Expert Contributor | FE Week

What colleges need to know about careers guidance

Colleges have been warned they will lose funding if they don’t meet the Gatsby career benchmarks by 2020. Sir John Holman, who wrote them, explains what steps colleges need to take Good career guidance has never been more important for college students, with the new technical education routes on their way and apprenticeships growing in […]

Technical education doesn’t need a review!

The prime minister is talking up technical education, but doesn’t have the goods to back up her words, according to the former Labour skills minister David Lammy MP I agree with the prime minister in that the public debate on tertiary education has been dominated in the last few decades by higher education and universities, […]

Is Ofsted measuring the wrong things in FE?

The government needs to establish a set of FE-centric measures to get a better idea of what it wants from the sector. Ali Hadawi has a few suggestions Two new Ofsted reports out this week have raised the proportion of colleges now rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ to almost three quarters. There is no denying that […]

Whistleblowers in FE are vital for sector scrutiny

Whistleblowers aren’t treated with much respect in the UK, even though they generally have good intentions. Dame Ruth Silver wants this to change Even for a sector with adaptation in its DNA, these are challenging times. In addition to the day-to-day pressures of accountability, budget cuts and curriculum change, sector leaders have had to deal […]

Qualifications in apprenticeship standards: IfA rule changes aren’t enough

The sector cheered when the IfA said it would allow qualifications in standards once again, but not all is as it seems, according to Anthony Elgey, who has been involved in several trailblazers in the mineral products industry It seems the sector’s celebrations over this week’s Institute for Apprenticeships announcement, that qualifications would be permitted […]

T-level occupational maps must be flexible

Unless there’s the space for young people to transfer the skills they learn onto another route, we risk locking them into careers they no longer want to follow, writes Julie Hyde With just under a week to go until the Institute for Apprenticeships closes its consultation on the occupational maps for the new T-levels, there […]

What does Ofsted consider a good college curriculum?

Amanda Spielman cited Harlow College as having particularly good curriculum design at the AoC conference in the autumn – but what has it done that so impressed Ofsted? Its principal Karen Spencer explains During 2017, Harlow College took part in an Ofsted survey visit, looking at the design of level two study programmes. The visit […]

How can we ensure the Year of Engineering is a success?

The government’s newest initiative couldn’t have come at a better time for a sector trying to blow open its gender gap, writes Ann Watson 2018 is shaping up to be a pretty important year for those of us involved in engineering skills, all things considered. The government has promised to “consult” on letting us use […]

Non-levy procurement process was a lottery

The government’s non-levy procurement process wasn’t a fair competition because providers weren’t given all the information in advance, writes Patrik Knowles Last December 7 was going to be a critical day across the sector, as providers found out the results of the long-awaited procurement exercise for “apprenticeship training to employers not using the digital account”, […]