Search This Blog

Thursday, 19 April 2012

Guest lecture 6

This lecutre was taken by Nick Bennet who is the priciple of gower college. He gave a lecure on further education in Wales. We looked at the 1988 education act and what further education facilities came under it:
  • Colleges
  • School sixth forms
  • Adult education institutions
  • Private providers
  • Voluntary sector

Further education is funded by the Welsh Goverment's department for education and skills. We then went on to discuss what it is for:
 
  • Underpin social justice
  • Support the economy
  • Teaching and learning
  • Equal opportunities
  • Innovation
  • Welsh medium
  • Progression
  • Flexible
  • Tailored
  • Local

Nick Bennet gave figures on current college stats:
184,730 learners (2009/10)
95% from Wales
5,000 different qualifications in Wales
66% of learners are in FE colleges
Twice as many in college than schools
68% of FE students are over 19
20% are full time

We also looked over the Welsh Govenment programme of 2011 for further education:
 
  • Encourage further mergers of FE colleges
  • Reform the governance of FE in Wales
  • Work with FE providers to establish a new strategy
  • Maintain commitment to provide financial support to students from low income households
  • Ensure that borrowing for the cost of tuition fees for students resident in wales remains unchanged
  • Establish a single strategic planning and funding body for HE
  • Embed the university of the head of the valleys
  • Establish jobs growth Wales, offering employment or training for young people
  • Increase apprenticeship opportunities
  • Introduce a successor to the skill build programme
  • Evaluate current post 16 basic skills activity and define policy to influence future delivery
Strategic priorities
  1. Raise standards
  2. Deliver high quality opportunities
  3. Improve economic and social well-being
  4. See the Welsh language thrive
Performance will be our driver, with continued focus on improving performance and quality across the board and at entry level

No comments:

Post a Comment