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.