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Chelsea's Apprenticeship journey

By Chelsea Dryden, Junior Tester, Tuesday 19 January 2016

Chealsea Dryden Thumbnail.jpg

My name is Chelsea Dryden, and after a year-long Apprenticeship with NCFE, I’m now a permanent Junior Tester with NCFE. My journey as an apprentice began when I signed up for NCFE’s Rising Stars Academy. This came about because of a skills shortage of IT workers in the North East, and aimed to give young people a stepping stone to begin their career in IT.

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Is our youth's mental health deteriorating?

By , Thursday 14 January 2016

Concerns have once again been raised around the mental health of our young people, as ChildLine has stated they are “deeply unhappy” due to modern pressures. Around 1 in 10 young people suffer from mental health illnesses, including depression and anxiety. Professor Tanya Byron, an expert in child and adolescent mental health, argues the education system is partly to blame, because: “We are teaching kids to pass exams – this is a fake marker of intelligence. While we are fetishising IQ, children and young people are so unbelievably anxious.”

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Learning by rote: Effective or not?

By , Thursday 14 January 2016

The government is introducing new exams from next year that will mean that primary school pupils need to know their times tables off by heart. In what it sees as part of its “war on innumeracy”, the government’s new exams will see pupils expected to memorise their times tables, and be able to recite them by heart. Commenting on the new tests, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan stated, “Maths is a non-negotiable of a good education. Since 2010, we've seen record numbers of 11 year olds start secondary school with a good grasp of the three Rs. But some continue to struggle.

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What did the Skills Minister's letter reveal?

By Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, Policy Leader, Wednesday 13 January 2016

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Every year, the Skills Minister writes to the Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), setting out the government's vision for skills funding priorities for the forthcoming funding year. It sets out in headline terms how 19+ funding will work from August 2016. One of the major changes to previous years is the appearance of a new budget line; the Adult Education Budget (or, because we love our Three Letter Acronyms, the AEB).

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Economic Forecast: Disruption ahead?

By David Grailey, Chief Executive, Wednesday 13 January 2016

David Grailey

6 short weeks ago, in the November 2015 Autumn Statement, George Osborne promised some respite from the anticipated cuts for the non-protected aspects of the Education and Skills sectors for the foreseeable future – with the caveat that these would depend upon growth in the UK economy. Following the terrible weather conditions at the beginning of the year, George Osborne recently set out his vision of equally turbulent economic conditions the UK economy will be facing in 2016. The crux of his argument was that the economy faces a series of challenges to continued growth, and we can infer that these challenges may threaten the levels of spending he has set out.

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