Author: Billy Camden

The Department for Education is seeking views on how funding should be distributed to providers for the delivery of T-levels from 2020, including plans for four new funding bands. A consultation, launched today, includes the indicative per student funding rates based on hours of study over the two-year programmes, which range from £4,170 to £5,835 […]

A college that fell two Ofsted grades from ‘outstanding’ last year has put 155 jobs at risk of redundancy and is planning to cut 41 of them. Blackburn College, which went 10 years without being inspected following a grade one in 2007, is consulting on the job losses after finding itself “under increasing financial pressure […]

The government’s new “tougher” apprenticeships register will reopen indefinitely from December 12, and will require all subcontractors delivering the programmes to be listed on it. This will include, for the first time, those subcontractors delivering less than the current threshold of £100,000 a year. The new requirement was revealed in an announcement about the refreshed […]

A London-based training provider worked with employers who did not recognise the names of their apprentices, according to a damning Ofsted report which rated it ‘inadequate’ in every category. Inspectors found that Touchstone Education Solutions Ltd, which has Education and Skills funding Agency contracts totalling more than £2 million, also does not withdraw learners in […]

During a hot-topic panel session at the Association of Colleges conference, several new college governors asked about how to avoid “serial offender” college principals. Nazir Afzal OBE became chair of Hopwood Hall College on September 1, 2018, after stepping down as pro-chancellor at Brunel University the previous month, before which he was chief crown prosecutor […]

A high-profile college in financial crisis is expected to make another 75 redundancies over the next four months as it continues its efforts to find savings, FE Week understands. The move at West Nottinghamshire College, which was headed up by Dame Asha Khemka until she resigned last month, follows the loss of about 100 jobs […]

Ofsted’s chief inspector was quizzed by FE Week’s chief reporter, Billy Camden, on a selection of topical questions at the Association of Colleges’ annual conference   College finances – should they feature in the leadership and management judgment? Several college leaders and boards have come under heavy criticism from the FE commissioner for their management […]

Defunct apprenticeship firm Aspire Achieve Advance paid for its former managing director’s child’s school fees as part of a “generous bonus”, FE Week can reveal. Andy Palmer (pictured) worked at the provider, better known as 3aaa, from September 2013 to October 2015 before becoming managing director of another disgraced FE giant – Learndirect – in […]