Blog Archives: April 2015

The manifestos for all the major parties have recently been released ahead of the General Election on 7 May. We’ve rounded up the key points on education from each party to summarise their pledges. However, with polls suggesting that this election is going to be extremely close, coalition (or supply and confidence) relationships between parties are likely, which means much of the following could be up for negotiation.

With the General Election rapidly approaching, there is more discussion than ever on further education and various pledges from the main political parties on Apprenticeships. We wanted to find out what young people around the country think of their post-school options as they prepare to cast their vote, which will be the first time for many of them.

The cuts to funding for adult skills in 2015-16 have been widely documented in the last month as the Association of Colleges warns that up to 190,000 adult education places will be lost next year. However, the government has stated that although overall funding is being cut, high quality apprenticeships and English and maths are being prioritised to ensure that learners are literate and numerate, with vocational qualifications of prestige.  At NCFE, we have been working hard to ensure that our popular and valued vocational qualifications have their funding protected and we’re pleased to say that we now have almost 100 funded qualifications available for 15-16 with further qualifications pending approval. These qualifications include courses within Health and Social Care such as Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Dementia Care, Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of the Prevention and Control of Infection in Health Care Settings, as well as substantial qualifications such as Level 1, 2 and 3 Diplomas in Entry to the Uniformed Services and many more.

Over the last few weeks the manifestos for the UK national parties have all been released. So we wanted to give you a round-up of the key points potentially impacting schools and secondary education. Of course this is just a snapshot and with many pundits saying that this election is going to close, (some commentators stating a 91% chance of a hung parliament at present) coalition (or supply and confidence) relationships between parties could be highly likely which means many of the points outlines below could be up for negotiation. Conservatives

The idea of teaching ‘character’ to schoolchildren has gained more and more traction of late, with advocates highlighting the importance of making sure pupils leave school with certain traits and behaviours such as confidence and optimism, drive and ambition, resilience and grit, tolerance and respect, and curiosity and focus. We at NCFE believe that children need more than just good grades to succeed. We’ve seen first-hand the benefits of ensuring children develop character traits, attributes and behaviours that will set them up for success in education and work, as opposed to only focusing on the academic side of things.

To have performance points all qualifications must have external assessment…right? Well not quite. Did you know that we also offer a small number of existing non V Cert Level 1 qualifications that are 100% portfolio based? This means that for this year’s Year 11 pupils there is still time to deliver these qualifications for the 2015 performance tables.

Firstly, welcome back after the Easter break! An important milestone in your annual school calendar, I’m sure. No doubt a busy term lays ahead for you and your school. To support you with the delivery of all NCFE qualifications, we’ll look forward to continuing to support you with our award winning service during this busy time. Last term NCFE also hit a very important milestone. But before I go into that I’d like to give a little bit of context. In September 2013 we saw the first Year 11 pupils begin their V Cert studies with NCFE. As a new range of qualifications designed to respond to the Department for Education (DfE) performance table we were certain of their value to you and your pupils.

The build-up to the general election has seen the topic of childcare discussed by all of the major political parties. Various pledges have been made in relation to accessing childcare, some of the highlights of these are; Labour: Labour want to ensure all primary schools guarantee access to childcare from 8am-6pm, and also extend free childcare from 15 to 25 hours for working parents of 3 and 4 year-olds.

‘Everybody has A*s – employers want character’ (p10) – John Cridland, Director-General of the business lobbying organisation the CBI, wants schools to do more to develop character – he said in an interview with TES that his members would look "at all elements of a learner’s CV, rather than merely the qualifications, because everybody has A*s." He also called for Ofsted to judge schools on the holistic development of pupils, looking at a students’ ‘whole education’ – which has aligned with recent announcements from Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Labour’s Tristram Hunt.