Nick Linford | FE Week

Outstanding college gets government warning over academy

An academy backed by grade one-rated Walsall College has been warned by the government about “unacceptably low” standards. Schools Minister Lord Nash has written to Walsall College Academies Trust chair Jatinder Sharma, who is also the college principal, with a “pre-warning notice” over standards at the Mirus Academy. He warned that the sponsor college, which just under […]

Government reviews UK Commission for Employment and Skills

A review of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills has been launched by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The commission’s performance is under the spotlight in the consultation, opened this week to close on Friday, March 14. It looks at how people view the role of the commission, its impact and […]

Learning Curve

Speaking the right language on Esol funding

The funding of courses to help foreign people speak English is currently organised through three ‘entry’ levels. Stephen Hewitt explains the difficulty this is causing and sets out his view of how the situation could be remedied. The excellent paper, Esol (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Qualifications and funding in 2014: Issues for consideration, […]

McDonald’s education chief to become SFA’s apprenticeship boss

The UK head of education for fast food giant McDonald’s is set to become England’s new apprenticeship boss, FE Week can reveal. Sue Husband is to fill the shoes of David Way, who stepped down as director of the Skills Funding Agency’s apprenticeship division in August after 38 years in the employment and skills sector. The agency […]

To the defence of colleges over Leps

Ofsted director of FE and skills Matthew Coffey told the Education Select Committee last week how colleges needed to do more to engage with local enterprise partnerships. His comments reaffirmed the overall message of the education watchdog’s annual report last year, but Phil Hatton asks whether such college criticism is justified. Strangely, if you take […]

York College fined £175k over nursery death of three-year-old Lydia Bishop

York College has been fined £175,000 over the death of a three-year-old girl who got her neck caught in a rope at the college nursery in September 2012. It was also ordered to pay £45,000 in court costs over the death of Lydia Bishop (pictured), who became entangled while going down a slide on her […]

Heseltine tells fellow Lords of doubts over EU powers to curb youth unemployment

Tory grandee Lord Heseltine has expressed doubts over the ability of the European Union (EU) to help solve the problem of youth unemployment in the UK. The former deputy prime minister made the comments to the House of Lords EU sub-committee on internal market, infrastructure and employment yesterday as part of its investigation into EU […]

Dame Jackie Fisher returns to FE front line at under fire Barnfield Federation

Under fire Barnfield Federation has announced that Dame Jackie Fisher (pictured) is to become its new interim chief executive. Dame Jackie, ex-chief executive at NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group), replaces previous federation leaders Helen Mayhew and Stephen Hall, who stepped in for the last six months following the resignation of Sir Peter Birkett. Her appointment […]