York College
‘apprenticeships’
Hopes for new apprenticeship funding have been swiftly crushed after the Treasury confirmed that today’s budget offers no extra cash for the programmes. In January, new boss of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, Jennifer Coupland, called for an additional £750 million to prop-up small business apprenticeships. And optimism for the funding was raised […]
News
The chancellor has confirmed the Conservative manifesto commitments for FE, including a £1.5 billion boost to upgrade college buildings and a new £2.5 billion National Skills Fund for England. Rishi Sunak’s budget has also promised the government will “ensure that sufficient funding is made available in 2020-21 to support an increase in the number of […]
The education select committee held their first session yesterday with what it called a “discussion around the complexity of the levy, its impact on smaller businesses (non-levy payers) and the use of the levy to fund higher level apprenticeships”. You can watch the session here. As one of the witnesses, I prepared some analysis and […]
Opinion
The Department for Education has this morning published “analysis looking at the impact of the introduction of the apprenticeship levy on employers engaging with apprenticeships”. The analysts found: “Apprenticeship starts have become more concentrated in large employers, since the introduction of the levy. “Apprenticeship starts were most likely to occur in large employers (those with […]
The government will allow apprentices to have a “break in learning” if they cannot be assessed due to the coronavirus. Training providers usually incur a financial penalty under normal funding rules if they record a break in learning that is not driven by the learner, but this move “should protect funding” where the assessor is […]
One of the largest college group’s in England had its grade three from Ofsted confirmed, in what was otherwise a varied week for further education. The result was for Capital City College Group’s first inspection since being formed from a merger of City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College, and The College of Haringey, Enfield […]
Whitehall is lapping up the MBA apprenticeship that the education secretary Gavin Williamson is “unconvinced” provides value for money, FE Week has found. The Department for Work and Pensions told this newspaper it had 86 on the controversial programme, including those in the application process, while the Ministry of Defence has 17, with seven being […]
The Education and Skills Funding Agency is working on plans to require providers to be “accredited” for the apprenticeship standards they offer. Keith Smith, the agency’s director of apprenticeships, this week said the limits are being considered to give employers more “confidence” in the “future” register of apprenticeship training providers. Currently, end-point assessment organisations can […]
Apprenticeships and skills minister and Chichester MP Gillian Keegan could be a win-win for the Conservative Party. She hails from the country’s ‘most Labour seat’, was a 16-year-old shop floor apprentice, and has a masters-level business intellect. Gillian Keegan, the new apprenticeships and skills minister minister, strikes you as the sort of MP that […]
Profiles
