West Midlands Virtual FE Open Week 22 – 26 June

Students from across the West Midlands region will be able to take part in a Virtual Open Week for schools and colleges from Monday 22 to Friday 26 June.

During the week, current Year 11 students will have the opportunity to benefit from a series of virtual college open days, information sessions and careers advice and guidance from colleges across the West Midlands. Events will include live sessions with college staff, overviews of courses plus links to websites and other sources of information to help school leavers explore further education on offer from colleges across the region.

The event is being organised and managed through the Launchyourcareer.com platform, in partnership with West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), the Titan Foundation and the Career Development Institute (CDi). Launchyourcareer.com is an intuitive online platform which takes young people on a journey of career discovery and is free for schools and students to use. 

Students are encouraged to explore their career and future learning options whilst The Careers Adviser Dashboard gives you access to all of your students’ profiles right at your fingertips.

So, what steps do you need to take to get involved?

Step One: Go to Launchyourcareer.com/virtualopenweek and you will be guided on how to register your school.

Updated guidance on T levels capital fund

The roll out of T Levels, planned for September 2020, has inevitably been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the Government has issued an update this week setting out their revised approach on T Levels capital projects for schools and post-16 institutions.  

The Government made a commitment to bringing in T Levels on a phased basis starting with the first three T Levels in September 2020 - Digital, Construction and Education and Childcare routes. A total of £38 million of capital funding has been made available to help the first T Level providers to deliver T Levels in world class facilities. 

Any settings looking to apply for funding from the Competitive Buildings and Facilities Improvement Grant (BFIG) will need to submit their applications by midday on 26 June 2020.

View the updated T Levels Capital Fund guidance here

Ofsted to review students' and apprentices' online further education experience

Ofsted is working to review further education learners’ experience of online learning during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) lock-down.

The review aims to provide insights into the sector’s experiences of online education and to identify areas of strength and potential for improvement. This will support post-16 providers re-visiting their online education strategies, particularly from September 2020 onward. The review will look at the online education that providers are delivering in light of the necessary social distancing measures.

The review will take place in June 2020 and Her Majesty’s Inspectors will be speaking remotely to managers, teachers and trainers in volunteer further education colleges and skills providers to discuss their delivery of online teaching and learning.

Inspectors will also speak to students and apprentices about their experience of learning online and the support that they have received. This will be done by phone.

The review is not an inspection and there will be no consequences for the providers. Involvement in this review is entirely voluntary. Data gathered during the review will be confidential and staff, students and apprentices will not be identified.

For more information about the review please click here