http://feweek.co.uk/2012/04/05/zenos-brand-scrapped-by-pearson/

Zenos brand scrapped by Pearson

Pearson has scrapped the Zenos brand for its ICT apprenticeships.

Zenos, a training provider owned by Pearson, will now operate under the name Pearson in Practice.

A spokesperson for Pearson in Practice told FE Week: “Zenos has been operating as a fully integrated part of Pearson in Practice for a number of months and officially changed its name at the start of April.

“This is part of the long-term strategic integration of the Pearson in Practice subsidiaries and follows Learning World rebranding as Pearson in Practice in September 2011.”

The former Zenos division has been working on a number of new apprenticeship schemes under the Pearson in Practice brand “for some time”, the Pearson in Practice spokesperson added.

The Zenos website now redirects users to the ‘IT Apprenticeships’ section of the Pearson in Practice website, which says: ”Formally the Zenos programme, here you can learn all about the UK’s leading ICT Apprenticeship.

“Although the name has changed, the legacy remains and we will continue to deliver training that is high-quality and employer driven.”

The announcement follows criticism of the apprenticeship scheme delivered by Zenos in the Panorama programme “The Great Apprentice Scandal”, broadcast on BBC One last Monday.

The ICT apprenticeships delivered by Zenos are said to be entirely classroom based and cannot guarantee learners a job at the end of it.

“I’ve said that every apprenticeship has to be a job,” skills minister John Hayes MP told the BBC.

“Now I know that’s tough, and there are people who say I’m too relentless about the quality of apprenticeships.

“That’s why I insisted that all apprenticeships should be employed.

“That’s not to say you can’t have good training, good pre-apprenticeship training, and it may be that Zenos is providing that but it’s not an apprenticeship I’m afraid and I’m not going to call it one.”

Mr Hayes later said that Zenos apprenticeships which do not involve an employer “shouldn’t be called an apprenticeship.”