Mike Cooper introduces the newest practical materials in its ‘Other Resources’ service, offered by the Policy Consortium to help providers in their everyday activities. Since May 2014, the Policy Consortium has posted a varied set of documents offered as free downloads under the ‘Other Resources’ …

‘SPaG’: helping FE staff and learners to cope with increased demands Read more »

Here’s the third in our occasional series of ‘other materials’ from the Consortium and its members, which are all free to use — and which could be of interest, and practical use, to staff within provider organisations across the FE and Skills sector. …

A sample tool from the Policy Consortium for quality assuring and improving initial assessment Read more »

Andrew Morris discusses ways ahead for the sector in using evidence to improve professional practice. (Please note that this is a revised and extended version of an ‘FE Expert’ column originally published in ‘FE Week’ on 30th May 2014.) Whether …

Research, evidence and the new professional standards Read more »

We’ve recently added a fresh category to our website: ‘Other resources’. This further section holds new kinds of materials that are unlike our more usual sort of comment and analysis articles, which give our perspectives on current news and issues. These different resources within the new menu can …

A new kind of support from the Policy Consortium Read more »

Colin Forrest, Carolyn Medlin and Mike Cooper of the Policy Consortium analyse what Sir Michael Wilshaw’s Ofsted Annual Report for 2012/13 says about further education and college improvement. This is an extended version of the post ‘Setting the scene for …

Ofsted still found to be in much need of improvement Read more »

Colin Forrest, Carolyn Medlin and Mike Cooper consider the clues in Ofsted Annual Reports, past and present, as to what impact the Inspectorate has had on improvement in the sector and how well it performs according to its own criteria… …

Setting the scene for the Ofsted Annual Report – and FE improvement Read more »