Memorandum submitted by the Association
of Colleges and the National Association of Principal Agricultural
Education Officers (NAPAEO) (T21)
INTRODUCTION
1. This Association of Colleges is the representative
body for further education colleges, established by colleges themselves
to provide a voice for the FE sector at national level. The membership
includes colleges of all types—general further education,
sixth form, agricultural and horticultural, art design and performing
arts, and other specialist colleges. Membership covers colleges
in England, Wales (through affiliation arrangements with Fforwm)
and Northern Ireland (through the Association of Northern Ireland
Colleges). Some 99% of colleges in the three countries are in
membership.
2. The National Association of Principal
Agricultural Education Officers is the representative body for
the principals of land-based colleges. Its membership includes
46 colleges across the UK, of which 37 are in England. All member
colleges in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are also members
of AoC.
3. AoC and NAPAEO welcome the decision of
the Sub-Committee to conduct an inquiry into rural education,
and to include further education provision within its remit. We
believe that with the major changes which have taken place in
recent years in relation to countryside and rural issues (not
least the impact of the foot and mouth outbreak), and important
changes taking place within the field of further education itself
(such as those envisaged in the new policy framework set out in
the recent Government paper Success for All), a review
is timely.
4. The Associations are pleased to have
an opportunity to assist the Sub-committee in this inquiry. The
evidence which follows seeks to:
— comment on some of the changes which
have taken place in recent year, and their impact;
— identify some of the issues which
now face the sector; and
— offer views on the direction which
should be taken in relation to post-16 education in rural areas
over the next few years.
CONTEXT
5. As the Sub-Committee will be well aware,
fundamental changes have been taking place in the rural economy
over a sustained period, with continuing decline in employment
in agriculture and allied sectors, and diversification into a
range of alternative industries, such as leisure and tourism.
Coupled with changes in the pattern of settlement and in the social
composition of the rural population, these have led to considerable
changes in the pattern of demand for educational and training
opportunities post-16. Those changes are on-going and are posing
questions for all those involved in the rural economy—including
those engaged in the delivery of education and training—about
the need for further cultural shift in the place of land-based
activity in the UK economy and society.
6. As the major providers of learning opportunities
post-16 (with well over four million students enrolling annually
in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and considerably more
in the 16-18 phase than in schools—some 665,000 in England
as against 430,000 in schools of all types) further education
colleges have played a major role in responding to these changes.
Colleges have responded to the changes referred to above by diversifying
their learning programmes, and now provide a very wide range of
courses to meet the specific skill needs of most employment sectors
and to provide progression to higher education where appropriate.
In rural areas as in urban areas there are a wide variety of college
types—general FE colleges, tertiary colleges, sixth form
colleges and specialist colleges.
7. Within the latter group, land-based colleges
(either free-standing institutions or constituent part of larger
general FE colleges, or in a few cases of higher education institutions)
offer a range of learning provision specifically geared to the
needs of rural areas. As part of this role of meeting local needs,
colleges work closely with employers to ensure that individuals
are equipped with the skills and knowledge required for specific
types of employment. Land-based colleges in particular have a
long history of close engagement with local employers to ensure
the responsiveness of provision to local needs, both in respect
of initial training and of upskilling or retraining when skill
requirements change.
8. Nor is the college role limited to the
traditional vocational education and training at lower and intermediate
levels. A significant proportion of land-based provision in particular
is at higher education level, and specifically structured to provide
progression opportunities. Many colleges also offer a wide range
of learning opportunities for those at pre-entry or foundation
level, and for those with learning difficulties. Alongside this,
many colleges also make a major contribution towards helping schools
to deliver the national curriculum and to raise environmental
awareness among younger age groups.
9. The continuing changes in the nature
of the rural economy are throwing up particular challenges for
colleges, especially land-based institutions. In particular, colleges
are facing the question of the extent to which they should themselves
act as a force or catalyst for change, carrying forward their
well-established role in technology and knowledge transfer, as
opposed simply to responding to changes elsewhere. For some land-based
colleges the response has been to develop rural enterprise centres,
for others to become involved in the DEFRA-funded network of demonstration
farms, or other initiatives. For land-based colleges, as major
land-owners in their own right, centres of community activity,
and often the leading rural employer in their area, these wider
questions are particularly acute. They require such colleges to
establish new strategies to change land-use, to diversify existing
patterns of education and training provision, including widening
participation to groups who might not have participated in the
past, and to invest to reshape existing capacity or create new
capacity.
10. Land-based colleges in England provide
for over 100,000 learners, of whom over 58,000 study land-based
subjects. These colleges provide over 80% of land-based provision
at level 3 and above. Resources within these colleges include
some 7,000 full-time equivalent staff, almost 10,000 hectares
of land and estate used as a green laboratory in the delivery
of the curriculum, and about 6,500 residential places. Further
details are given at Annex A, a paper commissioned last year on
behalf of land-based colleges themselves, as part of the process
of reviewing the issues now facing them.
ACCESS AND
PATTERNS OF
PROVISION
11. Typically, most colleges serving rural
areas—and especially land-based colleges—will draw
students from a wide geographical area. In consequence, access
and the availability of student transport are important issues
for such colleges. In addition, because demand for many specialisms
is relatively low there has long been a degree of rationalisation
in the patterns of education and training provision for the land-based
industries, aimed at ensuring a regional and national network
linked to sectoral needs, with individual institutions acting
as regional or national centres for particular areas of training
such as agricultural engineering, game-keeping or forestry. In
recognition of this, most land-based colleges—and some others
serving rural areas—provide residential accommodation, to
ensure that those in need of specialist training are not prevented
from pursuing their chosen careers.
12. The establishment of the Learning and
Skills Council and its 47 local arms with responsibilities for
the planning, as well as funding, of post-16 learning provision
across school sixth forms and work-based training as well as further
education, has already begun to raise fresh issues around patterns
of provision which are of particular importance for rural areas.
These issues are now being accentuated by a number of further
Government initiatives. In particular, the designation of centres
of vocational excellence (launched by the then Secretary of State
for Education and Employment in November 2000)—which has
already led to the identification of over 130 specialist centres
(with an eventual target of 400) has thrown up issues about the
pattern of specialist provision which is required to meet national,
regional and local needs. All of the college CoVEs designated
to date in land-based subjects are located within the land-based
colleges. Alongside this, the intended programme of strategic
area reviews by local LSCs in all areas of England, for completion
by 2005, announced in the DfES strategy for further education,
Success for All, in November 2002, will throw up similar
issues. Alongside this all colleges are being requested to review
their missions, and to agree a development plan to set key performance
standards for the next three years.
13. At the same time, the development of
a role for Regional Development Agencies in relation to skills,
through the Frameworks for Regional Education and Skills Action,
and the current pilots for the co-ordination of RDA and LSC budgets
for adult learning have thrown up further questions about education
and training providers—and colleges in particular—respond
to identified skill needs. Coupled with this, the establishment
of sector skills councils to provide an employer-led focus for
skills issues in specified employment sectors is likely to lead
to some reshaping of provision to meet changing requirements.
It should be noted however that land-based colleges already work
closely with Lantra, now designated as the SSC for the land-based
sector. The Skills Strategy currently under development by DfES
is likely to throw up further issues for colleges in this field.
14. As yet the implications of these developments
for the role of individual colleges, and for overall patterns
of provision in rural areas are unclear. At this stage however
it is by no means clear that the necessary mechanisms exist to
ensure that the overall impact of these changes will maintain
a pattern of centres to meet specialist regional and national
needs in vocational areas where demand is inevitably low. Nor
is it clear how sectoral skills requirements will be reflected
in the planning and allocation of resources at regional and local
levels. In the view of the Associations it will be important to
ensure that a coherent pattern of provision is maintained, reflective
of the full range of skill requirements. In particular, it will
be important for these issues to be explored in the review of
skills and learning now being undertaken by DEFRA, following the
recommendations of the Curry report.
FUNDING ISSUES
15. Resourcing levels in the further education
sector suffered considerable erosion in the 1990s as a result
of the funding policies in operation then, and this impacted upon
colleges serving rural areas as much as others. Although the changes
introduced following the 1998 Comprehensive Spending Review, and
now carried forward in the announcements last summer of the outcome
of the 2002 Spending Review, will go a long way towards reversing
the previous reduction in unit costs, all colleges still carry
a legacy of underfunding which will take some years to overcome.
One particular aspect of that legacy has been the loss of pay
relativities for staff in colleges amounting to some 20% over
the last decade, which continues to present colleges with considerable
problems in recruiting and retaining the specialist staff needed
to match current employer requirements.
16. Colleges are currently funded by LSC
under a complex funding methodology which aims to recognise the
differential costs of different types of learning provision, the
higher costs of some areas of the country (notably London and
the south-east) and the higher costs of engaging and supporting
learners from non-traditional backgrounds. There is no specific
recognition within the funding methodology of the problems involved
in delivering provision in more sparsely populated areas, where
learner numbers may be lower than in urban areas, and unit costs
correspondingly higher. Nor is the current method of identifying
non-traditional learners, based as it is on the ODPM deprivation
index, sensitive to rural poverty and deprivation. Although many
specialist colleges benefit from an institutional premium, introduced
to provide temporary protection from earlier changes to the funding
methodology, in the view of the Associations this does not provide
an adequate basis for dealing with the problems of rural delivery
in the longer term. We believe it would be desirable for LSC to
pursue the work already initiated by the National Rates Advisory
Group to gather detailed evidence on the nature of the costs involved
in delivering learning in rural areas, so as to provide a longer-term
basis for addressing these issues.
LEARNER SUPPORT
Young People
17. Young people over 16—especially
those from more disadvantaged backgrounds—seeking to continue
in learning after compulsory school age face a number of barriers.
For some, the absence of a family tradition of continued study,
the lack of any understanding of the longer term benefits associated
with the possession of recognised qualifications, and family pressures
to bring income into the home from the earliest possible age,
discourage young people from seeking to acquire skills and knowledge
relevant to work opportunities. Those barriers can be particularly
hard to overcome for young people growing up in rural areas, where
isolation and lack of access to wider opportunities are particularly
acute.
18. Although schools, colleges and the Connexions
Service can do much to inform young people of the opportunities
available and to offer guidance on individual choices, up till
now the support available to overcome financial obstacles—through
school and college Access Funds—has been limited. In consequence
the Government decision to introduce Educational Maintenance Allowances
on a national basis for 16-18 year olds has been widely welcomed.
The early evaluations of the pilot schemes already in operation
have provided encouraging evidence that financial support of this
kind can encourage more young people to remain in learning, in
rural areas in particular. It will be important to build on this
initiative when the scheme becomes universal from 2004.
Adults
19. Adult learners face similar barriers,
but the levels of support available are typically much more limited
than those available to young people, especially in rural areas.
Although there are some Government initiatives (such as learndirect),
for adults access to information, advice and guidance about learning
opportunities is much more limited—there is, for example,
no adult equivalent of the Connexions Service. Financial support
for adult learners is similarly on a much smaller scale: although
there are relatively generous arrangements for fee remission in
cases of hardship, only some £82 million is available in
2002-03 from college Access Funds to assist adult learners—compared
with some £2 billion in loans and grants for students in
higher education. Although there are a number of complex issues
around for example the balance to be struck between public, employer
and individual contributions to learning, which are currently
being explored in the review of the funding of adult learning
currently being undertaken by DfES, in the view of the Associations
more needs to be done to assist adult learners in overcoming these
barriers.
Transport
20. As noted above, the availability of
convenient and affordable transport remains a crucial determinant
of access to learning, especially in rural areas. Under previous
legislation, the duties on LEAs to assist with student transport
were vague and easily bypassed, with the result that under the
financial pressures of the 1980s and 1990s, many LEAs cut back
on their support for student transport, leaving colleges to shoulder
an increasing share of the burden. DfES has recognised the difficulties
this has placed on colleges, and has taken a number of initiatives
aimed at addressing these issues, including commissioning a substantial
study of the complexities of current arrangements. It has also
introduced, through the Education Act 2002, reforms of existing
legislation aimed at strengthening the duties on LEAs as far as
16-18 year olds are concerned and at improving the co-ordination
of transport provision. The Associations welcomes these moves,
and are working with DfES, LEAs and colleges to improve the support
available to learners. They remains concerned, however, that the
new approach will do little to address the problems facing adult
learners, and will be seeking to encourage Government to develop
these initiatives further.
Residential Provision
21. As noted above, the availability of
residential provision is a vital component of current provision,
if access to appropriate learning opportunities, especially in
the more specialist vocational areas, is to be maintained. Current
funding arrangements do not address the particular problems which
colleges face in maintaining these facilities, although the introduction
of residential bursaries for students as part of the Access Fund
arrangements, have eased the problems of financing these facilities.
However, the introduction of new inspection arrangements for college
residential accommodation under the National Care Standards Commission
is likely to throw up a need for fresh investment in many colleges
to ensure facilities meet modern standards.
SOME ISSUES
22. Some issues which emerge for the further
education sector, and for colleges serving rural communities in
particular, from the above developments include:
— how to adapt patterns of learning
provision to respond to the changing nature of the rural economy
and rural communities;
— the role that colleges, especially
but not exclusively land-based colleges, should play in leading
and facilitating wider social and economic changes;
— how planning mechanisms can ensure
the maintenance of a coherent pattern of provision, especially
in relation to specialist vocational needs;
— how regional and sectoral needs can
be reflected in the learning programmes offered by individual
colleges;
— the implications for individual college
missions of these development;
— the adequacy of current funding mechanisms
to support the particular needs of colleges serving rural areas;
and
— a need to ensure that learner support,
in respect of information, advice and guidance, financial assistance,
transport and residential provision, facilitates individual access
to learning.
CONCLUSION
23. Colleges have a long tradition of responding
to the learning needs of individuals, employers and communities
in rural areas, and of evolving provision to meet changing needs.
Land-based colleges in particular have played and continue to
play a major role in this area. The pressures facing rural areas
throw up a new range of issues for such colleges
24. The Associations will be happy to expand
on these issues if that would be helpful to the Sub-Committee.
11 February 2003
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