Traineeships: Towards a positive future
Would changes to funding approaches for traineeships produce better outcomes or a more consistent experience for our young learners? Charlotte Bosworth, Director of Skills and Employment at awarding body OCR, comments on the recent government consultations. The Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee (BIS) launched its consultation into traineeship funding in June this year. The […]
News: Government-supported MOOC launched to boost cyber security skills
The first ever government-backed MOOC has been launched this week, to help equip the UK with the skills needed to tackle cyber security challenges. Developed in conjunction with the Department for Business and the Open University, the ‘Massive Open Online Course’ is available to anyone who wants to improve or develop their cyber security skills. […]
News: ‘Positive’ outcome for majority of adult learners, government claims
Nearly three quarters of adult learners who completed further education courses in 2010/11 moved into either sustained employment or learning, according to government figures. The experimental data, published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), examined the destination and progression of adults in further education in 2010/11. It revealed that, of the 1.5 […]
L&D industry insight: Sarah Frame
As we’re covering two topics this month, it only made sense to have double the insight. So, we grabbed a few minutes with Sarah Frame, EMEA business development director of Toolwire, a business that has been involved with some tough public sector projects over the last few months. An abridged version of this interview appears […]
L&D industry insight: Martin Baker
As part of our focus this month on L&D in the public sector and charities we sat down with Martin Baker, CEO and founder of the Charity Learning Consortium, who told us all about the challenges, the benefits, and the obstacles of working in the third sector, as well as some exciting upcoming projects for […]
The government and apprenticeships pt2
In part two of a five part series, James Flanagan and Polly Newport explore the Coalition Goverment’s apprenticeship strategy. Agencies Largely the Department for BIS retains responsibility for skills policy, and delivery of vocational training is primarily through the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), the successor to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Recent policy developments […]
The government and apprenticeships pt1
In part one of a five part series, James Flanagan and Polly Newport explore the Coalition Goverment’s apprenticeship strategy. Funding and numbers The increasing importance this government attaches to apprenticeships is seen in the paper ‘Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth [1]: published in 2010 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. It outlined […]
The government and apprenticeships pt3
In part three of a five part series, James Flanagan and Polly Newport explore the Coalition Goverment's apprenticeship strategy. Funding An independent review in 2010 of fees and co-funding in further education [1] for the SFA highlighted the poor record in collection of fees for matched funding training by individuals and employers. It also highlighted the […]
The government and apprenticeships pt4
In part four of a five part series, James Flanagan and Polly Newport explore the Coalition Goverment's apprenticeship strategy. Skills policy Improving skills in the UK workforce is a key element of the Coalition Government's agenda. This addresses two pressures in the UK economy. The first – increasing employment levels through ensuring that the workforce and individuals […]
Fireworks Safety With Mario Balotelli
Infographic by: TutorCare Infographic by: TutorCare
No ‘time to train’ until 2015 for SMEs
The coalition government has ruled out extending the right to request time for training to employees in small to medium businesses until at least 2015. Under proposals made by the last government, staff in companies with less than 250 personnel would have been entitled to the same rights as those in larger organisations by April […]
ALP calls for jobcentres to be privatised
The Association of Learning Providers, which represents almost three quarters of the organisations awarded contracts to deliver the coalition government’s Work Programme, has now called for the nation’s jobcentres to be privatised. The payment-by-results contracts, which are worth up to £5bn over the next seven years and are intended to try and get the long-term […]
‘Work pairing’ to be trialled in five councils
Five councils have been selected to take part in ‘work pairing’ trials, in which young people are teamed up with mentors in local small-to-medium businesses in order to gain work experience. The work placements will last up to 10 weeks and, if successful, the coalition government plans to extend the scheme to 50,000 trainees nationally. […]
Will the coalition focus the budget on jobs?
Employer bodies have called on the coalition government to focus on delivering a “meaningful budget for jobs” next week in order to tackle steadily rising unemployment, which is now at a 17 year high. UK unemployment increased by 27,000 in the three months to the end of January, hitting 2.53 million or 8%, the highest […]
Budget cuts? what budget cuts?
A huge 83% of UK managers expect their training budgets to either remain static or increase over the year ahead, with two-thirds saying that they have been unaffected by the difficult economic conditions. Moreover, according to a survey among 96 business decision-makers undertaken by elearning provider SkillSoft, a massive 95% said that they now matched […]
Work Programme targets are “unrealistic”
The Association of Learning Providers has called on the government to rethink the way it structures its Work Programme-related contracts, warning that the current system could put small firms out of business. The move comes only a week after a Select Committee inquiry heard evidence that the targets set for providers to help the unemployed […]
Lifelong Learning UK to be scrapped
The coalition government revealed it was scrapping the sector skills council for lifelong learning just as a new report indicated that greater skills investment would be crucial to achieve the sustained private sector-led recovery for which it hopes. Cath Everett reports. Following a review undertaken by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), the […]
Upskilling needed as immigration levels curtailed
A recommendation to cut the number of migrant workers to the UK from outside the European Union by up to 25% a year has been met with concern by employers and other industry watchers. The Migration Advisory Committee, an independent body tasked with recommending suitable levels for the coalition government’s proposed immigration cap, proposed allowing […]
L&D managers confident despite budget cuts
Learning and development managers may be over-optimistic about their ability to cope with expected budget and staff cuts over the next six months, a new report has warned. The study entitled the ‘UK Learning Trends Index’, the first in a regular six-month survey to be undertaken by online learning content provider GoodPractice and industry training […]
Tories slam Audit Commission for role-play activities
The Conservative Party has slammed the Audit Commission for spending £167,000 on role-playing activities for staff and new recruits over the last three years despite the practice being an accepted and widely-used form of training. The Commission uses Roleplay UK, which employs professional actors, to help it out when hiring new staff or training […]
