Did you know for every £1 invested into universities across the UK, £14 goes back into the economy? The higher education sector plays a key role in driving growth and increasing opportunity for all. #UniversityImpact @LE_Education Find out more: loom.ly/T-7pw68

SOME PERSONAL / JOB NEWS…. Creating a new ‘think tank’ was always a little dream of mine. As expected, running a small non-profit organisation like the @EDSKthinktank has been hard work - really hard. Payroll, pensions, VAT, expenses, recruitment, marketing, fundraising, events, the website, company accounts, tax returns – the list of my responsibilities goes on and on, and that’s before I even get to the day job of writing and research. On top of that, I’ve had to steer EDSK through a pandemic, cost of living crisis and a fairly chaotic time in politics. The only other job I’ve done that matches the hours, demands and intensity of owning a small business is full-time teaching, only now I get 1-2 weeks holiday a year rather than 13 weeks. Then throw in the fact that since setting up EDSK I’ve become a husband and a dad, meaning that my priorities in life have changed and the endless stresses and strains of running a very small business feel rather different now to how they did when it all started. That is why I decided a little while ago that after the General Election it would be the right time to close down EDSK after almost six years – although I freely admit that I didn’t expect the Election to come so early! I’d like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has been part of EDSK’s journey, particularly my long-time researcher Eleanor Regan and our amazing advisory board @BeckyFrancis7, @jonathansimons, @AndyWWestwood, @sarahjwaite, @SteveBesley and Ewart Keep who have expertly guided us along the way. A big thanks also to everyone who has taken the time to read our reports, attend our events, salute the puns in our report titles or share their insights and expertise with us – it’s all been enormously appreciated. I obviously never expected everyone to agree with all our recommendations for change, but hopefully our research, analysis and investigations into how to improve the lives of learners of all ages have been valuable. With any luck, our work will prove useful for years to come even when EDSK is no longer around. We have one final report coming out very soon, and I’ve got plenty of final admin to sort out in the coming weeks (what am I going to do with EDSK’s website? Or our podcast?!), but after that EDSK is all done. This should give me some time to think about what I will be doing next in my career, so if you have any suggestions then feel free to get in touch!