Following my rant yesterday about the new QIA Quango set up to shore up the LSC, you only need to get the Guardian to see how much money we waste in this country on non-teacing, management beauracracy.

Guardian Public Secor Jobs pages
P13 Operations Director LSDA £90,000 plus PRP + Pension
plus Finance Director LSDA £75,000 plus PRP plus Pension
P13 Director of Skills South West RDA £76,344 plus excellent benefits
P13 Executive Head Learning Disabilities Services £85,000.

P14 This is a good one...
Head of Service National Parking Adjudication Service £50,000 working for Manchester City Council

Staggering isnt it what these type of jobs pay. All of the money would be better spent buying more books, and teaching kids to read, write and add up before employing thes king of no-mark jobsworths.

The latest wheeze for 'easy' jobs in the FE sector is the Qwality Improvement Agency. This is being set up to focus on "supporting the drive for excellence in the learning and skills sector", from the corporate-looking advert in the Guardian today.

These are more overpaid jobs with handsome bonus schemes just like the LSC. More money ripped out of cash-starved colleges to fund a lot of old shite basically. It's really interesting that the QIA is based in ....wait for it...yes, it's in COVENTRY! Well what a surprise. Shut down half of the LSC last week and then open it up again next week as the QIA. Brilliant move Ruth Kelly, godda hand it too ya clap clap clap!

Jobs such as the following are available...get these fancy sounding gems.

Director of Knowledge and Intelligence (up to £65K + benefits) (Wow this does sound impressive...wonder how many GCSEs C or above you'd need?)(Essential...Applicants must have both Knowledge and Intelligence)
Head of the Chief Executives Office (up to £65K plus benefits) (Same salary as previous - hope they get on!)
Head of Communications £55,700 plus bens
Head of Strategic Partnerships £55,700 plus bens
Programme managers £55,700 plus bens (Doesn't say how many, probably 47 one per LSC region)
Programme Development Advisors £49,750 plus bens (Again doesn't state how many probably 47)
Research Manager £49,750 plus bens
Senior Procurement Advisor £50,000 plus bens
Improvement Services Advisor £42,200 plus bens
Divisional Support Managers £42,200 plus bens
Programme Development Officers £38,500 plus bens
Policy Officer £38,500 plus bens

Staggering, just staggering. What are these guys gonna do on day one I wonder? Have a meeting to set themselves some targets, like how many pencils each of them should use in a year. More meaningless drivel from the Governments spin machine the DFES.
I bet none of the ones appointed have ever taught a fecking day in their lives.

I hear there are a range of other posts that will be available soon inc...

Chief Washer up £38,500 plus bens
Head Tea Person (can't call them Tea Boys anymore..Ed) £30,000 + bens
Inspector Gadget £65,000 plus bens
Commander in chief of Chocolate Hob-Nobs £42,500 + bens
Manager of paper Shufflers £38,500 + bens
Head Pencil Sharpener and Rubber monitor £42,000 + bens.

All based in the SAME modern expansive building as the Head LSC office was. Whoopee!!!

Be interesting to see if any of the staff SACKED from the LSC for doing bugger-all end up in these jobs. I'll bet you we see the same smarmy, faceless, chinless, spineless bean-counting twits as as we did before with the LSC.

What really bugs me with this is the BENEFITS PACKAGES AVAILABLE WITH THESE JOBS. Bonuses and Benefits earned on the back of hard-working teachers. Whenever did we as teachers ever get any BENEFITS?

Talk about Lions led by Donkeys. Same old FE eh!

Oh I forgot the web address if you want one of the jobs. (Hands off the Pencil sharpener post, that's mine)

It is www.loadofoldbollocks.org.uk
or www.nofeckinmoneyforfe.con

no seriously its
www.qiacareers.org.uk

Love Billy

xxx

NATFHE Strike Day 16th November 2005

Following Sir Andrew Foster's report published today, once again it emphasises how FE are the poor relations in the education game. FE has for decades been every governments kicking dog and poor relation and we who work in it are sick to death of it. We in FE demand fairly funded colleges. We see new buildings in schools, academies, super-teachers on £40 grand plus and want some of that too. The University sector too has had more spent on it and better treatment for its staff.

Why is it for example that sixth forms get more that FE Colleges - are students with two A-levels in Psychology and Business studies valued more highly in society than a student who has just qualified as a plumber? In Blairs Britain you are right it is. Its down to class really. A-levels = middle class = more cash, City and Guilds = working class = Lower class proletariat = less money. Give that middle class lot more money and that working class lot less. Short and simple.

This is one reason why I will be supporting the industrial action on the 16th November, the same day as the AOC Conference. We want to show Ruth Kelly how strong we feel about the way this government has persisted with the starvation of funds from FE and maintained the inequalities between institutions and teachers across education as a whole.

We demand a fair and just funding system, that's all.

BBD

Fozzies report today on FE...yipeee!

Well wadya think FE folk?
More of the same i'd say. Failing Colleges again isn't it. The big stick treatment and lets close those failing colleges shall we. Wonder if the guy ever went near an FE college in the twelve months it took to write the report?
Nah, probably not, never her saw him in my college, mind you the Principal isn't here much either.

So heres my first skim through assessment of Fozzy Fosters end of course report.

Foster A.
Improving Morale in the sector: 0 out of ten
Improving salaries of FE staff: 1 out of ten
Use of Blair's spin & new labour jargonese: Spot on lots of points here Fozzy - lots of meaningless waffley-shite.
Crapita Inc and Acme Colleges to be running colleges soon: Aye, Looks likely.
Key Skills....aye yes he's quite keen on that one 5/10

Feedback....You must must get out more Andrew and talk to the actual practitioners in the field. A good try on this assignment, but do keep up the progress you've made and one day you will be able to get a real job in a factory.

Total score 36/100 FAIL There, Fozzy got my retaliation in first mate...

.

I was really sad on Thursday when I read of Ted Wragg's death in the news. For me and I guess lots of other people in education, Ted was a hero and a father figure who brought a bit of common-sense logic to the education scene over many many years.

I used to love Ted's back page column in the Times Ed supplement every fortnight and it would always make me chuckle after a week at the chalk-face. I am really very sad now he's gone. Like John Peel, there isn't anyone around who can fill his shoes, he was so unique. I did have the ultimate pleasure of hearing Ted at an after-dinner speech in 1993 at Exeter, his old stomping ground and he was an absolute hoot at the dinner, I'll never forget it. He told one joke about the guy who finds Chris Woodhead, Kenneth Baker, John Major and Norman Tebbit in a train carriage and finding he only has three bullets, proceeds to shoot Woodhead three times. Ted told it so straight-faced and far better than I ever could and I can still raise a smilae just at that.

So rest in peace Ted in the great University in the sky. No more Swinethorpe Comp, Mrs Smegma the Ofsted inspector or any more mindless DfEE circulars to read now old mate, you will be really, really missed old chum. God bless you Ted.

BBD