After last weeks Countdown, I got a fairly prompt email from my dad – he said he was learning the words to ‘Don’t fence me in’ sung by Bing Crosby and Roy Rogers. Sort of depends where the care worker level 2 ends up, to be honest dad – maybe you need a chat with Sir Gerry! There has been a lot of heartfelt sympathy towards those working on the chalk face at 3aaa as it went into administration. At a time when a lot of organisations are looking for good staff, we hope they find new roles

Many of you will have seen the AELP tweet - we are now funding a level 2 fence installer on a £7k funding band. The funding band for a level 2 care worker is £3k. A member suggested to me today, maybe the new social care policy is just to make sure all the old people are contained adequately within well installed fencing – while reading their old MBA text books. I am not sure that is the rationale for the difference in funding – I hope not, but if it is – watch out mum and dad. This is one

At the Conservative party conference, AELP’s simple message has been sort out apprenticeships at lower levels, SMEs and young people – and that means remove the 10% contribution from non-levy payers. We have also heard many employers complaining about the IfA and their processes – nothing faster or better and actually there is such a fog of mystery in terms of their processes, so no one is actually sure what faster and better should look like.

It’s Party Conference time! Only done a couple of days so far at the Labour conference so a little early to give full reflections, but here is my initial gut feeling … Remember that awful phrase, “the forgotten 50%”? (I hate it because many of us never forgot them, we just weren’t given the tools to help them). I just get the feeling that the policy writers have forgotten the forgotten 50% again. I am not saying that they aren’t being talked about at the events I am in, and Gordon Marsden in

Welcome to issue 4 of the Insider. You only need to say careers information and guidance and there is a torrent of views from virtually everyone in the education sector – and plenty from me. And in the skills sector the views ‘are even more extreme. There is still a belief, rightly so, that many schools do not explain adequately the range of options available to a young person. In many cases this isn’t deliberate, it is just a lack of expertise and understanding for those giving the advice.

Straight into business to start with (sighs of relief across the country)… The ripples from the funding band reviews are turning into waves. Take a look at this excellent piece of analysis Simon did this week (apparently there is a “bring back Simon’s Countdown intro” campaign building up)… There were 222 standards approved prior to Feb 2018 – the date the IfA announced they were going to take a new evidence-based approach. The IfA has said they will conduct “further reviews over the rest of