Billy Camden

  • Pearson launches new Learning Hub

    Pearson has launched its latest digital venture in the form of a brand-new Learning Hub. Pearson Learning Hub, which launched last month, is currently in its pilot state. Initially offering 13 behaviour modules to improve learners’ understanding and skills in areas such as decision-making and commercial awareness, the hub also offers a learning programme for…

    6.00 Dec. 7th, 2019 | News, Sponsored post

  • Investigators probe dozens of gagging orders as former Hull College staff left ‘devastated’

    The HR director at Hull College Group has been placed on a leave of absence after an ongoing independent investigation found dozens of pay-offs and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Former employees with gagging clauses in their settlement agreements came forward after the chief executive, Michelle Swithenback, was placed on a “leave of absence” in early October.…

    22.35 Dec. 5th, 2019 | News

  • Labour leads FE Week readers' poll

    More FE professionals will be backing Labour than the Conservatives at next week’s general election, exclusive FE Week polling can reveal. When asked who they would be voting for, 37 per cent of the 542 respondents replied saying Labour; while 27 per cent said the Conservative Party. Coming in third were the Liberal Democrats, on…

    20.07 Dec. 5th, 2019 | News

  • Pledge to 'reverse privatisation' in FE clarified by shadow minister

    Labour will not prevent independent providers from accessing public funding if the party wins next week’s general election, even though its manifesto pledged to “reverse the privatisation” of FE. And nor does it want to “dictate the management of colleges or bring them under new forms of control”, the shadow skills minister insisted this week.…

    21.00 Dec. 5th, 2019 | News

  • Immensely proud to be reporting impartial news without fear or favour

    In the nine years and 300 editions of FE Week, there is one story that best sums up our consistent and dogged determination to report the facts: Learndirect. For the first and hopefully last time, a lawyer representing the country’s largest training provider emailed me at 11pm on a Friday in the summer of last…

    5.00 Dec. 6th, 2019 | Opinion

  • Interim principal joins Highbury College following DfE intervention

    A college embroiled in an expenses scandal has appointed an experienced FE leader as its interim principal. Penny Wycherley (pictured) will take over Stella Mbubaegbu’s responsibilities as principal at Highbury College from today after the latter was suspended last month. It follows intervention from the FE Commissioner, who recently moved Highbury into “supervised college status”.…

    10.10 Dec. 3rd, 2019 | News

  • Williamson taken to task on Conservative manifesto

    While the Conservatives’ manifesto published on Sunday had some eye-catching FE pledges, including a new £3 billion national skills fund and £1.8 billion for college capital, there were some notable omissions. FE Week chief reporter Billy Camden has taken education secretary Gavin Williamson to task on the areas his party appeared to dodge.   The…

    5.00 Nov. 29th, 2019 | News

  • Serious safeguarding failures at 'college'

    Serious safeguarding failures at a multi-site “college” are to be exposed in an imminent Ofsted report, FE Week can reveal. City College Nottingham, a private training provider with campuses across the Midlands, is bracing itself for the publication of a grade-four report. It has already laid off staff and stopped taking on new enrolments. Inspectors…

    18.42 Nov. 28th, 2019 | News

  • ‘Inadequate’ provider hands £2m adult education budget contract back

    A training provider has handed back an adult education budget (AEB) contract of almost £2 million after Ofsted criticised it for the second time this year. Total Training Company (UK) Limited was declared “inadequate” in its first full inspection last week. It was found to be making “insufficient progress” in an early monitoring report in February.…

    7.00 Nov. 29th, 2019 | News

  • CBI: Don’t restrict how the apprenticeship levy is spent

    The Confederation of British Industry has urged the government not to restrict how the apprenticeship levy is spent in the face of opposition from nearly eight in ten businesses. Limits on age, income or level of training would make 78 per cent of 208 businesses and trade associations surveyed for the 2019 CBI and Pearson…

    0.01 Nov. 29th, 2019 | News

  • Ofsted blasts ‘unreliable’ apprenticeship off-the-job training records

    A new provider that has more than 300 apprentices on its books has been criticised by Ofsted for “unreliable” recording of off-the-job training. Rapid Improvement Limited, which was founded in 2007 but gained a direct apprenticeships contract in December 2017, was found making ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas of its first monitoring visit from the…

    16.02 Nov. 27th, 2019 | News