FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Outdoor lecturers up the creek with a paddle

A team of Hampshire college outdoor lecturers paddled through their most gruelling challenge to date when they took on the world’s toughest canoe race in memory of former student James Male, a crew member of the Cheeki Rafeeki yacht lost at sea last year, writes Billy Camden. Paddling non-stop for 125 miles from Devizes to […]

Plea for an FE & skills lifeline

Funding, change, workload and bureaucracy topped the list of concerns in the second annual FE Week sector survey. Worries about English and maths teaching and the “broad direction of travel” for FE followed close behind as hundreds took the opportunity to express their feelings on FE and skills with the General Election just days away. […]

Row breaks out over quals funding email claims

A bitter row has broken out between two awarding organisations (AOs) over claims one had “lost” public funding for its qualifications. OCN London has hit out at an NOCN email claiming OCN London’s 24 qualifications approved for 2015/16 meant it had “lost funding”. The number of qualifications approved was confirmed by OCN London, but it […]

Famed Paralympian opens centre for disabled students

Britain’s most decorated Paralympian Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson officially launched a new centre for learners with learning disabilities at Barnet and Southgate College. The 11-time Paralympic gold medallist was given a tour of the facilities and also met with students who will be using the purpose-built centre. Proceedings opened with a speech from Lady Grey-Thompson, who […]

Award-winning Joe over the ‘technical wall’

A Bury College student is building a successful career after claiming first prize in the Northwest Guild of Bricklayers competition. Level-two bricklaying student Joe Higginson, aged 18, competed in the junior category of the annual contest held in Preston, where he was challenged to build a ‘technical wall’ in five hours. He credited the college […]

Learners’ balloon effort takes off

The sky was no limit for students and staff from the science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) departments at Chichester College who launched a balloon into the stratosphere. Armed with a “payload” of three cameras, a black box and seeds, the team released the high-altitude weather balloon as part of the Global Balloon Challenge, where […]

Sector politicians are all bookies’ favourites

These are the political faces we’ve come to know in the world of FE and skills — but how likely are we to see them in the sector again after the General Election? The good news for our current MPs is, at time of going to press, bookmaker William Hill said they were all odds-on […]

Football frenzy as Walsall winners lift colleges’ cup

Walsall College’s supported learning football team shot to victory at the Association of Colleges (AoC) National Sports Championships. The team of 12 learners with a variety of disabilities had to win a regional round to qualify for the finals of the Football for Students with a Disability tournament, which was part of the AoC sports […]

Exam papers ‘could be lost’ after ‘technical error’

A “technical error” in collecting Functional Skills papers has left learners across the country unsure whether their City & Guilds exam papers have been lost. The glitch was said to be in the scanning equipment of un-named contractor, which meant papers were not uploaded to the marking system. City & Guilds has ordered the contractor […]