JL Dutaut | FE Week

Growth, growth, growth. But what about education?

The ‘education prime minister’s’ honeymoon conference lacked policy and failed to make the link between the sector and the growth it wants, writes Alice Barnard

This government is committed to an ambitious skills agenda

Our skills agenda is at the heart of our plans to level up the economy and we are focused on delivering the reform the sector needs, writes Andrea Jenkyns

Testing times? Inside the reopening of colleges

An Herculean effort has seen colleges deploy mass Covid testing to support a safe reopening. So how did it go, and what does the future hold? JL Dutaut finds out “I wasn’t coping at home although my teachers really tried with me.” Our dominant image of vulnerable learners amid this pandemic may be of children […]

Profile: Asfa Sohail. Principal, Lewisham College

JL Dutaut meets a college principal for whom building resilience is a matter of building communities How are you? Good leaders ask this question often. The best stick around for the answer. But it’s their lot seldom to be asked the question themselves. It’s one of the changes Lewisham College principal Asfa Sohail has noticed among her staff and […]

Profile: Rebecca Conroy, CEO, East Sussex College Group

Challenging CEO stereotypes is one thing, but Rebecca Conroy’s relentless and contagious positivity must have an explanation. JL Dutaut finds out Chief executive. The title conjures up hard-nosed decision-makers in sharp suits. Google the words and still to this day the image results will return very few women. I’m happy to say that my experience […]

Profile: Ian Pryce, chief executive, The Bedford College Group

JL Dutaut meets a longstanding college leader who thinks we could all benefit from taking the long view How does a leader navigate such times? A phrase keeps coming back to me that encapsulates our sector today: “the fierce urgency of now”. When Martin Luther King, Jr coined it in 1967, it was a call […]

Profile: Dipa Ganguli, principal, Sutton College Adult Education

Newly-honoured principal, Dipa Ganguli could teach us all a thing or two about keeping calm and carrying on, finds JL Dutaut If college leaders feel aggrieved at being an afterthought to so many ministers’ education announcements, then look no further than Dipa Ganguli for advice on how to stay calm and carry on. Take the […]

Profile: John Laramy, principal and CEO, Exeter College

JL Dutaut meets a principal who is ideally placed to talk about building back better Exeter College has become a magnet for the government. Just over a year ago, Gavin Williamson visited to talk about T levels. He was back again in June, this time virtually, and six weeks ago it was the prime minister’s […]

Profile: Lisa O’loughlin

The Manchester College principal, Lisa O’Loughlin explains her collaborative strategy to provide the city with routes out of deprivation. By JL Dutaut When Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham called this week for schools to be closed to create a “true circuit break”, it is safe to assume that, as with so many other politicians’ educational announcements, […]