Author: Fraser Whieldon

A college has been praised by the FE Commissioner for making “significant strides” towards ensuring its campuses safe, after Ofsted accused it of safeguarding failures that led to a grade four. Such improvements at Shrewsbury Colleges Group include employing additional security personnel as well as enforcing the wearing of lanyards by all students and staff. […]

Investigations by the government’s insolvency watchdog into the former leadership of two bankrupt colleges are still ongoing – as one of the individuals at the centre of the scandal takes up a role at the colleges’ former auditor. The Insolvency Service confirmed this week its inquiry into the conduct of directors at Hadlow College and […]

Outstanding black, Asian and minority ethnic apprentices, as well as employers and providers leading in increasing the diversity of apprenticeships, were celebrated at a stellar awards ceremony this week. Twelve individuals, ten employers and one provider walked away victorious from Wednesday night’s BAME Apprenticeship Awards 2020, which were held on YouTube and Facebook after the […]

The much-anticipated FE white paper could provide impetus and galvanise support for a bid to host the international WorldSkills competition in the UK.  That’s according to the chief executive of WorldSkills UK Neil Bentley-Gockmann, who spoke to FE Week on the first day of the organisation’s International Skills Summit, which is taking place today and […]

A college in dire financial straits is looking to sell off one of its campuses to balance the books, the FE Commissioner has reported. The commissioner’s team intervened at Greater Brighton Metropolitan College (GB Met) following a request for emergency funding and a Notice to Improve from the Department for Education. Their report, published this […]

Almost 100 jobs are at risk at one of the colleges which took over part of the first college group to go through education administration. North Kent College (NKC), which took over the main Hadlow College campus and the Tonbridge campus of West Kent in August, has confirmed to FE Week that 90 staff are […]

FE Week explores how the government’s £96 million tuition fund is being put to use by colleges and whether it is enough to help 16-to-19-year-olds catch up with education that was curtailed by lockdown Prime minister Boris Johnson and education secretary Gavin Williamson were set to announce to great acclaim on June 18 that colleges […]

Coronavirus and “unnecessary delays” by the exams regulator have been blamed for disrupting the roll out of free, government-developed, basic IT qualifications for adults. Despite the August launch date for the “entitlement”, which covers fully funded digital skills courses at entry and level 1, qualifications watchdog Ofqual revealed last week it had forced all but […]