Nick Linford | FE Week

Apprenticeships director to step down

England’s apprenticeship boss, David Way, has announced that he is to step down at the end of the month. The executive director of the Skills Funding Agency’s apprenticeship division will be leaving after 38 years in the employment and skills sector. Mr Way, a married father-of-two, has overseen an expansion in the number of apprenticeships […]

Beware the apprenticeship ‘silly season’

Apprenticeship stories in the wider media of late have made hay about young people turning their backs on university and instead considering vocational learning. However, as Lynne Sedgmore explains, such promotion of an ‘FE versus higher education’ divide could be doing more harm than good. There has been a sudden spate of stories recently about […]

Government’s ‘£11m’ privately-run FE website service could be sold on

The contract to run the government’s FE course directory could be sold on as part of a deal that could net £15m for Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The Tory MP co-founded and partly owns Hotcourses, which hosts and provides a database for the National Careers Service (NCS) online course directory, which FE Week understands is […]

Government appoints FE Commissioner advisers

Four advisers, including a former 157 Group chair and an ex-college finance director, have been appointed to the new FE Commissioner’s office. The commissioner is yet to be appointed, but the adviser posts have gone to Marilyn Hawkins, Malcolm Cooper, Lynn Forrester and David Williams (see biogs below for full details). Between them, they are […]

Former AoC president takes governor post at college mauled by Ofsted

A former Association of Colleges president has become City College Coventry’s new governors’ chair after a disastrous Ofsted report resulted in the Skills Funding Agency calling for “fundamental changes”. Maggie Galliers, who was the association president for 2011/12, was unanimously voted into the post and joins new interim principal John Hogg in a revamped leadership […]

Bringing professionalism home to FE

Do FE lecturers need central government-defined teaching qualifications? The government appears of the view they don’t and is doing away with the requirement. Ian Pryce puts the argument for self-determination. In the last few weeks many well-respected leaders within our sector — all of whom I admire greatly — have expressed concern at the removal […]

Removal of FE teacher qualifications requirement causes sector concern

Sector leaders have expressed “deep concerns” over news FE trainers will no longer need a teacher training qualification from next month. The Further Education Teachers’ (England) Regulations 2007 requirement for teaching qualifications is being scrapped under new legislation published by the government on August 9. Representatives of the Institute for Learning (IfL), the University and […]

Foundation warned of ‘jobs for the boys’ perception over lack of advertising for key roles

Bosses of the FE sector’s new self-improvement body, the Education and Training Foundation, have been warned of “sycophantic nepotism” after it emerged that no advertising had taken place for senior roles. The foundation’s chair and chief executive posts are currently publicly on offer, but interim posts, including director of contracting and procurement, look likely to […]

Short-term apprenticeships fall ‘dramatically’ after government action

The number of apprenticeships lasting less than a year has fallen “dramatically” after they were outlawed over fears about the quality of short-term programmes. They fell from 43 per cent (224,000) of the total number of apprenticeship starts in 2011/12, to just 8 per cent (28,000) for the first nine months of the academic year. The figures […]