NAO | FE Week

Despite the extra bureaucracy, ESFA right to require more data on every apprentice

This week the ESFA announced that, from August, apprenticeship providers would need to report the planned off-the-job hours for all new starts. With bureaucracy a constant bugbear in FE, it is rare that a new field is added to the Individualised Learner Record (particularly a late change) but this is an attempt to address stinging […]

Awarding bodies may call for new independent funding approval process citing ‘lack of transparency’

Awarding organisations are considering calling on the government to create an independent process for qualification funding approvals in a bid to stop decisions being driven by short-term political goals. Their representative association, the Federation of Awarding Bodies, has floated the idea of setting up an “Independent Commission for Qualification and Apprenticeship Funding Approvals”. The federation […]

DfE finds much needed apprenticeship monitoring cash

When the ESFA published the list of providers on the apprenticeship register in March 2017 we reported that the entire sector was shocked. Hundreds of companies, many never having filed a set of accounts, had successfully applied to a register that would give them unlimited access to apprenticeship funding. In an interview with me the […]

National Audit Office slams DfE oversight of Student Loans Company

The Department for Education has been heavily criticised for its oversight of the Student Loans Company during the tenure of its disgraced former chief executive, in a new report from the National Audit Office. The watchdog looked into how the DfE monitored the company while Steve Lamey, who was dismissed for gross misconduct last November, […]

Learndirect and DfE scandal referred to NAO by Public Accounts Committee chair

The Learndirect scandal is expected to face a National Audit Office investigation following a request from the Public Accounts Committee, FE Week can reveal. In a series of events that will be familiar to FE Week readers, the largest training provider in the UK has been afforded special treatment by the DfE and retains all […]