Latest profile

Profile
Lisa O’Loughlin, principal and CEO

We expect teachers to understand pedagogy and have curiosity

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All Features

Long read, Politics

Reform plots a political tsunami, but skills policy is lost at sea

Farage’s turquoise tide: The insurgent party’s supporters want to fix ‘broken Britain’, insisting that trades and industrial automation are…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Colleges, Long read

Lisa O’Loughlin, principal and CEO

As Nelson and Colne College Group unveils a new identity, its leader Lisa O’Loughlin reflects on tackling illness, steering…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Colleges, Long read
Long read

Colleges on the frontline of a divided nation

As social media algorithms fuel intolerance and binary thinking, college staff increasingly find themselves dealing with the fallout. Jessica…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
land-based colleges, Long read
Long read

Jeremy Kerswell, Plumpton College principal and Landex chair

As head of a land-based college that has doubled in size, Jeremy Kerswell is attracting students from outside rural…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Long read, net zero
Profile

GSAP: FE’s secret weapon for net zero training

Former fisherman Mike Blakeley tells how he’s building the Green Skills Advisory Panel so FE and industry can make…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Adult education, Long read

Inside the evergreen sanctuary of Fircroft adult residential college

Inspired by Denmark’s folk high schools, Birmingham’s Fircroft College still provides a home-from-home for people with addiction and mental…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Colleges, Long read

Alun Francis, chair of the Social Mobility Commission

Deprived areas need vision – not victimhood – to level up, and Social Mobility Commission chair Alun Francis is…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Long read, Skills reform
Long read

Stephen Evans, CEO of Learning and Work Institute

Battling cuts to adult education has been the defining task for Stephen Evans at Learning and Work Institute, but…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Long read
Profile

Phil Smith, chair, Skills England

Phil Smith reveals he’s working all hours since becoming chair of Skills England but believes he has all the…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Long read, Prison education
Long read

The prison that’s offering hope for a new life upon release

‘We’re saving people’s lives as well as turning them around’

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Apprenticeships, Long read
Profile

Mark Botha, CEO, Knovia Group

Rugby-loving boss of Knovia Group Mark Botha has big plans for care, early years and dental training after learning…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Colleges, Long read
Long read

End of the road for Turing?

As the future of the post-Brexit Turing programme looks uncertain amid DfE cost cuts, we examine its impact on…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill