York College
‘apprenticeships’
The University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCas) has welcomed an invitation for talks on promoting higher apprenticeships. The organisation, which already matches learners to some higher-level FE courses under the banner of UCas Progress, responded to a call from Business Secretary Vince Cable for it to cover higher apprenticeships. Dr Cable, during a University of […]
News
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock has revealed hopes for 5,000 new traineeships through the employer ownership pilot (EOP) scheme. He said National Grid, Everton Football Club, Somerset-based electrical installation firm Rogers Restorations, and Berkshire-based construction and engineering firm Costain aimed to create the traineeships. The announcement was made during the Minister’s speech at a UK Commission […]
Features of Ofsted’s new data dashboard have been leaked to FE Week, revealing a focus on English and maths up to level two, and data on local enterprise partnerships (Leps). The dashboard, which is due to launch on May 12, has been developed to allow leaders, governors, and members of the public, to access key […]
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) has called for the introduction of an apprentice charter and job outcome payments. In his response to the government’s consultation on apprenticeship funding reforms, Niace chief executive David Hughes (pictured) welcomed the government’s commitment to encouraging employer investment in apprenticeships, but said it needed to go further. […]
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock has confirmed that Essex-based charity Prospects Learning Foundation is to become the first new FE college in more than 20 years. The announcement that the independent learning provider’s proposed incorporation has been officially rubber-stamped follows a full public consultation earlier this year. The move was first exclusively revealed by FE Week in July […]
More than 1,000 FE and skills staff took part and vast majority revealed concerns about levels of institutional funding. It was the same story with worries over learner funding. External bureaucracy worried 95.6 per cent of respondents while the pace and volume of change concerned 91.9 per cent. The broad government direction of travel for […]
Where can colleges and independent learning providers look as government funding cuts bite, asks David Hughes. It says something about public sector funding when a 20 per cent cut in funding is met with a certain amount of relief. The long-anticipated Skills Funding Statement (SFS) 2013-2016 raised a number of emotions and issues for me. […]
Opinion
With the FE loans having launched a year ago, Mike Cooper looks at how the system is bedding in and why previously-unwilling providers might want to re-evaluate their thinking on what is a potential income stream. Quietly, the new round of online applications for 24+ advanced learning loans has opened. Learners aged over 23 meeting […]
It is perhaps not surprising that when FE Week and the Policy Consortium invited staff across the sector to highlight the issues that really concerned them they should paint a rather troubling picture. More than a thousand people responded to the opportunity to record what worried them most about the state of FE, and their […]
