Respect FE - deal with skill shortages
Turn on the news or read the newspaper and you hear “skills shortage”, and “shortage occupation list” for legal migration. But why is there a skills shortage and what is the national plan for addressing it?
Further education
Further education
Skills qualifications confusion
27 December 2023
Constant changes to skills qualifications have added to the pressure on further education. Political interference creates nothing but confusion.
Fight for better conditions in further education steps up
19 November 2023
Further education workers have begun strike action in defence of pay and conditions. Their campaign follows years of neglect by employers and government.
FE lecturers launch wave of strikes over pay
27 September 2022
Thousands of lecturers at further education colleges in England are striking this week and next in a battle over pay in the biggest action ever taken by FE workers.
FE lecturers in NW England fight for better pay [updated]
19 May 2022
UCU is campaigning for an 8.5 per cent pay increase for their FE members. With strike action taking place in NW England, they are beginning to have some success.
Strike wave sweeps NW England colleges
16 May 2022
Lecturers at eight further education colleges in Lancashire and Cumbria are set to take action over pay as employers try for below-inflation settlements.
Strike ballot at Richmond college
2 May 2022
Lecturers at Richmond upon Thames College are balloting over strike action over the employer’s plan to fire them all and offer re-engagment on worse terms.
Training professionals during the pandemic
12 October 2020
Professional training must continue despite the current pandemic. The need for essential face to face teaching must not be overlooked, otherwise students will be delayed in qualifying and entering the workforce.
Further education: a vital area for growth
With a new prime minister saying we will leave the EU by 31 October at the latest, those who work in further education must seize the opportunity to say what is needed – and to demand it happens…
Education: College pay strike
Wolverhampton College staff have been taking to the picket lines across three college sites in a dispute over pay.
Casualisation in further education
Some colleges are using wholly owned subsidiary companies to develop a “shadow FE sector”, employing teachers on worse terms and conditions and hiring them back into the college to teach.
Change needed in FE
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) and Unison working in further education went on strike for the day on 24 February in colleges in England that have refused to make any pay offer for 2015-16.
'Worst attack in history' on further education as government cuts bite deep
29 April 2015
If the government continues with its planned cuts to the adult skills budget, by 2020 adult education and training in England will have ceased to exist.