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Our Policy Leader has been getting the news hot off the press at Ed Miliband’s last party conference speech before the General Election, outlining ‘Labour’s plans for Britain’s future’. Commentators are billing it as a ‘make or break’ situation for the General Election; so what is Labour planning to do if they win the election? How are they winning hearts and minds?

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In amongst the range of announcements made over the past month was a major ‘launch’ from the Department for Education, who finalised their technical guidance for Vocational Qualifications which would contribute to performance tables at Key Stage 4. Rather confusingly, qualifications that meet these requirements will be known as ‘Technical Awards’, different to already-announced ‘Technical Levels’, (which are vocational qualifications that contribute to performance tables for 16-18 year old learners).

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The past couple of months have seen the initial education and skills battle lines being drawn for the 2015 General Election: The most surprising announcement was July’s Cabinet reshuffle in which Michael Gove was replaced as Secretary of State for Education by the relatively unknown former Treasury minister and Minister for Women Nicky Morgan (view her political background and voting record here).

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Here’s your weekly round-up summarising the top education stories from the sector’s press including FE Week and the TES. FE Week 16 June

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In March this year it was announced that around 5,000 adult vocational courses would be cut in order to "simplify and streamline" the adult skills system in England. Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock also took to Twitter to announce that the Government will be binning ‘low-value’ courses such as self-tanning, balloon artistry and instructing pole fitness in order to focus on qualifications that employers value. Read my original statement on the subject.

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Welcome back from what I hope was a great Easter for you. On 10 April, I blogged about the funding relating to NCFE’s 13 credit qualifications recently exempted by the SFA. I’ve had a query about funding relating to these qualifications for the next academic year. The issue is linked to the change in classification from full to non-full for the 13 and 14 credit qualifications that have recently been confirmed as funded in 2014/15 despite the fact they are below the 15 credit threshold for full level 2.

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As we continue to update you on the latest developments with the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and the new funding rules for 2014-15, I have further news to share. Over 5,000 adult vocational courses are set to be cut in order to simplify and streamline the adult skills system in England; with approximately £200m of the department’s adult skills budget now be re-directed towards what the Government considers to be the `most relevant` qualifications.

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As you’re aware, the SFA recently announced changes to its funding rules meaning that a number of adult qualifications may no longer be publicly funded. This story has hit the wider press this month with reports stating that around 5,000 adult vocational courses will be cut in order to "simplify and streamline" the adult skills system in England. Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock took to Twitter to announce that the current system is ‘hard to understand’ and the Government will be binning ‘low-value’ courses such as self-tanning, balloon artistry and instructing pole fitness in order to focus on qualifications that employers value. Nearly £200m of the department's adult skills budget will now be redirected towards what the Government considers to be the ‘most relevant’ qualifications.

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Looking back it seems that not a single month has gone by without education being in the national news headlines in some shape or form. Rightly so, given the importance of education in our society, but sadly the stories haven’t always been upbeat. And while the team here at NCFE has been busy working on new qualifications to meet the latest DfE changes, we’ve been acutely aware of the wider challenges and changes facing all of you in your schools. For those of you already working with us, I hope that our continued commitment to customer service goes someway to helping alleviate the challenges you’re facing. Against this background of change and challenge, all our focus remains on the pupils. So with this in mind, perhaps one of the most thought provoking discussions that’s received recent media coverage is the report from the Children’s Commissioner for England. The report paints a very bleak picture of the impact that budget cuts are having on children from poorer families.

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As part of the Government’s recently launched Skills Strategy, struggling colleges in England are set to face a tougher regime. According to Skills Minister Matthew Hancock, there will be "swift and effective action" for colleges which are “failing learners.” Inspectors have found that there are 4% of colleges which fall into this category and have been identified as inadequate.

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Blog posts for tag:Funding

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Let’s get Technical

General Election: 9 months to go…

Policy Corner - 23 June

Non-academic courses are still valuable to learners

Funding update

More funding updates

An update on the SFA funding changes

A Year of Change and Challenge for us all

Rapid intervention for ‘underperforming’ FE colleges under Skills Strategy

Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

David Grailey

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Esme Winch

Michael Lemin

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Blog posts for tag:Funding

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Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

David Grailey

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Esme Winch

Michael Lemin

Categories

Archive