Billy Camden | FE Week

UCU blasts 10% pay rises for ‘greedy’ college principals

College principals have been lambasted as “greedy and hopelessly out of touch” by the University and College Union, after new analysis showed a third enjoyed a pay rise of more than 10 per cent in 2016/17. Data on last year’s college accounts was released this morning by the Department for Education. It revealed that 17 […]

Traineeships expose the need for T-level collaboration

In 2015 the government criticised colleges for losing out to training providers by only making up a third of the apprenticeship market. And the figure is even lower for traineeships, at just 24 per cent and falling, as FE Week discovered with a Freedom of Information request to the Department for Education. What connects these […]

Hull College Group backs embattled chief executive in bitter redundancy row

UPDATE: UCU members at the Hull College Group will walk out on strike tomorrow (May 9) over plans to slash jobs. Hull College Group has “absolute confidence” in its under-fire chief executive and will not bow to staff and union pressure to fire her, it has announced. Staff who are members of the University and […]

Isle of Wight studio school on the brink of closure

Another studio school that has severely struggled with recruitment has agreed to close “in principle”. Plans to shut the Isle of Wight Studio School in August 2019 were announced today, but the final decision will be subject to a four-week consultation. The school said in a statement that the decision has come about because “too […]

Ofsted Watch: Tough week for providers inspected for first time

It has been a difficult week for first-time private providers, as one was rated ‘requires improvement’ and another was handed the dreaded grade four. Millennium Academy, based in Barking, was deemed ‘inadequate’ across the board. This was its first ever inspection and despite Ofsted only judging the provider’s adult learning provision, Millennium now faces being […]

Secret RoATP application window revealed

Thirty-six teacher training organisations have joined the register of apprenticeship training providers during a secret application window, FE Week can reveal. Employers and providers have been denied the opportunity to win a place on to RoATP ever since the third and most recent application window shut at the end of October, with results published in […]

Why is the IfA silent on end-point assessment concerns?

The issue of apprentices starting standards without an end-point assessment organisation in place was first raised by FE Week in June 2016. At the time a former senior civil servant, Dr Susan Pember, described the lack of consideration towards learners as “diabolical”. A few months later the interim chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships […]

Hull College staff want their CEO sacked after ice-cream ‘bribe’

Staff at the cash-strapped Hull College Group are demanding the immediate resignation of their chief executive after she offered discounted ice-creams to deter them participating in a protest over job losses. Members of the University and College Union unanimously backed a vote of no-confidence in their boss Michelle Swithenbank today. It follows yesterday’s vote for […]

South Wiltshire UTC rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted

Another University Technical College has been rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, taking the total number in the category to six. Following an inspection in mid-February, the South Wiltshire UTC was told its leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, outcomes for pupils and 16 to 19 study programmes were inadequate. Personal development, behaviour and […]