Paul Offord | FE Week

More focus please

Traineeships definitely need to be reviewed – as they’re still not really taking off with learners and aren’t serving the key purpose of helping boost apprentice starts. I know their wider aim is to help steer young people lacking basic skills away from the oblivion that is long-term unemployment. But they were sold to the […]

Learning and Work Institute boss David Hughes will be new AoC chief executive

The Association of Colleges (AoC) has announced David Hughes as its new chief executive – just five months after he oversaw the launch of the Learning and Work Institute following a merger between two influential sector bodies. He was chosen after the AoC was forced to re-advertise for the post – because it failed to find […]

Money-saving claim disputed as BIS confirms ‘FE brain drain’ plans

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has claimed the decision confirmed today to close its Sheffield office will help save around £350m — even though a leaked document indicated the move would actually cost money. BIS was accused of launching an “FE brain drain” after unveiling plans in January to close its Sheffield […]

Lord Sugar returns to enterprise tsar role to drive recruitment for apprentices

Lord Sugar has accepted a second “enterprise tsar” role to encourage more young people onto apprenticeships — but this time under a Conservative government. The wealthy entrepreneur and television star was knighted in 2000 and served as the previous Labour government’s enterprise champion in 2009, under then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown. However, it was announced last […]

Exclusive: College considers union call for principal pay cut as job losses planned

The University and College Union (UCU) has called on Cornwall College Group principal Amarjit Basi to take a pay cut to show solidarity with up to 60 staff set to lose their jobs through cutbacks. And a college spokesperson told FE Week this morning that it has not ruled out this suggestion as negotiations progress […]

Higher education white paper criticised for lack of focus on college provision

The government has been criticised for largely ignoring the role of FE colleges play with delivering degree level provision in its new white paper on higher education. There were only three mentions of FE colleges throughout the 83-page document, called Success as a knowledge economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, which was unveiled […]

Fraudster jailed for 15 months after faking apprenticeship certificates

A man has been jailed for 15 months for defrauding New College Swindon out of almost £43,000 of Skills Funding Agency (SFA) cash — after he faked certificates that wrongly showed students had completed assessments. Leonard Hay, of Cochran Close, Churchdown, was the manager of his own one-man company Update, Training and Vocational Services (UTVS), […]

Out-of-area funding exposes devolution ‘postcode lottery’

> ‘Valuable analysis’ shows 20 per cent of adult funding being spent on learners outside region of the provider > Skills Minister warns SFA that ‘contracts spanning multiple geographic areas…may become less appropriate’ Ahead of funding devolution, exclusive FE Week analysis of Skills Funding Agency figures published this week has found close to £300m (20 […]

Growth requests offered for any apprenticeship standards

Growth requests are being offered for the delivery of any of the new apprenticeship standards, FE Week can reveal. The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) announced this today as part of a “targeted growth exercise” to increase 16 to 18 and 19+ apprenticeship delivery. An initial statement uploaded onto gov.uk by the agency said the offer […]