FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Surprise inspection leads to high health rating

Budding chefs at a Midland college restaurant have been deemed squeaky clean after a surprise inspection by environmental health inspectors. The Quad’rant eaterie, at Chesterfield College, is staffed partly by catering and hospitality students and was awarded a rare grade five rating, which is the highest grade possible. Ellie Wynn, head of learning for hospitality […]

It’s time for impartial advice for learners

The Education Select Committee looked at the issue of careers guidance and produced a report that questioned the impartiality of schools now tasked with providing the service. Graham Hoyle OBE puts forward his suggestions to remedy the problem. Lord Baker of the Baker-Dearing Trust has proposed that at age 14, pupils should make a choice […]

Much ‘to be decided’ on model for trainees

Traineeships were put firmly on the FE agenda by sector minister Matthew Hancock this month when he revealed plans for a new pre-apprenticeship scheme. Chris Jones takes up the issue and explains what he thinks needs to be considered when the final traineeship model is drawn up. Further education Minister Matthew Hancock’s recent announcement about […]

Caution on Baker’s bold education change call

Lord Baker’s new book, 14-18: A New Vision for Education, sets out radical changes to the education system and includes contributions from several sector stakeholders. Maggie Galliers delivers her verdict on the book and evaluates the view laid out by Lord Baker. The central idea in Lord Baker’s new book is that the English education […]

Beatrix Groves, president, Institute for Learning

“I did it all back to front, upside-down and mostly part-time,” says Institute for Learning (IfL) president Beatrix Groves, known to friends as Bea, on how she ended up with a degree and a career in teaching. She came to the profession late, having “absolutely detested” the Catholic single sex secondary school she attended, where […]

Careers guidance is for life, not just for classrooms

The Education Select Committee’s review of careers guidance came to worrying conclusions about the quality of service being offered to young people, but, as committee adviser Dr Tristram Hooley points out, it’s not just schoolchildren who need good advice. Since the election major changes have been made to the careers education and guidance. These were […]

Call for education to ‘split’ at 14

Former education secretary and father of the national curriculum Lord Baker has called for a back-to-basics revamp of England’s education system. The Conservative peer outlined his view that 14-year-olds were given the choice of four pathways at separate institutions in his new book 14 – 18: A New Vision for Secondary Education. These are liberal […]

Redefine apprenticeships, says thinktank

Apprenticeships should be redefined as “intensive three-year training programmes” to help curb the 31 per cent A-levels drop-out rate, new research revealed. The Policy Exchange thinktank released a report with several recommendations and said there needed to be “a clear alternative route offering high quality technical or vocational provision”. It named apprenticeships as a “key […]

Critics hit out at A-level reform plans

FE groups across the sector have condemned education secretary Michael Gove’s proposal to overhaul A-levels. Mr Gove said from 2015 pupils will take exams at the end of two-year courses with AS-levels remaining but as stand-alone exams. A group of leading universities will play a bigger role in maintaining standards. But various teaching associations and […]