apprenticeships | FE Week

No Birmingham colleges make apprenticeships register

The nation’s second largest city may not have an FE college delivering apprenticeships when the levy launches in April, as none of its colleges has made it onto the new register of apprenticeship training providers. Birmingham Metropolitan College, Bournville College, South and City College and Solihull College were all missing from the list published by […]

Colleges delivering hundreds of apprenticeships ‘surprised’ to be left off new provider register

A number of major apprenticeship delivering colleges are “stunned”, “disappointed” and “frustrated” at not being on the new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers. As reported by FE Week, the Skills Funding Agency yesterday published the full list of providers that will be eligible to deliver apprenticeships from May. Among the colleges with significant current apprenticeship […]

Company shuts down just days before SFA gives them green light for apprenticeship delivery

Update, November 1, 2017: The company has now confirmed to FE Week that it is continuing to operate, following a change of ownership. A private training provider is on the new Register of Apprenticeship Training Provider despite having ‘ceased trading’. Hertfordshire-based Apple Training Academy is listed as a main provider on the list published […]

Is it ethical to apply the apprenticeship levy to charities?

The levy will force charities to create new apprenticeships or lose the money to private business, which raises ethical issues, says Steve Woolcock This year’s national apprenticeship week will be the last before the apprenticeship levy kicks in on 1 April. As the day draws nearer, many large organisations have been preparing to deal with […]

Exclusive: Third largest awarding organisation pulls out of apprenticeship market

Awarding giant OCR has delivered a major blow to the government’s reforms programme by pulling out of delivering final apprenticeship exams altogether, FE Week can reveal. The exam board was previously listed on register of apprentice assessment organisations, as an end-point assessor for the level four network engineer and software developer standards. But an OCR […]

What’s on during National Apprenticeship Week 2017: Climbing the ladder of opportunity

The tenth National Apprenticeship Week will be celebrated across the country this year with an adventurous round of activities. The celebration, of all the wonderful things that apprenticeships have to offer, kicks off on Monday, March 6. This year’s theme is the skills minster Robert Halfon’s [pictured above] concept of the “ladder of opportunity”, and […]

Early years educator apprenticeship requirement u-turn confirmed

The government has finally confirmed that it is u-turning on the requirements for early years educator apprenticeships. Currently early years learners must achieve at least a grade C in English and maths GCSE to pass the level three course, but from April this will be broadened to include functional skills. The announcement was reported to […]

Apprenticeships: what are Ofsted inspectors looking for?

Apprenticeships are not vehicles to validate employees’ existing skills – our inspectors want to see that apprentices are learning something new, says Christopher Jones A sign outside a shop in my local market town reads: ‘the only constant in life is change’. I usually ignore such nuggets of wisdom, but this one stuck with me. […]

College governors brand SFA’s new apprenticeship contracts ‘ludicrous’

College governors have branded the SFA’s new apprenticeship contractual arrangements “ludicrous” during a heated discussion at the AoC’s Governance Summit. There is due to be a shift from contracts between the SFA and colleges to legal agreements between colleges and employers – which will amount to “a commercial relationship” with employers – according to Keith […]