York College
‘Jobs’
Graham Hasting-Evans considers whether Lord Sugar’s quest for simply an ‘apprentice’ rather than, for example, a higher or intermediate one is a wise approach. This month saw The Apprentice return to our screens for its 11th Series. As ever, Lord Sugar and his aides had a firm grip on the 12 apprentice hopefuls picked for […]
Opinion
“People without jobs and jobs without people” was Australian chief executive Nicholas Wyman’s chosen topic for the 2015 Edge Foundation Annual Lecture, as he spoke about the challenge of the ‘skills gap’. Mr Wyman delivered his keynote speech to an audience at Glaziers Hall, in London Bridge, following an introduction from former Education Secretary and […]
News
Staff and students from across the FE sector gathered outside the Houses of Parliament in their hundreds today to protest against cuts to the provision of English for Speakers of Other Languages (Esol). Demonstrators, said to number around 600 in total, joined the rally to protest against the government’s decision in July to cut funding […]
Apprenticeships will this week come under the spotlight in a House of Lords debate focussing on the quality and accessibility of the programme. Lady Prosser (pictured above), former deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union and ex-president of the Trades Union Congress, is to open a debate on Thursday (October 15) looking at […]
Kirklees College is piloting a work placement scheme for young people with learning disabilities geared towards helping them find long-term jobs. There are 19 students taking the ‘supported internships’, who all come from the college’s foundation learning department, based in Dewsbury and Huddersfield. The pilot scheme, set to become a permanent fixture at the college […]
Bulletin
Former student Samantha Harvey has returned to Derby College as the first head gardener at its Broomfield Hall land-based studies campus. Ms Harvey’s role will involve supporting students in work experience programmes and leading work to open the grounds to more visitors. She studied horticulture at the college 15 years ago, before training and working […]
Movers and Shakers
When Find a Future deputy chair David Cragg is asked how long he has been working in FE he cracks a smile and says “110 years.” It’s an exaggeration, of course, as he was born in 1946 and became involved in FE in the late 1960s with a general studies teacher post at Warley College […]
Profiles
Judith Doyle inherited a grade three Ofsted-rated college in August 2013 and within eight months of her appointment inspectors dished out the same result again. But, picking up the gauntlet, she instigated a raft of changes that in July saw the college rated as outstanding. I was proud and delighted to be made principal at […]
When news broke last week that nine people had been killed by a gunman at Umpqua Community College, in Oregon, Iain Mackinnon’s thoughts jumped to the time he spent there a decade ago. By chance I’ve visited Umpqua Community College in Oregon, scene of the latest mass killings. This is no inner city madhouse where […]
