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Alan: Construction teacher

Alan is a bricklayer and builder with decades of industry experience. He sees his work in college as providing more than just skills and knowledge about the construction industry.

Dean

Dean arrived at college with few formal qualifications but with years of experience of labouring on building sites. He was new to technology, found it daunting to use a computer and used a pen and paper for written tasks; but he could put his hand to many jobs in the building trade.

Adam

16-year-old Adam found it hard to control his anger in school and felt he was making no progress. He likes the calm environment in college. Now, he is gaining qualifications, becoming more confident and has a clearer view of what he wants to do in future. Now, he has hope and self-belief.

Stories of Transformation

Transformation. This simple word can mean so much – an untended forgotten garden, with care and nurturing, can transform into a fertile landscape of colour and vibrancy that breathes life into the air… And yet if forgotten, if it remains neglected, it withers, fades and never fulfils what it has the capacity or indeed hidden potential to be… For us transformation…

Reimagining Further Education Conference

Time to Reimagine Suzanne Savage reports on a recent conference at Birmingham City university: “While the government and media continue focussing on the growing number of young people entering universities at age 18, there is a notable absence of attention to the two-thirds of 16-18 year olds who attend a further education college in England.…

FE: the failure of data and State-istics to tell the real story

Don’t Talk FE down! It does a vital job! Another week, another stinging attack on Further Education by the outgoing Head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw.  This time, at the Baker Dearing Conference on 21 July in central London, Sir Michael Wilshaw talked about “an alarming rate of underperformance and failure, especially when we remember…

I didn’t know that I was meant to be a teacher.

Julie Hughes, teacher educator & head of Post Compulsory Education Department at the University of Wolverhampton: I didn’t know that I was meant to be a teacher. But the wonderful FE teacher who interviewed me for a place on a childcare course saw something in me that I couldn’t see myself. I was a mature…