News

Tenth UTC closure announced

Yet another university technical college will close later this year, taking the total to 10 for the troubled programme….

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

ESFA apologises over apprenticeship off-the-job calculation blunder

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has apologised for causing confusion in its off-the-job training rule and updated its…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Training provider director jailed for 8 months for fraud

A former director of a training provider that falsified exam papers for individuals seeking to gain security guard licenses…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Minister admits a lot ‘we don’t know yet’ about Treasury backed national retraining scheme

The government still doesn’t know how the national retraining scheme will work or how much it will cost, even…

Jessica Fino
Jessica Fino
News

Select committee chair and skills minister clash over Spending Review strategy

The skills minister and the chair of the education select committee were at loggerheads this morning after Anne Milton…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Short-term fix found for gap in apprenticeship quality assurance arrangements

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has reached a deal with the organisation that has delivered external quality…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden


News

Minimum standards to be scrapped as part of earlier and stronger intervention regime

The Education and Skills Funding Agency is going to scrap its minimum standards policy as part of an earlier…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

New ‘triggers’ for government intervention in colleges revealed

Colleges that experience “serious” cash flow pressures, breach bank covenants, or have significantly delayed accounts will be placed into…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Ofsted watch: Mixed results for FE providers

It has been a varied week in the FE sector, with three providers receiving ‘good’ grades from Ofsted while…

Jessica Fino
Jessica Fino
News

Alert raised on the high volume of ‘tie-breaks’ in latest ESF tendering process

Further questions are being asked about the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s recent European Social Fund tender, after FE…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Funding clawback for college at risk of cash crisis

A college already in financial difficulty is being forced to pay back nearly £1 million to the government as…

Jessica Fino
Jessica Fino
News

Blow your own trumpet and shake off your victim mentality, providers told

FE providers have been urged to “blow their own trumpet more” after research found they have developed a “victim…

Jessica Fino
Jessica Fino

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