Author: Pippa Allen-Kinross

The six regional mayors tasked with overseeing devolution of the adult education budget have met the Department for Education to “voice concerns” over the process. High among the issues that are worrying the combined authorities are “inadequate” influence and a lack of funding during the transition year, as well as “challenging” timescales for the handing […]

The adult education budget is being used to cover the cost of emergency handouts to struggling colleges – causing outrage with the Department for Education. But in the same week that news broke of a £63 million AEB underspend, the government has repeatedly refused to say exactly how much is being used for these bailouts. […]

The skills minister identified September as the month by which she expects to see a surge in apprenticeship starts, in an exclusive webinar with FE Week. Anne Milton revealed that she is looking to the start of the next academic year, during her chat this afternoon with FE Week’s editor Nick Linford. “I will be […]

A struggling studio school with low pupil numbers and “significant financial challenges” will close this summer, it has been confirmed. Manchester Creative Studio in Ancoats, which specialises in the digital and creative industries, and currently teaches around 40 pupils, will close at the end of the academic year, becoming the 18th studio school to close down […]

The government’s ambition to reach three million apprenticeship starts by 2020 is slipping further out of its grasp as we hit the halfway point, according to exclusive FE Week analysis of the latest statistics. The number of starts in the 30 months since May 2015 has just hit 1,234,000, the latest monthly starts data shows, […]

David Meller, the co-chair of the controversial Presidents Club charity dinner that has been rocked by allegations of sexual harassment by guests, has resigned from the Department for Education’s board. Anne Milton, the skills and apprenticeships minister with responsibility for the board, announced in Parliament this afternoon that he had stood down from both his […]

The government is harming young and disadvantaged people with its failure to ease their travel costs, according to a major new inquiry into the impact of the apprenticeship reforms. The Skills Commission has “heard growing concerns” that “opportunities for disadvantaged young people are being displaced”, its new report out today warned. Made up of an […]

FE has “no representation” on the board of the new higher education regulator, a leading figure at the Department for Education has admitted. The DfE’s permanent secretary, Jonathan Slater, told a public accounts committee hearing on Monday that it was “correct” to say that the further education sector was not represented on the board of […]