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I’ve only just read this article and I want to say why FE was so important to me.

I failed my 11+ and left school with no recognised qualifications, aged 15. After ten years of dead-end jobs

Derby College (then Wilmorton gave me a place on their mature students 1 year O-level course. The following year I did the 1 year A-level course then graduated from the University of Bath in 1980.

I taught in FE for 22 years . I then moved to the University of Derby where I trained FE teachers and university lecturers on PGCEHE programmes

My book, ‘Teaching in the lifelong learning sector’ now has two had two editions and my book on teaching in HE was published in 2017. I became a Senior Teaching Fellow. I have an MA in Education and, for a retirement project, gained an MA in Creative Writing.

This may all sound like bragging but I wanted to show FE transformed my life.

Peter Scales

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I've said it before and I'll say it again - 'Btec' is a trade name, a marketing tool used by a commercial profit-making company, by saying 'Develop and grow Btecs' we are adding to Pearson's market monopoly and profit. The term for all vocational qualifications is VTQs, it's a simple enough collective term that we should be encouraging the use of.

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