Paul Offord | FE Week

Ascentis named as awarding organisation of the year

Ascentis has been crowned awarding organisation of the year on an exciting night for the sector. The Federation of Awarding Bodies held its annual awards presentation at a special dinner during the organisation’s annual conference in Leicester. This featured finalists for awarding organisation of the year, qualification of the year, team of the year, individual […]

No news on permanent Institute for Apprenticeships boss

Attempts to recruit a permanent chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships are still ongoing, six months after the process was launched. FE Week learned at the start of this academic year that the latest round of interviews would be taking place over three weeks up to the end of the first week of October. […]

Lack of EPA is a disaster for apprentices and government

It is a disaster if even a single apprentice has reached what should be the end of their studies in this new wave of apprenticeship standards and finds there’s no end-point assessment. It’s disastrous for the credibility of what we hope will become a universally revered form of training, and worse yet, crushing for the […]

Employers more satisfied with private providers again… but colleges catching up

Private training providers have once again proved themselves to be more popular with employers than colleges, according to government research – though the gap is narrowing. A huge 88.1 per cent of the more than 60,000 employers surveyed said they were satisfied with ITPs, according to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s latest employer satisfaction […]

Concern at negative impact of FE loans on disadvantaged

The FE sector is worried by the negative impact FE loans have had on learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. A government report published today has investigated the impact of the impact of the government’s FE reform agenda. Its findings were largely based on analysis of responses to a telephone survey of 325 providers, as well as […]

Emotions high as Team UK competitors complete their work

Emotions were high as the first round of Team UK competitors completed their work for WorldSkills UK today. Jordan Charters, from Edinburgh College and employer George Charters, was captured by FE Week completing his work for what was the first competition to finish today. He spoke to FE Week afterwards, saying that to succeed at […]

Support Our Sixth-formers: DfE urged to redirect 16-19 underspend

The 16-to-19 education budget was underspent by £106 million last year, and campaigners now want the DfE to direct the money back to colleges. The skills minister revealed the dramatic underspend yesterday after a question in Parliament from Green MP Caroline Lucas, but insisted it was due to low student numbers. Representatives from school and […]

Apprenticeships are “fragile” training, research shows

Relying on employer involvement makes apprenticeships a “fragile” form of training, according to new research. A new study by Oxford University’s department for education and the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has reviewed apprenticeship participation on a global scale, and suggest they “play an important role in supporting young people to make the transition […]

Outgoing ESFA chief takes “personal responsibility” for Learndirect decisions

The outgoing head of the ESFA has claimed personal responsibility for the decision not to terminate Learndirect’s adult education budget contract after its ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating. Although the DfE’s permanent secretary Jonathan Slater denied at the same meeting that the UK’s largest training provider had been given special treatment, Peter Lauener insisted it had been […]