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‘ofsted’

£142m contractor top-slicing ‘extortionate’ 40 pc

The country’s biggest Skills Funding Agency (SFA) contractor is charging management fees up to an “extortionate” 40 per cent of contract values, it has been revealed. Learndirect, with a current allocation of £142m and 70 subcontractors including colleges, charities and independent learning providers, was easily the biggest SFA provider this year — and lists the […]

News

Finanacial problems ‘typical’ says principal ordered to improve

The principal of a financially-troubled sixth form college ordered by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) to improve has hit out over government cuts to the FE and skills sector. David Vasse, principal of John Leggott College, in Scunthorpe, which was handed a financial notice to improve last month, told FE Week his college’s situation was […]

News

Weymouth principal suspended amid financial difficulties

Weymouth College principal Liz Myles has been suspended — around six months after FE Commissioner Dr David Collins identified “significant weaknesses” in leadership. The reason for the suspension has not been disclosed. Ms Myles (pictured), an Ofsted associate inspector of more than 20 years, took up the principal post two years ago. A statement issued […]

News

MPs hear of ‘cluster’ solution to apprenticeships

Colleges should form closer ties with schools to encourage more young people into apprenticeships, Ofsted FE and skills director Lorna Fitzjohn has told MPs. She gave evidence on Wednesday (November 26) to the Education Select Committee in Portcullis House, Westminster, that focused on how the number and quality of apprenticeships for 16 to 19-year-olds could […]

News

‘No excuses’ as Ofsted sees lack of progress in grade four recovery

The principal of a troubled London college has conceded there were “no excuses” for the poor results in an Ofsted monitoring report that found insufficient progress had been made in its efforts to bounce back from an inadequate grading. The Ofsted monitoring visit found Lewisham and Southwark College, which late last month had ministerial permission […]

News

Ofsted’s new CIF plans under three-point inspection

Reading the preamble to Ofsted’s Better inspection for all consultation suggests a degree of reflection from Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw — not only the title, but the narrative and rhetoric. He hints at three main weaknesses (or ‘areas for improvement’?) in the inspection methodology that need addressing: consistency, better inspector training and more practitioners […]

News

Financial security or Ofsted outstanding, or both?

Bournville College leadership got a glowing grade one from Ofsted before the FE Commissioner Dr David Collins was sent in to sort out the finances. He later said the education watchdog could “be more useful” on college financial matters and Graham Taylor considers who’s got it right. In the Ofsted versus FE Commissioner Rumble in […]

Opinion

Facing the Feltag challenge together

Overarching FE and skills bodies have been looking at the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (Feltag) report and come up with provider-level advice, explains Nigel Ecclesfield. Feltag has been the subject of much discussion, not least at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) and Association of Colleges (AoC) conferences last month. But, […]

Opinion

Graham Towse, principal, Hull College

The art of being the boss hasn’t come naturally to Hull College principal Graham Towse. “My first experience of management was a disaster to be honest,” he admits. In 1995, having progressed to engineer at De-Smet Rosedowns Ltd, the company where he began an apprenticeship 10 years earlier at the age of 16, Towse moved […]

Profiles