FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Warwickshire College floristry tutors create blooming marvellous display for festival

A beautiful floral display has been created at Coventry Cathedral by tutors and students from Warwickshire College. As part of the cathedral’s Flower Festival, floristry tutor Jane Benefield and ten students from the college’s Moreton Morrell centre decorated four of the altar candlesticks – which are nine feet tall – with their display designed around […]

Will City College Southampton pair cut the mustard?

A duo of skillful stylists are set to showcase their skills on the national stage. Claire Heenan and Charlotte Moss, both students at City College Southampton, have made it through to the finals of the National Student Barber Competition 2012. The pair, aged 18 and 30, will attend the national awards ceremony in London on […]

Writtle College event gives food for thought

Writtle College are preparing to play host to an innovative event to help children gain knowledge about the journey of their food from field to fork and raise awareness of the countryside around them. The Essex Schools Food and Farming Day will be staged on May 24, with 3,000 primary schoolchildren and 500 teachers and […]

The end for Britain’s ‘conveyor belt’ of skills

The Government’s announcement to lengthen the duration of apprenticeships will help to ensure better quality workers which is vital for the economy’s growth. The recent announcement by the Skills Minister John Hayes that apprenticeship schemes are to be lengthened is welcome news for the British economy. It signals the end to what could be seen […]

Why Adult Learners’ Week matters now more than ever

The national awards ceremony for Adult Learners’ Week kicks off a week of similar events across the country this week, alongside thousands of opportunities for people to have a go at learning, often for the first time since they left full-time education. There will be tears and laughter, applause and inspiration at the ceremonies and […]

Achieving excellence in teaching and learning

Recommendations in the latest report from the Commons education select committee offer an opportunity for a parallel, if not unified, approach to raising standards of teaching and learning throughout our schools and colleges. It is an opportunity that must not be wasted. The select committee’s report, ‘Great teachers: attracting, training and retaining the best’, calls […]

City College Norwich develops federation model

City College Norwich (CCN) is developing a federation model alongside two academies and a potential University Technical College (UTC), which will help share essential services and promote collaboration. Dick Palmer, principal of CCN, says their proposals include a shared services company which will be in charge of purchasing “basically everything other than teaching and learning.” […]

Gordon Birtwistle, MP for Burnley

Growing up in rural Lancashire, the young Gordon Birtwistle wanted to be a joiner and undertaker. But while he liked the idea of making coffins, he wasn’t quite so keen on the idea of working with dead bodies. “That was the job in those days; make the coffins, bury the people or burn them,” he […]

FE loans market research published by BIS

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has published a research paper detailing how learners feel about the upcoming “24+ Advanced Learning Loans” policy. The research, carried out by TNS BMRB, found that 74 per cent of learners aged 23 or above said “they at least might take a course” at level 3, while […]