York College
‘apprenticeships’
Funding for a host of politically unpopular workplace qualifications is set to rise, with payments for one course rocketing 508 per cent. Click here for the list. Payments for more than 1,100 workplace qualifications (formerly known as Train to Gain) will rise this month as the Skills Funding Agency aims to simplify an “overly complicated” […]
News
One of the first Ofsted inspections under the new common inspection framework is to be disputed. Merseyside-based Central Training, which bills itself as one of the UK’s largest providers of vocational training and education, was inspected over five days from September 17. The company, which is made up of sports, skills, business and fitness divisions, […]
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, […]
Uncategorized
Apprentice numbers in engineering and construction have plummeted while management apprenticeships have rocketed 45 per cent. Engineering, based on provisional figures for the full 2011/12 year, fell 30 per cent to 12,890, while construction dropped 18 per cent to 12,850. Their high points, respectively, were 20,700 apprenticeship starts in 2006/07 and 18,330 in 2010/11. The […]
A wide-ranging report from the Tory grandee Lord Heseltine (right) questions the role of the Skills Funding Agency, instead calling for devolved powers and funding to be handed to regions through local enterprise partnerships. The former deputy prime minister suggests that almost £48bn of government cash in different Whitehall departments should be placed in a […]
The government’s departmental split over education responsibility has been branded “damaging and artificial” in a new report from the 157 Group. The division of arrangements for those aged 18 and under, and those aged 19 and above, “risks separating planning for apprenticeships from that for other routes.” Effective Transitions from School to Work: The Key […]
Look at what is happening on the ground if you want to understand the way that things are moving, says Sarah Robinson. Developing more coherent arrangements for the transition from school to work is a case in point in light of the 157 Group’s new report, Effective Transitions from School to Work: The Key Role of […]
Opinion
An Ofsted probe into subcontracting has uncovered lead contractors charging management fees “as a way of generating income for doing little work”. The Ensuring Quality in Apprenticeships report highlights how subcontractors felt they were getting “poor value for money” from management fees and reveals many lead contractors were overcharging according to Skills Funding Agency (SFA) […]
Last week Peter Cobrin’s article on the FE Week website highlighted that all was not well in the world of training providers. In this second article he considers their claims of exploitation and being undervalued. Training providers are businesses and need a financial and administrative environment that is sustainable, predictable, consistent, and transparent. Is this […]
