“We do not want to undercut apprenticeships” with Kickstart, said employment minister Mims Davies on a CBI webinar this week which just shows that AELP’s immediate response to the Chancellor’s plan for Jobs in early July has hit home across Whitehall. Judging from the comments by the webinar facilitator, it seemed like that many of the audience were ITPs because the CBI were receiving a lot of questions about apprenticeships and traineeships. The obvious question also came up about the much

The initial feeling after AELP’s Business Recovery Conference was one of relief, not because I ever had doubts about the quality of the content but because technically this major online event went off almost entirely without any glitches throughout the two days. For this, we must express special thanks to Emily Brasier and her AELP events team and for the support received from our partners Lsect and Visions Group who ran the proceedings so smoothly from their studio in Reading. Simon Ashworth

Last Friday I mentioned that we were due to have a call that day with senior Treasury officials to discuss the employment and skills response to the impact of Covid-19 and it was a very productive meeting. AELP’s view is that collectively we still have to address some short-term pandemic related challenges and then agree on the action needed for the three years covered by the next Comprehensive Spending Review. We took the officials through our ‘shopping list’ and then we had a discussion on

After highlighting last week the fact that we are facing a busy autumn on the sector reform front, we have had more calls in the past few days with senior officials at ESFA and IfATE which have helped to lay the ground for further announcements. This morning I will also be talking to the Treasury with AELP setting out its stall on what we want to see in the Comprehensive Spending Review as part of the post-pandemic recovery effort. Yesterday’s apprenticeship starts and vacancies data

We were all geared up this week to respond to the issues surrounding the GCSE results, but then came the welcome announcements on teacher assessed grades. Some employers of new apprentices like to see good GCSE grades, particularly in maths and English, and hopefully now we won’t hear any sad stories on this aspect of the matter after Thursday. While most focus has understandably been on the fall-out from the use of the now notorious algorithms for the results, my comments in FE News (here)

It’s Friday again, and with it, the latest Countdown! It’s been a bit tense in the Hickie household over the last couple of weeks as our daughter has watched with increasing incredulity the controversy surrounding exam marking as she has waited for her A level results. Like many other middle-class parents these days, I find myself talking to her regularly about apprenticeships as an option although a place at a leading university remains her goal. Imagine my horror then when she and