Billy Camden | FE Week

NCG resolves bitter pay dispute with its London colleges

A deal has been struck between the country’s largest college group and union members at its two London colleges to settle a long-running bitter pay dispute. Staff at the Lewisham and Southwark colleges, who were involved in a controversial long-distance merger with NCG last year, took a total of four days’ strike action in May […]

ESFA WON’T ban new apprenticeship providers with poor AEB provision found in monitoring visits

The government will not ban new apprenticeship providers from recruiting adult learners if they’re making ‘insufficient progress’ in that theme alone in Ofsted monitoring visits, after FE Week highlighted the grey area last month. Updated policy guidance was published this afternoon by the Education and Skills Funding Agency which has finally brought some clarification to […]

DfE plans National Colleges evaluation to avoid repeating mistakes with Institutes of Technology

The government is going to evaluate its troubled National Colleges policy to identify what has gone wrong with the scheme and help avoid the same mistakes in the rollout of Institutes of Technology. A tender from the Department for Education went live on Monday asking for a research company to take on the in-depth evaluation […]

Broker offered 3aaa staff £200 for apprentice referrals – but admits it was a ‘bad idea’

A broker has admitted it was a “bad idea” to offer cash to former staff of Aspire Achieve Advance in exchange for referrals of apprentices affected by the collapse. The now-defunct apprenticeship giant, better known as 3aaa, ceased trading on October 11 when the government pulled its skills contracts following a second investigation into success-rate […]

DfE reopens £15m strategic college improvement fund before finalising first round

Colleges are being invited to bid for cash in a new round of the strategic college improvement fund – but it’s unclear how much is left in the £15 million pot. A pilot for the SCIF was run last year in which 14 struggling colleges shared £2 million (the winners of which can be found […]

Providers warned their funding could be pulled following 3aaa staff and apprentice poaching

Multiple training providers have attempted to poach staff and apprentices from the now-defunct Aspire Achieve Advance using underhand tactics – and have been warned their own funding could be withdrawn because of it. Apprenticeship giant 3aaa was put into compulsory liquidation last week after it ceased trading on October 11 when the government pulled its […]

DfE accused of wasting public money with new £10m ‘register of external experts’

The Department for Education will spend £10 million on 200 “external experts” to advise it on policy areas including university technical colleges, vocational education and sixth forms. A tender document published this week reveals that the department is searching for organisations to join a “register of external experts”, made up of “individuals who have expertise […]

Ofsted boss backs calls for more 16-to-18 cash to combat falling standards

Ofsted’s chief inspector has offered her “strong view” that 16-to-18 funding should be increased in the forthcoming spending review, after inspections found a lack of cash has directly led to falling standards in FE. Amanda Spielman (pictured) backed sector calls for more money in a letter to the Public Accounts Committee, dated October 30, which […]

Principal steps down at college group to ‘expedite’ government bailout

The head of a college in severe financial trouble has resigned from his post with immediate effect to “expedite” its government bailout. An email, seen by FE Week, was sent to staff at Cornwall College Group yesterday announcing that the board of governors had accepted the resignation of Raoul Humphreys (pictured). It is understood that […]