Learndirect faces collapse after privatised firm's failed bid to suppress damning report
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The UK’s largest education provider faced collapse last night, after failing to suppress a damning report.
Learndirect currently has more than 73,000 people on training courses and apprenticeships and employs more than 1,600 people.
On Friday a high court judge rejected their bid to overturn an Ofsted report which is understood to have given them the lowest possible grades. Ofsted say they will publish the report on Thursday.
Apprentices, the report says, are not given enough “off the job training” and management of apprentices is “ineffective”, according to FE Week.
The company, which largely relies on government funding, has been plagued by financial difficulties and falling performance.
(Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)
And they have been accused of lining the pockets of managers and financiers since they were privatised by the Tories in 2011.
The damning report would oblige the Government to witfehdraw more than £100m in public funded contracts, and would force Learndirect to call in the administrators.
The firm argued in court that if the “inadequate” report were released, there was a risk of “irreparable damage” which would have “catastrophic” consequences.
Learndirect’s profits dropped from £10m in 2012 to just £1.6m in the year to July 2015, despite an increase in revenues.
During the same period, the firm’s parent companies, which are ultimately owned by Lloyds Banking Group, paid out tens of millions in dividends, management fees and interest payments.