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Tables must continue to turn

By Lucy Thompson, Product Manager, Monday 19 February 2018

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This month, we wrote to you to let you know about some changes that the Department for Education (DfE) had made in relation to qualifications on the published list of approved qualifications, for key stage 4 and key stage 5. The decision to suspend the approvals process for technical qualifications means that there will be no new qualifications available after those on the 2020 performance tables. 

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Mending the gap

By Esme Winch, Managing Director, Monday 19 February 2018

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At the end of January, NCFE and Campaign for Learning were delighted to publish our latest policy whitepaper, Mending the gap: are the needs of 16-18 year olds being met? Written by John Widdowson, Principal of New College Durham, the paper explores whether raising the participation age has worked, and makes a number of recommendations that could be taken to strengthen the policy. The paper acknowledges some success in lowering the numbers of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET), but shines a light on a significant number of young people not participating up to age 18. For some people, the transition form school into further learning is a difficult one, and more could be done to support them.

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Talk of a ‘vocational route’ is a dead end

By Mick Fletcher, FE Policy Analyst, Wednesday 14 February 2018

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Two big conceptual problems bedevil the debate about T levels. One, which I’ve written about at length elsewhere, is that people who should really know better persist in talking about technical education when they actually mean training for technicians. The other is the constant reference to a ‘vocational route’, usually followed by the assertion that only snobbery prevents its having parity of esteem with the academic. The problem with this presentation is that it sets vocational education up to fail. The academic route is designed specifically to facilitate progression. GCSEs sort out who will do A levels which in turn largely sorts out who will study for degrees. Although it’s often exaggerated, such qualifications are not especially good at getting people ‘work ready’. That is because they are not designed to.

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3 Tech Trends for 2018

By Louise Geddis-Regan, Innovation Marketing Officer, Monday 12 February 2018

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With the rise of technology in the classroom and digital advances rapidly changing, the landscape for technology in education (edtech) can be difficult to navigate.  To kick off 2018, we invited global innovation and insight consultancy, Freshminds, to share their predicted top tech trends for 2018, and explore what this means for the education sector. Voice and Smart Speakers

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Department for Education update from NCFE and CACHE

By Kievah Wallace, PR and Social Media Officer, Friday 26 January 2018

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Tech Levels and Applied General Qualifications Current guidance from the DfE states that learners are allowed a maximum of two attempts in the external assessments for Tech Levels and Applied Generals. These attempts are currently provided by NCFE and CACHE as one attempt at the external assessment and one resit opportunity, if necessary.

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