Welcome!

Hi, I'm Shane Chowen, Vice President (Further Education).

Welcome to the further education zone of officeronline where, come rain or shine, you'll find campaign information, news and ideas to take up in your students' union. Campaign materials and information for students are available at www.nus.org.uk.

If you have any comments or ideas on how we can improve this section, then please email me at shane.chowen@nus.org.uk. In the meantime, please check out my blog for photos and my thoughts on the varying campaigns we're running.

Staff contact: Gemma Painter, FE Policy Officer

See previous stories...

Read more press releases in the press releases section...

Learner involvement:

• Sabbatical Officers in students' unions (pdf, 304kb) - Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, Appendix D, Appendix E, Appendix F, Appendix G.
• AoC/NUS Model Students' Union Constitution (pdf, 157kb) - A model constitution and guidance notes for setting up an FE students’ unions
• "Dewey Weber College" model learner involvement strategy (doc, 69kb) - A model learner involvement strategy to adapt for use in FE colleges.
• Students’ parliaments and students’ councils in FE briefing (doc, 356kb) - How to set up and develop a student council or parliament in your students' union.
• Student Councils and Students’ Unions: Legal Issues in Colleges (pdf, 196kb) - Briefing clarifying the definition of a "students' union" in FE
• The modern students’ union briefing (pdf, 105kb) - A helpful overview of the purpose and role of a students' union.
• Guide to setting up clubs and societies in FE (pdf, 1.97mb) - A step by step guide to setting up student run clubs and societies within your students' union (2004).
• Students' unions elections pack - A helpful guide to running effective FE students' union elections (2004).
• Technology and learner voice (external link) - The blog for the joint NUS/Becta project looking at how learner voice and the learner experience can be enhanced using technology.
• Technology Toolkit for FE Students' Unions

Course/class reps:

• Course representatives toolkit (external link) - A set of resources for course reps to help them represent their class to the college (published by LSIS).
• Course representative training guidance (external link) - guidance for staff on how to run an in-house training session for new course representatives (published by LSIS).
• NUS Course reps hub - Resources for course reps compiled from students' unions across the UK, currently being updated to include more information for FE course reps.
• FE Course reps log (pdf, 132kb) - a useful guide for course reps to use in preparing for their role, full of helpful advice, checklists and other tools (2005).

Student governors:

• supporting student governors: a student governor's log (doc, 389kb) - an indispensable training and development aide for studnet governors, full of helpful advice, checklists and other useful tools.
• Recruiting and supporting student governors in further education and sixth-form colleges (pdf, 2.1mb) - Guidance and best practice for colleges
• Electing student governors (pdf, 202kb) - A helpful guide for colleges and students' unions with best practise examples.

Students' union officers:

• What is NUS? (ppt, 589kb) - A powerpoint presentation introducing NUS to your student council or parliament.
• Autonomous FE students' unions
• Students' union officers’ A to Z - Loads of helpful advice, from "attending college meetings" to "working with students".
• Taking up a student's case, a guide to individual representation (pdf, 185kb) - A helpful briefing on how to go about supporting students with complaints, disciplinaries and appeals.
• What is the Learner Views Survey? - Information about getting access to your learner views survey results and how to use them in your campaigns and union work.

FE campaign resources:

• Putting the LGBT into FE (pdf, 1.3mb) - Briefing on how to represent Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Trans students in your college.
• "Safe on Campus, Safe on the Street" FE college campus security policy (pdf, 1.2mb) - A campaign guide for SU officers and student governors on FE college campus security policy.
• Briefing on the Housing Act 2004 (doc, 78kb) - Briefing on new laws that can help students' unions when campaigning on college accomodation standards.

Consultation responses and research:

• Reducing the voting age to 16 - NUS response to the Youth Citizenship Commission’s consultation on whether the voting age in UK elections should be lowered to 16.
• Increasing learner involvement in Ofsted inspection - NUS urges a greater focus on talking directly to students and students' unions.
• The true cost of college - Research into the hidden cost of studying in further education.
• Ending age discrimination in the national minimum wage - NUS submission to the Low Pay Commission on the national minimum wage, October 2008.
• NUS Demands a National Minimum Wage for Apprentices - NUS submission to the special Low Pay Commission review into the National Minimum Wage exemption for apprentices.

Useful links:

• Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) - The Goverment department that regulates colleges and funds adult education.
• Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) - The Government department that funds 14-19 education.
• The Association of Colleges - Acts as the main voice of colleges to Government.
• Ofsted - The Government inspectors website, which holds a copy of the latest inspection report on your college.
• The Learning and Skills Council - The organisation who funds the colleges in England until April 2010.
• The Learning and Skills Improvement Service - The agency that is funded by the Government to help improve colleges management and governance.
• Times Education Supplement - The education newspaper which you can read for the latest news about further education.
• The Education Guardian - The Guardian's FE news section.

Older briefings and policy documents

• Past briefings and policy documents that may still prove useful for reference are archived here.