Being thrown into an Education Select Committee after getting back from holiday is one way to get your brain back in gear – what with that and both Plymouth Argyle and Boreham Wood in playoff positions in their leagues, I am not sure whether I can cope with the excitement! Actually, my first day back was at the East of England International Festival of Education hosted by West Suffolk College. As well as a great event, it is one of those examples where you feel quality of the organisation

Let’s start this week by offering out our best birthday wishes. Happy birthday to the Apprenticeship Levy which is now officially one-year-old and a good place to start for this week’s Countdown. Last week following a freedom of information request from the Open University we found out that £1.28 billion of the £1.39 billion paid by levy paying employers is currently sitting unused. As a result, we will continue to see the further amplification of organisations such as the CBI calling for

If you opened Countdown and were expecting to see an update from the Chief Executive, then alas you will be disappointed. Even Mark occasionally gets a chance to take some well-earned time off so he’s passed me the baton for the next couple of weeks. In last week’s Countdown, Mark laid out the 6 actions that need to be addressed to ensure the Apprenticeship policy will be a great success. Rather than focus on policy this week I wanted to highlight a number of operational areas – “the devil is in

This week I was at an open day at Exeter University with my son - next week his Grandad takes him to look at St Andrews – the phrase “as far away as possible” keeps popping into my head! Fantastic facilities, amazing course and I was convinced it will be a great experience for him – we even had a little lecture on behavioural economics and game theory. I was sitting there thinking maybe I should go instead of him and he could start work. The economics course looks really good and we had a

It’s like someone has open the floodgates – ructions at the ETF, FE funding review, AoC’s poke at private providers – whatever next – it goes on and on. Just when I thought I might get a little break before this weeks Annual Apprenticeship Conference – but oh no. However we still can’t get the Department to clear the draft guidance for Off the Job Training nor the draft guidance that has been with them for months on the new sub-contracting rules (I think this is what the AoC described as

This Countdown picks up at the end of National Apprenticeship Week and into another week where things don’t seem to be getting any quieter. Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting Dyson, specifically to look at their development of a new University and how they might work with World Skills, but we also discussed the wider skills development within the organisation. Before I arrived I seemed to have gathered about 10 orders for the Dyson hairdryer as if there would be buckets of them as I walk