FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Give ‘grandfather’ funding option, says CBI

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has told the government that employers should be able to ignore apprenticeship reforms by “grandfathering” through existing funding arrangements, FE Week can reveal. Its response to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) technical consultation on reforms recommended that employers be allowed to continue with effective practices. It […]

Ofsted to end lesson gradings in FE pilot

Ofsted is to ditch graded lesson observations in an FE and skills in a pilot following a University College Union (UCU) report that raised “serious questions about the fitness for purpose” of the practice. The education watchdog will, from September, be trying out inspections in the sector with no grading of teaching in individual sessions. […]

College bribery claim before plans meeting

North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) has been accused of bribery for offering a day’s leave if staff attended a council planning meeting to “show support” for its new homes proposal, it has been reported. It asked Epsom and Ewell Borough Council for permission to develop on college land. The plans were approved at […]

Employers fail on apprentice wage

Apprentices were among the workers to have suffered at the hands of underpaying bosses listed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skill (BIS) in its second name and shame round over minimum wage cheats. Business Minister Jenny Willott identified 25 employers (see below) who paid workers less than the National Minimum Wage (NMW) — […]

Pilot for 16 to 19s after Career College blow

A London college is to launch its own pilot Career College after failing to make the cut for the first round of the new Lord Baker-inspired 14 to 19 institutions. When the former Conservative Education Secretary proposed Career Colleges in October, general FE colleges in Oldham, Oxford, Lambeth and Bromley were said to have expressed […]

College bouncing back from inspection shock

A formerly outstanding college that in just four years plummeted to inadequate across the board has started moving in the right direction with an improved Ofsted rating. The 17,000-learner City of Liverpool College was hit with grade four (inadequate) ratings across each headline field in a shock Ofsted result in February last year. Among the […]

Lingfield gets £350k budget

The body behind a new quality mark for FE providers will get taxpayer funding of up to £350k this financial year having received £201,193 last year, according to details released under the Freedom of Information Act. The Institution for Further Education (IFE), a not-for-profit limited company, spent just over half of its £400k budget from […]

Adult Learners’ Week 2014

Download your free copy of the FE Week 16-page supplement celebraing Adult Learners’ Week 2014 ~ in partnership with NOCN. Click here to download (3mb) Learning that goes far beyond the school classroom Welcome to this year’s Adult Learners’ Week (ALW) supplement. For me, the best thing about this annual week of celebration is the stories of people […]

Learner destination worries over homepage proposals

Concerns about the tracking of learner destinations have emerged with a new consultation on plans for colleges and schools to show key performance data on their website home pages. Association of Colleges policy director Joy Mercer said she had worries about the Department for Education (DfE) proposals. The DfE launched a consultation on Friday, June […]