Nick Bennett- Further education

6/3/2012 – Guest lecturer – Policy and practice- An overview of further education in Wales – Nick Bennett: Principle at Gower College Swansea.

Todays lecture was taken by Nick Bennett, the principal at Gower College Swansea. The British council (2006) 'understand further education as the most commonly used term in the UK to describe education after the age of 16, which is not part of higher education, them being University honours degrees and above' (page 1).

In 1988 the Education Reform Act established the National Curriculum and gave us a better understanding of what further education was. Before 1993, colleges were funded by local authorities. Nowadays further education is run independantly which is seen as a positive change as colleges and other further educational institutes can make their own decisions. Further education is very useful and valiable to many different people from all walks of life and enables them to learn new skills and gain qualifications. It can also be seen to be widening access, community regeneration, fulfilment of potential, cultural awareness, civic duty and a second chance for many. Main aims for further education in Wales are to underpin social justice and supports the economy. It supports the economy by training or enabling people to re-train which supports our economy and benefits employers by providing people with the skills needed for pacific jobs.

The Welsh Government in 2011 took the decision to merge many further education colleges in order to make improvements. Nick Bennett is now the the principal of two colleges that have merged, those being Swansea and Gowerton College. This can enable the colleges to have more money as the individual budgets do not have to be spread as much as Nick Bennett informed us that his college budget had already been cut this year. The Minister for Education in Wales, Leighton Andrews has said, this regarding further education- 'performance will be our driver, with a continued focus on improving performance and quality across the board and at every level' (Welsh Assembly Government 2011). The Welsh Government have also stated that they aim to maintain financial support for those from low income households which enables all to have the same educational opportunities and to better themselves to succeed in life.

Nick Bennett informed us of there being over 5000 different qualifications available for those living in Wales for higher education. By offering this many courses it is enabling many people's needs to be met and providing courses that many people would not necessarily have the opportunity to train to do otherwise. It can can be said that a lot of money is wasted on running these courses where as the money could be used more wisely in funding courses that do enable people to leave further education fully trained and able to find paid work easily. Nick Bennett informed us that there is a reveiew of qualifications due in the near future to identify the qualifications that have the more meaningful value to people and that some low key, minor courses will be cut.

References:

British Council(2006) Further Education, Vocational Training and Access to University in the UK England: British Council.

Welsh Assembly Government (2011), Priorities for the further education sector Cardiff: WAG.

Guest Lecturer - Education for sustainable development. Graham Allen

February 21st 2012.
Education for sustainable development : Graham Allen.

Today our guest lecturer was Graham Allen. He talked to us about education for sustainable development. We started the lecture by looking at a quote in order to explain what we would be learning about, 'our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract- sustainable development- and turn it into a reality for all the world's people' Kofi Annan, March 2001. This quote came from the head of the UN, which is where a lot o education for sustainable development comes from. There are three hundred definitions of sustainable development commonly quoted from Gro Harlem Bruntland who was the former Prime Minister of Norway who is now the Director General of the World Health Organisation. One of his commonly seen quote is 'sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' Brundtland, 1987.
  Graham Allen told us that action is another key feature of Education for Sustainable Development to help young people understand the importance and the responsibility which lies with us all. Overall Education for Sustainable Development encourages young people to take action and lead on from what they learn. Points that should be considered when teaching young people are firstly to clarify and extend the ability of students to think for themselves. Secondly, encourage students to reflect and debate issues to enable them to form their own opinions and thirdly foster learning that emerges from discovery and is relevant to the learners life experience.
Corporate Responsibility- what is it? The definition that Graham Allen gave us for corporate responsibility was that it is an organisations positive impact on society and the environment through its operations, products or services and through its interaction with key stakeholders- such as employees, investors, customers, communities and suppliers. The main elements of this were corporate strategy, this being the values, leadership, advocacy, risk management and policies. Integration which he explained as being integration of principles, business conduct, performance management, strategic decision making, training and development, senior training, stakeholder engagement and reporting. Management were that of key issues, objectives and targets, allocation of responsibilities, training/support, internal monitoring and reporting and finally- performance and impact which consists of measuring and reporting, scope of data, quality of data, target setting and performance improvement.
  We then listened to important examples of 'what makes a University or School that counts?' Graham Allen explained that leadership and commitment of the highest level contributes a great deal. Also policies, to ensure responsible behaviors across the business. He then lead us onto explaining Digression and that the benefits of growth are that it creates employment, higher incomes, decreases poverty, improves standards of living, leads to economic stability and also means creativity and innovation. The alternative of this could lead to stagnation, decline or even a Great Depression. On the other hand if we have a steady state economy we have prosperity without growth. A quote Graham Allen mentioned to us was 'growth is more of the same stuff. Development is the same amount of better stuff'.
  This then followed onto political strategy. It is explained by claiming that if the public are given the information and the tools to achieve it- they can be part of a transition to a sustainable society. A failed high growth economy is much more politically damaging than a successful lower growth economy. The public are looking for leadership to work towards sustainability. We were told that the National Assembly for Wales has a duty under section 121 of the Government of Wales Act 1988 to promote sustainable development in the exercise of its function, that is, in everything it does. In all sectors of education, this including higher education, the Welsh Government recommends that Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship (ESDGC) does continue to be delivered through- leadership, learning and teaching, practise within an Higher Education Institute (HEI), partnership and community work and also research.
  Finally today's lecture finished off by concluding upon Education for Sustainability. According to Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO Director General- 'the principles of sustainable development must find themselves in children's schooling. This means that education will have to change so that it addresses the social, economic, cultural and environmental problems that we face in the 21st Century.
  Overall today's lecture was very interesting. As a whole I learnt a great deal and thoroughly enjoyed Graham Allen's points of important information. Previously I had never given much thought to Education for Sustainable development. I am glad that we had today's lecture as I have now have a great insight and understanding of Education for sustainable development and can therefore put what I have learnt in today's lecture into practice and develop ideas from these.

References : Lecture notes and Graham Allen's power point.