Energy and Utility Skills: Skills, Training and Professional Development Must Fuel the Future

The link between employers and training providers is vital to ensuring access to high-quality skills and professional development. With nearly one million young people currently…

ITPs Must Be Given the Tools to Deliver Post-16 Solutions at Scale

Independent Training Providers (ITPs) across the country are playing a critical and growing role in shaping the future of post-16 education. Whilst its well known…

AI: The Powerful Ally Needing to be Tamed

I am fascinated by AI. It is clearly a technology that will transform almost everything we do in life and in work. A personal inflection…

Investing in Apprenticeships: A Missed Opportunity for Economic Growth 

The deadline for submissions to the Comprehensive Spending Review falls in the week leading up to National Apprenticeship Week. With debt interest payments on government…

Defunding level 7: A choice that doesn’t need to be made

Skills – and in particular apprenticeships – are high on the agenda of government. We have had tepid economic growth since the global economic crisis…

AELP: Autumn Budget skills investment could lead to over half a million apprenticeship starts per year

AELP has today published its Autumn Budget consultation submission – estimating that government investment in skills could lead to over 500,000 high-quality apprenticeships per year…

A new government brings about an opportunity to get the skills system right

A new government brings about an opportunity to get the skills system right Two months into the formation of an incoming government, there are three…

AELP warns Growth and Skills Levy ‘vacuum’ risks employers reducing training investment

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has today warned that a lack of detail in government plans to introduce their new Growth and…

AELP National Conference 2024: shaping the future of the skills system on the eve of July’s General Election

On the eve of July’s General Election, delegates from across the skills sector will gather for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) National…

Ian Bamford elected as vice-chair of AELP board

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (@AELPUK) has announced that Ian Bamford, Chief Quality and Curriculum Officer, Paragon Skills, has been elected as vice-chair…

AELP's 2024 General Election Manifesto

AELP’s 2024 General Election manifesto was developed from ‘ Skills Means Growth’, the organisation’s vision for a sustainable skills sector – which argues that reversing flatlining productivity and…

How can we deliver a simplified, high-quality apprenticeship system?

In the third of five articles for FE News themed around their Skills Means Growth vision for a sustainable skills system, AELP outlines how we…

Delivering vital qualifications results in large losses for training providers

New research published today – Spelling It Out, Making It Count – by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) reveals that up until the…

Give The Skills Sector The Right Tools To Enable Greater Learner Choice

In the second of five exclusive articles for FE News exploring AELP’s Skills Means Growth vision for a sustainable skills system, Paul Warner outlines how…

Closing the skills gap needs a National Skills Strategy

Following the publication of AELP’s ‘Skills Means Growth‘ vision for a sustainable skills system, the organisation is publishing a series of articles expanding on each…

Five Takeaways From AELP’s Autumn Conference 2023

Last week, AELP once again hosted its Autumn Conference in Manchester which, this year, was attended by over 250 people from across the skills sector.…

Ben Rowland announced as new AELP Chief Executive Officer

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has today – Tuesday 31 October – announced the appointment of Ben Rowland as the organisation’s new…

Setting the skills sector stage for the next twenty years

In this exclusive article to mark FE News’ 20th anniversary, AELP’s Paul Warner warns of the serious situation the skills sector finds itself in right…

AELP calls for immediate action to save the skills system

AELP is calling for immediate action from the government to save the skills system or risk a situation where learners will see a drastically reduced…

Five takeaways from AELP National Conference 2023

Following another AELP National Conference, AELP’s Director of Policy, Simon Ashworth, takes us through his five takeaways from the event – including thoughts around apprenticeship…

How can we measure apprenticeship success and quality in a meaningful way?

Later this month AELP hosts its annual National Conference which gives people from across the skills and employability sector an opportunity to discuss and debate…

Reforming Post-16 Education

The recent publication of the Education Select Committee’s report into reform of post-16 education deserves careful consideration. In this article, Simon Ashworth sets out his…

Last week’s funding rules announcement shows collaboration is starting to pay off

Over the last year, AELP has made it a strategic priority to work much more closely with the Department of Education (DfE) to make it…

Five Things We Learnt From Our Second Green Skills Summit

Last week AELP hosted their second ever Green Skills Summit in Birmingham, bringing together people to discuss how the skills sector can meet the net…

AELP welcome new board members

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) have announced Iain Salisbury (Aspiration Training) and Jill Whittaker OBE FCA (HIT Training) will join the AELP…

High-quality skills provision needs proper funding – not just temporary respite

High rates of inflation are causing difficulties right across the economy, and for government that means having to make extremely tough choices over spending commitments.…

AELP slam ‘disastrous’ plans to axe traineeships

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has slammed plans to axe the traineeship programme, as announced in a ministerial statement today (Monday 12…

AELP and NOCN Group launch ‘green skills advisory group’

As we enter the first ever Green Careers Week, AELP has teamed up with NOCN Group to ensure the skills sector is ready to equip…

Programmes at level 2 and below have great value – they must be protected

Last week, AELP was delighted to launch our latest research – on level 2 and below qualifications – at an event in parliament hosted by…

Qualification reform rethink needed after new research shows value of programmes at level 2 and below

Latest research carried out by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), NOCN Group and the Skills and Education Group (SEG), shows that level…

AELP announces key strategic partnerships with Peridot Partners Limited and World Skills UK

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) is pleased to announce new strategic partnerships with Peridot Partners Limited and WorldSkills UK. Peridot Partners Limited…