FE colleges | FE Week

First two national colleges open their doors to students

The first two of five planned new government-backed national colleges have opened their doors to students, after £80 million was allocated by the government for their development. Apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon was guest of honour at Tuesday’s official opening ceremony for the National College for Digital Skills, in Tottenham Hale. A spokesperson said […]

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 […]

Bigger is better for sixth forms

Size matters, at least when it comes to sixth forms – as FE Week discovered when we investigated the issues surrounding smaller providers. Mick Fletcher, an FE policy expert and the founder of Policy Consortium, insisted that the government decision to set the minimum number of students at 200 was “well-founded”. Smaller sixth forms “don’t […]