FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Greenwich Community College to ‘merge into’ Bromley College of Further and Higher Education

Plans have been announced for struggling Greenwich Community College to “merge into” Bromley College of Further and Higher Education. Basic details of the “merger proposal” for the South East London colleges were announced this morning, but a spokesperson for Bromley has now told FE Week how it anticipates this working. He said that the Greenwich […]

AELP questions sense of GCSE maths and English resits after fall in pass rate for 17-year-olds

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has questioned the sense of forcing resits on learners who fail maths and English GCSE after the pass rate fell for 17-year-olds. The 2014/15 academic year was the first in which learners who previously had not achieved a grade C in either subjects, but had continued onto […]

Number of young people not in education, employment or training falls again

Latest official statistics have shown the proportion of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) in the UK has continued its downward trend. An Office for National Statistics (ONS) report published today said that there were 922,000 16 to 24-year-old Neets between April and June this year — a decrease of 21,000 from […]

Qualifications moratorium will undermine confidence in system

Managing director of NOCN, Graham Hasting-Evans, explains why he thinks a fast-approaching government moratorium on approving qualifications will damage employers’ confidence in the system. On August 13, the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) announced that after the September approval window there will be a “moratorium” on new qualifications for 2015-16. The thrust of government policy is […]

Charity wants employers that train young care leavers to get higher returns from apprenticeship levy

A charity has called for employers that train young care leavers to receive a larger financial return on planned apprenticeship levy payments. Barnardo’s issued a plea to the government today for it to reserve 20,000 apprenticeships in England for 16 to 18-year-olds from the care system. After learning of the proposal, the Association of Employment […]

Young benefits claimants who can’t find work will be forced onto apprenticeships or traineeships

The government’s new Earn or Learn Taskforce will oversee plans to force young benefits claimants onto apprenticeships or traineeships if they do not find a job or acceptable unpaid work. The “troubleshooter” taskforce was launched earlier this summer to track government progress on its target for 3m apprenticeship starts by next parliament, as reported by […]

Ten new Careers Colleges set to open at existing FE colleges

Six FE colleges are preparing to open 10 new Careers Colleges over the next two academic years, with the potential another 15 to open by 2019. Former Conservative Education Secretary Lord Baker first announced plans in October 2013 to create a series of Careers Colleges, focussing on training from 14 years old with each specialising […]

Day 2 WorldSkills | TeamUK competitor’s shipments of Brazilian plaster and months of training in attempt for gold

Some ingenious thinking about the difference between British and Brazilian plaster could lead TeamUK competitor Robert Johnson to gold. The Redcar & Cleveland College 22-year-old had 80 bags of the stuff shipped to the UK from South America to make sure there were no nasty plaster-based surprises. WorldSkillsUK stalwart Peter Moore, Robert’s training manager, who […]

SFA moratorium on approval of new qualifications will ’cause havoc’ warns sector chief

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) will enforce a “moratorium” on the approval of qualifications until plans to “simplify and align” the public funding system are unveiled in the autumn. It issued a notice to awarding organisations today stating that it will “put in place a moratorium on any further approvals for the funding year 2015 […]