Read on Twitter
THREAD:
Right. It's been quite the morning for post-16 education.
Let's start with the Skills for Jobs White Paper, otherwise known as the FE White Paper. We've been waiting for this for a long, long time - and were promised that it would be 'revolutionary'. Is it? Well...
Right. It's been quite the morning for post-16 education.
Let's start with the Skills for Jobs White Paper, otherwise known as the FE White Paper. We've been waiting for this for a long, long time - and were promised that it would be 'revolutionary'. Is it? Well...
The most important thing to highlight is a lack of investment. There are a LOT of proposals (35) for reform, but as sector leaders highlight, without a sustained increase in funding, it's hard to see how many of these proposals will become a reality. https://www.tes.com/news/skills-jobs-white-paper-sector-reacts-FE-colleges
The Paper talks about putting employers at the heart of post-16 education and skills - something we've seen with T levels. The DfE says that employers design "almost all" technical qualifications. Surely this should be in collaboration with providers who know their learners best?
Local skills improvement plans and college business centres are suggested – both of which were included in the College of the Future's recommendations.
There's no doubt about it: colleges recognise the importance of collaborating with employers. https://www.tes.com/news/need-know-college-future-report-revealed
There's no doubt about it: colleges recognise the importance of collaborating with employers. https://www.tes.com/news/need-know-college-future-report-revealed
The suggestions on accountability, governance and funding are interesting. The DfE wants the education secretary to have more powers to intervene "where there are persistent problems that cannot otherwise be addressed".
Some key questions here: how quickly will the government identify issues? (Ney report suggested they were slow at this). How quickly will they intervene? And what, exactly, will that intervention look like?
The sector will definitely welcome the proposal on 'simplification and streamlining of funding for FE' – as long as it's not a decrease in funding...
A 'multi-year funding regime' is also suggested - which is something leaders have been calling for for a while now. It would give providers more time to plan ahead, and truly focus on having a strategic impact.
It's good to see a focus on a lifetime entitlement to learning – adult education is so often forgotten. In December, Right2Learn called for a publicly funded entitlement to study up to level 3 and 6 years of publicly funded credits at Level 4 and upwards https://www.tes.com/news/campaign-calls-adult-learning-entitlement
The White Paper suggests a flexible lifelong loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education from 2025 – still four years away. I'll be very interested to see where with this we are in 2025..
The proposals on supporting outstanding teaching are also worth a mention.. the White Paper proposes a national recruitment campaign for teachers in FE settings
and improving CPD for teachers
and improving CPD for teachers
The problem is there is currently at £9,000 pay gap between FE and school teachers. And often, FE lecturers can get paid a lot more in industry. I'm not saying pay is the only motivator, but a pay increase is surely needed to "support outstanding teaching" https://bit.ly/39QbOPj
Now, let's move on to the response to the Augar Review. Worth noting that the review was first published in May 2019 - and the DfE says that its response this morning is an 'interim' response... https://www.tes.com/news/augar-review-give-colleges-ps1bn-and-freeze-he-funding
It says that a more flexible, modular HE system will be introduced that will 'offer a more flexible system that provides greater opportunities for up-skilling throughout people’s careers' and also recommends a tuition fee freeze. http://tes.com/news/augar-review-government-plans-modular-approach-he
However, @ucu's @DrJoGrady doesn't think a freeze goes far enough, saying "We need a different approach to higher education funding, which provides long-term security, doesn’t leave institutions exposed to major market shocks and puts the interests of students and staff first"
We then have the DfE consultation on a move to a post-qualifications admissions system – something that UCAS suggested in November 2020 http://tes.com/news/ucas-post-qualification-offers-considering-move
The DfE slams the current system, saying it is "complex, lacks transparency, works against the interests of some students and encourages undesirable admissions practices" http://tes.com/news/post-qualification-offers-what-government-thinks
It says that a PQA could "lead to students making better-informed decisions, improve continuation rates in higher education and potentially lead to better career outcomes for students".
But it recognises that moving to PQA would have major administrative changes” and implications to for the rest of the education sector. The responses to this consultation will be very, very interesting
And lastly, we had big news for colleges who offer higher education – the TEF review has finally been published, as has the DfE's response to it. http://tes.com/news/teaching-excellence-he-be-assessed-every-4-years
The TEF measures the quality of higher education providers - and providers are normally given an award every year (bronze, silver or gold). This will now move to every four to five years, says the DfE.
The DfE said that the TEF would be underpinned by principles of transparency, relevancy, robustness and proportionality – but @ucu called for it to be scrapped alltogether.
@DrJoGrady said: "Many staff are already facing burnout and heightened stress and don't need more pointless box-ticking bureaucracy"
And that is where we are at.
@GavinWilliamson is due to speak in the commons at 12.30, so as always, @JBelgutay and I will be bringing you everything you need to know about that speech over on @tesfenews.
@GavinWilliamson is due to speak in the commons at 12.30, so as always, @JBelgutay and I will be bringing you everything you need to know about that speech over on @tesfenews.
