FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Shadow minister sets out his vision for the future of FE

The Shadow Education Secretary, Tristram Hunt, chose the Association of Colleges conference as the venue for his first speech since taking on the role in early October. He used to opportunity to outline policies laid down by his party’s Skills Taskforce in its second report, entitled Transforming further education: A new mission to deliver excellence […]

Little Bradley’s cancer fight inspires college fundraising

Hairdressing and barbering learners were so moved by the plight of seriously ill toddler Bradley Lowery that they decided to help, writes Paul Offord. The stresses and strains of training to cut hair were put into perspective during a fundraising event for a little boy whose life has been blighted by cancer. (College students and […]

Brave Vicky claims student of year title

Barking and Dagenham College student Vicky Knight, who set up a charity for burns victims after being horrifically injured in an arson attack, has been named the Association of Colleges student of the year. The 18-year-old was honoured at the association’s annual conference for launching Scar Quality to offer help, counselling and makeovers for young […]

Aiming high on ‘real’ work experience

Colleges run their own ‘business’ to allow learners to gain experience and 157 Group executive director Lynne Sedgemore said last week that such ventures could be seen as providing a realistic taste of the workplace. However, Iain Mackinnon says they are too few and far between to offer a viable alternative to experience of a […]

2013: A (Further Education) Policy Odyssey

Former House of Commons Education Select Committee specialist Ben Nicholls is head of policy and communications at London’s Newham College. He writes exclusively for FE Week every month. A year ago, when I was appointed to Newham College, I didn’t know all that much about FE (it’s okay, I said so at my interview — […]

Hitting back at the level two ‘dead-end’ criticism

Claims last month that up to 50,000 teenagers were studying ‘dead-end’ level two courses were ‘superficial and sensational’ says Lynne Sedgmore. The second Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) report in its Condition of Britain series, entitled Growing up and becoming an adult, makes a helpful contribution to our understanding of a complex issue — […]

Mark Brickley, principal, Kensington and Chelsea College

Despite passing the 11-plus, Mark Brickley says he wasn’t a particularly academic child. For reasons neither he nor his 81-year-old father, Derek, can recall, he chose not go to grammar school. So when he left school at 16, the year of the Falklands War “and when unemployment was through the roof,” he was keen to […]

Number of traineeship starts ‘disappointing’

Uptake on the government’s flagship traineeship scheme is failing to reach expectations, according to senior FE figures. It is too soon for Ofsted to report on the quality of traineeships in any detail… Skills Funding Agency boss Keith Smith (pictured) said colleges would deliver 57 per cent of projected 19 to 23 traineeships, while Ofsted […]

College boards ‘dominated’ by white men

A survey is set to reveal the extent of “under-representation” of black and ethnic minority groups on college governing boards, FE Week can reveal. The Association of Colleges (AoC) is due to publish its survey on the make-up of English college boards next Spring — but FE Week has seen the results. And they depict […]