A public consultation is currently underway on a new Further Education Strategy for Northern Ireland. The consultation seeks the views of stakeholders on a series of policy commitments that will establish the future direction of Further Education in Northern Ireland. The final strategy will be published in autumn 2015. Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry is currently seeking the views of members in order to submit a response to the consultation. We would therefore appreciate if you could take 5 minutes to provide your views via the following survey.
Additional Information
The last major review of further education in Northern Ireland culminated in the publication of “Further Education Means Business” in 2004.
The biggest fundamental change since then has been the re-structuring of the further education sector from 16 colleges to the current six colleges. The six colleges are now Non Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) which means that they can retain the income they create outside of that provided by government.
The new apprenticeships system and the youth training system at level 2 will form a significant proportion of the provision to be delivered by the Further Education colleges in the future
Background to the Further Education Sector in NI
In 2013/14 there were 142,000 enrolments on regulated courses in Northern Ireland’s FE Colleges. Some key points to note are:
o The vast majority of courses are part-time (86%)
o 70% of enrolments were to Further Education courses, 21% Essential Skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening, working with numbers, use of computers and technology) and 8% Higher Education
o Courses accounting for the largest numbers of students include Learning for Life & Work (45,000), ICT, (17,500), Retail & Commercial Enterprise (13,600), Health, Public Services & Care (12,700) and Engineering & Manufacturing Technologies (9,500)
o In 2013/14 ‘Level 1 and below’ accounted for 22% of enrolments, 46% at ‘Level 2’, 23% at ‘Level 3’ and 8% were at ‘Level 4 and above’. This indicates that over three-quarters (77%) of regulated provision are at ‘Level 2 or above’[1]
o 3 in 4 students gain a qualification
Further Education Colleges Engagement with Industry
In addition to providing training and skills to individuals and employees, colleges provide direct support to industry in a number of ways including product design, research and development, business mentoring, business improvement techniques, innovation, business incubation, and knowledge transfer.
Colleges are the recognised skills provider for a range of DEL and Invest Northern Ireland initiatives and programmes including the Employer Support Programme which consists of two main strands: ‘Skills Focus’ through which colleges deliver a unique tailored training solution to businesses to meet their identified skills needs; and ‘Innovate Us’ which promotes, encourages and facilitates collaborative working between business and further education in order to provide small businesses with the skills and capacity they need to engage in innovation activities and research and development across the business.
The Employer Support programme focuses on a number of priority sectors; business services (specifically ICT); financial services; manufacturing (including food and drink/agri-food, advanced manufacturing and advanced engineering); the emerging sector of life and health sciences; and creative industries and digital media.
[1] E.g. Level 2= GCSEs Grades A* - C, BTEC diploma, Key Skills Level 2, NVQs