York College
‘apprenticeships’
The creation of one of the largest colleges in the country in Nottingham has finally happened – 10 months after the merger was supposed to complete. The legal coming together of New College Nottingham, rated ‘good’ by Ofsted in January, and Central College Nottingham, which also recently received a grade two from the inspectorate, was […]
News
Employer groups have complained about the “inordinately long time” it has taken to develop the new apprenticeship standards, some of which were first published over two years ago but are still unready for delivery. FE Week analysis has found that 16 apprenticeship standards published on the gov.uk website between April 2014 and March 2015 have […]
Conservative manifesto pledge: Introduce significantly discounted bus and train travel for young apprentices Verity O’Keefe argues AGAINST The manifesto pledge to support apprentices with discounted train travel is hard to argue against –but does it go far enough? We think not. The pledge seeks to solve the problem of young people being put off from taking […]
Opinion
Conservative manifesto pledge: Introduce significantly discounted bus and train travel for young apprentices Frankie Linn argues FOR The Conservative manifesto commitment to an apprentice travel discount is a pleasant reminder that sometimes politicians listen. That sometimes including the ‘apprentice voice’ in meetings isn’t tokenism. That all those meetings and emails and trips to London might […]
A private school with annual fees of £35,000 has been branded “a disgrace” by one of the UK’s largest trade unions for offering a rate of just £3.50 an hour for an apprentice to tend its grounds. Cheltenham College, an independent coeducational boarding school in Gloucestershire, advertised for an ‘apprentice groundsperson’ on the gov.uk ‘Find […]
Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving Steven Foden has been appointed vice principal of the Worthing College in West Sussex. The college achieved an Ofsted rating of ‘good’ in its most recent 2016 inspection, following a ‘requires improvement’ rating. Mr Foden has served as interim vice-principal at the college since 2016, and […]
Movers and Shakers
The Conservatives look set to continue with their skills agenda after Theresa May managed to secure a deal to form a new government after a disastrous election for her party. As FE Week went to press at noon on Friday, the Conservatives had 318 seats while Labour had 261, meaning that neither party had an […]
All the key education figures from Labour and the Conservatives have been re-elected, while long-time FE champion Vince Cable has made a welcome political comeback. Robert Halfon, apprenticeships and skills minister ahead of the general election, and his shadow Gordon Marsden were returned as MPs for Harlow and Blackpool South with increased shares of the […]
Conservative manifesto pledge: Allow employers to use their levy to pay apprentices’ wages Martin Doel argues AGAINST The apprenticeship levy is a bold policy that surprised many when it was announced, but it is of a piece with much of the last government’s thinking in terms of what is now being called Red-Toryism; it involves […]
