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‘cheap’

The skills bill’s ambition cannot become reality without colleges

Royal assent for the bill moves the country closer to an employer-led skills system, but it can’t happen without providers on the ground, writes Alex Burghart Never in my lifetime have I known an economy so hungry for skills. There are 1.3 million vacancies out there. This is for many reasons, but the obvious ones […]

Opinion, Uncategorized, Skills reform

Levelling up reforms don’t match scale of the challenge

Skills inequalities are holding back entire communities and cannot be solved on the cheap, writes Dean Hochlaf To level up the country, we need to level up skills. The much-anticipated levelling up white paper has made improving skills a core mission for the government, as it grapples with the entrenched regional inequalities which plague the […]

Opinion, Levelling Up

7 steps to having ‘guerilla careers hotspots’ around your college

Providers should be more creative about inspiring students into the labour market, writes Andrew Bernard Imagine you’re just queuing up for a sandwich and you get a subtle nudge towards becoming a nutritionist. Or waiting for the bus, you see a sign that piques your interest in architecture, or urban design. Perhaps while you’re walking […]

Opinion

Do better: schools urged to up £4.30-an-hour apprentice TA wage

Some schools and trusts are offering TA apprentices less than £7,000 a year

News, Apprenticeships

Colleges facing “immense” challenge from rising student numbers, warns IFS

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has echoed calls for extra college funding to abate an “immense” resourcing challenge caused by a boom in student numbers, falling apprenticeship places and insufficient funding. A new IFS briefing on further education and sixth form spending in England, published today, reveals FE and sixth form colleges’ funding per 16-18-year-old […]

News

Lords line up to challenge new law on provider insurance

Plans to force independent training providers to take out insurance to cover against possible cessation of training are set to be challenged in the House of Lords. The Skills Bill proposes to introduce a set of conditions required of independent training providers to be on a new government list of approved providers. Among the conditions […]

News

‘All hell was breaking loose’: How hackers forced a mega college to close

FE Week tells the inside story of the cyber attack that shut down one of Birmingham’s major colleges, and finds out what others can do to protect themselves from similar threats. At around 3am last Saturday, an alert rang out around South and City College Birmingham’s key staff and managers that the server had crashed. […]

News

This is why we should delay the white paper even longer

The government should start again with a green paper for an FE strategy that stands the test of time, writes Stephen Evans The much-anticipated FE white paper may now be delayed into 2021, we’ve found out. But is there a case for waiting even longer?  Last week, ESFA chief executive Eileen Milner said the white […]

Opinion

Ofsted annual report highlights ‘inadequate’ apprenticeships as private provider grades fall for 4th year

Apprenticeships are the “weakest” area of provision in FE providers, with one in ten judged ‘inadequate’ last year, Ofsted has said. In its annual stocktake of education, the inspectorate reported that of the 120 inspections to include an apprenticeships grade in 2019/20, 3 per cent achieved ‘outstanding’, 50 per cent were ‘good’, and 38 per […]

News