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26 April 2026

Author: Jess Staufenberg

Profile: Carol Thomas

JL Dutaut meets a new principal and CEO who loves the stage but doesn’t make a song and dance of her successes It takes all sorts to keep an education system performing. Some like the daily grind of incremental improvement. Others like the long-haul commitment to a community. For Carol Thomas, it’s all about the […]

Media focus on younger learners during Covid overlooks adult education

As the government rolls out the national retraining scheme, a publicity drive is needed to promote adult learning, writes Ann Marie Spry The UK education system emphasises younger people, with the majority of funding directed towards pre-18 compulsory education, and the immediate post-18 education the next most supported. We can see this reflected in the […]

Putting SEND learners at the heart of the college means all my students are back

Whether it’s providing farm placements or much-needed structure through digital platforms, putting SEND learners front and centre always makes sense, writes Paul Phillips Since 2001, my mission has been to place inclusive practice at the centre of Weston College. When offered the chance to run a college “my way’” it was daunting – miles from […]

Investigation: College sector recruitment highs & lows after virus and exams fiasco

As colleges re-open their doors after a summer like no other, staff have had to cross their fingers and hope new learners turn up, on the right courses for them. The outlook was nerve-wracking – schools that would usually hold students’ hands until they reach college hadn’t seen their pupils in months. Employers normally offering […]

Incorporation: The end of an experiment or the end of a myth?

Ministers are considering taking colleges back into government control, as revealed last week in these pages. But, Jess Staufenberg asks, was incorporation ever what it was cracked up to be? There is a rising anxiety in the heart of government about the lack of intervention powers when colleges are failing. That’s what FE Week reported, in an […]

Profile: Ruth Spellman

FE Week revisits the outgoing Workers’ Educational Association chief executive Ruth Spellman and finds her focused, as ever, on improving adult education. You could, very briefly, be disarmed into thinking Ruth Spellman is just an unusually sweet-mannered Londoner. The 68-year-old is standing over me in her upstairs sitting-room in Highgate, with piano music tinkling in […]

Forces for good: ex-military impress as trainee lecturers

Successive governments are not giving up on the idea of getting former military personnel into classrooms, but could FE be a better fit than schools proved to be? Facing a retention crisis and wringing their hands about behaviour standards, education secretaries still find the idea of a sergeant-major whipping students into shape just too tempting. […]

Careers and Enterprise Company blasted over £200k conference spend

The Careers and Enterprise Company has been blasted for spending more than £200,000 on two conferences after MPs demanded to know why private sponsorship for such events was not sought instead. The organisation, which was grilled by the education select committee in May over its spending, had a second hearing with MPs this morning, with […]