York College
‘ofsted’
Participation in education, employment and training among 16, 17 and 18-year-olds will not improve unless the government tackles problems with young people slipping through the net, a senior MP has warned. During a hearing of the Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry into 16 to 18 participation, chair Margaret Hodge (pictured) warned Department for Education (DfE) Permanent […]
News
Concerns about the “ethical use of funding” have been raised after a sixth form college started advertising £500 incentives in a bid to lure high-achieving learners to its proposed new free school sixth form. New College Pontefract applied to the Department for Education (DfE) last month to set up New College Doncaster, which would open […]
Ofsted inspectors recently gave a 16 to 19 independent learning provider an inadequate rating having discovered it failing to meet its statutory requirements on safeguarding learners. Geraldine Swanton explains the safeguarding learners issue. A positive duty to promote and safeguard the welfare of children was imposed on FE colleges and schools by the Education Act […]
Opinion
Former Association of South East Colleges (AOSEC) chief executive Dr Jan Edrich has been appointed principal at Hampshire’s Eastleigh College. She takes over from Tony Lau-Walker CBE who retired after 17 years at the college — and two years after leading it to an Ofsted outstanding grade. Dr Edrich has worked at the college as […]
Movers and Shakers
Skills Minister Nick Boles has approved plans for Devon-based Bicton College to merge with the Cornwall College Group (TCCG), FE Week can reveal. FE Commissioner Dr David Collins inspected the specialist land-based college in March after the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) raised concern about its “financial health”. He concluded Bicton, which was rated as ‘good’ […]
A Midland council looks set to investigate a local 16 to 19 provider after Ofsted inspectors found it was failing to safeguard learners. The chair of Worcestershire County Council’s Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Panel, Lynne Duffy, (pictured) told FE Week she would be calling for a probe after Beacon Employment was hit […]
Norton Radstock College has been told it can no longer operate on its own after FE Commissioner Dr David Collins identified issues with leadership, governance and college finances. The 4,700-learner college, near Bath, was graded inadequate by Ofsted in May and has posted a deficit every year for the last three years. In a newly-released […]
Lambeth College staff who went on a five-week strike earlier this year will vote on whether to take further industrial action after rejecting “improved” offers over contract changes. University and College Union (UCU) members walked out indefinitely on June 3 in a dispute over new staff contracts introduced on April 1, which the UCU said […]
Professor Alison Wolf, the influential academic who authored the government’s 2011 report on vocational education, is one of just four people to have been given a coveted life peerage by the Prime Minister in this Parliament, and will soon join the ranks of Peers as a cross-bencher without party political affiliation. As she prepares to […]