FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Learndirect and DfE scandal referred to NAO by Public Accounts Committee chair

The Learndirect scandal is expected to face a National Audit Office investigation following a request from the Public Accounts Committee, FE Week can reveal. In a series of events that will be familiar to FE Week readers, the largest training provider in the UK has been afforded special treatment by the DfE and retains all […]

Computer skills to be fully funded through existing Adult Education Budget

Plans have been unveiled to fully fund IT courses for adults, putting ‘digital literacy’ on a similar footing to English and maths. A consultation on the final details of the plans will be undertaken in due course, which will be funded from the existing £1.5bn annual Adult Education Budget. At present the Skills Funding Agency […]

FE Week and Me 2016 – VOTING OPEN

Once again hundreds of students from across the further education and skills sector entered our annual photography competition and now the time has come for you to vote for the winner. The FE Week and Me photography competition, a competition organised by FE Week in partnership with NCFE, challenged students to submit a photograph which […]

MPs to review DfE financial management after last-minute delay to annual accounts

MPs will probe the financial management at the Department for Education (DfE) after it used legislation to delay the publication of its accounts. The DfE has used a statutory instrument, a minor piece of legislation which can be passed without debate among MPs, to extend the deadline for laying its financial accounts before Parliament to […]

Refugee Abel on track with long distance running

From humble beginnings, refugee Abel Tsegay is on track to become a world renowned athlete thanks to help from Canterbury College, writes Billy Camden. Teenage refugee Abel Tsegay credits Canterbury College with helping him race towards his dream of emulating Britain’s greatest ever distance runner Mo Farah. The 19-year-old BTec level two sport learner, who […]

Survey helps us deal with skills gap

The UKCES Employer Skills Survey is one of the largest of its kind in the world. More than 91,000 employers across the UK are interviewed to draw together the data contained within the report, creating a comprehensive insight into the ways employers train and develop staff, as well as their experiences of where skills are […]

Editors comment: Honesty is the best policy

Take a moment to empathise with the Central Delivery Service (CDS) advisers at the Skills Funding Agency. As if what must feel like annual restructures at the Agency were not stressful enough, they represent the front line in communications with embattled providers. On the 23 December last year they dutifully emailed colleges and training providers […]

Employer Skills Survey in limbo after funding cut

Questions remain over the future of the UK’s largest employer skills survey, with indications that responsibility for labour market information could fall to local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) in the future. The Employer Skills Survey (ESS), published every two years by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, examines the skills challenges facing employers and is […]

Robot hands out canapés

Oscar the robot helped host the official unveiling of £2m-worth of hi-tech engineering facilities at Nelson and Colne College. The new department features a subsonic wind tunnel, along with workshops equipped with the latest technology and software, such as computerised numerical control machinery. It is aimed at helping the college’s engineering students learn the skills […]