apprenticeships | FE Week

72 apprenticeship frameworks with replacement standards to stay until 2020

There are 72 old-style apprenticeship frameworks with direct standard replacements, the government has confirmed – but they’re not going to be switched off until 2020. The list of 72 – which includes 47 different frameworks at multiple levels – was published today by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. It had sought feedback on switching the […]

Windrush scandal official becomes Cabinet Office apprenticeships chief

The immigration enforcement official blamed for the downfall of the former home secretary Amber Rudd has been moved from the Home Office to the Cabinet Office to lead on apprenticeships strategy. The Home Office announced that Hugh Ind “is moving to work at the Cabinet Office where he will take forward the public sector apprenticeships […]

It’s up to colleges and providers to sell apprenticeships to parents

Parents are still sceptical about high-quality technical education. The entire FE sector has a duty to change their minds, writes Anne Milton As exam time approaches and lots of young people will be thinking about their futures, I want to talk directly to colleges and providers about what they should be letting parents know about […]

Apprenticeship provider’s ban lifted after just two months

An apprenticeship provider whose training was branded “not fit for purpose” just two months ago has been allowed to continue recruiting apprentices. Key6 Group was the subject of Ofsted’s first early monitoring report on newcomers to the apprenticeship market, published in March. The inspectorate’s criticism of a provider new to government-funded apprenticeships when it joined […]

Employers clash with Institute for Apprenticeships over FE teacher funding bands

The group developing three long-delayed FE teaching standards is in a bitter stand-off with the Institute for Apprenticeships, claiming the funding bands on offer represent just half what these standards would cost to deliver. The three standards, ranging between levels three and level five, have been in development since 2015. They were recently assigned funding […]

Flaws in the benefits system are holding apprentices back

Cruelties in the way much-needed welfare is handed out to NEET families is preventing their children from social mobility, writes Andrée Deane-Barron Why would the government establish policy that so defiantly restricts the progress of another? I am referring to the welfare benefits system and its adverse effect on the take-up of apprenticeships, especially among […]

Charity set to announce purchase of People 1st

UPDATE: The Workforce Development Trust has confirmed the acquisition of People 1st. However, the Institute for Apprenticeships has said a formal agreement for the trust to take on responsibility for apprenticeship external quality assurance is yet to be made. “We will make a decision on the provision of EQA once discussions between People 1st and the […]

Apprenticeship qualifications: no uptake under new rules

No employer groups have taken advantage of the Institute for Apprenticeships’ new rules for including qualifications in apprenticeships, FE Week can reveal. The IfA announced in February, as part of its reform programme to make the approval of standards “faster and better”, that off-the-job technical qualifications could now be included in apprenticeships – news that […]

Apprenticeship payments system breakdown finally ‘resolved’

The government claims to have finally fixed its malfunctioning apprenticeship payments reporting system, more than two weeks after it was first reported. FE Week reported last week that the ESFA had missed its own deadline to repair the IT issues, which had prompted numerous exasperated complaints on the FE Connect site from April 10. We […]