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In recent years, the UK government has invested heavily in developing a computer infrastructure for e-learning in the post-16 educational sector. Electronic learning (e-learning) is defined as learning with the assistance of information and communications technology (ICT) tools. However, only a small percentage of this e-learning expenditure has been allocated to content and skill development and, in order to realise the potential of e-learning in the post-16 sector, this area must be developed. The Post 16 E-Learning Strategy Task Force was commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to consider how to improve the UK’s e-learning strategy. This report contains the Task Force’s four key recommendations that provide a strategy for enabling all learners to have the opportunity to use e-learning. The recommendations are: (1) that by 2010 all citizens should have access to ICT as a basic skill as an entitlement, including a component of e-learning; (2) that the government expand the concept of Curriculum Online for Schools into post-16 learning, i.e. College Online, to provide access to high quality and relevant learning content; (3) that the quality, relevance and accessibility of learning materials available to employers and government financial incentives to take up work-based learning be supported and developed; and (4) that funding be provided to develop a national tutor mentoring network to act as a flexible and responsive support system for those working with e-learners. Show less

This eighth edition of ‘Education and training statistics for the United Kingdom’ uses over 50 tables to provide an integrated overview of statistics on education and training in the UK. It covers: expenditure; schools; post-compulsory education and training; qualifications and destinations; population; and international comparisons. Key facts reported under ‘Post-compulsory education and training’ include: in 2001/02, 72% of 16 year olds and 58% of 17 year olds were in post-compulsory education either at school or in full-time further education; there were 47,300 new starts on Advanced Modern Apprenticeship schemes (AMAs) in England in 2002/3; the average number of learners on AMAs in 2002/3 was 108,300, representing almost two-fifths of the average year for the total number of learners on work-based learning for young people; people with high levels of qualifications were much more likely than those with low or no qualifications to have received job-related training; the economically inactive tend to receive job-related training of a longer duration than that received by employees; and a further education college or university is the most common location for off-the-job training. Show less

The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is an allowance paid to young people between the ages of 16 and 19 from lower-income families to support their participation, retention and achievement in post-16 education. This report investigates young people’s labour market experiences in order to assess the effect of two years of post-16 education on their initial position, and subsequent progression within the labour market. It has drawn on data from the large scale surveys of young people that have formed part of the evaluation of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) pilots. The data compare the employment and training trajectories of two groups of EMA eligible young people when they were 19 years old: (1) those who had entered the labour market at the end of Year 11 and who remained in employment or training until the age of 19; and (2) those who had completed two years in post-16 education and then entered the labour market at 18. The final section of the report looks at young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET), investigating both the length of time for which those who were NEET at the age of 19 had been so, and the circumstances at 19 of young people who had been NEET at 18 following two years in compulsory education. Key findings indicate that: young people who had spent two years in post-16 education before entering the labour market at 18 were generally in a better position than those who had entered the labour market immediately after compulsory education and were much more likely to be in managerial, professional and associated professional and technical jobs; nearly a third of young people who had left school at 16 were in skilled trade occupations at 19 and had accessed training in sectors such as engineering and construction, where skill shortages are known to exist; as far as participation in government supported training was concerned, there was a clear difference between 16-year old and 18-year old labour market entrants, with a significantly larger proportion of 16-year old school leavers accessing the labour market through this route; a number of young people who had left education at 18 had spent one year in employment before resuming their studies at the age of 19; young people who had entered work with no training had the highest turnover rates; among young people who had accessed the labour market at 18, the largest proportion of young people who became NEET at 19, came from the jobs without training category; and the majority of young people who were NEET at age 18, following two years in full-time education, had left the NEET group at the age of 19. Show less

New arrangements for post-16 learning in the UK were developed in response to a number of perceived weaknesses in the existing system. By November 2002, the implementation of new learning arrangements had resulted in policy, organisational and operational changes. This interim report is part of a two-year project to assess key stakeholder and partner opinions on key post-16 processes and their contribution to learner performance, quality and standards. Key organisations representing accountable stakeholders for the post-16 learning arrangements are: the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), Jobcentre Plus, the Adult Learning Inspectorate, and the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). The report examines the development and changes since April 2001 in the funding, institutional structure and operation of learning for adults and young people over the age of 16. The qualitative evaluation focuses on five key areas: implementation of the LSC arrangements; raising standards; the Standards Fund; inspections; and Area Wide Inspections. The report suggests that there have been some difficulties associated with the changes but the key elements are in place. There is a high level of awareness among stakeholders of the need for improved performance and raised standards. Many new and improved processes have been and continue to be put in place. At this point, a systematic impact on learners appears limited apart from a few specific isolated instances of changes affecting learners. A final evaluation report will be compiled when the study is completed in January 2004. Show less

Consultation on the Green Paper '14-19: extending opportunities, raising standards' (indexed at TD/IRD 88.170) revealed strong support for reform of learning opportunities available to 14-19 year olds at school, college and in the workplace. The UK compares poorly with other countries on measures of participation and achievement. The most persistent shortcoming of the system is the weakness of vocational provision. The challenge is to create a 14-19 phase that provides a clearer and more appropriate curriculum and qualifications framework that embraces strong provision for both academic and vocational options. This next steps document builds on the proposals outlined in the Green Paper and the extensive responses to the Green Paper consultation. It sets out the case for reform and outlines the strategy to introduce more flexibility into the system. The aim is to provide greater coherence for schools, colleges and employers, and a clearer understanding of how their qualifications lead to further education or work for students. Short-term reforms relate to curriculum change, the improvement of vocational options, consistency and quality of teaching and learning, an emphasis on local innovation and partnership, raising student aspirations, and support for local delivery. A new working group will be formed to examine longer term reforms in the areas of vocational provision, assessment, and the unification of the qualifications framework.

The Annexes accompanying this report are indexed at TD/TNC 74.145. A summary of the report is indexed at TD/TNC 74.146. Show less

Learning Partnerships were set up across the United Kingdom (UK) in early 1999 to promote a new culture across the school, further education (FE) work-based learning, and adult and community learning sectors to rationalise the range of existing local partnership arrangements covering post-16 learning. This analysis, which is based on 20 case studies, provides an overview of key issues associated with progress, early impact and added value of Partnership Activity. It concentrates on the focus, performance and impact aspects of Partnership development and draws interim conclusions and recommendations. The contents are: Introduction; Partnership focus; Aspects of success; Barriers to development; Value added; Performance indicators; Conclusions and recommendations.

Other related reports are indexed at TD/TNC 68.196, TD/TNC 69.278 and TD/TNC 69.279 and the final report is indexed at TD/TNC 75.237. Show less

This White Paper builds on the existing 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper and Skills Strategy [available in VOCEDplus at TD/IRD 88.163] to set out a series of reforms for the further education (FE) system, focusing on the role of the FE sector in raising the skills level of young people and adults in order to achieve productive sustainable employment in a modern competitive economy. The proposed changes will result in more choice for clients, services designed to meet individuals' needs, new, innovative providers being encouraged to enter the training market, and action to address poor quality provision. The reforms are designed to enable learners to acquire high-quality skills and to ensure that employers have the right skills for their business to be competitive in a global economy.

The policy measures include: new incentives for colleges to develop one or more areas of special excellence, with a new higher standard of accreditation (under the program of Centres of Vocational Excellence or CoVEs); a more direct role for employers and an extension of the National Skills Academies (NSAs) program; a trial program of learner accounts and a new entitlement to free training and education for the under-25s to gain level three qualifications, with the continued roll-out of the Adult Learning Grant to help with maintenance costs for those on low incomes; the creation of a single Quality Improvement Agency to oversee a new national strategy to raise the quality of FE provision and promote continuing professional development of teaching staff; improvement notices to be issued to colleges judged to be failing and requiring the problems to be addressed within a year; and a simplified system for planning and funding provision designed to reduce regulatory bureaucracy at all levels, with an enhanced strategic role for the Learning and Skills Council at the regional level, new opportunities for innovative providers to enter the sector with new competitive arrangements and open advertising, and funding geared towards demand, particularly through the Train to Gain program. Show less

This publication is designed to provide practical advice and support for teachers in centres who are developing their learners’ employability skills through work-related learning and enterprise. Its purpose is to show how key skills can be used to structure the development of employability skills at Key Stage 4 and post-16. This publication explains how key skills qualifications can be used to accredit the outcomes of work-related learning and enterprise.

Published summary. Show less

In 1999, an advisory group on ‘Citizenship for 16-19 year olds in education and training’ recommended that citizenship be recognised as a key life skill and that young people be provided with effective opportunities to develop their citizenship skills. A three year developmental phase of post-16 citizenship began in September 2001. A number of projects were initiated to implement various approaches to the delivery of post-16 citizenship in organisations providing education and training to 16-19 year olds. This report contains an evaluation that is part of an ongoing three year National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) evaluation of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) funded post-16 citizenship development projects in England. The evaluation examined progress in 11 round one consortia developing post-16 citizenship. The first year of the evaluation was designed to: assess the extent to which the development projects are progressing in line with their agreed action plans, and are working towards meeting their own objectives; begin to identify the conditions necessary for the success of post-16 citizenship and the forms of citizenship provision which appear the most effective; examine the initial impact of involvement in post-16 citizenship on young people’s skills, attitudes and knowledge. The evaluation of the first year of development found that there was no clear working definition of what citizenship education and active citizenship means for all concerned with post-16 education and training. As projects develop, a number of issues need to be kept under review in relation to: project management; staff background and experience; partner organisations and networking opportunities; external partners; consultants; staff development; resources; assessment and accreditation; progress and monitoring; and young people’s responses. It will also be important for the projects to inform and respond to developments in citizenship education within the National Curriculum pre-16 and in post-16 education and training, and broader policy developments. Show less

The Increased Flexibilities for 14-16 year olds Programme (IFP) was introduced in the UK in 2002 to ‘create enhanced vocational and work-related learning opportunities for 14-16 year olds of all abilities who can benefit most’. Partnerships between schools and external providers were formed during the first year of IFP to achieve this goal. Each partnership involved a ‘lead partner’, generally a further education (FE) college, with funding provided through Local Learning and Skills Councils (LLSCs). In the same year, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) commissioned the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) to undertake a national evaluation of IFP to: (1) assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of its implementation; (2) identify delivery models and aspects of implementation that are most successful; (3) evaluate the extent to which IFP has realised its objectives; and (4) assess the impact of vocational qualifications and new work-related learning opportunities on the skills, knowledge, attitudes, attendance, attainment and post-16 progression of participants. As the first cohort of participants are continuing their qualifications at the end of the first year of implementation, the findings focus particularly on the strategic and operational implementation of IFP, including managing the program within the school, working in partnership, equality of access to IFP courses, and delivery of IFP. Some issues to arise include transporting students to their location of study, additional time for IFP coordinators to maintain contact with partner organisations, funding, and the identification of students to participate in IFP. Although students were only part way through their first year of IFP, the evaluation revealed positive outcomes from gaining access to a wider and more appropriate curriculum. Show less