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26 April 2026

Author: FE Week Reporter

Who benefits from a secretive commissioner set-up?

The sight of Ofsted inspectors is not the only thing to strike fear into the heart of principals at poorly-performing colleges now the FE Commissioner is in town. But while such principals rightly face a grilling, the rest of the sector should be able to learn from the mistakes of others and the experience of […]

Christine Doubleday, deputy executive director, 157 Group

The importance of education as a means to getting on in life was instilled into Christine Doubleday by her parents who both left school when they were 13. She grew up on a huge council estate in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in a catholic, working class family with her brothers Martin, now aged 60, Paul, 56, and […]

Keeping the industry in mind on apprenticeships

As employers take greater ownership of the skills agenda, it’s important to remember the qualifications of apprentices remain relevant to the sector — not just their boss’s immediate workplace needs, says Scott Waddington. Privately-educated pupils have been warned by Girls’ School Association president Hilary French they can no longer afford to be ‘sniffy’ about apprenticeships, […]

Governors called to account for ‘weak’ learning provision

The spotlight of Ofsted attention shone for the first time on prison education with the watchdog’s latest annual report — and it didn’t make for positive reading. Alexandra Marks looks at what’s going wrong behind locked doors. It was a challenging year for prison education that saw the new Offender Learning and Skills Service contract […]

Providers underpaid on ASB by £61.8m

Just over half of all providers in England were not paid for all the work they carried out last academic year, leaving some providers “very disappointed”. The Funding Year Values released by the Skills Funding Agency last month showed 51 per cent (514) of the 1015 providers included were paid less than the value of […]

Cash queries over maths qual

The government unveiled plans for a new level three qualification to keep young people studying maths until 18, but sector bodies have expressed concerns over funding. The Association of Colleges (AoC) and the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) welcomed the aims of government proposals published last week to introduce a “core maths” qualification targeted at […]

Leading London college tumbles to inadequate

One of London’s largest FE colleges, and a former outstanding one, has crashed to a grade four Ofsted rating. LeSoCo, a 17,600-learner college in South London, has been graded inadequate after its latest inspection, less than two months ago. While we fully accept the need for improvements in some areas of our teaching and learning […]

Hancock faces MPs’ wrath over DfE cut

Members of the Education Select Committee could probe controversial government plans to cut funding for full-time education for 18-year-olds. Committee member Pat Glass said she would be calling for an inquiry into proposals to fund 18–year-olds by 17.5 per cent less than 16 and 17-year-olds. It comes as she and fellow committee members await an […]