Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
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New framework launched to boost student and employer choice
Assessment system will build on improvement and drive up performance in Further Education sector
FE providers will soon be able to show how good their organisations are under a new assessment system launched today by Bill Rammell, Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education.
From 2010, a new Framework for Excellence (FfE) will help students and employers choose the learning provider best suited to their needs, while driving up performance within further education and helping the sector become more self-regulating.
The framework has been developed by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in consultation with colleges and providers, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), Ofsted and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS). It will apply to colleges and work-based learning providers from September this year and will lead to all providers publishing their assessment rating publicly by 2010, allowing prospective students and employers to compare results.
Mr Rammell said:
"Further education providers have made huge progress in the last decade. We want to build on that.
"The new performance measures will mean that every prospective student and employer wanting to access further education will be able to see the quality and responsiveness they can expect from an institution.
"The Framework for Excellence will help to continue the process of driving up the performance of all colleges and learning and I urge all colleges and learning providers to take this opportunity to show the quality of the provision they provide."
Mark Haysom, Chair of the Learning and Skills Council, (LSC) said: "A better educated, skilled and motivated workforce is vital to the country's continued economic prosperity. The launch of the Framework for Excellence, as the overall performance assessment framework for FE providers, is a major part of the increased focus on delivering the best possible provision for learners and employers.
"This single, clear framework for assessing performance will provide colleges and training providers with a consistent set of measures on which to base continual improvements in the quality and responsiveness of their provision. Additionally, it will provide learners and employers with clear information that enables better-informed decisions and greater choice.
"With the continued commitment and support of all our stakeholders and partners, the Framework for Excellence will make a significant contribution to the improvement of the entire FE system, enhance its reputation for public service excellence and support moves towards self-regulation."
Notes to editors
1. 'Framework for Excellence: Putting the Framework into practice' was published today by the Learning and Skills Council. The guidance sets out the detail of how the new performance measures will work in practice for the academic year 2008/09.
2. The guidance can be found at http://www.lsc.gov.uk.
3. Bill Rammell is speaking at the Association of Colleges (AoC) Framework for Excellence Conference in London on 1 July.
4. The Framework for Excellence (FfE) is a new, comprehensive and radical approach to performance assessment and quality improvement in the FE sector. It is the mechanism by which colleges and other providers can maintain their standards of performance and aspire to improve. It does this by making clear a universally accepted definition of 'excellence' - and other descriptions of performance - and by describing what a provider will have to do to achieve and maintain that level of excellence.
5. It is designed to be useful to:
- employers;
- individual learners, their parents, and potential learners (who will be able to make better-informed decisions about their choice of provider);
- policy-making bodies (who will get a bigger, clearer picture of the current state of national provision);
- providers themselves (who will be able to use the FfE to identify possible weaknesses and to head towards - or maintain - a universally agreed standard of excellence).
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