We all know technology sometimes gets bad press. But can it deliver a positive social impact in apprenticeships? Richard Alberg, CEO of MWS Technology Ltd, says the experience of Aptem suggests yes. Social impact means the (ideally positive!) contribution an organisation or action has on a pressing social challenge. It is seen as an unqualified social good, and rightly so. And the parent of social impact is, more often than not, policy. But are there other ways of thinking about social impact –

The chief secretary to the treasury said that she wants to look at education budgets when she oversees this autumn’s spending review. But before anyone in our part of the sector gets too excited, the minister insisted that in terms of a child’s age, the younger the better as far as impactful expenditure is concerned. And with Brexit delayed, uncertainty over the economy and the public finances will continue which means that providers can’t become too hopeful about possible relief for the

The state stills remains firmly in control of skills provision in this country despite government claiming that reforms over the last five years have put employers in command. This principal finding came as a result of research conducted by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and the Further Education Trust for Leadership of 81 FE and skills sector leaders in nine roundtable discussions around England. The research set out to find whether the ‘employer in the driving seat’

By far the most common tale across our conversations with hundreds of employers every year is their struggle to hire IT professionals with the necessary qualifications and experience to support their current projects. As a rule, the small pool of experienced personnel for hire tend to work on a contract basis, moving between companies where they can command a higher salary or extend the variety of their CV. This makes it difficult to retain highly skilled personnel on a fixed salary for any

During my career I’ve benefitted from seeing the UK Skills System from a variety of perspectives. This has ranged from frontline delivery of employability programmes in some of the most disadvantaged communities in Europe, to a strategy and policy role at the Learning & Skills Council (now the Education & Skills Funding Agency), through to being nominated for an Ofsted inspection a matter of weeks into my first senior management role. Yet, as insightful and diverse as this experience has been,