News

Ofsted annual report highlights ‘inadequate’ apprenticeships as private provider grades fall for 4th year

Apprenticeships are the “weakest” area of provision in FE providers, with one in ten judged ‘inadequate’ last year, Ofsted…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

‘Shock’ decision to sell college slammed by MP

An MP has hit out at a college group’s decision to close and sell a historic adult education site….

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

FE Commissioner 2019/20 annual report: 6 things we learned

The FE Commissioner’s 2019/20 annual report has been published this morning – the last before Richard Atkins steps down…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Nominations are open for the 11th Annual BTEC Awards

(Advertorial) | Your chance to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of BTEC learners and educators around the world…

Shane Mann
Shane Mann
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

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