News

Redefine apprenticeships, says thinktank

Apprenticeships should be redefined as “intensive three-year training programmes” to help curb the 31 per cent A-levels drop-out rate,…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Contract suspended after ‘missing data’

A troubled provider’s £4.5m contract with the Skills Funding Agency has been suspended after “errors and missing data” were…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Union blasts FE loans

The NUS has branded FE loans a “dangerous policy” and raised a number of questions over the new system…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Careers advice ‘getting worse,’ warns government education committee

The quality and quantity of young people’s career advice is not good enough and is getting worse, a government…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

Government plans new team to exploit international education opportunities

During a trip to India to promote vocational education the Skills Minister has announced that the government will establish…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
News

FE colleges’ passage to India

A group of colleges is establishing a permanent team in New Delhi as part of an Association of Colleges…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter


News

Inspection ‘delight’

The principal of an FE provider said she led her centre to an outstanding Ofsted inspection result by focusing…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Providers ‘anxious’ over growth cash

Training providers said they could be left thousands of pounds “out-of-pocket” after the government unexpectedly doubled functional skills rates….

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Clawback ‘possible’ on £91m overpayment

Providers who shared in a £91m Skills Funding Agency overpayment could yet be asked to hand back some of…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Union strike threat over new dismissals

A bitter dispute over the sacking of lecturers at a Midlands college looks set to worsen. The University and…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Audit exposes ‘£40m’ ESF error

European funding could be at risk after a government audit uncovered “potentially” £40m-worth of errors over money dished out…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

College gets £2.2m funding immunity

A failing London college was allowed to sidestep official funding rules to keep a £2.2m overpayment as it merged…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford

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