News

A year of Ofsted highs and lows

It has been a year in which Ofsted stories have hit the front pages time and time again —…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

A ‘paradigm pertinent’ foundation

Dame Ruth Silver has broken her silence over the demise of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) to…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Apprentice hopefuls face GCSE barrier

Colleges and training providers who “rigidly” demand higher grade GCSEs for the most basic of apprenticeships have come in…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

Conflict of interest group’s no show

Plans for a Skills Funding Agency-led panel to investigate potential conflicts of interest where awarding organisations also deliver education…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

College turns down 16 to 18 traineeships

A York college that will be running traineeships for 19 to 24-year-olds has said no to putting the programme…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

The hunt for an FE Commissioner goes on

The new FE Commissioner post is due be re-advertised next week with an appointment expected before the first Ofsted…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford


News

Skills Funding Agency warnings on the rise

The number of notices of concern slapped on colleges rose by 25 per cent in 2012/13 from nine notices…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

Two in every three colleges using zero-hour contracts, research suggests

Nearly two out of every three colleges have teachers on controversial zero-hour contracts, research from the University and College…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

Sir Geoff Hall quits as foundation chief – Peter Davies to ‘pick up the baton’

Sir Geoff Hall has quit as interim chief executive of the Education and Training Foundation after just three months…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

Apprenticeship guidance plea despite growing application numbers

Guidance on apprenticeships needs a “no-holds-barred” review, NUS president Toni Pearce has claimed despite official figures indicating application numbers…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

Underpaying apprentice bosses face increased name-and-shame threat

Underpaying apprentice bosses will be publicly named and shamed under government plans to make it easier to clamp down…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

Firms behind every other English college’s internal audit to become one

Two firms who between them carried out internal audits for nearly 50 per cent of England’s colleges in 2011/12…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford

Must read

News

Case dismissed: Marples loses High Court claim against DfE

A judge has dismissed a multi-million-pound claim brought by former training boss Peter Marples and his family against the…

Shane Chowen
Shane Chowen
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