Author: Billy Camden

The government has today launched a Covid-19 supplier relief scheme for training providers with European Social Fund (ESF) contracts. There are 50 eligible providers, according to the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which will have just over one week to bid for the extra financial support as a closing date has been set for 28 […]

The Association of Colleges has warned that reducing interaction and mixing in colleges is “going to be a real challenge” should they choose to begin their wider reopening from June, following a government scientific briefing. Colleges have been advised to form “small consistent grouping or ‘bubbles’” – a task that the AoC admits will prove […]

Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are “losing out” on degree level apprenticeships as they soar in popularity without “fair access”, new research has found. Analysis published today by the Sutton Trust, a social mobility foundation, found that young apprentices from deprived areas have been “crowded out” since the introduction of the levy as they made […]

A new college for students with special educational needs and disabilities has been suspended from recruiting learners after receiving stinging criticism from Ofsted. Fir Tree Fishery, an independent specialist college (ISC) in Wigan, received a visit from the watchdog in February which found ‘insufficient’ delivery across the board, including safeguarding. Inspectors said learning focuses “too […]

Colleges that refuse to begin face-to-face teaching with students before the next academic year will “lose an opportunity to start a journey that we need to go through” to recover from Covid-19, Gillian Keegan has warned. The apprenticeships and skills minister believes the safety issues currently presented by the pandemic will still be there beyond […]

FE Week was joined by apprenticeships minister Gillian Keegan this afternoon for our latest webinar on the response to the coronavirus pandemic for the FE and skills sector. Editor Nick Linford quizzed her on the Department for Education’s guidance on the wider reopening of colleges and training providers. Roger Coates, the DfE’s deputy director for […]

Gillian Keegan has ruled out an extension to the switch-off date for starts on old-style apprenticeships, known as frameworks, after “comprehensive, careful consideration” of sector-wide concerns. Conversations between the skills minister and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education about a possible delay had been taking place as the July 31 end-date draws nearer. Numerous […]

Kirsty Evans has been appointed as the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s new acting director of further education. She takes over the role from Peter Mucklow, who became the agency’s director of apprenticeships last month when Keith Smith left to join the Department for Education as its director of post-16 strategy. As director of further […]

A cash-strapped college’s merger plans have been delayed owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College, which was told by FE Commissioner Richard Atkins last year that it could not survive as a standalone due to its “terminal” finances, had scheduled to join the Trafford College Group by August. A consultation on […]