I started my career in the wonderful world of FE in 1995 shortly before the film Trainspotting was released. As with a lot of folk, I liked the film and I particularly liked the “choose life” monologue expertly delivered by the marvellous Ewan McGregor. You know the bit - when he went on about choosing life, a job, a career, a family, low cholesterol, et cetera, et cetera.

I’m not sure exactly why, but this monologue came back to me during the recent announcement by the government with regard to funding for schools and colleges to help make up for lost learning and to ensure that those who most need to in society can catch up. 

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Like most people in education, my jaw dropped when the news broke and it’s no surprise that Sir Kevan Collins has resigned. Initially, I started to make a mental list of all we have done over the past 15 months in the face of one of the worst pandemics the country has faced, and this is where my own Trainspotting monologue moment developed.

In the past 15 months, colleges:

• Switched to online delivery at the drop of the hat.
• Continued to deliver to vulnerable students and the older children of key workers so they could help keep the country going.
• Adjusted our premises to be as safe and secure as possible.
• Consoled students when the algorithm went mutant, just days after the said algorithm was hailed as being a panacea.
• Got back to close-to-normal delivery until we were locked down again through no fault of our own.
• Set up our own track-and-trace systems as there was little or no confidence in the national system.
• Picked up the pieces for those students for whom the pandemic heightened problems at home.
• Picked up the pieces for those students whose mental health worsened.
• Developed systems to distribute food, IT, PPE of which a leading logistics firm would be proud.
• Worked our backsides off to grade student work normally done by others.
• Have been in the firing line of parent/carer angst when, in most cases, their angst wasn’t against us.
• Delivered lessons in ventilated rooms in freezing cold weather.
• Have been rewarded with a 10 per cent potential clawback of AEB work.
• Completed numerous bids for LSIP, SDF, CCF, RoATP, capital transformation and devolved AEB when weeks earlier, promises were made to streamline the sector.
• Spent capital funds at breakneck speed to help the nation bounce back.
• Watched agog as eye-watering amounts of public money has been spent on things that are a satirist’s dream.
• HAVE NOT STOPPED.

I’m sure you can add to this list and, as with McGregor’s piece, my own monologue is probably best read with the soundtrack of Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life running in the background. At the time, Trainspotting was, quite cleverly, hailed as being a shot in the arm for the British film industry. Arguably, it was and it fed into the Britpop vibe and swagger at the time.   

While FE continues to do amazing things against all the odds and the warm words about us are nice - all together now: “without hesitation, the future is further education” - we’re getting to the point at which actions need to speak louder than words. The recent catch-up funding decision was the latest in a long line of opportunities for policymakers to put their money where their mouths are but, arguably, they came up short. There is the promise of more investment in the future; let’s hope this is the case so we can have our very own shot in the arm as opposed to another kick in the teeth.

Darren Hankey is principal of Hartlepool College