FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Should former Barnfield boss Sir Peter hand back FE knighthood after inadequate rating?

Troubled Barnfield College has been described by Ofsted as having “no key strengths” — prompting question marks over whether former principal Sir Peter Birkett deserved his 2012 knighthood for services to FE and the academy movement. Luton South MP Gavin Shuker blamed the college’s problems — the most recent of which was a damning inadequate […]

Vote now: FE Week and Me photography competition 2014

The entries are in, the shortlist is finalised and it’s time for the winner of the FE Week and Me photography competition to be chosen. A judging panel made up of representatives from FE Week and NCFE took on the difficult task of selecting 15 finalists from more than 982 entries this year. FE Week […]

College steps in with A4e set to walk away from London prisons

A general FE college has stepped in after a major private provider pulled out early from London’s £17m prison education contract, FE Week can reveal. Welfare-to-work provider A4e gave three months’ notice to the SFA in August that it was terminating its Offender Learning and Skills Service (Olass) contract for the Capital’s 13 prisons. It […]

Two thirds of providers fail to hit allocations

Two thirds of FE and skills providers failed to deliver their final 2013/14 Adult Skills Budget (ASB) allocation by a total of £111.8m, FE Week can reveal. Skills Funding Agency (SFA) allocations data shows that 888 colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) were earmarked a total of £2,210.7m ASB cash in June. But FE Week […]

‘Extraordinary’ former Lambeth College vice principal dies, aged 68

A former London college vice-principal described by ex-colleagues as “a woman of extraordinary energy and judgement” has died, aged 68. Tributes poured in from ex-colleagues of Ruth Nixon (pictured), who was assistant principal and vice-principal of Lambeth College between 1994 and 2010. She died peacefully following a sudden illness on Friday, January 2. In a […]

Caretakers’ honour as New Year awards bring wide-ranging FE and skills recognition

The new year got off to a flying start for FE and skills with more than 30 sector figures named in the 2015 Honours list. And it wasn’t just the well-known names and faces who were honoured — the contribution all staff make to learners was recognised, not least with Christopher Willder, groundsperson at Brooksby Melton College, and James Jackson, caretaker at […]

Counting the cost of Labour’s plans to reform apprenticeships

Labour’s apprenticeship proposals could cost taxpayers as much as £11.7bn over the course of the next parliament, according to Treasury research. Costings of 28 Labour policies were published on Monday (January 5), including three on apprenticeships and a further four affecting the wider FE and skills sector (see below). They suggested Labour’s spending plans would […]

Contingency plan assurance from SFA after latest Hub breakdown

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has assured providers that it has a contingency plan after the Hub suffered the latest in a series of breakdowns. The online data collection system failed on Monday (January 5) — less than 48 hours before the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) R05 (fifth return of the academic year) deadline. Among […]

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan ‘dodges’ MPs’ careers questions

Sector leaders have called for more detail about how a new company set up by government to improve careers advice will operate after Education Secretary Nicky Morgan (pictured) “evaded” MPs’ questions about the organisation. The Association of Colleges (AoC) and Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) said answers given by Ms Morgan when she […]