News

NCG resolves bitter pay dispute with its London colleges

A deal has been struck between the country’s largest college group and union members at its two London colleges…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Management apprenticeships double to make up a fifth of all starts on standards

The proportion of learners taking management apprenticeships has doubled in the last two years, with just ten of the…

Pippa Allen-Kinross
Pippa Allen-Kinross
News

Questions surround DfE’s ability to ban poor HE apprenticeship providers

Banning ‘insufficient’ new providers from recruiting apprentices may not be as simple as once thought, as confusion appears to…

Pippa Allen-Kinross
Pippa Allen-Kinross
News

Contradictory claims over UTC learner numbers from Baker Dearing Trust

The organisation behind the university technical college programme has claimed the number of 14-year-olds studying at the institutions is…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

College refuses to explain spending millions on mysterious subcontractor

A college has refused to explain why it has given £16.5 million over the last three years to a…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

‘Falling through the cracks’: thousands of apprenticeships going unregulated

The government has been left red-faced after FE Week found thousands of apprentices with no organisation responsible for checking…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden


News

DfE: College pension contributions to rise by an extra £142m per year

The government has confirmed colleges will be expected to pay an extra £142 million a year in employer contributions…

Pippa Allen-Kinross
Pippa Allen-Kinross
News

ESFA WON’T ban new apprenticeship providers with poor AEB provision found in monitoring visits

The government will not ban new apprenticeship providers from recruiting adult learners if they’re making ‘insufficient progress’ in that…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

DfE plans National Colleges evaluation to avoid repeating mistakes with Institutes of Technology

The government is going to evaluate its troubled National Colleges policy to identify what has gone wrong with the…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

College defends appointment of principal who jumped ship before financial failings exposed

A principal who jumped ship before the financial failings of his former college were uncovered has the backing of…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

DfE reopens £15m strategic college improvement fund before finalising first round

Colleges are being invited to bid for cash in a new round of the strategic college improvement fund –…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Broker offered 3aaa staff £200 for apprentice referrals – but admits it was a ‘bad idea’

A broker has admitted it was a “bad idea” to offer cash to former staff of Aspire Achieve Advance…

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