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Oxford & Cherwell Valley College students show their skills at Artweeks

Creative arts students at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College (OCVC) are preparing to show design and craft skills at the 30th anniversary Oxfordshire Artweeks. Around 1,000 artists, including 180 new for 2012, are preparing to open almost 500 venues across Oxfordshire from May 5 to Sunday May 27 for the week. OCVC’s Helen Amber, Creative […]

Exhausted? I can’t wait to get back to work

NUS’ National Conference is the biggest democratic meeting of students in the world. As such, it’s sort of got a bit of a weight on its shoulders. It’s the sovereign body of the National Union of Students in the UK and gives members (students’ unions) an opportunity to direct our policy for the year ahead, […]

College Inspections: Re-basing of Grades?

Some commentators are taking the view that, recently, Ofsted has focused too heavily on full time 16-18 programmes, and has neglected the complexities of general FE. One particular college has been downgraded from “Outstanding” in 2007 to “Inadequate” this year. The inspection report suggests a biase towards the 16-18 provision, which accounts for a third […]

Peter Pledger, CEO, South London Business

For a man who has risen through trade unions, government quangos and the skills sector for more than three decades, Peter Pledger gives off an incredible sense of calm and modesty. “The game plan has always been to avoid bankruptcy,” he says simply. “As long as I can do that I’m happy.” As chairman of […]

Best practice principles in student administration

After many years working with college information systems and the advances I’ve seen in technology, it still amazes me that there are vast differences in how colleges capture and use information to propel their business forward. From my perspective, there are a few fundamental principles that would help any business to streamline their information processes […]

SFA to publish sub-contracting register in May

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) will be publishing the next subcontracting register before the end of the month. The publication, which details all subcontractors with an aggregate value of £100,000 or more, requires all lead providers to submit a declaration of sub-contractors form to their relationship manager by May 8. The SFA website reads: “As […]

Register for career professionals launched

The Careers Profession Alliance (CPA) has launched the first ‘National Register of Career Development Professionals’. Skills minister John Hayes says he wants 50 per cent of careers professionals to be on the new register by April 2015, which sets standards of professional practice for giving information, advice and guidance. Ruth Spellman OBE, chair of the […]

The £240m SFA giveaway

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has allocated providers an extra £240 million since the start of the academic year, new data has shown. An updated spreadsheet for 2011/12, published by the SFA earlier this week, shows that allocations have risen to more than £4 billion combined. The extra funding has been distributed mostly through the […]

Report finds ‘process failures’ at the Skills Funding Agency

An investigation into secret changes to a government website has unearthed “process failures” and an inability to pinpoint who made the unauthorised adjustments to data. The views are made in a breach report, published by UK Statistics Authority into the FE Choices website, which is managed by the Data Service; part of the Skills Funding […]