Author: Billy Camden

Telecoms companies have extended their free data offer to young and disadvantaged students in further education just as they are about to return for face-to-face teaching. It was announced by the government today that mobile providers including EE, Lycamobile, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile, Virgin Mobile, BT Mobile, Vodaphone and iD Mobile have all agreed to […]

Public bodies may be “less willing” to use statistical models to support decisions in future after the system to award exam grades last year failed to “command public confidence”, the statistics watchdog has warned. A review by the Office for Statistics Regulation, the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority, found the grading system prompted […]

The cash bonus scheme for hiring apprentices aged 25 and over is set to double to £3,000 and will be extended by six months. Financial incentives were first introduced by Rishi Sunak in August and currently offer firms £2,000 to take on apprentices aged 16 to 24, while those that employ new apprentices aged 25 […]

School and college staff will not be prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccine over other workers in the next phase of immunisation, the government has confirmed. But education workers in their forties will be next in line for the jab along with all others in that age group once phase two begins, after ministers confirmed the […]

One of the country’s largest manufacturing sectors has hit out at the “frustrating” and “bureaucratic” process of adding courses on to the level 3 lifetime skills guarantee offer. The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) was left “puzzled” in December when their industry was one of many key economic sectors overlooked in the original list of […]

The government has finally reintroduced a flexibility that allows apprentices to take their end-point assessment (EPA) before their English and maths functional skills test. Updated Department for Education guidance, published today, says this this can be applied to “eligible” apprentices from February 25. To be eligible, apprentices and providers must have “exhausted all possibilities to […]

Schools and colleges won’t be forced to use externally-set questions when determining their students’ GCSE and A-level grades this year, the government has confirmed. Teacher assessments will be used to issue grades to pupils this summer after formal exams were cancelled following partial school and college closures. A joint consultation by Ofqual and the Department […]

Ofsted will pause its remote monitoring inspections for the week beginning March 8 to allow schools and colleges to focus on wider reopening. The watchdog has been carrying out remote monitoring visits of those graded ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ since January in place of routine in-person inspections, which have been suspended during the pandemic. The […]