Alix Robertson | FE Week

‘Shambles’ IfA on course to launch with temporary leadership

The Institute for Apprenticeships looks increasingly likely to launch without either a permanent chief or deputy chief executive, following yet more delays to board appointments. With less than three months until the IfA is “fully operational”, the two top jobs haven’t even been advertised – and the Department for Education cannot say when that will […]

Unison: New labour market tsar must protect underpaid apprentices

The government’s new director of labour-market enforcement must protect apprentices from exploitation in the workplace, one of the UK’s largest trade unions has said. Unison demanded that Sir David Metcalf urgently find a solution to ongoing problems with illegal apprenticeship wages, shortly after he was appointed to the position on 5 January. The newly created […]

Bailouts for failing colleges reach £140 million says Halfon

College bailouts have cost the UK a whopping £140 million, the apprenticeships minister has admitted. Robert Halfon confessed to the House of Commons that by March the government expects to have dropped “a total of about £140 million on propping up colleges facing extreme financial difficulties”. That money, he added during a debate on the […]

FE pays tribute to former SFA director Kim Thorneywork

The FE sector has paid tribute to Kim Thorneywork, the “distinguished” former chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency, who died this week. Ms Thorneywork joined the agency in 2006 and became its leader in July 2012, but the following October she announced that she was stepping down after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Sector […]

PM’s mental health first aid training pledge only for schools, not colleges

The Prime Minister’s pledge to roll out mental health first aid training to education staff working with young people will not cover the FE sector. Theresa May (pictured left) spoke out yesterday about a “burning injustice of mental health and inadequate treatment” at the Charity Commission annual meeting at the Royal Society in London yesterday (January […]

Skills Funding Agency to remain in charge of assessment organisation register

The Skills Funding Agency will stay in charge of the new register of apprentice assessment organisations, despite its slow start, and even though it is not related to funding. The government’s Draft Strategic Guidance to the IfA, unveiled on January 4, controversially confirmed that the SFA would “maintain responsibility for administration” of the register. This […]

DfE writes off another £3m from undersubscribed UTCs

Over £3 million of taxpayers’ money has been lost by the Department for Education, through unrecovered payments to failed university technical colleges for students who never enrolled. The DfE was unable to recover a total of £3,384,512 in pupil number adjustment clawbacks from the unsuccessful Royal Greenwich, Central Bedfordshire and Hackney UTCs, according to the […]

‘Large-scale incident’ exposes college safeguarding failures in inadequate Ofsted report

Epping Forest College has been rated ‘inadequate’ across-the-board, in an Ofsted report out today that warned of safeguarding failings that emerged through a “large-scale incident” during the inspection. The education watchdog, which inspected the college between November 15 and 18 last year, found that the safeguarding processes and procedures at Epping Forest failed to “ensure […]

FE figures honoured by the Queen in her 2017 list

The work of the chief executive officer of adult learning provider City Lit has been recognised in this year’s Queen’s New Year’s Honours list, alongside 11 other figures from the FE sector. Mark Malcomson (pictured above), who has led London-based college City Lit since May 2011 in the role of CEO and principal, gained a […]