Department for Education | FE Week

As the wheels fall off plans for the first PhD level apprenticeship, have employers been ejected from the driving seat?

This week we reveal that an Institute for Apprenticeships sub-committee (that includes four board members) refused to approve the first PhD level 8 apprenticeship. Instead, they asked the full board to rule whether a PhD level is even “in the spirit of apprenticeship policy”. Four months on and the board is still in discussions with […]

DfE slammed for refusal to investigate defunct Manchester UTC as paperwork fails to materialise

Auditors were unable to properly scrutinise the finances of a failed University Technical College because important data was missing, but the government chose not to investigate this issue. Accounts for the Greater Manchester UTC for 2016-17, finally published last month and over a year late, reveal that auditors gave a rare “disclaimer of opinion” on […]

DfE department responsible for apprenticeship policy has hardly any apprentices

The division responsible for running and promoting apprenticeships within the Department for Education employs the lowest proportion of apprentices across the whole department. Of the 519 people working within the DfE’s Higher and Further Education office, fewer than 10, which is less than 1 per cent, are apprentices. It is not clear the exact number […]

DfE urgently seeking answers to why level two apprenticeships fell by 38%

The Department for Education is urgently seeking to “improve understanding” of what’s behind the drop in level two apprenticeships, as the latest statistics show numbers have fallen by more than a third in the space of a year. There were just 161,400 starts at level two in 2017/18, according to the final apprenticeship figures for […]

DfE orders independent investigation into ESFA over 3aaa contract management

An independent auditor has been called in to investigate the Education and Skills Funding Agency over their contract management of apprenticeships giant Aspire Achieve Advance (3aaa), FE Week can reveal. Alyson Gerner is carrying out the independent investigation on behalf of the Department for Education. She is finance director of DfE-owned LocatED, which is responsible for buying […]

Ex-minister calls subcontracting fees ‘scandalous’, but DfE has ‘no concerns’

The government has for the first time concluded they have “no concerns” about subcontracting fees, despite more than 10 providers charging an average of over 30 per cent last year, FE Week can reveal. This is completely at odds with the view of the last skills minister Robert Halfon, who now chairs the education select […]

Top mandarin admits to contingency concerns over T-levels

The Department for Education should have left more time to make sure T-levels go to plan, according to its top civil servant. Jonathan Slater was questioned by the Public Accounts Committee today about his ministerial direction, published in May, in which he asked to defer the start date from 2020 to 2021. He was overruled […]

Ex-schools minister proposes DfE shake-up to stop schools and HE favouritism

Education ministers’ portfolios need a major shake-up if the historic favouritism shown to schools and universities is to change, according to a former schools minister. David Laws, who served as schools minister under Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan between 2012 and 2015, believes the current approach is “corrosive of good policy”. In an exclusive interview […]

Digital and science engineering UTC to open in Doncaster in 2020

A new university technical college is being created in South Yorkshire despite mounting problems with the programme, the Department for Education has confirmed. Doncaster UTC will train up to 750 learners in the “latest rail engineering techniques, as well as coding and 3D design skills”. It is scheduled to open in September 2020, and the official announcement explained that it aims to complement the […]