York College
‘ofsted watch’
Jess Staufenberg meets Stuart Rimmer, whose entrepreneurial streak has helped guide his leadership of East Coast College Hanging above Stuart Rimmer’s head is a portrait of an austere woman with a wide-brimmed hat and lace collar. She’s looking sideways, face half in shadow, into the office of the East Coast College principal. The Suffolk institution […]
Profiles
More than 2,500 apprentices and adult learners have been left in the lurch after their provider immediately exited the training market following a grade four Ofsted report. Progress to Excellence Limited (PtE), an independent learning provider established in 1997, today dropped from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’. The education watchdog reported that leaders’ and governors’ growth strategy […]
News
Ofsted’s chief inspector is still “not happy” that some colleges steer too many of their students towards “superficially attractive” arts and media courses where there are limited job opportunities. Amanda Spielman reiterated this concern, which she first raised at the 2018 Association of Colleges’ conference, during her speech at the watchdog’s annual report launch this […]
High levels of management and health apprenticeships are a “mismatch” compared to the government’s industrial strategy and needs to be addressed “urgently”, Amanda Spielman has said. In Ofsted’s annual stock take of education, the chief inspector revealed that performance in the FE sector has “remained static this year”, but the “rapid growth” of apprenticeships is […]
Sector bodies have hit back at Ofsted’s chief inspector for “encouraging government” to restrict course choices made by colleges and employers. One leader said putting restrictions on how firms can spend their cash risks “further reducing training opportunities in lots of workplaces”, while another warned that Whitehall “choosing winners” has a “very chequered history”. The […]
A college is battling Ofsted to prevent the publication of a grade four report after inspectors claimed to have found serious safeguarding failures. Shrewsbury Colleges Group, which teaches more than 9,000 students mostly aged 16 to 18, is set to receive an ‘inadequate’ rating following an inspection in November. But the college has insisted the […]
A college in financial trouble and the education secretary’s old sixth form are among a host of positive Ofsted results for FE providers. The week was somewhat overshadowed, however, after independent provider EQV (UK) was handed a grade four because apprentices and their bosses did not know they were on an apprenticeship programme. Brooklands College […]
The first FE provider to receive a grade four under Ofsted’s new inspection regime is closing down. Sixteen jobs are set to be lost and hundreds of learners will be affected after an appeal by independent learning provider Mercia Partnership (UK) Ltd failed to overturn an ‘inadequate’ rating, first published in October. The provider, which […]
A provider of management courses has been declared ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted after it was found learners and their bosses did not know they were on the apprenticeship programme. EQV (UK) has been handed a grade four for its provision to nearly 80 apprentices, who are either on the level 3 team leader or level 5 […]
