22 May 2013, London The forthcoming Workforce Development Forum (formerly known as the HR Forum) will be discussing the new FE professional teaching qualifications and the progression of the Guild following the consultation and feedback from the sector.

10/11 June, London Confirmed this week, Susan Pember, the former Director of Further Education and Skills Investment, BIS, will be coming to the AELP national conference.

The Skills Funding Agency will be launching a new e-newsletter, Communications Update, on Thursday 6 June to complement its existing channels.

The Youth Employment Convention held last week in the QE2 centre in central London saw a large gathering of professionals, officials and politicians come together to grapple with the thorny issue of youth employment.

3rd July 2013, Birmingham “To help thousands of people to meet upfront course fees, taking away one of the main barriers to learning“ Matthew Hancock, Skills Minister, BIS The Skills Funding Agency, Student Loans Company and Department for Business Innovation and Skills will be hosting a one day ‘24+ Advanced Loans Convention’ in Birmingham on 3 July.

.... including its name! (which they feel should not include the word guild). The last task of a 24 hour lock in saw the long sought for consensus of a permanent name for ‘the Guild’, which it is hoped can be announced shortly (while intensive searches about its availability are carried out).

The much-delayed specification for Traineeships was finally published last Thursday by EFA and is now available on their website.

AELP has reacted with disappointment to this week’s government announcement on the scope of the 2013-14 framework for Traineeships.

Now that the 24+ Advanced Learning Loans are live providers are reminded to make sure that you have ticked the checkbox on the Provider Details page to allow you to indicate on the Course Directory Provider Portal whether or not you have a facility to offer 24+ Advanced Learning Loans to learners.

After a very competitive recruitment process which attracted a very high calibre of candidates (which is a testament to the reputation of AELP) AELP Chairman, Martin Dunford, announced this week that Stewart Segal will succeed Graham Hoyle as Chief Executive of AELP.