Graham Hoyle, ALP Chief Executive Talks Tough

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Yesterday, at the final day of the Association of Learning Providers (ALP) conference, Graham Hoyle, ALP’s Chief Executive used his closing remarks to summarise the “issues of today and tomorrow”, as well as inject a note of controversy into the conference. Mr. Hoyle’s final remarks covered a wide range of hot button issues in Further Education and said that the ALP was “on the case of a whole range of issues”.

Addressing the Entry to Employment (E2E) programme, Mr. Hoyle called the last few months “interesting”, as these months saw ALP’s relationship with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) at their “lowest ebb”. This decline began in November after Mr. Hoyle’s suggestion that there were major problems with the E2E programme and a DfES minister referred to the provision as “a waste of money”. Although the relationship has improved, Mr. Hoyle maintained that there was still a major training provider concern about the carry over costs and non-contractual clawbacks in the E2E provision.

Not afraid to wade further into controversy, Mr. Hoyle strongly suggested that the ALP was willing to take legal action if full funding was not provided for Apprenticeships. Mr. Hoyle intimated that there were “strong rumours” that there would be a 30% cut in funding, although he indicated that the latest thinking was that there would most likely be an approximate 20% cut in funding. Asking whether or not £38 million in Apprenticeship funding would be enough, Mr. Hoyle said that the ALP would be formally asking the LSC to give an estimate about why the deficit had dropped considerably. “This is a very difficult situation for us,” remarked Mr. Hoyle. “Legal action will go through if that is the right and proper action. We won”t follow it if the money is there.”

Le”Nise Brothers

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