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15 May 2026

Author: Nick Linford

Wilshaw couldn’t resist final swipe at colleges

Sir Michael Wilshaw couldn’t resist another high profile opportunity to bash colleges. It’s clear that his support team, including his FE deputy Paul Joyce, had helped produce an annual report designed to support a college sector struggling to implement an English and maths resit policy that “was not having the desired impact in practice”. The […]

Skills Show Results 2016 by competition

Full list of results by competition area for the 2016 WorldSkills UK Skills Show competition finals.    Competition Forename Surname Medal Organisation 3D Digital Game Art Ross Garrard Gold New College Lanarkshire 3D Digital Game Art Avalon Do Silver Westminster Kingsway College 3D Digital Game Art Patrick Buckley Bronze West Cheshire College Aeronautical Engineering: Avionic […]

Editor Asks: David Hughes in conversation (part 2)

Part two of our wide-ranging interview with the new AoC boss David Hughes covers the new FE commissioner, area review value for money, and his thoughts on future of AoC – including how he will do things differently. Richard Atkins starts this month as FE commissioner and is already getting stuck into area reviews. David […]

Congratulations to Exeter College for topping our new FE league table

Exeter College has come out top – with a perfect 16 out of 16 score – in the inaugural FE Week college league table. Congratulations to Richard Atkins, who as principal led the college to success, and of course to all the staff. But league tables only have one top spot and with over 200 […]

Skills Show is the ‘future’ of Britain, Halfon says

The Skills Show is the “future of our country” that will help bridge a growing skills gap with world-class apprenticeships, Robert Halfon has said. The apprenticeship and skills minister (pictured right) visited the fourth annual Skills Show this morning as the three-day event at Birmingham’s NEC kicked off. Standing alongside Neil Bentley (pictured left), chief […]

Live with Linford at AoC Conference 2016

Nick Linford, editor of FE Week, is out-and-about during AoC Conference 2016 bringing you all the news, gossip and fun. Stay tuned for live updates (see blog below). FE Week is proud to be the premier media partner and the premier news source for the FE and skills sector. Latest news stories from AoC Conference: David […]

It’s all about apprenticeships: what are colleges waiting for?

Colleges are sadly still proving themselves to be out of step with the seismic shift in funding priorities towards apprenticeships. Nick Boles asked a year ago at AoC Conference why they were still letting independent training providers steal their lunch. Little has changed since. In fact, the situation has worsened. I get it that colleges […]

College sector ignoring minister’s cash warning as private providers clean up

Colleges have failed to take up the apprenticeships challenge laid down a year ago by former skills minister Nick Boles – with figures showing the proportion delivered by them has fallen significantly. Mr Boles urged delegates at last year’s Association of Colleges conference to stop letting independent training providers “nick your lunch”. He also challenged […]

Editor Asks: Apprenticeships minister Robert Halfon on government u-turn on funding cuts

As it turned out, my exclusive interview with the new apprenticeships minister Robert Halfon was conducted just hours after the Independent, Guardian and Mirror had all reported a major government U-turn on apprenticeship rates. “People are saying this is a U-turn, but actually I would describe it as listening with elephant-sized ears,” he volunteered – […]