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‘apprenticeships’

Is FE and skills on board the Lep drive and does it even need to be?

Local enterprise partnerships seemed to be the next big thing for FE and skills in late 2012 when Lord Heseltine called for a single funding pot that included the adult skills budget. Fears emerged that a lack of FE and skills representation among Lep boards might see sector cash used elsewhere, on infrastructure projects, for […]

News

Making employers pay ‘risks’ 16 and 17 apprenticeships

A government consultation on apprenticeship funding reforms is looking at making employers pay towards training. Kirstie Donnelly explores the implications. All 16-year-olds are different. All of them have different talents and different goals in life. Some, for example, are naturally academic and suited to classroom learning. Others, as we all know so well, are better […]

Opinion

What the budget means for FE beyond the apprenticeship headlines

The extension of the apprenticeship grant for employers may have provided the main source of budget attention for FE, but Mick Fletcher looks at how else the sector might have been affected by Chancellor George Osborne’s announcements. In a pre-election budget, designed to win votes through devices like cutting the bingo tax, FE was never […]

Opinion

Keeping the options open on Functional Skills

The government has already downgraded Functional Skills more than three years before they are fully replaced in the apprenticeship programme by GCSEs. Roger Francis makes the case for viewing the qualifications as equal again.   Few people would deny that the UK faces a huge skills crisis. Nearly 50 per cent of the adult working […]

Opinion

No competition for ‘transparency’ role

  The chair of a new board established by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) to ensure transparency was appointed without an open and competitive application process, FE Week can reveal. The SFA has announced that Burton and South Derbyshire College principal Dawn Ward will chair its data and management information advisory group, which aims to […]

News

Adult budget cuts prompt rethink call

The government has been urged to rethink its approach to funding for FE after it was revealed learning providers will face an average cut of 15 per cent to their adult skills budgets. In a letter to providers, Skills Funding Agency (SFA) interim chief executive Barbara Spicer (pictured) said although funding for apprenticeships and traineeships […]

News

Government extends apprenticeship grant for employers

A scheme which provides employers with grants of up to £1,500 for each apprentice they train has been extended to 2016. In his budget today, Chancellor George Osborne announced the apprenticeship grants for employers (AGE) scheme would be funded with £85m in both 2014/15 and 2015/16. It had originally been due to end in December. […]

News

Provider budgets set for 15 pc cut, but apprenticeships protected

Further education providers face a 15 per cent cut in their adult skills budget allocations, the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has revealed. In a letter to providers, SFA chief executive Barbara Spicer said although funding for apprenticeships and traineeships was being “prioritised”, remaining funding would be cut by 15 per cent. It provides the first […]

News

Making progress towards an FE UCas system

The Deputy Prime Minister has called for a “UCas-style” admissions system for FE, but Gina Bradbury says that one already exists. A ‘UCas-style’ system for young people making post-GCSE choices is already here — and UCas itself is powering the service. When Nick Clegg stressed the need for such a service last month, it was […]

Opinion