Author: Billy Camden

Six university technical colleges received bailouts from the government totalling almost £1 million last year, with the ESFA’s funding chief warning she doesn’t want to create a “culture of dependency”. The funding is given in “exceptional cases … where additional funding is absolutely necessary to stabilise the school’s finances and ensure minimal disruption to pupils’ […]

Pressure is mounting on the government to resolve an FE loans scandal that left hundreds of students with huge debts but no qualifications, as one former learner warns he’ll take the matter to court. FE Week has been campaigning since 2017 to have the advanced learning loan debt written off for blameless former learners whose […]

The number of people taking out advanced learner loans in the first quarter of the academic year has fallen for the third year in a row – with stats for 2018/19 down 19 per cent on 2015/16. Meanwhile, the overall number of learners starting a loan during 2017/18 fell by 13 per cent compared to […]

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority has revealed the providers that have made it through to the final round of its adult education budget tender. Ahead of its takeover of the AEB for its region in 2019/20, the authority is undertaking a two-stage process for procurement. The first stage was completed in December where providers submitted […]

Highbury College has unblocked access to FE Week on its internet servers following heavy backlash from government officials and the national media. The Portsmouth-based college pulled the shutters down on this newspaper’s website last week following an exposé about its ill-fated venture in Nigeria. But the fallout from the attempt to suppress the media coverage […]

Learndirect has started to win government funding to deliver skills training again, after its new owner secured more than £20 million worth of European Social Fund contracts. FE Week understands that the nation’s former largest FE provider won the funding, which is used to deliver employment and skills support to disadvantaged people, in four different […]

A college has terminated its contract with the controversial Saudi Arabian Colleges of Excellence programme due to “on-going delays” in receiving payments resulting in an alleged £500,000 debt. Dudley College, rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, began work with the Saudi government in 2011 and has taken part in various ventures in the country over the last […]

The Institute for Apprenticeships will re-advertise for a new chief executive in the coming months, but its current boss has remained tight-lipped over his future. Sir Gerry Berragan took the top job at the IfA in November 2017 and later revealed to FE Week that he was only contracted for two years because he did […]

A college which “shocked” the skills minister this week after it blocked FE Week’s website from its internet servers has been reported to the information commissioner’s office for hiding corporate expense claims. The repeated refusal by Highbury College to release the material, which was requested by this newspaper under the freedom of information act, is […]