York College
‘apprenticeships’
Careers guidance should be boosting apprenticeships, says shadow minister Gordon Marsden The BIS Select Committee has provided a detailed and disturbing commentary of this government’s handling of apprenticeships and highlighted a number of persistent shortcomings. The committee came down hard on the government for lacking a coherent over-arching strategy for apprenticeships as well as highlighting […]
Opinion
The qualifications watchdog is “developing its thinking” on whether providers of apprenticeships should also be awarding bodies after a government report criticised the practice. An Ofqual spokesperson said it was looking at “potential conflicts of interest and will be saying more about our thinking in due course”. “We do not believe it is desirable for […]
News
With the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee report highlighting a number of apprenticeship issues, FE Week deputy editor Chris Henwood met chairman Adrian Bailey MP to discuss where he thinks the government is getting it wrong. Are you critical of the government’s aims on apprenticeships? The government has interpreted this programme as being a […]
Ofsted’s new common inspection framework came under the spotlight when providers met for an expert guidance session led by inspector of more than 10 years’ experience Megan Whittaker. Around 35 representatives from a range of providers, including colleges and subcontractors, were at the conference entitled Preparing for Inspection with the new Common Inspection Framework. The […]
Uncategorized
The real college was judged says Principal Richard Atkins, not one that had spent three weeks preparing. We were keen to get a health check from Ofsted. Exeter College had last been inspected in 2008 and rated as good, but we had received a Notice to Improve (NtI) for learner success rates. Having reacted quickly […]
A system of payments from the provider behind the UK’s biggest apprenticeship programme to the firm whose staff it trains has been given the green light by the Skills Funding Agency. Elmfield Training, which was allocated £41m by the agency for the current academic year, has previously defended the payments to giant supermarket chain Morrisons, […]
An 11-month government inquiry into apprenticeships has recommended a host of changes, including “closer scrutiny, careful monitoring or even complete reform”. The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee today published its report on apprenticeships. Click here to download the report. It has called for an “overarching government strategy and clear purpose for the apprenticeship programme,” along […]
No way, says Graham Hoyle. In its 10 years, the AELP has worked hard for smaller providers . . .after all, 40 per cent of its members have agency contract values of less than £1m. Peter Cobrin was certainly right to say that smaller independent training providers should be represented at the top table when […]
The chances of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) agreeing to 50 per cent flexibility in adult skills budgets were very low — but if you don’t ask you don’t get, says Lady Sharp. The idea of the Innovation Code put forward in our report The Dynamic Nucleus – Colleges at the Heart of Local Communities, […]
