York College
‘apprenticeships’
The marketplace is changing rapidly, and it’s awash with new standards and providers. Stefano Capaldo explains how to sort the wheat from the chaff Twelve months ago, the levy gave employers control of apprenticeship funding in England. While this is welcome in lots of ways, it has become increasingly difficult for employers to identify a […]
Opinion
The group developing three long-delayed FE teaching standards is in a bitter stand-off with the Institute for Apprenticeships, claiming the funding bands on offer represent just half what these standards would cost to deliver. The three standards, ranging between levels three and level five, have been in development since 2015. They were recently assigned funding […]
News
It is crunch time at the nation’s largest college group, which is cutting staff and faces the return of Ofsted for a full inspection over its achievement rates. NCG will receive visits from two teams of inspectors on Monday, FE Week can reveal. One team will examine four of its colleges – Newcastle College, Newcastle […]
The Department for Education has been heavily criticised for its oversight of the Student Loans Company during the tenure of its disgraced former chief executive, in a new report from the National Audit Office. The watchdog looked into how the DfE monitored the company while Steve Lamey, who was dismissed for gross misconduct last November, […]
Apprentices have been ignored in the government’s plans to improve support for learners with mental ill-health, according to a critical report from two influential committees of MPs. The education and social care select committees were full of criticism for proposals laid out in December in a green paper on beefing up mental health provision for […]
The former skills minister has appeared to question the whole design principle behind the government’s plan for prestigious new T-levels. Speaking in Westminster Hall this afternoon, Robert Halfon said that while there should be a “rocket booster” attached to the new technical qualifications, he is unsure about forcing 16-year-olds to choose between wholly academic and […]
Leicester city council is the latest public body accused of diverting apprenticeship levy funding away from frontline learning via a brokerage-style deal with a third party. It awarded a contract to a firm known as Salad Skills last October, to operate as a “quality-assurance partner”. This role involves identifying suitable providers to train the council’s […]
Cruelties in the way much-needed welfare is handed out to NEET families is preventing their children from social mobility, writes Andrée Deane-Barron Why would the government establish policy that so defiantly restricts the progress of another? I am referring to the welfare benefits system and its adverse effect on the take-up of apprenticeships, especially among […]
A college that charged up to 57 per cent in management fees has been found to be attempting to use up £100,000 of skills funding with tactical subcontracting. But the Education and Skills Funding Agency has refused to say whether it will take enforcement action over what appears to be a clear breach of funding […]
