Billy Camden | FE Week

Highbury College appoints permanent chair as merger option explored

A college that has been led by a troubleshooting interim chair for almost a year has appointed a permanent replacement as it continues to consider options for a merger. Ex-chief executive of the Association of Colleges Martin Doel (pictured left) was parachuted into Highbury College in December 2019 after it was hit by an expenses […]

Fears growing number of 16-19s will stretch budgets this year

Fears are growing that the government’s FE funding boost for this year will not be sufficient to cover an anticipated surge in 16 to 19 year old college places. The government is pumping an additional £400 million into further education in 2020-21, which includes raising the 16 to 19 learner base rate to £4,188 and […]

Ofsted ‘visits’ to go online during national lockdown

Ofsted has confirmed it will undertake school and FE provider visits “remotely” during the national lockdown. In a Twitter post this evening, the inspectorate said the programme of autumn visits across schools, colleges and other FE providers will be done remotely from Thursday. The post added: “During the national lockdown we will undertake our work […]

England’s first space apprenticeship set for lift-off

Science minister Amanda Solloway explains why England’s first space engineering apprenticeship is set for launch “Without you Tom, we wouldn’t have gotten to the Moon.” Those were the immortal words of gratitude expressed by then President, Richard Nixon, in 1961 to British rocket engineer Tom Bacon at a White House reception to mark the successful […]

Devolve greater skills funding powers for Covid-19 recovery, government urged

The government has been urged to devolve more skills funding to mayoral combined authorities to allow them to develop “grassroot” recovery strategies from Covid-19. A new report, Act Now, has today been published by education giant City & Guilds that warns a “top down” approach to recovery puts the UK economy “at risk” as much of […]

Lockdown learners: Could the pandemic lead to a shift in adult participation in learning?

The coronavirus pandemic may have increased the value adults place on learning, for work and their wider lives, writes Emily Jones This week is Lifelong Learning Week, a chance to celebrate the difference that learning can make to people’s lives. And there may have never been a more important time for adults to engage in […]

New Careers and Enterprise Company CEO named

The founder and headteacher of a “nationally recognised” school in east London is the new chief executive of the Careers and Enterprise Company. School 21 leader Oli de Botton (pictured) will officially take over at the head of the government-funded quango next year, replacing Claudia Harris, who left in July. The company said School 21 […]

What Ofsted found in the first 10 ‘interim visits’ of FE providers

Virtual work placements, redesigned curriculums for practical courses and borrowing prosthetic limbs are among the creative adjustments made by FE providers to continue education in the midst of a pandemic, Ofsted has found. The inspectorate this week published letters from the first ten “interim visits” of colleges and training providers that are taking place this […]

Up to £80m of unspent national retraining scheme cash on its way back to Treasury

The Department for Education could be forced to hand back up to £80 million to the Treasury after closing the national retraining scheme pilot, FE Week has learned. Skills minister Gillian Keegan last week announced that the retraining scheme would be “integrated” into the new £2.5 billion national skills fund to “reduce complexity” in the […]