Posted by: Martin Bojam
on Nov 30, 2009
I’ve just returned, with two of my colleagues (Gabrielle Golding and Arabella Arthy) from the (FE) College Marketing Network Conference in Coventry. It was the first time I’ve been to an FE gathering, and you can’t help but be impressed with the enthusiasm and drive – and as the photo shows, we all worked very hard!
More seriously, it seemed to me that a key theme of the Conference was Employer Engagement, an area where I believe Colleges are, by and large, ahead of universities in terms of the importance they place on this area. Both financially and in terms of their mission, it is much more critical for them, but one wonders whether, given the way the political tide is flowing, HEIs might not find themselves having to play catch up before too long. Of course some universities, for example Warwick or Hertfordshire, have been fully engaged with the business community for a long time now, but that certainly isn’t true of the majority.
