Billy Camden | FE Week

Colleges invited to use cost-cutting consultants

Colleges will be given access to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s army of cost-cutting advisers from September. The ESFA today announced a new suite of measures that it says will be a more “proactive” approach to help colleges “realise and re-invest savings and to spot early warning indicators of financial issues”. It involves a […]

Students are worried employers will see TAGs as ‘fake grades’, says Ofqual advisers

Students are worried employers will see their teacher assessed GCSEs as “fake grades”, Ofqual has said, as the regulator tries to quell fears about upcoming results days. Child psychology and education experts have been speaking to students preparing to receive grades next month about their concerns. The experts include Kevin Woods, educational and child psychologist […]

DfE considers college vaccine passports

FE students could need to be fully vaccinated to attend education and training in the coming year under plans being considered by the Department for Education. The Times today reported that the prime minister Boris Johnson had suggested that learners in higher and further education setting should face compulsory vaccination, subject to some medical exemptions. […]

High praise for university in first tranche of Ofsted’s level 6 and 7 apprenticeship inspections

Ofsted’s first new provider monitoring visits of level 6 and 7 apprenticeship provision have resulted positive results for higher education providers, including a glowing report for a university. Inspectors found ‘significant progress’ in two of the three themes judged at the University of Worcester, which gained praise for “thorough” quality assurance procedures, “precise” assessment of […]

UTC jumps from Ofsted ‘inadequate’ to ‘outstanding’ in a year

A university technical college (UTC) has been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted just a year after being hit with the inspectorate’s lowest possible judgement. UTC Portsmouth was slapped with an ‘inadequate’ rating in a report published in July 2020 after it failed to provide effective safeguarding arrangements. But thanks to “swift” action from the senior leadership […]

5 things we learned from DfE’s final apprenticeship reform review

The Department for Education has today published its final review of its apprenticeship reform programme. Officials established the programme, which has seen the launch of the levy and introduction of standards among other changes, in 2015 and was scheduled to be delivered by the end of the financial year 2020-21. Today’s report reveals the government’s […]

100 jobs at risk as combined authority rejects WEA’s adult education bid

Around 100 jobs are at risk at one of England’s largest charitable adult education providers after a mayoral combined authority chose to defund it. The WEA, formerly the Workers’ Educational Association which was founded over a 100 years ago, says it will see a cut of £1.7 million after the South Yorkshire Combined Authority rejected […]

Target apprenticeships at most disadvantaged, Social Mobility Commission tells government

Apprenticeships are failing to reach their social mobility “potential” and must be better targeted at the most disadvantaged, the Social Mobility Commission has said. In its state of the nation report for 2021, published today, the commission says government should do this by using the levy to incentivise employers to provide more traineeships and level […]

Provider-level achievement rates to return in 2021/22

Next year’s provider-level qualification achievement rates (QARs) will be published following a two-year suspension. The Department for Education has today confirmed school and post-16 accountability arrangements for 2021/22. It said results from key stage 4 and post-16 qualifications in 2021/22 will be published in school and college performance tables using the government’s “normal suite of […]