York College
‘apprenticeships’
A little-known entrepreneur, Wayne Janse van Rensburg, has overnight become one of the most powerful figures in FE after taking the reins at Learndirect. He’s watched from afar as, over the past 12 months, the nation’s biggest FE provider lost a battle with Ofsted to suppress a ruinous grade four inspection report, with the fallout […]
News
Three ‘new’ apprenticeship providers have been found to be making ‘reasonable progress’ in all areas, while an adult and community learning provider has held onto its grade two rating this week. Monitoring visit reports into apprenticeship providers SIGTA Limited, FWD Training and Consultancy and Northwest Education and Training Limited were all published this week, with […]
Apprenticeship funding bands currently under review by the Institute for Apprenticeships will be given a minimum two-month notice period if their funding rate is reduced. But in the case of standards whose funding rate increases, the change will be immediate. Lucy Rigler (pictured), the IfA’s acting deputy director for funding policy, revealed the extra detail […]
An independent auditor has been called in to investigate the Education and Skills Funding Agency over their contract management of apprenticeships giant Aspire Achieve Advance (3aaa), FE Week can reveal. Alyson Gerner is carrying out the independent investigation on behalf of the Department for Education. She is finance director of DfE-owned LocatED, which is responsible for buying […]
The Institute for Apprenticeships wants to develop “a reputation for providing honest, evidenced and high-quality leadership when developing opinion on apprenticeships and technical education”. It also says it wants to use its “unique perspective to develop its authority and reputation as an expert and trusted source for information”, according to its five-year strategic plan published […]
Opinion
A membership body representing universities has written to the skills minister to say it would be a “massive mistake” to water down policy on employer fees for apprenticeships. The University Vocational Awards Council issued the warning to Anne Milton this week. The letter argued that the 10 per cent co-investment fee for non-levy payers is […]
A surge in higher level management apprenticeship starts has raised grave concerns that employers are rebadging their training. Gordon Marsden, the shadow skills minister, called on the government to “urgently look deeper” at what is behind the rapidly expanding overall numbers of apprenticeships at level four and above, after seeing FE Week analysis of the latest Department […]
The north west was the region where NHS apprenticeships saw their biggest fall last year, as they dramatically dropped by nearly half, new figures have revealed. As previously reported by FE Week, the health service had a total of 19,820 apprenticeship starts in the 2015/16 academic year, but this fell by 22 per cent to […]
FE has vast expertise in delivering healthcare apprenticeships, but those trying to solve the nursing shortage fail to see the larger role it could play, says Laira Pearson Apprentice numbers in the NHS are falling and the number of nurse vacancies are increasing. The obvious question is: Why aren’t NHS employers using their large apprentice […]
