Nick Linford | FE Week

Liverpool college revisit

A college in North England branded inadequate by Ofsted just four years after it was deemed outstanding is struggling to improve success rates. The education watchdog carried out a monitoring visit to City of Liverpool College last month. Its report on the revisit said the 14,000-learner college was making insufficient progress on advanced-level success rates, […]

New SFA chief announced

The new Skills Funding Agency chief executive has been announced. Former Salford City Council boss Barbara Spicer (pictured) has been named the new interim Skills Funding Agency chief executive. She takes up the role on Monday, stepping in for Kim Thorneywork, who is temporarily off work to concentrate on her fight with breast cancer. Ms […]

Advice ‘scam’ warnings lead to firm closure

A business that tried to charge young people £25 each to register for apprenticeships has apparently closed following pressure from FE leaders who feared it was a “scam”. Matthew Peck launched the Apprenticeships Portal website this month, emailing 200 secondary schools and asking them to forward a message to Year 11 pupils that advised them […]

Hunt’s ‘Institutes of Technical Education’ plans

Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt used his first speech in post to announce plans for Institutes of Technical Education. Speaking on the last day of the Association of Colleges conference, he said the institute title would be given to colleges who “demonstrate strong performance in specialist vocational education”. They must also have “strong links with […]

Careers advice prompt for Number 10

Prime Minister David Cameron has been ordered to “get a move on” to improve the careers advice given to school pupils. Association of Colleges president Michele Sutton branded the quality of information, advice and guidance available to young people at schools as “apalling”. In a speech at her association’s annual conference, she also called for […]

Access cash ‘must’ go to traineeships

The demise of access to apprenticeship (AtA) has led to a call for colleges to be allowed to use cash for the programme on 16 to 18 traineeships instead. Funding rules currently stop colleges using money for AtA, which the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) is closing to new starts from next year, to pay for […]

Think-tank calls for youth guarantees and levies

Youth guarantees and youth levies figure among new proposals from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) aimed at ensuring more than a million young people do not fall into the Neet (not in education, employment or training) trap. The think-tank, in the last of its three reports this month, recommends a ‘youth allowance’ to […]

Hancock to divert cash to employers

Apprenticeships are to be funded through employers, Skills Minister Matthew Hancock announced at the Association of Colleges (AoC) conference on Tuesday. Mr Hancock said the move was part of a wider strategy to reform the FE system “to support high expectations”. “That includes… putting the funding for apprenticeships through employers so they can demand the […]

Up to 50,000 teenagers studying dead-end courses, claims think-tank

Tens of thousands of 16 to 18-year-olds are taking dead-end courses that will end with no job and will turn them off education and training, a policy think-tank has warned. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) claimed huge numbers of late teens were facing the Neet (not in education, employment or training) scrapheap by […]