York College
‘apprenticeships’
A careers investment fund, an improved National Careers Service (NCS) website and free or subsidised access to advice are among the recommendations of the National Careers Council (NCC) as it identified “insufficient progress” with reforms since its previous annual report. As well as re-iterating its call for an employer-led government advisory board on careers, for […]
News
The Department for Education (DfE) has “failed” to manage providers operating its traineeship programme, a senior MP has claimed. Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair Margaret Hodge (pictured) made the comments in response to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO), which showed that just 200 out of 459 eligible training providers who said they […]
Officials at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) are currently sifting through the results of FE and skills consultations — one focussed on traineeships and the other on FE loans. The traineeship consultation began on June 19 and closed on August 14. It asked if traineeship providers should be paid based on learner […]
In the 26 months since Geoff Russell stepped down as chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency, FE and skills has undergone much change — with more imminent. Having taken up post at Positive Outcomes independent learning provider this summer, he assesses the sector and considers whether it’s heading in the right direction. Further education […]
Opinion
Government plans to make employers pay for up to a third of the training for 16 to 18 apprenticeships could hit the age group’s already-falling uptake, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned. It said the number of apprenticeship starts among 16 to 18-year-olds, which fell from 129,900 in 2011/12 to 114,500 in 2012/13, could fall further […]
The Education and Training Foundation has acted over conflict of interest concerns surrounding interim director Pauline Odulinski after a £100k contract was awarded to a firm where she worked. The foundation last month gave the contract to develop a learning technologies self-assessment tool to Surrey-based Coralesce — where Mrs Odulinski is employed as a project […]
The government and top employers have today launched a ‘Get In, Go Far’ TV advertising campaign for apprenticeships as teenagers up and down the country prepare to collect their GCSE results tomorrow. Existing apprentices are shown taking selfies in their places of work and speaking about their experiences in the adverts, which are also set […]
Labour’s tech bacc plans and proposals for Institutes of Technical Education were restated in a speech today by Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt (pictured) — but he failed to convince at least one general FE college principal that the “real issues the sector is facing” would be adddressed. Mr Hunt, delivering a speech at Microsoft’s London headquarters that […]
Efforts to simplify FE funding and bureaucracy by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) are under the National Audit Office (NAO) microscope. The NAO has launched a probe, called Further Education and skills sector — the simplification plan, with findings due for publication this autumn. “The study will examine the work done by BIS to simplify […]
