York College
‘apprenticeships’
The FE Week team attended the first day of the Labour Party Conference in Brighton yesterday. We held a poll on the apprenticeship minimum wage during the day and a fringe event, sponsored by Pearson, in the evening. There will be plenty of photos and reporting in the next edition of FE Week (September 30), […]
News
Labour’s Skills Taskforce, chaired by Chris Husbands, has today published a report on apprenticeships: A revolution in apprenticeships: a something-for-something deal with employers. Describing itself as a “strategy to dramatically increase the number and quality of apprenticeships in England” the report says: “to protect the apprenticeship brand, level 2 training should be renamed as a traineeship or similar.” “A universal gold […]
Ed Miliband, the Labour Party leader, has announced plans to force firms to take on an apprentice every time they employ someone from outside the EU in the UK. A BBC report says that Mr Miliband has told the Sunday Mirror: “I want a high wage British economy, not a low wage brutish economy, and we’ve got […]
New policies due soon, says Hunt New announcements about Labour Party policy on FE will be released within a month, Shadow Junior Education Minister Tristram Hunt told FE Week editor Nick Linford. On a tour of Walsall College, the first college graded outstanding under Ofsted’s current inspection framework, Mr Hunt said many policy ideas were […]
An MP brushed up on all things apprenticeship when he visited West Nottinghamshire College. Apprenticeship ambassador Andrew Jones was given a tour of college facilities and met hospitality, catering, hairdressing and beauty apprentices. He also met principal Asha Khemka OBE and senior executives, local employers and apprentices for talks on local apprenticeships available Mr Jones […]
Bulletin
Schools weren’t the only ones frowned upon by Ofsted when it assessed careers guidance. The National Careers Service came in for criticism too and also needs careful consideration, says Stephan Jungnitz. If you’re working in the commercial sector, perhaps the quickest way to your P45 and the dole queue is to encourage potential customers to […]
Opinion
Allegations of bullying and physical abuse have prompted three subcontractor colleges to take over apprenticeships from a Midland-based prime contractor. A damning Ofsted report found “serious allegations of physical and verbal bullying and harassment” and deemed the National Farrier Training Agency (NFTA) to be inadequate, as reported by FE Week in June. The Skills Funding […]
Further education unions have given a cautious welcome to newly-announced government consultations on zero-hour contracts and apprentice pay. A review of the controversial employment agreements over the summer has finished and Business Secretary Vince Cable said it was being followed up with a consultation, looking closely at “exclusivity” — whether the contracts were being used […]
Q&A with Ofsted inspector Karen Adriaanse, author of the education watchdog’s report Going in the right direction? Careers guidance in schools from September 2012. The report, and Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw, was critical of schools for their careers guidance offering since they were made responsible for the service. Mrs Adriaanse, who is also Ofsted’s […]
