News

Is Gibb to blame for functional skills reform?

The government, apparently under the influence of the schools minster Nick Gibb, is ploughing ahead with reforms to functional…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

‘Collusion’ banned in tough new EPA guidance

The government has fired a warning shot at organisations seeking to undermine the independence of final apprenticeship exams with…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

Ofsted exposes rule breach over unemployed apprentices

An ‘inadequate’ community learning provider has been caught breaching government funding rules, after Ofsted found most of its construction…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Damning evidence mounts against DfE over Learndirect

The Department for Education did not launch a funding audit of Learndirect at the end of March, even though…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

College caught on camera touting for rival’s learners

A college has been snapped touting for students right outside a rival’s campus – enflaming tensions sparked by a…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke
News

ESFA row-back on plans to increase apprenticeship performance threshold

The government has today scrapped plans to increase by three percentage points the apprenticeship minimum standard achievement threshold. The…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford


News

DfE launches its FIFTH consultation on apprenticeship funding reform

The Department for Education has put out yet another survey on how reforms to apprenticeship funding are affecting employers…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

IfA interviewing chief executive candidates

Interviews for a permanent chief executive at the Institute for Apprenticeships will at last begin later this month, finishing…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

Education select committee to investigate subcontracting

The Commons education select committee will investigate subcontracting, and Learndirect is expected to feature prominently. The committee, now chaired…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

DfE discussing ‘options’ to reverse provider’s £3m funding cut

A 10,000-learner provider on the brink of collapse after it lost 97 per cent of its funding has been…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Government funding ‘high level’ T-level training for college staff

The Department for Education is forking out £95,000 to run “high-level message” sessions to train FE staff about T-levels. It…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

Review prompted by autistic teen’s college enrolment heartbreak

A college is reviewing its enrolment procedures after an autistic boy was asked not to return just days after…

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

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