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Charlie Oatway, captain of Brighton and Hove Albion football club, attends his clubs study centre to improve his numeracy and literacy under the Heading for Success project which aims to exploit the power and popularity of football to attract people into education. Brighton is one of 10 clubs which has teamed up with the government to sign on fans in the project.

The principals of the UK colleges complained that data management is imposing a very heavy burden on college finances and resources every year. The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is hence working on several reforms that could simplify data collection and management information systems and help colleges reduce bureaucracy.

Actor David Spinx was amazed when he discovered the full extent of adult illiteracy in the UK while researching his part of the skint, work-shy and illiterate Keith Miller in the BBC's soap opera 'EastEnders'. On the eve of Adult Learners' Week in May 2005, Spinx states that he is proud to be a part of the Reading and Writing (RaW) Campaign to be launched by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in October which aims to reach intermediate and emerging readers.

Gateshead college in Tyne and Wear is the first in the UK to introduce a total smoking ban and to appoint smoking cessation officers (SCOs) to help staff and students deal with symptoms of withdrawal. Gateshead has the highest smoking rate in the northeast of England, but is in the vanguard of towns taking action against smoking with the local council, a shopping mall and a local pub all prohibiting smoking on their premises.

Geoff Hall, principal of New College, Nottingham, formed by a merger of four small colleges believes that bigger colleges deliver better results. He is urging that a review of the future role of FE colleges closely considers adopting a US-style system of large community colleges, which are better able to manipulate different funding sources.

The Center for Excellence in Leadership, the body set up to turn FE managers into the leaders of the future is offering a new guide that identifies the qualities required by aspirants to become a college principal. The guide fulfills the need to follow every avenue to give potential senior leaders in the sector the knowledge and confidence to take their path to the top.

Southampton City college in London has told the lecturers that they will be sacked unless they sign a local pay and grading contract that offers up to 6,000 pounds sterling a year less than the nationally-agreed deal. Unions state that Southampton is the first college to break away completely from the nationally agreed pay deal between the Association of Colleges and the Lecturers' union Natfhe, signed in 2003.

David Way, the Learning and Skills Council's (LSC) national director of skills, is developing the skills part of the LSC's 'agenda for change', the six-part programme to transform FE that also aims to improve quality, funding, efficiency, data, and reputation. He sees Warwickshire College's newly opened Trident Centre, a state-of-the-art technology and business skills centre, as an example of what he would like to see in colleges throughout the country.

SummitSkills together with Electrical Contractors Association and JTL claim that the short courses on offer for electricians are leading to underqualified workers advertising themselves as skilled craftsperson. They pointed to Home Office statistics that show that around 12,500 fires due to electrical faults are reported each year in the UK killing or injuring more than 600 people.

Built in 1866 as a workhouse to accommodate 'paupers' who slept four to a bed, is presently the Victorian St Mary Street Institution building which is used as classrooms in further education. Lindsey Noble, Southampton City's principal, is desperate to move out of the 140-year old building into modern accommodation to provide the right sort of working environment for the staff and the right sort of learning environment for the students but is lacking the funds.

East Surrey College would mark the first anniversary of its road to recovery with a party for its 730 staff. Frances Wadhurst, who took charge in May 2004 after the institution failed its inspection, believes that she has made sufficient difference to impress the Office for Standards in Education and the Adult Learning Inspectorate.

The highly-rated Burnley College in Lancashire wants pounds sterling 40 million to move to a new site, after inspectors stated that its building was inadequate, but claims the unjust funding regime is denying it much-needed cash to expand to a new location. Critics of the British government's FE funding policy accuse it of favoring schools embarking on similar projects.

Plater College in Oxford would be shut in July 2005 after inspectors found evidence of bullying, intimidation, drug misuse, racist abuse and sexual harassment. The archbishops of Westminster, Birmingham, Liverpool and Cardiff, the four trustees of the Catholic residential college, took the closure decision after the Adult Learning Inspectorate published a scathing report on the institution.

Lewisham College in southeast London is at the heart of efforts to rid the surrounding area of its Del-Boy image of poverty and crooked dealings. A new skills academy at the college aims to provide vocational education to 14- to 19-year olds in purpose-built workshops that provide realistic work environments in construction and engineering.

Up-front payments are among the perks colleges use to attract staff from industry and commerce by offering cash incentives that include bonuses, performance-related pay deals and one-off golden hellos. Having lecturers with industrial or professional experience has become the norm in most colleges in at least 10 of the 14 learning areas that helps in improving the quality of the provision.

Colleges are warned that they would be forced to appoint and promote more African American and ethnic-minority staff, if they failed to take necessary action on their own. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality urges colleges to act as agents of integration, and encourage entertainment, sport and leisure activities, so that the minority communities can enjoy themselves and feel more at home.

Many pupils are undertaking courses in colleges in order to engage themselves in continuing education. College lecturers have to be equipped with the skills and expertise for coping with the vastly different educational environment.

The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) in 2004 rated the Newcastle College, one of the largest in the UK with 40,000 students, as outstanding, becoming only the fourth general further education (FE) college to earn that accolade. Jackie Fisher, principal of the college, discusses her tough, no-nonsense leadership style that often upsets staff and students alike but delivers superb results.

A fast-track course in bricklaying has brought a sense of achievement to the participants, as this pilot programme might revolutionize the way construction crafts are taught in colleges and work-based training schemes. A partnership between Derby College, a private training provider, and the Learning and Skills Council aims to offer a unique and fast track route to learning the skills of bricklaying in less than a year.

The principal, David Collins, believes that an egalitarian ethos were the main reason for the South Cheshire college to become the best in the country. It is stated that the success of the college is due to a combination of clear leadership, excellent facilities and a superb staff.

Work-based learning providers have given many companies fresh assurances that they would open the market to allow them to compete directly with colleges under the Government's skills strategy. Mark Haysom, chief executive of the Learning and Skills council, heeded the plea from the Association of Learning Providers to give easier access to its members and believes that work-based learning is the key to the delivery of the skills strategy.

The growth in supervised fitness in the UK has created a huge increase in the demand for professional people qualified to coach, supervise and manage the activity. SkillsActive, the sector skills council for the sport and fitness industry aims to provide skilled workers to the industry and give an opportunity to people to take part in sport, physical activity, adventure and play.

Guidelines published in April 2004 have asked every college in the UK to draw up a drugs policy showing the procedures they are planning for tackling drug-related incidents on campuses considering a coherent drug education program. The guidance further reveals that the drug policy should link with other relevant policies including student discipline, health and safety, and confidentiality.

West Herts College, Oakland College in Hertfordshire and Reading College in Berkshire are accused for offering poor value for money. The Association of Colleges (AoC) has urged the Office of Standards in Education (Ofsted) to work closely with these colleges by offering both advice and criticism.

Around 2,751 out of the 10,000 employees of the London Underground including train drivers, signal operators and station staff possess relevant NVQs. The increase in the number of qualified employees is credited to the company's partnership with Barnet College in north London and a private training provider, Four Counties Training.

According to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), many schools built under the Private Finance Initiative may have a life-time of under 20 years. One of the main reasons for this is that local education authorities often choose the cheapest option for schools construction rather than having sufficient knowledge about schools design.

According to research carried out by the Meduical Research Council, many pupils believe that Year 12 pupils are better at teaching younger pupils about sex than are patronising teachers. According to the research lessons given by Year 12 pupils were less censorious and more fun than lessons given by teachers.

St Andrew's primary school, Soham, England, will have to work on balancinga normal routine and being sensitive to recent events after the murder of two of its pupils, Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, according to its headteacher, Geoff Fisher. The community in Soham is still grieving, which will pose some serious challenges for the schools in the area.

The merger of some school sixth forms and further education colleges in some parts of the country will allow more pupils to mix academic with vocational skills. The aim is to improve staying on rates for 16 to 18 year olds.

An analysis of the reasons behind the improvement in performance experienced by North East London College under the leadership of vice-principal Cathy Walsh. Walsh believes the main reason for the improvement, which saw the number of students leaving the college with no qualifications fall from half of all students in 2002 to just one in 10 in 2004, is down to the introduction of coaching for managers.

An overview of the growing trend in business for junior managers to be coached in leadership skills, which they can then pass on to their senior managers, and an analysis of how this approach could be applied to further education colleges.

An analysis of the skills teachers will have acquired during their time in the job that could be valuable to employers if they ever decide to leave the profession. Skills identified include adaptability, humility, leadership, organisation and patience.

The General Teaching Council has identified a lack of guidance, overwork and a sense of being abandoned as reasons why many teachers in the UK are contemplating leaving the teaching profession. It is contended that to prevent this, proper career guidance and support services are vital.

An overview of how staff at Newcastle College in Tyne and Wear, England, approach the teaching of citizenship to their post-16 students. The staff use a game called Heaven and Hell, which they have found enables the students to talk in the abstract about issues, enabling them to gain an insight into how these issues affect other individuals.

The Good Food project aims to encourage healthy eating in poor communities and to eliminate health inequalities which leave people in poor communities more vulnerable to long-term illness and early death. In particular, the project is helping to wean schoolchildren off junk food by increasing their awareness of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Jean Rudduck, education professor at Cambridge University, has devised a 12-point plan on how new teachers can win the hearts and minds of their pupils. Fairness and the ability to keep order in a way that allows pupils to work and to enjoy themselves are both prized. Pupils respect teachers who are calm, are consistent in their mood and treat students as individuals.

David Matthews, chief education officer of Bridgend, is aiming to provide maximum support to all teachers and heads at the 70 schools under his control. Matthews aims to encourage teachers and heads to approach the authority if they need help in meeting the required standards.

Bridgend local education authority is running a number of after-school 'good practice' courses for teachers at schools within the authority. The courses aim to share 'good practice' experiences and have proved to be popular, with up to 100 school staff attending the courses from schools throughout the authority.

Judy Larsen and her identical twin sister, Denise Skidmore, both run behaviour improvement programmes (Bip), designed to monitor school pupils deemed to be at risk from truancy, exclusion or criminal behaviour, in boroughs of London, UK. Larsen operates the Bip for the borough of Hackney while Skidmore operates the Bip for the borough of Waltham Forest. The twins, who both graduated from the same teacher training college in Western Australia over 25 years ago have had parallel careers that have led them to their current positions.

Kings International College for Business and the Arts, in Camberley, Surrey, offers two 50-minute lessons a week called enrichment. Activities include extra sport, drama, music, chess and cooking. After years of being chronically undersubscribed, Kings has added a number of innovative features to make the college a place where parents want their children to attend. A 10 year contract for the college was given to 3Es, a company started following the successful privatisation of Kingshurst school in Solihull.

This article discusses the debate over teachers' unions mergers, union leadership, and workload legislation at the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers' annual conference..

The government is extending education maintenance allowances (EMA) to over 60,000 unwaged job trainees. The EMA had previously applied to only students at school or college, but now applies to work trainees if their parents earn less than GBP30,000 per year. The grants are worth up to GBP30 per week.

Cricklade college in Andover faces an 'options appraisal' to decide whether it can be financially viable in its own right, after over 10 years of debt. The Learning and Skills Council, which funds colleges in England, has said that merger or closure can no be ruled out.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) will provide GBP 10 million from its 16 to 19 capital fund to build a new sixth-form centre which will be under local authority control and will have representatives of the college of North-East London on its governing body. Four Haringey schools will close their sixth-forms and move pupils to the new centre.

Funding chiefs have challenged Mayor Ken Livingstone to attend a face-to-face session to justify his attempt to take over control of college funding in London. The Learning and Skills Council is fighting after the Mayor announced ambitions to take over the budget.

MPs on the public accounts committee have called on the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to hold an inquiry into why colleges are better at teaching baic skills than schools. Colleges are other adult learning organisations have been asked to 'disseminate good practice' to help schools with English and mathematics.

Further education minister Bill Rammell has said that he wants every college to have its own chaplain and has said colleges play a vital role in encouraging religious tolerance. The minister has said that young people must have the opportunity to develop understanding and knowledge of all religions, beliefs, traditions and forms of expression.

The Government is supporting London's bid to stage the World Skills Competition. The delegation which will decide where the 2011 competition will be held was welcomed by government ministers. A decision will be announced in Melbourne in May 2006.

Natfhe, the lecturers' union, has warned that a shortage of full-time teaching staff in prisons in England and Wales threatens the government's plans to improve the training opportunities offered to prisoners. The union notes that, while it supports the ideas the government is putting forward, the reality of unstable employment on insecure part-time contracts for the majority of prison educators threatens their success.