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‘ofsted’

NCG boss Joe Docherty quits following turbulent year

The boss of the largest college group in the country has quit, FE Week can reveal. Joe Docherty (pictured) has left NCG with immediate effect. He becomes the third high-profile and highly paid college boss to resign in recent weeks. His decision follows a turbulent year for the college group which has been rated poorly […]

News

‘Colleges have a grander ambition for their students’

Colleges have a unique role to play in the new industrial revolution, ensuring that every citizen is able to thrive, says David Hughes I’m down under for the bi-annual World Congress of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics, being held in Melbourne, and it’s clear that so many of the challenges and opportunities facing the […]

Opinion

3aaa buyer will need to pay £500k in ‘deal fees’

The buyer of apprenticeship giant Aspire Achieve Advance will have to pay £500,000 in “deal fees” by the end of 2018. FE Week revealed last week that the crisis-hit training provider, commonly known as 3aaa, has put itself up for sale in the midst of a government investigation into the company. A sales document, seen […]

News

3aaa seeks to ‘reassure’ customers over ‘new management’

The boss of Aspire Achieve Advance has contacted the apprenticeship giant’s clients to “reassure” them that he’s taking the business forward as “new management”, even though he’s held a top leadership role there for over two years. Richard Irons (pictured), who joined the company known as 3aaa in mid-2016 as its chief operating officer, was […]

News

Kick poor-performing new providers off RoATP, education committee urges

Poor-performing apprenticeship providers should be kicked off the government’s register – not just barred from taking on new starts, the education select committee has urged. It made the call in its new report, ‘The apprenticeships ladder of opportunity: quality not quantity’, published today, based on the findings of its recent inquiry. The report outlines a […]

News

Skills minister backs Trip Advisor-style rating of trainers over Ofsted inspections

Allowing employers and apprentices to give “smiley faces” as reviews of training providers is a better indicator of quality than “tick box” inspections, according to the skills minister. Anne Milton was speaking in favour of the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s new service, which will allow employers to score training providers in an online review […]

News

Ofsted Watch: Trio of poor monitoring visit reports

Three providers have been criticised for making ‘insufficient progress’ in the latest series of monitoring reports from Ofsted, including a recently merged college. But it was ‘good’ news for one independent specialist college, which retained a grade two. Coventry College, which was formed in August last year out of a merger of the grade three […]

News

Ofsted in dark over 3aaa but also to blame

With an initial 2014/15 contract value of £3.1m, 3aaa was a relatively small apprenticeship provider when it received its first Ofsted inspection in October 2014. The resulting ‘outstanding’ grade proved a catalyst for very rapid growth with help from the ESFA in the form of funding increases to an allocation of £31m less than two […]

Opinion

Ofsted criticised for delaying 3aaa inspection despite multiple warning signs

Ofsted delayed inspecting the beleaguered Aspire Achieve Advance for years despite its achievement rates plummeting when apprentice numbers nearly quadrupled and severe safeguarding concerns were brought forward by a whistleblower. An FE Week investigation has uncovered the serious failing by the education watchdog, which has now come under fire from chair of the influential Public […]

News