The latest Exclusive Thought Leadership and Op-Ed Articles written by experts across Further Education, Work Based Learning, Skills, Employability & Apprenticeships
Skills Commission Inquiry heads to Linco…
Apr 26, 2019 / Featured Article
The Skills Commission Inquiry, co-chaired by former Skills Minister John Hayes MP and Barry Sheerman MP, has been jointly launched by Policy Connect and the Learning and Work Institute. The inquiry...
From Silicon Valley To The Classroom: #E…
Apr 25, 2019 / Featured Article
American internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn, once said that Silicon Valley is a mindset, not a location. Having recently spent some time at a large technology event in San...
Good leaders in FE drive improvements in…
Apr 24, 2019 / Featured Article
Leading skills: Exploring leadership in Further Education colleges A recent review by the Behavioural Insights Team for the Government found compelling evidence that effective public services leaders are associated with improved...
From Apprentice to Leader: Developing th…
Apr 23, 2019 / Featured Article
This year’s National Apprenticeships Week happened against a bleak backdrop for those in the engineering community.Only in December, figures from the Department for Education showed that there had been a...
DON'T LET DOWN THE YOUNGER GENERATION - …
Apr 19, 2019 / Featured Article
ON THE day the Prime Minister called a general election in 2017 350,000 citizens registered to vote – half on-line. Yet almost two years on it’s estimated that five million people...
Taking Teaching Further To Encourage Col…
Apr 18, 2019 / Featured Article
As part of a package of support for FE teaching, this government made a manifesto commitment to create a new national programme to attract experienced industry professionals to work in...
Gaining insights into young people who a…
Apr 17, 2019 / Featured Article
Are pupils who were eligible for free school meals more likely to be Not in Employment, Education, and Training (NEET)? What about pupils who didn’t get five GCSEs? And how do NEET...
#Apprenticeship gateway to end-point ass…
Apr 16, 2019 / Featured Article
I have heard organisations and people saying that the gateway to end-point assessment (EPA) has become a tick box exercise. I have also heard others talking about setting up a whole...
#Apprenticeships - Are Employers Really …
Apr 15, 2019 / Featured Article
It was really encouraging to listen to skills minister Anne Milton’s latest interview with FE News when she called for the Institute (IfATE) to be more responsive and open. This coincided...
Teacher gender split in top UK universit…
Apr 13, 2019 / Featured Article
There is an ongoing debate on the gender pay gap and women’s access to senior roles - but how well are female professors represented in the teaching profession in higher...
The increasing importance of ‘super’…
Apr 12, 2019 / Featured Article
Developing strong links with employers is a key priority for most FE colleges. Not only do our students need exposure to the real world of work, but businesses up and down...
Teaching adaptability in schools is a gr…
Apr 11, 2019 / Featured Article
At the end of March a new report showed that while 60% of employers say being adaptable has become more important in the last decade, simultaneously over 60% of educators...
How teaching robotics can tackle the lac…
Apr 10, 2019 / Featured Article
The UK’s economy is at risk due to the shortage in STEM skills - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - where there is a gap in professionals to take over...
How Apprenticeships Can Evolve to Suppor…
Apr 09, 2019 / Featured Article
I was recently at the 2019 Innovative Apprenticeship Network conference [INAP] in Germany. It’s a conference held every two years to review some of the leading research into Apprenticeships. As ever it...
Two-thirds of Young Swiss Enrol on Appre…
Apr 08, 2019 / SkillsWorld
Tom Bewick: Hello and welcome to #SkillsWorld the Podcast. I'm back in Germany again this week where I'm attending the International Conference on Innovative Apprenticeship. In the previous episode, we talked...
The Future of FE Funding – Are We Fund…
Apr 05, 2019 / Featured Article
While we all wait on tenterhooks for the somewhat delayed delivery of the Augar Review of Post-18 Education and Funding, it might be an opportune time to take a look...
The #Apprenticeship Levy – if rationin…
Apr 04, 2019 / Featured Article
There has been recent scrutiny about the forecasted overspend of the levy. UVAC has been predicting this for some time and now the Institute (IfATE) and the National Audit Office have...
In defence of the BTEC
Apr 03, 2019 / Featured Article
It doesn’t seem so long ago that the Edge Foundation was writing about ‘the rise of the BTEC’ and how this qualification was gaining currency amongst universities on a par...
It seems good ideas never die, they just…
Apr 02, 2019 / Featured Article
Throughout its existence, the Learning and Skills Council’s (LSC) Provider Financial Assurance inspected financial management and governance at FE colleges in parallel with Ofsted inspections. A similar approach operated for larger...
March of the Robots, Dual Apprenticeship…
Apr 01, 2019 / SkillsWorld
Tom Bewick: Hello and welcome to skill as well the podcast I'm on location this week in Germany where I'm attending the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeships (INAP) and I'm...
The Seven Year Itch – The State of the…
Apr 01, 2019 / Featured Article
The Challenge Having spent the last seven years working outside of the UK with international skills systems and policy, I found on my return that the UK cultural sector skills landscape...
The Drive For Quality In #Apprenticeship…
Mar 29, 2019 / Featured Article
Ensuring quality is an essential component of creating a truly world class apprenticeship system. The process of the reforms to apprenticeships were intended to embed quality at every level of delivery. High...
How the public sector can make the most …
Mar 28, 2019 / Featured Article
Lizzy Grayson, Category Manager of HR Services at YPO, discusses the different ways the public sector is currently making the most of apprenticeship training: The role of apprenticeship training has always...
How to retire happily from FE – and do…
Mar 27, 2019 / Featured Article
So I’m crossing the road in Brighton yesterday and there’s Frank on the other side. ‘Hello,’ he says, ‘Are you alright, then?’ Not ‘How are you?’ or even, ‘Are you missing that...
The Digital Future of Further Education …
Mar 26, 2019 / Featured Article
FE (further education) has never been more important or more relevant, an intuitive, digital future can help ensure its ongoing success. Most of us will know someone who has been through...
The role of the trainer assessor for app…
Mar 26, 2019 / Featured Article
If you currently deliver apprenticeship training as a trainer / assessor, your role is likely to be going through considerable change. In the new world of apprenticeship standards, trainer / assessors...
The Trouble with Apprenticeships… Stop…
Mar 25, 2019 / Featured Article
So this week sees more negative headlines regarding the apprenticeship reform programme. This time in the form of the announcement by the Public Accounts Commission of this afternoon's inquiry into the...
FE Funding, Social Mobility and Brexit: …
Mar 25, 2019 / SkillsWorld
This week Tom talks to Claire Fox, Director of Academy of Ideas, and regular commentator on our airwaves around a whole host of moral and political issue. Claire originally worked...
How important is health and safety train…
Mar 23, 2019 / Featured Article
A radical overhaul of the skills system across the UK is needed if businesses are to avoid the negative effects of Brexit. There is little doubt that the skills base in...
Apprenticeships vital for tackling futur…
Mar 22, 2019 / Featured Article
With Brexit creating uncertainty and bringing skills shortages to the forefront, employers are under quite a bit of pressure. As a result, apprenticeships are being seen as an invaluable investment...
2019: Time for FE and HE to work in harm…
Mar 21, 2019 / Featured Article
As colleges begin to plan for 2019/20 this offers a time of reflection. Both Further Education and Higher Education must have looked back on 2018 as a troubled time, with...
The Shameful Neglect of Adult Learners i…
Mar 20, 2019 / Featured Article
Launch of Independent Commission on Lifelong Learning. When it comes to education, for too long there has been an almost exclusive focus, in terms of political attention and public funding, on...
Three ways to optimise apprenticeships t…
Mar 20, 2019 / Featured Article
How can apprenticeships support the economy? The current apprenticeship system is not optimised to meet the needs of employers or the wider economy. Employers have come to view the apprenticeship system...
Why the Arguments against Management App…
Mar 19, 2019 / Featured Article
Read many articles in the FE press or talk to FE sector leaders and you will soon get the impression that management apprenticeships are a very bad thing: There’s has been...
Ten year plan for basic and intermediate…
Mar 19, 2019 / Featured Article
New research from Learning and Work Institute shows progress improving skills has slowed over the last decade: A renewed focus on basic and intermediate skills could boost our economy and improve social...
Hard facts employers should consider bef…
Mar 19, 2019 / Featured Article
Movement to Work works with businesses and organisations that have the imagination to give young people who need more support a chance in the workplace through placements and other job...
External Quality Assurance (EQA) starts …
Mar 18, 2019 / Featured Article
This is a critical and exciting time for the apprenticeship reforms. Now a few years in we are beginning to see momentum build as volumes of apprentices on standards begin to...
SEND and High Needs, Have Your Say: Impr…
Mar 18, 2019 / Featured Article
A potential measure of an advanced modern society may be viewed as to how well that society supports and encourages the most vulnerable of its citizens to improve the quality...
‘Crazy’ Quality Assurance System For…
Mar 18, 2019 / SkillsWorld
The chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon MP, has told the #SkillsWorld podcast that Ofqual should become the sole End-Point Quality Assurance (EQA) provider for England’s apprenticeship model...
Bridging The Gap Between Government Targ…
Mar 17, 2019 / Featured Article
The introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy and the government’s target of 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020 has many colleges and training providers feeling the pressure. Additionally, research conducted by the...
How to successfully manage a career chan…
Mar 16, 2019 / Featured Article
The average person in the UK will work 3,515 days throughout their lifetime, recent studies have found. That makes your career one of the most important parts of your life...
Students lack access to quality careers …
Mar 15, 2019 / Featured Article
Over the years, there has been a trend in firms and other organisations towards targeting young people about careers at ever earlier stages. Striving to ensure that talent – irrespective of...
Play the Game! EQA of EPA Needs a Common…
Mar 15, 2019 / Featured Article
Think of the last time you played a board game. Monopoly? Risk? Doesn’t matter. The important thing is that when you played, there were a set of rules that everyone...
For Many In FE LinkedIn Is A Forgotten F…
Mar 14, 2019 / Featured Article
Does LinkedIn Matter To You? There is a simple answer to this question and it should be: yes. Yet for many people in FE, in training provider organisations and in learning...
Adult Education Budget Devolution Is The…
Mar 14, 2019 / Featured Article
Devolution of the Adult Education Budget (AEB), has been on the cards for a few years and until recently, it seemed to be moving towards us at the speed of...
#AI To Create 2.3 million Jobs By 2020: …
Mar 13, 2019 / Featured Article
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slowly taking over our day-to-day lives - especially when it comes to the workplace and using tech to enhance and fast-track tasks. There are many sectors in...
We must address the problem of a levy po…
Mar 13, 2019 / Featured Article
Introduced in 2017, the apprenticeship levy was widely seen as a positive step towards increasing investment in skills development and training by businesses across the UK. Not only this, but the...
DfE’s new Teacher Recruitment and Rete…
Mar 12, 2019 / Featured Article
The Department for Education has launched a strategy for recruiting and retaining school teachers in state-funded schools, which is based around four key priorities: School cultures, Early careers, Flexible careers...
Smarter Learning: How artificial intelli…
Mar 12, 2019 / Featured Article
You know you are in the digital age when you have to intervene between two robots arguing in your home, as happened to me recently when my Google Home Hub...
Energy, Enthusiasm, Willingness to Learn…
Mar 11, 2019 / SkillsWorld
This week for Skills World, listen to Tom reporting from the frontline of skills delivery as he talks to award winning independent apprenticeship training provider, LDN Apprenticeships. Founder and CEO, Simon Bozzoli, explains why...
AN ‘EASTERN’ STRATEGY TO #NUDGE LEAR…
Mar 11, 2019 / Featured Article
4 quick questions: Why, if the laid path goes all around a square of grass, is it likely there’ll be an unofficial path cutting one or more corners? Why are you advised...
Building The Essential Skills of Creativ…
Mar 09, 2019 / Featured Article
Having the skills required for a career can be hard when leaving school and university. Often specific skills aren’t taught in traditional education. Being able to gain skills that are...
CAREER GUIDANCE FOR ALL, NOT FOR THE PRI…
Mar 08, 2019 / Featured Article
National Careers Week - Equal Access to Career Guidance It’s National Careers Week: a nationwide campaign that promotes good careers guidance in schools, colleges and universities, ensuring that all students in...
Aligning the National Curriculum to care…
Mar 08, 2019 / Featured Article
With both National Apprenticeship Week and National Careers Week putting careers in the spotlight, it’s a great time to reflect on exactly what is being done to help the next...
Why schools should focus on a child’s …
Mar 08, 2019 / Featured Article
“I also agree with him about the importance of embedding careers deep into the curriculum”. That is how Secretary of State Damian Hinds responded to a question in the House...
#Apprenticeships can be key to navigatin…
Mar 07, 2019 / Featured Article
Apprenticeships remain a popular way in to work for many young people. Official figures from the Department of Education show 119,500 took up apprenticeships in the first three quarters of...
Apprentices #BlazeATrail, but the govern…
Mar 07, 2019 / Featured Article
There is definitely an air of pyromania in the National Apprenticeship Service’s latest campaigns to promote apprenticeships. After exhorting young people to ‘#FireIt Up’, they are now encouraged during National Apprenticeship...
Making A Career In Cleaning Up The Earth…
Mar 06, 2019 / Featured Article
School and college students care passionately about the environment. Less than a month ago, thousands of young people walked out of lessons to protest about the failure of politicians to...
20% Off The Job Training: Let’s celebr…
Mar 05, 2019 / Featured Article
For anyone outside the skills sector, trying to work out what is going on with apprenticeships as we celebrate another National Apprenticeship Week must be quite baffling. On the one hand...
Getting on the new (tougher) #RoATP – …
Mar 05, 2019 / Featured Article
The new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers has now been launched and providers currently on the Register will be invited to reapply before the year is out. So, what do you...
FE News are always keen to engage with experts who would like to contribute solution led, peer-to-peer thought leadership content, sharing best practice, innovation and emerging technology within education, training and employment.
Feature articles need to be 650 - 2000 words and be exclusive to FE News. We also need the Name, Job title and Organisation of the author and have an accompanying image, usually a head shot of the author 750px by 570px. Contact editor @ fenews.co.uk for more details on how you can get involved.
