Any rumours I heard that being on the NEC for a second year is much slower are so not true! Here’s what the first few weeks of the new term have been like…

3rd-7th July

I spent my birthday in sunny Southport for the NEC residential (many thanks for the cake and pressies NEC). The course was BRILLIANT! I was doing my exams during last years induction and I always felt I missed out a bit on that initial ‘bonding’ with NEC and getting to know how the organisation works. I had a really great time and took away with me some great ideas to start working on- highlights for me were the creative campaigning session from Amnesty International, the workshop on the TUC Organising Academy and hearing all the NEC explain their “Tree’s of Life” we had to draw. I found that without realising it I’d made assumptions about people based on what I’d heard or thought I knew about them and it was fascinating to hear everyone’s motivations, values, and ideas for the future- it really irritates me when people do it to me so I’ll be checking myself next time I second guess what someone believes in without finding out for myself. Veronica and I headed up to Stoke-on-Trent when the training finished on the Thursday for Keele Universities Graduation Ball. On Friday I set off with a headache back to London for a meeting with the Association of College’s Governance Unit to discuss the student governor training we jointly provide.

10th- 14th July

On Monday morning I had a meeting with the Department for Education and Skills Governance Unit to discuss the new Instruments and Articles consultation and lobby for a student affairs sub committee, where student matters relating to the governance of the college could be discussed and worked through, to be made a requirement for every college by being added in to the draft I&A’s- we’ll have to wait until the final document after the consultation but fingers crossed! In the afternoon I had a really productive meeting with a representative from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) to discuss joint campaigning work we can do about the cuts being made to A-level courses in a number of colleges.

Tuesday was spent in the office catching up on e-mails and working on the campaign proposal for the year.

Wednesday was the Strong and Active Unions Zone meeting. Stephen led a great meeting- I won’t spoil the unveiling of the campaign at the campaigns launch on 6th September but it’s shaping up really well.

Thursday I had a meeting with representatives from OfSTED- the inspection body for FE colleges to discuss their role in ensuring that the recommendations on learner voice in the white paper are being adequately carried out by colleges. We are working together to improve the current inspection guidelines for colleges and will be meeting with them again soon to progress this work further.

On Friday I was in Birmingham- in the morning I was invited to a workshop on Further Education held by the Conservative Party (lucky me). The Tories have set a public services quality improvement group, which is looking to do a report next year and inform the Tories public services policies so they are carrying out workshops on all areas of public services across the country. The workshop was attended by Principals and representatives from all different types of colleges in the West Midlands, employers and representatives from local branches of the Association of Colleges and the Workers Education Authority. There were some interesting discussions about what “choice” means in education and what the role is for FE colleges in getting adults into the workplace. The workshop was chaired by Maria Miller, the shadow Minster for Education- she was asking questions to frame the discussion and my jaw dropped to the floor when she asked, “Is there a role for vocational education in this country?”!!! …..enough said.

In the afternoon I had a meeting at Birmingham University Guild with Richard Angell and relevant staff about campaigning on minimum wage.

17th- 21st July

Monday morning was Management Team meeting and in the afternoon was the first meeting of the FE Zone. I think the meeting went brilliantly, there was a good turn out and we agreed a broad campaign plan for the year and got to work on some more detailed actions for the coming year. Again I won’t spoil the unveiling at the campaigns launch but I’m confident that we will have a really engaging, untied campaign that officers will find easy to take up, and will hopefully make a real difference.

On Tuesday I had the first meeting of the National Learner Panel (NLP) Steering group. There were a few students and representatives from DfES, Learning and Skills Council and Quality Improvement Agency. Some of the things discussed included who the membership of the panel should be, what the tender document for organisations wanting to bid for the contract to run the NLP should include, how organisations engage with the panel, how the panel can set it’s own agenda to influence current FE policy and how to develop a regional structure to support the NLP. Updates on the progress with the NLP will added to the FE Zone of officeronline and you can now see the action points from the June conferences on the NLP here

Wednesday I had a meeting held by UCU including other trade unions, and organisations from across the FE sector to discuss joint campaigning work on the disgraceful cuts to adult education that are resulting in course closures, staff redundancies and fee hikes for students in colleges up and down the country. Given that in the future two thirds of the jobs in this country will be filled by adults, the Governments slashing of funding for adult education seems completely short sighted, not to mention the direct impact it has on the diversity of colleges, BME students, women, students with disabilities and widening participation! Campaigning against these cuts will be a large part and the first phase of this years FE campaign.

Another meeting with the Tories on Thursday (again lucky me). This time it was a roundtable meeting organised by the National Institute of Adults in Continuing Education (NIACE) with John Hayes the Shadow Minister for Vocational Education. Again Hayes wanted to hear views about adult education to inform conservative party policy on Further Education. He seemed to listen and take note of the views expressed from people around the table but didn't give much away as to what the Conservative stance would likely be on any of the issues we raised.

Friday I had a meeting with the FE representative from Enterprise to discuss their forthcoming projects and how NUS could potentially support their work.

24th-28th July

It was the second meeting of the Personalisation Project Group (the group the DfES has set up to work on certain aspects of the FE white paper, including the learner voice bits)

Tuesday I was in Birmingham to have a meeting with Josh, WMANUS FE officer and Liz, WMANUS Training and Development Convenor about the FE campaign and plans for WMANUS' FE work over the next year. Sounds like WMANUS are going to have a very successful year!

It was really nice to be asked to do the closing speech at the first Action Through Advocacy summer training course on Thursday at Herts University. I talked about some of my experiences about being an advocate on both a national and local level, how I'd tried to overcome some of the difficulties you can face being in that position, and what I'd learnt about what being an advocate really means.

Both Wednesday and Friday much needed days in the office catching up and having internal meetings about the FE campaign.

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