Latest education news
1st of July 2010
How college lecturers are keeping up by training one another at work
It's not every day that a former student stops you in the street and recites a poem about plant hormones which they learnt 15 years ago. But when your name is Richard Spencer and you have a following in Australia, the USA and Europe, it is perhaps hardly surprising.
17th of June 2010
Short business courses - It's amazing how much can happen in three days
A gold-plated MBA from a leading business school is a welcome addition to any CV, but, in these austere times, some people are increasingly reluctant to commit the time and money to take a year or more out of the workplace. Individuals and employers want a rapid, cost-effective skills uplift that can be put to work within days, not months. This could either arise from a bespoke course, created to meet the needs of a single company, or a more generic programme that brings together people from many different organisations.
3rd of June 2010
From lace-making to mushroom-foraging, Arca has the course for you
Have you always wanted to spin your own wool or carve yourself a country-style stool, immerse yourself in Chopin's works, or master that digital camera you got for Christmas? If so, then there may well be somewhere nearby offering a course that fits the bill.
27th of May 2010
Creative courses: Programmes that are music to your ears
It's early evening, and Liverpool student Alex Le Roux is in a car with a couple of friends on the way to Manchester's clubland. These students are not looking for a night of relaxation to take their minds off their studies, but are heading for an activity directly linked to their degree programmes, as they are all music students at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (Lipa).
22nd of April 2010
Professionalisation will create a win-win scenario
If you go to school, you can be sure your teacher has a formal teaching qualification. Go to college, on the other hand, and you don't have that reassurance. But things are set to change, with all further education teaching staff now expected to gain a qualification within five years of joining.
What's the best way to ensure young people are taught in safety?
Safeguarding students has become the single biggest issue for today's colleges. Not because students are at particular risk of harm in the further education sector, but because colleges have been expected to pay closer attention to the topic than ever before. But while the tighter structures being put in place might look like good news for all, they are fraught with difficulties.
1st of April 2010
Alison Wolf: Ministers should stop treating adults as stupid children
British governments are convinced, in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence, that they can predict the future. You might think they would be disabused by the financial crash, our limping economy, and the yawning gulf between the Treasury's expectations and its confident predictions in times of plenty.
5th of November 2009
How training can help you develop the skills for survival
Investing in staff training might not be top of the agenda for businesses struggling to survive the recession, but perhaps it should be. Research shows that firms which cut out training are two and a half times more likely to fail than those that don't. After all, it's competent, committed staff who enable companies to secure a competitive edge.
John Bingham: 'Governors are having more impact and reporting greater job satisfaction than before'
Often, people who are thinking about becoming a college governor spend little time considering how the institutions work and are directed before they decide to join a board. Most become governors because they want to put something back in to their community. They possess knowledge or skills that will benefit staff and the students they serve, and quite understandably they don't focus their thoughts too much on the intricacies of further education and the instruments and articles of governance.
Recipe for a great career: How college gave one man the ingredients to succeed in the restaurant business
Restaurateur James Thomson didn't like school. Much of his time was spent looking out of the windows at the old buildings of Edinburgh, fantasising about their history and the people who had lived there. What Thomson did like was working. Aged 12, he became a dishwasher at Crawford's tearooms on North Bridge. "My grandmother had a cashier job there, and they were always short of dishwashers, so I was called in. I loved the theatre of the place – they served morning coffee, lunches and high tea, and had old-fashioned cake stands and waitresses who all mothered me and gave me strawberry tarts to eat. I also helped the chef. I loved things like the smell of the coffee and cheeses, and the whole ambience of the place."
New chapter: How college are helping to change people's lives
With college alumni ranging from Baroness Boothroyd, the former Speaker of the House of Commons, to the author and academic Andrea Ashworth, the prevailing myth that colleges don't cater for the academically gifted is not a little surprising. But that's the thing with UK colleges – the sector appears to be burdened by outdated stereotypes.
29th of October 2009
Rise to the challenge: Stand out from the crowded jobs market with a Masters in business management
With one in 10 of this summer's graduates expected to be unemployed six months after leaving university – a sharp rise on previous years – applications for postgraduate courses have jumped. It seems that recent graduates, frustrated by the toughest jobs market in more than a decade, are taking to heart recent findings from the Higher Education Statistics Agency showing that holders of postgraduate degrees are likely to get higher paid and better jobs than those with only one degree.
A clearer future: Why sustainability graduates are in hot demand
It's not a word you would have seen in course titles 10 years ago, but Masters courses in sustainability have been popping up in many universities and business schools over the past few years. One of the first was at the Centre for Research Into Sustainability at Royal Holloway, University of London, which offers an MSc in sustainability and management. The course, taught between the management and geography departments, was first offered in 2004.
With distance learning, not being in the same country as your university isn't a problem
Bought anything on eBay recently? A flight booked online, perhaps? Or maybe surfed around looking at insurance premiums? We do so much of our own business online these days that it's hardly a revolutionary idea to learn about business via the internet. That explains the healthy supply of online and distance-learning postgraduate courses in the field of business education. The Association of Business Schools (ABS) lists higher-education institutions offering one or other model of distance learning, leading to a management-related Masters.
2nd of July 2009
Degrees of comfort: Where to find smaller classes and caring lecturers
Vicky Payne, 21, quit university after one year. It wasn't that she had struggled academically or made no friends. She just felt held back – something that completely changed when she started the same degree in hospitality management at Westminster Kingsway College.
John Bingham: 'This reform will improve the support that governors need'
People who are thinking about becoming a college governor often spend little time considering how the institutions work and how they are directed before deciding to join. Most become a governor because they want to put something back into their community – they possess knowledge or skills which they know will be of benefit to staff and the students they serve – and understandably they don't focus their thoughts too much on the intricacies of further education and the instruments and articles of governance.