York College
‘ofsted’
Despite passing the 11-plus, Mark Brickley says he wasn’t a particularly academic child. For reasons neither he nor his 81-year-old father, Derek, can recall, he chose not go to grammar school. So when he left school at 16, the year of the Falklands War “and when unemployment was through the roof,” he was keen to […]
Profiles
Uptake on the government’s flagship traineeship scheme is failing to reach expectations, according to senior FE figures. It is too soon for Ofsted to report on the quality of traineeships in any detail… Skills Funding Agency boss Keith Smith (pictured) said colleges would deliver 57 per cent of projected 19 to 23 traineeships, while Ofsted […]
News
Download your free copy of the FE Week 16-page highlights from the AoC conference 2013 supplement, sponsored by NOCN. Click here to download (16 mb) ——————————————————————————————– Introduction It had policy announcements aplenty and quite a few speeches, not to mention tears as some worthy students were praised at a glitzy gala dinner — but the […]
Supplements
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned that careers guidance is “heading towards a cliff edge”, joining sector-wide calls to ensure young people are aware of all their options. The comments, from CBI director for employment and skills policy Neil Carberry, come after a survey of 2000 14 to 25-year-olds showed that only 26 […]
Former Education Secretary Lord Baker has defended University Technical College (UTCs) after it was revealed that some were running at less than a third of capacity. He said figures showing the 150-pupil Central Bedfordshire UTC was just 30 per cent full for the last academic year, while the 480-pupil Black Country UTC, near Birmingham, was […]
The principal of a large London college has taken a leave of absence following the suspension of an apparently homophobic and racist department head. Denise Brown-Sackey (pictured centre), at Newham College, and her board of governors took the decision after a recording emerged of dance and drama head Dr Mark Walcott (pictured right) seeming to […]
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned that careers guidance is “heading towards a cliff edge”, joining sector-wide calls to ensure young people are aware of all their options. The comments made by CBI director for employment and skills policy Neil Carberry, come after a survey of 2000 14 to 25-year-olds showed that only […]
Failing colleges should of course be the main concern of the new FE Commissioner, but the benefit of his experience should also be extended to high-performing colleges and Ofsted, says Denise Brown-Sackey. It’s an inevitability of big, complex organisations that sometimes the wrong person ends up doing an important, well-designed job. I doubt I’m the […]
Opinion
Many apprenticeship reviews over the last few years have called for change to the programme, but, asks Michael Woodgate, what about enforcing the rules that already exist? Much has been made of the government’s recent announcement on “new” apprenticeships, but just how radical are these reforms and, more importantly, will they make any significant difference? […]
