Gordon Marsden | FE Week

WorldSkills 2019: Team UK given send-off at Parliament

Skills minister Anne Milton told 37 of the UK’s best and brightest young skilled people they are about to face the “biggest challenge” of their lives during a special send-off event ahead of WorldSkills 2019 today. Delivering a heartfelt speech in the House of Commons, Milton told the Team UK competitors and their families she […]

IfA ‘considering’ releasing apprenticeship overspend presentation

The Institute for Apprenticeships is “considering” releasing a presentation given to employers that warned of an imminent apprenticeship overspend. The admission came in a letter, sent today, from its boss Sir Gerry Berragan, in response to a request from shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden. “We are considering the request and will respond as soon as […]

Huge concern over surge in higher level management apprenticeships

A surge in higher level management apprenticeship starts has raised grave concerns that employers are rebadging their training. Gordon Marsden, the shadow skills minister, called on the government to “urgently look deeper” at what is behind the rapidly expanding overall numbers of apprenticeships at level four and above, after seeing FE Week analysis of the latest Department […]

Anne Milton hasn’t met the IfA’s apprentice panel in its first year

The skills minister has still not met with the Institute for Apprenticeships’ panel of apprentices – more than 12 months after it was established. The panel, which first met last April, is made up of current or recent apprentices who discuss issues from the learner’s perspective and raise with the main IfA board. Shadow skills […]

Subcontracting fees will finally be published in June

The government will publish subcontracting fees for providers across the country in June, the education minister Nadhim Zahawi has revealed at long last. Individual lead providers were previously required to publish their annual figures by the end of November every year. This changed from 2016/17, when new rules dictated that providers had to inform the […]

Marsden: Labour would look at devolving apprenticeships and other skills funding

Labour’s proposed National Education Service would look at devolving apprenticeships and other skills funding, and not just the adult education budget, the shadow skills minister has said. Gordon Marsden told the AAC that full devolution of FE is “the way forward in terms of community growth and cohesion”, in his keynote speech on the second […]

Urgent government action needed to save traineeships, AELP claims

Traineeships are in decline and could die without more support from the government, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has warned. Alongside the shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden, the body hosted a special Westminster debate on the future of the scheme in Parliament this afternoon. Panel members, including AELP’s chair Martin Dunford and chief executive […]

Hughes criticises DfE for claiming university regulator has FE representation

The government and its former universities minister are under fire for “worrying” confusion over FE college representation on the board of the new higher education regulator. During a bitter parliamentary debate on January 8, ex-minister Jo Johnson claimed that FE was represented on the board of the Office for Students in the form of Monisha […]

Costs in question after Labour apprentice pledge

The financial implications of Labour’s pledge to cover apprentices’ travel costs have been called into question, after the Conservatives labelled their costings a “total shambles”. A leaked draft version of Labour’s manifesto committed to paying for apprentices’ travel costs, “which currently run to an average of £24 a week – a quarter of earnings if […]