York College
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A decade’s career in the chief executive hotseat has come to an end for Denis Hird at Kent-based independent learning provider JTL. He has stepped down and is due to be replaced at the end of next month by former Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) managing director Jon Graham. Ian Livsey, JTL […]
Movers and Shakers
Further education leaders must be at the forefront of improving technology use in the sector and implementing the recommendations of the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (Feltag), the government has said. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) published an update on progress made by the sector in the six months since it published […]
News
Colleges could lose out on funding if local enterprise partnerships (Leps) don’t engage with them, Association of Colleges chief executive Martin Doel has warned after the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) published new guidance. In a document entitled Local Enterprise Partnerships: increasing their influence on skills budgets, the SFA said future funding agreements would require colleges […]
Ian Clinton took over at Stockport College in the wake of an Ofsted inadequate rating and within a year his work was recognised with a grade three result. Here he outlines key areas of focus in the quest to improve as he prepares to pass on the principal baton in April. Taking on the principal’s […]
Opinion
The FE Commissioner has made his first two visits to inspect local authority provision, FE Week can reveal. Dr David Collins visited Lancashire Adult Learning (LAL), run by Lancashire County Council, and Warrington Borough Council last month to review adult learning after grade four Ofsted inspection results. The commissioner’s powers of intervention extend to FE […]
Careers advice hotline services for young people and adults are to be brought under one roof after Serco was awarded a £6m Skills Funding Agency (SFA) contract to deliver both. Serco, which previously ran the National Careers Service (NCS) advice line for adults, will also take up the service for young people, previously delivered by […]
East London Advanced Technology Training (ELATT) has scored top marks across the board to secure a grade one rating from Ofsted inspectors. The ‘outstanding’ report on the provider, which has 260 learners, was published today (February 20). ELATT, which received a grade two rating following its last inspection in April 2009, achieved top marks in […]
Ofsted has announced plans to halve the number of times it publishes official FE statistics to two a year in response to a month-long consultation. The consultation, which opened on August 11 on the education watchdog’s website, received 22 responses — 73 per cent of which agreed with the proposal to reduce the number of […]
Further education colleges are failing to meet employer needs when it comes to digital skills, an influential group of Peers has warned. In its latest report, Make or Break: The UK’s digital future (pictured below right), the House of Lords digital skills committee claimed that although the FE sector was “best placed” to respond to England’s […]