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5 June 2026

Surprise £10m deficit fault of ‘inept’ staff, says college boss

“Genuine ineptness” has led to a surprise £10 million deficit at a large London college group, its chief executive has told FE Week. Capital City College Group (CCCG) had budgeted for a £750,000 surplus for 2018/19, which was revised downwards by July to a deficit of £5.1 million and following an independent investigation in September […]

Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden loses seat

Labour’s shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden has lost the battle to keep his parliamentary seat. Marsden lost out to the Conservative Party candidate Scott Lloyd Benton, 12,557 votes to 16,247. FE Week previously reported it was looking likely Marsden would lose the election for the Blackpool South constituency after YouGov’s Multi-level Regression and Post-stratification (MRP) […]

IfATE board ‘stressed need’ for better way of setting funding rates

The board of the government’s apprenticeship agency has “stressed” the need for a funding band methodology that “works, is clear and easy to understand”, following years of trailblazer group criticism. Minutes from a meeting in September, published today, show the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is carrying out a “funding improvement project”. Robert Nitsch, […]

UK competitor appointed to WorldSkills Champions Trust

A Team UK competitor has been appointed to the international WorldSkills Champions Trust, making him its sole representative from the country and one of just 11 from around the globe. Dan McCabe, who competed at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 in 3D Digital Game Art, is also the first person from that skill competition to join […]

Pearson launches new Learning Hub

Pearson has launched its latest digital venture in the form of a brand-new Learning Hub. Pearson Learning Hub, which launched last month, is currently in its pilot state. Initially offering 13 behaviour modules to improve learners’ understanding and skills in areas such as decision-making and commercial awareness, the hub also offers a learning programme for […]

Labour leads FE Week readers’ poll

More FE professionals will be backing Labour than the Conservatives at next week’s general election, exclusive FE Week polling can reveal. When asked who they would be voting for, 37 per cent of the 542 respondents replied saying Labour; while 27 per cent said the Conservative Party. Coming in third were the Liberal Democrats, on […]

Pledge to ‘reverse privatisation’ in FE clarified by shadow minister

Labour will not prevent independent providers from accessing public funding if the party wins next week’s general election, even though its manifesto pledged to “reverse the privatisation” of FE. And nor does it want to “dictate the management of colleges or bring them under new forms of control”, the shadow skills minister insisted this week. […]

Immensely proud to be reporting impartial news without fear or favour

In the nine years and 300 editions of FE Week, there is one story that best sums up our consistent and dogged determination to report the facts: Learndirect. For the first and hopefully last time, a lawyer representing the country’s largest training provider emailed me at 11pm on a Friday in the summer of last […]

Interim principal joins Highbury College following DfE intervention

A college embroiled in an expenses scandal has appointed an experienced FE leader as its interim principal. Penny Wycherley (pictured) will take over Stella Mbubaegbu’s responsibilities as principal at Highbury College from today after the latter was suspended last month. It follows intervention from the FE Commissioner, who recently moved Highbury into “supervised college status”. […]