FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Will ‘guilding’ the LSIS be an improvement or disaster?

Stop tinkering with FE before another doomed organisation is set up (you only have to look back a few years), says Anne Nicholls And so, the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) is to close this August after barely four years, as plans for an FE Guild are put together. David Hughes, chair of the […]

Why it’s time for a vocational pedagogy

A new report highlights the complex task of the vocational teacher and offers important evidence for why FE needs a vocational pedagogy, says Charlynne Pullen This is a critical time for the UK economy. As it begins to recover, there will be a greater need for skilled individuals, and vocational education has a clear role to […]

The real case for chartered colleges

Chartered status must not simply be another quality mark: it should reflect the capacity of an institution to work with all its partners to help to shape what is on offer to its community, says Mick Fletcher The proposal to develop chartered colleges offers the prospect of underpinning the freedoms and flexibilities that government seems […]

Trust me: shared services can work

It’s early days – and flexibility is essential – but a unique partnership of six FE colleges is determined to bring down costs and improve the service to students, says Alex Richards Some people worry about the potential pitfalls of shared services. Others see it as an opportunity to push innovative thinking to its limits. […]

Peter Roberts, principal, Leeds City College

Peter Roberts was happily following in his father’s footsteps as a professional footballer when a nasty tackle threw him off course. His dad, Harold, made history at Chesterfield FC when he was signed by Birmingham City for a then record £10,600. Peter also joined Chesterfield in his teens. But his time on the pitch came […]

Limited marketing ‘potentially disastrous’

A shadow minister has said that the lack of a “proper” national marketing budget to inform mature students of a new loans system is “potentially disastrous”. Gordon Marsden, the FE shadow minister, was talking to FE Week after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced a £6.5m local communications and marketing budget to […]

SFA crackdown finds no subcontractors to list

A promised list of banned subcontractors, due out last November, has no one to go on it. In August, the Skills Funding Agency said it would produce the list “alongside the register of training organisations” to include subcontractors that the agency refused permission for lead providers to use. “We will refresh this list each time […]

Youngsters stranded by company administration

A London-based social enterprise company that worked with young adults to help them to find jobs has gone into administration. The Walwyn Trust is believed to have left scores of youngsters unsure of their futures. Miranda Cook, from Cambridgeshire, contacted FE Week claiming that her 17-year-old daughter, Charlotte, a Walwyn apprentice, was not paid last […]

Birmingham principal honoured

A college principal “hasn’t quite come to terms with the news” that she is now a dame. Dr Christine Braddock, principal and chief executive of Birmingham Metropolitan College, was recognised in the 2013 New Year Honours list for services to further education. She is one of 12 dames on this year’s list and joins the […]