Nick Linford | FE Week

Local Enterprise Partnerships to get college co-operation sweeteners

Business Secretary Vince Cable has named three local enterprise partnerships to pilot a sweetener scheme aimed at improving relationships between colleges and local enterprise partnerships. Partnerships in the North East, Stoke and Staffordshire, and also the West of England have been chosen for the Skills Funding Agency-backed trial to incentivise co-operation. “I can announce an […]

WorldSkills VIPs speak to FE Week

As WorldSkills UK media partner, FE Week has been granted one-on-one time with some pretty heavyweight people in Leipzig 2013. Among them have been WorldSkills International president Simon Bartley and chef-turned-author — and WorldSkills UK ambassador — Will Torrent, who at Japan WorldSkills 2007 became the first Team UK pastry chef to win a medallion of excellence. Here […]

Vocational skills to get their own ‘unashamedly aspirational’ A-level

A new ‘Tech-level’ qualification for vocational education was announced by the government today to sit alongside the A-level academic route. They will run from next year and were described by Skills Minister Matthew Hancock as “unashamedly aspirational” — aimed at raising the status of vocational education in England. Local employers will be asked to support […]

German schoolchildren 4, WorldSkills Team UK 3

It was a close game, played in true WorldSkills good spirit, but in the end Team UK succumbed to the greater footballing prowess of their young German hosts. The game, hastily organised by Team UK photographer Ellis O’Brien, ended 4-3 in favour of the children from Grundschule Am Rodelberg primary school, in Torgau, around 35 […]

Downing Street send-off for UK’s WorldSkills competitors

Number 10 Downing Street got a visit from the cream of the UK’s vocational learners before they jetted off to Germany to take on the best of the rest at WorldSkills 2013. Parliament’s apprenticeship ambassador Andrew Jones MP was on hand to greet the 34-strong Team UK, before they met with London Olympics bronze medal-winning […]

Yorkshire students cleared of sex charges

Three men have been cleared of sexually assaulting a Yorkshire college student. They were acquitted at Hull Crown Court of attacking the 18-year-old woman last September at Bishop Burton College in East Riding. Thomas Price, 21, of Rotherham, was accused of rape and assault by penetration, Stephen Johnson, 22, of Tickton, was accused of sexual […]

Foundation appoints first board members

The Education and Training Foundation has named its first board members. The seven men and women who will help to steer the organisation, formerly known as the FE Guild, to set professional standards across the sector, include Don Hayes MBE, chief executive of voluntary skills consortium Enable, Lynsi Hayward-Smith, head of adult learning and skills […]

£400,000 pay-off to bosses angers union

London college bosses have been accused of “double standards” amid claims that former senior managers got pay-offs totalling more than £400,000 while other staff had been denied a pay rise. Barnet and Southgate College gave former principal Marilyn Hawkins £203,000 in severance and related payments following the merger with Southgate College in November 2011, the […]

EFA ‘loses’ £20m to private providers

Private training providers were overpaid around £20m last year by the Education Funding Agency (EFA), FE Week can exclusively reveal. Around 10 per cent of the EFA’s 2011/12 budget for private sector provision for 16 to 18-year-olds was not returned, even though it wasn’t delivered. A further 15 per cent — around £25m — was […]