So it’s been education week here at WebsEdge. We’re just back from the Association of Colleges annual conference in Birmingham where we were producing AoCtv. And a busy week it was with the highlight definitely being Kirsty Wark with me and Ruby Wax on the sofa. Not to mention the students beating the principals in the AoC quiz.

But that aside there were plenty of issues there for us to get our heads round. Should skills or education top the agenda, should it be locally or centrally controlled and who is going to pay for it all anyway?

You got the distinct feeling that the election was already underway with politicians of every hue parading their wares in front of us. Even Lord Mandelson had to justify his Department’s policies to a packed plenary session.

Exciting as all this was I couldn’t escape the feeling that there was actually more going on here and that it was a celebration of Further Education. The teachers and lecturers here were really focused on one thing – how to bring the best out of their students.

There was also a real focus on employability and recognition. It’s no longer enough just to provide a first class education but you’ve also got to provide students with the real life skills to land them a job at the end of it.

Dig a little deeper still and you found that all this was underpinned by quite startling innovation. One college I spoke to made podcasts of all their lectures and actually enabled students to file their class work in the same way. Quite simply a rate of innovation unheard of in even our own industry.

So it seems to me that as long as the politicians don’t mess it up our future is in safe hands. Our students are not only equipped to face the future but they are up for the challenge as well. Which is just as well given the competition they face from their Asian competitors.