York College
‘ofsted’
London in the aftermath of World War Two was a hard place for many, including the Piotrowska family. It had promised so much with Ela Piotrowska’s father, Stasio, having reached safety after fleeing the Nazi occupation of his native Poland, having walked hundreds of miles across Europe to join the Polish Free Army, in Scotland. […]
Profiles
Professor Daniel Khan OBE, chief executive of Open College Network (OCN) London, reacts to UKBorder Agency (UKBA) criticism of FE Colleges. UKBA’s recent comments with regards to FE colleges are both unfair and misleading. It claimed colleges are guilty of selling ‘immigration rather than education’. It stated that its tightening of the requirements for providers […]
Opinion
Ed Miliband’s proposals for a Tech Bacc are welcome but perceptions still need to change, so that the vocational route is no longer seen as a second-class option, says David Grailey, the chief executive of NCFE. Ed Miliband was persuasive and engaging when he focused on tackling youth unemployment and reforming the education system so […]
A Kent college has become the first provider to get a government warning that could lead to the withdrawal of Skills Funding Agency cash, FE Week can reveal. Financial worries were said to be behind an agency official notice of concern, issued to K College in August. The college was allocated £11.7m for the 2012/13 […]
News
An independent review has branded the government’s £30m FE Choices website “bland” and “ambiguous”. The site, which compares the performance of providers, was criticised by unions in June when it was discovered that only 6,230 people had looked at it since its launch six months earlier. The Taxpayer’s Alliance said the site was “pointless”. The […]
The Education Act 2011 has been widely heralded as a positive move for the FE sector, providing colleges with significant new freedoms to develop and deliver more learner-focused services. But, like any new legislation, the Act has brought with it a range of new challenges. Elizabeth Delaney, associate at business law firm DWF, looks at […]
Mick Fletcher, visiting research fellow at the Institute of Education and member of the Policy Consortium, casts a critical eye over Ofsted’s new Learner View website. Ofsted has officially launched its Learner View website — an on-line mechanism for collecting feedback from students about the institutions they attend. The Daily Telegraph was predictably delighted. Under […]
Toni Pearce, vice president FE at the National Union of Students adds her voice of support to Ofsted’s new website. It is welcome that Ofsted has recognised the need to review its methods for consulting learners. Further education is rapidly changing and the National Union of Students has been lobbying for a long time for […]
Ofsted has hit back at fears that its new Trip Adviser-style website for rating colleges could be open to abuse. “There are always going to be concerns that there might be a campaign against a provider, but our security system means individual learners have to register,” said Ofsted’s national director for learning and skills, Matthew […]
