Author: Alix Robertson

At today’s University and College Union conference on ‘Education from Cradle to Grave’, FE Week spoke to some of the FE delegates to find out how they felt about the event and which hot topics they were discussing. Danyl Bartlett – South Essex College There has been such a variety of opinions here. It’s nice […]

Andy Wilson (pictured above) has been appointed as the new chief executive designate of City and Islington and Westminster Kingsway Colleges. Mr Wilson, who has been principal of Westminster Kingsway since 2004, was selected for the role after an interview process with the appointment panel of the colleges’ shadow board, including an external advisor. The […]

Tough new rules requiring a 40 per cent threshold for strike action in key public services will not apply to support staff working in colleges, FE Week can reveal. The government’s Trade Union Bill is set to introduce new rules meaning that teaching and leadership of “pupils aged five to 16 in state-funded schools” will […]

The winners of the 2015 National Apprenticeship Awards have been announced at a ceremony attended by Skills Minister Nick Boles and the Prime Minister’s apprenticeship adviser Nadhim Zahawi. The crowning glory of the event in Grosvenor House hotel last night (January 27) was the Apprenticeship Champion of the Year Award, which went to Neil Cain, aged 51, an operations […]

The London branch of the University and College Union (UCU) has called an emergency demonstration outside Downing Street in response to government policy on English for Speakers of Other Languages (Esol). The demonstration, entitled Restore funding to Esol: don’t scapegoat migrants, is due to take place on Wednesday (January 27) at 6pm. It has been arranged […]

John Laramy has been appointed as the new principal of Exeter College, replacing Richard Atkins who will retire in March. Mr Laramy, who has been vice principal of Exeter college since 2009, will take up his new post at the start of April. He was selected by the board of governors to lead the college, […]

The government could be on track to meet its target of 3m new apprenticeship starts by 2020, according to provisional Skills Funding Agency (SFA) statistics for the first quarter of 2015/16. To hit the 3m target in the next five years there needs to be an average of 600,000 apprenticeship starts per year, or 150,000 per […]

Association of Colleges (AoC) chief Martin Doel has spoken out to say that new government funding for Muslim women to learn English “does not make up for” previous cuts to English language provision. Mr Doel’s comments came in response to an op-ed by Prime Minister David Cameron in today’s edition of The Times, where he announced that the […]

Area reviews, apprenticeships and the large employers’ levy were all topics that were raised at a Westminster Education Forum on reforms to vocational qualifications in England. The word “bewildering” was used more than once throughout the forum, highlighting a view that routes through vocational education lack clarity. Warwick Sharp (pictured above), deputy director, vocational education […]