Author: Billy Camden

The number of National Health Service apprenticeship starts fell by more than a fifth last year despite a plan for rapid expansion. Increasing the amount of NHS apprentices has been an important government goal since 2016, when health secretary Jeremy Hunt pledged to create a further 100,000 starts in the sector by 2020. At that […]

The largest college group in the country is to be dropped from the government’s final bidding round for Institutes of Technology after Ofsted hit it with a grade three rating, FE Week understands. Two teams of inspectors were deployed to NCG last month, in a visit prompted by achievement rate concerns. FE Week understands that […]

NCG has been in the headlines lately, what with the visits from Ofsted, its falling achievement rates, mass redundancies, strike action and the closure of the free school it sponsors. FE Week senior reporter Billy Camden sat down with the group’s new chair, once the ESFA’s chief executive, Peter Lauener to discuss why he took […]

The number of colleges with financial warnings will nearly triple to 100 over the next 10 years, the government has estimated. The Department for Education revealed the figure in its response to its insolvency regime consultation today, in which it urges all colleges with financial troubles to “fully familiarise themselves with the [new] insolvency procedures”. […]

T-levels will be watched for “potential for losses and fruitless payments” according to the comptroller-general at the National Audit Office. Sir Amyas Morse has turned his eye towards the new post-16 technical qualifications after a rare ministerial direction published last month. The education secretary Damian Hinds last month refused to delay the initial 2020 rollout […]

Three financial health notices and two breaches of minimum standard college reports have been published by the Department for Education. It was double-trouble for Easton and Otley College, rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted’, which received one of each and has been told to stop recruitment of learners in some areas. The other financial health notice was […]

Staff at one of London’s larger college groups will earn a one-off payment and a minor annual salary increase in a new pay deal following strikes. The offer, which has been agreed between the University and College Union and New City College, puts an end to a dispute which involved three days of walkouts last […]

An apprenticeship provider has hit out at how Ofsted conducted an early monitoring visit, and said the ensuing report is based on “factual inaccuracies” and “questionable judgements”. Watertrain Limited, a private provider in Warrington which has delivered apprenticeships as a subcontractor for 10 years, has been making “insufficient progress” in two of the three headline […]

An FE college incorporated in 2014 has found a merger partner, after the FE commissioner decreed it would no longer be sustainable as a standalone institution. Prospects College of Advanced Technology plans to join forces with South Essex College of Further and Higher Education. It only converted from an independent training provider to college status […]