skills

Flex on UKSPF skills funding ‘welcome’ but timing questioned

Levelling Up department allows use of UKSPF skills funding to be used from April 2023 instead of April 2024

Jason Noble
Jason Noble
News

DfE’s transgender guidance will include colleges

Long-awaited draft guidance will be released and consulted on ‘later in the spring’

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
Long read

College group offloads MAT amid compliance review

Multiple internal and external investigations and a complete relationship breakdown contribute to sponsor change

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Skills bootcamps, Skills reform

HGV driver hopefuls left in the dark as DfE ends bootcamp contract

Learners waited a year for training due to dispute over financially ‘unviable’ flagship scheme

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
WorldSkills

New WorldSkills UK trustees want ‘world-class skills boosts’

Four new WorldSkills UK board members will be ‘strong advocates’ for education and skills

Shane Chowen
Shane Chowen
Prison education

MPs and peers call for prison education to be brought into public ownership

Lords debate and parliamentary motion hears calls for standardised curricula and qualifications

Jason Noble
Jason Noble


Colleges

College apologises as ‘emergency repairs’ force move to online learning

College confirms campus to remain closed until the end of term as arrangements for exams to be made

Jason Noble
Jason Noble
Ofsted

Safeguarding and subcontractor oversight issues drag ‘good’ provider down to ‘inadequate’

STEGTA confirms it will not appeal overall grade 4 rating despite achieving ‘good’ grades in most areas

Jason Noble
Jason Noble
Ofsted

Provider to over 500 learners shuts centres after ‘inadequate’ Ofsted

Aspire-Igen Group revamps provision after grade 4 inspection result

Jason Noble
Jason Noble
Colleges, Long read, Students

Demand for student support soars as the cost of living crisis bites

Josh was a talented bricklaying student with dreams of running his own building firm. Then his mother lost one…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
T Levels

Ofqual plans changes to T Level assessments

Proposals suggest students can sit core exams and employer set project in different assessment periods

Jason Noble
Jason Noble
Apprenticeships, Politics

Labour pledges review of functional skills rules

The Labour shadow skills minister says he agrees with training providers’ concerns about the current English and maths requirements…

Shane Chowen
Shane Chowen

Must read

Colleges, Long read

Colleges on the frontline of a divided nation

As social media algorithms fuel intolerance and binary thinking, college staff increasingly find themselves dealing with the fallout. Jessica…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Colleges, Long read

Alun Francis, chair of the Social Mobility Commission

Deprived areas need vision – not victimhood – to level up, and Social Mobility Commission chair Alun Francis is…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Long read, Prison education

The prison that’s offering hope for a new life upon release

‘We’re saving people’s lives as well as turning them around’

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Apprenticeships, Politics

Phillipson to exempt young people from level 7 apprenticeships funding axe

Education secretary makes ‘important concession’ amid backlash from other government departments

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
Colleges, FE Commissioner

Weston chair felt powerless over £2.5m payments to former principal

Ex-Weston college chair gives tell-all interview following FE Commissioner probe

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Colleges

Weston College governance failure allowed ‘concealment’ of £2.5m payments to former principal

Paul Phillips was paid £1.8m in 2023, including a ‘significant’ six-figure retention payment which his COO son ‘resisted’ paying…

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel