Kirstie Donnelly

It’s not wrong to use the apprenticeship levy to fund MBAs

Apprenticeships at the top end are a legitimate and vital use of levy funds, argues Kirstie Donnelly Much has been made of claims that universities are set to make millions from the new MBA courses paid for by the apprenticeship levy, especially as many are launching programmes in partnership with businesses around the country. Some […]

A budget burgeoning with skills… But beware policy churn

The budget offers important steps in the right direction but, with the current policy churn in FE, we need to make all these initiatives join together in a coherent way, argues Kirstie Donnelly If you go on numbers alone, it was a good budget for the FE sector. The word “skills” appeared 11 times in […]

Skills to pay the bills

Kirstie Donnelly explains why she thinks the teaching of soft skills need to be incorporated more into apprenticeships and wider vocational training. Soft skills get little respect but can make or break your career, according to American leadership coach Peggy Klaus in her book ‘The Hard Truth about Soft Skills’, and it’s a mantra we […]