Billy Camden | FE Week

‘Excellent’ college principal retires due to ill health

A long-standing college principal has retired with immediate effect due to a terminal illness. John Callaghan, who has led Solihull College & University Centre for the past seven years, stepped down yesterday. He has worked in the further education and skills sector for over 33 years, holding roles at four different colleges as well as […]

School and college leaders demand £5.8bn catch-up cash for poorer students

Education bosses have set out proposals for a £5.8 billion Covid recovery plan, including a £300 million three-year post-16 “premium”. In a letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson, representative bodies for colleges and schools warn that failure to adopt their proposals risks “serious long-term damage” from the pandemic. The plan, also backed by academy trust […]

DfE to evaluate impact of 16-19 Covid tuition fund

The government is planning to evaluate its subsidised tuition scheme for 16-to-19-year-olds – after almost a quarter of eligible providers opted out of the fund in its first year. A prior information notice has been issued by the Department for Education to alert researchers that they will soon tender for a supplier to measure the […]

New £75 ‘connectivity support grants’: What you need to know

Colleges will be able to claim back money to help disadvantaged students absent due to Covid get online in the new academic year under a new “connectivity support grant” scheme, the government has announced. But the Department for Education has warned it may reject claims for funding if disruption reported by colleges does not match […]

‘Indefensible’: No national insurance help for colleges despite support for schools

The government will not compensate colleges for national insurance contribution increases even though it is helping schools, FE Week can reveal. The “indefensible” move will hit college budgets by an estimated £30 million. Boris Johnson this week set out plans to increase national insurance contributions from both employees and employers by 1.25 percentage points from […]

Ofqual ‘pleased’ with ‘small’ number of penalties issued for cheating in vocational exams last year

More than 1,300 penalties were issued for cheating in vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) in 2019/20 – with the majority handed out for plagiarism as more students took internal assessments due to Covid-19. But the exams regulator Ofqual, which published the figures today, says it is “pleased” with the overall number because it is “small” […]

ESFA accused of ‘hidden agenda’ as AEB providers reveal ‘horrendous’ bid rejections

The government has been accused of using the adult education budget tender process to “manoeuvre its hidden agenda” of shrinking the private provider market – as leaders spoke out about “horrendous” bid rejections. Several long-running providers told FE Week they were left “infuriated” after their applications were denied owing to “missing” documents that were in […]

International college membership body appoints England-based principal as new chair

An England-based college principal has been named as the new chair of a global membership organisation for technical education and training. Dawn Ward, who leads Burton and South Derbyshire College, was appointed to the role at the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics (WFCP) yesterday. She replaces Craig Robertson, the chief executive of Technical and […]

No colleges to get CO2 monitors for at least three weeks

The Department for Education cannot say when colleges will get promised carbon dioxide monitors after the first delivery schedule showed that none would receive them within the next three weeks. Last month education secretary Gavin Williamson announced that his department would provide around 300,000 CO2 monitors to all state-funded education settings from September to help […]