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13 May 2026

College lays foundations for the future

Builder Tommy Walsh, star of TV’s Ground Force, has opened a £3m construction workshop at Cambridge Regional College. John Malone, college head of construction and engineering faculty, said: “Tommy talked to the students about the opportunities available when they’ve trained to the high standards that we help them to achieve. “He told them they would […]

Students stick to their briefs

Around 560 students from 17 FE colleges up and down the country showed off their pants at London’s Old Spitalfields Market for an entrepreneurial Fairtrade challenge. They marketed, promoted and sold ethically sourced designer pants as part of a four-month real-life business challenge organised by the Gazelle Colleges Group and Fairtrade underwear brand, Pants to […]

Brushing up on their decorating skills

Painting and decorating students from London have helped to brighten up a day centre for disabled adults. Barking & Dagenham College preparation for employment students Paul Bryant, Mark Fortune, Stephen Jeakins, Sean Taylor, all 17, and Charlie Ross and Ben Hopkins, both 16, painted the Maples Centre’s multipurpose room yellow, to match its overall colour […]

Egged on by annual show’s theme

Young chefs ruffled some feathers at the South of England Show when they created chicken and egg meals for the hungry crowds. The theme of this year’s show was poultry, and the level one and two professional cookery diploma students from Central Sussex College used local ingredients to rustle up dishes such as Mexican huevos […]

Lorin’s Titanic struggle pays off

A Weston College student’s scale model of the Titanic was too big for the bus so he pushed it 15 mile on a converted go-kart to his college. Level two art and design student Lorin Robinson, 17, created the model at his home in Clevedon, but as he doesn’t drive decided to push it on […]

Curtains up on theatrical careers

Two Leeds apprentices have landed jobs at Leeds Grand Theatre. Grace Dean, 21, and Bethany Beal, 20, both completed cultural heritage operations apprenticeships through Leeds City College, developing and delivering education programmes, tours and events, before working part-time at the theatre until full-time recruitment started. Bethany is now a finance assistant at the theatre, while […]

Bright spark powers to electrician prize

A Telford College learner has won an electrician’s toolbelt  for his outstanding achievement as an electrical student. Adam Hyett, 19, from Wolverhampton, was chosen by Telford’s lecturing staff after BG Electrical, which manufactures electrical wiring accessories in Shropshire, offered to sponsor an award for a student who had made an exceptional impact in academic and […]

Solving the merger mystery

A proposed college merger in the Midlands made the FE Week news pages earlier this year after the intervention of Skills Minister Matthew Hancock. Chris Henwood looks at the national picture of mergers over the past few years When Skills Minister Matthew Hancock sent a letter to every college chair and principal in England reminding […]

‘It makes life easier, but not always better’

K College was created from a merger of South Kent College and West Kent College. It is now being broken up and sold off. Interim principal Phil Frier explains why two shouldn’t always become one I have never been keen on mergers. I have been involved with two and on the edge of another, and […]