As Parliament went into recess, the Policy Consortium’s Ian Nash cheekily rummaged through the wastepaper bins of the Commons Library and other places to find the ‘lost’ speech that Opposition Leader Ed Miliband should have delivered at last week’s Sutton …
Mick Fletcher’s latest blog was originally published in ‘FE Week’ on 20 June 2014. He suggests that the BIS plan for National Colleges once again raises the ugly spectre of class prejudice. The idea that the problems of English FE …
Ian Nash of the Policy Consortium reports from the recent AELP Annual Conference, and particularly on the current state of play regarding apprenticeship funding. Radical plans from the Coalition Government to give employers full control over the funding and design …
Ambitious apprenticeship plans are yet to convince employers Read more »
In an article originally published (in a slightly different and shorter form) by ‘FE Week’ on 6 June 2014, Policy Consortium member Mick Fletcher considers the introduction of a mandatory 33% contribution by employers to the funding of Apprenticeships. The new BIS guidance …
Apprenticeship funding: too generous, but off-putting to small firms Read more »
The Policy Consortium is very pleased to provide its full report Taking the pulse of Further Education [700 kB 65 page PDF], with analysis of the responses received from over 1000 people across the FE sector to our recent survey, …
Taking the pulse of FE – full report from survey Read more »
Mick Fletcher looks at different takes on employer ownership of vocational qualification reforms … All the headlines about the long awaited Skills Funding Statement were understandably about the 19% cut to adult FE funding and the climb down on loans …
A better way to reform vocational qualifications Read more »
The Apprenticeship Funding Consultation, launched by the government at the end of July, is full of good intentions. It aims to increase the number and quality of apprenticeships and at the same time get better value for money from public …
Lasting success in education does not come overnight For truly outstanding performance a school or college needs the ‘three Ps’ – patience, professionalism and partnership, says Andrew Morris, author of a 20-year progress report on the path to success in …
Andrew Morris celebrates twenty years of City and Islington College 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 – …