FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Learners and staff among creditors £800k out of pocket by Bright demise

Learners, staff and other creditors are expected to be left around £800k out of pocket with the demise of troubled independent learning provider Bright last year, FE Week can reveal. An estimated 900 students and around 50 workers are expected to get either nothing or a fraction of what they were owed with Bright assets […]

College told to give up inadequate-rated academy

An FE college in Suffolk has been ordered to hand over its 11 to 16 academy to new sponsors after the school was placed in special measures following an inadequate Ofsted rating. Suffolk New College, which runs the New Academies Trust (NAT), was told by the Department for Education (DfE) to transfer Suffolk New Academy […]

Financial difficulties at ‘50 colleges’

Around 50 colleges could be in serious financial difficulty due to a “perfect storm” of capital debt and 16 to 19 funding cuts, it has been claimed. Lynne Sedgmore (pictured), executive director of the 157 Group, said the figure was “sector rumour” — but just last week FE Week reported how West Cheshire College was […]

Fraudsters outwitted in £5.8m new build banking scam

Police are hunting fraudsters who tried to rip off an Essex college by pretending be behind work on its £5.8m campus build, FE Week can reveal. Colchester Institute got a letter purporting to be from the construction outfit behind its new South Wing — but the request for payment via new banking details was checked […]

Fetl focus on third sector challenges

The Further Education Trust for Leadership (Fetl) has handed fellowship grants, worth up to £40,000 each, to four senior figures from the world of FE. Reporter Paul Offord spoke to Tim Ward (pictured) in the third of four FE Week articles to focus on the chosen fellows. Concern over the declining role of the third […]

‘Devil in the detail’ warning on Ofsted’s new CIF

Ofsted has been warned that the “devil will be in the detail” when it applies a new common inspection framework (CIF) across FE, early years and schools from September. It was exclusively revealed in FE Week in August that the education watchdog planned for inspections to be “harmonised” under one CIF. And Ofsted said on […]

President Atkins reveals concern over falling performance

Association of Colleges (AoC) president Richard Atkins has told of his concern at in depth research by FE Week that uncovered how the sector’s Ofsted inspection performance was plummeting. The results of research, which featured in last week’s newspaper, showed the proportion of general FE and tertiary colleges inspected so far in 2014/15 and graded […]

Pressure mounts for Labour 16 to 19 ringfence policy

The pressure is mounting on Labour to reveal whether it would introduce an FE and skills funding ringfence after the Conservatives made their positions clear to widespread sector criticism. Ed Miliband’s party is yet to say if it would extend the existing ringfence for schools funding to include the 16 to 19 budget having seen […]

Mikaela on road to photography success

Stoke-on-Trent College learner Mikaela Mae Cobby is the winner of this year’s FE Week and Me Photography Competition. The 18-year-old, who is in her second year of a level three extended diploma, received more than 41 per cent of 2,562 votes cast online in the photography student category. She has won a Nikon D5100 Camera […]