News

Cash boost on out-of-favour qualifications

Funding for a host of politically unpopular workplace qualifications is set to rise, with payments for one course rocketing…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Provider challenges new-look inspection

One of the first Ofsted inspections under the new common inspection framework is to be disputed. Merseyside-based Central Training,…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Heseltine questions funding agency’s future

A wide-ranging report from the Tory grandee Lord Heseltine (right) questions the role of the Skills Funding Agency, instead…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

New courses bypass the regulator

The government has allowed new adult English and maths qualifications to be funded without the usual approval of an…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Apprenticeship highs and lows

Apprentice numbers in engineering and construction have plummeted while management apprenticeships have rocketed 45 per cent. Engineering, based on…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

New report critical of government’s education divide

The government’s departmental split over education responsibility has been branded “damaging and artificial” in a new report from the…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter


News

Lead provider that had £3.3m of Skills Funding Agency cash ‘ceases trading’

An Essex-based lead provider that was allocated nearly £2m of Skills Funding Agency cash last academic year has ceased…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Subcontracting probe uncovers ‘poor value for money’ management fees

An Ofsted probe into subcontracting has uncovered lead contractors charging management fees “as a way of generating income for…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

FE Guild go ahead for Association of Colleges

The Association of Colleges (AoC) has won government approval to “take forward” its proposals for an FE Guild. The…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Elmfield Training dishes out cash to Morrisons

The provider behind the UK’s biggest apprenticeship programme has defended handing over taxpayers’ cash to the firm whose staff…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Dozens of providers exempt from rule

Forty providers are exempt from funding rules that ban introductory apprenticeships where more than 10 per cent of learners…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
News

Job losses as Skillsfinder UK Training goes in to administration

A national training provider with nearly £2.5m of contracts last year has gone into administration with the loss of…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter

Must read

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
T Levels

NAO reveals enormity of T Level take-up failure

Forecasts missed by 75% and secret DfE estimates show staff and employer shortages could limit places to 48,000 students

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel