FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Edition 142: Christine Slaymaker, Gerard Garvey, Steve Gibson & Ian Pretty

Farnborough College of Technology principal Christine Slaymaker has announced her retire next academic year. She has been at the college for nearly 15 years and will stay in post until the appointment of the new principal to allow a planned and smooth transition. “I have been truly privileged to be able to serve the communities […]

Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham says apprenticeships ‘central’ to campaign

Andy Burnham has said apprenticeships and technical education are central to his bid to become the next Labour leader. The Leigh MP made the comments during a speech he gave in Crewe this morning as part of his leadership campaign. Mr Burnham announced he would be establishing an “expert panel”, led by Pat Glass MP, […]

Lord Baker’s UTC project celebrates first outstanding from Ofsted as inspectors heap praise on Reading

Former Education Secretary Lord Baker is celebrating the first outstanding grade from Ofsted for his university technical college (UTC) project with a glowing inspection report for UTC Reading. The report on the UTC, which opened in 2013 specialising in science and engineering for 14 to 19-year-olds and is listed as a school by the education watchdog, is […]

‘Don’t prepare for new inspections’, Ofsted boss Lorna Fitzjohn tells FE providers

Colleges which are good at “what they do on a daily basis” should not prepare for inspection under Ofsted’s reformed regime, the watchdog’s head of FE and skills has said. Ofsted director Lorna Fitzjohn told delegates at the launch of the new common inspection framework (CIF) and short inspections regime that those FE providers already […]

Qualifications could be withdrawn under Ofqual’s plan to close shared ‘unit bank’

Awarding organisations could be forced to withdraw qualifications with units shared with other bodies after Ofqual announced plans to close its “unit bank”. Under the proposals set out in a letter from the regulator, awarding organisations have until July 31 to withdraw units shared and developed with others or allow those competitors to “treat them […]

Nick Boles faces education grilling from MPs

Skills Minister Nick Boles has reiterated his commitment to make it illegal to misuse the word “apprenticeships”. Mr Boles, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and the rest of their team faced a grilling from MPs on government education policy in this afternoon’s education questions in the House of Commons. Mr Boles also suggested the funding rate […]

Enterprise bill to protect term ‘apprenticeship’ and force public bodies to recruit

Apprenticeships will be given the same legal protection as degrees, allowing a clampdown on firms which misuse the term, the government has announced today. A plan to force public bodies such as schools, hospitals and prisons to hire apprentices has also been announced as the government sets the ball rolling on plans to create 3m […]

UTCs team to ‘work with’ Boles on programme

The organisation behind Lord Baker’s university technical colleges (UTCs) has said it will be “working with” Skills Minister Nick Boles as he looks into the performance of the project as it comes under growing criticism. Officials at the Baker Dearing Trust look set for difficult questions from Mr Boles with UTCs suffering much-publicised recruitment issues. […]

Apprentice recruitment halted over funding delay

Providers hit with an unexpected and “agonising wait” to find out if they will be paid for apprenticeships and traineeships they have already started have halted further recruitment and are even contemplating job cuts. The Skills Funding Agency (SFA), as exclusively revealed on feweek.co.uk, said it was delaying the outcome of growth requests from providers […]