The Commons Public Accounts Committee praised the Business Department’s drive to boost the number of apprenticeships, which quadrupled from 79,000 in 2006/07 to 325,500 in 2010/11, with the proportion completed successfully rising from 34% to 78% over six years.

But the cross-party committee voiced concern over the amount and quality of training, and welcomed skills minister John Hayes’ announcement in April that in future the vast majority of apprenticeships will last more than 12 months, with a six-month minimum for over-19s who already have qualifications.

Today’s report said that the £451 million apprenticeship programme, offering work-related training for full-time employees in England, was a proven success, delivering £18 in economic benefits for every £1 spent.

But the committee said England still lagged behind other countries in the size of its programme and in the proportion of apprentices taking advanced-level courses. It warned that the programme will have to be better promoted after 2013/14, when over-24s will be required to contribute financially to the cost of advanced apprenticeships.

The Independent

A cross-party committee of MP’s also called for a ban on Internet junk food ads aimed at children, to help curb Britain’s obesity crisis, which costs the NHS £4.2bn a year.

Joan Walley, the Labour chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee said: “Obesity and diet-related illness is on the rise, fewer young people are being taught how to cook or grow food, and advertisers are targeting kids with junk food ads on the Internet.”

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, announced a wide-ranging review of the national curriculum in England last year, which some fear could lead to compulsory cookery classes being dropped.

Source: The Independent

There are also proposals for online music videos to have warnings if they contain explicit content.

This follows a review last year by Reg Bailey into the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood.

Mr Bailey, head of the Mothers’ Union, said such labelling would help protect children from “unsuitable material”.

Last summer, Mr Bailey published a government-commissioned report addressing parental concerns that children were growing up surrounded by too much sexualised imagery. It reflected fears that parents could not protect their children from inappropriate images, such as over-sexualised music videos.

Source: BBC Education and Family

Headteachers say Ofsted’s rhetoric has caused staff morale to plummet – even in schools rated “good” or “outstanding” by inspectors.

The findings, in a report out today, suggest a crisis of morale could jeopardise many of Education Secretary Michael Gove’s reforms, particularly if there is an exodus from the profession. Mr Gove has always insisted that the key to raising standards is to have strong leadership in schools.

In a poll of more than 2,000 members by the National Association of Head Teachers, nearly 40 per cent said they were planning to leave the profession early because they felt “discouraged” by the direction Ofsted was taking. Almost all (98 per cent) said they believed Ofsted judgements were subject to political interference.

Recruitment firms have been warning of a crisis since 2005. In that year, six out of 10 heads and 40 per cent of deputies and assistants were over 50.

Source: The Independent

The Inquiry heard evidence from children’s charities, academics, religious groups, and industry experts, and concluded that many parents lack the technical know-how to control their children’s browsing themselves.

As well as new powers for the Government to intervene if providers do not do anything to restrict access, their report recommended that an existing scheme to give parents an “active choice” over whether to block pornography from their broadband line should be urgently reviewed.

The report is the latest sign of concern in Westminster over the sexualisation of children offline and online.

Last year Reg Bailey, the childhood tsar adviser, reported that children were under pressure to grow up too quickly. David Cameron responded that “we should look to put the brakes on an unthinking drift towards ever greater commercialisation and sexualisation”.

In a recommendation that will alarm the internet industry, MPs called for a formal consultation on mandatory “opt-in” filtering, which would mean access to pornographic websites would be blocked by default. Mobile operators have already installed such systems voluntarily, on the grounds that a smartphone or tablet is more likely to be used without adult supervision.

Research conducted for the inquiry found that six in 10 adults would support “opt-in” filters on home broadband lines. Women were particularly keen, with 77 per cent saying they would use such a service, compared to only 37 per cent of men.

Source: Telegraph

The typical pay rate for entry-level graduate roles will be frozen at £25,000 this year compared to 2011. But when adjusted to account for high inflation, graduates face a 2pc pay cut, from £19,020 last year to £18,705 this year, IDS said.

The last time salaries were lower than this year’s forecast was nine years ago, when they stood at £18,524.

Over the past decade, graduate pay hit a peak of £20,601 in 2008, the report showed.

Source Telegraph

The government wants to speed up adoptions, get more children adopted and cut the bureaucracy involved.

They have told Ofsted to give “outstanding” ratings to councils for adoption only where children are placed within 12 months. Inspectors say in cases covered by this report, proceedings took 14 months.

Their study was based on nine local authorities, where they tracked 53 adoption cases in detail and randomly sampled 36 more.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Education Secretary Michael Gove have led a drive to cut the time children wait to be adopted and how long it takes to approve people who want to adopt.

In the autumn, they published a list of how long children were waiting to be adopted in different local authorities. On average, children wait one year and nine months.

Source: BBC Education and Family