apprenticeships | FE Week

IfA close to losing external quality assurer as contract expires at end of the week

The organisation that delivers external quality assurance on behalf of the Institute for Apprenticeships has yet to sign a new contract, FE Week understands – just days before its existing contract runs out. Open Awards, a small awarding organisation with a turnover of just £1.5 million and around 30 members of staff, was first awarded […]

Hinds quick to show IfA support but fails to name employers in agreement

The education secretary was unable to name a single employer who supported the Institute for Apprenticeships in an interview with FE Week editor Nick Linford this week. Damian Hinds had arranged the interview while on his fact-finding trip to Germany and the Netherlands. He was asked if the English version of employer ownership was working, […]

DfE finds much needed apprenticeship monitoring cash

When the ESFA published the list of providers on the apprenticeship register in March 2017 we reported that the entire sector was shocked. Hundreds of companies, many never having filed a set of accounts, had successfully applied to a register that would give them unlimited access to apprenticeship funding. In an interview with me the […]

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, […]

IfA launches first content review of apprenticeship standards

The Institute for Apprenticeships has begun its first statutory review of apprenticeship standards since it began operating more than a year ago. It’s inviting feedback from employers, apprentices and training providers on 12 standards in the digital sector, all of which were approved before April 2017, via an online consultation which runs for four weeks. Sir […]

Ofsted DOES soften 3 year full inspection rule – after sector backlash

Poorly performing new apprenticeship providers will now only be left in no new business limbo for up to a year – not three, as Ofsted had previously said. The U-turn was confirmed today by Paul Joyce (pictured above), the education watchdog’s deputy director for FE and skills. “Where providers are judged to be making insufficient […]

Revealed: The 6 apprenticeship providers banned from taking new recruits

Six new apprenticeship providers have been barred from taking on new apprentices after early monitoring visits found them to be making ‘insufficient progress’, the Education and Skills Agency has confirmed. The penalties are revealed in the latest update to the register of apprenticeship training providers, dated September 10, which now includes a column titled ‘provider not […]

EPA assessor capacity: Will England be able to cope in the long-term?

By 2020, when the apprenticeship reforms will have taken full effect, there are likely to be around 500,000 end-point assessments carried out every year. Sally Collier, chief regulator at exams watchdog Ofqual, told a room full of training providers at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ conference in June, that she was “concerned” over […]

Major slash in store for apprenticeship funding rate bands

The Institute for Apprenticeships will soon confirm controversial changes to dozens of apprenticeship funding rate bands, according to the skills minister. Writing in her monthly column in FE Week, Anne Milton said the rate changes will be published online “shortly” and further reviews will take place in the autumn. To date, the IfA has refused […]