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‘apprenticeships’

A year of Ofsted highs and lows

It has been a year in which Ofsted stories have hit the front pages time and time again — starting back in September last year with Sir Michael Wilshaw’s “Deptford not Delhi” criticism. He warned that colleges could be at risk of focusing on international opportunities to the detriment of home-grown learners. The former head […]

News

Minimum durations not a short-cut to better quality apprenticeships

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers was one of the voices opposing a minimum duration rule on apprenticeships, before the government said they had to last a year. Stewart Segal reviews the rule a year on. The news that starts for apprenticeships lasting less than a year have fallen significantly during the last twelve […]

Opinion

Cracking the careers guidance conundrum

With Ofsted’s careers guidance review due out soon, Karen O’Donoghue explains what she thinks needs to be done so that youngsters are getting pointed in the right direction.   The Ofsted Thematic Review on careers guidance in schools is due out soon. The debate on careers provision for young people, simmering since the introduction and […]

Opinion

Older and wiser on inspection

Ofsted’s criticism of the college sector last year was a bitter pill to swallow and the toughened up common inspection framework offered little hope for sector praise. However, it hasn’t quite worked out like that says Joy Mercer. It this time last year, colleges felt they had not weathered an Ofsted storm but were beached, […]

Opinion

Apprentice hopefuls face GCSE barrier

Colleges and training providers who “rigidly” demand higher grade GCSEs for the most basic of apprenticeships have come in for criticism from government vocational training adviser Professor Alison Wolf. An apparently growing number of adverts for intermediate apprenticeships are asking for maths and English GCSEs of at least grade C or D, FE Week research […]

News

College turns down 16 to 18 traineeships

A York college that will be running traineeships for 19 to 24-year-olds has said no to putting the programme on for 16 to 18-year-olds because of a lack of government funding, FE Week can reveal. The 2,000-student Askham Bryan College was rated as good by Ofsted early last year and so can run the government’s […]

News

Parliament debate on apprenticeship funding reform

Proposals to use the tax system to fund apprenticeships won tentative approval in a House of Commons vote organised by FE Week. More than 120 people from across the FE and skills sector attended the debate on the government’s three proposed apprenticeship funding reforms, with the option of employers recouping the costs of training through […]

Uncategorized

Underpaying apprentice bosses face increased name-and-shame threat

Underpaying apprentice bosses will be publicly named and shamed under government plans to make it easier to clamp down on rogue businesses. Employment Relations Minister Jo Swinson has announced new rules as part of efforts to toughen up enforcement of the National Minimum Wage (NMW). The clampdown, which will come into effect from October when […]

News

Serving the apprenticeship time

It’s just over a year since the minimum duration rule was applied, meaning most apprenticeships would have to last at least a year. Phil Hatton looks at whether the rule offers the quality assurance it was hoped for. I was one of the two authors of the first NVQ back in 1987, which really changed […]

Opinion