York College
‘apprenticeships’
The last piece of troubled provider Elmfield has been sold off after the company went into administration last month. Fifty staff who had delivered the provider’s apprenticeships for supermarket giant Morrisons have been taken on by NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group) to see out the contract. It had already taken on the contract for new […]
News
The government has declined to rule out a new GCSE “stepping stone” qualification for struggling apprentices. The Department for Education (DfE) last month said new English and maths GCSEs would be incorporated into apprenticeships from 2017. They are set to replace functional skills, which will be scrapped. But FE leaders warned that vocational learners who […]
A Peterborough-based provider made “insufficient progress” in protecting the welfare of its learners and preventing bullying and abuse, Ofsted has found. The education watchdog slapped the National Farriery Training Agency (NFTA) with a grade four inspection result in February after finding evidence of “bullying” and “abuse” of farriery apprentices. Inspectors said learners’ on-the-job supervisors, or […]
A Berkshire provider left in ruins after the Skills Funding Agency terminated its contract amid allegations of fraud has been cleared by an arbitration judge. The agency severed its funding of NTQUK in March last year, saying it had “not submitted the requisite evidence” to support funding claims. The move resulted in almost the entire […]
Labour leader Ed Miliband said he was prepared to risk falling out with employers by forcing them to hire apprentices against their will. He made the comments during an interview with FE Week at London’s Tech City, which is a hub for digital and media firms. Mr Miliband’s visit on November 12 followed his party’s […]
Labour leader Ed Miliband gave his personal seal of approval to a new creative and digital media apprenticeship scheme at a London college, shortly after launching a taskforce that will investigate how to improve computer skills training across the country. He met staff at Hackney Community College, apprentices and employers backing the scheme from firms based at nearby Tech City, […]
Plans to put businesses at the heart of future funding arrangements for apprenticeships risk driving away all but the most committed employers, warns Christine Doubleday. In June 2012, Doug Richard was commissioned by Skills Minister Matthew Hancock to conduct a major review of the apprenticeship system. The government received his report enthusiastically and, in the […]
Opinion
Two big name employers have been hit with damning grade four Ofsted inspection results. InterContinental Hotels Group Services Company (IHG) and G4S Care & Justice Services (UK) Ltd and were both branded inadequate across the board by the education watchdog in inspection reports published this month. IHG, which incorporates Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn among […]
Just five per cent of complaints made over the summer about bosses paying apprentices below the National Minimum Wage (NMW) had been fully investigated by the government by late last month, FE Week can reveal. Eight of the complaints, all registered between July and September, had been closed, prompting a scathing attack from Shadow Skills […]
