News

College adult education budget under delivery revealed

One in five colleges will be allowed to keep close to one-third of their allocated adult education budget despite…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Poor performing new provider hoping for apprenticeships lifeline

A new apprenticeship provider blames the impact of Covid for a second poor Ofsted report and is hoping to…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Revealed: The FE winners honoured in the 2020 Pearson Teaching Awards

A college leader has scooped a prestigious lifetime achievement award at the Pearson Teaching Awards for his transformational work….

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

DfE offer further help to cash-strapped colleges this term

New funding to help colleges with a poor cash position to cover the costs of staff absences incurred between…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

ESFA director wants ‘more power’ as college ownership battle rages

Top civil servants have inadvertently exposed a rift at the top of the Department for Education over the future…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Functional skills ‘portfolio’ solution proposed to lift 30,000 apprentices out of limbo

Talks are under way to replace functional skills exams with “portfolio evidence grading” for apprentices who are unable to…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden


News

Apprenticeships register not reopening until April at the earliest

Applications to the government’s register of apprenticeship training providers will not reopen until at least April 2021. And when…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Seven things we learned from the ESFA’s latest apprenticeships data release

New-look apprenticeship and traineeship statistics were published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency today and captured final year-end…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

FE white paper pushed back to 2021, ESFA director suggests

The much-anticipated FE white paper might not appear until next year, the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s chief executive has revealed. …

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Top official reveals ‘gut wrenching’ £6m spent on accountancy fees to dissolve college

The Department for Education has revealed £6 million was spent on administrators’ fees alone for the two college insolvencies,…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

64 colleges running out of cash which is ‘more than we thought’ admits official

Sixty-four colleges are at risk of running out of cash, a top ESFA director has said, admitting the number of colleges…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Official figures reveal take up of adult education courses halved during lockdown

The number of enrolments onto adult education courses in the months following lockdown dropped by half compared to the…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden

Must read

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
T Levels

NAO reveals enormity of T Level take-up failure

Forecasts missed by 75% and secret DfE estimates show staff and employer shortages could limit places to 48,000 students

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel