Author: Alix Robertson

A Greater Manchester council has the honour of being FE’s first community learning and skills provider to be judged outstanding by Ofsted under its new common inspection framework (Cif). Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, currently allocated £2.8m by the Skills Funding Agency, was visited last month and, in a repeat of its last inspection in 2009, inspectors […]

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Skills Minister Nick Boles will be witnesses in the final evidence session of the House of Lords Select Committee on Social Mobility this week. The Conservative duo are expected to field questions on topics such as funding for FE on Wednesday, December 9. Their appearances will close the process of evidence-gathering from […]

The teams behind two proposed National Colleges told their plans were “not mature enough” to proceed have told FE Week of their determination to keep the projects alive. Business proposals for seven different employer-led National Colleges were handed in to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills by July 17 with an announcement about successful […]

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is investigating a Midland man’s claim his local college is struggling with its legal duties under the Freedom of Information Act. Julian Saunders complained to the ICO and requested that Sandwell College’s FoI practice be monitored after it issued a number of late responses to his requests. Principal Graham Pennington […]

A cross-party group of MPs has won the backing of NUS FE leader Shakira Martin (pictured) with their bid to put first-year apprentices on a par with full-time learners in claiming free NHS prescriptions. Labour’s Stephen McCabe’s early day motion (EDM) to Parliament had, at the time of going to press, been signed by 20 […]

English colleges who set up new learner ventures in Saudi Arabia as part of multi-million pound deals could be facing “bankruptcy” as the projects prove less popular than expected, it has been claimed. Education Investor has reported that Saudi’s Colleges of Excellence programme, which attracted the likes of Lincoln College, Moulton College and Activate Learning […]

Trade union Unison will ballot FE workers in England in the New Year, in the latest development of an ongoing row over pay. The ballot is in response to a zero per cent pay offer for 2015/16 made by the national employers’ organisation, the Association of Colleges (AoC), in the summer. Unison represents 25,000 workers […]

Thirty four general FE colleges and 15 sixth form colleges (SFCs) will be involved in the second wave of post-16 education and training area reviews, it was announced today. Six reviews have been detailed in the Midlands, London and the North West among other areas, and are set to begin next month. And just like the seven […]