157 Group is chosen as pathfinder for employee-led mutuals initiative
12th August 2010
For immediate release: Thursday 12 August 2010
157 Group is chosen as pathfinder for employee-led mutuals initiative
---BEGINS---
The 157 Group of 28 large and successful further education colleges in England has been chosen as a pathfinder for the Cabinet Office's employee-led mutuals initiative, which is part of the government's aim to decentralise power and support entrepreneurial public sector staff who want to take control of their services.
The membership organisation plans to form a new qualification awarding body for the FE and skills sector, which will be owned collectively by 157 Group members and operated in partnership with an existing private awarding body. Awarding bodies have been invited to return their proposals for working in partnership with the 157 Group by 9 September 2010.
Lynne Sedgmore CBE, executive director of the 157 Group, said, "Setting up an awarding body as a mutual will allow us more flexibility and control over the way in which qualifications are developed and awarded so that the needs of learners, colleges and employers can be served better. Colleges have an enormous amount of expertise to offer, and we want to engage sector staff directly in creating an improved service for the benefit of learners. Employers will benefit from colleges' ability to respond more speedily to their skills requirements and to develop new forms of employer-led qualifications.
"We also believe that adopting an employee-led mutual approach to awarding qualifications will enable significant financial efficiencies, through shared services and by keeping public sector funds within the FE sector, rather than feeding surpluses into private stakeholder profits.
"We welcome the coalition government's encouragement of innovative approaches to public and private partnerships, and are pleased to be one of 12 trailblazers chosen to help establish what type of support and structures will best enable the ongoing development of employee-led mutuals. We appreciate and are naturally keen to make effective use of the mentoring support being offered by a number of experts and leaders who have experience of setting up and running successful employee ownership models."
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---NOTES TO EDITORS---
Details of the invitation to create an awarding organisation partnership with the 157 Group are available at http://www.157group.co.uk/news/news/invitation-to-work-with-157-group-in-partnership
The deadline for bids is 12.00 on 9 September 2010.
---About the 157 Group---
The 157 Group represents 28 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.
---CONTACT---
Lindsay Baugh 01707 392 552 or 07736 246 697
Email [email protected]
The 157 Group Limited
P O Box 58147
London
SW8 9AF
Website: www.157group.co.uk
Email: [email protected]
