Jude Burke | FE Week

Demands for fairness after ESFA sets aside £2.6m in Somerset tender

The launch of a £2.6 million tender by the Education and Skills Funding Agency to deliver community learning services in Somerset has prompted demands for fairness and reform to the procurement process over the apparent special treatment. The invitation to tender, published May 31, follows a campaign by community learning provider Somerset Skills and Learning […]

Hull College receives £54m bailout amid job strikes

An impoverished college caught in a row over job cuts has received a £54 million bailout. The eye-watering sum reportedly awarded to Hull College from the restructuring facility is believed to be the highest ever given to an English college. A college representative let slip the sum during the University and College Union’s congress in […]

Ofsted watch: An ‘outstanding’ week for FE and skills

It’s been an ‘outstanding’ week for the FE and skills sector, as a specialist college has received the highest possible rating across the board. And an independent training provider has gone straight in with a grade two on its first ever inspection. Hartpury College was rated grade one overall and in all areas inspected in […]

UCU to ‘ballot members nationally’ over pay claim

An autumn of discontent over college pay could be on the cards, after University and College Union members voted unanimously for escalating action if the Association of Colleges fails to meet their demands over next year’s claim. The motion on action over FE pay was passed at the UCU’s 2018 Congress in Manchester this morning, […]

Another early monitoring report uncovers insufficient progress

Another Ofsted early monitoring visit to an apprenticeship provider has resulted in a verdict of ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one area – but the Department for Education has refused to say whether it will take action. The watchdog’s report into Mears Learning is the fourth of the 11 monitoring reports so far published to […]

72 apprenticeship frameworks with replacement standards to stay until 2020

There are 72 old-style apprenticeship frameworks with direct standard replacements, the government has confirmed – but they’re not going to be switched off until 2020. The list of 72 – which includes 47 different frameworks at multiple levels – was published today by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. It had sought feedback on switching the […]

Association of Colleges backs down on 2018/19 pay negotiations

The Association of Colleges has backed down in its argument with the FE unions on next year’s pay claim – even though disputes over this year’s deal are ongoing. Earlier this month the AoC said it was “not minded to consider” a pay claim for 2018/19 while members of the University and College Union were […]

London colleges hit with strikes – but exams go on

London has been a hotbed of industrial unrest this week – but the Association of Colleges is claiming that strikes at colleges across the capital have had no negative impact on learners sitting exams. Members of the University and College Union took action at Lambeth College, Lewisham Southwark College and the Capital City College Group, […]

Damian Hinds refuses permanent secretary’s request to delay T-levels

The education secretary is sticking to the 2020 start date for T-levels – even though his own permanent secretary has asked to delay it until 2021. The revelation came in a ministerial direction published this afternoon by the Department for Education. “As things stand today, it will clearly be very challenging to ensure that the […]