It was really good to catch up with some old friends yesterday, reminded me of the good old days.

It was also really good to see that we, despite having no help or input from various sources, are on the right track as a department. My friends are at a large and established college and we as a small and very much up and coming college are reaching the standards that we should be. Sure, there is some work to be done, but it's not insurmountable.

Incidentally, they, like us, are struggling to recruit decent quality lecturers. It seems like very few people are willing to enter the teaching industry, no doubt because of a combination of the money and the thought of having to teach kids who don't want to be there and a mountain of paperwork. I don't know about a skills shortage in industry, there is a severe skills shortage in education that doesn't seem to be addressed with many tutors teetering on the edge of retirement.