FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Commissioner strips second principal of powers

The FE Commissioner has slapped a second grade four college with administered status as an Ofsted monitoring report blasted its action plan for lack of results. The senior management team at Stockport College, which fell from grade one at the end of September, has been stripped of control over staffing and finance following a review […]

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New Year, new hopes as sector faces up to funding cuts, reforms and the General Election countdown

Agency gets tough with new rules on bosses

The Skills Funding Agency has beefed-up funding rules to stop rogue bosses setting up new providers to get their hands on public money. The agency has carried out a host of changes to its eight-page Funding Higher-risk Providers and Subcontractors guidance. It outlines the criteria that would stop a provider being considered for funding, either […]

Countdown to end of apprentice loans continues

No date has been given for the abolition of adult apprenticeship loans, despite Business Secretary Vince Cable’s (pictured left) announcement last month that the system was being dropped. The Student Loans Company confirmed it was still processing applications for apprentice FE loans while it awaited government instructions to stop. Dr Cable told FE Week three […]

Agency rule change allows grade three providers to keep taking on trainees

Providers that drop to a grade three Ofsted rating will be allowed to keep taking on new trainees under new government guidelines. Providers that fell below a good (grade two) rating previously had to stop taking on new trainees, but they could let existing learners finish their programmes. Now providers that were outstanding (grade one) […]

Chancellor Osborne buries hopes of college VAT refund

Hopes of a VAT refund for colleges look to have finally ended with Education Secretary Michael Gove admitting his hands were tied by the Treasury. All 93 sixth form colleges in England, along with general further education colleges, pay VAT on goods and services, while schools and academies are reimbursed. The Sixth Form Colleges Association […]

First FE Commissioner job results in administered status for K College after Ofsted inadequate grade

Troubled K College has been put into administered status after becoming the first college to come under scrutiny from the FE Commissioner following the damning Ofsted report, published this morning. Skills Minister Matthew Hancock sent in commissioner David Collins and his team of advisers to review the college before the education watchdog’s report, which resulted in […]

College’s most deprived students won’t go hungry this Christmas

The festive season can be a depressing time for students without a stable family home to return to, which is why staff at City College Plymouth are collecting for hampers full of food, toiletries and warm clothes for their most deprived youngsters, writes Paul Offord. Staff at City College Plymouth could not stand the thought […]