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28 April 2026

Tag: colleges

Bailouts for failing colleges reach £140 million says Halfon

College bailouts have cost the UK a whopping £140 million, the apprenticeships minister has admitted. Robert Halfon confessed to the House of Commons that by March the government expects to have dropped “a total of about £140 million on propping up colleges facing extreme financial difficulties”. That money, he added during a debate on the […]

Careers company coverage a postcode lottery?

A government-backed careers company does not cater to every college around the country, including the whole of London, FE Week has learned. We have repeatedly pressed the Careers and Enterprise Company, which was set up in July 2015 to connect young people with the world of work, for details of the colleges that it works […]

Should colleges work internationally?

Internationalisation of our colleges is not an academic nicety but a fundamental necessity, and there are many ways to do it, says Tracy Ferrier.  A lot of attention has been given recently to the challenges faced by UK colleges delivering large commercial contracts overseas. While some of this negative attention may be understandable, the danger is […]

Colleges go a decade without full inspection

Two colleges in England have now gone more than 10 years without a full inspection – setting a new record Ofsted won’t be proud of.  Bridgwater and Taunton College in Somerset had its most recent full inspection on November 17, 2006. It’s a similar story for Hills Road Sixth Form College, in Cambridgeshire, which was […]

Is there a silver bullet for 14-16 recruitment?

Schools may see 14-16 recruitment as a threat, but there is a way to make it work, says Alison Maynard. Since legislation was changed in 2014 to allow FE colleges to recruit mainstream 14-16 students, there has been mixed enthusiasm from the education world. And indeed, we are seeing mixed success in the implementation of […]

New destination data for unemployed learners

The colleges that are most successful at helping unemployed learners move into work have been named, in the latest learner destination data. The new experimental data on outcome based success measures for adult FE learners from 2012 to 2014, published by the Department for Education, details the proportion of sector learners that have moved onto […]