Today Nick Bennet who is principle of Gower College Swansea gave us an overview on further education in Wales. The points that he covered are as follows:
• Who runs Further Education
• Purpose
• Welsh Government plans
• Funding
• Priorities
• Views and reports
• How the sector has altered
• What challenges they face
The first main point he went onto mention was that Kenneth Baker has made a massive impact on education as he introduced the National Curriculum. Further education is run by the coordination boards and governance is how a university is run. Their funding comes directly from the Welsh Government DFES (department for education standards funding). The purpose for further education is split into two sections:
Underpin Social Justice
• Train for work
• Support industry
• Widening success
• Support for the economy
• Second chance
• Provides skills
• Financial
• Full filling potential
Support Economy
• Employer engagement
• Work based learning
• Apprenticeship
• Work force development
• Supporting growth of business
This leads to
• Teaching
• Learning
• Equal opportunities
• Meets local needs
• Welsh media
• Flexible
• Preparation for work and university
The Welsh Government want to improve higher and further education by:
• Merges
• Having an over view on governance and the board
• Looking at funding
• Maintain commitment
• Tuition fees remain unchanged
• Establishing strategic and funding body for higher education
• Opening a new ‘University Of The Valleys
• Provide skills
• Increase apprenticeship
• Introduce successor to the Skill Build Programma to provide routes to work for students
• Evaluate post 16 Basic Skills and define policy to influence future delivery ( altering this is vital as a large number don’t understand percentages, and are unsure about the best deals out there)
‘Performance will be our driver, with a continued focus on improving performance and quality across the board and at every level’ Leighton Andrews
Everything is under constant review but 2012 is the ‘big’ important year. Funding will be looked at along with qualifications and general structure.
Today I have learnt a lot about what goes on and what the future holds for further education. He spoke about supplying courses that are described as being ‘not very useful’ and they will lead people know where. When the question was asked why they are doing this he said that if you have a large range of courses you are more likely to have higher success rate leading to more funding. Also by creating equivalent courses such A-levels being made into National Diplomas will attract those who feel that they do not have the abilities. Nick showed us figures about how many learners are in further education in Swansea, it stands at roughly 14,000 (20% fulltime, 80%parttime). I remember when I started college we were asked to do a quick spelling test to check our abilities but it was not enough to find out who needs extra support. Now it is compulsory to do tests as a massive 30% struggle with their reading and writing, and 50% are under average with numeracy skills. This really shocked me and immediate actions have to be taken to improve this. To end on a positive note he did say that from 2000/01-2009/10 the success rate has risen.
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