Author: Billy Camden

Industrial action at the largest college group in London has come to an end after Capital City College Group offered staff a “modest, non-consolidated payment” and more secure contracts. University and College Union members at the group’s three campuses – City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College, and the College of Haringey, Enfield and North […]

The skills minister has told the Institute for Apprenticeships to get “faster and better” at approving apprenticeship standards. Anne Milton’s request appeared in a document called “strategic guidance to the Institute for Apprenticeships”, published today. FE Week revealed two weeks ago that the institute approved just four standards throughout April and 10 in March, down […]

The Institute for Apprenticeships has begun the recruitment process for membership to its 15 occupational route panels. The groups are being created to lead the review and approval of new apprenticeship standards and technical qualifications. They will be in addition to the panels set up by the Department for Education for T-levels, but once the […]

A publicly listed company is in talks to buy Learndirect Ltd, FE Week has learned. PeoplePlus Group Limited, which is owned by Staffline and already trains tens of thousands of people each year, opened a dialogue with the nation’s biggest FE provider over a purchase last week. Discussions are understood to be in the early […]

Staff at the Hull College Group will walk out for seven days in June as part of an ongoing bitter row over plans to slash hundreds of jobs.   University and College Union members, who represent nearly 400 of HCG’s 1,200 workers, announced today that they will strike for an initial five days starting on […]

Detail on the government’s new adult education budget policy has been published, after FE Week revealed yesterday it would offer free courses for anyone earning less than £15,726.50. The Department for Education will trial the policy in 2018/19, enabling AEB providers to “fully fund learners” who are employed on low wages and cannot contribute towards […]

Tens of thousands of adults on low wages are set to benefit from a new rule which will see their training fully funded from next year, FE Week understands. Up until now, adults have had to have been on benefits to receive full funding for education courses. But a radical adult education budget rule-change is […]

An early monitoring visit to Learndirect Apprenticeships Ltd has produced mainly positive feedback, with only a few downsides to its delivery. Ofsted deemed the provider to be making “reasonable progress” in all fields it judges in an inspection undertaken as part of a series of visits to new apprenticeship training providers. But no significant headway […]

FE providers are being asked to apply to become centres of excellence for “basic” maths – as part of plans to address the controversial forced GCSE resits policy. In November, the Treasury pledged £40 million to establish these centres across the country to “train maths teachers and spread best practice”. The Department for Education began […]