Nick Linford | FE Week

Report points at skills system’s six ‘key problems’

Six “key problems” in the skills sector have been identified in a new Labour report called Talent Matters — why England needs a new approach to skills. The interim report of the party’s skills taskforce — made up of Creative Leadership and Skills Ltd managing director Jacqui Henderson, South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership chair […]

Coventry principal to leave after Ofsted inadequate

The principal of City College Coventry, labelled inadequate by Ofsted, is to leave as soon an interim replacement can be found, FE Week can reveal. Paul Taylor is expected to have been replaced by July, a college spokesperson said. After 16 years in the job and two previous poor inspections, Mr Taylor was hit with grade […]

Traineeships launched, but only for some

The 11-month wait for a government outline of traineeships is over — but “disappointment” has been expressed about who can take them. They were first proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in June last year to help 16 to 24-year-olds gain work-related skills and attitudes. But it wasn’t until today that the Skills Minister […]

New chief executive at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers

The incoming chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers has told how apprenticeships will be at the top of his agenda. Stewart Segal (pictured) takes over from Graham Hoyle OBE in three months having impressed association bosses who interviewed more than 50 candidates for the job. Mr Segal has experience of the […]

Guild to meet at Windsor Castle for ‘complex thinking time’

Twenty-nine “key people” from FE have been invited to eat, drink, sleep and “think” in secret at Windsor Castle about the sector’s new professional body. A spokesperson for the proposed FE Guild — which will set professional standards across the sector — said it had hired St George’s House, a retreat within the castle, for […]

Provider’s ‘appalling’ pass rate

Just 6,375 out of 13,420 adult retail apprentices succeeded England’s biggest apprenticeship provider has come under fire from the chair of a government watchdog after “appalling” figures revealed less than half of its retail and wholesale leavers qualified last year. Just 47.5 per cent of Elmfield Training’s 13,420 leavers in the sector aged 25 or […]

Harlow tops the tables, again

Harlow College has celebrated the highest general FE college qualification success rate in England for the second year running. The Essex college achieved an all-age and all-duration success rate of 94 per cent for the year ending July 2012, meaning 10,171 qualifications were achieved out of 10,820 starts. Principal Colin Hindmarch, who retires this week, […]

Minister okays college merger

The troubled merger of two colleges in the Midlands has been given the nod of approval by Skills Minister Matthew Hancock, who had told them to take the plans back to the drawing board. Proposals by Stourbridge and Birmingham Metropolitan to form “one of the largest and most significant further education providers in the country” […]

New audit reviews cause ‘major concern’

A new audit system from the Skills Funding Agency has caused “major concern” within the FE sector. Accountability reviews — described as “a key element of the agency’s intervention strategy” — will consider not just financial management, but also governance and strategic oversight arrangements. The announcement, which sources have told FE Week came as a […]