Small and medium sized businesses across the country are being prevented from offering new apprenticeships because the levy which funds the government’s flagship skills programme is running short of cash. The levy funding shortage is so acute that a new survey has found that three out of four apprenticeship training providers can no longer meet demand from SME employers to train new apprentices. The lack of funding is happening at the worst possible time when thousands of school leavers age

The country’s unqualified adult carer crisis is being exacerbated by the government’s refusal to properly fund apprenticeships in the sector, according to a new survey published today. Training providers who train Adult Care Worker apprentices say that the prescribed funding rate for the apprenticeship programme at levels 2 and 3 (intermediate and advanced) is completely unviable. As a result, 59% of the surveyed providers are either reducing the number of apprentice carers they train or

AELP launches ‘Good to Great’ support programme for independent training providers AELP members wanting to become great training providers are being invited to sign up for an 8-month structured support programme to help achieve their ambitions. Announced at the start of today’s AELP annual conference, the programme, delivered by AELP, will support established good quality providers to become great across five core areas of operation. Beginning in the autumn, ‘Good to Great’ will be sponsore

Association of Employment and Learning Providers Press release – Embargoed until Friday 21 June, 00.01hrs ‘Underspends and poor value subcontracting necessitate a complete overhaul of the Adult Education Budget’ Persistent annual underspends and too much poor value subcontracting under the Adult Education Budget (AEB) are letting down adult learners across the country, according to a new analysis published by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP). To replace the now tot

All young adults aged 18 to 24 should be given a fully state funded entitlement for learning at level 2 and level 3 as part of any government reforms arising from the Post 18 Education and Funding Review (or Augar Review). The call from the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) would potentially benefit 300,000 school leavers a year who don’t go on to university. Taking on board advice and support from the LSE economist Lord Layard of Highgate, AELP believes that the

Artificial deadline for End Point Assessment further risks the reputation of apprenticeships Apprenticeship training providers and end point assessment organisations have called on the government to stop further risking the reputation of apprenticeships as part of the troubled levy reforms. To avoid more damage, they are requesting a small extension to the time limit for recording the number of successful apprentices scheduled to complete their programmes in the current academic year.

Joint AELP/ERSA press release A new report has called for a cross-government approach to enable more prisoners to take up apprenticeship opportunities while still in prison, which can then result in sustainable employment for them on release. Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) have put forward a series of recommendations to kickstart the Prisoner Apprenticeship Pathway which was first proposed in a Ministry of Justice

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’

Press release: Embargoed until Wednesday 27 March 2019, 00.01hrs