Billy Camden | FE Week

Crisis deepens as learners drop at two thirds of UTCs

Learner numbers have dropped at around two thirds of established university technical colleges this academic year, an FE Week investigation has found. We submitted freedom of information requests to the 26 UTCs that opened in 2014 or before, asking for their 2016/17 student numbers. FE Week analysis of their responses (see the full breakdown in […]

Government secretly grading all colleges and training providers

UPDATE: It has been brought to our attention that there were inaccuracies in the full PAT list previously published, which FE Week downloaded from the DFE website. Whilst we investigate we have removed the link to this data. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The data was sent to the DfE in advance of publishing […]

Ones to watch at AoC Sport National Championships 2017

With just one day to go until this year’s AoC Sport National Championships kick off in Nottingham, FE Week profiles three of the regional teams tipped to feature prominently in the battle for college sporting supremacy, and what individual stars to keep an eye on. [You can read full details of the national championships here] South […]

Excitement builds ahead of AoC Sport National Championships 2017

Excitement is building for this year’s AoC Sport National Championships as around 1,650 student athletes make their final preparations for the major event that kicks off next weekend. The sporting stars will head to Nottingham to compete in the 39th national championships, described as the “pinnacle of the college sporting calendar”, after successfully battling through […]

Ofsted watch: College snubbed from register rated ‘outstanding’ for apprenticeships

A college that didn’t make it on to the government’s new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers has received an ‘outstanding’ grade for its apprenticeship provision – in what was otherwise a relatively quiet week for the FE sector. The list of providers that will be eligible to deliver apprenticeships from May was published last month […]

Team UK selection for WorldSkills Abu Dhabi underway

Around 70 of the country’s top skilled young people are this week taking part in a five-day competition that will decide if they make it into the team representing the UK at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi. The squad of apprentices and learners travelled to Manchester for WorldSkills UK’s team selection event, where competitors in 32 different […]

The Skills Show 2017 dates announced

The country’s biggest skills and careers event is back and is confirmed to take place from November 16 to 18 later this year. WorldSkills UK made the announcement about the return of The Skills Show on its website today. NEC Birmingham will again host the event which will see around 70,000 visitors get the chance to engage with […]

No growth projections for Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers

There has been no modelling done by the Skills Funding Agency to predict how many providers will eventually end up on the new register of apprenticeship training providers, its boss has admitted. Peter Lauener’s stunning revelation will be of concern to many in the sector, not least the new Ofsted boss Amanda Spielman, who admits […]

Ofsted watch: Another UTC hit with poor grade

A university technical college in Middlesex received a grade three in its first ever Ofsted inspection, spelling even more problems for the 14 to 19 institutions, in a week that saw a sixth form college rated ‘outstanding’. Inspectors cited “historically low attendance” at Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC as well as “poor” student attitudes towards being […]