COLLEGES TO MARCH ON PARLIAMENT IN FUNDING PROTEST

  https://feweek.co.uk/2018/10/12/colleges-to-march-on-parliament-in-funding-protest/ Up to 3,000 people are expected to march on parliament on Wednesday 15th October  to demand more funding for colleges. The march for FE, organised by the University and College Union in partnership with the National Union of Students and the Association of Colleges, is the main event taking place during Colleges Week,…
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ROUTES TO HIGH-LEVEL SKILLS

Incentivising even closer working between universities, colleges, and employers would bring significant benefits to our economy says University UK. This report calls for the National Careers Service in schools and colleges to do more but this vital careers support service for young people disappeared when contracts ended in September 2018. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Pages/Routes-to-high-level-skills.aspx According to a new…
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HOW TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE SELF ASSESSMENT REPORT (SAR) IN FURTHER EDUCATION

The Annual FE Autumn SAR Tasks For those in Further Education, the Autumn Term means settling down into the new academic year, but for Quality Managers, it also means sitting down to writing the Self-Assessment Report (SAR) for 2017/18. Recently our Senior Associate Karen Adriaanse, a former Ofsted HMI, spent an afternoon with providers from…
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UTCs: ARE THEY DELIVERING FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE ECONOMY?

    A new report by the Education Policy Institute undertakes a detailed analysis of University Technical Colleges (UTCs). https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/utcs/ Introduced in 2010, UTCs offer education to 14-19 year olds, with a strong focus on technical education. They are sponsored by universities and supported by employers. At present, there are 50 of this school type open in…
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Ofsted INSPECTORS TO MOVE AWAY FROM EXAM RESULTS FOCUS

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman says the focus on performance data has narrowed what is taught in schools. She said, in a speech in Newcastle today, “inspections had placed too much weight on exam results”. There is now a growing expectation that Ofsted may inspect careers education and guidance in England’s schools and colleges under…
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY TO OFFER POORER STUDENTS FREE YEAR OF STUDY

Dozens of students from disadvantaged backgrounds that fail to meet the grades will get a free year of study at the University of Cambridge in a bid to widen access, the vice chancellor has said. As outlined on 4/10/18 by Eleanor Busby from the Independent Professor Stephen Toope outlined more details about the “transitional year” for poorer students that the institution announced earlier this week.…
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HEFCE : NATIONAL COLLABORATIVE OUTREACH PROGRAMME (NCOP) – IMPACT EVALUATION

CFE in partnership with The Behavioural Insights Team and economists from the University of Sheffield and LSE are undertaking a four year impact evaluation for the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE’s) National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) to understand what works, in what context and why. The NCOP is a new four-year investment by HEFCE to…
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FUTURE OF WORK AND SKILLS

The introduction of digitalisation in business is having a momentous impact on the production systems, labour conditions and organisational models of the labour market and the society in general. Quality basic education, high-standard and effective training, lifelong learning, up- and re-skilling for all will be the necessary tools for grasping the job opportunities of the…
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HOW USEFUL IS THE CONCEPT OF SKILLS MISMATCH?

The term skill mismatch is very broad and can relate to many forms of labour market friction, including vertical mismatch, skill gaps, skill shortages, field of study (horizontal) mismatch and skill obsolescence. This discussion paper (May 2017) written by Seamus McGuinness ESRI and IZA, Konstantinos Pouliakas Cedefop, University of Aberdeen and IZA and  Paul Redmond…
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YOUNG PEOPLE’S CAREER ASPIRATIONS VERSUS REALITY

The Office for National Statistics has published a new article  – What did your children want to be when they grew up? Researchers examined the career, salary and educational aspirations of 16 to 21-year-olds in the UK compared with the reality for 22 to 29-year-olds. The analysis has revealed a sizeable difference between those earlier…
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