Reading the headline messages in Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw’s annual report, it is easy to be misled into thinking there are no outstanding colleges inEngland. ‘For the second year running, Ofsted did not judge a single college …
Ian Nash grades Chief Inspector’s annual report ‘unsatisfactory’ Read more »
Why the sudden rush? When further education leaders put flesh on the bones of former FE and Skills minister John Hayes’ idea of a guild for the sector, they found compelling arguments to support it. But it couldn’t and shouldn’t …
Ian Nash writes: The FE Guild – a sea-change or just another pendulum swing? Read more »
It is now broadly accepted that one of the factors holding back the progress of vocational education in England is the association between different types of education and social class; the snobbery that sees academic education as being for the …
Mick Fletcher comments on possible anti-FE snobbery in the UTC movement Read more »
What does it cost to open a 14-19 University Technical College? If you are Lord Baker, Education Secretary to Margaret Thatcher, it’s upwards of £20m. If you are from Cleveland and Redcar College you get the same for £30,000 – …
Peter Davies and Mick Fletcher coordinated the drafting of a submission to the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning, jointly with the Centre for Post-14 Research and Innovation, Institute of Education (IoE), University of London. Other Policy Consortium members contributed to the …
Pasi Sahlberg Source Education in other countries sounds so much more interesting than our own! In Switzerland it’s the calibre of apprenticeships, in France the breadth of the Baccalaureat, in Scandinavia the quality of pre-school play. But as I see …
Following David Cameron’s pledge last week to rip up employment red tape in the name of better delivery, where does this leave the promises in Lord Lingfield’s interim report on professionalism in further education (FE) to maintain teaching standards in …
Deregulation and cuts provoke fears of a return to the bad old days Read more »
Sally Faraday and Carole Overton consider new research into effective teaching/training and learning which strongly suggeststhat differences between ways of promoting academic and vocational learning are exaggerated and that the same good practice characteristics are to be found in both. The …