Author: Jude Burke

Skills Minister Nick Boles has written to college leaders to reaffirm his message that they should be going from delivering a third of all apprenticeships to two thirds. The letter, dated December 7, reiterates comments Mr Boles made while speaking at the Association of Colleges (AoC) annual conference in Birmingham last month. “Only around a […]

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has given more details of its plans to extend FE loans, as announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget. He said loans would be made available to level three and four learners aged 19 to 23, and to level five and six learners aged 19 and above. “The […]

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has tried to warn City and Islington College governors against plans to merge with Westminster Kingsway College, branding the proposals “too accepting of the government’s agenda”. In a letter to the board, Islington North MP Mr Corbyn (pictured right) said he sympathised with views put forward by college unions, including the […]

Nearly 150 young people are one step closer to taking on the world’s best, having been listed among the WorldSkills UK squad. The names of most of those who will begin training with the aim of representing Team UK at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi in 2017 were announced on Saturday night at the closing ceremony for […]

Record numbers of young people, teachers and parents visited the Skills Show in Birmingham last week, with figures for Saturday showing a 44 per cent rise on last year. A total of 78,324 people visited the show over the three days, with 20,597 of those on the Saturday, according to figures released today by organisers […]

City of Glasgow College emerged the big winner from Skills Show 2015 in Birmingham as it claimed eight medals, including four golds — the most for any provider. The Saturday closing ceremony, which marked the culmination of national skills competitions finals, also saw the announcement of most of the long squad (pictured above) ahead of the next […]

Official figures released this morning show the number of apprenticeship starts for 2014/15 was up by 59,500 from the previous year – reversing the decline of the previous two years. The final (rather than provisional) figures in today’s Statistical First Release show there were 499,900 apprenticeship starts in 2014/15, an increase of 13.5 per cent […]

The long wait for FE providers to sign up for Chartered Status ended today with applications for membership finally open. Colleges and independent learning providers can apply for membership to the Chartered Institution for Further Education (CIFE), set up in 2013, in the latest “significant step” on the route to chartered status for the FE sector. […]

Too few learners per classroom and marketing strategies that pit college against neighbouring college are among the issues preventing the sector from being “sustainable”, according to FE Commissioner Dr David Collins. In a letter to all chairs and principals of FE institutions, dated October 30, Dr Collins said that, with the sector as a whole having […]