Further Education in Wales

Further Education in Wales Nick Bennett Nick Bennett is the current principle at Gower College and he paid a visit to give us an overview of further education. Bennett stated that we were going to examine the current state of further education in Wales and go on to predict change. The 1998 Reform Act was when colleges were introduced to Wales. Before this all further education colleges were run by the council. As a result there was a difference in the way colleges were run and funded. Bennett went on to bear the question, what is further education for? Two main reasons were stated, to underpin social justice and to support the economy. It is vitally important to widen the access to further education to individuals other than the typical youngsters just leaving school. It is important that people do know that there is an option for them to have a second chance at getting the qualifications needed to reach their maximum potential. Further education can also raise cultural awareness which can go a long way in creating a more socially aware country. In regards to supporting the economy a number of points were raised including employer engagement, work based learning, vocational qualifications, knowledge exploitation and business generation. Our country is continuing to try and improve the quality of our further education establishments. The Welsh Government continues to encourage further merges of colleges which allows collaboration between one and another allowing improvement. Financial support is still given to students and ensuring borrowing costs for tuition fees for student stay the same is top of the agenda. An important point addressed was the fact that there is now a lot of emphasis on giving work based training for specific job types. There was talk of too many people doing ‘pointless’ qualifications and entering the working world unable to get a job. Therefore there has been an increase in apprenticeship opportunities and skill build programmes are fundamental is sustaining a thriving workplace. All in all I fell that my knowledge on why we have further education has broadened and have realised the education establishments are a lot more money driven than first thought. The lecture was very useful and gave me good insight in the background of education.