Expert Contributor | FE Week

Labour pledge could cause teacher supply crisis

Labour manifesto pledge: Set a target that all FE teaching staff have a teaching qualification within five years Malcolm Trobe argues AGAINST Labour’s pledge “for all FE teaching staff to have a teaching qualification within five years” is lacking in detail. Does it mean that people must have a teaching qualification within five years of […]

Further education teaching must be valued

Labour manifesto pledge: Set a target that all FE teaching staff have a teaching qualification within five years Sally Hunt argues FOR The teacher shortage problem isn’t limited to schools – FE colleges are also feeling the pinch. As well as addressing problems of low pay, endemic casualisation and mounting workloads, a key challenge for […]

Don’t double the immigration skills charge

Conservative manifesto pledge: Double the Immigration Skills Charge to £2,000 to reinvest in FE and skills Alex Balch argues AGAINST Barely a month after the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) has come into effect (April 2017), the Conservative Party have said as part of their manifesto that they will double the charge from £1000 to £2000. […]

Tories are right to double the immigration skills charge

Conservative manifesto pledge: Double the Immigration Skills Charge to £2,000 to reinvest in FE and skills Steven Woolfe argues FOR I welcome the Conservative pledge to double the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) to £2,000 per applicant. In many respects, our immigration policy has been filling in the gaps for many flaws within our education system. […]

T-levels are great, but can government make them as prestigious as A-levels?

Conservative manifesto pledge: To replace vocational qualifications with T-levels that have 50% more teaching time Catherine Sezen makes the argument FOR In the run up to the general election the political parties are focused on the importance of skills; both employability and technical or vocational skills are on the agenda. Labour and the Conservatives explicitly […]

Don’t prioritise vocational over academic routes

Conservative manifesto pledge: To replace vocational qualifications with T-levels that have 50% more teaching time James Kewin argues AGAINST The Conservative party’s plans to introduce T-levels could eventually amount to an annual increase in funding of £500 million per year. While there is unquestionably a need to strengthen technical education in England, this should not […]

Making the skills market work should be our priority – not ending it

The levy system is a long way from perfect – but the principles that lie behind it, in terms of building a functioning skills market, are valuable and worth fighting for, says Neil Carberry The manifestos are out, and we are less than a month from ministers returning to work. The good news is that […]

Too much flexibility, not enough foresight

Decades of policy turbulence have left a sector that is resilient but not necessarily forward-looking, and this needs to change, says Ruth Silver All three major parties have launched their manifestos, with Labour and the Liberal Democrats committing extra funding to colleges, while the Conservatives pledge to ‘give Britain the technical education it has lacked […]

ESFA is jeapordising degree apprenticeships

The ESFA’s approach to the allocation of apprenticeship funding for non-levy employers undermines the apprenticeship reforms and specifically, degree apprenticeships, says Adrian Anderson The apprenticeship reforms put the employer in the driving seat. Employers develop apprenticeship standards that define the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for an occupation, and they decide which to use to […]