Latest news from FE Week

The bad news is that the number of part-time learners in HE is plummeting. The good news (for FE colleges) is that it’s a chance to develop more business, says David Hughes

Higher education does not usually command many column inches in FE Week. However,  it was concerning to see how little coverage there was across the media about last week’s report from the Higher Education Funding Council for England setting out some stark numbers, not least a 40 per cent reduction in part-time learners in HE since 2010. This means that 105,000 fewer adults are benefiting from higher-level learning this year.

It also confirms the fears that led us to publish a special Adults Learning Extra at the start of March in which senior people in further and higher education talked about the anticipated reduction and considered what could be done to address it.

Put simply, we are worried because this drop will result in fewer opportunities for adults to develop their talents and fill high-level jobs, which will have both an economic and social impact.

We know that participation and achievement in learning at all levels are unequal and that many people miss out on learning, despite their abilities.

Every year Adult Learners’ Week pays testimony to the long learning journeys people take from no qualifications to a degree.

This current reduction shows that this year there is even less hope for those who want to get into learning in higher education. The result is less social mobility and less social justice.

This is a hot issue in higher education, but all FE colleges should think about their response too, learning from the range and scale of what is already happening in colleges.

We know that participation and achievement in learning at all levels are unequal”

Outside the Open University, most part-time higher education learners want and need to learn locally so that their learning can fit in with their earning and family and caring commitments.

But many universities have stopped offering part-time study, something that, for me, represents an opening for others to fill. I do not believe there are 105,000 fewer people wanting to learn this year; in fact, I believe that there are more. It’s just they have not been offered the opportunity that will encourage them to take the plunge.

FE colleges are well-placed to offer those opportunities – and many already do. Counter-intuitively the introduction of advanced level learning loans for adults aged 24 and over will open up a market that the more creative colleges will no doubt mine.

Colleges should not overlook this area of potential growth. In most areas, Year 13 cohorts in schools will be getting smaller over the next few years (because of low birth rates in the 1990s and 2000s), and colleges are well-placed to offer both FE and higher education places part-time, flexibly and at a lower cost for adults as replacements for full-time young people.

It may be a demographic quirk, but this is not something for the short term. The need will grow as the economy gets back on its feet.

Colleges willing to expand or move into this market might also find their conversations with the emerging local enterprise partnerships a little easier too.

This is an opportunity for colleges to develop more business and to meet need. It is also an opportunity that has positive social and economic benefits and one that will go down well with employers, stakeholders and potential learners.

I shall watch the stampede with interest and the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education will happily support in any way we can.

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education  

The contradictory rhetoric around vocational courses has done much harm; students’ achievement needs to be revealed and celebrated rather than downgraded, says Eddie Playfair

Dolores, Emma, Neneh and Rebecca all have something in common; they are high-achieving vocational students.

With 44 other students at Newham sixth-form college (NewVIc), last year they achieved the highest possible grade, a triple starred distinction in their extended diplomas: in business, performing arts, engineering and sport respectively.

Some also achieved high grades in an additional A-level and all four went on to university. Thirty-eight of their classmates also progressed to university, including Russell group institutions such as University College London, King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London and Nottingham University.

Dolores, for example, is now studying international management at the School of Oriental and African Studies with a year abroad.

The qualifications they obtained will give these young people the opportunity to pursue interesting and valuable professional careers in dance, theatre studies, surveying, aeronautical engineering, accounting, law, sports science, architecture, tourism and marketing … to mention just a few.

Their success is built on the intensive and challenging vocational programmes they followed; courses requiring the development of deep levels of professional knowledge and mastery. To achieve such high grades, they will have produced outstanding assignments, projects and portfolios that demonstrate the application of extensive knowledge and a broad range of interconnected skills. This is why so many universities value the excellent preparation they offer for many applied degrees.

But it is about much more than these 48 students. There are many others like them. More than 400 students at NewVIc achieved vocational qualifications last year; 377 progressed to university. The overwhelming majority were black and minority students living in so-called deprived postcodes.

We are proud of these achievements – as are the students. We celebrate the confidence, creativity and mastery that they have demonstrated. But is this pride echoed by our politicians and is the celebration reflected in our national media?

Sadly, the tone of the national conversation about vocational qualifications is more often distrustful than celebratory; questioning their quality and rigour, making unflattering comparisons with A-levels and implying that they are less challenging because they have less external assessment. Substantial and demanding programmes have been confused with smaller or less stretching ones, sending out a message of low quality.

Look at, for example, the changing treatment of vocational qualifications in national performance tables. For 2012, the points tariff for extended diplomas (equivalent to 3 A-levels) was arbitrarily reduced, despite the universities’ admissions service, UCAS, maintaining the grade equivalences (eg, Dist* equal to an A* grade at A-level and Dist. equal to an A grade).

While A-level performance has been picked out in the tables, vocational achievements remain hidden in a broad category of ‘A-levels and equivalences’, making it hard to see their success.

These national tables are an important signal about what we value. The message seems to be: ‘vocational is second best’. So much for parity of esteem.

It’s time to really value vocational learning. The latest government proposals to reform vocational qualifications are a welcome attempt to clarify which qualifications are ‘high value’, whether ‘occupational’ or ‘applied general’.

The sooner these ‘high value’ vocational qualifications get the seal of approval, the sooner the many thousands of brilliant students such as Dolores, Emma, Neneh and Rebecca can get due recognition for their achievements.

Eddie Playfair, principal of Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc). He is the London principal representative on the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association council