Author: FE Week Reporter

Skills Minister Nick Boles has broken his promise to the House of Commons Education Select Committee that there would be “many fewer” new apprenticeship Trailblazer standards than the frameworks they will replace by 2017. He told committee members in January that he was worried about the “unbelievable proliferation” in the number of frameworks, which currently […]

Two general FE colleges have had their free school plans thrown out by the Department for Education (DfE), FE Week can reveal. Croydon College’s application was rejected, it said, because there wasn’t considered to be a sufficient shortfall of school places in the local area. It was the college’s second attempt. Meanwhile, London-based Tower Hamlets […]

A further six general FE colleges have been listed by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) as intending to take on learners from the age of 14. The EFA yesterday published an updated list of FE colleges intending to start ‘direct recruitment’ of full-time younger learners for 2015/16. The six new providers are Cambridge Regional College […]

Colleges will be expected to foot the bill for changes recommended during government-ordered area reviews or risk having their funding withdrawn, official government guidance leaked to FE Week has revealed. A draft of guidance on the first wave of area reviews of post-16 education in England places responsibility for funding of the implementation of changes recommended […]

Further education colleges struggling to cope with an influx of maths and English GCSE resit students should get extra cash through a special levy on schools, a leading think tank has claimed. A report released today by the Policy Exchange, a right-leaning think tank founded by former Education Secretary Michael Gove, called for the “resit […]

The sector skills councils for health and for justice today announced their merger — but also said they would continue to act separately. Skills for Health (SfH) and Skills for Justice (SfJ) have “integrated” and a joint statement from the two organisations said the move would “maximise the synergies for customers and stakeholders”. John Rogers […]

Stockton Riverside College has merged with independent learning provider (ILP) the NETA (formerly North East Training Association) Training Trust after 18 months of “talks” between the grade two Ofsted rated providers. A joint statement released this morning by Phil Cook, principal of the FE college, and Frank Ramsay, chief executive of Stockton-based NETA, confirmed the […]

A former principal of two colleges has been named as chair of a new steering group set up by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) to support its work on simplifying the funding system for adult skills. The SFA announced today that it has launched the new Funding Reform and Localism Steering Group (FRLSG) to “support […]

The UK’s leading employers’ organisation has criticised the government’s new apprenticeship levy consultation for failing to explore the cost involved or the minimum size of “larger employers” set to cough-up. While the document accompanying the consultation launched this morning said that the levy will be paid by “larger employers” in all sectors, based on “the […]