157 Group and partners publish interim report of colleges in their communities
18th July 2011
For immediate release: Friday 15 July 2011
157 Group and partners publish interim report of colleges in their communities Colleges need greater freedom from over-elaborate funding restrictions and other limitations to achieve their full potential for the benefit of their wider communities. This is the key finding of the Interim Report from the Independent Commission on Colleges in their Communities which is led by Baroness Sharp of Guildford and supported by NIACE, the 157 Group and the Association of Colleges, published today Friday 15 July 2011.
The Interim Report - A Dynamic Nucleus: colleges at the heart of local communities, has detailed the following findings about colleges in England: • the funding system is unduly complex; • too much top management time is consumed by funding complexity; • colleges have learned to manage the system and to help communities; • there is no such thing as a national brand; • there is a need for co-ordination of skills demand at a local level; • the necessity of acceptance of reform; • governance structures must change alongside financial reform; and • many colleges are already embedded in their communities.
The Commission have also produced a shared vision for 2013 which aspires to a further education system with colleges at its heart responsible for and responsive to the needs of all adults and young people, employers and local communities: • colleges will have a central leadership and co-ordinating role in the funding and regulation of this system as the major public sector infrastructure investment for adult learning and skills; • in return central government will see greater levels of investment in the system by employers and individuals alike; • colleges will provide customer focused, accessible and transparent information to employers and individuals to support informed choices; • communities will feel that colleges are more accountable to them through hearing their voices, responding to them more systematically and speedily through improved transparency; involving them more effectively in joint planning and delivery; and • there will be simpler financial accountability to the Government's funding agencies but accountability to the local community will also be written into governance.
Baroness Margaret Sharp of Guildford, said, "I had little hesitation in agreeing to Chair this Commission having long recognised, supported and admired the substantial contribution that colleges make to society. Each of them is different, faces different challenges and responds in different ways. There is no such thing as a standard FE college but many of them are inspiring institutions. I hope that this Interim Report will stimulate further discussion and debate which can feed into our final report due in November."
Mark Ravenhall, NIACE Director of Policy and Impact, said, "Colleges are the institutional backbone of local learning eco-systems for adults, working closely with local authorities and independent providers. But this is an eco-system that's constantly evolving. With new funding arrangements colleges need the space to operate beyond their current financial limitations. We hope these initial findings and recommendations will encourage more experts and stakeholders to add their views to the volume of evidence already submitted to the inquiry. We need more people to submit case studies and comment on these recommendations to government and colleges for the benefit of adult learners and the entire community."
Joy Mercer, Director of Policy at the Association of Colleges, said "This is the moment to seize the opportunities for Colleges to be freed to do what they do best-work with their communities to deliver what they need to learn the skills for a changing employment landscape and active citizenship. This report starts the journey towards a new agenda where Colleges are trusted partners at the centre of local delivery and innovation.''
Lynne Sedgmore CBE, Executive Director of the 157 Group, said, "The 157 Group welcomes this interim report and how it emphasises that colleges are already making extensive and powerful contributions in their community but that chiefly, we need more flexibility, particularly in funding mechanisms if our colleges are to continue to flourish as hubs of innovation in their localities. Flexibility in funding and greater freedoms is something that the 157 Group has called for many times before, particularly in our Learning accounts that count policy paper, and in our forthcoming paper, Adult further education - the unfinished revolution. Now more than ever colleges need the additional freedoms intended by the coalition to enable colleges to make an even more powerful contribution."
Ends
For further information please contact: Ed Melia, NIACE Head of Media, on 0116 204 4248 or 07795 358 870 or [email protected]
Gemma Knott, Policy & Communications Officer at the 157 Group, on 07581 354 750 or [email protected]
Ben Verinder, Communications Director at the Association of Colleges, on 020 7034 9960 or [email protected]
Notes to Editors
1. The Interim report - A Dynamic Nucleus: colleges at the heart of local communities - outlines the initial five months of work of the Commission, including a full scale international literature review, a series of thematic seminars and a further 70 submissions of evidence. The Interim Report is available to download at http://www.157group.co.uk/files/colleges_in_their_communities_report.pdf
2. This inquiry focuses on further education colleges in England, but the scope includes evidence from the rest of the United Kingdom and overseas. Our primary focus is on where the majority of learners are in the 227 General Further Education Colleges (GFE), 95 Sixth Form Colleges (SFC), 16 land-based Colleges (AHC), 4 art, design and performing arts Colleges (ADPAC), and 10 special designated Colleges (SD).
3. However to give a sense of the contribution of colleges to this eco-system, it is worth noting that during the 200910 academic year: • Colleges educated and trained approximately 3.4 million people. • 86% of students (1.6million) over the age of 19, who receive any form of public funding, studied or trained in a College. This compares with 254,000 who studied in other contexts. • 831,000 16 to 18-year-olds study in colleges compared with 423,000 in maintained schools, academies and city technology colleges. • Although 67% of apprenticeships are delivered by private training providers Colleges are responsible for a quarter of the total. • 44% of those achieving a Level 3 qualification (A level equivalent) by the age of 19 do so at a College. • 41% of all vocational qualifications are awarded via Colleges. • In the area of informal adult and community learning -learning for its own sake-Local Authority provision accounts for the vast majority of students but Colleges are still delivering 14% of the total. • Two-thirds of large employers who train their staff do so through a College. • Colleges provide 38% of entrants to higher education. • 168,000 students undertake higher education at a College. • Half of all Foundation Degree students are taught in Colleges. • Colleges deliver 78% of HNCs and 59% of HNDs. Although colleges are minor providers of Higher Education with 12% of the market share, almost all of this is employer-facing provision.
4. In terms of volume colleges are significant players. But this is also matched by a profile of improving quality: • 81% of students who enrol achieve their qualification aim. • In 65% of Colleges, provision is good or outstanding. • 96% of Colleges are judged satisfactory or better for their overall effectiveness; • 63% of Colleges were judged to be good or outstanding by Ofsted in 2009-10. • Of the 75 best public sector employers listed by The Sunday Times, 20 are Colleges. A high percentage of college leaders and senior staff are women.
5. The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is the leading non-government organisation for lifelong learning in England, and exists to encourage more and different adults to engage in better-quality learning of all kinds. It works for and celebrates the achievements of all adult learners.
6. The 157 Group represents 27 of the most influential colleges in the FE sector. It was formed in 2006 in response to paragraph 157 of Sir Andrew Foster's report on the future of further education colleges, in which he argued that principals of large successful colleges should play a greater role in policymaking.
