We had a call some three and a half years ago now from folks at the Department for Education, and (I’m terribly condensing here) it went along the lines of: ‘There’s going to be some work done looking at reforming technical education. Would you like to be involved?’ It was part of a big round of consulting occurring in the sector.
Immediately we focussed in on the opportunity. We had been looking for a way to develop and enhance our technical and vocational curriculum, and the vibes that were coming out of the sector generally, stoked by news feeds from the likes of SFCA, suggested themes like: a new level of quality to compete with Scandinavian and German training, flexibility to teach in real-world industry ways, and massive involvement with employers… these were all playing the right mood music for us.
