Paul Offord | FE Week

Learn from recent history to avert apprenticeship disaster

Government figures have revealed a dramatic 61-per-cent drop in apprenticeship starts between May and July, compared with the same period last year, following the levy launch. As the sector waits to see if this forces a major rethink, FE Week’s deputy editor Paul Offord looks back to another apprenticeship policy catastrophe that sparked a quick U-turn. […]

First City Training slumps to ‘inadequate’

A health and social care training provider has been rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in a report that warns of “weak” management of apprenticeships. The report out today on First City Training said it was not doing enough to improve the learning and training experience of students, and its apprenticeship provision came in for heavy criticism. […]

New senior role for former SFA boss after Positive Outcomes disaster

A former Skills Funding Agency boss will take over as chair of the work-based learning specialist JTL, nine months after another major provider he had been overseeing went into administration. Geoff Russell will take over from Dr Ian Livsey when his term in office ends in December. Mr Russell, who was chair of major Derbyshire-based […]

Kensington MP lends weight to college survival campaign

The MP for Kensington is backing a campaign by Grenfell residents to save their local college campus from housing developers, in a letter handed to governors before another evening of heated protest. Labour member Emma Dent Coad’s letter, seen by FE Week, was hand-delivered by protestors to Kensington and Chelsea College’s governors ahead of a […]

College leaders beg Theresa May for more 16-to-19 funding

Principals and chairs from 140 colleges have written to the prime minister begging for more funding for 16- to 19-year-old learners. They want the prime minister to address long-term underfunding for that age group. “Our students are now in danger of studying an impoverished curriculum, which has already reduced in breadth and choice, and cannot prepare […]

BAE Systems: Apprenticeships safe from mass job losses

Britain’s biggest defence manufacturer has promised that its apprenticeship programme will not be affected by today’s announcement that it is cutting nearly 2,000. BAE Systems, which among other major contracts makes Britain’s nuclear submarines and Eurofighter Typhoon jets (pictured), announced that job losses would be made at its centres across much of the country. It […]

Tender delay with single awarding organisation plan for prisons

Plans by the Ministry of Justice to appoint single awarding organisations for seven areas of study in prisons have been hit with a hold-up to the tender launch. The initial approach to market for this already delayed process was to have been officially opened on September 21, and the contract was to run for a […]

T-levels funded work placement plans criticised

New guidance on T-level work placements has been criticised by the Association of Colleges, which fears providers will struggle to fit in the minimum 45 days per learner. The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s guidance has fleshed out Justine Greening’s announcement in July, which said £50 million would be available from April 2018 for “high-quality” […]

Struggling PM pledges to create best ever technical education system

Theresa May spelled out plans to create a first class technical education system for the first time in our nation’s history, in a difficult speech to conference. The Prime Minister, who has a cold and was struggling to make herself heard, spoke about her high hopes for the government’s FE reform agenda. She stressed the […]