Billy Camden | FE Week

Two big exam board winners in third wave of T Levels

The awarding organisations that will develop, deliver and award the six T Levels being rolled out from 2022 are Pearson and City & Guilds. Following a tender, City & Guilds has been handed contracts totalling almost £12.5 million to develop qualifications in engineering, manufacturing, processing and control; maintenance, installation and repair for engineering and manufacturing; […]

Tripling traineeships: Tender to launch next week as clock ticks on £111m boost

A hotly-anticipated application process to widen the provider-base for 19 to 24 traineeships will finally be launched next week. Details for how businesses can claim new £1,000 incentives for taking on new traineeship learners will also be published “in the coming weeks”, but it is expected that employers will be able to apply for them […]

Apprentices stuck in limbo as Covid hits functional skills tests

Thousands of apprentices are “stuck in limbo” as awarding bodies struggle to adapt their functional skills assessments in the face of Covid-19, training providers have warned. Leaders of providers, who say they cannot physically visit some of their work-based learners to invigilate their tests especially in the care and health sectors, have described the situation […]

Number 10 is driving FE reform too fast and will blame the DfE when the wheels fall off

This week the Department for Education was thrown in to the back seat as the prime minister grabbed the steering wheel and pushed his foot hard on the FE reform accelerator. A press release from Number 10 confidently announced a new “lifetime skills guarantee” would launch for courses starting next April, just six months from […]

Education secretary makes ‘guarantee’ T Levels will be ‘available’ to adults in future

T Levels will be an option for adults of any age to study as part of the government’s new lifetime skills guarantee, the education secretary has surprisingly claimed. Gavin Williamson’s promise, made in the House of Commons today, comes despite Department for Education rules that T Levels can only be taken by 16 to 19 […]

‘Outstanding’ providers set for Ofsted inspections next year – but may face 6-year wait

‘Outstanding’ schools, colleges and training providers are set to be inspected again when Ofsted inspections resume next year – but it will now take up to six years to get through them all. The government has published its response to the consultation on removing the inspection exemption for the top-rated providers. It was introduced by […]

ESFA refuses to rule out funding clawback for ‘under delivery’

Controversial plans to clawback some of this year’s unspent adult education budget grant funding are back on the cards, the Education and Skills Funding Agency announced today. In its weekly update, the agency said any grant-funded provider that delivered less than 68 per cent of their allocation in 2019/20 is now at risk of having […]

Prime minister Boris Johnson’s speech on adult skills: The full text

There are many reasons to – for me I should say – to come here to Exeter College – the outstanding Further Education College in Devon. You have a total of 462 courses – some which I tried this morning – from particle physics to cake decorating. And you offer your students an extraordinary chance […]

PM to announce major ‘expansion’ in FE funding for adults

Adults over the age of 23 in England without a full level 3 qualification will be offered one for free from April, prime minister Boris Johnson is set to announce. The policy to extend full funding to all eligible adults was a recommendation in Philip Augar’s review of post-18 education published 15 months ago and […]