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14 April 2026

Tag: apprenticeships

Profile Nadhim Zahawi, education secretary

Nadhim Zahawi is England’s new education secretary, FE Week profiled Zahawi back in 2016 when he served the then Prime minister, David Cameron, as apprenticeship ambassador.

Boles addresses apprenticeship standard quality concerns

Skills Minister Nick Boles (pictured above) addressed concerns about how the quality of apprenticeships will be policed as the government drives towards its target of creating 3m apprenticeship by 2020. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) raised the possibility, in its consultation on the proposed large employers’ apprenticeship levy set to be introduced […]

Sector gives BIS committee its views on the Productivity Plan

The task of the first official inquiry of the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee is to look at the government’s Productivity Plan. Committee chair Iain Wright (pictured above), announcing the inquiry in July, said he wanted to explore whether the plan addressed the main causes of low productivity in the UK […]

Six-month euro funding delay ‘could have been avoided’

Sector leaders have lashed out at the UK government and European Commission over a possible six-month funding gap for European Social Fund (ESF) contracts that they claimed “could have been avoided” — averting widespread job losses. The SFA confirmed for the first time on Wednesday (June 3) that while current 2007 to 2013 contracts would […]

Don’t cut allocations to meet savings target, pleads sector

The government has been warned against looking to FE allocations to help meet Chancellor George Osborne’s aim of a £900m cut by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE). Each is staring down the barrel of £450m cuts this financial year — with FE budgets specifically earmarked for […]