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?
27 December 2023
Constant changes to skills qualifications have added to the pressure on further education. Political interference creates nothing but confusion.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
Wolverhampton College staff have been taking to the picket lines across three college sites in a dispute over pay.
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.
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.
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.
