PHOTO REDACTED DUE TO THIRD PARTY RIGHTS OR OTHER LEGAL ISSUES AND IS LABELLED AS SUCH IN THE DOCUMENT PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE: The Report of the Independent Review of the Mission and Purpose of Further Education in Wales in the context of the Learning Country: Vision into Action PHOTO REDACTED DUE TO THIRD PARTY RIGHTS OR OTHER LEGAL ISSUES AND IS LABELLED AS SUCH IN THE DOCUMENT December 2007 Acknowledgements: The Chair and Panel would like to thank all those who gave their time and evidence to the Review and supported their work over the last 12 months. Especial thanks should go to the groups of learners who made such clear, articulate and constructive contributions. ISBN 978-0-7504-4482-8 For further copies of this report and queries please contact: Webb Review Secretariat Welsh Assembly Government Unit 6, St Asaph Business Park, St Asaph Denbighshire LL17 0LJ Telephone: 01745 538761 E-mail: [email protected] The report is also available to download at: http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/ policy_strategy_and_planning/127035/webb-report?lang=en This Review has been conducted by an independent panel of three experts. Sir Adrian Webb (Chair) Professor Sir Adrian Webb is Chair of the Pontypridd and Rhondda NHS Trust and a non-executive member of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Executive Board. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glamorgan until December 2005. He was previously an academic at the London School of Economics and Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University. His academic career resulted in many research projects, publications and consultancies. He has held many committee and advisory roles both in Whitehall and in Wales, including HM Treasury’s Public Service Productivity Panel, and has chaired several national enquiries. He was a member of the Beecham Review. He grew up in and currently lives in South Wales. Sheila Drury CBE Sheila Drury has a long and distinguished career spanning education, training and business, working in the public, voluntary and private sectors, and is a current member of the Welsh Assembly Government Ministerial Advisory Group for the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS). Her experience and expertise includes running a group of electronics companies, working at the sharp end of a fast-paced, high risk business for over 20 years. In the public sector, she has been a Director of Investors in People (UK), Chairman of the North Wales Training and Enterprise Company (CELTEC) and Chair of the Welsh Industrial Development Advisory Board. Subsequently she was Executive Chair of the former National Council for Education and Training for Wales. Gary Griffiths Gary Griffiths is the Strategic Manager for Apprentice Programmes Airbus UK. He sits on a number of advisory bodies including the Aerospace Sector Skills Group, the South West of England Regional Development Forum, the Higher Engineering Apprenticeship Working Group for the UK and the SEMTA advisory group for Credit Qualification Framework Wales. He represents Airbus UK on the Airbus Strategic International Project for Skills and the Airbus Intercultural Competency Programme. He brings knowledge, expertise and experience of the work-based learning sector and industry to the Independent Review Panel. NOTE:This page is intentionally blank OVERVIEW 04 SECTION 1: CONTEXT AND CHALLENGES 07 Chapter 1: The Review – Scope and Process 07 SECTION 2: ENTITLEMENT AND EMPLOYABILITY: Where we are now and where we need to be – the evidence 16 Chapter 2: Essential Skills 16 Chapter 3: 14-19 Learning Pathways 26 Chapter 4: Employer-led Learning 44 Chapter 5: Adult and Community Learning and the Needs of the Most Disadvantaged 55 SECTION 3: EXCELLENCE AND EFFICIENCY: Developing the system to deliver our agenda 61 Chapter 6: Working more effectively at a Regional Level 61 Chapter 7: 14-19 Commissioning Consortia 65 Chapter 8: Learning Providers 78 Chapter 9: Quality 96 Chapter 10: Funding 101 Chapter 11: National Governance 105 ANNEX 1: Full List of Recommendations 107 ANNEX 2: Terms of Reference for the Review 121 ANNEX 3: Glossary of Acronyms used in the Report 123 ANNEX 4: External Reference Group (ERG) Members 124 Overview For Wales to be a successful, bilingual society, it must have an educated and well-trained population. Our education system needs to provide individuals with the knowledge and skills that equip them to pursue successful careers, become effective citizens and acquire a capacity for lifelong learning. Wales’s education system must meet this challenge if it is to enable the country to compete effectively in the global economy, ensure quality in public service delivery and produce a citizenry capable of contributing to social and cultural advancement. Significant progress has been made since Devolution. Distinctive policies have been driven forward: 14-19 Learning Pathways, the Welsh Baccalaureate and the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales. In addition, learners have done well in a number of respects: performance at GCSE and A level has improved significantly, whilst achievement at primary level has outstripped all the regions of England for English, Mathematics and Science. Estyn have highlighted the fact that, overall, Further Education Institutions (FEIs) are surpassing the Government’s targets for learner achievement and for the quality of teaching. Nevertheless, there remain issues in delivering the promise on the ground. We have yet to make substantial inroads in such areas as: v tackling the underlying causes of the Basic Skills deficit v ensuring a full range of vocational and academic learning opportunities for all 14-19 learners v implementing a system that is fully responsive to the skills needs of employers v significantly reducing the numbers of adults who are economically inactive and of young people Not in Employment,Training or Education (NEETS) v delivering a joined up approach for the most socially disadvantaged, and v developing programmes for the gifted and talented, including the implementation of a policy for effective science education. To acknowledge that we are falling short is not to lay blame at the door of the many in the education system and in government who strive to achieve what is needed. It is to recognise reality: the reality of where we are, but also of how great is the task which faces us. We have inherited a UK educational history characterised by far too much wasted talent. The causes are multiple: children, young people and adults become educationally disadvantaged for very complex reasons related to culture, the family, the performance of local and area economies and the distribution of income and wealth – to name but a few. Nonetheless, the education system itself is a factor in the equation and historically it has been least good at developing and engaging those learners who seek or who need vocational and practically based learning opportunities. Learner entitlement will be a chimera if these issues are not tackled. 6 Promise and Performance The education system, whilst staffed by dedicated professionals, also faces critical issues that need to be tackled. These include: v too much unauthorised absence and disengagement in schools v too many providers in unhelpful competition v too many empty places, and v demographic change that will cause school rolls to fall further. These sources of inefficiency mean that Wales is less well placed than it should be to fulfil the proper expectations of learners of all aptitudes and abilities and to meet the growing challenge of global competition graphically outlined by Lord Leitch in his report Prosperity for all in the Global Economy:World Class Skills. Given the progress made in the 10 years since devolution,Wales certainly has the capability, as well as the moral obligation, to more fully meet its needs and those of its citizens. We must build a 21st century education system fit for a confident nation. To do so requires further radical change; marginal adjustments will not suffice. Our recommendations are designed to improve policy, but we emphasise that in large measure it is the speed, determination and effectiveness with which policies are implemented on the ground that will determine success. To develop good policies is difficult, but to implement them effectively is the bigger task. The need for collaboration is a case in point: many, including Sir Jeremy Beecham in his report Beyond Boundaries: Citizen-Centred Local Services forWales, have argued for greater collaborative effort, but it is notoriously difficult to achieve. In this report we develop highly specific proposals for making collaboration a reality. We also argue for better alignment of strategy and delivery across the board and for a high premium to be placed on greater efficiency so as to fund development and improvement. To achieve our goals will require better structural arrangements for the delivery of learning. We need structures that combine local delivery and leadership with effective collaboration and clear policy direction. These structures must enable diversity and choice, improved quality and greater efficiency in the face of falling rolls. For us, this means a system comprising: v a new planning and commissioning framework, and v provider consortia delivering across geographic areas. Consortia capable of delivering minority as well as popular courses will promote greater choice and personalised learning, drive efficiency and allow for the development of new relationships between providers. Consortia will be self managing collaborative networks, build upon the strengths of individual institutions and foster specialisation. To implement our recommendations will undoubtedly require significant additional investment. Such investment will have to be phased, but it will be necessary if we are to achieve our goals: goals that include a reduction in some of the long term costs that arise from avoidable social ills such as economic inactivity, poverty and unhealthy life styles. We outline in Chapter 10 a funding trend which causes us great concern, and which, if not addressed, could lead to Wales becoming educationally disadvantaged by comparison with other countries with whom we have to compete.