⚽️ Ofqual scored a record haul in awarding body penalties, issuing £2.5 million in fines last year feweek.co.uk/ofquals-doin...

💼 The government narrowly avoided a second consecutive apprenticeship budget overspend in 2025-26 thanks to a mid-year funding boost, figures show https://feweek.co.uk/dwp-swerved-apprenticeship-overspend-with-mid-year-cash-boost/

📕 The universities regulator has lifted multiple 'overlapping' requirements placed on FE colleges that deliver higher education courses https://feweek.co.uk/ofs-removes-regulation-duplication-for-colleges/

🆕 The universities regulator has lifted multiple ‘overlapping’ requirements placed on FE colleges that deliver higher education courses https://feweek.co.uk/ofs-removes-regulation-duplication-for-colleges/

⌛ Education funding for 16 to 19-year-olds will increase by 3% in 2026-27 following a last-minute cash injection https://feweek.co.uk/cash-boost-pushes-16-19-rate-rise-to-3/

🧮 Large colleges will be required to hire qualified accountants who are professionally registered as their chief financial officers from August 2027, according to strengthened government rules feweek.co.uk/large-colleg...

⏰ Learners are losing routes faster than the system can build them, says Federation of Awarding Bodies chair Tim Bennett-Hart, with a warning for the next PM on rushing qualification reform feweek.co.uk/rushing-qual...

💰 Ministers are considering topping up low-income household benefits to close a loophole that penalises families when a young person starts an apprenticeship feweek.co.uk/minister-eye...

📢 Unite members at England’s largest exam board AQA are to strike in a dispute over pay, as Unison reveals plans for seven further days of walk-outs on the issue feweek.co.uk/second-union...

👷 Construction apprenticeship assessment reforms have been overhauled after Skills England agreed to a risk-based approach designed to protect competence in safety-critical jobs https://feweek.co.uk/construction-secures-rethink-on-apprenticeship-assessment-reforms-after-industry-backlash/

📰 FE Week Weekly News Update Check out this week's news summary. If you still need to register for our newsletter updates, you can sign-up at the below link. 🔗 https://mailchi.mp/616167ec139e/weekly-news-summary-from-fe-week-13370988

📉 College learners are pleading for more careers support after activities halved in two years – leaving many feeling unprepared for their next steps, a student survey has found https://feweek.co.uk/careers-support-for-college-students-halves-in-two-years/

⚽ One of our movers this week went head to head with Robbie Williams as a pre-teen https://feweek.co.uk/movers-shakers-edition-540/

🫖 T Level students are only marginally more likely to gain a university place than the first cohort four years ago, and still struggle to enter the top Russell Group institutions https://feweek.co.uk/gold-standard-t-levels-still-rarely-lead-to-top-universities/

🤖 Plans for written coursework will face 'far, far more scrutiny' under reformed qualifications to prevent the 'AI-fuelled subversion of assessment', the boss of England’s assessment regulator will say https://feweek.co.uk/more-scrutiny-of-coursework-plans-to-protect-exams-from-ai/

❌ Greater Manchester’s independent training providers will be excluded from an adult skills funding rate uplift offered to colleges and councils next year https://feweek.co.uk/colleges-favoured-as-itps-get-less-for-adult-skills-in-greater-manchester/

💻 Adults are being turned away from online maths courses because of the way devolved adult skills budgets are administered, former prime minister Rishi Sunak has claimed https://feweek.co.uk/let-adult-maths-tuition-work-from-home-says-sunak/

🫵 Ofqual has rebuked awarding organisation Pearson for preventable failures in an Edexcel A Level maths exam last summer https://feweek.co.uk/pearson-edexcel-rebuked-over-preventable-failures-in-a-level-maths-paper/

👈 Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has ordered local authorities to improve tracking of tens thousand of so-called ‘phantom NEETs’ https://feweek.co.uk/councils-ordered-to-improve-tracking-of-32100-phantom-neets/

🚨Breaking: Colleges will get an extra £485m over the next two years towards staff pay rises, but it's not yet clear how the funding will be distributed https://feweek.co.uk/colleges-get-485m-to-help-match-school-teacher-pay-rise/

🧑‍⚖️ A teenager who threatened to blow up Stafford college with homemade explosives has been jailed https://feweek.co.uk/teen-jailed-for-nearly-four-years-over-stafford-college-bomb-threats/

Burnham said "the thing", but John Cope says there isn't long to influence what Manchesterism looks like for FE https://feweek.co.uk/burnhams-speech-groundhog-day-rhetoric-manchesterism-in-practice/

🗣️ Burnham ties government contracts to apprenticeships in PM pitch https://feweek.co.uk/burnham-public-contracts-must-deliver-more-apprenticeships/

🙋It's nearly time for DWP questions. MPs will be asking Pat McFadden and his team of ministers about youth unemployment and possibly adult skills and apprenticeships. Follow along here: feweek.co.uk/dwp-question...

White working class children aren't failing education, education is failing them. ✍️ @aoc-info.bsky.social's David Hughes on why colleges may be one of the few parts of the system still trusted by the families being let down feweek.co.uk/education-ha...

🧑‍⚖️ A teaching ban regime built for schools is coming to FE with the passing of new legislation. Anviksha Patel reveals how it will work and gauges sector reaction https://feweek.co.uk/school-rules-are-imposed-on-fes-errant-teachers/

Analysis: The apprenticeships tipped for a rate rise https://feweek.co.uk/the-apprenticeships-tipped-for-a-rate-rise/

🚨Breaking: Skills England has unveiled a new 'interim' model to decide apprenticeship funding that scales back employer input in favour of internal data on actual costs https://feweek.co.uk/skills-england-scales-back-employer-role-in-funding-decisions/

🤝 Expert staff at specialist post-16 institutions could guide general FE colleges on how best to spend new inclusion cash, officials have said feweek.co.uk/specialist-c...

💂‍♀️ Colleges and training venues across London will host the WorldSkills UK national finals next year, it has been revealed https://feweek.co.uk/london-calling-capital-to-host-worldskills-uk-national-finals-in-2027/

💰 DWP considers changing 30/70 funding split for larger apprenticeship units https://feweek.co.uk/dwp-considers-changing-30-70-funding-split-for-larger-apprenticeship-units/

🧐 Skills minister Jacqui Smith has refused to rule out further restrictions that shift apprenticeship funding to young people, warning it is 'not the end of the road' for reform https://feweek.co.uk/not-the-end-of-the-road-for-apprenticeship-funding-restrictions-minister-suggests/

Ofsted’s top ‘exceptional’ grade is not out of reach for ITPs, the inspectorate’s new FE chief has said, despite only 1 provider achieving the feat since the new regime launched 8 months ago https://feweek.co.uk/ofsteds-fe-chief-confident-more-itps-will-secure-elusive-exceptional-grade/

📣 City College Norwich’s principal Jerry White will step down this summer. https://feweek.co.uk/city-college-norwich-ceo-to-step-down/

📰 FE Week Weekly News Update Check out this week's news summary. If you still need to register for our newsletter updates, you can sign-up at the below link. 🔗 https://mailchi.mp/9736e42a2d68/weekly-news-summary-from-fe-week-13370881

(Sponsored) Jack Whitehall, Deborah Meaden and the future of skills: Why FE leaders should head to the Festival of Education in July: https://ow.ly/3eR050ZewY5 #FurtherEducation #educationfest #FOE26 #SkillsDevelopment #EducationLeadership #Apprenticeships

🆕 A review of apprenticeship funding bands has been launched as an 'immediate priority', with Skills England ordered to identify which standards should be first in line for 'potential funding uplifts' https://feweek.co.uk/apprenticeship-funding-band-review-ordered-by-skills-minister/

🗞️This week's FE Week front page: ZERO BUCKS GIVEN Colleges and unions warn FE staff could face a 0% pay recommendation without extra funding Subscribe | feweek.co.uk/subscribe/

❓ City & Guilds trustees and PeopleCert ‘knew nothing’ about C&G’s post-sale bonuses, while the executives who cashed in claim everyone knew. Josh Mellor finds evidence of who’s telling the truth is in short supply… https://feweek.co.uk/3m-in-bonuses-for-cg-bosses-it-doesnt-add-up/

✌️ Andy Burnham arrives at the House of Commons on Monday as its newest MP. FE Week asks: What kind of prime minister would Burnham be for FE? https://feweek.co.uk/what-would-andy-burnham-in-number-10-mean-for-fe/

Coming up in @feweek.bsky.social 0️⃣ Unions & colleges join warn DfE FE staff face possibility of 0% pay rise recommendation 🧑‍⚖️C&G bonuses: We examine the contradictory claims as another inquiry on the sale to PeopleCert is launched 🤝Unite drops dispute against PeopleCert after deal on redundancies

📢 Exclusive: College staff risk a real-terms pay cut next year unless ministers provide significant funding, college leaders and unions have warned in a joint letter. https://feweek.co.uk/college-staff-face-zero-pay-rise-warning

🛫 The Turing scheme’s budget will remain unchanged at £78 million for its final year despite more ‘disadvantaged’ students becoming eligible for extra support https://feweek.co.uk/extra-help-for-more-students-on-turings-final-trips/

🤝 Union officials have called off a workforce redundancy dispute with City & Guilds bosses that threatened to boil over into 'legal and industrial action'. https://feweek.co.uk/union-withdraws-city-guilds-legal-threat-after-offshoring-assurances/

🔎 City & Guilds Foundation has agreed to hold an independent inquiry into the controversial sale of its City & Guilds awarding business. https://feweek.co.uk/city-guild-foundation-starts-own-probe-into-peoplecert-deal/

🎖️ This year’s silver Pearson National Teaching Award winners have been revealed https://feweek.co.uk/revealed-the-99-winners-of-silver-pearson-national-teaching-awards/

🙅‍♀️ Ringfencing funding dedicated to college learners with SEND would create significant administrative burdens and risk fragmenting provision, the government has said https://feweek.co.uk/ringfencing-post-16-send-funding-not-right-approach-says-dfe/

💷 A 'considerable reduction' to the amount colleges and FE providers contribute to teachers’ pensions is 'highly likely' following a revaluation of the scheme, a minister has revealed https://feweek.co.uk/employers-contributions-to-teachers-pensions-very-likely-to-reduce-minister/

🏆 Nominations are now open for the Mayor of London Adult Learning Awards 2026! We are thrilled to be media partner and help celebrate lifelong learning in London Submit your nomination by 24 July: https://ow.ly/uZk150ZbSyz

🍕 Free meal funding for college students has been uprated to match the rate offered for school pupils, months after ministers announced an 'insulting' cash freeze feweek.co.uk/college-free...