New approach to planning local 16-18 provision needed, says AoC

Responding to NFER's report, Competition and cooperation in the FE sector, David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said: “This useful NFER report sets out how fragmented 16-18 education is across the country. It shows that a marketised approach does not result in a high quality, broad and complete offer of courses and institutions that are accessible by every young person. The system we have requires providers to compete for students and plan independently of each other, inevitably leading to a strong offer in some areas and insufficient capacity in other areas. Overall this means many young people cannot access the learning, training and education which best suits them and which motivates and engages them.

“Every student should have a wide and varied choice that they are able to access. To achieve this, we need a more co-ordinated approach to planning the capacity for the full range of 16-18 provision and institutions locally. Doing this will achieve greater efficiency (with fewer students dropping out and starting again and fewer very small class sizes) and sufficiency (covering the whole range of learning, training and education) while being sensitive to local contexts.

“For vulnerable subjects such as performing arts and languages, the college-based subject ‘hubs’ are well worth trialling. These could preserve and extend access to these subjects, reduce ‘cold spots’, inefficiencies or duplication.”

The full report can be read here.