British farrier apprentice system suspended
The future of farrier education has been endangered by a withdrawal of government funding for its apprenticeship program following an unfavorable inspection report to Parliament by a national agency.
On April 15 a government education inspection agency published a report evaluating the effectiveness of the entire farrier apprenticeship scheme in Britain. “The inspectors were candid in their criticism of the way that the program works or – in their opinion – does not work to prepare young farrier apprentices,” wrote US Hoof care commentator Fran Jurga.
On May 16, the National Farrier Training Agency (NFTA) announced that, henceforth, “there will be no public funding for new Apprenticeships until Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) are sure that the problems they identified have been addressed.”
The NFTA continued: “Only when that position changes and possibly not until a re-inspection in February 2014 can NFTA take on new learners. We have looked at the option of offering privately funded Apprenticeships in the interim but have had confirmation that this will not be feasible. As a result Intake Group 37L, who were due to start on 1 July 2013, will now be unable to enroll.”
Category: News
