York College
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Beleaguered apprenticeship giant Aspire Achieve Advance has put itself up for sale with the government’s backing. The decision has been made following a suspension on its recruitment while an Education and Skills Funding Agency investigation is carried out into the company’s achievement rates. It is the second government investigation into the provider in the last […]
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Grade three or four colleges that merge can expect to receive a monitoring visit before their first full inspection, Ofsted has confirmed today. The clarification, which applies to mergers from January 2018 onwards, follows criticism that poor-performing colleges had been able to get away without any Ofsted scrutiny following a merger. According to the FE […]
The further education sector plays an important role in England’s education system. In 2017/18, the country’s 266 colleges provided education and training to 300,000 apprentices, 600,000 young people aged 16 to 18, and 1.4 million adults. However, it has also received an average 30 per cent funding cut from 2009 to 2019 and staffing levels […]
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Crisis-hit Aspire Achieve Advance was given a £7 million apprenticeships contract increase two years ago despite an investigation that found dozens of funding and success rate “overclaims”, FE Week can reveal. In recent weeks the apprenticeship giant has come under heavy scrutiny after its co-founders resigned and the Education and Skills Funding Agency suspended it […]
A major financial services training provider has been found to ‘require improvement’, in the only full FE and skills inspection report published this week. Elsewhere, an apprenticeships and adult learning provider was found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in three themes under review, in a follow-up monitoring visit report. Kaplan Financial, which works with more […]
Ofsted has been left red-faced after carrying out the wrong kind of monitoring visit and incorrectly publishing a report, before quickly deleting it. Inspectors visited Wiltshire Council’s adult and community learning service on July 7 this year, after the provision was given a grade three rating by Ofsted in December 2017. A letter detailing the […]
The co-founders of crisis-hit Aspire Achieve Advance have remained as the apprenticeship giant’s majority owners despite resigning as directors, FE Week can reveal. Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson, who were the company’s chief executive and main director respectively until last week, had their terminations of directorships confirmed on Companies House this morning. Since their resignations […]
One of the most highly paid FE college principals in the country has stepped down with immediate effect. Andrew Cleaves’ departure from Birmingham Metropolitan College, which he has led since 2014, was confirmed by the college today following local news reports. Cliff Hall has been appointed interim principal until a permanent replacement is found, a […]
Labour has done little to shine a light on the party’s plans for FE policy as the shadow education minister stopped short of going into any details on the subject during her speech at the party’s conference. The hotly awaited address from Angela Rayner did not include any new policy announcements about FE and skills, […]
