FE Week Reporter | FE Week

‘No gap’ assurance amid ESF funding delay concerns

The European Commission and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have vowed there will be no gap in funding for European Social Fund (ESF) projects for the unemployed following fears of a delay in renewing the programmes. The two bodies defended themselves after the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) expressed concerns that […]

SFA review clears college

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has cleared a London college of any wrong-doing over a £4.1m budget black hole uncovered last year. The SFA said there would be “no further investigation” of Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, which hit the headlines in March after a draft audit report leaked to the Evening Standard raised […]

High-profile BBC host for FE Week apprentice event

BBC Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark has been unveiled as host of the FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conference next month. She will be in the chair for the conference taking place over the first two days of National Apprenticeship Week (March 9 and 10). In partnership with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, (BIS), the […]

Principal’s defence on tables data

A principal has defended her University Technical College (UTC) after it came in dramatically below other institutions in official league tables data. Joanne Harper, principal of UTC Reading, said it had been caught out because the only students included in the data were 18-year-olds who had left other institutions and were only half way through […]

City & Guilds makes Oxford provider move

Awarding organisation City & Guilds has announced its acquisition of privately-funded independent learning provider The Oxford Group. It said it had bought The Oxford Group, which specialises in management training, leadership development and executive coaching, in a bid to expand its offer to employers. Chris Jones, director general of the City & Guilds Group, said: […]

SFA to fund non-QCF quals as Ofqual begins to remove controversial framework

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has announced it will fund courses which do not fit with the qualifications and credit framework (QCF) as regulator Ofqual begins to dismantle the controversial system. In guidance issued to awarding organisations, which have welcomed the move to change “bureaucratic” rules, the Agency said its new system would be “framework neutral”. It comes after Ofqual […]

Funding for 16 and 17-year-olds to remain at £4,000 in 2015/16, EFA confirms

The funding rate for 16 and 17-year-old learners will remain at £4,000, the Education Funding Agency (EFA) has confirmed. In a letter to providers, the Agency’s national director for young people Peter Mucklow (pictured) said the £3,300 annual rate for 18-year-olds would also stay the same in 2015/16. He said: “In the 2015 to 2016 […]

FE Week and Me Photography Competition: And the winner is…

The winner of the FE Week and Me Photography Competition (in partnership with NCFE) has spoken of her surprise after receiving more than 41 per cent of the public vote. Mikaela Mae Cobby (pictured below), an 18-year-old photography level three extended diploma learner at Stoke-on-Trent College, was one of 10 entrants shortlisted in the photography […]

SFA in multi-million pound non-apprenticeship payout

Colleges and local authorities will get a multi-million pound Skills Funding Agency (SFA) payout for non-apprenticeship provision this month while independent learning providers (ILPs) look set to miss out on the cash boost, FE Week can exclusively reveal. In a letter seen by FE Week, SFA funding and programmes director Keith Smith told colleges and […]