Thematic report |
A review of standards and the quality of provision for engineering in further education colleges and work-based learning providers in Wales - January 2013
The purpose of this survey is to provide the Welsh Government with advice on the current standards and the quality of provision for engineering in further education (FE) colleges and work-based learning (WBL) providers, as requested in the annual ministerial remit to Estyn.
Recommendations
The Welsh Government should:
- review arrangements to allow colleges and other providers to offer HNC (D) programmes in their specialist areas without the need to enter franchising arrangements with the university sector; and
- consider subsuming the various Wales-wide engineering-based initiatives and projects within an overall national engineering education and training strategy for Wales, which can be supported by the engineering industry and all other stakeholders.
Further education colleges and work-based learning providers should:
- improve the rate at which learners complete and attain their qualifications;
- monitor more closely the destinations of all learners when they leave their programmes;
- improve partnership arrangements with schools so that all pupils can:
- have better access to information on education, training and career opportunities in engineering; and
- understand that, to succeed in engineering, pupils need numeracy, literacy and physical science skills at an appropriate level;
- continue to develop the curriculum to ensure that all learners, including females, who are interested in engineering-based careers can enter programmes at a level that are most appropriate for them;
- develop strategies to enable a quicker, more appropriate response to the needs of industry for bespoke training and employer-led consultancy; and
- encourage more learners to enter regional and national competitions of their engineering skills and improve the Welsh representation in the UK team for the Skills Olympics.