For the past decade, I have been observing, researching and reporting on a group of Scottish further education lecturers and schoolteachers, who, through their trade union activities, have had a significant impact on their colleagues' engagement with post-compulsory education and professional development. They are members of the Educational…

Partnerships between schools and universities have been well developed as a means of organisations in initial teacher education (ITE) in the UK since 1994. They have, more recently, become increasingly central to the organisations of the post-compulsory education of teachers. The focus of this article is upon the development of a new partnership…

In Scotland, both the present Scottish Government and previous Scottish Executive have put a great deal of emphasis on the continuing professional development (CPD) of educators. The further education (FE) sector has not been exempt, notably with the introduction of the "Teaching qualification (Further Education)" (TQFE) followed by "The review of…

Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) are a relatively recent phenomenon and are a new category of lay representation within the workplace in the United Kingdom. They are part of the present New Labour administration's drive to expand and improve lifelong learning and continuous professional development and create the new "learning society". ULRs…

Following a damning report on the state of police probationer training in England and Wales by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, entitled "Training Matters" (2002), the Home Office (2003), as part of its modernisation programme for the police service, decided that what police officers were required to know and learn to execute their…