Author: Billy Camden

The public accounts committee (PAC) will quiz officials from the Department for Education on the financial stability of university technical colleges on Monday. The hearing follows a recent National Audit Office report on the 14 to 19 technical institutions, which have faced many recruitment and funding issues since former education secretary Lord Baker launched them […]

A learner find firm is attempting to broker a subcontracting deal for 16 to 18-year-old trainees who have already completed their placement at football clubs. Prime providers that take up the offer from Develop Your Staff (DYS) would break government funding rules, according to an auditor. An email from DYS, sent to providers with direct […]

A college campus that was controversially closed last summer has been sold for £3.55 million, just five years after £5 million was spent on a refurbishment. The news comes as published accounts for Birmingham Metropolitan College also reveal property revaluations have contributed to a £23.7 million deficit last year. The college told FE Week that […]

Closing schools and colleges at this stage in the spread of the coronavirus epidemic could do “more harm than good”, Boris Johnson has warned. On Thursday the prime minister reiterated advice that education settings “should only close if they are specifically advised to do so”. It comes after the government’s emergency COBRA committee agreed to […]

New skills minister Gillian Keegan has pledged “significant funding” for additional small business apprenticeships in the “coming year”, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has claimed. It comes a day after the Treasury confirmed to FE Week that Rishi Sunak’s budget did not include any new cash for apprenticeships despite the accompanying red book […]

Hopes for new apprenticeship funding have been swiftly crushed after the Treasury confirmed that today’s budget offers no extra cash for the programmes. In January, new boss of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, Jennifer Coupland, called for an additional £750 million to prop-up small business apprenticeships. And optimism for the funding was raised […]

The chancellor has confirmed the Conservative manifesto commitments for FE, including a £1.5 billion boost to upgrade college buildings and a new £2.5 billion National Skills Fund for England. Rishi Sunak’s budget has also promised the government will “ensure that sufficient funding is made available in 2020-21 to support an increase in the number of […]

The government will allow apprentices to have a “break in learning” if they cannot be assessed due to the coronavirus. Training providers usually incur a financial penalty under normal funding rules if they record a break in learning that is not driven by the learner, but this move “should protect funding” where the assessor is […]

A college has fessed up to failing to declare a £20,000 bonus made to its principal in 2018 amid a government crackdown on transparency. Lincoln College boss Gary Headland told FE Week he was “both embarrassed and disappointed” that the payment was “erroneously not included” in that year’s accounts owing to an “honest error”. His […]