News

Secrecy surrounds Ofsted’s decision to declare its 3aaa inspection ‘incomplete’

Ofsted’s latest inspection of Aspire Achieve Advance – which holds the largest ESFA apprenticeship allocation – is “incomplete” following…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

An eighth UTC gets the bottom Ofsted grade

Yet another university technical college has been rated ‘inadequate’, the eighth to receive Ofsted’s most dubious honour. Derby Manufacturing…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Spotlight on 16-year-olds as NEETs rise and level 2 apprenticeships fall

A sharp fall in the number of 16-year-olds taking up level two apprenticeships is being blamed for a startling…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Bids reopen for £13m strategic college improvement fund

Colleges can bid for the remaining £13 million from the strategic college improvement fund using newly released guidance. The…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Journalism bosses hit out at apprenticeship training blockage

Media bosses have criticised the “red tape” that surrounds the government’s apprenticeships register, seemingly preventing providers from training journalists….

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Damian Hinds defends T-levels timetable to Education Committee

The education secretary has defended his decision not to delay the first T-levels, insisting the new qualifications are being…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke


News

Unions write to AOC to justify 5 per cent national pay claim

Trade unions have written to the Association of Colleges to spell out exactly why they have resubmitted a claim…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

Staff at Lowestoft SFC out on the first of six strike days over merger

Staff at Lowestoft Sixth-Form College have walked out on the first of six days of strike action protesting a…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

Post-18 education review panel will try to fix HE and FE funding imbalance

There is a funding imbalance between academic and vocational routes – and the post-18 education review panel is aiming…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Three quarters of providers unhappy with non-levy apprenticeship funding

Almost three quarters of training providers are unhappy with the amount of non-levy apprenticeship funding available, claiming it is…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Top mandarin admits to contingency concerns over T-levels

The Department for Education should have left more time to make sure T-levels go to plan, according to its…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

Ofsted: New apprenticeship provider monitoring visits a ‘concern’

The results of the early monitoring visits to new apprenticeship providers are “concerning”, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE has…

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