Author: Jude Burke

Vacancies that go unfilled because employers can’t find workers with the right skills are a “growing challenge”, a survey of more than 91,000 employers has revealed. The Employer Skills Survey (ESS) 2015, published today by the UK Commission on Employment and Skills (UKCES), found that 23 per cent of vacancies went unfilled because of skills […]

Pearson has been slammed by Ofsted for its inadequate apprenticeship provision in a report which found “no key strengths”. The global education business, which provides apprenticeships for around 80 members of staff through its subcontractor Pearson TQ, has dropped two grades to be ranked ‘inadequate’ across the board by the education watchdog. In their damning […]

Small businesses will get the apprenticeship levy leftovers after large employers have used up their share, Skills Minister Nick Boles confirmed today. He was speaking in front of MPs at an evidence session for the Education, Skills and Economy Sub-Committee, at which he answered questions on FE-related issues including apprenticeships, careers advice and the Institute […]

Former government apprenticeships adviser Doug Richard was accused of multiple child sex offences, when his trial opened today at London’s Old Bailey. The 57-year-old multimillionaire, whose 2012 Richard Review of Apprenticeships triggered ongoing reform proposals, faces three counts of sexual activity with a child, one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual […]

A struggling sixth form college is consulting on a restructuring plan that it is thought could lead to dozens of job losses. Totton College, which was branded as inadequate by Ofsted in June last year, announced on Thursday (January 21) that it had begun consulting with staff in a process that it said will “determine the future path of the […]

FE colleges that recruit learners from the age of 14 will be covered by tough new strike rules, the government has finally confirmed. Its ballot threshold consultation response, published today, lists teaching and leadership of “pupils aged 5 to 16 in state-funded schools” as “important public services” which would be subject to the new 40 […]

Fintan Donohue has retired from his role as chief executive of the Gazelle Colleges Group after more than four years at the helm. Mr Donohue said that Carolyn Chapman-Lees, Gazelle’s executive director, would be the troubled group’s “key contact going forward”, in an email to FE Week today. It is the first confirmation seen by […]

Seven FE and skills providers have been told by Skills Minister Nick Boles that their FE Commissioner interventions have come to an end, FE Week can reveal. Letters confirming the conclusion of Dr David Collins’ involvement with the five colleges and two local authorities were published before Christmas and earlier this month, after being sent […]

The FE sector is “inadequate at best” according to Ofsted’s Sir Michael Wilshaw, who has also hit out at colleges’ “uniformly weak” careers advice on offer. He is due to make the comments in a speech later this afternoon, called ‘Ambitions for English Education’, for the thinktank CentreForum. “Educational provision, for the many children who […]