Author: Jude Burke

Seven general FE colleges and four sixth form colleges (SFCs) will be involved in a post-16 education and training area review for West Yorkshire announced by the government this morning. It is set to launch on November 16 and West Yorkshire will be the seventh and final English region involved in the first wave of […]

The difficulty faced by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in running apprenticeships was raised with members of the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee. Stephen Ibbotson, director of business at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, told the committee, which held its first evidence session, chaired by Hartlepool MP Iain Wright (pictured above) […]

Better advice and guidance for young people is needed with figures suggesting 16 to 24-year-olds were making up a shrinking proportion of apprenticeship start numbers, it has been claimed. The number of 2014/15 apprenticeship starts was provisionally put at 492,700 in this month’s statistical first release. Of these, 210,100 were aged 25 or above — […]

Ofsted is to carry out a thematic review of the implementation of the anti-terrorism Prevent Duty in the FE sector, FE Week can reveal. Paul Joyce (pictured above), Ofsted deputy director for FE and skills and independent schools, said he had put the idea to chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw. “I’ve actually proposed to our […]

Five Lsect journalists, including three from FE Week, have been shortlisted for eight education journalism awards. FE Week reporter Paul Offord (pictured above) won last year’s outstanding FE journalism category at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations awards and is up for the same prize again, along with FE Week editor Chris Henwood. Paul has also […]

The proportion of 25+ apprenticeships has gone back up to levels last seen before the failed 24+ apprentice loans system, provisional figures out today have revealed. The figures, published in the Statistical First Release (SFR), suggest a full-year growth in apprenticeship numbers across all age groups — but the biggest growth was among those aged 25 or […]

Apprenticeships will this week come under the spotlight in a House of Lords debate focussing on the quality and accessibility of the programme. Lady Prosser (pictured above), former deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union and ex-president of the Trades Union Congress, is to open a debate on Thursday (October 15) looking at […]

Further Education Commissioner Dr David Collins will be stepping back from involvement at previously troubled Barnfield College and Weymouth College, FE Week has learned. Barnfield, in Luton, received a letter last month from Skills Minister Nick Boles confirming Dr Collins’ role at the college was over. It followed a visit in July from his adviser […]

Two official apprenticeship vacancy websites are still running five months after one of them was said to be closing down. A spokesperson for the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) told FE Week in March that the old National Apprenticeship Service vacancy matching website would be taken down in May, once the new ‘Find an apprenticeship’ service […]