apprenticeships | FE Week

Commons debate request over funding cuts exposed by FE Week

A backbench House of Commons debate has been called for by David Lammy MP over drastic funding cuts exposed by FE Week, which inspired our #SaveOurApprenticeships campaign. Mr Lammy (pictured above) has applied to the Backbench Business Committee to hold a three hour debate based on the findings of FE Week’s exclusive analysis, which showed […]

FE Week campaign against apprenticeship funding cuts raised in Commons

Major cuts exposed by FE Week to apprenticeships funding for 16- to 18-year-olds in some of the most deprived areas of the country has been raised during education questions, with our #SaveOurApprenticeships campaign repeatedly name-checked on the floor of the House of Commons. Mary Glindon, Labour MP for North Tyneside (pictured above), asked during education questions what […]

Which Party conference was more focused on apprenticeships and skills?

Skills and apprenticeships were centre stage at one of the party conferences, says Gemma Gathercole, while being relegated to the wings at the other. By any stretch of the imagination it’s been a busy summer, from the referendum to leadership elections to the machinery of government changes. So conference season, at the start of the […]

How will the new apprenticeship standards be quality assured?

We recently hosted a roundtable discussion on the benefits of the levy and our new hospitality standards, organised by our weekly trade magazine and attended by a dozen human resources directors from major national contract catering and hotel chains. I was impressed by how these HR professionals have embraced the levy as a tool to […]

The unstoppable rise of management apprenticeships

Management is now the third most popular apprenticeship subject, and analysis by FE Week suggests it will rocket to the top spot once the apprenticeship levy kicks in next year. A huge 83 per cent of all 25+ higher apprenticeship frameworks are currently in management, according to the latest Department for Education data. And the […]

Search begins for chair of the Institute for Apprenticeships

The hunt is on for the first permanent chair of the Institute for Apprenticeships, while potential candidates have been served notice that they should be prepared to adapt to changing ministerial whims. An online notice posted by the Cabinet Office confirms that the role will involve two days a week work, and pay £56,000 a […]

Fairness fears over college apprenticeship groups

Industry insiders fear that new apprenticeship college training groups could unfairly distort the market and divert government cash away from frontline education services. Groups of colleges banding together to set up bodies to help broker joint deals with local employers to encourage them to take on apprentices, prompted Mark Dawe (pictured), the boss of the […]

Apprenticeship funding reforms: May 1, 2017 contingency coming?

There is a sad inevitability to the repeated delays to the unrealistic timetable for apprenticeship reforms. So much of the provisional detail is contested, and with a new minister in post grappling with plans, the situation won’t improve any time soon. As I wrote in a recent blog for NCFE, we haven’t given ourselves a […]

Funding reform roll-out in 2017 still on track, insists DfE

There will be no delay to apprenticeship funding reforms, the government has insisted, despite growing concerns in the sector over a series of setbacks to key policy details. The Association of Colleges called for all funding and regulation reforms to be delayed beyond the planned May 1 launch date for the first time last week, […]