Apprenticeships

Civil servants raced to beat their own level 7 apprenticeship deadline

'Contradictory' government behaviour contributed to level 7 starts rush before funding ended in January

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Colleges

Free meals funding frozen in FE while schools rate rises

College leaders bite back at ‘insulting’ DfE decision

Josh Mellor
Josh Mellor
Colleges

Ministers accused of breaking 16–19 funding promise with 0.5% rate rise

An uplift on older T Level courses will also be removed in the new academic year

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel and Josh Mellor
Skills reform, Teaching

AI Skills Hub risks ‘copy and paste of past failure’

New AI skills hub initiative reeks of pandemic-era 'skills toolkits' failures

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Apprenticeships

DfE revises approach to Ofsted grades in apprenticeship accountability framework

Three ‘supplementary indicators’ have also been suspended, and the past planned end date measure has been refined

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Colleges

Bids open for 19 more technical excellence colleges

Wave 2 sees expansion to sixth form colleges and ‘rare’ opportunity to hold multiple TEC status

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Apprenticeships

Millions lost in fraud from Covid apprentice payments

Independent covid counter-fraud report finds only £1 million recouped in apprentice incentive scheme

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Inclusion

Perm sec advises against ‘blanket’ council duty on post-16 SEND transport

Top education civil servant also highlights soaring post-16 transport costs for SEND learners that have outpaced pre-16 spending

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Higher education

DfE confirms crackdown on HE franchise fraud

New registration law to come into force from May 2026 to ‘protect' nearly 100,000 students

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel