Jude Burke | FE Week

Bigger is better for sixth forms

Size matters, at least when it comes to sixth forms – as FE Week discovered when we investigated the issues surrounding smaller providers. Mick Fletcher, an FE policy expert and the founder of Policy Consortium, insisted that the government decision to set the minimum number of students at 200 was “well-founded”. Smaller sixth forms “don’t […]

NCG finally gets ‘good’ Ofsted after four month standoff

The nation’s largest college has won its battle with Ofsted with the awarding of a grade two overall – more than four months after it was inspected. Today’s long overdue report comes two weeks after FE Week reported that the college group had been disputing the ‘requires improvement’ grade it was due to have been […]

Theresa May “does not recognise” 30% – 50% potential apprenticeship funding cuts

The prime minister has said she “does not recognise” potential cuts of between 30 to 50 per cent to apprenticeship funding. The devastating cuts, exclusively revealed by FE Week in August, were raised during prime minister’s question time in the House of Commons today by Richard Burden, Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield. He asked Ms […]

Justine Greening quizzed by select committee on apprenticeship funding cuts

Education Secretary Justine Greening was quizzed about potentially devastating apprenticeship funding cuts during an evidence session for the Education Select Committee this morning. The proposed cuts of up to 50 per cent for 16- to 18-year-olds in the most deprived areas of the country, revealed exclusively by FE Week, are part of planned reforms to […]

Two new super-colleges set to be created in north-west

Two new super-colleges are set to be created in the north-west through mergers involving six colleges and one university. Consultation opened this week on the first phase of a proposed new Cheshire-wide college, which will be formed by a link-up between four Cheshire and Warrington colleges. Meanwhile a massive new university and college group, which […]

The past, present and future of the Association of Colleges

As the Association of Colleges welcomes a new chief executive in its 20th year, FE Week takes a look at the past, present and future of the organisation. The AoC in a not-for-profit company founded in 1996 to act as the collective voice for colleges, and, as of this August, has 308 members – or […]

Counter-fraud measures underway for apprenticeship funding programme

Counter-fraud measures are to be set up for the apprenticeship funding programme, the government has insisted, amid warnings from the National Audit Office that not enough care is being taken to prevent a repeat of the Individual Learning Accounts fiasco. Worried about a repeat of the multimillion-pound fraud 15 years ago, the NAO has found […]

NAO apprenticeship report warns of history repeating itself over fraud

The apprenticeship reform programme risks repeating the fraud that plagued Individual Learning Accounts without more robust risk planning, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned. The stark message came in a damning report from the NAO, published today, on delivering value through apprenticeships – which revealed the Department for Education (DfE) has still has no […]

Employers seeking ‘payment for access’ to their apprenticeship levy pot

Large employers are auctioning access to their future apprenticeship levy pot to the highest bidding training provider, the Association for Employment and Learning Providers has claimed. The revelation came as part of the AELP’s response to the government’s apprenticeship reforms consultations, published this afternoon, in which it called for “negotiated” funding proposed to be shelved. […]