skills Solutions Limited
Warrington & Vale Royal College
Women’s Technology Training Limited
Workers Educational Association
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