Welfare Reform on the Web (February 2000): Education - UK - Training
A DESIGN FOR LIFE
T. Middlehurst
Education and Training Review, vol. I, Autumn 1999, p. 22-23
Outlines how the Life initiative will deliver all inclusive lifelong education and training in Wales
THE IMPACT OF CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN POST-COMPULSORY EDUCATION ON YOUNG PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES AND/OR DISABILITIES
D. Cooper
British Journal of Special Education, vol. 26, 1999, p. 123-126
Uses Milton Keynes to illustrate how current major developments in the field of adult education affect opportunities for children with special educational needs.
LEARNING WILL SUCCEED
D. Chaytor
Education and Training Review, vol.1, Autumn 1999, p.35-36
Paen of praise for the government's proposed reforms of vocational and further education set out in the White Paper Learning to Succeed. These include the abolition of TECs, the creation of the National Learning and Skills Council, a new advice and guidance service for young people, rationalisation of inspection regimes, transfer of responsibility for work-based learning to the Employment Service, and creation of a new Small Business Service.
PROMOTION, PERSUASION AND CLASS-TASTE: MARKETING (IN) THE UK POST-COMPULSORY SECTOR
M. Maguire, S. J. Ball and S. Macrae
British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol.20, 1999, p.291-308
Post-1b providers in the UK are in competition with one another and need to attract students because their funds are contingent upon successful recruitment (and retention). As a result, many are turning to aspects of marketing in order to publicise their courses and maintain or increase their share of the market. Paper examines two major tactics in the promotion and marketing of post-1b provision, brochures and open days, in relation to issues such as access, targeting, response to 'difference' in the client group/market segment and 'professionalism' of approach.
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES
D. Boyer
Working Brief, issue 108, 1999, p.10-11
As Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) set about developing their skill delivery strategies, they need to bear in mind the exact nature and scale of skill needs and demand in their region. Any such audit should point the way to greater employer involvement in training.
SEVEN MILLION ARE OFFERED TESTS TO TACKLE ILLITERACY
B. Russell
Independent, Nov. 5th 1999, p.11
Seven million adults are to be offered tests in everyday skills to help cut the number of people unable to cope with basic reading, writing and mathematics. The tests, to be made available from 2001, are likely to be published on the Internet and on digital TV. It is hoped that the tests will encourage people to brush up their skills and give those who have never passed an exam a nationally recognised certificate to reward their work.
(See also Daily Telegraph, Nov. 5th 1999, p.7)
UK'S VET POLICY AND THE 'THIRD WAY': FOLLOWING A HIGH SKILLS TRAJECTORY OR RUNNING UP A DEAD END STREET?
E. Keep
Journal of Education and Work, vol.12, 1999, p.323-346
Paper starts with an overview of the new model of the high performance workplace in support of which UK VET reforms have ostensibly been designed. It then examines a number of barriers that stand in the way of the realisation of this model and the high skills route to economic success. The first barrier are the underlying weaknesses in the UK's VET system. Second, the demand for skills and its relationship to models of competitive advantage are probed. The evidence for the prevalence in the UK of competitive strategies based on factors other than skills is reviewed. The paper then looks at the role of the UK's cultural and historical legacy in shaping perceptions of the breadth and focus of VET in ways that are distinctive within the developed world, and sees how these factors interact with the persistence of taylorist forms of work organisation and what the consequences of this situation are for VET policies.
UPSKILL TASK
L. Pollock
People Management, vol.5, no.20, p.58-60
Local authorities have a leading role to play in implementing the government's plans for lifelong learning, but have been generally sluggish in taking the initiative.