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29 April 2026

Author: Simon Kay

Revealed: First 20 colleges chosen for the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence

The 20 colleges which will take part in the first year of the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence have been announced today. The “centre”, run by WorldSkills UK with £1.5 million from awarding organisation NCFE, will involve training up teachers in international best practices, as well as digital workshops featuring talks from training managers from […]

Second round of ESFA Covid-19 supplier relief attracts 112 provider bids

Just 112 providers applied for the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s second Covid-19 supplier relief scheme – and 35 of those were colleges. The majority of bids – 70 – were to claim apprenticeship support only, while 14 applications went in just for adult education budget (AEB) relief. A total of 28 submissions were for […]

Revealed: The 20 college partnerships to share the £5.4m College Collaboration Fund

Twenty college partnerships will receive grants through a fund designed to develop greater collaboration across the sector, the government announced today. Skills minister Gillian Keegan has named the winners of the £5.4 million College Collaboration Fund (CCF). It builds on the Strategic College Improvement Fund. The 20 partnerships are: CCF lead college Partner colleges Dudley […]

Why a ‘right to retrain’ is essential for an inclusive recovery

The outbreak of coronavirus will permanently change the shape of our economy. In adapting to this change, we must minimise the number of people locked out of the labour market by introducing a turbo-charged ‘right to retrain’. This should be locally led and focus on those most at risk of losing their jobs as a […]

Former adviser to skills minister calls for temporary ban on new adult apprentices

The response to the pandemic recession must centre on supporting those who are finishing their education and those who are struggling to find work, says Tom Richmond Given the controversy surrounding the apprenticeship levy before the outbreak of Covid-19, it is unsurprising to see calls for the levy to be reformed as part of the […]

Necessity breeds invention, and grade assessment has had to adapt quickly

This crisis has shown how well we can make transitions in order to protect students’ interests, says Julie Mizon According to Dutch historian Rutger Bregman, crises bring out the best in us. And while it will take some time before we can assess the success of the rapid changes we’ve seen across the sector, there’s […]

It’s hard to argue that further college rationalisation isn’t needed

Rationalisation needs to reconcile three very different types of college – and the grey areas in between, says John Cope It is almost impossible to identify when this was said: “Commissioners cannot repeat too often that they have been impressed with [the] technical knowledge of the masters and managers of industrial establishments on the Continent”, […]

The can has been shaken, so we must proceed with caution

Re-opening campus is a high-risk, high-stress, physical and emotional challenge, says Stuart Rimmer. Here are some guiding principles to keep in mind At my school there was a boy called Dave. He was well off and (mostly) good hearted, so used to buy cans of Tango at break time for fellow students who were less […]