FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Want to open a free school? Make an early start on plans

The Department for Education’s application window for the opening of free schools closes on October 10. Pauline Hagen discusses her experience of the process. Last January, after much research, we decided to apply to the Department for Education to open a free school sixth form college. Our primary motive was a moral one — the […]

Sue Husband, director of apprenticeships, Skills Funding Agency

It’s the warning that exasperated mums and dads up and down the country issue their teenage children — “If you don’t work hard enough in school, you could end up working in McDonalds”. But it’s a comment that gets under Sue Husband’s skin, having risen through the ranks at the fast food giant as a […]

The principal of a large and well-established FE college writes about life at the top — the worries,

Labour conference Seeing a party leader actually talking about FE and skills policy is both encouraging and unnerving. Nobody was as pleased as me to hear about apprenticeships in Ed Miliband’s otherwise tepid speech, but when we’re this close to election, it also makes me worry. Apprenticeships are already a heavily political issue, with every […]

How much would you pay for this?

Lesoco brand cost college around £290k less than two years ago Learners “didn’t identify with Lesoco” – governors might now drop it “How did no one involved with the rebranding spot it was a terrible idea?” UCU A London-based college spent almost £290,000 on a “terrible” rebrand — and governors are now looking at dumping […]

Ofsted directors’ traineeship drop-out fears

Too many learners are dropping out of traineeships, Ofsted FE and skills director Lorna Fitzjohn (pictured) has warned. Ms Fitzjohn raised concerns about drop-out rates among learners on the government’s flagship youth unemployment programme in an exclusive interview with FE Week. The education watchdog was unable to reveal any figures to back up the concerns, […]

Bright into administration

Independent learning provider Bright International Training has gone into administration. The Warwickshire-based company, also known as Bright Assessing, has been placed in the hands of administrators BDO. Bright was left without an awarding organisation after NCFE stopped certificating its courses in February and OCR and Ascentis followed suit four months ago. It left hundreds of […]

Lambeth College staff vote on new strike – days before talks begin

Staff at Lambeth College who went on a five-week strike towards the end of last academic year will be able to vote from Monday on whether to walk out again — a week before scheduled talks. University and College Union (UCU) members walked out indefinitely on June 3 in a dispute over new staff contracts. […]

Late summer rush on FE loans materialises

A late summer rush on FE loans predicted by the government after a slow uptake earlier in the year has materialised. But there were still almost 5,000 fewer applications by the end of last month compared to the same time last year. Figures released this week by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) […]

Framework deadline for AOs ‘false’ says AELP chief Segal

Awarding organisations (AOs) should have had more time to submit new apprenticeship frameworks, Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) chief executive Stewart Segal has claimed. He accused the government of imposing a “false deadline” for AOs to submit new apprenticeship frameworks to the Learning Aim Reference Service (Lars) online course catalogue, leading to “risks” […]