FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Kathryn Rudd, principal, National Star College

Looking out onto the beautiful rolling hills of the Cotswolds, it’s hard to imagine a greater draw to working at the National Star College. But after a career dedicated almost exclusively to the education of young people with special educational needs, it is clear that the natural beauty of the college’s Gloucestershire setting came second […]

Looking backwards, looking forwards: policy and possibilities

As I write what my calendar tells me is my last FE Insider of 2013/14, the words ‘what a year it has been’ feel inadequate. A highly experienced colleague said recently that he’d never known a period quite like the one FE seems to be going through at the moment. I began this calendar year […]

Ex-Barnfield boss talks ghost learners, financial probes and the Audi pay-off

In June 2005, Peter Birkett joined Barnfield College as principal. But six years later, having been knighted for “services to education” and with the college boasting an apparently successful federation of four primary and six secondary school academies, Sir Peter left having become director-general of the Barnfield Federation. Within months serious questions were being asked about […]

Process document offers glimpse of inner-workings of new FE Commissioner role

Providers have been offered an insight into the work of FE Commissioner Dr David Collins with the publication of a new document. The document, Intervention in Further Education: The strengthened intervention process, sets out information about the process Dr Collins and his advisers follow when they intervene with providers. It also includes detail of plans to publish […]

Party politics worry over new quality mark

Senior FE and skills figures have told of their concerns that the sector’s new chartered status quality mark could become a political football or simply “sink without trace”. In a random survey of colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) from across the country, FE Week has uncovered serious concerns about chartered status, which will be […]

Esol hold-up welcomed amid new qual concerns

The extension of existing funding rules and postponement of new qualifications for English for Speakers of Other Languages (Esol) courses does not go far enough to help providers manage impending changes, it has been claimed. The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has revealed that funding rates for Skills for Life (SfL) Esol courses in 2014/15 will […]

Principal vows to protect learners from strike

The principal of Lambeth College has vowed to protect learners from an indefinite strike planned this week — but conceded industrial action during exams season was “particularly disruptive”. Mark Silverman (pictured) said he would not let the college’s 15,000 learners be affected by the University College Union (UCU) demonstration and that “most classes” would still […]

Bosses face apprentice bill of up to £9k

Providers could receive up to £27,000 for every apprentice they train — but £9,000 of that cash would have to come from employers and the rest from the Skills Funding Agency, FE Week can reveal. And further public money, including extra cash for 16 to 18-year-old apprenticeships, could push the figure above £37,000. The figures […]

VQ Day 2014 – spreading the vocational message

Download your free copy of the FE Week 16-page supplement celebrating VQ Day 2014 in partnership with OCR. Click here to download (5 mb) Introduction Everyone in FE and skills knows the value of vocational qualifications (VQ), but outside the sector, stereotypes about their being for “not very bright kids” persist. And this is exactly what VQ Day […]