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 …
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 »
Ian Nash, member of the Policy Consortium, unpicks the subtleties behind the headlines on the BIS inquiry into adult learning … The first parliamentary inquiry for 13 years looking exclusively into the state of adult literacy and numeracy was announced …
First major inquiry into adult learning for over a decade Read more »
Little or no sound evidence exists to support claims that brain training, and other brain-based programmes that are now used widely in schools and colleges will accelerate learning and improve performance. Even the much-vaunted Brain Gym has precious little peer-reviewed …
Will neuroscience help education sort the truth from the quackery? Read more »
Andrew Morris and Ian Nash comment on the latest PISA report As ever, the latest PISA research triggered the usual blame game among politicians. Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, said it amounted to a condemnation of more than a decade of …
Should FE staff speak truth to power? I don’t mean in the way the US Quakers who originated the phrase in 1955 meant – as an alternative to conflict – but as a critical and quite probably friendly voice that …
Ian Nash and Colin Forrest survey the real issues behind the speeches and breakout sessions at the 2013 AoC annual conference in Birmingham Leaders gathering at the Association of Colleges Annual Conference in Birmingham were more stoical than they have …
A future with more freedom than people would wish for? Read more »
New proposals for a College of Teaching offer a unique opportunity to raise the status of the teaching profession and encourage high quality, evidence-based professional development. But the measures are certain to prove counter-productive and divisive if they fail to …
College of Teaching must include further education Read more »
Creeping privatisation and competition in state education has been a disaster across the globe almost everywhere it has been tried and yet the Coalition government seems hell-bent on pursuing it. Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, is repeatedly accused of putting …
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 – …