FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Questions, questions, questions as AoC chief Martin Doel prepares for life of a professor

Martin Doel has revealed plans to become the inaugural Further Education Trust for Leadership (Fetl) Professor of FE and Skills in the University College London (UCL) Institute of Education (IoE). He outlines the kind of issues he wants to be looking at. The first task of leadership is to impart direction and define purpose — […]

Rapper Curtis sings Dame Kelly praise

A Derby College rapper featured on a BBC Lifeline TV programme to highlight the support he has gained from the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust. Curtis May, aged 18, is a music technology learner and joined the Trust’s Get on Track programme two years ago to help him overcome the challenges he faced at school and […]

The big Lep Euro funding step

Within the next couple of weeks, we expect the Skills Funding Agency to finally begin the process of European Social Fund procurement, advised by European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) committees within Local Enterprise Partnerships (Leps). This will be the first time Leps will have influence over where and how public money is spent on learning […]

Climbing out of the abyss

Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget last month was widely expected to be disastrous for FE. But while many are still awaiting the finer details, the sector appeared at least safe for now. Neil Carmichael outlines his view of the sector settlement. The mood of the Association of Colleges conference when I attended on the closing day […]

Tutor brings back Danish lessons

A City of Liverpool College sports tutor is using his experience in working with Olympic hopefuls to benefit his students. Simon O’Brien is the lead medical officer for the England volleyball under 19s squad, helping to prepare them for, hopefully, future Olympics. He returned from Denmark with the team in October where they competed in […]

The ‘heartbreaking’ path to raising standards through competition

Among the many proud principals watching learners take part in last month’s WorldSkills UK competitions at the Skills Show was Graham Razey. But despite no mention for his college among the medal winners, he views taking part as an opportunity to challenge and improve [click here for the FE Week 2015 Skills Show supplement]. I’m […]

Funding cut for back-to-work support

Providers have been warned that government funding to help long-term unemployed people back into work was likely to be dramatically cut by 2020, FE Week can reveal. The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) director for contracted employment provision Matt Thurstan last month sent a letter, seen by FE Week, to providers advising on what […]

Annual Ofsted report exposes FE maths and English issues

Ofsted deputy director for FE and skills Paul Joyce has outlined how the story of the education watchdog’s 2014/15 annual report was one of a huge rise in maths and English learners “undoubtedly” impacting upon worsening inspection grades. He spoke to FE Week moments after Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw unveiled the report, which […]

Sir Michael sees how ‘inequalities in funding impact on what we can do with our learners’

Phil Hatton reviews the Ofsted 2014/15 annual report and pinpoints as key its mention of how funding issues are affecting quality. Reading the learning and skills section of the Chief Inspector’s annual brought few surprises for those who have been monitoring inspections throughout last year. However, the picture painted of being ‘above’ or ‘below’ the […]