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Respect and tolerance vital in schools

By , Wednesday 10 December 2014

The government have reinforced the promotion of tolerance and respect in British schools recently, stating these are key British values. The guidance document released by the government at the end of November, entitled ‘Promoting fundamental British values as part of SMSC in schools,’ comes after a number of statements made by members of the government, following concerns around an Islamist takeover in Birmingham schools earlier this year.

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NCFE V Certs and the 2017 Performance tables

By David Grailey, Chief Executive, Wednesday 10 December 2014

David Grailey

Christmas is here and we have a new performance table list from the DfE. This means we’ve now received confirmation from the Department for Education (DfE) on which qualifications will feature in the 2017 Key Stage 4 performance tables.

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Call for career advice on apprenticeships

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Wednesday 10 December 2014

Lindsay Plumpton

As we approach 2015’s General Election, ‘Apprenticeships’ is the hot topic that binds all 3 of the big political parties. However, Ofsted FE and Skills Director Lorna Fitzjohn has recently spoken out about young people not being well advised on the benefits of apprenticeships when at school, resulting in the number of apprenticeship starts among young people ‘flatlining’.  She claims that careers advice in schools mainly focuses on A-Levels as the preferred option for teenagers due to a lack of understanding in schools about work-based training.

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AoC 2014: The highlights

By David Grailey, Chief Executive, Wednesday 10 December 2014

David Grailey

It was great to catch up with many of you during the AoC conference last month. I hope those of you who attended were able to find a few spare moments during conference’s packed itinerary to drop by the NCFE stand to pick up your education elephant and thumb through our recently published digital Directory of Products and Services. With the end of the calendar year looming, I always find the conference provides a valuable opportunity to reflect with colleagues over the events of the past 12 months and discuss the challenges facing the sector for the following year.

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Policy Corner - 9 December 2014

By Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, Policy Leader, Monday 08 December 2014

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

£142m contractor top-slicing ‘extortionate’ 40% (p1) - Learndirect, the country’s biggest Skills Funding Agency (SFA) contractor, is under scrutiny after charging ‘extortionate’ 40% management fees on its contract value. FE Week has found out this information after new ‘duties’ were introduced on 24 November requiring SFA claimants to declare what they charge their subcontractors. Apparently "Learndirect failed to meet the new duty, but the 40% top-slice was declared in its range of fees."

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Supporting your staff into the online space

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Friday 05 December 2014

Lindsay Plumpton

Earlier this year, the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (FELTAG), made a number of ambitious recommendations to then Skills Minister Matthew Hancock and the sector more broadly regarding the effective use of digital technology in learning, teaching and assessment in Further Education and Skills. At NCFE, we support new technology within education and believe that digital methods can provide a more flexible, learner-centric approach to education, helping us to fit learning to individual needs. What’s more, it can support and empower staff to further strengthen their teaching.

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Upskilling our workforce

By , Wednesday 26 November 2014

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) is encouraging businesses across the UK to invest in workplace training after their Workforce Survey 2014 highlighted that 92% of businesses acknowledged a skills gap in at least one critical area of the organisation. The most common skill shortages include leadership and management, organisation and planning, and computer literacy. By upskilling staff in these key areas, organisations can make their workforce more efficient and productive.

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Policy Corner, 17 November 2014

By Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, Policy Leader, Monday 17 November 2014

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Agency review puts 1,600 quals in the funding firing line (p3) – The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has listed ‘nearly 700’ qualifications it will remove from public funding and a further 972 at risk of losing their fundable status in its Annual Review of Qualifications, published on its website. The Agency has published the lists of qualifications with 100 funded enrolments a year or fewer, with a call for Awarding Organisations who want to keep these qualifications funded to make their case by the 4 December.

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It’s all in the balance

By David Grailey, Chief Executive, Wednesday 12 November 2014

David Grailey

It was great to read earlier this year that parents want to see more practical teaching in schools. To mark its 10th anniversary, the Edge Foundation surveyed over 1,000 parents of secondary aged children to get their views about vocational education. I am pleased to say that there was majority support from the sample with most agreeing that technical degrees combining academic and vocational study are of equal value to traditional academic subjects.

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Diagnosing dementia

By , Wednesday 12 November 2014

The NHS has recently focused more of its attention on the diagnosis of dementia in an effort to tackle the number of people in the UK living with the disease undiagnosed, thought to be around 90,000. More worrying, it’s estimated less than half of the 800,000 people in the UK likely to be suffering from dementia have been formally diagnosed.

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