Has the reclassification of Colleges as Public Bodies put college capital projects in limbo? FE Soundbite edition 678

Welcome to FE Soundbite edition 678. Has the reclassification of Colleges as Public Bodies put college capital projects in limbo? This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal brought to you be FE News ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here is a snapshot of the latest announcements and cool thought leadership articles from influencers and cool thinkers across FE and Skills this week on FE News.

Welcome to FE Soundbite. Wow, what a cool range of content we have for you this week.

We have exclusive articles from Labour’s Toby Perkins, AoC, and AELP. We have two ChatGPT / AI articles and two articles on potentially unforeseen issues with college reclassification (capital building projects and recruiting Execs in Colleges). So, something for everyone!

ONS College reclassification potentially has a few unforeseen outcomes:

College Classification – does this put College Capital Projects in Limbo?

First up is an interesting Exclusive Article from Labour’s Toby Perkins (Shadow Minister for Skills and Further Education): Ministers inaction on reclassification sees college capital projects thrown into jeopardy

Does college reclassification cause additional problems recruiting senior college leaders?

Luke O’Neill from Morgan Hunt wrote a really interesting piece on a potential unforeseen challenge: ONS Pay – What does this mean for recruiting principals and senior leadership in FE colleges in the future?

This is really interesting. With the ONS reclassification, as Collab’s Ian Pretty said: “..colleges will fall within the scope of senior pay controls, the general principle being that no one can earn more than the Prime Minister.” So what does this mean for recruitment and retention… quite a bit actually!

An exclusive article each from AELP and AoC  

We are really pleased that we have had two very interesting exclusives this week, one from AELP and one from AoC.

AELP’s Paul Warner writes about temporary funding uplifts : High-quality skills provision needs proper funding – not just temporary respite.

AoC’s Catherine Sezen writes about Qualification Reform: Why getting qualification reform right is crucial for students

ChatGPT

ChatGPT and OpenAI is really making waves at the moment. We have two brilliant ChatGPT articles from two very different experts:

Dan Fitzpatrick wrote a great article: Sit tight, ChatGPT is about to change everything. If you don’t know Dan, I would recommend checking out this article, Dan is an EdTech super specialist and also one third of the EduFuturists. So I would highly recommend checking out his article. If you don’t know what ChatGPT is… well Dan’s article will help you out. As Dan says: “AI can now write your lesson plans, create your lesson content, give feedback and be a second teacher to your students. But most importantly it’s going to revolutionise the education system.“… so it that doesn’t whet your appetite, I don’t know what will! Ha, ha.

Professor Amanda Kirby wrote: Chat-GPT- is this an alert for changes in the way we deliver education? Amanda asks:  Is this the end of assessments as we know it or the beginning of other ways students to can explore knowledge and understanding information even better. Amanda looks at the gains and potential losses and what it could mean for neurodivergent students to ensure greater equity in education.

Thinking of Neurodiversity, Gavin Hoole also wrote an interesting article (but not on ChatGPT): Transitioning into Adulthood: Challenges for Neurodiverse Youth in the 21st Century

Have you heard… FE News are recruiting a Platform Growth Manager?

FE News are recruiting a Platform Growth Manager. I said this was a year of celebration and innovation… so we are recruiting a new member of the team to help make 2023 even more impactful and help us deliver even more innovations.

2023 is the 20th anniversary of FE News, but we need help to provide more impact for our thought leaders and influencers, to support and lead the team (our Platform Growth Manager will be leading our Digital Project Managers… and also supporting their careers… as all of our Project Managers are Apprentices, so it is also supporting someone’s future in the industry)… and overall, after 20 years, I need some more help.

Finley, Holly and Danielle are smashing it… but we all need some additional help, someone who loves content, helping people share their stories and vision, someone who loves to experiment, try new things and have a growth mindset. I wrote the job ad… read the job ad… and was like…. wow, I’d love to work there… it was a weird moment to be fair. But, this is a very cool role and is a massively important job for FE News, for the team and me… so if you can think of anyone who could help make a difference in the sector, I’d really appreciate it… check this out.