Nick Linford | FE Week

Boles weighs in — Sir Michael ‘disagrees with himself’

Sir Michael Wilshaw “didn’t really mean” what he said about the FE sector at last week’s Education Select Committee, Skills Minister Nick Boles has said. Mr Boles opened his speech at the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Leadership Summit, held at Westminster Kingsway College on March 9 by disagreeing with Sir Michael’s comment, which provoked […]

Tough budget choices

Government budgets are of course finite — but our front page exposes questionable priorities over how it is being handed out. How can it be right that apprenticeship providers could be short-changed, while the well-documented UTC fiasco is going to be propped up by even more handouts? Lord Baker’s UTC project is in trouble and […]

No guarantees on apprenticeship budget, Boles says

The government “can’t make any guarantees” it will be able to fund all apprenticeship growth requests, Skills Minister Nick Boles (pictured above) has said. His remarks, at the Education and Training Foundation Leadership Summit on at Westminster Kingsway College on March 9, came a month after many training providers were left short-changed following the Skills […]

Support for UTCs as another shuts its doors

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) have been told they will get a new source of financial support, as another of their number is forced to close due to recruitment problems. Skills Minister Nick Boles wrote to the chairs and principals of UTCs on March 3, to inform them of the “new centrally funded package of educational […]

Institute gets first boss as UKCES reveals closure plans

The first appointment to the new Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) has been made in the same week that the fate of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) was revealed. Rachel Sandby-Thomas, currently director general for skills, deregulation and local growth at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), was named as the […]

Royal Treatment for college

Bridgwater College representatives received the Royal treatment when they travelled to Buckingham Palace to collect their Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. It was awarded to principal Mike Robbins and vice-principal Andy Berry by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall with chair of governors Derek Randall and a number of staff […]

If the Cinderella shoe fits…

A stunning large scale silver and glass slipper produced by Northbrook theatre students has been installed as a permanent feature at the college. Cinderella’s slipper was created by the learners before Christmas as part of a fairy tale project commissioned and funded by local acting company, Worthing Theatres. It was originally used as an eye-catching […]

Featured: Gloucestershire gets its house in order

More than 400 students at Gloucestershire College will be given the chance to hone their construction skills — after it became the first FE college in the country to buy a house to renovate, writes Billy Camden. Colleges are always looking for new challenges for their students — but it is probably fair to say […]

Agency director to lead levy team at BIS

Skills Funding Agency (SFA) director Keith Smith (pictured) has moved to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to take a lead role in levy implementation. Mr Smith will be on secondment to BIS for the next year, from his SFA post overseeing funding and programmes, while working as director of levy implementation until […]