Jackie Hartley’s BLOG

Came across a really good article on the web the other day entitled 13 things I wish I learned in college, college meaning university as it is an American article. It very succinctly highlights the disparity between skills learnt at university and skills needed in the graduate workplace. For example:

Long essays versus short reports
information loaded […]

Just written an article, with this heading, for the up and coming ACEG journal, so thought I would post it here too.
‘I know you’ll think this is daft, but I .. (sob) ..I’m just really homesick, I want to go home.
I don’t think they’re daft, not at all. Just because they are looking forward to […]

So now we might be going to raise the school leaving age to 18. Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Education says it is one of the most important matters facing his department. Gordon Brown is also keen for it to happen. Apparently they have been looking at the system in Canada where there is […]

Just finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s book, No Country for Old Men. It is a quick, violent, disturbing read - a crime thriller centred around a massive drugs deal that has gone wrong. In the book McCarthy ruminates on the way drugs and drug dealers seem to exist outside the law and any moral framework of […]

According to an article in the Guardian, our economy could enjoy a £80bn boost over 30 years if we had the skilled people needed to deliver it. Lord Leitch has just conducted a review for Gordon Brown (why they keep needing reviews and reports to state the obvious is beyond me, but hey) in which […]

I don’t know why but I just don’t seem able to see eye to eye with QCA. Maybe it’s me but when I read Ken Boston’s response to the NFER report (see last entry) I found myself shaking my head. He says:
With regard to the Diplomas, the Report seems to start from the position that […]

Here we go again. Our young people have once again slogged their guts out to please their parents, teachers and prospective universities by doing brilliantly well in their A levels and what do the critics say?

‘A levels are obviously too easy now.’
‘Students are picking all the easy subjects like psychology.’
‘How are universities going to identify […]

I have to say I think City & Guilds are doing a fantastic job making the case for the vocational route. In addition to their Vocational Rich List they have also been involved in research to see how happy people are in their jobs. And guess what, the top ten jobs on that list are […]

I wanted to jump for joy when, doing some research for a World of Work pack I am writing, I came across the City & Guilds Vocational Rich List. This is a list of people who have made millions by working their way up the craft or vocational route into business. And what a list:

John […]

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Woke up to the sound of a huge JCB demolishing part of the house (some old outbuildings actually). Boy are those things powerful. It collapsed a solid, concrete block built structure like it was made […]