Reform further education to mirror UK university practice, says new report

9 March 2010

Independent colleges, student loans and learner accounts key to equal education

In order to create a post-compulsory education system that treats all students equally and responds to individual skill requirements, further education (FE) in England must be reformed to mirror the higher education (HE) system, according to a new report launched today.

"How to shift power to learners", written by King's College Professor of Public Management Alison Wolf and published by LSN's Centre of Innovation in Learning, claims that all post-18 students should have access to subsidised student loans and grants, finance mechanisms that are currently only available to full-time university undergraduates. This should be combined with genuine learner accounts from which students can draw directly and freely in order to pay for their qualifications and into which they can personally deposit money.

In the report, Alison Wolf also calls for FE colleges to be licensed to operate in a way that parallels UK universities, allowing them to develop their own courses, make their own decisions about what to offer learners and, if they wish, award their own qualifications. She also recommends a simplified system of accrediting providers and awarding bodies, to further limit central government control.

Alison Wolf commented:
"If we want the post-compulsory education sector to realise its potential, then the sooner we move to an equitable, learner-responsive system, the better. Central planning has failed over and over again.

"Government has proven itself unable to identify and fill the nation's skills gaps, and has failed to increase productivity and failed to ensure economic growth by delivering qualifications. The new buzzwords of ‘skills activism' and ‘skills accounts' are simply central planning by another name, and any genuine change must go further. It's time to drop the rhetoric that government knows best and allow individual learners to make their own decisions about the training and qualifications that best suit them."

"In practice, this will require a complete overhaul of the further education system in this country to enable it to respond directly to individuals' decisions and demand. However, we have a successful model to hand, namely our own universities! Equalising access to government subsidised loans and grants for all post-18 learners on long courses and introducing genuine learner accounts, along with institutional change, will enable us to create a fully demand-led FE system that will drive the skill needs of a post-recession Britain."

John Stone, chief executive of LSN commented:
"We are delighted to have been able to support and contribute to Alison Wolf's innovative work on FE sector reform. We are committed to making learning work in this country and, as such, are keen to encourage and endorse fresh thinking on today's major educational issues.

"In the current uncertain climate far more emphasis needs to be placed on building an FE system which has the flexibility to meet to individual needs and the agility to respond to emerging economic and business needs. As the most comprehensive look at FE sector funding reform available thus far, the system Alison Wolf proposes represents a significant contribution to the debate on how we might truly empower learners to take control of what, when and how they learn, and to make choices about investing for their own, and the country's, future."