News

Further calls to target apprenticeship funding at the industrial strategy

Apprenticeship funding should be targeted at skills which fit the UK’s industrial strategy to combat growing pressures on the…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Ofsted boss ‘concerned’ young people losing out as employers cash in on higher apprenticeships

Ofsted’s chief inspector is “concerned” that the rise in higher level apprenticeships is “partly” to blame for the decline…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Restrict access to degree apprenticeship funding for adults, says shadow skills minister

Degree apprenticeships should only be fully-funded for people aged under 25, those without a first degree and in sectors…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

City & Guilds reports 17.8m UK workers have outdated skills

A third of UK workers have not received any workplace training in the last five years, according to a…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Lack of levy funding for small employers debated in Parliament

A chair of a leading small business lobbying organisation has thrown cold water on hopes of a boost for…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Over 1,200 to attend Annual Apprenticeship Conference 2020

Anticipation is building ahead of the sixth Annual Apprenticeship Conference, which is now set to feature the first public…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden


News

Ofsted watch: 10 providers achieve ‘good’ results

Ten FE providers were awarded grade twos from Ofsted in a good week for the sector. However, the college…

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
News

Apprenticeship subcontracts halved since 2017 levy launch

Apprenticeship subcontracting has more than halved since the introduction of the levy in April 2017, new FE Week analysis…

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
News

DfE U-turns on loans write-off for learners

The government has agreed to write off the loans for another group of learners left with no qualifications after…

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
News

Ofsted struck fee deal to end legal challenge

Ofsted struck a deal to pay their own legal fees in return for the college for HS2 dropping their…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

SFC to be first to remove Catholic status

A sixth-form college in Blackburn is set to be the first of its kind to remove its Catholic status,…

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
News

Apprenticeship providers struggling to adapt to new Ofsted framework?

Last September Ofsted began inspecting apprenticeship providers using their new framework.  Out went the Common Inspection Framework (CIF), in…

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