Expert Contributor | FE Week

The government must spend more on adult skills

Further education colleges must be enabled to continue to provide high quality education and skills training for adults, says Alastair da Costa Poverty is surprisingly entrenched in the UK, with most of the 10 million people in Britain in low-income or no income households, stuck there. In 2017 the Commission found that just one in six […]

What will the National Retraining Scheme look like?

With little fanfare, the National Retraining Scheme is being developed. Research is being done to ensure it will provide advice and opportunities that are attractive and relevant to people’s needs, says Fiona Aldridge Before the current saga of Brexit deals and no-confidence votes, you might recall the Conservatives’ 2017 manifesto commitment to “help workers stay […]

Will the new Ofsted framework work for FE?

Frank Coffield steals Ofsted’s language to grade last week’s new inspection framework How do FE and Skills (FE&S) fare in the new inspection framework? I’ve inspected the proposals from the perspective of FE&S and provide formative feedback using Ofsted’s grading scale and language. First, its strengths. The handbook is much shorter than its predecessor, but […]

How to transfer our success in skills competitions into productivity

The training methods behind the UK’s international success in skills competitions can be transferred to the wider economy, says Neil Bentley-Gockmann This week London plays host to a global ministerial audience for the annual Education World Forum. In welcoming his fellow ministers to the UK capital, the education secretary, Damian Hinds, rightly paid tribute to […]

Let’s not have arbitrary caps on apprenticeship provider growth

If ESFA introduces a limit on the scope of providers to grow it could hinder the delivery of apprenticeships, says Simon Ashworth At the AELP autumn conference, ESFA apprenticeships director Keith Smith announced that the ESFA was giving serious consideration to introducing a “provider earnings limit” on all apprenticeship providers in 2019, or in plain […]

International work is neither celebrated nor talked about nearly enough

Colleges that choose to extend their work internationally can reap rewards in many different ways, says Emma Meredith, but perceptions are almost entirely negative Many readers will remember the now-infamous “Deptford not Delhi” comment made by a former chief inspector six years ago. The message to colleges was: focus on domestic work, forget about international. […]

Colleges must deal with the pay crisis or risk further strikes

The pay crisis in further education has led to the forthcoming UCU strike. Those who work in this sector are doing a vital job, says Matt Waddup, and they need to be rewarded better Members of the University and College Union at 16 colleges will be taking strike action over pay at the end of […]

The Baker clause can only be a short-term fix

After this week’s IPPR report revealed that two-thirds of schools are still flouting the Baker clause, Tony Breslin argues that enforced compliance can only be a short-term fix – colleges and schools should look for new models of collaboration For some the Baker clause – and its requirement that schools must allow colleges and training […]

Employer engagement hasn’t gone to plan

Employers are reducing their training effort. But how can the government talk to them about it, says Ewart Keep, when it has abolished the organisations that would have provided a structured way to engage on skills policy Employers’ attitudes towards skills present huge challenges for the government’s ambitions on skills. Since 2010 policy has encouraged […]