🛑 A healthcare apprenticeship provider has paused starts while it battles with poor achievement rates that led to Ofsted dishing out multiple ‘urgent improvement’ judgments https://feweek.co.uk/healthcare-provider-stops-new-starts-amid-ofsted-urgent-improvement-verdict/

Defunding leadership and management apprenticeships risks removing ‘some of the most critical rungs of a career ladder’, reversing the positive impact of the push on youth employment, says Luiza Paludo Gomes https://feweek.co.uk/you-cant-climb-a-jobs-ladder-without-the-rungs/

📰 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/mkt.educationscape.com/weekly-news-summary-from-fe-week-13370258

‘Errors do occur and correcting them requires time’ Kerry Boffey on how the benefits of the extended inspection notice period are being undermined by inspectors applying the rules inconsistently https://feweek.co.uk/ofsteds-five-day-rule-is-only-the-beginning/

If things look a little different over the next few days, that’s why. We’re making changes as we prepare to launch our new membership and refreshed websites. Thanks for bearing with us, it’ll be worth it. #WebsiteUpdate #EducationNews

🚨 Two top City & Guilds execs will legally challenge their dismissal from their roles, FE Week can reveal https://feweek.co.uk/city-guilds-execs-to-launch-legal-action-after-exit/

👨‍⚖️ Court of Appeal judges have ruled in favour of Colchester Institute in a landmark VAT dispute with HMRC, paving the way for colleges to reclaim tax on pre-2010 building projects https://feweek.co.uk/colchester-college-wins-court-of-appeal-vat-fight/

Good to see @feweek.bsky.social's Anviksha Patel digging into the data on cuts to prison education provision published earlier this week. Last year, North Sea Camp had 92% attendance at education, the third highest of any prison. Now its education provision has been cut by 58%.

✂️ Prison education cuts have fallen hardest on jails in Greater Manchester and Merseyside where planned teaching hours have been slashed by 40 per cent https://feweek.co.uk/revealed-prisons-with-most-severe-cuts-to-education-hours/

A widening pay gap with schools is often blamed on funding. But colleges may also need to confront some uncomfortable choices about how they prioritise staff pay, says Ian Pryce feweek.co.uk/colleges-cou...

📢 A new careers advice service will replace the functions of the Careers & Enterprise Company, but the organisation plans to bid to run its successor https://feweek.co.uk/ministers-plan-new-careers-service-but-current-provider-plans-to-bid/

🏗️ Colleges have been handed an extra £5 million to fix crumbling buildings, but one in three will receive less money than last year https://feweek.co.uk/revealed-college-repair-allocations-rise-to-307m/

✍️ AI may promise efficiency, but for many young candidates it feels like an invisible barrier that shuts down opportunity without ever hearing their story, says CharityJob's Raya Wexler feweek.co.uk/computer-say...

🧑‍⚖️ Attempts to overturn the result of the 2024 University and College Union general secretary election have failed after the certification officer ruled Jo Grady’s election rule breach would not have affected the result https://ow.ly/Jaol50YBmV5

🧑‍⚖️ A cheating ringleader who helped candidates pass construction health and safety tests by feeding answers through an earpiece has been jailed for more than two years. https://feweek.co.uk/earpiece-exam-cheat-ring-jailed-over-construction-test-fraud/

📢 Chief executive Bill Jones on his route to Luminate Education Group's top job via TEFL training, how the group is juggling Leeds’ teenage population spike, and the potential for taking on cash-strapped universities feweek.co.uk/bill-jones-l...

‘What a night in prison taught me about the importance of play in FE’ ✍️ Grace England of East Coast College on what she learnt from a night in the cells with her students feweek.co.uk/a-night-in-t...

📉 More than one million teenagers have fallen through the cracks of a flagship government ‘guarantee’ to offer every school leaver a suitable post-16 education place https://feweek.co.uk/missing-teenagers-suggests-a-worthless-guarantee/

🔎 Government investigators have recovered £190,000 in 'overpayments' from a now-closed apprenticeship provider after finding inaccurate and unevidenced funding claims https://feweek.co.uk/probe-finds-190k-in-overclaims-at-collapsed-apprenticeship-provider/

Something new is on the way. We’re getting ready to launch new memberships and re-vamped websites for Schools Week and FE Week bringing you early access, exclusive content, and more. We’ll be sharing more very soon 👀 #Education #EdNews #ComingSoon

✍️ Two senior civil servants who have been job-sharing for over a decade have been appointed to become the first joint chief executives of the Office for Students https://feweek.co.uk/civil-servant-duo-to-lead-office-for-students/

🔄 Ministers are considering a shake-up of how they fund support for careers advice in schools and colleges, raising questions about the future of the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) https://ow.ly/npl850YALm3

‘People mentally convert… ‘strong’ becomes the new ‘good’’ Lou Doyle FIEP from SDN Mesma Group on the pitfalls of the new Ofsted framework feweek.co.uk/meets-expect...

✈️ This week's movers features two daredevils: one FE professional now jumps out of planes and another who survived an anaphylactic shock in a restaurant only to return the next day to finish their meal https://feweek.co.uk/movers-and-shakers-edition-528/

💰 A long-term multi-million pound funding commitment has been confirmed for a scheme supporting looked-after young people in post-16 education https://feweek.co.uk/dfe-gives-3-year-commitment-to-looked-after-children/

‘Employers do not want a return to long meetings, fixed cycles or heavy admin’ ✍️Gemma Marsh, deputy CEO of Skills England, says the new expert network will speed up processes without compromising quality https://feweek.co.uk/skills-englands-new-expert-network-will-cut-red-tape-not-corners/

‘We cannot use the systems of the past to support the workforce of the future’ ✍️ Euan Blair of Multiverse writes for FE Week about what the government needs to do to ensure the UK goes from ‘surviving the AI transition to truly leading it’ feweek.co.uk/we-must-meas...

'Employers and sector partners do not want a return to long meetings, fixed cycles or heavy admin' ✍️Gemma Marsh, deputy CEO of Skills England, says the new expert network will speed up processes without compromising quality feweek.co.uk/skills-engla...

🔎 The FE Commissioner will intervene in one of the country’s last surviving adult residential colleges after the government found ‘serious’ cashflow pressures https://feweek.co.uk/richmond-residential-college-in-cash-crisis/

🏗️ A college campus funded by a PFI deal will have cost four times the build price when the deal ends, FE Week can reveal https://feweek.co.uk/newburys-pfi-quadrupled-build-cost-of-campus/

🗞️This week's FE Week front page: MOVING TARGET: Apprenticeship achievement rise as ministers set new target Subscribe | feweek.co.uk/subscribe/ #TomorrowsPapersToday

📉 Apprenticeship starts for under 19s have taken another hit this year https://feweek.co.uk/apprenticeships-for-under-19s-still-sinking/

📉 Sheffield College’s ESOL achievement rates have collapsed following investigations into claims of dodgy results https://feweek.co.uk/esol-results-crash-at-under-fire-sheffield-college/

💥 Breaking: Level 7 starts increased by over 50 per cent in the run up to funding being removed, fresh figures reveal feweek.co.uk/level-7-appr...

Breaking: The national apprenticeship achievement rate has risen to 65.4% for the 2024-25 academic year, just missing the government’s long-standing target https://feweek.co.uk/apprenticeship-achievement-rate-falls-just-short-of-67-target/

⚖️ Ministers are being urged to bring funding for a scheme supporting looked-after young people in post-16 education in line with rates paid in schools, after an evaluation found wide inconsistencies across England https://ow.ly/zp0V50YyOoq

‘Transformation happens one confidence boost at a time’ Richard Harris, Plumpton College on why colleges need to stop teaching tech to their teachers, and let them play with it instead https://feweek.co.uk/it-pays-to-be-playful-when-launching-new-technology/

🤝 Two Northampton colleges are proposing to merge to offer local students a 'wider range' of courses and strengthen their finances feweek.co.uk/northampton-...

🔋 A new apprenticeship unit in battery manufacturing has been announced by Skills England – just days after the first tranche of short course apprenticeship units was unveiled https://feweek.co.uk/battery-apprenticeship-unit-added-after-rapid-employer-consultation/

England has never attempted a full lifelong learning strategy, yet dozens of other countries, from the Cook Islands to Malaysia, have done so. Why not us? Asks Simon Parkinson of The WEA https://feweek.co.uk/if-the-cook-islands-can-commit-to-lifelong-learning-why-cant-we/

📰 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/mkt.educationscape.com/weekly-news-summary-from-fe-week-13370149

How Blackburn College is reducing NEET numbers with a £1m town centre hub offering flexible support, small classes and real progression routes https://feweek.co.uk/how-one-fe-college-is-turning-the-tide-on-neets/

💸 Employer incentives for hiring young people could be a multi-million pound waste of taxpayers’ cash, experts have warned. https://feweek.co.uk/paying-employers-to-hire-youth-risks-huge-waste/

‘Teachers and trainers must be strong dual professionals’ Jo Swindells, @et-foundation.bsky.social on why workforce development is critical to futureproof new qualifications https://feweek.co.uk/teachers-need-work-experience-too-if-new-pathways-are-to-succeed/

‘They’re part of the solution to productivity goals’ Dr Mandy Crawford-Lee of UVAC on how by cutting leadership and management apprenticeships, we risk weakening the talent pipeline https://feweek.co.uk/the-blitz-on-leadership-training-is-daft-policy-that-drains-growth/

🏇 Ministers have been accused of hypocrisy after government departments rushed to enrol civil servants onto level 7 apprenticeships just before public funding was switched off https://feweek.co.uk/civil-servants-raced-to-beat-their-own-level-7-apprenticeship-deadline/

🗞️This week's FE Week front page: Civil servants raced to beat their own level 7 deadline Subscribe | feweek.co.uk/subscribe/ #TomorrowsPapersToday

'We have inadvertently priced 16-year-olds out of the jobs market' John Laramy of Exeter & North Devon Colleges Group on the perverse impact of minimum wage increases on employment opportunities for young people https://feweek.co.uk/minimum-wage-makes-16-year-old-apprentices-too-pricey-to-employ/

👏 Warwickshire College Group has exited government intervention after making 'tough decisions' to secure its finances. https://feweek.co.uk/wcg-exits-intervention/

🫸 Training providers delivering apprenticeships earmarked for defunding will face limits on new starts to prevent a last-minute recruitment surge that could blow the budget https://feweek.co.uk/dwp-caps-new-starts-on-defunded-apprenticeships-to-stop-recruitment-rush/