FE Week Reporter | FE Week

25 years of Summer art at Weston College

Weston College art faculty celebrated its 25th annual summer art show with a huge exhibition. More than 4,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs, textiles, fashion and graphic art were in the Wild Weston show at the College’s university campus. The event is regarded as a showcase for spotting future artistic talent and attracts thousands of visitors, many […]

Canterbury College student wins scholarship

A carpentry apprentice at Canterbury College has won a prestigious scholarship to improve a stately home recently saved by Prince Charles. Raymond Alvsvag, 23, is one of only 10 people in the UK to be awarded a scholarship on the Building Skill in Craft apprenticeship scheme, which is run by The Prince’s Foundation. After he […]

Unlocking the secrets of Swiss skills success

On June 18 Shane Chowen took a four-day break from his full-time job as Policy Officer for IfL and travelled to Switzerland for a ‘study and media trip’, reporting exclusively for FE Week What’s clear from day one is that you can’t help but be impressed with the Swiss set-up for apprenticeships. In fact, as […]

Vocational skills celebrated on VQ Day

This year’s VQ Day was a chance to celebrate technical, practical and vocational learning. But it was also a chance day for business secretary Vince Cable to remember the difference that further education made to his parents’ lives. “My mother and father both left school at 15 to work in factories and they progressed in […]

Havering College students shine at showcase

Graduating students from Havering College have showcased an amazing diversity of talent at this year’s Free Range exhibition in London’s Brick Lane. The show at the Old Truman Brewery provides a platform where emerging artists and designers from colleges and universities can gain exposure to thousands of visitors. Lucy Dodds, a graphic design student, was […]

Skills provision for the unemployed

Skills provision for unemployed adults has never been more important. Skills allow people to escape the low pay, no pay cycle in which those with low skills can all too often find themselves trapped. They also allow them to work in a new occupation if poor health or changing economic demand means that they cannot […]

Sweet taste of victory for squad UK

Forget the Olympics, this summer’s top event is learners, apprentices and employees competing for a place in Squad UK for WorldSkills Leipzig 2013. WorldSkills, the biggest international skills competition, is held every two years in one of 61 member countries. About 1,000 young people aged 18 to 23 compete for medals in more than 40 […]

Sara Mogel, principal, West Cheshire College

“I did it for all the wrong reasons,” says Sara Mogel of her decision to go into education. After a degree in economic and social history at Kent University, she did a teacher training course in the mid 1970s, purely because it came with a full grant, and having just married an American who didn’t […]

New apprenticeships are flying high

When Vince Cable and John Hayes announced the second list of successful higher apprenticeship bids last week, everyone should have taken note and appreciated the real transformation that is taking place. It is not simply the growing list of occupations likely to attract the attention of young people and their parents. It is also the […]