Author: FE Week Reporter

A toolkit aimed at helping colleges and independent learning providers comply with new government rules on preventing radicalisation has been launched by two FE sector bodies. The 157 Group and Association of Employment and Learning Providers have launched the document, which is aimed at helping providers implement the government’s “prevent duty” guidance, which was published last […]

The Skills Funding Agency has relaxed its rules on new traineeship subcontracting to allow all grade three-rated and non-inspected providers to work with a grade one or two lead to deliver the programme. Thanks to the changes, brought in this month, grade three-rated (‘requires improvement’) providers and those not inspected by Ofsted can draw up traineeship agreements […]

Lewisham Southwark College has been given the ignominious honour of becoming the first FE and skills provider to be branded inadequate by Ofsted twice in a row. In a report on an inspection in February, which was released today (pictured above), the college was mauled by the education watchdog over the pace of improvement and a failure to […]

Two FE colleges have defended their dealings with a religious school chain denounced as a “cult” by former members and under investigation by the Department for Education (DfE). City College Coventry and Barnet and Southgate College both held contracting agreements, as leads, with Focus Learning Trust, an independent school chain run by the Exclusive Brethren (also […]

Five former A4e workers have been jailed for their parts in a back-to-work scheme fraud that cost the taxpayer nearly £300,000. A further five former employees were handed suspended sentences at Reading Crown Court  for a plot that involved creating faked records of welfare-to-work learners. Between 2008 and 2011, the defendants submitted fraudulent paperwork for learners on […]

The Government has been branded “cynical” by the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association (SFCA) after responding to a long-running campaign to scrap members’ VAT a day before Parliament was dissolved. The SFCA’s e-petition to bring sixth form colleges in line with school sixth forms, which do not pay VAT, reached the 10,000 signatures needed to trigger […]

The Association of Colleges (AoC) has demanded an inquiry by MPs in the next Parliament into a “waste of scarce funds” after figures revealed the government’s employer ownership of skills pilot has resulted in just 37 per cent of desired starts. A review of the early stages of the £340m pilot, which aimed to involve employers […]

New legislation around apprenticeships and training will be one of the first bits of work for a Labour government, with a bill expected in the first 100 days of the next parliament if the party wins, Tristram Hunt has said. The shadow education secretary made the comments to journalists following his speech to the Association […]

The election period officially begins today — and last week saw the leaders of the two largest parties being put on the spot by Jeremy Paxman and a studio audience on Channel 4’s Battle for Number 10. Opinion was divided over who came out on top — but whoever it was, there were plenty of questions […]