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‘ofsted’

Thousands of apprenticeships hang in the balance as Interserve rescue plan prompts share collapse

The survival of another outsourcing giant that trains “around 14,000 apprentices each year” appears to hang in the balance, after its shares plummeted amid its attempts to secure a second rescue deal. Interserve, an international support services and construction group which runs a large UK training provider called Interserve Learning and Employment Ltd, is desperately […]

News

Ofsted watch: Three providers improve to ‘good’

Three providers – including two colleges – have boosted their grades from three to two this week, while one provider went the other way. Elsewhere it’s been a busy week for monitoring visits, with nine reports published – six for new apprenticeship visits, and three for grade three providers. MidKent College and Northampton College were […]

News

The apprenticeship levy is public money that needs priorities – before it runs out

The Institute for Apprenticeships is forecasting a £500 million overspend on the levy budget by July 2019, rising to £1.5 billion for the year ending July 2021. It is clear that forecasting models for expenditure, before the Levy’s introduction in May 2017, significantly underestimated the reality, in terms of starts on high value apprenticeships with […]

Opinion

Apprenticeship quality remains a ‘mixed picture’, says Ofsted’s Paul Joyce

In July the prime minister claimed that apprenticeship quality had risen since the introduction of the levy and standards – even though Ofsted had found the reverse. Five months on from Theresa May’s comments in parliament, FE Week editor Nick Linford asked Paul Joyce, Ofsted deputy director for FE and skills, if things have improved. […]

News

Education secretary disagrees with Ofsted and not blaming colleges for ‘false hope’ job prospects

Damian Hinds has said he would “not blame colleges at all” in the way that Amanda Spielman did for putting students on courses such as arts and media which have slim job prospects. The chief inspector told the Association of Colleges conference last month that there is a “mismatch” between the numbers of students taking […]

News

Don’t play the blame game over the Baker clause

The lack of information about A-level alternatives will not be solved by cajoling schools into compliance, says Kevin Gilmartin. Instead, what is needed is an understanding of what is holding back any progress or solution There’s frustration in the corridors of Whitehall and among colleges and training providers over the perceived failings of schools to […]

Opinion

Apprenticeships starts down nearly a quarter last year

Apprenticeship numbers fell by almost a quarter last year compared to the year before, according to final figures published by the Department for Education this morning.  There were 375,800 apprenticeship starts in 2017/18, a drop of 118,600 – or 24 per cent – on 2016/17’s total of 494,400, and a decrease of 26 per cent […]

News

DfE urgently seeking answers to why level two apprenticeships fell by 38%

The Department for Education is urgently seeking to “improve understanding” of what’s behind the drop in level two apprenticeships, as the latest statistics show numbers have fallen by more than a third in the space of a year. There were just 161,400 starts at level two in 2017/18, according to the final apprenticeship figures for […]

News

Interserve denies 5,000+ apprentices will go the way of Carillion

Even as the fallout from Carillion’s collapse engrossed the nation, another outsourcing giant which trains over 5,000 apprentices also had financial concerns highlighted. Interserve, an international support services and construction group which runs a large UK training provider called Interserve Learning and Employment Ltd, employs over 80,000 staff worldwide and has an annual turnover of […]

News