FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Labour taskforce calls for FE progression to determine schools funding

Labour’s Skills Taskforce has called for school funding to be conditional on whether students progress into FE, employment or training. The third report by the group, set up last year to provide independent policy recommendations to Labour, was published today and recommends that funding withheld from affected schools should go towards their careers guidance services. Young […]

Employing apprentices

The Association of Colleges’ annual HR conference takes place in Nottingham tomorrow and Wednesday. Richard Banks and Geoffrey Mead look at issues on the minds of college HR officers up and down the country. Hiring apprentices is a great way for businesses to grow their own talent by developing a motivated, skilled and qualified […]

The Skills Funding Statement offered unpalatable certainty, but did it also help pave the way for the HMRC apprenticeship funding plan?

Adult apprenticeships emerged as a top funding priority for the government in the Skills Funding Statement last month, according to Mark Corney. He looks at the implications this might have for the HMRC funding plan and also 16 and 17-year-old apprenticeships The skills funding statement (SFS), published alongside the Higher Education Funding Council for England […]

The state of pay

The Association of Colleges’ annual HR conference takes place in Nottingham tomorrow and Wednesday. Richard Banks and Geoffrey Mead look at issues on the minds of college HR officers up and down the country. Colleges were incorporated on April 1, 1993 — fully 20 years ago. One might imagine that, over those two decades, the […]

Are we heading for the right destination?

With Destination Data fast becoming the new FE show in town, Lynne Sedgmore looks at the issues that may have held it back — and may continue to do so. The Skills Funding Statement hints not very subtly again that ‘payment by results’ is on the way. That is, payment by ‘real’ results — […]

Cuts hit much more than bank balances

Former House of Commons Education Select Committee specialist Ben Nicholls is head of policy and communications at London’s Newham College. He writes exclusively for FE Week every month. When I started writing this column a year ago, I promised myself I’d try not to rant, to get too defensive, or to be one-sided. But when the […]

Dame Jackie Fisher, chief executive, Barnfield Federation

Dame Jackie Fisher, describes herself as “an outsider to the system looking in”. Coming from the well-known former chief of one of the largest college groups in England, NGC (formerly Newcastle College Group), who was named a dame for her services to education in 2010, it’s a bit of a surprise. “I don’t like rules […]

Exclusive: an FE Week Q&A with Skills Minister Matthew Hancock on apprenticeships

Reforms, the minimum wage and 24+ loans are just three issues covered in an exclusive FE Week Q&A as Skills Minister Matthew Hancock speaks all things apprenticeships. Are you worried about being seen to tweak with the system too much? Our priority is to expand apprenticeships where they deliver greatest benefits, including for young […]

Keeping an apprenticeship culture change in sight

A busy year for apprenticeships shows no sign of letting up with reform proposals expected to come to fruition, explains Matthew Hancock, skills minister. Across the country, our culture is changing, with more people recognising the long overlooked value of technical skills, and just how valuable apprenticeships are. This will be another exciting year for […]