DfE | FE Week - Part 23

Transparency questions raised over cash for consultants

Consultants working with colleges on FE and skills area reviews have been paid £3.5m in ‘transition grants’, FE Week can reveal. But the Department for Education has refused to reveal which companies the money is going to, raising serious questions about transparency. Previous requests by FE Week for information on the number of grants that […]

Employers more satisfied with private training providers than colleges

Private training providers will be patting themselves on the back this week, following Skills Funding Agency research that revealed they are significantly more popular with employers than general FE colleges. Training providers scored a massive 83.9 per cent for employer satisfaction according to the results of the latest SFA employer satisfaction survey, while colleges’ rating […]

Funding reform roll-out in 2017 still on track, insists DfE

There will be no delay to apprenticeship funding reforms, the government has insisted, despite growing concerns in the sector over a series of setbacks to key policy details. The Association of Colleges called for all funding and regulation reforms to be delayed beyond the planned May 1 launch date for the first time last week, […]

Westminster Kingsway name change rejected, but others find loophole

Westminster Kingsway College’s bid to have itself rebranded as Central London Colleges Group was rejected over concerns its new name would undermine its neighbours, it has been revealed. A Freedom of Information request found that the college’s request was turned down even though another institution, formed by the recent merger between Bromley College, Bexley College […]

AoC takes DfE to court over controversial new small school sixth form

Battle lines have been drawn by the Association of Colleges, after it launched its first judicial review against the government in more than a decade. The legal action, which has cost AoC £50,000 so far, concerns the Department for Education’s decision to fund a new sixth form at Abbs Cross Academy and Arts College in […]

Profile Nadhim Zahawi, education secretary

Nadhim Zahawi is England’s new education secretary, FE Week profiled Zahawi back in 2016 when he served the then Prime minister, David Cameron, as apprenticeship ambassador.