York College
‘apprenticeships’
The non-levy apprenticeship funding tender timetable has been “amended” by the Department for Education, and the deadline for submissions is now September 8. In a statement, following the controversial relaunch of the process just over a month ago, the DfE said: “We have been responding to a high volume of queries and to ensure everyone has sufficient […]
News
Third Sector National Learning Alliance chief executive Tim Ward, wrote the following open letter to outgoing Institute for Apprenticeships and Education and Skills Funding Agency boss Peter Lauener. He expresses below grave concerns about the adult education budget procurement process, which he warns is likely to reduce the number of directly contracted third sector providers. Dear […]
Opinion
This week has seen an all-too-rare period of all good news when it comes to Ofsted inspections. The heaviest hitter in the last full week in August is probably TTE Training, an independent learning provider based in Ellesmere Port, which went from a ‘good’ grade at its last inspection to an ‘outstanding’ this time around. […]
By this time on results day, we’re all now aware of the new style of numerical GCSE grading. But if you’re still getting your head around whether a 1 or a 9 is the best grade, or wondering what this means for students starting post-16 courses this September and who will be subject to the […]
The Education and Skills Funding Agency has appointed a permanent chief executive to replace Peter Lauener. Eileen Milner, who joins the ESFA from the Care Quality Commission, will start her new job in November, after which Mr Lauener is expected to retire. In his announcement, he wrote that the appointment process for the position of […]
Colleges and providers need to get smarter in attracting new learners who’ve just had their GCSE results – here’s how to do it, says Lucy Perkins Students’ decisions on their future are being made increasingly last-minute: last year, a record one in eight university students found their place through clearing. In today’s rapidly evolving post-16 […]
The Institute for Apprenticeships continues to be the dominant external quality assurance (EQA) provider of choice for most Trailblazer groups – even though it describes itself as the “option of last resort”. As a result, concerns are deepening across the sector that the government’s own EQA regulator is regulating itself, a situation that Graham Hasting-Evans, managing […]
Even Learndirect’s own membership body, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, has demanded a full explanation of how the government will protect current and future students. The Department for Education admitted this week it will continue to fund the nation’s biggest FE provider for current and new students until July 31, 2018, following its ‘inadequate’ […]
The strange case of Learndirect’s long-awaited ‘inadequate’ grade shows that providers in this country are not created equal, argues former Ofsted HMI Phillip Hatton The history of Learndirect is interesting when you consider what it is today. Almost 20 years ago, I was sent to a launch event with Dr Anne Wright, the first chief […]
