Search Results for

The following 5543 results have been found to match your search query:

‘apprenticeships’

Government presiding over ‘skills emergency’ and ‘dumbing down apprenticeships,’ Shadow Business Secretary Angela Eagle tells Labour conference

The government is “presiding over a skills emergency which threatens economic growth” while cutting FE funding and “dumbing down apprenticeships”, the new Shadow Business Secretary Angela Eagle warned her party’s conference-goers today. Ms Eagle, who is beginning her third week in the role, raised concerns about the impact of government policy on FE during her […]

News

Sector viewing FE mission as increasingly impossible

Further education’s struggle for survival may not be quite on a par with Tom Cruise battling the Syndicate — that network of dastardly operatives out to establish a new world order following the demise of the IMF. Nevertheless, it looks increasingly like a Mission Impossible to many people in the sector. Well, they do seem […]

Opinion

‘It’s a different way of thinking about how we regulate’ – Ofqual’s Jeremy Benson Q&A on new RQF

The Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) was unveiled by Ofqual last week and was designed to be more descriptive and less prescriptive than its predecessor, the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). FE Week spoke to Jeremy Benson (pictured above), Ofqual executive director for vocational qualifications, to find out more about the new framework and what it […]

News

Shakira Martin, vice president, NUS

Shakira Martin’s first brush with national politics came as something of a surprise — in fact, she didn’t even know it had happened. In March last year, Martin was a newly-elected member of the National Union of Students’ FE and society and citizenship zone policy committees attending a work summit. “There was a panel and […]

Profiles

Action plea for BIS digital skills inquiry from learning tech adviser Bob Harrison

The purpose of a new government inquiry that will look into how the FE sector contributes to the development of digital skills has come in for questioning from a leading learning tech figure. Toshiba education adviser Bob Harrison (pictured below right), who contributed to the FE Learning Technology Action Group (Feltag) report, published in March last year, […]

News

Clampdown on apprenticeship misuse ‘affects very few’, says AELP

A much-hyped government clampdown on “misuse” of the apprenticeship term will only affect a “very few” cases, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has warned. It was a view echoed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which urged the government to instead “focus on driving up the quality of apprenticeships”. New rules […]

News

MPs to look at FE and skills sector role as part of BIS Select Committee ‘digital economy’ inquiry

Further education is set to come under the spotlight with the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee having announced a new inquiry into “the digital economy”. Committee chair, and Hartlepool’s Labour MP, Iain Wright told FE Week that he wanted to look at, among other issues, government actions to ensure the availability of […]

News

Government rejects calls for employers to face Magistrates for running ‘in-house’ apprenticeships in less than 12 months

The government has rejected calls to make employers subject to proposed new laws aimed at preventing “misuse” of the apprenticeship brand and will continue to allow such ‘in-house’ programmes to take less than a year, it was revealed today. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in July put forward plans to outlaw providers using the term […]

News

Incorporating lessons from taking an FE college path

In August last year Basildon-based Prospects Learning Foundation (PLF) underwent incorporation to become Prospects College of Advanced Technology —the first new FE college in more than 20 years. Neil Bates assesses the move, and the sector, 12 months on. I have worked for PLF for almost my entire professional life. It has been my devotion; a […]

Opinion