Billy Camden | FE Week

A new approach to financial regulation and oversight in the sector

Shortly after the scandal at Hadlow College Group was exposed, the government commissioned an independent review of college financial oversight. Dame Mary Ney’s report is due for publication imminently and FE Week has already reported that the Education and Skills Funding Agency is to be heavily criticised. Chris Todd, a chartered accountant and college principal, […]

Measuring impact fairly in the devolved areas

The mayoral combined authorities are developing impact and performance measures to assess whether the adult education budget is having a positive impact in their area. Setting the right targets and outcome measures, in a fair, simple and cost-effective way, is critical, warns Harminder Matharu The end of January marks the end of the first six […]

DfE granted screening firm access to 28m learner records

The founder of a firm at the centre of a major education data breach involving betting companies was subject to a previous government investigation. Questions have now been asked as to why the firm, which offers screening checks, was allowed access to a database with the records of 28 million young people, meant only for […]

Back our bid to host WorldSkills 2027

Show your support for the bid at FEWeek.co.uk/BackABid and on social media using #BackABid. This is the decade when we can ignite a passion for skills in the UK. But it will require a bold ambition and all corners of the UK to come together. Last summer we crashed out of the top 10 medal […]

Coupland tells FE Week she will have ‘independent voice’ and is ‘excited to step out of the confines’ of the DfE

The new boss of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is “excited to step out of the confines” of the Department for Education and have “more of an independent voice”. Civil servant veteran Jennifer Coupland made the admission during her first sit down interview with FE Week today. She pledged to instil “collaboration” into […]

DfE gender pay gap closing – but men get bigger bonuses

Bonuses paid to men working at the Department for Education were on average 3.8 per cent larger than those paid to women last year. Although the overall gender pay gap at the department continues to decrease, new figures show that in 2019, men received larger bonuses than women for the first time since records began. […]

British Airways own apprenticeship recruitment faces grounding after Ofsted visit

Apprenticeships at a major airline have been heavily criticised by Ofsted, which found “disorganisation” and “inconsistency” meant too many employees “did not see the value of being an apprentice”. British Airways, an employer provider which is drawing down government apprenticeship funding for over 500 of its own staff, was found to have made ‘insufficient progress’ […]

Where is Ofsted’s evidence that colleges are being dishonest over job prospects?

Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, used yesterday’s annual report speech to repeat her criticism first aired in 2018 that a minority of colleges simply try to “fill their rolls and attract funding”, whether or not the programmes they offer “open doors for the students that take them”. She added that some colleges were “flooding” local […]

Ofsted boss still ‘not happy’ with colleges ‘flooding’ economy with arts and media students

Ofsted’s chief inspector is still “not happy” that some colleges steer too many of their students towards “superficially attractive” arts and media courses where there are limited job opportunities. Amanda Spielman reiterated this concern, which she first raised at the 2018 Association of Colleges’ conference, during her speech at the watchdog’s annual report launch this […]