Tag Archives: skills

‘Transformative Teaching and Learning in Further Education – Pedagogies of Hope and Social Justice’

Professor Vicky Duckworth and Professor Rob Smith From a conversation the authors had with Eddie Playfair as part of the Association of Colleges Quality, Teaching and Learning conference in December 2022. Eddie Playfair: I’m delighted to welcome Vicky and Rob … Continue reading

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Knowledge-rich and skills-rich

We can learn a lot from the telly. Skills competitions like ‘Bake Off’ and ‘Strictly’ and quiz shows like ‘University Challenge’ and ‘Mastermind’ are among the most popular programmes on TV. These shows fall into two main camps, reflecting a … Continue reading

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The GCSE retake challenge.

Imagine a year when all our efforts to improve sixth form students’ English and Maths worked for nearly everyone. A year when the English and Maths skills of all those post-16 students who achieved grade 3’s at school improved to … Continue reading

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Dear candidates…

How to talk about post-16 education in the election campaign. Dear candidates, The general election campaign has started and you’ll be wanting to talk about all sorts of issues and hoping to win support. You can’t expect to be an … Continue reading

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Shaping an alternative education policy.

The Labour Party National Policy Forum Consultation 2017. Labour is currently consulting on its Early Years, Education and Skills policies and the consultation document merits the attention of anyone who is interested in developing alternatives to the current direction of … Continue reading

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Capital as metaphor

The economy of ideas #4 We talk about social capital, cultural capital, creative capital, even ‘emotional capital’. It seems that capital can stand in for almost every human capacity. Why is this? Given its role as a real currency, it’s … Continue reading

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Skill shortage, training shortage or job shortage?

Unpicking the ‘skills gap’ narrative. “The number of job vacancies unfilled because employers cannot find candidates with the appropriate skills has risen by 130% in 4 years” (UK Commission for Employment and Skills UKCET report, January 2016) When employers or … Continue reading

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The skilled learner DOES

Our mission at Newham Sixth Form College is ‘to create a successful learning community’. Each of the three ideas; success, learning and community are important to us and we make sure we define what each one means for all our … Continue reading

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Education and skills coming together?

The appointment of Peter Lauener as the chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) while remaining as chief executive of the Education Funding Agency (EFA) has prompted speculation that the two agencies could soon be merged, although this has … Continue reading

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Mastering my Zenit

For my 12th birthday my dad gave me a Zenit-E single lens reflex camera. This summer, over 40 years later, I came across it while sorting through some boxes, and it all came flooding back. At the time I was … Continue reading

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Debating the Liberal Arts

The Future of Liberal Arts conference: The Liberal Arts and Schools I was delighted to be asked to contribute to the panel on ‘The Liberal Arts and Schools’ at the ‘Future of Liberal Arts’ conference organised by Martin Robinson (author … Continue reading

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Labour’s vocational vision: two-nation thinking wrapped in one-nation talk?

The Labour party wants to position itself as the party of skills and vocational education. Party leader Ed Miliband and shadow minister Liam Byrne have both made recent major speeches on this issue. Clearly, any party standing on a ‘one … Continue reading

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