apprenticeships | FE Week

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, […]

Ofsted picks Damar to train its apprentices

Ofsted is using just one training provider for its new cohort of 31 apprentices, FE Week can reveal. The recruits will all follow a two-year business administration programme at levels two and three with Stockport-based provider Damar Ltd. In March, the Skills Funding Agency was found to be using a total of 13 different providers […]

#SaveOurApprenticeships rally planned for Labour Party conference

FE Week will hold a special rally in support of its #SaveOurApprenticeships campaign at next week’s Labour Party conference in Liverpool. Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden will attend the event alongside many other committed MPs, party members and sector leaders, at the Pullman Hotel on the evening of Tuesday, September 27. We want to send […]

The Tories are letting the country down on apprenticeships funding

Theresa May hasn’t been Prime Minister for very long, so we can’t expect her to know the detail of every policy area. But if you’re going to stand up at Prime Minister’s Questions and talk about cuts to apprenticeships funding, getting the facts right would be a good plan. So when the Prime Minister says […]

Is this the new dawn for apprenticeships?

While apprenticeship expansion is very welcome, let’s hope it’s not derailed by some of the disastrous aspects of the reforms, says John Hyde. Future generations will look back at this moment to realise that apprenticeships for the 21st century have finally arrived. The extension of apprenticeships to all skills and managerial levels – encompassing all […]

How easy is it to become a registered training provider?

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) was scheduled to open a new, ‘tougher’ Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RATP) to applicants this month, following a period of consultation and feedback. However, as with other elements of the apprenticeship-reform programme, this process has been delayed – indeed, the consultation only closed last week on September 5. While […]

Counter-fraud measures underway for apprenticeship funding programme

Counter-fraud measures are to be set up for the apprenticeship funding programme, the government has insisted, amid warnings from the National Audit Office that not enough care is being taken to prevent a repeat of the Individual Learning Accounts fiasco. Worried about a repeat of the multimillion-pound fraud 15 years ago, the NAO has found […]

Skills minister dismisses calls to delay apprenticeship levy launch

The new skills minister has dismissed widespread calls to delay the apprenticeship levy launch, even after 10 major professional bodies called on him to rethink. Robert Halfon (pictured) dismissed the findings of an FE Week investigation, claiming any hold-up past next April’s launch date would delay “millions of opportunities for both business and people”. Yet […]