Welsh Government
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Post-16 Transformation essential to improve skills levels in Wales
Transformation aims to modernise post-16 education, achieve greater efficiency, offer more choice and better access for students and provide higher quality education and training.
Addressing Assembly Members, the Deputy Minister said that the proposals that have come forward fall into five categories:
- Creation of local consortia that involve schools and further education colleges planning together and sharing facilities
- Uniting all learning provision in each area under one umbrella
- Mergers of further education colleges
- Creation of formal links between secondary schools and other local providers
- Forging of all-Wales partnerships based on the provision of specific skills for specific sectors
Different areas have taken different approaches responding to local circumstances. For example, some recommend arrangements which will maintain a sixth form presence while also forging partnerships with the further education sector, others are planning collaborative arrangements that encompass higher education and work-based learning.
Deputy Minister for Skills John Griffiths said:
“I am pleased that learning providers have risen to the Assembly Government’s challenge to find new collaborative ways to meet the changing needs of post-16 education. Our policy is not ’one size fits all’, but allows local partnerships to decide the best way forward, as long as choice and opportunity are widened, and quality and best use of precious public money is improved.
“Proposed developments, if implemented, have the potential to enhance opportunities, improve the quality of learning provided and better develop skills for business.”
John Griffiths said that the timeframes for full implementation would vary in line with the scale and resource demands of the plans. However he added that he expected around 60% of local education partnerships to be implementing approved collaborative arrangements by September 2010 and would expect the others to be on stream a year later.
The Deputy Minister said:
“In an increasingly competitive world, we need a higher-skilled population where everyone can develop their capabilities fully, both to optimise their own life chances and make a greater contribution to the economy and the community.
“Post-16 education plays a crucial role in shaping individuals for these growing challenges. As such it’s vital that all learning providers in this phase – schools, further and higher education institutions and deliverers of training – make a real commitment to partnership working and change-developing local solutions to local needs.”
Related Links
Information for providers of non-compulsory education. This includes further education, work-based learning, adult community learning and higher education.
The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to lifelong learning and skills development.
