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A Cambridge University professor, Mary Beard, has expressed concern that online open courses are in "danger" of creating divisions in society. Professor Beard has said that these courses risk setting apart the "privileged few", who receive face-to-face teaching from the "unprivileged mass" who learn via a screen. At NCFE, we’re committed to providing learning opportunities to individuals from all backgrounds and we feel that the option of online and blended learning actually helps us to do this by granting a wider access to education and a more flexible approach. That's why we offer distance learning solutions.

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As you’re aware, the SFA recently announced changes to its funding rules meaning that a number of adult qualifications may no longer be publicly funded. This story has hit the wider press this month with reports stating that around 5,000 adult vocational courses will be cut in order to "simplify and streamline" the adult skills system in England. Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock took to Twitter to announce that the current system is ‘hard to understand’ and the Government will be binning ‘low-value’ courses such as self-tanning, balloon artistry and instructing pole fitness in order to focus on qualifications that employers value. Nearly £200m of the department's adult skills budget will now be redirected towards what the Government considers to be the ‘most relevant’ qualifications.

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The Department for Education (DfE) has recently made some significant changes to the way that secondary school performance is measured, having an impact on schools up and down the country. The aim is to reform the way that schools and colleges are assessed so that all pupils, regardless of background, can make progress and find success across a broad choice of subjects and study programmes. The government’s vision was to reward schools that set high expectations for the attainment and progress of all their pupils, provide high value qualifications, and teach a wide variety of subjects across a balanced curriculum. The focus was to ensure that accountability became “the servant, not the master, of excellent teaching”. In other words, the accountability system should work with and not against teachers’ main objective – to help their pupils gain the skills and qualifications they need to succeed in their future.

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Recent research carried out by FE Week indicates that, of the 611 members of LEPs, only 38 have either current or past experience in Further Education. LEPs are often referred to as ‘the new kids on the block’. They are usually quoted as part of an inventory of such bodies – hinting that, they too, will soon be consigned to history and we will have a new three letter acronym to come to terms with. As though we need not take them very seriously.

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As we’re all aware, GCSE equivalency plays an important role in many learners’ lives by giving them access to vocational subjects which they can excel in by demonstrating the skills they perform best at. Following on from the government’s changes to these courses and key recommendations by Professor Wolf on 14-19 studies, NCFE decided to create our own new suite of qualifications: V Certs. From September 2013 most vocational qualifications have ceased to hold GCSE equivalency so will no longer count towards your school’s performance tables.

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Online courses – creating divisions in society or creating opportunities?

An update on the SFA funding changes

The march of Progress

Guest blog by Christina Doubleday

V Certs: Academic change and how you may be affected

Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

David Grailey

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Esme Winch

Michael Lemin

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Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

David Grailey

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Esme Winch

Michael Lemin

Categories

Archive