Short on skills: Part 5

Languages This article by Dick Evans, Principal of Stockport FE College, is the penultimate in a series looking at issues associated with a number of strategically important subjects, and skills. Others have included engineering, manufacturing, construction, mathematics and science. The difficulties with these subjects reflect fundamental problems we are experiencing in terms of competing successfully in a global economy, producing and sustaining a highly qualified workforce and improving productivity. Skill shortages in this country are often associated with science and technical subjects but one that has been very longstanding, and, in some ways has a number of different causes from

The Maths Problem

Dick Evans continues his analysis of training needs and skill shortages with a look at the world of numeracy. The Government has three distinct strands for its educational agenda, namely standards, skills and widening participation. A large number of reforms and initiatives continue to be introduced to realise these important elements of the wider agenda to develop a culture of lifelong learning and to raise the competitiveness of the workforce in this country. A number of these reforms and initiatives include: Reforms to the national curriculum, including more rigorous testing of pupils throughout their school lives. The introduction of programmes

Learning Banquet or Dog’s Dinner?

Dick Evans helps us make sense of the Learning and Skills Bill and the changes that will affect us all in the years ahead. In December 1999, the DfEE published the Bill that will establish the Learning and Skills Council for England. The Bill set out the range of responsibilities for the Council, which would include: *  planning and funding post-16 further education and work-based training. *  assuring the quality of provision that the Council funds, and *  taking forward a strategy for quality improvement. As a result the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) will take over the funding responsibilities

Building Foundations

The key Government agendas in education and training are standards, skills and widening participation. How will they be realised? FE College Principal, Dick Evans, looks at the new building blocks. The Government has set an objective that half of all young people should benefit from higher education by the age of thirty. The belief is that once standards in schools and colleges are raised, they then expect to see a significant increase in the demand for places in higher education. Raised levels of achievement will inevitably raise expectation by students to progress on to HE programmes of study. This additional

A Real Skills Shortage (Part 2)

Part Two of Dick Evans article explores the issues and the current health of education and training in engineering and related disciplines in the post-16 sectors. It is at the post-16 stage that a clearer picture emerges about the future shape of engineering education and training. After the compulsory stage of education one can become more confident (or pessimistic) of the likely ‘flow’ of engineers and potential engineers into employment and/or further and higher education studies. Further Education The first difficulty presented when investigating further and vocational education training in FE is the lack of a reliable and up-to-date statistical

A Real Skills Shortage (Part 1)

In a two-part article, Dick Evans, Principal of Stockport College, considers the current state of education and training of people wishing to take up careers in engineering and manufacturing based industries. In spite of the dramatic (and much discussed) decline in this country’s engineering and manufacturing base, it still represents a significant proportion of our exports and gross domestic product. The UK engineering and manufacturing industry operates in such areas as aerospace, automotive components, general machinery and equipment and process industries. The industries employ approximately 1.7 million people and accounts for 50% of all our fixed investment expenditure of £50billion.

Short on skills: Part 4

Science. Dick Evans continues his series looking at issues associated with a number of strategically important subjects, for example engineering, manufacturing, construction and mathematics. The difficulties with the subjects above reflect many of the issues associated with the fundamental problems that this country is experiencing in terms of competing successfully in a global economy, producing and sustaining a highly qualified workforce and improving productivity. The previous articles have shown that a number of the difficulties are associated with the education and training programmes, whether at school or post-school stages. This article focuses on science as, along with mathematics, it is

Rediscovering Cinderella.

Dick Evans looks at the Select Committee report and George Low assesses its impact. Announcing her committee’s sixth report, Mrs Margaret Hodge MP said she hoped it would give the Cinderella service of FE the status it deserved. After the shambles of the mythical White Paper on lifelong learning, which then turned green at the edges before dropping off the tree, a good long look at fe was overdue. With the arrival of the Select Committee’s sixth report we were not disappointed. This is a balanced, realistic and seminal report with an evidence base which engenders confidence. With its working detail and

Bridges to Understanding

Scientists, educators and the media must span the chasm of public confusion –Dick Evans. Recent high profile media coverage of science and technology issues has yet again highlighted the urgent need to consider ways of raising the J general understanding and awareness of science and technology. Typical examples of these issues concern: the health benefits or otherwise of drinking red wine, tea, coffee; the questions associated with animal husbandry and food production, for example BSE and the GM crop trials; the dangers of using mobile phones; and the ethics of bio-sciences. Too often the general population is confused with contradictory

POST-16 SCIENCE — A FURTHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

by Dr R G Evans, Principal Stockport College BACKGROUND An effective way of beginning this overview of post-16 science education is to look at the curriculum and the associated qualifications at this stage of education and training. Figure 1 attempts to show in a relatively simplistic fashion the curriculum pathways post-16 which operated during most of the 1990s. The curriculum pathways and the qualifications were highlighted in the Review of Qualifications for 16-19 year olds^ chaired by Ron Dearing. Following this review a large number of the recommendations were accepted by the Government, including the merging of the Schools Curriculum