An upturn in Diploma activity

Is it the election, the time of year perhaps, or something else, whatever it is there's be an upswing in press on Diplomas.

Diplomas have a colourful future
The TES reports a robust argument for Diplomas from three senior figures. I especially like the comment at the end "robust and challenging qualification". Keep it like that and Diplomas will succeed!

Save NEETs by swapping school for FE
Another TES report looks at NEETS, a very sensible idea in my view. Allow students the chance to transfer to vocational education at aged 15 - what can be wrong with this?
And on the same page, Marco Pierre White praises Apprentices as if to provide more evidence for the case.
And running throughout the FE section is the regular story about FE teachers earning less.

Sir Mike Tomlinson gets after the Academic Diplomas
With what looks like a warning shot across the bows to the Politicians. Now this could (if you'll pardon the pun) be all academic, simply because academic diplomas may never see the light of day, certainly in their current form. Nevertheless, it can't be good news if the chief architect of much of the 14-19 curriculum gets on the wrong side so early!

And something else I noticed is that if you're regarded as a poor school, your differentiators to attract staff are somewhat limited. So being able to offer more/better/different training could very well become a key differentiator. So a great idea from the TDA.

So all in all, a much busier week all round.

Jonathan Wells, of Guroo Functional Skills, leaders in 14-19 education resources.