FE Week Reporter | FE Week

London Irish RFC backs East Berkshire College’s brand new Rugby Academy

Combining education and sporting excellence, East Berkshire College has launched a new Rugby Academy in partnership with one of the country’s top rugby clubs, London Irish RFC. To mark the official launch, students from the college’s rugby team were invited down to the London Irish training ground in Sunbury-on-Thames to meet their sporting heroes face […]

VIPs open Microsoft Academy at Burton and South Derbyshire College

The Rt Hon Iain Duncan-Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Stuart Pearce MBE, Head Coach for the England Under-21s football team, visited Burton and South Derbyshire College to launch a new Microsoft IT Academy. The VIPs met with current students and business customers before conducting an official opening ceremony to launch […]

Shared services will fail, and potentially put people in jail

Some of us find sharing difficult, some of us don’t play nice with others…some of us don’t even realise this. Colleges are not known for playing nice with their neighbouring colleges. The closest college is, in the main, a vicious competitor who knows no boundaries… who will stop at nothing to steal your students, steal […]

Grimsby Institute plumber wins award

An Apprentice from the Grimsby Institute has won the national title of SkillPlumb Champion 2011, part of the International WorldSkills competitions. 24-year-old Tom King started his training with the Grimsby Institute’s Department of Plumbing two years ago as an Apprentice Plumber, having already completed an Apprenticeship in Joinery. Tom displayed a natural aptitude for Plumbing […]

A view on the Government’s FE Loans Consultation

The consultation on the proposed 2013 introduction to further education loans is an important opportunity for FE to raise collective questions and push for a more detailed consideration of the impact on learners, the economy and education providers. The loans represent a seismic shift not only in the way FE will be funded, but how […]

The Treasury giveth and the Treasury taketh away

Effective marketing – rather than over-reliance on financial incentives for students – is the best long-term solution to increasing numbers at 16-18 in a sustainable way. The introduction and withdrawal of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) has hit the sector hard. The student subsidy was part of the furniture, quietly holding up recruitment of school-leavers while […]

Students have a go at Filton College

Young people from the Bristol area had an opportunity to get hands-on experience of a range of skills at special “Have a Go” events during the national celebration of Colleges Week. The event is designed to showcase the opportunities offered by the college to the communities it serves and to open students’ minds to the […]

FE Week and Me mug-shot competition

Here at FE Week we appreciate all of the lovely people who contribute to the newspaper and win our exclusive competitions. As a small token of our gratitude we present each and every one of them with one of our exclusive FE Week mugs. But that’s not all though! Hidden inside is a specific set […]

Wes Streeting, CEO, Helena Kennedy Foundation

As a “geeky, gobby” free school meals kid with naff trainers, the young Wes Streeting was never going to win any popularity contests. But, he reckons, it was his own fault. “I won a book token in a school competition and bought a collection of speeches by Tony Blair and read it on the coach […]