Paul Offord | FE Week

Government decides to retain Applied General qualifications

A serious blow has potentially been dealt to plans for a rigid post-16 divide between academic and vocational education, after it emerged the government is retaining Applied General qualifications. The Department for Education had privately briefed stakeholders on the decision, and confirmed it to FE Week this afternoon. Retaining AGs, for example BTECs that lead […]

Exclusive: DfE will scrap forced resits for GCSE English and maths

The government will make a major u-turn over the much-derided condition of funding rule, FE Week can reveal. From August 2015 all 16 to 18-year-old students with a GCSE grade D have had to study and resit the GCSE as part of the condition of funding, rather than a functional skills qualification at level two. But once this policy […]

Whole FE sector backs #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign

A who’s who of major FE organisations have thrown their support behind FE Week’s #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign. Big names on the list include the Association of Colleges, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, Learning and Work Institute, and HOLEX. The Labour party also added its backing, while the leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron […]

Training providers spend thousands on consultants to get on new apprenticeship register

Consultants are raking in thousands of pounds writing bids for training providers desperate to make it onto the new register at the second time of asking. Numerous major apprenticeships providers, including at least 21 colleges with a combined current allocation of £44 million, found themselves left off the register of apprenticeship training providers when it […]

Breaking: College on ‘lock down’ due to security threat

A college has been closed for the day and all students sent home because of a security threat. Bury College is understood to have been put on ‘lock down’, with teachers being told earlier not to move from their classrooms. The emergency measures were introduced after a threat was made against the college, and Greater […]

MPs queue up to blast apprenticeships register omissions

Fierce criticism has flooded in from MPs concerned at the large number of colleges that have missed out on the new register of apprenticeship training providers. The list of providers that will be eligible to deliver apprenticeships from May was published on March 14 by the Skills Funding Agency – however, a large number of […]

Exclusive: Non-levy allocations no longer ruled out for unsuccessful colleges

Non-levy allocations will no longer be ruled out for the dozens of colleges that weren’t listed on the new register of apprenticeship training providers at the first attempt following political pressure, FE Week has learned. However, there should be no behind-closed doors special treatment offered to colleges that would work against the private sector, the […]

‘Mandatory training’ for untested apprenticeship providers on register

New providers with little or no track record will have to undergo “mandatory training” before they can deliver apprenticeships, the Skills Funding Agency has said. The plans are part of a “new approach to thematic auditing and other risk based assessments and behavioural monitoring” announced by the agency’s director of funding and programmes Keith Smith […]

#SaveOurAdultEducation: Senior peer tries to protect future learners over loan debts

A senior peer who has thrown his support behind FE Week’s campaign to #SaveOurAdultEducation, has tabled an amendment to protect future learners from being left with huge loan debt but no qualifications. The proposed amendment, tabled by Liberal Democrat House of Lords education spokesperson Lord Storey, is for the Technical and Further Education Bill being […]