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29 April 2026

Author: FE Week Reporter

Financial security or Ofsted outstanding, or both?

Bournville College leadership got a glowing grade one from Ofsted before the FE Commissioner Dr David Collins was sent in to sort out the finances. He later said the education watchdog could “be more useful” on college financial matters and Graham Taylor considers who’s got it right. In the Ofsted versus FE Commissioner Rumble in […]

Facing the Feltag challenge together

Overarching FE and skills bodies have been looking at the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (Feltag) report and come up with provider-level advice, explains Nigel Ecclesfield. Feltag has been the subject of much discussion, not least at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) and Association of Colleges (AoC) conferences last month. But, […]

Graham Towse, principal, Hull College

The art of being the boss hasn’t come naturally to Hull College principal Graham Towse. “My first experience of management was a disaster to be honest,” he admits. In 1995, having progressed to engineer at De-Smet Rosedowns Ltd, the company where he began an apprenticeship 10 years earlier at the age of 16, Towse moved […]

Careers advice on apprenticeships criticised by Ofsted FE and skills boss

Ofsted FE and skills director Lorna Fitzjohn told the House of Commons Education Select Committee that too many schools were failing to advise young people about the benefits of apprenticeships. Ms Fitzjohn this morning gave evidence to MPs in Portcullis House, Westminster, that focused on how the number and quality of apprenticeships for 16 to […]

Still in tune? The skills system and the changing structures of work

Dame Ruth Silver explains the origins of the latest Skills Commission report, which raises several ‘strategic alerts’ for the skills system and calls for more ‘systems thinking’ to ensure provision remains relevant and related to a rapidly changing world. Skills Commission reports have always attempted to be ‘scripts for the future’ for sector leaders, policy […]

Making a job out ofcareers education

It’s been a particularly busy month in FE with the combination of the Skills Show and the Association of Colleges annual conference, and if you’re working in marketing, very very busy. We also had school recruitment fairs and stands at the Ricoh Arena’s careers event. And if our presence at these events has taught me […]

Edition 120: Tim Eyton-Jones, Monica Box and Sarah Robinson

Barnfield College has announced that its new principal will be Tim Eyton-Jones. He is currently the principal of John Ruskin College, but is due to leave in March. Mr Eyton-Jones leaves the sixth form college, in South Croydon, having joined in 2009 — the year before it was rated as inadequate by Ofsted. It was […]

Lambeth College poised for indefinite strike — again

Indefinite strike action could be set to hit Lambeth College for the second time in eight months, after unions unveiled plans to walk out in a continuing row over staff contracts. The University and College Union (UCU) has released a timetable of escalating one, two and three-day strikes starting next week, culminating in an open-ended […]