Skip to content
1 May 2026

Author: Expert Contributor

Will the Institute for Apprenticeships succeed?

National Apprenticeship Week isn’t just a government thing. Labour’s shadow apprenticeships minister Gordon Marsden also got in on the action, and went on a great British tour of his own, as he explains below. During National Apprenticeship Week we are rightly able to celebrate the thousands of individual successes from young beginners to older workers […]

Qualifications aren’t created in a day

The government should learn from past mistakes and revise its reform timelines so it doesn’t set the sector up to fail, says Kirstie Donnelly Asking how long it takes to develop and launch a qualification is like asking the length of a piece of string. It depends, among other factors, on whether it is a […]

Is it ethical to apply the apprenticeship levy to charities?

The levy will force charities to create new apprenticeships or lose the money to private business, which raises ethical issues, says Steve Woolcock This year’s national apprenticeship week will be the last before the apprenticeship levy kicks in on 1 April. As the day draws nearer, many large organisations have been preparing to deal with […]

The chancellor must back #SaveOurAdultEducation

Adult education should be a golden thread running through all government strategies – the budget is Philip Hammond’s opportunity to embed it, says Stephen Evans The Learning and Work Institute is pleased to support FE Week’s #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign. Adult education is more important than ever, and we need to turbocharge participation in learning, starting with […]

Apprenticeships: what are Ofsted inspectors looking for?

Apprenticeships are not vehicles to validate employees’ existing skills – our inspectors want to see that apprentices are learning something new, says Christopher Jones A sign outside a shop in my local market town reads: ‘the only constant in life is change’. I usually ignore such nuggets of wisdom, but this one stuck with me. […]

Why not give Ofqual more power over apprenticeship standards?

The assessment community is calling for Ofqual’s role in apprenticeships to be extended – which shows something is badly wrong, says Gemma Gathercole When I first started working for OCR way back in 2005, there was a single body responsible for both the content of qualifications and their regulation: the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.  It […]

Changes to justice system will affect those working in FE colleges

Recent policy changes to keep more young offenders out of custody will affect those working at FE colleges, says Sally Alexander The prisons and courts bill published today promises to “enshrine into law that a key purpose of prison is to reform and rehabilitate offenders, as well as punish them for the crimes they have committed”.  […]

Our new college principal is alienating staff. What should we do?

Once a month, Dr Sue, Holex’s director of policy and external relations, answers your questions, backed by the experience of almost a decade as principal of Canterbury College, in addition to time served in senior civil service posts at central government departments covering education and skills. Question One: New principal I am a new principal […]

How we reversed our college’s deficit budget

Garry Phillips describes how his college pulled itself back from financial difficulty and an Ofsted ‘inadequate’ rating, following an intervention from the deputy FE commissioner. Ealing Hammersmith and West London’s College has appeared in FE Week several times over the last few years – and not always for the best reasons.  The college found itself […]