Covid-19

Ofsted: Eight key points from latest education recovery research

Providers told Ofsted that apprentices were not being given enough tasks due to pressures on businesses. 

Will Nott
Will Nott
Teaching

Flagship teacher recruitment programme opens to more specialisms

Training providers and colleges can now apply to for funding for recruits to English, maths and SEND teaching posts…

Shane Chowen
Shane Chowen
Skills reform

‘Unit for future skills’ to launch this month

Course information for employers and learners through a new ‘unit for future skills’ will start being published this month,…

Shane Chowen
Shane Chowen
Sponsored post

A green skills solution from The Skills Network

As the climate crisis grows, calls for an integration of a fourth functional sustainability skill into mass upskilling across…

The Skills Network
The Skills Network
Colleges

Capital projects worth £400 million given green light

The government’s flagship college capital investment programme awards a further £400 million, but rising prices bring costs in to…

Shane Chowen
Shane Chowen
Ofsted

Recovering colleges’ latest Ofsted results

One principal said they weren’t sure the Ofsted inspection was helpful or good value for money. Three colleges tell…

Will Nott
Billy Camden and Will Nott


Colleges, Ofsted

Ofsted slams SEND college for ‘highly inappropriate’ activities

The watchdog found that students with special educational needs and disabilities were tube fed and medicated in classrooms in…

Will Nott
Will Nott
News

DfE slashes grant funding for ETF

It is expected that some programmes previously provided by ETF will be put out to tender by the DfE

Will Nott
Will Nott
Apprenticeships

Shock as half of apprentices drop out

Expert says there would be ‘national outcry’ and independent inquiry if this happened with A-levels

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
AEB

‘Frustrating’ for some but ‘not surprising’: ESFA extends AEB contracts for one more year

National adult education budget contracts renewed for 2022/23

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
Apprenticeships

2020/21 apprenticeship achievement rate hits 57.7% – and just 51.8% for standards

Almost half of learners on the new-style apprenticeship standards failed to successfully complete their programme last year, new figures…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden

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