FE Week Reporter | FE Week

ETF reviews maths and English

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) is to review teaching and accreditation of maths and English for learners unable to reach D grade GCSE. It comes as learners who record a D in English and maths at GCSE will, from next year, have to retake in pursuit of an improved grade, while those who get […]

Boles in FE loans expansion hint in digital skills hearing

Skills Minister Nick Boles has hinted that the FE loans system was heading for expansion — as the sector awaits results of the government’s FE loans consultation. Mr Boles told the House of Lords Digital Skills Committee on Tuesday (November 18) the government was “moving towards” making adult learner loans, currently offered to those over […]

Colleges should lead skills gap charge

Colleges need to “face up to their responsibilities” and make FE the sector one that “gets people into work,” a principal has said. Laurence Vincent, chair of The Mindset Group and principal of Bournemouth and Poole College, outlined his “brave new vision” for the role of colleges in terms of learner employability as he spoke […]

Thinktank calls for policy road map for digital techonology

The FE sector needs a “policy roadmap” to ensure best use of digital technology, a report launched last week has said. The report, by think tank The Education Foundation and entitled Digital colleges: the journey so far, examined digital best practice in the college sector and what a digital future would look like. It called […]

Beacons of the sector

Fourteen FE colleges were winners at the Beacon Awards, They were announced at the Association of Colleges (AoC) conference in Birmingham. Among the winners were Leeds City College, whose employer engagement initiative has to almost 11,000 apprenticeships, and South Devon College, whose health programme saw an 80 per cent increase in learner and staff exercise. […]

Rajinder Mann, chief executive, Network for Black Professionals

‘I’m a true Wolveronian,” says Wolverhampton-born Rajinder Mann, who left the UK for India shortly after birth only to return five years later unable to speak English. “But I’m just as much a Punjabi Indian woman, and just as much a Sikh woman.” The chief executive of the Network for Black Professionals adds: “I am […]

Movers & Shakers Edition 119

Norton Radstock College principal Shirley Arayan is to retire at the end of the month having held the role for nearly 16 years, it has been announced. She made the decision to retire at the beginning of the year, but the date was formally announced by chair of governors Chris Dando this week. Mrs Arayan […]

Local offers for disabled learners ‘missing’ nearby specialist providers

A system of ‘Local Offers’ for children and adults with special educational needs went live in September. Kathryn Rudd reviews the progress and finds worrying results. For young people with disabilities and their families, the much-awaited Children and Families Act promised a more coherent and aspirational approach to their education. The Act promised a joined-up […]

Traineeship news offers welcome break from ‘wholesale change’

Proposals to change the way traineeship providers are funded were rejected following the government’s eight-week consultation on the issue. Andy Gannon explains what this, plus some of the changes that were sanctioned, means for the sector. Amid ongoing media rumours of yet more pressure on budgets after the next election and a looming Autumn Statement, […]