Opinion

Reflecting on a successful year

Sue Middlehurst, like many principals, is eagerly awaiting the challenges of the new academic year. Here, she examines the…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
Opinion

Cracking the careers guidance conundrum

With Ofsted’s careers guidance review due out soon, Karen O’Donoghue explains what she thinks needs to be done so…

FE Week Reporter
FE Week Reporter
Opinion

Ofsted and improvement: living up to expectations?

As the time for the next Chief Inspector’s Annual Report approaches, three members of the Policy Consortium — which…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
Opinion

Looking at the bigger college picture

A new focus on teaching and learning may well have become the valued hallmark of Ofsted’s current common inspection…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
Opinion

Older and wiser on inspection

Ofsted’s criticism of the college sector last year was a bitter pill to swallow and the toughened up common…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
Opinion

Serving the apprenticeship time

It’s just over a year since the minimum duration rule was applied, meaning most apprenticeships would have to last…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford


Opinion

Answering the apprenticeship funding question

With the government looking at a “radical” overhaul of the way apprenticeships are funded, Neil Carberry looks at the…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
Opinion

Why not vocational education straight after GCSEs?

The annual schoolgates spectacle that is GCSE results day usually brings with it much media interview talk of A-level…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
Opinion

An argument to qualify

As the government does away with the legal requirement for defined teaching qualifications in FE, Noel Johnson discusses the…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
Opinion

Beware the apprenticeship ‘silly season’

Apprenticeship stories in the wider media of late have made hay about young people turning their backs on university…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
Opinion

Bringing professionalism home to FE

Do FE lecturers need central government-defined teaching qualifications? The government appears of the view they don’t and is doing…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
Opinion

Is subcontracting just the latest FE bubble?

With more than £850m-worth of subcontracting last academic year, Mick Fletcher looks at whether such delivery is something to…

Nick Linford
Nick Linford