Legislating for change: Missed Opportunities in the Further and Higher Education Act

Abstract

This paper considers the likely impact of the FE and HE Act (1992) in conferring corporate status on Further Education. It takes a critical look at the present pre‐occupation with market forces as the means of improving Post 16 participation, raising skill levels and meeting national training targets. Its principal argument is that the FE and HE Act has more to do with politically and administratively repositioning FE in the market, than with establishing a coherent curricular framework to secure its future. It also argues that the current national obsession with qualifications has confused the relationship between qualifications and curriculum and, as a consequence, has restricted new thinking about Post 16 Education and Training practice. Lost in all this is any serious consideration of what remains the most pressing issue, namely the further education of young people, and what constitutes effective teaching, learning and curriculum change. The paper maintains that legislation, competition and quality assurance alone determine neither the content, quality or delivery of Post 16 curriculum. In the wider policy vacuum now characterising Post 16 provision there is, the paper concludes, a need to go beyond markets, and to give more thought to the qualitative determinants of FE practice. First, background issues to the recent debate are considered.