Author: Billy Camden

A consultation on plans to remove funding for more than 5,000 legacy qualifications at level three and below has been launched by the Department for Education. Those at risk are courses that are currently not being studied by any learners or have cohorts of fewer than 100, and are coming to the end of their […]

“Angry” sixth form college staff will hit the picket line tomorrow as they step up their protest against government funding cuts in the build up to next month’s budget. National Education Union members from 34 sixth form colleges will be taking strike action. Two further strikes will take place 27 February and 10 March. The […]

A college is bidding to stay on the T-level programme and prevent another cold spot from opening up after it received a grade three from Ofsted. Nottingham College was inspected last month, its first since being created from a merger of New College Nottingham and Central College Nottingham in 2017. It is scheduled to deliver […]

Colleges are providing “good quality” FE despite facing “significant cost pressures” and if the sector is to survive “as is” the Treasury needs to pump more funding into it, according to new Department for Education research. In what appears to be a pre-budget pitch to the chancellor, a new report states that there is “nothing […]

The government has come under fire from successful college leaders after a series of FE Week freedom of information requests revealed exactly how £111 million of bailout funding has been spent. Four colleges struck secretive Fresh Start deals with the government, the largest of which was for £54 million at Hull College Group. Each deal, […]

A college has put £500,000 out to tender in an attempt to achieve funding targets before August – despite rules that ban subcontracting to meet “short-term funding objectives”. One provider membership organisation said the case has set “alarm bells ringing”, but the Education and Skills Funding Agency has refused to say whether it will take […]

The Department for Education is stumping up an extra £95 million to help upgrade the facilities of the 64 colleges set to deliver T-levels from 2021. It is in addition to the £38 million capital fund being used for the first 50 providers that will offer the new technical qualifications from this September. The latest […]

Headteachers at schools across England will again be reminded by ministers of their legal duty to promote apprenticeships, as a leading MP accuses them of “not doing enough”. Education secretary Gavin Williamson told FE Week that warning letters will be sent by the minister for the FE market, Lord Agnew, tomorrow (full letter below). He […]

Learners are “at the heart” of schools’, colleges’ and training providers’ decisions about the qualifications they offer, according to new research by Ofqual. The finding comes just weeks after Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman reiterated her concern that some colleges fill their rolls with “superficially attractive” low-level arts and media courses simply to “attract funding”. […]