Institute for Apprenticeships

BREAKING: Institute for Apprenticeships appoints board member as chief executive

The new chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships is military man Sir Gerry Berragan, who was previously unveiled as a board member. He was a career soldier for 37 years, finishing as adjutant general, responsible for all army personnel matters, serving between August 2012 and August 2015. Sir Gerry had been appointed the army’s […]

No news on permanent Institute for Apprenticeships boss

Attempts to recruit a permanent chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships are still ongoing, six months after the process was launched. FE Week learned at the start of this academic year that the latest round of interviews would be taking place over three weeks up to the end of the first week of October. […]

Institute for Apprenticeships remains the favourite option for EQA

The Institute for Apprenticeships continues to be the dominant external quality assurance (EQA) provider of choice for most Trailblazer groups – even though it describes itself as the “option of last resort”. As a result, concerns are deepening across the sector that the government’s own EQA regulator is regulating itself, a situation that Graham Hasting-Evans, managing […]

Assessment organisations still lacking for over 1,300 apprentices

At least 1,300 apprentices are still studying without an apprentice assessment organisation in place, FE Week can reveal. The scale of the problem has improved little since last October, when one former civil servant called the situation “diabolical” and “disrespectful” to apprentices. Analysis of the latest statistical first release shows that 140 of the 1,300 […]

Tendering for external quality assurance finally launched

Tendering for the external quality assurance of apprenticeships has finally been launched by the Institute for Apprenticeships – three months after it was originally supposed to go live. The opportunity to apply to deliver EQA services on behalf of the IfA was posted on the gov.uk contracts finder website last night, with a closing date of […]

Institute for Apprenticeships announces route panel chairs and apprentice panel

The Institute for Apprenticeships has appointed the chairs for 15 route panels, and a panel of apprentices to advise the board. The route panels are made up of industry experts and will be responsible for setting the standards of knowledge, skills and behaviours needed by employers for every occupation in England. The chairs will lead their groups […]

Institute for Apprenticeships most popular for external quality assurance

The Institute for Apprenticeships is the most popular choice for external quality assurance for apprenticeship standards – even though it was only set up as a “last resort” option for this sort of thing. Of the 162 apprenticeship standards currently approved for delivery, 26 have chosen the IfA as their EQA route, compared with just […]

Employers in three sectors to grade their own apprentices

Employers in the retail, hospitality and travel sectors are actively preparing to exploit a loophole that will allow them to grade their own apprentices, FE Week can exclusively reveal. Our findings have caused concerns that the independence of end-point assessments is being seriously compromised. The rules, which will be upheld by the new Institute for […]

We need a proper framework for apprenticeships

With just weeks to go before the apprenticeship levy and the apprenticeship standards come on line, we are in urgent need of a proper regulatory framework, says Graham Hasting-Evans The government has made it clear the Institute for Apprenticeships is to be a regulatory body for two critical parts of our new skills system. But […]