FE Week Reporter | FE Week

College course goes green with energy

A North East college has become one of the first winners to share a £1m pot of government cash aimed at boosting energy efficiency skills. Gateshead College’s £75,000 contract will see it train dozens of people between now and the end of the year to become newly-qualified Green Deal energy assessors. Paul Gough, commercial operations […]

DIY skills in store for Homebase students

Home is where the art is for staff at a well-known DIY chain who achieved City and Guilds qualifications in painting and decorating. Fifteen customer service advisers from Homebase stores across the West Midlands, including Sutton Coldfield, Oldbury, Solihull, Leamington Spa and Worcester, gained their level one certificates at Walsall College’s construction department. Working with […]

Hairdresser duo ahead of the competition

Two Midland college students have been getting ahead of the competition in regional WorldSkills Competitions. Burton and South Derbyshire College (BSDC) Hairdressing students snipped their way to success, scooping second and fourth place in the recent regional heats. Harriet Bowring, 17, and Luize Rotberga, 20, got through in the intermediate level of the WorldSkills competition […]

Students earn their leadership spurs

Premier League outfit Tottenham Hotspur have teamed up with a London college to develop students’ leadership skills. The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London welcomed Leadership through Sport founder David Pinchin to speak to 15 recruits on the subject. The exclusive programme, run at the college in association with Spurs and the sport […]

Is the De Vere case a one-off, asks Marsden

The Skills Funding Agency and the National Apprenticeship Service have no idea how many providers are running introductory apprenticeships for groups of students who are all out of work, FE Week can reveal. The De Vere Academy of Hospitality is the only known provider with permission to run access to apprenticeship courses in which 100 […]

New minister says he’s ‘learning and listening’

New further education minister Matthew Hancock has told for the first time of his “exciting agenda” for change when he spoke exclusively to FE Week. The joint Parliamentary Under Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills also took time out from his first ministerial visit to insist colleges would be given more freedom to meet the […]

Lounge marks EMFEC’s 100 years in FE

An East Midlands charity’s 100 years of support in the further education sector has been marked with the opening of a plush Centenary Lounge. Nearly 50 years of service were represented as staff and chief executives, old and new, enjoyed a celebratory afternoon tea at East Midlands Further Education Council’s (EMFEC) Nottingham headquarters. A raffle […]

Ofqual consults on ESOL

Regulations that govern foreign learners of English could be scrapped. Ofqual is considering three options for the future of ESOL (English for speakers of other languages), including the withdrawal of existing regulations for ESOL Skills for Life and ESOL for Work qualifications. Other suggestions are for a new qualification called ESOL for Life in the […]

Japanese students on cloud nine over airline course at Bournemouth and Poole College

Seven jet-setting students have been in Bournemouth this summer learning the skills of airline cabin crew. After three weeks’ intensive training at Bournemouth and Poole College’s Lansdowne campus, and working on British Airways’ cabin simulators, they were due fly home to Osaka, in Japan. All seven hope one day to be soaring across the world […]