York College
‘apprenticeships’
The apprenticeship levy needs to be rebadged as a skills levy and utilised for a broader range of training, says Mark Farrar The news that some training providers are having to turn away individuals interested in taking apprenticeships (as reported in FE Week, 8 February 2019) is, to put it mildly, awkward for the Education […]
Opinion
Government interventions can be tough, but they’re necessary if we want to create successful and sustainable colleges, says Anne Milton I wanted to use this month’s column to share with you the work that the FE Commissioner, Richard Atkins, and his team of deputies are doing to champion and support the sector. Almost eight out […]
The government has been told to “purge” its official register of end-point assessment organisations (RoEPAO) after FE Week found a sole trader and a new company with no trading history had successfully applied. Sixteen companies were added to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s register last month, taking the total on there to 215. FE […]
News
In October 2016 the then-chief executive of the ESFA boasted about how hard it was for organisations to get onto their apprenticeship register of end-point assessment organisations. As we reported at the time, Peter Lauener told the education select committee that just 21 applications out of 161 had been successful, explaining: “The quality of the […]
Figures for the apprenticeship starts published this morning for the period August to December 2018 are up 10 per cent on 2017 – but 24 per cent down for the same period in 2016 – the year before the levy reforms were introduced. The Department for Education reports: “There have been 192,100 apprenticeship starts reported […]
The National Audit Office is expected to publish its long awaited follow-up review on the state of the apprenticeships programme next Wednesday, in the middle of National Apprenticeship Week. The independent Parliamentary body was damning in its verdict of apprenticeship reform in its last report in September 2016, when it warned of a high risk […]
A criminal investigation into disgraced apprenticeship firm Aspire Achieve Advance could soon be launched after the Department for Education requested a meeting with the police. The company, better known as 3aaa, went into administration on October 11 after the government pulled its skills funding contracts following allegations of fraud. Derbyshire Constabulary then started making enquiries […]
Labour is planning to use National Apprenticeships Week to attack the government on their commitment to their own public sector apprenticeship recruitment target. Over the last week multiple MPs from the party have submitted a series of questions to ministers asking for the number of apprentices working in their department. The questions have all been […]
While last week’s employment statistics were generally good news, they also revealed that youth unemployment is rising. Fiona Aldridge shares what local areas across the country are doing to try and buck this trend For those of you looking for some good news, last week’s labour market stats are a great place to start. The […]
