Author: Fraser Whieldon

T Levels will get a boost this month with the creation of a cross-party group of MPs and peers to champion them. Damian Hinds, who oversaw the qualification’s development while education secretary from January 2018 to July 2019, is behind the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) and has put himself forward as chair. It is funded […]

The government has been warned that many apprenticeship training agencies (ATAs) will close down under plans for new flexi-job apprenticeships. A consultation launched on Tuesday about making all 111 ATAs apply to a new register of approved flexi-job apprenticeship schemes also has one agency boss worried that it could put learners at a disadvantage when […]

The first new provider monitoring visit report since Ofsted restarted the in-person inspections has found ‘insufficient’ delivery. New provider visits resumed last month after the watchdog’s normal activity was paused at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. The first of these reports was published last Friday and found “too many” of the […]

Ofsted’s review of sexual abuse will see the watchdog make on-site visits to a “sample” of colleges where abuse and violence cases have been highlighted. The review itself will not report on “individual cases”, but identification of “serious and widespread” failures in safeguarding arrangements will lead to an immediate full inspection. Ofsted has published the terms […]

Talk about the “magic” of teaching, and less about structures and funding routes, to attract more people into the FE workforce, a leader in staff training has told the government. Education and Training Foundation chief executive David Russell made the remarks yesterday at an FE Week webcast on the Skills for Jobs white paper, specifically […]

Students should no longer be required to wear face masks in classrooms from 17 May, the Department for Education has announced. But the government has said coverings will still need to be worn on providers’ premises once students return from the Easter holidays. In an update to its ‘Face coverings in education’ guidance published the […]

A mayoral authority has set a 68 per cent clawback threshold for its devolved adult education budget, in a split from central government. The decision from Liverpool City Region comes after the Education and Skills Funding Agency was widely criticised for setting a 90 per cent threshold for the national AEB. Liverpool’s move was revealed […]

An ethnic minority representative group has slammed a prime ministerial commission’s proposal for an apprentice recruitment campaign “highly targeted” at diverse communities.  The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities claimed this week that “prejudice and ignorance” within ethnic minority families led to a low take-up of apprenticeship starts in their communities.  FE Week analysis of […]