WorldSkills 2024

Final push for WorldSkills Lyon as Team UK ramps up training 

Competitors enter international pressure tests to train before WorldSkills Lyon

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
ITPs, Ofsted

Training provider slammed for ‘coaching’ students for assessments

Too many students pass assessments without understanding the course content, inspectors said

Josh Mellor
Josh Mellor
Apprenticeships, DfE, ITPs

DfE accounts: Apprenticeship underspend and insolvent provider write-offs revealed

Nearly £20 million was lost last year to dissolved training providers

Josh Mellor
Josh Mellor
Colleges

Labour snubs colleges in public sector pay awards

The Advanced British Standard has also been scrapped

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
ESFA

ESFA accounts: Major write-off for insolvent training provider

The agency’s new boss also took a 16 per cent pay rise

Josh Mellor
Josh Mellor
Apprenticeships

Lifetime Training’s losses more than double to £21m

Poor financial position in latest accounts partly caused by £5m ESFA clawback

Billy Camden
Billy Camden


Ofsted, SEND

Merseyside SEND college awarded first ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating

Independent specialist provider with high achievement and attendance rates celebrates top marks

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Office for Students

OfS independent reviewer becomes regulator’s chair

HE free speech laws will also possibly be scrapped

Josh Mellor
Josh Mellor
News

BTECs pause and review: Everything you need to know

DfE to conclude review of defunding reforms by December, but Labour accused of ‘betrayal’ amid lack of long-term pause

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
SEND

Eight reforms to fix ‘broken’ SEND system from councils-backed report

A national regulator, greater clarity over needs, clampdown on private sector profits and ‘less adversarial’ system proposed

Jack Dyson
Jack Dyson
Careers

NEET support programme extended with £2.5m boost

Careers education body receives extra cash for careers support pilot to 1,500 more young people

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
News

DfE pauses post-16 qualifications reform and BTEC defunding

Bridget Phillipson confirms government will review the controversial plans by the end of the year – but only 2024…

Billy Camden
FE Week Reporter

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