Billy Camden | FE Week

FE Week asks: Neil Bentley on the vital role of WorldSkills

As Team UK packed their belongings and headed to the sandy deserts of Abu Dhabi for WorldSkills 2017, FE Week’s senior reporter Billy Camden caught up with WorldSkills UK’s boss Neil Bentley on the importance of the event given our country’s prominent new skills agenda. The government’s desire to turn the UK into a nation of […]

WorldSkills 2017: A school visit to remember for Team UK

Singing, dancing, glow-in-the-dark shows and a bird of prey; Team UK’s first outing in Abu Dhabi certainly had it all as they visited a local school ahead of WorldSkills 2017. For some the highlight was the energetic rendition of S Club 7’s smash hit ‘Reach for the stars’, and for others it was the Scottish […]

WorldSkills 2017: Touchdown in Abu Dhabi

After a 3,000 mile flight Team UK has landed in Abu Dhabi ahead of their contests with the rest of the world’s best young people in trade careers at WorldSkills 2017. The 34 competitors representing our country headed to London Heathrow airport in the early hours (around 5am) this morning after staying overnight at a […]

WorldSkills 2017: Team UK given send-off at Parliament

Thirty-four of the UK’s most gifted young tradespeople were told that the country “desperately” needs their “skills and inspiration” during a special send-off event ahead of the WorldSkills 2017 competition in Westminster today. Anne Milton delivered a passionate keynote speech to the competitors in Team UK flying out to Abu Dhabi tomorrow. The apprenticeships and […]

Suffolk provider successfully contests Ofsted grade 4

A private training provider has successfully overturned an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted judgement after a nine-month battle which even saw inspectors forced to go back and reconsider the grade. WS Training Ltd, a provider based in Suffolk with nearly 1,000 learners, was rated at grade two in 2013 but was reinspected in January this year. FE Week […]

Team UK all set for WorldSkills 2017 in Abu Dhabi

This week, 34 of the UK’s most highly rated young competitors will fly to Abu Dhabi for WorldSkills 2017, where they will compete for global supremacy. The team, selected from the best our country has to offer, in disciplines ranging from hairdressing to aircraft maintenance, will travel over 3,000 miles to the Middle East on […]

NHS takes action against Learndirect Apprenticeships

Learndirect Apprenticeships Ltd has been removed from part of the purchasing system used by London hospitals, following a joint FE Week and Financial Times investigation. Last month, FE Week analysis revealed multiple irregularities in a tender application to deliver apprenticeships at a London hospital that was submitted by LDA, a company owned and operated by the […]

AEB contracts boost will be paid from unspent £200m

Funding increases in adult education budget contracts for private providers will be paid from the massive underspend on adult training last year. The government announced a U-turn on AEB funding for independent training organisations on Friday, just a few hours after FE Week revealed that FE providers had dramatically underspent their allocations for the 2016/17 […]

Revealed: £200m adult education budget underspend

FE providers failed to spend a giant chunk of the adult education budget over the past academic year. A staggering £200 million remains unspent, which will raise eyebrows among many private training providers, who were forced to tender for a slice of just £110 million in the recent AEB procurement exercise while their competitors like […]