Britain’s largest provider of further education is to be stripped of two thirds of its business after it failed an inspection on the quality of its apprenticeships and adult learning. Learndirect will lose its contracts to teach apprentices and deliver traineeships, which are worth just over £100 million, in July next year. This is longer than the three-month minimum termination period but the Department for Education said that the extended timescale was to protect its learners and the other services provided by the company. Learndirect, which has 73,000 people on its courses and 1,645 staff, depends almost entirely on government funding, with current contracts worth £158 million, of which £42.3 million is for apprenticeships and £60 million for adult education. The company has insisted that…

Source: The Times August 15, 2017 23:03 UTC