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New measure of quality and performance will help learners and employers make better training choices

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION AND SKILLS News Release (2007/0108) issued by The Government News Network on 20 June 2007

Employers, adults and young people in post-16, Government-funded training will soon be able to judge more easily for themselves how colleges and other learning providers are performing.

Details of a new system for assessing performance on the basis of effectiveness, responsiveness and finance are published today. One hundred providers will be testing 'Framework for Excellence' from the new term this September.

Findings from the trial will help shape a full version of the Framework from summer 2008. The independent and quantitative nature of the Framework will enable the sector to move towards self regulation.

The system forms a core part of the Government's drive to raise standards rigorously and effectively. The DfES, Learning and Skills Council, Quality Improvement Agency and Ofsted are working together to develop the system in partnership with providers, learners and employers.

Launching Framework for Excellence, Minister for Lifelong Learning, Higher and Further Education, Bill Rammell said:

"Everyone involved in the Further Education (FE) system wants the best for their customers. This means high quality products and services that learners and employers need and want.

"Framework for Excellence means that for the first time learners and employers will have full and clear information on which to base their choices about courses and providers. People who feel that they have made the right decisions are likely to be highly motivated and to enjoy better results.

"Colleges and providers will build their plans for improvement on the information in Framework for Excellence. They will be able to benchmark themselves against standards of excellence.

"This important system will help us realise Sandy Leitch's vision for skills and underpins the sweeping FE reforms we announced last year. Framework for Excellence, the National Improvement Strategy for FE and the LSC's intervention measures add up to a powerful support package, showing colleges and providers where they are and helping them get to where they want to be.

"I ask all those working in the FE system to join with me to help build the Framework to ensure that all provision becomes excellent."

Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) Mark Haysom said:

"The Framework for Excellence will improve the quality of learning available in the sector and support a common culture of self-improvement amongst colleges.

"The LSC's ambition is to deliver the learning and skills to enable the long-term economic success of the nation. The Framework will help the LSC judge where best to invest public funds to achieve that goal, while and supporting moves towards self-regulation by enabling all stakeholders to have access to timely, relevant, robust and reliable information about the performance of each provider".

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Framework for Excellence will provide a transparent basis for employer and learner choice that takes into account all the main aspects of college and provider activity. It will also be a management tool for providers' self-improvement.

2. Seven key performance areas, including responsiveness to employers and financial health, will contribute to the providers' overall rating. Key areas have been grouped into three dimensions: effectiveness, responsiveness and finance.

3. Taken together, the overall rating will deliver a clearer and sharper framework for accountability. The key performance areas build on data already being collected, including the (Ofsted) Common Inspection Framework, New Measures of Success and the new financial audit arrangements.

4. An outline of Framework for Excellence was set out in March.

5.Framework for Excellence: Raising Standards and Informing Choice is jointly published by the Learning and Skills Council with the Department for Education and Skills, the Office for Standards in Education and the Quality Improvement Agency.

6. Link to Framework for excellence: http://readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/lsc/National/nat-frameworkforexellenceraisingstandards-pu-mar07.pdf

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