Delivering employment outcomes in FE

Delivering employment outcomes in FE – what’s the answer?

By: Lindsay Plumpton

Communications Leader

Friday 13 July 2012

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It’s hard to ignore the challenges faced by unemployed people in the UK today – we’re confronted with an almost daily stream of bad news related to the issue.

This week, Ofsted published its report Skills for Employment. The report was a direct response to the government’s plans for FE providers to offer work-based training to help the unemployed into work and was critical of FE providers. According to the report, only 19% of students were successful in finding a job when leaving college.

It also highlighted the difficulty of gaining accurate information on progression to employment. Of the centres visited, only 75% were able to provide some information on job outcomes for courses completed by unemployed people. Although providers did concede that tracking accurate numbers of learners who had made the transition into work was a problem.

The REED NCFE job brokerage service is challenging these issues. The aim of this service is to place colleges at the heart of the community, positioning them not just as places of learning but as very focussed and effective recruitment centres for the local business sector. The initiative responds to research with over 2000 employers and can increase learners’ chance of gaining employment by threefold.

So what do you think? Could FE do more to prepare learners for employment? Are college courses focussed enough on job specific skills? As a sector, how can we address the problem of youth unemployment?

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Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

Communications Leader
96 posts
David Grailey

Chief Executive
79 posts
Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Policy Leader
75 posts
Esme Winch

Managing Director
35 posts
Michael Lemin

Policy and Research Manager
25 posts

Schools

Colleges

Training Providers

Employers

Learners

NCFE is a national Awarding Organisation

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