Billy Camden | FE Week

Teacher-assessed qualifications to be excluded from achievement rates – again

Provider-level qualification achievement rates (QARs) will include only some courses in 2020/21, the Education and Skills Funding Agency has announced. Only those that are subject to normal assessment will be included, but qualifications that receive teacher-assessed grades will be left out. The QARs will then be shared with individual providers as well as Ofsted for […]

Government should fund apprentice wages for SMEs, says Halfon

The government should pay apprentice wages and fund their full cost of training “for at least a year” if they work for a small or medium-sized employer (SME), an influential MP has said. Robert Halfon, chair of the education select committee and a former skills minister, believes the chancellor’s extra investment for apprentice incentives and […]

Universal credit rules hold people back from training, warns report

Universal credit rules are excluding people from training and must be scrapped if the government is serious about its levelling up agenda, according to a new report. The Association of Colleges has today accused policy-makers of creating an “education vs work” divide. In a report titled ‘Let Them Learn: Further education colleges’ support for the […]

AELP conference to warn against new ‘costly’ list of independent training providers

Training providers will this week warn against new legislation in the Skills Bill that they fear will impose “costly bureaucracy” on the sector. At its annual conference, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) will highlight an unexpected set of conditions required of independent training providers to be on a new government list of […]

Senior mental health lead training: 5 things you need to know

Up to two-thirds of schools and colleges will have to wait until at least next spring to hear if they will receive grant funding for senior staff mental health training, the government has confirmed. The Department for Education published brief new guidance on Wednesday setting out further details of its pledge to offer every school […]

How the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is growing in stature

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is “looking forward to playing an even bigger role” following the publication of the Skills Bill. But how will the quango change its operation going forward? Billy Camden explores Launched in 2017 to spearhead the government’s apprenticeship reforms, the then-known Institute for Apprenticeships has seen its responsibilities […]

Secrecy fuels suspicions as DfE refuses to share AEB clawback evidence

The government has refused to share the evidence used to justify its controversial adult education clawback plans – fuelling suspicion among sector leaders. Principals have demanded transparency after the Department for Education said that any college or community learning provider which delivers less than 90 per cent of its national adult education allocation this year […]

Government must act now to make colleges financially sustainable

The FE sector will play a vital role in retraining workers and filling skills gaps, writes Meg Hillier, but it cannot do so without more support The further education sector in England receives around £7 billion of public funding each year, to educate and train around 4 million learners of whom more than half are […]

Revealed: Top 10 highest paid college leaders in 2019/20

The highest paid college principals and chief executives in 2019/20 have been revealed by the Education and Skills Funding Agency today. Sitting at the top of the list, published within the agency’s annual college accounts spreadsheet, is New City College boss Gerry McDonald who earned a basic salary of £235,000 in 2019/20. Following in second […]