Windsor Learning Partnership
‘apprenticeships’
The Government has announced the first seven apprenticeship frameworks that will be closed to new starts this summer. The announcement was made on the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) website this afternoon. It said: “We have published a list of seven apprenticeship frameworks which will be closed to new starts from June 1. This means the […]
News
A further education college has plummeted from the highest to lowest overall grade after its first Ofsted inspection in more than seven years. Mid-Cheshire College (MCC) has been slammed by the education watchdog, which branded its provision ‘inadequate’ overall, with six out of seven headline fields also rated as ‘inadequate’. Inspectors last visited the college in […]
City College Plymouth (CCP) has become the second college to join the 157 Group since it exclusively revealed its expansion plans to FE Week in January, bringing membership of the group to 28. The group’s chief executive, Ian Pretty (pictured above), said he was “pleased to welcome” CCP, which was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted at […]
The Government has published its long-awaited guidance for sixth form colleges (SFCs) becoming academies. David Igoe considers what this means for SFCs. On the face of it there are headline advantages and disadvantages for converting to academies. On the plus side, there is the extra money from the VAT rebate (available to academies but not […]
Opinion
Graham Taylor casts a weary eye over the evolution of study programmes. The study programme is now in its third year, but what have we learned? Firstly it’s a misnomer. It doesn’t all have to involve “study” — just work experience or enrichment activities. Is the marked increase in full-time learners attributable to padding out […]
The organisation that oversees the selection process for the British WorldSkills team is dropping its old name. It is currently called Find a Future, but will be known as WorldSkills UK from Tuesday (March 1). The rebrand will coincide with the launch of registrations for the new cycle of competitions across the country on the […]
A group of budding engineers from North Shropshire College (NSC) made a pit stop to the Williams Martini Racing F1 Factory. The 14 learners, who all study either engineering or mechanics, visited the advanced engineering section of the factory, learning how employees with the racing team use their scientific knowledge to solve everyday problems. They […]
Bulletin
Angry providers have slammed the government’s failure to fully fund all their apprenticeship growth requests as “appalling” and “destabilising”. The comments were made by respondents to an FE Week survey carried out in the wake of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) announcement on 5 February explaining how the money would be portioned out. The funding […]
The Skills Funding Agency’s decision to slash funding rates for a popular level three apprenticeship framework has been labelled a disaster. It was announced on Wednesday that the IT, Software Web and Telecom Professionals apprenticeship framework would be cut by about £2,000 from 1 April. The SFA has not reduced apprenticeship framework rates since 2012/13, […]
