Mmm, I wonder what the answer is....

I have a friend who lost her job at a local college. She's an expert at sign language and taught those that were deaf and dumb. 3 months later she's still out of work. So, is there and abundance of teachers with her skills (I doubt it) or are we seeing another section of society excluded from mainstream further education?

60 jobs are under threat at the college: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29359089

Don't get me started on useless managers!!! Thankfully, my department at work got a new manager recently who is actually proactive & knows what she's talking about; all the supervisors and deputy managers are filling their undies because suddenly they're having to actually do some managing and supervising!

But has her salary been stopped?

In the past I've been accused of 'management bashing', but in the end, they are the ones responsible for the performance of their organisation. If they aren't up to it, they hadn't ought take the job! You can't blame the workforce when they are hamstrung by useless managers.

The first victim of the cuts: http://www.kenilworthweeklynews.co.uk/news/local-news/warwickshire-college-principal-in-sudden-leave-of-absence-1-6147535

BTW, the interesting flip side to this...

I worked as a lecturer at several local colleges/universities, and I still think that students get a raw deal. One of the so called better units had a couple of interns downloading bits and pieces from the internet a few days before a course started. Those (unadulterated) bits and pieces were to be the course! As you might expect, the course got panned, but they didn't care because by then they'd been paid.

I have attended (at one time or another) every college/university in Coventry. Let's just say it's a damned good job that I wasn't paying my own fees, because apart from one (early 70s) they were all cr*p.

Having been dragged through the state education system has left me with a low level resentment towards it & teachers; a lot of the teachers at my secondary school just seemed to regard the classes they 'taught' as nurseries to keep their students occupied for an hour & didn't actually bother teaching us a damn thing - a complete waste of 5 years on my part.
When I left school, I moved on to Warwickshire College. It was (and continued to be on subsequent courses I enrolled on) staffed by motivated, skilled & experienced teachers/lecturers who actually seemed to want to teach their students. These cuts will only damage that.

All down to money Lex; but can you really put a price on how top quality education will help the country? Classes will get bigger, lecturers will struggle with greater workloads and students will get a costly raw deal!

I read a report yesterday that over half of the students in the UK think that they get very little for their money. Things are only going to get worse.

Being honest, I've never believed that this country really wants to truly educate the masses, and I'm seeing that now. We'll educate you about as far as needed to be factory fodder, and we'll even shirk that if we can get cheaper labour from abroad! All in all, it stinks!

So much for education: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27516593