Policy Corner - 15 February 2016

By: Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Policy Leader

Monday 15 February 2016


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TES

The long, agonising wait for a ‘tsunami of exam reform’ (p8) - In less than 2 months time, schools will have to start teaching the new GCSEs and A Levels over 20 subjects. Ofqual still has to approve two-thirds (only 52 out of 156 have been approved) of the specifications for teaching and delivery— a situation described as ’shocking’ by teaching unions.

It's up to colleges to stop this strike, says Corbyn (p46) - Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has called on colleges to come up with a ‘reasonable’ pay offer for their staff ahead of a national strike planned for the 24 February.

The University and College Union (UCU) and UNISON announced that the strike would go ahead after the Associates of Colleges (AoC) stated that it wasn’t sustainable to offer a pay rise for 2015-16.

FE Week

Cameron to break bank fine pledge? (p1, 4) - The Chancellor George Osborne has been challenged about a missing £200million worth of fines collected from banks in the wake of the Libor rate fixing scandal. The Prime Minister promised that this money would be used to offer Apprenticeships and Traineeships to 50,000 young unemployed people at the General Election, but no news of this policy has been heard since. A spokesperson for the Treasury refused to confirm or deny if the money was still available; "further announcements for the government's delivery of training to young people will be announced in due course."

Promote FE loans yourself, BIS tells providers (p2) - Colleges and training providers will have to promote Advanced Learner Loans themselves, after BIS admitted they have no budget to promote them. This comes as data reveals that around 62% of the money set aside for loans in 2014-2015 was unused.

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