FE Week Reporter | FE Week

It’s the quality that counts

Colleges and schools can work together to provide the impartial advice and guidance that young people need to decide their futures, says Dawn Ward A damning Education Select Committee report on the quality of careers guidance in schools recently prompted FE Week editor Nick Linford to issue a rallying call for colleges to up their […]

EXCLUSIVE: Leading college falls from outstanding to inadequate

One of England’s biggest colleges has fallen from outstanding to the lowest Ofsted grade of inadequate. City of Liverpool College, which achieved the highest grade almost across the board at previous inspection in early 2009, has been hit with a grade four result. It was revisited in early February and has been graded inadequate in […]

AELP fears for skills funding

UPDATE: The government today left the door open for the introduction of a single funding pot, containing the adult skills budget, for local enterprise partnerships. Its response to Lord Heseltine’s No Stone Unturned report, published here, pointed to Wednesday’s Budget on the devolution of skills funding (see page 60, point 81). Government money for […]

Richard’s tax proposals ‘fudged’

The government’s response to the Richard Review has been branded a “fudge” that fails to address the need for “reform of funding incentives”. Shadow FE Minister Gordon Marsden spoke out as the government published its response to the review, The Future of Apprenticeships in England: Next Steps from the Richard Review. The government’s response, which […]

Top college grade expected

The first college to get a top grade from Ofsted under its new common inspection framework is expected to be revealed soon. The news came out in the House of Lords, although the college — understood to have been inspected in the past six weeks — has not been identified and its Ofsted report is […]

Ofsted report criticises colleges for jobs ‘failure’

Ofsted has criticised colleges for missing skills targets and failing to prepare learners for local job opportunities. The education watchdog found that of the 17 colleges it visited for a survey on local accountability and autonomy, just three were offering a curriculum tailored to their areas. It conducted its survey to find out how the […]

Cash-strapped college faces being split up

The new principal of a debt-ridden college has admitted that a merger three years ago has failed — and that FE minister Matthew Hancock has approved plans for it to break up. West Kent College and South Kent College became K College after a KPMG report in 2008 recommended merger. The colleges won approval from […]

Employers looking for loans loophole, claims TUC

Bosses are looking for a loophole in the new FE loans system to make apprentices pay part of their employers’ share of training costs, a TUC official has claimed. With just a month until applications for 24+ Advanced Learning Loans open, Tom Wilson, director of TUC learning and skills branch Unionlearn, warned that apprentices were […]

‘Art is an outlet for my emotions’

A student who was disabled after a car crash has used her skills and passion for sculpture to raise awareness about disability. Mother of one, Colleen von Geitz, 44, was left with severe injuries after a serious car accident several years ago. The Chelsea resident suffered a broken neck that is now held in place […]