FE Week Reporter | FE Week

The inadequate situation of one rule for colleges, another for indies

Colleges rated inadequate by Ofsted are given a chance to improve before their funding is withdrawn and it is unfair that independent training providers are not given the same opportunity, says Paul Warner. The Skills Funding Agency’s (SFA) Approach to Intervention recently set out the process by which contracts held by providers rated inadequate by […]

Agency probe looms over troubled college

The Skills Funding Agency is poised to investigate as it awaits the results of a Newham College investigation into claims it awarded qualifications to students who never took courses. The agency said it “reserved the right” to probe further if it was not satisfied with the college investigation into allegations that passes had been awarded […]

Getting ahead vocationally with Teach Too

How do you take industry expertise into the learning environment while retaining that practical, everyday sector knowledge? It’s an issue that has been looked at recently and Jenny Williams wants to hear from FE and skills providers where such issues have been overcome. There has been much discussion in the last few weeks about ‘line […]

Ex-international footballer barred over apprenticeship claims

A former Welsh international footballer is one of four men to have been disqualified from being company directors after their sports apprenticeship firm submitted invalid funding claims. Mark Aizlewood (pictured), aged 54, who played for Wales 39 times between 1986 and 1994, was barred from directorships for six years for failing to comply with apprenticeship […]

Progress update for the ETF at the end of 2013

The Education and Training Foundation will be celebrating its first Christmas in the coming weeks. Rebecca Cooney looks back at an event five months since its “official launch” — and even further back to the early discussions about a new sector organisation. The concept of the Education and Training Foundation, the sector self-improvement body, was […]

Awarding organisations withdraw from group membership body

Six of the country’s biggest awarding bodies have withdrawn from the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB). City & Guilds, Pearson and AQA were among those to leave FAB in a move that will mean they are now solely represented collectively by the Joint Qualification Council (JCQ). The JCQ is made up of seven awarding bodies, […]

Four more accused in new A4e Aspire to Inspire fraud allegations

Four more people have been charged over fraud allegations at welfare-to-work provider A4e. It brings the total number of accused to 13, including a former administrator and seven former recruiters who were employed across three A4E offices in South East England. It is alleged that they forged documentation to support fraudulent claims to the Department […]

Learners’ own jobs could get study programme funding

Learners’ part-time paid jobs could be publicly-funded as part of the new study programmes for 16 to 19-year-olds, FE Week can reveal. It had appeared the Department for Education (DfE) would only allow unpaid work experience organised through colleges or independent learning providers to form part of the programmes. College principals had warned this would […]

Apprenticeship ‘loans in line for chop’

The troubled 24+ advanced learning loans system for apprenticeships could be axed after just 404 people applied for funding since April’s launch, FE Week can reveal. The future of the system is, according to an FE Week source, being “considered” by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). Latest figures, released last month, showed […]