News

Coronavirus: College to build extra classrooms for anticipated spike in student numbers

A sixth-form has brought forward plans to build extra temporary classrooms as colleges across the country brace themselves for…

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
News

Frameworks set for stay of execution

The government is considering a U-turn on its planned date to switch off old-style apprenticeship frameworks as providers raise…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

ESFA seeks legal advice in face of unpublished Ofsted reports

The Education and Skills Funding Agency is taking legal advice on whether it can intervene at new providers before…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Government to take ownership of colleges

The government is working on a plan to bring colleges in England back into public ownership, FE Week understands….

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

DfE relaxes traineeship rules

The Department for Education has relaxed its requirement for students on traineeship programmes to record 100 hours of work…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Speed read: Highlights from our webinar with Toby Perkins

FE Week was joined by Labour’s shadow minister for apprenticeships and lifelong learning Toby Perkins on Monday for our…

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu


News

Low Pay Commission calls on government to better protect apprentices

The government has been urged to take action against recurrent “very high levels” of illegally low apprentice wages. The…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

ESFA delays full rollout of digital apprenticeship system to April 2021

The full transition onto the digital apprenticeship system has been delayed by four months, the Education and Skills Funding…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Controversial closure plans to go ahead for college campus

A cash-strapped college group has confirmed it will close one of its rural campuses this summer in the face…

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
News

Back to the drawing board for apprenticeship funding rate reform

The government’s apprenticeships quango has announced it will launch a second funding rate consultation – days before the deadline…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
Adult education

AEB funding rules published in draft – but without threatened subcontracting limits

Draft rules for funding the adult education budget in 2020/21 have not included any changes to subcontracting despite the…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Ofsted releases reports for inspections pre-Covid – but only the positive ones

Ofsted has begun publishing FE and skills inspection reports again. Four new reports, based on pre-coronavirus visits, appeared on…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden

Must read

Skills reform

New law to bar ‘unsuitable’ FE leaders among skills white paper reforms

The government’s post-16 strategy has finally been unveiled

Billy Camden
Billy Camden and Shane Chowen
Qualifications

Revealed: V Levels incoming as axe looms for BTECs

New qualifications set to launch as ‘third route’ between A-levels and T Levels

Shane Chowen
Shane Chowen
Politics, Skills reform

DWP will take over apprenticeships, minister confirms

Shifting adult skills and apprenticeships policy will give “bigger emphasis on skills”, Jacqui Smith claims

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
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