It's not something that I would normally do and the more I think about it, the more nerdy it seems, but I would strongly encourage anyone who is even vaguely interested in the future of FE colleges, under this new Coalition Govt., to go on to the Dept. for Business Innovation and Skills website (www.bis.gov.uk) and read the 3 top stories that they are featuring on the dashboard of their homepage!

In this very difficult time when all colleges (including this one!) are experiencing real funding reductions for 2010/11 and the newspaper headlines are full of the gloom and doom of public expenditure cuts over the next 2/3 years, these stories offer not only hope but actually a vision that is really exciting and which goes a long way to suggest a very positive future for high quality, responsive, employer - focussed colleges like Havering College.

'A Strategy for Skills'; 'New Freedoms for Colleges' and 'University Challenge' are the transcripts of recent speeches made by David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science and John Hayes MP, Minister for FE Skills and Lifelong Learning - again you might think 'How BORING!' - but actually, the speeches make clear that both men and this new Government, believe strongly in the importance of colleges in delivering skills, apprenticeships and high-quality, low - debt degrees, HND's HNC's and HE qualifications. Something our students have known for years!

They also make clear that they intend to give colleges new freedoms from bureaucracy, so that they can get on and do it! This is the challenge, but this is also very exciting! These three speeches make clear the Government's commitment to the work of colleges and that's why I commend them to you - although to recommend reading the speeches of politicians does feel a bit strange and might suggest that I ought to get out more!'