York College
‘ofsted watch’
Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw has launched a scathing attack on the FE and skills sector, branding success rates among colleges as “palpable nonsense”. Speaking at Westminster’s Church House on Thursday, he reissued his call — originally made at the time of the education watchdog’s annual report in November — for the government to “shine […]
News
The Skills Funding Agency has demanded “immediate action to safeguard the welfare of all trainees” at a Midland-based provider after Ofsted reported physical and verbal bullying, harassment and exploitation. The education watchdog’s inspection of National Farrier Training Agency (NFTA), in Peterborough, claimed learners suffered at the hands of approved training farriers (ATFs) and “in a […]
An Ofsted investigation into foundation learning has pointed towards a host of problems with the scheme just weeks before the replacement 16 to 19 study programmes are introduced. The education watchdog uncovered “poor” attendance and “little or no” work placement, along with “low” progression rates. Its report, Lessons from the Foundation Learning Provision for the […]
The deputy chief executive of a housing charity is getting the top job at NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group). Joe Docherty (pictured) is to succeed Dame Jackie Fisher as chief executive when she retires this summer. He is currently at Newcastle-based Home Group, a social enterprise and charity with a turnover of more than £300m. […]
The first specialist college to achieve an outstanding grade under Ofsted’s tough new inspection regime has been announced. David Lewis College, in Cheshire, which supports students aged 14 to 25 with complex learning difficulties, scored grade ones across all fields after it was inspected by the education watchdog in March. The Ofsted report said: “The […]
Just 6,375 out of 13,420 adult retail apprentices succeeded England’s biggest apprenticeship provider has come under fire from the chair of a government watchdog after “appalling” figures revealed less than half of its retail and wholesale leavers qualified last year. Just 47.5 per cent of Elmfield Training’s 13,420 leavers in the sector aged 25 or […]
‘It’s a comfort to be asked to stay on,’ says Coventry principal The chair of City College Coventry’s board of governors has refused to sack his principal after a disastrous inspection result. The college was branded inadequate — a grade four result — across each of the education watchdog’s headline fields. The 8,000-learner college was […]
Technology offers learners different methods for coming to the same outcome. But no one is saying that it’s easy to find the right formula, says Carolyn Lewis What encourages trainers to use technology to support learning and assessment? It could be the number of statistics that are published on technology use, such as how many […]
Opinion
The government wants an FE commissioner to step in when a college is deemed to be failing. Most colleges improve by themselves . . . so what role would he or she have, asks Joy Mercer In its ‘Rigour and Responsiveness’ paper, the government suggests a new tough line on college failure, proposing the appointment […]
