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Allen Colley has worked at the Sheffield College for over 30 years.
In an interview with me he talks about how things have changed in further education and what his future plans are.
Allan (57) studied at Ashleigh school in Sheffield but that’s a distant memory now as he goes into his 34th year of being part of the Sheffield college team.
When asked what the best thing about his job was, he replied
“The people I work with, not just in the media part of the college but all over whether it’s the stag or the students”
Having worked at the college for that amount of time It’s good to see that the students and staff still keep his job interesting on a day to day basis.
According to the news in previous years there have been a lot of changes made in further education however I wanted to ask someone who’s seen these changes first hand.
I asked Alan “what have been the biggest changes you’ve seen in further education over the last few years”
He spoke passionately when he said” The lack of money and investment not just in the media department but the whole college is noticeable.
media has never really had the financial backing but all round finding for the college had been cut”.
He went on to say “ The government doesn’t really like colleges and the longer time goes on the more financial investment is taken away”.
He feels that college “has been demined and is gradually getting more like a school”.
I then asked him about the past and future.
One question I asked was “what the most memorable thing to happen in your life”
He replied “my most memorable time of my life probably would be when my 2 children were born, and maybe getting married to my wife was quite a big day in my lifer as well.
I then asked him about his future.
Having worked at the Sheffield college for over 30 years Allan’s next move is going to be retirement. When asked “where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?” he said
“retired and taking long breaks away in Spain”
He continued to say “I’ve got to the point in my career, where the next thing is retirement. I don’t plan on living in Spain but taking long and frequent breaks to Spain.”
The last thing i asked him was to describe himself in 3 word.
his reply was “massive Wednesday fan”
I would like to thank Allan for giving me his time for this interview.
primary research (The interview)
Name – Allan Colley
Age – 57
Where about’s do you live – Sheffield
Title of the job you do – technical trainer whether its media photography performing arts and something needs doing then I’m there to do it.
How long have you been doing this job for – this is my 34th year
What school did you go to – Ashleigh, Gleadless
Best thing about your job – people I work with not just in the media area but all around the college such as teachers, the students.
Most memorable thing to happen in your life – having his 2 children and getting married to his wife.
Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years – retired and taking longs breaks away in Spain.
What have been the biggest changes you’ve seen in FE – the lack of money and investment. Not just in the media department but college in general. Media has never really had financial backing but all round funding has been cut for college.
Government doesn’t really like colleges and the longer time goes on the more money gets taken away from further educations investment.
Further education has been demined and is gradually getting more like a school.
Gone away from adult education and teaching adults to teaching school kids
3 words to describe yourself – massive Wednesday fan
To begin with i planned on interviewing Joe Crann as hes someone who is from Sheffield and has grown up and been able to do great things with his life like travelling the world doing what he wants to do through his job.
From doing research its not all been straight forward throughout his career which why i thought he would be a good person to interview.
I contacted Joe to see whether he would be up for doing the interview and he said yes. he gave me an email to send my questions to as he currently lives in south Africa.
After getting some questions together to ask him i sent them him with around a week until my deadline.
However unfortunately i didn’t receive the replies to the questions in time so i had to find an alternative person interview.
In the end i ended up interview Allen Colley who worked in the media stockroom and was an all round handyman at the Sheffield college.
if i was to do this assignment again i would change a few things. for starters i would have more time as for the first 2 weeks of this assignment i was on holiday.
if i was to have thus extra 2 weeks then i would’ve been able to sort my interview earlier and would have had more time to organise everything.
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