FE Week Reporter | FE Week

VQ Day – Round-up

Mark Harper MP, Aaron Freeman, National VQ Learner of the Year, and Skills Minister Matthew Hancock VQ Day celebrations kicked off with a ceremony and reception in the Houses of Parliament to recognise the achievements of vocational learners from across the UK. Lord Kenneth Baker, chair of the Edge Foundation, and Skills Minister Matthew […]

Employability lessons for traineeships

An OCR pilot in Kent is offering a group of 16 to 19-year-olds the same three-pronged approach as the government’s traineeships, writes Mark Dawe About 958,000 (about 20 per cent) of 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK were out of work in the first quarter of 2013. While this is lower than in some EU […]

Cultivating a change in careers provision

Millions of people today work in jobs that didn’t exist when their parents left education. It’s a new world that demands more coherent national and local careers provision, says Deirdre Hughes We are facing a significant economic challenge; there is high unemployment (especially among young people) at the same time as employers struggle to recruit […]

An investment that is well worth making

As a leader of a college judged outstanding by Ofsted, I was recently asked what pressures I faced from the structural changes to education and the harsh economic climate. David Lewis College is one of 60 independent specialist colleges (ISCs) in the UK providing day and residential FE to around 3,000 students with a wide […]

Bridging the skills gap through partnership

Barclays is determined that there should be more apprenticeships and that young people have the skills they need to be successful in work, writes Lynne Atkin. Figures for the early part of 2012 suggest that the number of 16 to 18-year-olds entering apprenticeships is declining compared with the same time last year. These figures highlight […]

From Cinderella to Alice in Wonderland

Establishing and maintaining structural and cultural change in FE is a huge task, a task that needs not only vision but will — and that will is lacking. We have always had the sufficient but not the necessary conditions for success. It is why hours of Institute for Learning professional development were never used to […]

How to make your career blossom

Several past WorldSkills UK competitors were among the gold medal winners at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, writes Joseph Massie. The Chelsea Flower Show celebrated its centenary this year, but 2013 should also be remembered for the high numbers of WorldSkills UK alumni taking part in the annual event. I was competing for RHS Young […]

Let’s get down to business

The FE sector and business are failing to lay the foundations for tomorrow’s innovative workforce, says Sandra O’Neill. Too many young people are leaving college without the knowledge, awareness and aptitude for business and entrepreneurialism that is vital to employers and to creating the future business leaders that our economy needs. As the first cohort […]

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