DEPARTMENT FOR
INNOVATION, UNIVERSITIES AND SKILLS News Release (038/2008) issued
by The Government News Network on 27 June 2008
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).