It has already produced principal Sir George Sweeney, the Learning and Skills Council’s bureaucracy-buster-in-chief, whose heart has always remained loyal to Knowsley college.

Then there is Wally Brown, the principal of Liverpool community college, so hip that he recently featured in a glossy magazine article on the city’s coolest dudes.

And then there’s Roger Hoyle, chairman of Merseyside Learning and Skills Council, who is to be an Investors in People board member.

Completing the new lifelong learning fab four is golden boy Ray Dowd, the wild-haired principal of Wirral college.

Ray has been made “champion” of Agenda for Change, the LSC’s great leap forward for FE.

FErret advises readers to watch this space. Whispers in my ear suggest that, when Mark Haysom has had enough of being chief executive of the LSC, Ray is likely to take his place.