Author: Billy Camden

An ‘inadequate’ university technical college is to close just four years after opening as it is “no longer financially viable” following a huge drop in student numbers. South Wiltshire UTC will become the eleventh provider of its type to close since the programme launched in 2010. Like many of the other failed institutions, it has […]

Ofsted missed its inspection target for FE providers by 11 per cent this year – the biggest miss out of all education sectors. The education watchdog’s corporate annual reports and accounts for 2018/19, published today, shows that it had aimed to carry out 323 inspections in further education but ended up conducting 287. This is […]

Overall learner satisfaction with FE providers slightly increased this year, according to new government figures. The Department for Education released the results of its 2018/19 online student survey this morning, which showed 82 per cent of all learners would recommend their training provider and college to friends or family. Private training providers scored 88.2 out […]

The government has finally revealed details of the first phase of the national retraining scheme, with the launch of a new digital service that will act as a course and job directory. Initially heavily restricted to only include people from the Liverpool City Region, adults will be invited to test the system if they are […]

Ten trade unions are involved in a dispute with a cash-strapped college that trains “thousands” of their members each year, after several unionists were suspended or were threatened with redundancy. Their leaders have written to Ruskin College after the University and College Union said branch officer and lecturer Lee Humber was sacked on 12 July […]

The new chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is top skills civil servant Jennifer Coupland. She is currently the director of professional and technical education in the Education and Skills Funding Agency, and was previously acting chief executive of the Standards Testing Agency. Prior to that Coupland spent three years as […]

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has pushed back its £40 per learner charge for apprenticeship quality assurance to November and committed to reviewing the arrangement in the longer-term. It follows sector criticism of the “unfair” charge, which outraged assessment organisations after they were originally told it would be implemented from September. They had […]

A college involved in a bitter row over pay is facing weeks of staff walkouts when the new academic year starts – with plans for a mammoth 15 days of strike action during September and October. Members of the University and Colleges Union are angry about new contracts being offered by Nottingham College, which it […]