York College
‘ofsted’
An upcoming Ofsted review of apprenticeships is likely to lay bare “quite a lot of bad practice,” Skills Minister Nick Boles (pictured above) has said. The results of Sir Michael Wilshaw’s much-awaited inquiry are expected this month and Mr Boles told Conservative Party conference-goers on Tuesday (October 6) that he did not think they would […]
News
Former student Samantha Harvey has returned to Derby College as the first head gardener at its Broomfield Hall land-based studies campus. Ms Harvey’s role will involve supporting students in work experience programmes and leading work to open the grounds to more visitors. She studied horticulture at the college 15 years ago, before training and working […]
Movers and Shakers
Former Labour deputy leadership candidate Stella Creasy has spoken out in defence of “innocent young people” after reports that college learners in her constituency had been involved in a mass street brawl. The Walthamstow MP, who got 26 per cent of votes to come second in her party’s deputy leadership race to Tom Watson last […]
The relationship between lead and sub-contractor may be one defined by tension for some, and tranquility for others. Matthew Lord outlines how to help make these relationships fall into the latter camp. With the final push to sign off contracts and the last-minute dash for recruitment dominating our lives, I’ve been thinking about exactly what […]
Opinion
Judith Doyle inherited a grade three Ofsted-rated college in August 2013 and within eight months of her appointment inspectors dished out the same result again. But, picking up the gauntlet, she instigated a raft of changes that in July saw the college rated as outstanding. I was proud and delighted to be made principal at […]
Cash raised by the proposed new large employers’ apprenticeship levy should be combined with government funding in a central pot available to all employers of all sizes under a “simple” new system, the government has been told. The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) made the proposal in its submission to the government consultation […]
The government’s record on improving the quality of the apprenticeships programme has come in for questioning. Falling success rates, exemptions from minimum standards and publicly-aired doubts from the education watchdog’s chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw (pictured below right) have cast a shadow over the government’s 3m apprenticeship starts target for this Parliament. It’s a situation […]
Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) chief executive Stewart Segal urged the government to ensure that “all the facts are considered” before destination performance data is used to trigger “transformational improvements”. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) launched a consultation on Wednesday (September 30), which will close on December 2, on its […]
Gazelle colleges have been told that proving their £15k membership fee is money well spent is now a “priority” for the organisation. The fee was cut from £35k after the number of college members plummeted from 23 to ten in just over a year — with three out of five founder colleges among those to […]
