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15 April 2026

Author: Alix Robertson

Insufficient progress for inadequate college

A college that nose-dived from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’ in March has been slammed by Ofsted again for making insufficient progress. Following its second monitoring visit since the education watchdog’s damning report, Mid-Cheshire College was deemed to have made ‘insufficient progress’ in improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and with ensuring learners make good progress and […]

Heading in the right direction

I was of course pleased when the government listened to mounting calls through our SaveOurApprenticeships campaign for a rethink on apprenticeship funding cuts. Credit should go to FE’s new minister Robert Halfon for taking on board the findings of our initial analysis showing how younger learners in deprived areas would have been worst hit, and […]

Rise in SFA contracts for small providers

Plans to cut the number of recipients of Skills Funding Agency cash have been shelved in an attempt to increase the provider base for degree and higher-level apprenticeships, and advanced learner loans. A total of 1,023 providers received direct SFA funding this academic year, up from 984 at the start of 2015/16. The SFA first attempted to introduce a […]

National programme launched to boost apprenticeship end-point assessment

The government has launched a new programme to tackle the shortage of end-point assessors in apprenticeships, after FE Week reported that almost 60 per cent of apprenticeship standards cleared so far don’t have an approved assessment organisation. The new large-scale scheme is funded by the Department for Education and commissioned by the Education and Training Foundation, […]

Exclusive: AoC India to close after 25 colleges quit

A college partnership network set up by the Association of Colleges to provide UK vocational education and training programmes to India is to close after losing over three quarters of its members. AoC India was established in 2012 as a partnership of 33 FE colleges, but after being left with just eight members this year […]

Federation of Awarding Bodies appoints new chair and vice chair

A new chair and vice chair have been appointed at the Federation of Awarding Bodies, the membership organisation for vocational awarding bodies in the UK.   The appointments of Paul Eeles (pictured above) and Terry Fennell (pictured below left) were announced today at the first day of the Annual FAB Conference, at the Marriott Hotel in […]

SFA approve just 13% of apprentice assessment organisation applications

Organisations applying to the government’s new register of apprenticeship assessment organisations are being turned away because their plans for end-point assessment are not up to scratch, according to the new interim chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships, Peter Lauener. Mr Lauener (pictured above right), who is also chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency and Education […]