Author: Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu

A dog that helps students struggling with mental-health issues has won praise from Ofsted inspectors. Bexhill College in East Sussex was commended in a short inspection report published on Monday because students “benefit from the calming influence” of Harry the therapy dog. The inspectors said: “Because of his presence students are less anxious before examinations […]

It has been a poor week for FE, with one independent provider being declared ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted and seven receiving at least one ‘insufficient progress’ rating in monitoring reports. WDR Limited, a commercial training organisation that has been operating for 49 years, was given a grade four after a full inspection. The provider, which had […]

The police and schools are the public-sector bodies with most to do to meet the government’s apprenticeship recruitment target, according to new data from the Department for Education. Apprentices made up an average of only 0.5 per cent of the workforce in police forces across England in 2018-19, followed by an average of 0.9 per […]

The number of adults studying English and maths dropped sharply last year, with achievements in the core subjects also significantly decreasing, according to new government figures. Only 573,500 adult learners participated in government-funded English and maths courses in 2018/19, a 13.7 per cent fall from 664,200 in 2017/18. Last year, 360,300 of the students over […]

Ofsted was criticised by an experienced turnaround principal for inspecting colleges just before mergers, at the Association for Colleges’ annual conference this week. Andrew Cropley, who has been involved with three FE commissioner interventions, said he had an “unfair experience of being inspected” and the education watchdog must find a better way to work with […]

A family owned business in the construction industry was hit with a grade four by Ofsted, in a poor week for all types of FE providers. Independent learning provider Total Training Company (UK) Limited was declared ‘inadequate’ in its first full inspection, after being found making ‘insufficient progress’ in an early monitoring report published in […]

Leading bodies within the FE sector have teamed up with local government to launch research into a crisis in special educational needs and disability (SEND) funding for those aged over 16. In response to “massive pressure on stretched local authority high-needs budgets”, a tender to investigate existing arrangements for the over-16s with SEND, and what […]