News

Gordon Marsden lays out Labour’s FE policy objectives

Labour would establish an official pre-apprenticeship programme, and support apprenticeships for care leavers, veterans and people with disabilities, according…

FE Week
FE Week
News

Editor Asks: Amanda Spielman, chief inspector, Ofsted

With ‘inadequate’ verdicts fatally undermining many FE providers, the stakes have never been higher on Ofsted inspections. The new…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

No growth projections for Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers

There has been no modelling done by the Skills Funding Agency to predict how many providers will eventually end…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Apprenticeship providers warned not to sacrifice quality

The “new apprenticeship system is the eBay of education” and “will drive down quality”,  the boss of the Association…

Alix Robertson
Alix Robertson
News

Breaking: College on ‘lock down’ due to security threat

A college has been closed for the day and all students sent home because of a security threat. Bury…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

Ofqual boss: lack of end point assessment organisations is ‘not irresponsible’

Ofqual’s chief regulator has said it’s “not irresponsible” for apprenticeships to be launched without an organisation in place to…

Jude Burke
Jude Burke


News

Ofsted watch: Another UTC hit with poor grade

A university technical college in Middlesex received a grade three in its first ever Ofsted inspection, spelling even more…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

MPs queue up to blast apprenticeships register omissions

Fierce criticism has flooded in from MPs concerned at the large number of colleges that have missed out on…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

NHS defends apprenticeship brokerage fees

The NHS has defended controversial new plans to charge a brokerage fee to training providers that win levy-funded apprenticeship…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

‘Mandatory training’ for untested apprenticeship providers on register

New providers with little or no track record will have to undergo “mandatory training” before they can deliver apprenticeships,…

Paul Offord
Paul Offord
News

EXCLUSIVE: England alone with end-point assessment-only apprenticeships

Research by leading FE academics has shown England is the only one, out of eight countries reported on because…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Delegates flood to Birmingham for FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeships Conference

FE Week’s third Annual Apprenticeships Conference was off to a flying start this morning, after a warm welcome from…

Alix Robertson
Alix Robertson

Must read

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
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