FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Adrian Bailey, chair, Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee

You might expect to find industry awards and citations from the world of commerce hanging above Adrian Bailey’s fireplace. As chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, you’d think ‘grip-and-grin’ pictures with business leaders such as Lord Sugar or Sir Richard Branson would adorn the home of the West Bromwich West MP. But […]

Richard waits for minister’s verdict

Entrepreneur Doug Richard has reignited his argument with the Association of Employment and Learning Providers that workforce tax breaks were “integral” to the success of apprenticeships. The former Dragons’ Den investor spoke out in the lead-up to the sixth National Apprenticeship Week when FE Minister Matthew Hancock is due to respond to his government-commissioned report […]

Students stay in official net migration figures

The government’s response to the Business Innovation and Skills select committee report on overseas students and migration is a “disappointment”, says the Association of Colleges. In the initial report, Overseas Students and Net Migration, which was published last September, the committee recommended that overseas students should not be counted in the overall figures for immigration, […]

‘Excellent’ grade dismissed

FE bosses have urged Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw to be cautious about creating an “excellent” Ofsted grade for college governors working in disadvantaged communities. The education watchdog told FE Week that Sir Michael was interested in “exploring” a rating to top the ‘outstanding’ mark for leadership in colleges. He recently introduced the concept […]

Hancock calls for merger review

Two colleges in the Midlands have been told by FE minister Matthew Hancock to go back to the drawing board with their plans to merge. Proposals by Stourbridge and Birmingham Metropolitan to form “one of the largest and most significant further education providers in the country” have been investigated by Mr Hancock’s officials at the […]

Esol funding ‘safe’

The Skills Funding Agency wants to allay fears that a new payment regime could reduce funding for adult language courses. Concerns about the future funding of English for Speakers of Other Languages (Esol) courses prompted the National Association for Teaching English and other Community Languages to Adults (Natecla) to say the agency should clarify its […]

Free lunches still off the menu

The government has been accused of inconsistency over a campaign to extend free lunches to students in sixth-form and FE colleges. James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, hit out after the government’s response to an e-petition that collected almost 10,300 signatures. The Association of College’s No Free Lunch? campaign was […]

‘Focus on job skills not league tables’

Government plans to introduce new post-16 performance tables for level three vocational qualifications have come under fire from the boss of a leading awarding organisation. The Department for Education has launched a consultation on the plans in which only around one-tenth of nearly 4,000 qualifications currently offered to 16 to 19-year-olds would be counted in […]

Paws for thought on animal-assisted therapy

Caring Wiltshire students took time out from their studies to take a collection of pets to a local old people’s home. Fourteen youngsters delighted residents — the oldest 103 — at Kingston House Residential Home, in Calne, with a variety of animals including those from an animal centre and their own pets. The visit also […]