York College
‘apprenticeships’
The organisation that delivers external quality assurance on behalf of the Institute for Apprenticeships has yet to sign a new contract, FE Week understands – just days before its existing contract runs out. Open Awards, a small awarding organisation with a turnover of just £1.5 million and around 30 members of staff, was first awarded […]
News
Crisis-hit Aspire Achieve Advance has been telling its staff to not date any paperwork for “planned enrolments” in the midst of a government suspension on recruiting apprentices. Employees at the apprenticeship giant, better known as 3aaa, were also instructed not to tell current and prospective employers that the ban has been placed upon it. The […]
An independent learning provider has been given a grade three rating across the board in its first Ofsted inspection as the results for five more early monitoring visits of apprenticeship providers have been published. The only full Ofsted inspection published this week saw Encompass Consultancy gaining a ‘requires improvement’ judgement in every possible category. The […]
The government has coughed up the full £5.4 million Ofsted requested to visit all new apprenticeship providers as its crackdown on poor provision continues. In an exclusive interview with FE Week, Paul Joyce (pictured), the inspectorate’s deputy director for FE and skills, said the amount was nothing less than what was requested and will be provided from now until the end of […]
The education secretary was unable to name a single employer who supported the Institute for Apprenticeships in an interview with FE Week editor Nick Linford this week. Damian Hinds had arranged the interview while on his fact-finding trip to Germany and the Netherlands. He was asked if the English version of employer ownership was working, […]
Any transition period for moving small employers onto the apprenticeship service should only last until March 2020 to avoid another “unnecessary procurement exercise”, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has said. It’s one of a number of proposals the AELP has put forward for the non-levy transition period and creating a sustainable apprenticeship system, […]
Education secretary Damian Hinds this week followed in the footsteps of many a government minister before him and jetted off for a fact-finding mission to our neighbours on the continent. His visit to Germany and the Netherlands was intended to “discover how they educate their young people to have the practical and technical skills needed […]
The Institute for Apprenticeships has begun its first statutory review of apprenticeship standards since it began operating more than a year ago. It’s inviting feedback from employers, apprentices and training providers on 12 standards in the digital sector, all of which were approved before April 2017, via an online consultation which runs for four weeks. Sir […]
We still have some way to go before we will be on a par with other European countries – we must look past the podium to see what we can learn from their skills systems, says Ben Blackledge It’s no coincidence that Switzerland and Austria were in first and second place respectively at the last […]
Opinion
