AELP | FE Week

Blow your own trumpet and shake off your victim mentality, providers told

FE providers have been urged to “blow their own trumpet more” after research found they have developed a “victim mentality” because they have been “unfairly blamed for deficiencies in a highly complicated system”. A study, conducted by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and the Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL), found that […]

Employers having control over UK skills policy is ‘rhetoric, not reality’

The government should move away from its “unhelpful” mantra of “employers in the driving seat” in UK skills policy because this is “more rhetoric than reality”, new research has suggested. The phrase was coined with regard to further education in the latter years of the Coalition government – 2010-2015. However, the study has found that […]

AELP appoints a devolution director to represent independent training providers

The “real fear” that independent training providers wouldn’t get “representation around the table” in adult education budget devolution has prompted the Association of Employment and Learning Providers to appoint its first devolution director. Harminder Matharu takes up her post on December 19, just two days before bids are due in the Greater London Authority’s tender […]

AELP calls for March 2020 end to non-levy transition period

Any transition period for moving small employers onto the apprenticeship service should only last until March 2020 to avoid another “unnecessary procurement exercise”, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has said. It’s one of a number of proposals the AELP has put forward for the non-levy transition period and creating a sustainable apprenticeship system, […]

Massive subcontracting top-slices finally revealed

Subcontracting top-slices exceeded £100 million last year, and 28 per cent of prime providers were charging more than 20 percent, FE Week can reveal. The long-overdue subcontracting figures for 2016/17 have finally been published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. FE Week’s analysis of the data has shown that just under a third of […]

Baker clause: providers asked for their experiences

Providers are being asked for their experiences of the controversial Baker clause, amid signs that schools are failing in their legal duty to open their doors to the FE sector. The survey, conducted by the AELP at the request of the Department for Education, asks providers about the impact of the legislation, which came into […]

95% of apprenticeships agreed at full cap price, despite negotiation ‘experiment’

The government should drop its “experiment” with negotiated apprenticeship prices, after it emerged that almost every single one is currently being agreed at full cost, the boss of the Association and Learning Providers has said. Mark Dawe wants “fixed pricing” for all apprenticeships, both for the new employer-designed standards and for the older frameworks. Every […]

New 20% limit for management fees in best-practice guidance

The management fees charged by prime FE providers should not be more than 20 per cent of the programme funding – and will generally be much less – after big-hitting FE representative bodies struck an agreement. The organisations putting their name to new best-practice guidance on relationships between primes and their subcontractors are the Association of […]

Urgent government action needed to save traineeships, AELP claims

Traineeships are in decline and could die without more support from the government, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has warned. Alongside the shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden, the body hosted a special Westminster debate on the future of the scheme in Parliament this afternoon. Panel members, including AELP’s chair Martin Dunford and chief executive […]