Potteries Educational Trust
‘apprenticeships’
Lead providers took on nearly £300m of subcontracted provision last academic year, Skills Funding Agency (SFA) figures have revealed. More than 1,600 subcontracting agreements, totaling £283m of funding, were in place between providers who already held their own direct contracts with the SFA. It is the first time that the extent of inter-lead subcontracting has […]
News
With the government looking at new funding models for apprenticeships, Suzy Gunn explains why questions of practicality and accessibility must be considered. While most people agree solving the UK’s growing professional skills gap should be a major priority in the country’s return to healthy economic growth, exactly how this should be done is less clear. […]
Opinion
A new principal has been appointed at City College Coventry just months after its disastrous inspection report. Former City of Wolverhampton College interim principal John Hogg has taken over at Coventry where he has begun a series of meetings with staff and students and is developing an improvement plan. “The college has a lot to offer, […]
The Skills Funding Agency has announced rates from £500 to £900 for work placements in the government’s new traineeship programme. Agency officials laid out payment bands of 100 to 199 hours; 200 to 499 hours; and, 500 hours-plus in a sector webinar on Monday (see slides below). They said the bands would mean training providers […]
Government funding budgets for training at major UK firms has been slashed, new figures have shown. Firms such as British Gas, BT and McDonalds all under-delivered on the training they had been expected to deliver, according to the latest quarterly allocation figures from the Skills Funding Agency. British Gas had its 16 to 18 apprenticeship […]
Proposals to reform the apprenticeship funding system have been welcomed by former Dragons’ Den investor Doug Richard, nine months after his own review called for tax breaks for employers. Three funding ‘models’ have been proposed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the first of which is for a direct payment model where businesses […]
An Essex-based charity is understood to be in talks to become the first independent training provider to be legally reclassified as a college. Prospects Learning Foundation, which has two centres in Basildon, one in Southend-on-Sea and one in Canvey Island, is thought to be looking at the move. The charity, which has around 250 staff, […]
A “radical” overhaul of apprenticeship funding has been outlined by the government in response to a review by former Dragons’ Den investor Doug Richard. Three funding ‘models’ have been proposed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in A Consultation on Funding Reform for Apprenticeship in England, around nine months after the Richard Review […]
For colleges, FE providers and all those involved in the ever-changing local skills system, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) can be seen as everything from bewildering, complex, risky, threatening, to opportunities for influence. But, says Tom Stannard, the sector must be active in seizing these opportunities. LEPs are different beasts from their predecessors, the Regional Development […]
