Billy Camden | FE Week

NHS opens coronavirus testing sites on college car parks

College car parks are being transformed into coronavirus testing centres for NHS and care sector workers. Hopwood Hall College, based in Rochdale, and Preston’s College are among the first to offer up their facilities for the service while they’re closed to the majority of students. Another, Central Bedfordshire College, has agreed to have two of […]

Despite constraints, flexibility means assessment of apprentices can go on

Assessing apprentices in lockdown conditions presents unique challenges but collaboration and flexibility will ensure disruption is kept to a minimum, writes Rob Nitsch End point assessment is no exception to the disruption being felt across the whole apprenticeship sector. It is inevitable that an activity involving close interaction between apprentices and assessors, and in some […]

AoC launches national esports football tournament

A national tournament that will see college students face-off against their peers in FIFA games for the first time has been launched by AoC Sport. The FIFA 2020 College Lockdown Championship will see learners in teams of three using their Xbox One and PlayStation 4 console to compete against others from across the country weekly […]

New practices don’t add up a new normal for colleges… yet

The rapid transformation of our colleges is a testament to their strengths and any ‘new normal’ must reflect FE’s true value, writes one principal Nothing that follows is unique to our college so, with the editor’s permission, I anonymise it and hope it goes some way to describing what our remarkable FE sector as a […]

DfE appoints Nick Timothy as non-executive director

Nick Timothy, the controversial former chief of staff to prime minister Theresa May, has joined the Department for Education. It was announced today that the author and former director of free schools charity New Schools Network, has taken up a non-executive board member role as of last month. A DfE spokesperson said he would “bring […]

GCSE and A-level exam results days revealed

Students will receive their GCSE and A-level results on the normal days of August 20 and 13 respectively this year, the Department for Education has confirmed. The summer exams series has been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis and grades will instead be awarded via teacher calculations, as previously announced by Ofqual. The government previously […]

Teachers estimating grades ‘could sound the death knell for public confidence in Ofqual’

Education secretary Gavin Williamson had the choice to empower Ofqual to come up with the right solutions for grading vocational qualifications this summer that would not disadvantage learners. Instead, he has taken the path of political imposition and Whitehall knows best, writes Tom Bewick The Secretary of State for education, Gavin Williamson, has done […]

Vast majority of apprentices still receiving training, according to AELP survey

More than eight in 10 apprentices are continuing to receive training during the Covid-19 lockdown, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has found. A survey of 150 providers, who train 81,000 apprentices between them, revealed that the vast majority have successful executed an almost overnight switch to online learning. Forty three per cent said […]

How we are supporting our community in the face of this pandemic

Colleges exist to enrich and serve their community, leaving no-one behind especially in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, writes Nikos Savvas Over the weekend, many of us will have started week three of ‘self-isolation and social distancing’. A pandemic is something none of us has experienced before and we are all trying to fumble […]