FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Bake Off Chetna’s ‘sweet’ tweet praises college food

Great British Bake-Off contestant Chetna Makan took to Twitter to praise the “amazing” lunch served for her at East Kent College. The fashion designer, who lives near the college, enjoyed a smoked salmon nicoise salad. She then tried a selection of chocolate-based desserts, including profiterroles made with choux pastry which she baked on the show, […]

Mayor Boris officially opens £20m college campus

London Mayor Boris Johnson officially opened a new £20m campus for Bexley College. The Tory politician unveiled a commemorative plaque before taking a tour of the new facilities including a media studio, ICT suites, hair and beauty training salons, gym and coffee shop. The new teaching block in Erith, Kent, replaced the college’s old campus […]

College strike off after High Court rules in AoC’s favour

A planned strike by staff at colleges in England has been called off after the High Court handed down an injunction against industrial action. The injunction, supported by the Association of Colleges (AoC), means the University and College Union’s planned action tomorrow cannot legally go ahead. Its members were due to walk out over an […]

‘Unsustained’ initiatives and ‘inability to learn lessons’ affecting skills system, report warns

Further education and skills has been marred by frequent change and “unsustained” initiatives, and a “lack of organisational memory” regarding past policies has resulted in an “inability to learn lessons”, a report has found. The report, from City & Guilds and entitled Sense and Instability, also says that administering funding at local levels, for example, […]

Functional Skills here to stay, says Boles

Functional Skills “will continue to be one of the types of qualification that learners have available,” according to a newly-published letter from Skills Minister Nick Boles. The letter, from Mr Boles to Ofqual chief regulator Glenys Stacey, appears to provide much hoped-for support for the qualifications, which aim to equip learners with basic English, maths and […]

Up front accreditation of quals to end next month, Ofqual boss reveals

The requirement for qualifications to be accredited by Ofqual before they are regulated will be lifted from next month, the qualifications watchdog chief has announced. Glenys Stacey, Ofqual chief executive, told the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) national conference in Leicester this morning that plans to remove accreditation requirement from all qualifications except GCSEs and […]

New policy behind rise in gcse resitters at college

Learners are turning to FE after being refused entry to school sixth forms following a change in government policy, sector leaders have suggested. Under the government’s new study programmes, learners aged 16 to 19 have to continue to study English and maths if they fail to get a C grade at GCSE when at school. […]

Ofsted reinspection timeframe halved

Ofsted proposals to halve the time between inspections of good FE and skills providers have been questioned by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw has launched an eight-week consultation on reforms to the education watchdog’s inspection regime intended to give “much clearer focus on ensuring that good standards […]

Phones 4u apprentices find new employers

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and subcontractor EQL Solutions have revealed plans to support apprentices left unemployed after Phones 4u went into administration. The Staffordshire-based mobile phone retailer was placed into the hands of administrators PwC on September 15 after network operator EE joined Vodafone in cutting ties with the retailer. The firm employed around […]