Also see
‘functional skills’
The government’s response to a House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee inquiry into adult literacy and numeracy has been welcomed as recognising the “urgency of the situation”. David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace), was among the first comment on the Department for Business, Innovation and […]
News
The number of 16 to 18 apprenticeships offer from employers could fall as a direct result of proposed reforms, the House of Commons Education Committee has heard. A panel of sector experts told MPs on the committee that the government’s decision to re-design frameworks in consultation with employers and route funding through employers, rather than […]
A “five-year rule” forcing early years apprentices to re-sit for qualifications they already had could be scrapped after a provider threatened to take the government to court. Business Secretary Vince Cable has agreed “in principle” to scrap the rule in the Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (Sase), which requires all level two and three […]
Formula One racing has Graham and Damon Hill and football has Harry and Jamie Redknapp, while high-flying father and son duos in the world of acting include Donald and Kiefer Sutherland, to name but one. But the world of qualifications is no exception to familial footstep following — it has Mike and Jeremy Benson. The […]
Profiles
The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) will run a second wave of training courses aimed at increasing the number of maths GCSE teachers in FE. The government made it compulsory from this academic year for students on post-16 courses who had not achieved at least a grade C in either English or maths to continue […]
The art of being the boss hasn’t come naturally to Hull College principal Graham Towse. “My first experience of management was a disaster to be honest,” he admits. In 1995, having progressed to engineer at De-Smet Rosedowns Ltd, the company where he began an apprenticeship 10 years earlier at the age of 16, Towse moved […]
The pre-general election AoC manifesto makes a number of requests to the next Government. Richard Atkins outlines the key points and underlying message. With just six months to go to the General Election, this period of time is crucial for general FE and sixth form colleges. The AoC has set out its stall of recommendations […]
Opinion
The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) is to review teaching and accreditation of maths and English for learners unable to reach D grade GCSE. It comes as learners who record a D in English and maths at GCSE will, from next year, have to retake in pursuit of an improved grade, while those who get […]
Ofqual boss Glenys Stacey has said qualifications should remain “as stable as possible” as Skills Minister Nick Boles looks at a Functional Skills rebrand. Ms Stacey replied to a letter sent early last month by Mr Boles, in which he said Functional Skills would “continue to be one of the types of qualification that learners […]