Jude Burke | FE Week

Second round of T-levels teacher programme opens

Colleges and other post-16 providers are being urged to bid for cash to train industry experts as teachers, in the second round of the Taking Teaching Further scheme. The programme, worth £5 million, seeks to recruit industry specialists and retrain them to work in the post-16 and FE workforce with a particular focus on the […]

Awarding bodies told to ‘strengthen controls’ on applied generals after ‘unwarranted’ rise in grades

Ofqual is urging awarding organisations to “strengthen their controls” on certain types of applied general qualifications, after it uncovered evidence of grade inflation on old-style BTECs. Its research into the “legacy” level three BTECs, which don’t include any external assessment, found that the proportion of people gaining the highest grades on some of these courses […]

Sixth form funding rates to remain unchanged in 2019/20

Funding rates for 16 to 19-year-olds will remain unchanged next year, the government has confirmed – prompting disappointment from the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, which has been fighting for extra cash. A letter from Peter Mucklow, FE director at the Education and Skills Funding Agency, published today, said that “the national base rates of £4,000 […]

Redesigned RoATP to open tomorrow despite no delivery from 1 in 3 approved providers

Almost a third of providers on the government’s register did not deliver any apprenticeships last year, FE Week analysis has revealed – the day before the redesigned register re-opens for applications. There were 1,787 providers on the register of apprenticeship training providers in 2017, of whom 580 – or 32 per cent – had no […]

DfE figures reveal colleges hit hardest by move to apprenticeship levy funding

Colleges were hit hardest by the move to apprenticeship levy funding, FE Week analysis of new figures published by the Department for Education have revealed. The statistics, which included the number of starts per provider for the first time, showed that colleges’ share of the market dropped from 31 to 26 per cent from 2016/17 to […]

Ofsted watch: Three providers improve to ‘good’

Three providers – including two colleges – have boosted their grades from three to two this week, while one provider went the other way. Elsewhere it’s been a busy week for monitoring visits, with nine reports published – six for new apprenticeship visits, and three for grade three providers. MidKent College and Northampton College were […]

Apprenticeship quality remains a ‘mixed picture’, says Ofsted’s Paul Joyce

In July the prime minister claimed that apprenticeship quality had risen since the introduction of the levy and standards – even though Ofsted had found the reverse. Five months on from Theresa May’s comments in parliament, FE Week editor Nick Linford asked Paul Joyce, Ofsted deputy director for FE and skills, if things have improved. […]

Trailblazer group alarm over funding band reviews

A trailblazer group chair has warned that its “years of hard work” in developing two apprenticeships standards could be undone, after they were included in the Institute for Apprenticeships’ second funding band review. The level two supply chain warehouse operative and large goods vehicle driver standards were among 30 standards named on the list announced […]

AELP appoints a devolution director to represent independent training providers

The “real fear” that independent training providers wouldn’t get “representation around the table” in adult education budget devolution has prompted the Association of Employment and Learning Providers to appoint its first devolution director. Harminder Matharu takes up her post on December 19, just two days before bids are due in the Greater London Authority’s tender […]