News

14 colleges receive cash from the strategic improvement fund

Fourteen general FE and sixth-form colleges have received grants through a fund designed to support failing colleges to improve…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Ofsted watch: Two providers pull up from ‘inadequate’

Two providers managed to pull themselves up from grade four this week – one to ‘good’ and the other…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

32 adult learning projects share £11.7 million fund

The projects which will share a £11.7 million fund to help more adults back into the classroom have been…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

Monthly update: apprenticeship starts down 23 per cent in December

UPDATED: To ensure we’re comparing like with like, the table has been updated to include provisional figures from August…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Three senior Team Wearside staff jailed for £460,000 fraud

An ex-chief executive of a training provider and two of her former colleagues have been sentenced to a total…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Shakira Martin re-elected as NUS president

FE champion Shakira Martin (pictured above) has survived a row over allegations of bullying to be re-elected as president…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke


News

Federation of Awarding Bodies appoints Tom Bewick as new chief executive

The Federation of Awarding Bodies has announced skills and enterprise policy expert Tom Bewick as its new chief executive…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Guildford College to join Activate Learning

A cash-strapped college that was forced to seek a merger after it became only the second institution to return…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Applications open for nine new T-level employer panels

Representatives from business are being asked to apply to join panels that will help develop new T-levels. The Department for…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

Second wave of college strikes over pay begins today

The second wave of strike action by University and College Union members has begun, in an ongoing dispute over…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Learndirect’s second Ofsted monitoring visit: 15 key findings

The second monitoring visit report on crisis-hit Learndirect has been published by Ofsted. This was the second reinspection monitoring…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

Bids to open for share of new construction retraining fund in April

Bidding is to open next month for a share of a new construction retraining fund worth tens of millions…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord

Must read

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
T Levels

NAO reveals enormity of T Level take-up failure

Forecasts missed by 75% and secret DfE estimates show staff and employer shortages could limit places to 48,000 students

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel