FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Answers to key questions will determine the future success of FE and Skills

David Hughes raises six key questions that he feels need to be answered to help the Government realise its goal of transforming learning and skills by 2020, as set out in the Skills Funding Letter. The Skills Funding Letter to the Skills Funding Agency sets out a radical and potentially positive path over the next […]

Sector leaders welcome damning Public Accounts Committee findings on area reviews and FE finances

Sector leaders have welcomed then findings of a new Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report that raised grave concerns over the post-16 education and training area reviews process and FE finances. The report published this morning, entitled ‘Overseeing the financial stability of the FE sector’, said it was “unclear how area-based reviews of post-16 education, which […]

Skills Funding Letter reveals that co-funding in workplace will be removed from 2016/17

Skills Minister Nick Boles has revealed in the Skills Funding Letter that co-funding in the workplace will be removed from 2016/17. The letter to Skills Funding Agency (SFA) chief executive Peter Lauener, which set out the Agency’s priorities and funding for next financial year, was published yesterday evening. In a move which FE Week understands […]

Serious doubts over ‘haphazard’ post-16 area reviews raised in Public Accounts Committee report

Post-16 education and training area reviews have come in for heavy criticism in a new Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report that raises serious concern about the financial health of the sector. The report, entitled ‘Overseeing the financial stability of the FE sector’, was published first thing this morning (Wednesday, December 16). It follows the committee’s […]

Two-month delay for confirmation of nationwide qualification achievement rates

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has confirmed that publication of the next round of nationwide qualification achievement rates will be delayed by around two months, FE Week can reveal. The final Qualification Success Rates (QSR) figures for 2013/14 were published in January this year. But a note sent to providers by the SFA’s central delivery […]

Mixed reaction to lifting of traineeship restriction

The removal of rules allowing only providers rated outstanding or good by Ofsted to get lead contracts for traineeships from next academic year has received a mixed response from the sector. Grade three (‘requires improvement’) and non-inspected providers can also deliver the programme, but only as subcontractors. However, the government revealed on Monday (December 7), in […]

Apprenticeship frameworks cut-off scrapped

The government has scrapped plans to stop funding apprenticeship frameworks after 2017/18. The cut-off, that would ensure providers were only delivering new Trailblazer standards come 2018/19, was first announced in October 2013, but speculation has been mounting in recent months as to whether ministers were looking to step back from the date. Fuelling such speculation […]

Up, up and away in Colchester

The sky was no limit for the executive team at Colchester Institute as they took part in a working at heights training session to launch their new Training Tower and Enclosed Space facility. The team, which included principal Alison Andreas, spent the morning with the college’s health and safety instructors, where they demonstrated tower safety, […]

Maths GCSE and the ‘sad case’ of ‘ministerially-driven curriculum change’

The strain of getting vocational learners over the GCSE English and maths finish line is behind much strain in the FE and skills sector, as recognised not least in Ofsted’s annual report. But behind the policy is a view of GCSEs and the workplace that needs rethinking says Mark Flinn. Last month, FE Week stated […]