Author: Paul Offord

Two more colleges have quit the troubled Gazelle Group, including one of its founder members, FE Week can reveal. There are 11 colleges still listed on its website — but Gazelle has now indicated that two of them, Warwickshire College Group and City College Plymouth, have left. Warwickshire was one of five colleges which helped […]

> Leaked report plan exposes stark choice at 16 > 15 new ‘professional and technical’ routes with apprenticeship or substantial work experience The first skills white paper in a decade will bring an end to mixed provision and make 16-year-olds choose between academic courses leading to university or a new technical professional education (TPE) route into work, […]

An ex-Wales international footballer is one of six men facing charges following a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the activity of a defunct training company Luis Michael Training Ltd (LMT). Mark Aizlewood (pictured above), aged 56, from Aberdare, who played for Wales 39 times between 1986 and 1994, was called before Westminster Magistrates’ Court […]

A tutor has been sacked by a two Liverpool-based colleges after admitting to making and possessing hundreds of child abuse images. Barry Sanders, who taught science, was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence and made to sign the sex offenders register at Liverpool Crown Court on April 21. The 42-year-old, of Manor Close, Bootle, had […]

Ofsted has called off its investigation into an inspector who demanded the immediate departure of his boss Sir Michael Wilshaw — after FE Week readers jumped to his defence. The chief inspector caused widespread anger across the sector when he told the Commons Education Select Committee on March 2 that 16-to-19-year-olds should be taught in […]

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is balloting members over strike action to fight closure plans for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ Sheffield office — which it is feared will cause an “FE brain drain”. The ballot was launched today (April 27), on the same morning that PCS representatives have been staging […]

The fallout is continuing over Sir Michael Wilshaw’s much-criticised comments about FE — as FE Week has discovered that one of the Ofsted chief’s own inspectors is under investigation after calling for him to go. The chief inspector provoked a huge backlash when he laid into the FE sector during an appearance before the Commons […]

> CBI pleased government now engaging with employers but say guidance ‘still raises more questions than it answers’ > System won’t be fully operational until 2020, with delay described by sector leaders as ‘pragmatic’ and ‘reducing risk’ > Mandatory cash fees for over 98 per cent of employers to proceed, leaving sector leaders fearful ‘we […]