FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Will ‘change’ be the buzz word at AoC conference?

November is always a busy month for the FE world, not least because the sector’s AoC Annual Conference thrusts FE policy into the spotlight. This year looks like being no different with the Chancellor’s Autumn Financial Statement, details on the education and skills component of the Growth Plan, an updated Skills Investment Strategy, a participation […]

Provider owner also set-up awarding body

The owner of one of the UK’s largest and “fastest growing” vocational training providers has also created his own awarding body. Gerard Syddall is a company director and 95 per cent shareholder of Elmfield Training Ltd. As reported by FE Week in June and more recently in the TES magazine, Elmfield Training took more than […]

Peter Lauener, CEO, Young People’s Learning Agency

Numbers have always been Peter Lauener’s thing. His first job, at the age of 13, was checking calculations on pension funds for his father, who was an actuary. “We (Lauener and his brother) were paid two and six an hour which was big money in those days, so we’d happily spend three hours in an […]

FE charity in administration ~ FE Week investigates

Learning and Skills Network (LSN) placed in administration after turnover dips by £29 million in two years and pension liability leaves an £8 million hole – but it is ‘business as usual’ for staff as buyers are sought. Struggling for income and with a crippling multi-million pension liability, a charity with more than 25 years […]

Government gives go ahead to FE college merger

The merger of two further education (FE) colleges has been given the go-ahead. Stroud College and Filton College will, from February 1 next year, be legally known as South Gloucestershire and Stroud College after the proposed merger was agreed today by John Hayes MP, secretary of state for further education, skills and lifelong learning. Both […]

Establish an FE newspaper? Where did that come from?!?

FE Week has been a remarkable journey for me, personally. I am all too aware that some college principals are confused about my intentions, and wonder where Nick ‘Meddling’ Linford will pop-up next. Now feels the right time to explain more about me and what FE Week is all about. I had wanted to set […]

Delivery of FE to radically change by 2020, says new report

A report predicts that most further education (FE) establishments will need to radically change the way they deliver course content to keep up with future of technology. The report, commissioned by Access UK, who supply HR software to the FE sector, predicts a rise in connectivity as technology becomes available across all platforms and devices, […]

BIS Select Committee to launch enquiry into apprenticeships

An enquiry into apprenticeships will be launched by the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee in the new year. Adrian Bailey MP, chairman of the committee, made the announcement at the ‘Real or Rebrand?’ apprenticeships debate, organised by FE Week, at the House of Commons last week. Although terms of reference for the enquiry […]

Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow

“I always think the best test of a person is not when they’re winning; it’s how they recover from defeat and adversity,” says Rob Halfon. And he would know. It took him three attempts to win his seat in parliament. On his second go, he lost by just 87 votes. But the Harlow MP, best […]