Author: Nick Linford

The government has laid out its timeline for implementing apprenticeship reforms over the next five years as it chases its target of 3m starts. The 24-page English Apprenticeships: Our 2020 vision document, previewed by FE Week yesterday, was published this morning with key milestones for employers, providers and the government itself. The document says a “consultation […]

Prime Minister David Cameron is tomorrow expected to unveil plans for 2.3 per cent of staff in large public sector bodies to be apprentices. It is thought the move will see apprentice numbers boosted by 200,000 as the government chases its 3m starts election manifesto target for this Parliament. Measures to achieve the public sector […]

The principal of a Midland college behind two studio schools struggling with low pupil numbers has told of her regret at having to shut them down. Midland Academies Trust, which is sponsored by North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, is set to shut Midland Studio Colleges in Hinckley and Nuneaton next summer with just 157 pupils […]

Skills Minister Nick Boles has outlined how post-16 education area reviews will provide the means for sixth form colleges (SFCs) to become academies. Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement in last month’s Budget that sixth form colleges could become academies and thereby stop paying VAT led to speculation that such change in status might be a way […]

Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission chair Alan Milburn (pictured above) has told a Lords committee how the FE sector is “an absolute jungle” for learners and it needs to “take lessons from the higher education system”. Mr Milburn told the House of Lords Social Mobility Committee that FE was in need of “simplification” as […]

The 2014/15 Ofsted annual report painted a picture of an FE and skills sector in which two years of improvement came to a near-halt last academic year — and general FE colleges even saw a “decline” in performance. Click here for more of the report, which was launched at 10am, while sector responses to Ofsted’s findings can […]

Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw has told how he has “seen the pace of improvement slow” in FE and skills — picking out general FE colleges in particular as where “performance has declined”. English and maths commitments, finances and falling standards in leadership were among the issues for colleges identified by the education watchdog’s chief […]

Chancellor George Osborne’s extension of the FE loans system to 19 to 23-year-olds is a source of just as much uncertainty among his officials as his £360m savings plans are among sector leaders, government papers have revealed. Mr Osborne made passing mention of the loans move in his Budget speech to MPs on Wednesday (November […]

The exclusive front page story of edition 154 on low levels of apprenticeship delivery among colleges promised more analysis. And so while last week’s coverage expanded on this to feature apprenticeship allocations for all general FE colleges, this week it’s the turn of local authorities (LAs). Dr Sue Pember, director of policy and external relations […]