Jessica Hill | FE Week

Prison Education unlocked: The system that’s failing its learners

The prison population is estimated to pass 100,000 by 2030. With re-offending rates starting to increase and new prison education contracts out to tender, Jessica Hill and Sophie Carlin explore this hidden world – and find out what needs to change After prisoners at HMP Warren Hill in Suffolk have been unlocked from their cells, […]

William Pickford, principal, Redbridge Institute of Adult Education

William Pickford has had an “eclectic” 25-year career in FE which has seen him opening a college on a faraway tropical island, overseeing another as it was evicted due to local authority financial mismanagement, and now, leading London’s only ‘outstanding’ council-run adult education service. Since 2021, he has been the principal of Redbridge Institute of […]

AI will march into every aspect of education – but what are the consequences?

From bot exam markers to snooping surveillance tech, we look at some of the most eye-catching technology on sale to educators at this year’s ed tech Bett conference, as the regulatory world rushes to catch up with AI advances. Bringing exam marking into the AI age The makers of an AI tool which marks both […]

Inside the college sector with an educational, societal and cultural mission

Their idyllic rural settings, historic buildings and strong links with local communities have enabled land-based colleges to diversify their income streams in innovative ways to survive. Jessica Hill investigates what the future holds for England’s land-based college sector. Land-based education sits at the forefront of the biggest crises facing our world, from food scarcity to […]

‘We never had a secretary of state whose heart was in further education’

Tim Leunig, the brains behind some of the biggest education policies of the past decade, knows that some of the opinions he’ll be sharing in his new role as an FE Week columnist will raise some eyebrows. But he has never been shy about courting controversy. We meet at Westminster Abbey, where Leunig gives me […]

Rachel Bown, FE lecturer of the year

Rachel Bown was crowned the FE lecturer of the year at the 2023 Pearson National Teaching awards for the inspirational PE teaching she does at her small specialist college, Fairfield Farm in Wiltshire. But Bown is inspiring not just for her teaching. After a brain tumour left her blind in one eye and at one […]

From prisoner to prison reformer – one student’s amazing transformation

Kamali Stevens jumped up and punched the air in delight when he was announced as the winner of the higher education student of the year award at this year’s Association of Colleges annual conference. The 41-year-old’s elation at that moment was understandable. He had undergone an incredible journey from prisoner to prison reformer, after being […]

Family learning: Where next for the ‘hidden jewel’ of adult education?

Family learning programmes have had to fight for survival in a competitive funding environment that demands quantifiable outcomes for learners. But the provision, which involves adults and children learning together, now seems to be enjoying a bit of a revival, with over 20 per cent more people taking up family learning courses in 2022-23 than […]

FE Student support champion Polly Harrow

Polly Harrow sees her new role as the country’s first FE student support champion as being the “most perfect challenge”. After spending 25 years in FE, including ten as chair of the National Association for Managers of Student Services (NAMSS), few others understand the difficulties of providing support to college students amid the spiralling mental […]