Jess Staufenberg | FE Week

A history of the Learning and Work Institute as it turns 100 today

Through its many incarnations, the Learning and Work Institute has supported initiatives that are still with us now, writes Alan Tuckett The Learning and Work Institute celebrates its hundredth birthday today. Despite never being blessed with a surfeit of cash, the LWI can look back on 100 years of advocacy and research for lifelong learning. […]

Introducing… Larissa Kennedy

Almost one year in to her two-year role, Larissa Kennedy, one of the youngest ever presidents of the National Union of Students, explains why she wants louder FE campuses Larissa Kennedy, president of the National Union of Students, is on a specific mission to increase the voice of FE students, she tells me. The public […]

How the skills bill would increase and clarify the government’s legal powers

The Skills Bill drops hints as to the direction of policy in the sector, writes Mark Taylor The skills and post-16 education Bill gives us clues as to where the government is headed on policy in the further education sector. Let me talk you through a few points of interest (or, at least, which are […]

This is how we can boost the number of girls and women on construction courses

There’s a huge market for female tradespeople to come round and fix the electrics, so we need to get more on construction courses, writes Nikki Davis Being a college with one specific industry focus – in our case, construction – has lots of advantages. But even with our advantages, it still takes a lot of effort […]

Colleges are teaching Generation Z: the ‘crisis generation’

The recession, Brexit and austerity have shaped Generation Z’s view of the world, writes Karl Pupé Educators, we are living in crazy times. In our society, the old rules and protocols of how we live together are crumbling before our eyes. We are living through one of the most turbulent times in human history. We […]

The Skills Bill: inadequate to deal with years of neglect and a pandemic

This Skills Bill reveals an approach that remains inadequate to tackle the scale of the skills challenges we face post-Covid, writes Toby Perkins After a decade of funding cuts and neglect of further education, the sector has understandably welcomed the government’s new-found interest. But the much-heralded Skills Bill contains less than meets the eye, and […]

The Skills Bill is not about taking back control of colleges

Instances of serious failure are rare and the government wants to reduce interventions with the Skills Bill, writes Gillian Keegan This week we introduced the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill in Parliament. Not only did this mark an historic moment for education, it also signalled how serious we are about skills reform. While the Bill […]

New powers in Skills Bill point to radical loss of autonomy for colleges

Government is taking more control but the Skills Bill will only be a success if young people are kept at the heart of it, writes Angela Donkin The new Skills Bill has been published with a legal requirement for employers and colleges to work together to fill local skills gaps. The DfE’s press release does […]

The slow death of adult residential education?

As Northern College fights for survival, FE Week asks – is the government overlooking a big opportunity to ‘level up’? Lee Hughes was 29 years old when he signed up to Northern College, one of just a few adult residential providers in the country, hidden away in expansive grounds in Barnsley. “It’s a bit of a […]