Good evening! Coming up in this week’s FE Week: 🔍In the wake of rising school absences, more under-16s are studying at colleges. We look at what makes this provision a success 🧾Why have London’s adult ed providers shunned extra cash? 📢College union boss faces allegations of election rule breaches

Rough week for UCU's Jo Grady next week: Tuesday: Defending accusations of election rule breaches: feweek.co.uk/watchdog-to-... Thursday: Her own staff go on strike (again): feweek.co.uk/ucu-staff-to...

Oh dear. Last week DWP secretary of state McFadden claimed 60+ employers had "committed" to providing jobs for NEET young people through the flagship jobs guarantee scheme Today we learned there was no "commitment" ... just an "interest" feweek.co.uk/mcfadden-ove...

Sixth form college principals heard a hint that scheduled defunding of level 3 qualifications, like BTECs, could be paused. Decision to come when ministers respond to a consultation on new V Level qualifications "within weeks" feweek.co.uk/dfe-consider...

UCU general secretary Jo Grady will face off against two of her 2024 election opponents next week over claims union resources were used to help her win feweek.co.uk/watchdog-to-...

🗞️This week's FE Week front page: Employer anxiety grows over apprenticeship ’streamlining’ Subscribe | feweek.co.uk/subscribe/ #TomorrowsPapersToday

🔀 DfE's top skills official will take over the schools and SEND brief in a leadership shuffle at the top of the department

✈️ Colleges generated £15.1m from overseas delivery in 23-24 (most recent financial data available) - £14.1m of that was just one college (Lincoln), with the rest coming from 6 colleges. Doesn't sound look like there's much appetite in the sector for taking on the risk. feweek.co.uk/ministers-ur...

For Pearson National Teaching Awards FE lecturer of the year Lisa Charles, although teaching hairdressing at Nescot is the core job, it’s the pastoral care she provides for her students that’s often her most important task feweek.co.uk/day-in-the-l...

NEW: After informing City & Guilds staff last night that the CEO and CFO are now on a 'leave of absence', PeopleCert have launched their own investigation 'to fully understand events before and after' they bought the awarding giant and the 'conduct' of top executives feweek.co.uk/peoplecert-o...

Amid a statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission, the chief executive and chief finance officer of City & Guilds have been placed on 'short term' leave feweek.co.uk/top-two-city...

Coming up in this week's @feweek.bsky.social: 🚨City & Guilds CEO and CFO placed on ‘temporary’ leave ⭐️First Ofsted ‘exceptional’ recipient interviewed 🧑‍⚖️Stalker student sentenced after making AI sex images of staff FEATURE: We find out why Nescot’s Lisa Charles was named FE lecturer of the year

A deeply disturbing case, which I'm sure presented the college with some difficult challenges, but which pales into insignificance next to the ordeal the staff victims went through feweek.co.uk/student-stal...

The CEO and accounting officer of one of the country's largest college groups has taken a leave of absence. The reason has not been explained. feweek.co.uk/chichester-c...

Another college has called off strike action - bringing the total this week down to 16

🪧 Teachers in 17 FE colleges across the country downed tools today over low pay and high workload 33 UCU branches voted to strike initially - showing the threat of strike action can still hold sway feweek.co.uk/half-of-coll...

🚨Breaking: The charity regulator has launched a statutory inquiry into the recent sale of City & Guilds to a private company, including reports of executive bonuses and trustees’ “decision making” feweek.co.uk/watchdog-ope...

Good evening! Coming up in this week’s @feweek.bsky.social : 🥾Mayors give bootcamps the boot 💷 DfE countersues training provider in termination case 👀MoJ is misleading on prison ed cuts, claims watchdog FEATURE: As education slips down voter priorities, are opposition parties flying the flag?

The Charity Commission is "actively engaging" with the City & Guilds Foundation over the recent sale of its commercial training and awarding business feweek.co.uk/charity-comm...

My first number 1

Looking forward to this one. Thanks for the recommendation @samfr.bsky.social

Kerching! feweek.co.uk/aoc-quids-in...

Eton was planning on topping up funding by around £2,000 per student for its new sixth form colleges - two of them have just got the go-ahead, but one bid has been rejected feweek.co.uk/eton-gets-go...

Good evening! Coming up in this week’s FE Week: 🇬🇧 UKSPF won’t be ‘shared’ or ‘prosperous’ 🟢 Two of three proposed ‘elite’ Eton sixth form colleges get the green light 💰 Why has £9m appeared in AoC’s bank account? 🦠 Covid apprenticeship fraud cash remains unrecovered #TomorrowsPapersToday

Skills bootcamp provider CoGrammar (yes, the one's we caught charging students for free courses earlier this year) will take their claim for £3.8 million against the Department for Education to court in December 2026 feweek.co.uk/judge-sets-d...

Coming up in this week’s FE Week: 👋 Shelagh Legrave's exit interview - packed with insights, reflections and warnings from the outgoing FE Commissioner 🎤 Lawyers clear Mayor Andrea Jenkyns's plans to defund ESOL 💻 NCFE making 'good progress' restoring its services and systems after 'cyber incident'

There was very little analysis of FE and skills performance in *checks notes* the Ofsted chief inspector's annual report So we've done it for you... feweek.co.uk/top-ofsted-g...

🥇Breaking: Welsh colleges have dominated the medal table at the 2025 WorldSkills UK national finals Full results: feweek.co.uk/worldskills-...

They are without a doubt diluting the assessment of apprentices. You cannot switch components from mandatory to voluntary, and switch from assessing all knowledge to some knowledge, then claim nothing has changed.

Coming up in this week's FE Week: 🧰 Budget 2025: Treasury tweaks levy rules and fully funds SMEs 🏫We find out how special capacity cash for GM and Leeds will be spent 📢 Skills England defend apprenticeship assessment reforms

OBR reports the apprenticeship levy will raise £5 billion sooner than planned - sadly, not all of that makes its way to apprenticeships and training budgets, despite lots of pressures on costs, a pre-axe rush on level 7s, new short courses and foundation apprenticeships feweek.co.uk/budget-2025-...

🧰BUDGET: Around £725million from the growth and skills levy will go towards boosting under-25 apprentices - including fully subsidising training costs for small businesses feweek.co.uk/budget-2025-...

As youth NEET figures stubbornly hover around 950k, @jessjanehill.bsky.social goes behind the scenes to find out what it takes for FE providers to keep young people *in* education and training feweek.co.uk/how-neet-pro...

No surprises here, sadly. YOIs are really, really struggling to provide a regime that gets young people out of their cells. It’s time for a complete reset of youth custody that puts education first, to give young people opportunities to develop the skills they’ll need to thrive as adults.

Unreliable. Unqualified. Unsafe. That’s what some employers are saying about the government’s proposed apprenticeship assessment reforms. @billycamden.bsky.social investigates feweek.co.uk/business-bac...

Coming up in this week’s FE Week: 💥Employers line up to attack apprenticeship assessment changes 🔍As NEET figures hover just under 1m, we look at what it takes to keep young people *in* education & training ‼️Exclusive figures show every YOI is failing to meet its 15-hour per week education duty

✍️LETTER TO THE EDITOR ✍️ 'In recent weeks, each of us has witnessed attempts to sow fear in our communities, particularly the targeting of migrants and minority groups. We feel compelled to speak out against ugly racist attacks, reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s.' feweek.co.uk/letter-to-th...

Good evening! Coming up in this week’s FE Week: 💻 Revealed: Two IoTs ditch the brand as ministers pivot to TECs 🚧 College waiting lists soar in priority subjects 🔍 Will this NEET review be any different? PROFILE: Karen Redhead, West London College Subscribe | feweek.co.uk/subscribe/

ICYMI: I quizzed skills minister Jacqui Smith on the post-16 white paper on Monday - followed by post-match analysis with Ben Rowland, Julian Gravatt, Caroline McDonald and Anna Fritz Catch up here: youtu.be/Hl5pVS9xLWU?...

Reform UK politicians appear to be getting themselves into a bit of a bind over ESOL, and it speaks to conflicts at the heart of their politics. They cry out for integration, but are uncomfortable paying for it. feweek.co.uk/reform-uk-ma...

Good evening! Coming up in this week’s @feweek.bsky.social: 🏷️ A white paper, the CAR, and a quals consultation have landed 💡Brand damage, units register, transparency promise - what we learned at AELP’s autumn conference 🔍 Andrea Jenkyns vs ESOL 🧑‍⚖️ Why the judge threw out the Marples vs DfE case

Some updates on this breaking story: 📢 The Marples family said they are "extremely disappointed" and are discussing next steps with their lawyers 💷 Both parties have a week to agree on costs ❓The family has three weeks to apply for permission to appeal feweek.co.uk/case-dismiss...

Does the post-16 white paper have the right answers, or even the right questions? @nickhillman.bsky.social and I join @tom-richmond.com to chew over what it has to say on quality, collaboration and specialisation in the latest episode of Inside Your Ed insideyoured.buzzsprout.com/1874905/epis...

Some suprising twists and turns in the post-16 white paper this evening. Buckle up for your trusty @feweek.bsky.social roundup: feweek.co.uk/new-law-to-b...

So kind of DfE to drop a white paper and a consultation on level 2 and 3 qualifications at the same time First up - here's everything we know about V Levels, brand new T Levels and sweeping reforms to level 2 provision, including the end of the T Level foundation year feweek.co.uk/what-we-know...

Flanked by the science secretary Liz Kendall and DWP secretary (who is in charge of skills now) Pat McFadden, Bridget Phillipson has begun her statement on the post-16 education and skills white paper

The Speaker granted two urgent questions this afternoon, which has pushed Bridget Phillipson's ministerial statement on the skills white paper back. They're on the second one now, so shouldn't be too much longer.

First outing at education questions for new ministers Josh MacAlister and Liv Bailey MacAlister first up answering questions about the IB

Of course, @feweek.bsky.social readers had a head start on V Levels Here’s our story from a couple of weeks ago feweek.co.uk/revealed-v-l...

In a teaser ahead of tomorrow's post-16 education and skills white paper, the government confirmed it will introduce V Levels to go alongside A-levels and T Levels. Unlike T Levels, V Levels will be smaller, A-level sized qualifications. They will replace existing level 3 alternatives like BTECs.