The 157 Group has welcomed several of the recommendations made by Professor Alison Wolf in her independent report of vocational education, launched this morning.
Lynne Sedgmore CBE, executive director of the 157 Group said, “We believe the Wolf Review affirms the important role of vocational education for 16 to 19 year olds and the successful ways in which FE colleges contribute to this. Although the report is critical of some vocational programmes it is very clear that it is the centralised design of qualifications and the way they have been used by government agencies that is the core of the issue not colleges.
“We have argued consistently for the relaxation of central control of qualifications and so we particularly welcome the recommendation that funding should follow the learner. In our ‘Learning accounts that count’ policy paper, which we published in November 2010, we were quite clear that priorities in the further education system should be based firmly on the informed choices of individual learners and employers, and are pleased to see the explicit reference to learning accounts in Professor Wolf’s recommendations.
“We agree with the recommendations that institutions should be free to offer any qualifications they please from a regulated awarding body, and encouraged to include non-qualifications-based activity; and that young people should have more flexibility in terms of which programme level or type of qualification they can pursue.”
Frank McLoughlin, principal of City and Islington College and chair of the 157 Group said; “We are delighted with the recommendation to make explicit the legal right of colleges to enrol students under 16 and ensure that funding procedures make this practically possible. Many 14 to 16-year-olds thrive in different environments outside school, and we believe that offering provision for them in colleges also makes good economic sense, especially at a time when we need to ensure efficient use of public funding to deliver high-quality teaching and training, with the best possible outcomes for learners. We are pleased that Professor Wolf has endorsed the need for qualified FE teachers to be allowed to teach in schools. This is testament to the professionalism and excellent standards of teaching and learning in FE.
“We need to consider the entire report in more detail, and the government’s response, but there is much to encourage us in our initial reading of Professor Wolf’s findings.”
---ENDS---
---NOTES TO EDITORS---
Professor Wolf’s report on vocational education is available to download at http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Wolf-Report.pdf
The 157 Group response to the Wolf review consultation is available to download at http://www.157group.co.uk/files/157_groups_response_to_the_wolf_review_of_14_to_19_vocational_education.pdf
The 157 Group Learning accounts that count policy paper is available to download at
http://www.157group.co.uk/files/learning_accounts_that_count.pdf
The 157 Group Real choices for 14 to 19 year olds policy paper is available to download at
http://www.157group.co.uk/files/real_choice_for_14_to_19_year_olds.pdf
---About the 157 Group---
The 157 Group represents 27 of the most influential colleges in the FE sector. It was formed in 2006 in response to paragraph 157 of Sir Andrew Foster’s report on the future of further education colleges, in which he argued that principals of large successful colleges should play a greater role in policymaking.
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