Standards in further education
68. Another issue for the further education sector
is the poor performance of some colleges. In the section of the
Departmental Report on "Raising Quality and Participation
in Post-16 Learning" it is stated that in colleges and other
FE institutions: "16% of providers are below the floor target
for long qualifications"; "12% of providers are below
the floor target for short qualifications"; and "24%
of providers are below the floor target for ether long or short
qualifications". For work-based learning providers, performance
is significantly worse. New floor and improvement targets have
been introduced from September 2004 "to ensure that all education
and training is brought up to an acceptable standard."[55]
On the positive side, student satisfaction surveys indicate that
over 90% of students are highly satisfied with their course.
69. These relatively disappointing outcomes in further
education are particularly surprising in the light of the significant
expenditure increases shown in Tables 2 and 3 above. Although
funding per student in FE has not risen as fast as in schools
- because of rising student numbers - there has nevertheless been
a significant rise in spending (both overall and per student)
since 1998-99. The total amount spent on FE in that period has
risen by 53.2% (from £3.7 billion to £5.67 billion)
and the real terms increase per student is 27% (36% for school
pupils). We also note the figures in Table 5 above on underspends,
which show that in 2002-03, the budget for Further Education,
Adult Education and Lifelong Learning was underspent by 38%.
70. The Secretary of State said that there were real
concerns about the deficiencies reported on by Ofsted and ALI:
"…the results are not as good as the colleges
themselves would have wished. Now, of course, it is perfectly
right to have satisfaction as an element in all of this but I
think you cannot beat the Ofsted regime to try and understand
what is really happening in colleges as elsewhere. We are not
inventing the Ofsted assessments, they are making assessments,
the ALI is making assessments, as they rightly should, and I think
most of the colleges would say that those assessments indicate
there is still a great deal of work to be done to get the standards
up to those that we want."[56]
71. There are a number of challenges here for the
DfES. In order to be successful in the implementation of its plans
for 14-19 education, it needs a strong FE sector. It is clear
from the evidence presented in the Department's report that while
some colleges may perform well, others are struggling. Funding
overall for colleges has increased by 53% since 1998-99, in a
period when student numbers have increased by 13%.[57]
This is a substantial increase, but funding for schools has grown
at a faster rate.
72. The funding issue cannot be divorced from the
quality issues. As we said at the beginning of this report, increased
funding by itself will not lead to improved achievement. However,
increased investment will help to address the issues concerning
teachers that the Secretary of State referred to. Better pay for
teachers, and improvements in teacher training for FE, which have
recently been put forward by the Government, should also help
to address these problems of poor achievement.
73. There is an issue of equity here. It makes no
sense that a student undertaking a course at a Further Education
college should, other things being equal, be less well funded
than a student taking the same course at a local school. The Secretary
of State appears to recognise that truth, but progress towards
equal funding is painfully slow. Greater urgency is needed. Further
Education colleges should not be seen as a means of providing
education on the cheap.
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