Author: JL Dutaut

It seems the three main political parties have fallen out of love with apprenticeships, writes Karen Redhead, and the unintended consequences of reform may not be helping Four years and two general election campaigns ago, Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats competed to outdo each other on apprenticeships. While the debate has moved to a much […]

The skills sector is still stuck on seeing apprenticeships as a NEET policy rather than the industrial strategy policy it has become, writes Mandy Crawford-Lee, and that’s leading to bad policy. For most people in the skills sector, the priorities for apprenticeship are seen as providing training for the 16 to 18 ‘guarantee’ group, supporting […]

With manifestos being furiously written and further and adult education in the spotlight, national policymakers could be missing an important factor in getting sector policy right, says Anna Round Manifesto authors seeking recommendations for post-compulsory education are not short of material. They might even be forgiven some weariness on hearing about yet another blueprint for […]

A looming Brexit makes it easy to see why adult education is at the centre of election policy battleground, writes Sarah Waite, but a comprehensive vision for this vital sector is yet to be articulated I can’t remember when adult education last featured so prominently in the election pledges of two major parties. While discourse […]

What would you tell the leaders of the major political parties about needed policy changes in further education? The Collab Group has a few answers, says Shelagh Legrave   Recent government industrial strategies have identified skills as a key driver to improve productivity in the UK. Low-skilled workers, according to the OECD, place the country […]

Political parties are finally waking up to a crisis in the skills sector, writes Stephen Evans. Whichever way this election goes, there’s no putting that genie back in the bottle. You wait years for a political party to say they’ll invest in lifelong learning and then, like the proverbial buses, two come along at once. […]

This election comes at a critical time for further education, writes Ian Pretty. We must press for a commitment to transform the sector that goes well beyond simple funding promises. There is little doubt that this general election promises to be among the most unpredictable in modern history. We cannot with any degree of certainty […]