• Monday was National Council, however Ellie Russell and myself were both invited to the launch of the Foster Review into Further Education. Over the last few months we’ve been doing lots of work with Foster and were delighted to see that learner representation, that the learner voice was such a key focus of his report. Ellie I know ill have blogged more about this but it really is crucial that we follow up know to ensure that the funding, training, and staff support is there to really make it happen. However the launch did mean that we only arrived at National Council at 4pm, as it was nearly over.

• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, were spent at the AOC Annual Conference in the ICC Birmingham. This is a demonstration of just how far we’ve come as an organization in terms of our FE work. Previously we would not have been invited, and certainly wouldn’t have been in a position to address the conference in a keynote address, or bring FE advocates into a workshop around student representation. This year we got to do all three. I’ll post up the speech I made as soon as I dig it off the laptop it was written on, and post it up here (laptops are still in short supply in NUS). We got very positive feedback and a number of positive indications from senior civil servants and from Bill Rammell himself.

• Whilst at AOC Conference I was also able to join the NATFHE demonstration outside and address the subsequent rally. NATFHE were calling for fair funding, and decent lecturers pay, a campaign that NUS is proud to support them on. They demonstrated whilst Ruth Kelly was making her conference address and they certainly raised their profile.

• Headed straight from AOC to FE essentials East and West Mid’s in Swanick. This was my last FE Essentials event and it felt strange as my first ever NUS event was it’s predecessor RTS also in the East Mids. The three-day course went really well, and the delegates were so enthusiastic throughout. On the second day we start at 9am, and they didn’t finish until 9.30, after that they were sat up writing motions in the bar! Doubt you’d find that on the summer training courses.

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