Author: Expert Contributor

How will the changes to how students loans are accounted impact FE funding? Daniel Carr takes a look Earlier this week the Office for National Statistics announced a change to how student and learner loans appear in the national accounts of government spending. While this may sound largely technocratic, the change could have a significant […]

T-levels are more than another alphabet soup qualification, says Gordon Marsden. But it’s the government’s job to make sure HE and FE providers – and learners – know how much more there is on the menu Damian Hinds’s speech last week at Battersea Power Station laid out the government’s vision for a “new generation” of […]

Will the higher technical qualifications be genuinely new, or a simple brand wrapper around what already exists, asks Tom Bewick Damian Hinds is the latest Secretary of State to call time on the country’s woeful skills and productivity record. In the surroundings of Battersea power station – Europe’s largest regeneration initiative – Hinds used the […]

Education secretary Damian Hinds delivered a speech about ending “snobbery” over technical education to businesses this morning. He’s written exclusively for FE Week about his plan to tackle the issue, which includes creating a “new generation” of higher technical qualifications One year ago this government launched the first modern industrial strategy for boosting this country’s […]

The lack of information about A-level alternatives will not be solved by cajoling schools into compliance, says Kevin Gilmartin. Instead, what is needed is an understanding of what is holding back any progress or solution There’s frustration in the corridors of Whitehall and among colleges and training providers over the perceived failings of schools to […]

Teaching and learning are at the core of any college, says Jill Westerman – which is why governors need to know what happens in the classrooms How much time does your board spend discussing teaching, learning and assessment (TLA)? We show value in terms of where we spend our time . . . is the […]

Let’s not lump all higher apprenticeships together – some are genuinely about re-training and progression, says Iain MacKinnon The government needs to sort this out, and fast. We cannot allow the apprenticeship reforms to be de-railed by employers upsetting the balance of the programme by spending so much of the levy on management apprenticeships. But we […]