Blog

Politicians get a lot of stick for talking in platitudes or avoiding direct answers to difficult questions, so we should therefore be especially grateful when one strays off message and gives an honest reaction to a genuine issue.

Mental Health Awareness Week 2018 was bigger than ever, a great sign of the changing attitudes to mental health and a step towards a healthier future free of stigma and judgement towards mental health issues.

From the 1 August this year, we’ll have an amended apprenticeship funding regime for new starts on apprenticeship frameworks and standards.

The much-awaited T Level consultation response arrived over the late May bank holiday weekend and, after months of silence on the issue, we now have a clearer idea of the policy and how and when it will be implemented.

NCFE Policy Leader, Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, breaks down recent announcements and events regarding Technical Education in the north and south of the country.

It’s been an extremely busy couple of weeks for the NCFE Schools team culminating in us successfully resubmitting our combined Level 1 /2 Tech Awards to the DfE for consideration of inclusion into the 2020 Performance Tables.

We’re delighted to announce that Joe Armstrong, a learner at North Chadderton School, has been highly commended in our V Cert Aspiration Awards.

We’re delighted to announce that Nicholas Earl-Phillipps, a learner at Bitterne Park School has been highly commended in our V Cert Aspiration Awards.

We’re delighted to announce that Farnborough Academy in Nottingham have been highly commended as part of our V Cert Aspiration Awards.

2018 marked our first V Cert Aspiration Awards, recognising achievements by pupils with big aspirations. The scheme was launched to recognise learners who are using V Certs to help them reach their goals and make positive improvements to their life.

A great deal of attention has rightly been focussed on the long-awaited government response to the T Level consultation issued in November 2017. Much less notice has been taken of another document, also published by DfE in May and snappily titled ‘Post-16 education: highest level of achievement by age 25 (England)’.

4 years ago, I left my second high school with no qualifications, a lack of direction and no ambition. Fast track 4 years later to May 2018, I’m now the Founding Investor and Director of Weeduu.co and YourCode Recruitment Group. The last few years have been interesting for me, and now understanding the various routes within education and how some students in the mainstream system can be neglected, I realise how lucky I was to not get caught up in the net.

Rob Halfon is a busy man. It’s been less than a year since his nomination and election as Chair of the Education Select Committee, and during this time year he’s launched 12 separate inquiries into various aspects of the Department for Education’s workload.

At NCFE, we believe that lifelong learning is hugely important and we encourage our customers to make the most of their adult education budget (AEB) funding. There was a £63m underspend in the AEB in the last academic year and we’d like to see this reduce considerably this year.