A message from our Chief Executive

Happy new year from all of us at NCFE.

Reflecting on 2021, we know that you worked harder than ever, with the second year of Teacher Assessed Grades (TAGs) and the ongoing need for remote learning meaning that you had to completely adapt your ways of working.

As the challenging circumstances continue, we’re here to support you every step of the way. With our common goal of providing transformational learning experiences and enabling learners to progress in learning and onto their next steps, we look forward to continuing to work closely with you to achieve this.

Last year we placed a strong focus on building partnerships that would make a real difference, as we believe that movements need collaborators. We were proud to fund the first year of the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence, with 100 members of teaching staff from 20 providers enrolled onto the programme so far. These educators reported greater levels of confidence in their practice, and will be returning to the classroom with the skills to deliver transformative technical education.

Improving mental health in education settings continues to be a priority for us. So, we teamed up with Fika to bring its mental fitness app into the FE sector, with the aim of improving outcomes and wellbeing for students and staff.  The way Fika has been adopted widely across colleges so far is impressive, and we’re seeing evidence of a positive shift in the understanding and teaching of mental education and fitness.

We also want to congratulate all those in FE and skills named in the Queen’s New Year honours 2022. A huge well done to Brenda McLeish, Chief Executive at Learning Curve Group, for being awarded an OBE for her dedication to training and education. 

2022 is set to be another busy year for us. Just a few of the exciting things coming up include the reveal of the first pilots of assessment approaches as part of our £1m Assessment Innovation Fund, more T Level developments, the addition of brand new V Cert qualifications to our 14-16 portfolio that will help schools boost and broaden their curriculum, and much more.

I wish you all the best for the coming year, and we hope to support you better than ever to make the greatest possible positive difference for your learners.

David Gallagher, NCFE Chief Executive