FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Surge in the over-25s sees record rise in apprentices

The Government’s apprenticeship recruitment target of 203,200 for the financial year to March 2011 was exceeded by 54,000, John Hayes, Minister for FE, announced last week. Particularly striking has been the volume of those apprentices aged 25 and over who started in the first three quarters of this academic year (August 2010 to April 2011). […]

Morrisons, Elmfield and the over-25 apprentices

Morrisons boasts that it is the UK’s biggest provider of apprenticeships, although in reality the funding is claimed from the Skills Funding Agency by the independent training provider Elmfield Training Ltd. In the context of a national record number of apprentices (see page 1), what stands out is the rapid increase in adults aged 25 […]

Bicton florist wins South West UK Skills competition

Bicton College floristry student Sachiko Smale has won through to the national final of the UK Skills Advanced Floristry competition. Sachiko, who is studying for her Level 5 Master Diploma of Professional Floristry [NDSF], created a stunning bridal bouquet. Sachi said, ‘Winning this competition has proved that I am doing fine and has given me […]

Central Sussex College: Rome wasn’t built in a day – it took a month!

Roman architecture came to Crawley after a legion of students from Central Sussex College completed their very own, miniature version of the Colosseum! The fifteen students, all aged 16-19, are studying Building Craft Occupations (BCO) at the Crawley campus, and were inspired to recreate the world famous structure after looking at construction techniques throughout the […]

Ex Grimbsby student, actor John Hurt wins Gold Award

Award-winning actor John Hurt CBE, famous for films such as The Elephant Man and The Naked Civil Servant, has won an Association of Colleges’ Gold Award. He was nominated by The Grimsby Institute for continuing to inspire generations of art and drama students. John said he is “forever grateful” for the time he spent at […]

NUS VP advice to FE post-EMA

In the past few weeks, we have heard final details about the Discretionary Learner Support Fund that is to replace the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). Managers in Further Education won’t be strangers to the idea of Learner Support Funds, but there are some distinct differences that make this one much more difficult to distribute. Providing […]

Comedian returns to Filton for Prize Day

Bristol comedian, Justin Lee Collins is taking time out of his busy schedule to congratulate local students at Filton’s Award Ceremony. Justin will return to his roots to host Prize Day at his former college. The college is awarding students with cash prizes to assist with their education or career paths. Prizes include over 40 […]

Peter Jones Academy hitting the headlines

BBC Dragon, entrepreneur and now further education celebrity, Peter Jones has been bringing FE into the nationals this week – kicking and screaming. Now I know that FE Week has called FE the invisible sector, (see article below) but Peter Jones has proved us wrong. The Daily Mail ran two stories, suggesting Peter might be […]

Simplify the funding formula? Heard that before!

Both the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) and the Skills Funding Agency are beavering away, independent of each other, on two brand new ‘simpler’ funding formulae for the 2012/13 academic year. The YPLA (soon to be Education Funding Agency) will attempt funding rates based on 16-18 year-old learner programmes (as opposed to individual enrolments) and […]