FE Week - 2 February 2015
‘Open traineeships up’ plea as starts hit 5K in first quarter (p2) – the government has been urged to open up more traineeships as ‘figures show 1,700 more people started on the scheme in the first three months of 2014/15 than in the entire first half of last academic year.’
Chief Executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) Stewart Segal said that he was encouraged by the figures – but called for a relaxation to the current rule that only allows Traineeships to be delivered by Ofsted grade 1 or 2 providers.
FE Week - 9 February 2015
Less than a quarter of quals win appeal against SFA cull (p2) – FE Week has picked up on the SFAs publication of the qualifications they intend to fund in 2015/16, as only 45 qualifications out of a total of 1,567 appealed were approved.
The Skills Minister has said that "the qualifications we are removing…are simply cluttering up the system," and the move follows calls from BAE Systems Managing Director Nigel Whitehead that 95% of the adult vocational 19,000+ vocational qualifications be axed.
The SFA is under pressure to cut its budget, and the number of qualifications they approve for funding – we’re working with the SFA to secure funding wherever possible for our qualifications.
TES - 13 February 2015
Why lean, Green education machine would scrap Ofsted (p8) – Green party leader Natalie Bennett has set out some of the proposed education reforms a Green government would pursue.
She set out that the Greens would abolish Ofsted & the national curriculum, as well as increasing the school staring age to 6 & returning all academies and free schools to the control of local authorities.
Natalie has stated that Ofsted "has become very damaging for schools and teachers and pupils. We would like to replace the idea of parachuting in inspectors every few years with a regionally based, continuous programme of assessment."
With the 2015 General Election less than 80 days away, and with the polls currently placing the 2 major parties so closely together, the policies of minor parties are going to become increasingly influential in any forthcoming coalition negotiations.
Labour pledges to protect Education, (p3) – Labour has promised to protect the overall education budget if they are elected this May, but won’t decide whether this includes protection for 16-19 year old learners.
Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt has said that decisions on how funding would be allocated within education would be made after his party had formed a government.
There are concerns in the sector as the Conservative have announced they’ll only protect the ‘schools budget’, and the Liberal Democrats announcement on protecting funding from ‘cradle to college’ may be at the expense of post 16 funding being sacrificed.
