York College
‘ofsted’
Parents are lobbying the government to restart funding for an arts and media provider that trained mostly high-needs learners. The Education and Skills Funding Agency terminated its contracts with Sheffield Independent Film and Television (SHIFT) last year, after it was rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted. A report by the education watchdog, published in February 2019, said […]
News
Bonuses paid to men working at the Department for Education were on average 3.8 per cent larger than those paid to women last year. Although the overall gender pay gap at the department continues to decrease, new figures show that in 2019, men received larger bonuses than women for the first time since records began. […]
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 […]
Apprenticeships at a major airline have been heavily criticised by Ofsted, which found “disorganisation” and “inconsistency” meant too many employees “did not see the value of being an apprentice”. British Airways, an employer provider which is drawing down government apprenticeship funding for over 500 of its own staff, was found to have made ‘insufficient progress’ […]
Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, used yesterday’s annual report speech to repeat her criticism first aired in 2018 that a minority of colleges simply try to “fill their rolls and attract funding”, whether or not the programmes they offer “open doors for the students that take them”. She added that some colleges were “flooding” local […]
Opinion
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 […]
