A Private Function: Independent Providers of Vocational Education and Training in Post-War England

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on independent training providers (ITPs) – in other words, private companies – as suppliers of vocational education and training in post-war England. Whilst acknowledging the central role of further education (FE) colleges in delivering vocational learning, it draws attention to a large, diverse sector of ITPs operating alongside FE colleges, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. Data suggest that around 15–20% of vocational learners were enrolled as fee-paying customers with private providers at that time – a figure broadly similar to today. There are, it is argued, three related reasons for this. First, the post-war policy environment, and the varied and uneven nature of colleges at that time, allowed significant room for ITPs to operate as alternative providers of vocational education. Second, the far-reaching ‘efficiency’ gains required since FE colleges left local authority control have largely attenuated the space in which ITPs previously operated. Third, neoliberal assumptions about the superiority of private enterprise mean that ITPs now receive significant funding from the state, largely to deliver Apprenticeships and other programmes of work-related learning – which has, somewhat perversely, reduced the incentive for them to act as bone fide commercial providers of a broader range of vocational learning.

Keywords:

• independent vocational education
• further education
• private providers
• post-war England

1. Introduction

In Britain, vocational education and training is delivered by a diverse range of public, private, and voluntary providers. Some of these are small local enterprises offering certain forms of work-related learning or serving a particular clientele, such as unemployed young people or adults with special educational needs. Others are sizable charitable or profit-making organisations operating regionally or nationally. Colleges of further education (FE) are, however, the largest, most significant providers of vocational learning in Britain (ETF Education and Training Foundation, 2022). Previously known as technical colleges, FE colleges are complex multi-faceted institutions offering a broad range of programmes from basic-skills courses through to certain forms of higher education. Their main raison d’être has, however, always been vocational learning for those seeking to enter, re-enter, or progress within the world of work, especially within local labour markets (Ainley and Bailey, 1997). FE colleges are therefore broadly similar to community colleges in the USA and technical and further education institutes in Australia.

Some FE colleges can trace their roots to the mechanics institutes of Victorian Britain, but most were established by local education authorities (LEAs) during the early twentieth century and remained under municipal control until the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act recast them as ‘FE corporations’ outside the ambit of local government (Hodgson, 2015). Lacking the public profile of schools or the prestige of universities, further education was traditionally an educational backwater, but incorporation thrust it into the spotlight with large-scale redundancies, volatile industrial relations, and some high-profile cases of financial imbroglio (Burchill, 1998; Elliott, 1996; Randle and Brady, 1997), but arguably significant change was overdue with Gravatt and Silver (2000) characterising further education under municipal control as conservative, parochial, and unresponsive to the needs of the communities they were supposed to serve.

Nowadays England’s ‘further education and skills system’ operates as a quasi-market and includes over a thousand independent training providers (ITPs) most of which are profit-making companies receiving public money to deliver vocational qualifications to adults and young people (ETF Education and Training Foundation, 2022). There were, at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, also over 12,000 companies running employer training, most being small businesses or sole traders offering everything from stress management, assertiveness, and outward-bound programmes to IT and leadership training (Simpson, 2009). Independent training providers are, however, nothing new. Private endeavour was, as we will see, central to the establishment and early growth of vocational education and training in England. ITPs moreover continued to play an important role after local authorities became empowered to deliver vocational education and remained significant providers in the decades after World War Two. Despite this, there is little research on ITPs, especially historical work (although see Bailey and Unwin, 2014; Cooney and Gospel, 2008; Osborne and Turner, 2002).

The first section of this paper deals with the origins and development of vocational learning in England and the rise to prominence of LEAs as the primary (though not sole) providers of such provision. The second section deals with vocational education outside municipal control and provides some insight into the role of ITPs in post-war Britain. Part three of the paper focuses on Williams and Woodhall’s (1979) book Independent Further Education. It considers key themes emerging from their research and the extent to which its findings confirm, as suggested in the runup to the incorporation of colleges, that ITPs were more dynamic, innovative, and responsive than local-authority providers (see DES, 1991). The conclusion focuses on the current ‘condition’ of vocational learning in England and the position of independent providers in today’s policy terrain, which has shifted significantly over time. On one hand, ITPs are now routinely in receipt of public funding to run vocational learning, especially Apprenticeships and associated provision, whereas a significant sector of ITPs providing individual fee-paying customers with a broader range of vocational learning does not exist in the same way as when Williams and Woodhall’s research took place. Local authority colleges were often pedestrian and inefficient (Gravatt and Silver, 2000), but they afforded the space for ITPs to provide an alternative to ‘mainstream’ further education. Meanwhile, the practice of subcontracting government-led training initiatives to private providers which began in the 1980s and accelerated thereafter has, somewhat perversely, reduced the incentive for ITPs to act as bone fide commercial providers of a broader range of vocational learning.

The paper makes three significant contributions to the history of vocational education. The first highlights the extent of independent FE before the serial encouragement of ITPs we have witnessed since the 1980s. The second relates to the notion that private providers were inherently more enterprising and dynamic than public-sector colleges. Whilst Williams and Woodhall found that ITPs were sometimes more flexible in their operations, this is unsurprising as most had under 100 students, or offered correspondence courses which are generally more individually orientated than traditional classroom or workshop-based learning, particularly in terms of enabling students to work at their own pace across different locations. Their research did not, however, suggest that ITPs were generally more responsive, innovative, or successful in terms of employment outcomes than public-sector colleges, although Williams and Woodhall did show that private providers were normally able to deliver courses more cheaply, largely by offering a narrower curriculum, providing fewer facilities for staff and students, and paying teachers less. This leads to the third contribution: that the ‘neoliberalisation’ of vocational education which has taken place since the 1980s has fundamentally changed the remit of ITPs and the relationship between different providers.

Historically, the vicissitudes of municipal control allowed substantial space for independent providers to operate generally with little direct competition between ITPs and mainstream colleges. This situation has, however, changed significantly as public and private-sector providers have increasingly been drawn into competition via quasi-market forces constructed and maintained by the state. On one hand, neoliberal policy agendas have forced FE colleges to take in constituencies of learners previously excluded – at least informally – from mainstream vocational learning, some of whom may previously have turned to private providers (see Hunt, 2020). At the same time, state funding has increasingly drawn ITPs into competition with FE colleges, especially in relation to Apprenticeships and other forms of work-related learning (AELP Association of Employment and Learning Providers, 2021). Consequently, post-compulsory education and training is now effectively a complex mixed economy of commercialised public-sector providers competing for business with a range of voluntary and private-sector providers also funded by the state (Hupkau and Ventura, 2017).

2. Vocational Learning in England: Origins and Development

In England, the earliest forms of vocational learning go back to Medieval times and on-the-job training led by craft guilds, private companies, and individual artisans. Later, mechanics’ institutes were funded by the industrialists and philanthropists of Victorian Britain and England’s first FE college, Finsbury Technical College, was established by the City and Guilds of London Institute (CGLI) in 1883, funded by the London Livery Companies (Keep, Unwin and Randhawa, 2022, pp.14–15). Eventually though, it became clear that private and voluntary endeavour was unable to deal with threats posed to Britain’s industrial and military power by nations with more advanced systems of education and training, and eventually state intervention became unavoidable (Musgave, 1970, p. 144). Whilst the 1870 Education Act marked the beginning of state schooling in England, the 1881–84 Royal Commission on Technical Instruction recommended that local authorities provide technical and scientific education. The 1889 Technical Instruction Act and 1890 Local Taxation Act then empowered them to raise funds for such purposes, and the 1892 Technical and Industrial Institutions Act enabled local authorities to acquire land on which to build technical colleges (Argles, 1959). Thereafter, the 1902 Education Act established LEAs empowered to supply (or aid the supply of) education and training over and above elementary schools run by the outgoing School Boards. Such legislation was, however, essentially permissive so, whilst many LEAs committed significant energy and funds to technical and vocational education, some of England’s major industrial towns and cities remained without meaningful provision (Bailey, 1987).

The 1944 Education Act placed a statutory duty on LEAs to secure ‘adequate’ facilities for further education and, by 1947, there were 680 ‘major establishments’ of FE in England – double the number of 1938 (Lucas, 2004, p. 14). Adequacy is contestable territory, but it is still possible to make certain generalisations about FE colleges in post-war Britain. One is that much of their provision was aimed at local industry and commerce. Another is that quality was variable (Ainley and Bailey, 1997). It is moreover fair to say that the practice of recruiting lecturers directly from local industry sometimes led to resistance to new ideas and ways of working (Venables, 1967). Basically, the culture of FE was masculine and industrial (Simmons, 2008), and colleges were sometimes criticised as neglecting the needs and interests of women, mature students, and ethnic minorities (FEU Further Education Unit, 1979). Others simply did not fit easily into the somewhat macho culture of FE and either withdrew from learning or chose to enrol with ITPs, correspondence courses being particularly popular among those preferring to work alone (Hunt, 2020).

Things began to change in the 1970s with the collapse of British manufacturing. On one hand, this meant the supply of day-release apprentices began drying up and FE colleges started offering a broader range of provision including General Certificates of Education for those who may not have gained such credentials at school and a wider variety of professional qualifications, especially in business and commercial subjects, much of which had traditionally been run mainly or solely by ITPs, often via correspondence study (Hunt, 2020). The changing nature of the curriculum followed by the cost constraints of the 1980s and the severe reductions in funding which accompanied incorporation also flushed many of the ‘old guard’ out of FE, making way for new staff with different backgrounds, attitudes and opinions. It is therefore fair to say that colleges gradually became more diverse and inclusive institutions as social and economic change forced them to engage with individuals and groups they had previously ignored or overlooked (McClure, 2000).

Larger LEAs sometimes maintained specialist colleges of art and design, construction, agriculture, or business alongside general FE colleges. Separate adult education services existed in some areas too, offering everything from basic literacy classes to yoga and flower arranging (Cantor and Roberts, 1969). But the 1944 Education Act only required LEAs to secure rather than provide further education and consequently some authorities allowed university departments of extra-mural education, the Workers’ Educational Association, the YMCA, and independent providers to fill the void (Waitt, 1980, p. 402). The Church played a significant part too, mainly running teacher-training colleges, although some eventually developed into more general colleges of further and higher education or were annexed by universities and polytechnics (Simmons, 2017). There were, in addition, seven National Colleges created as ‘direct-grant institutions’ after the 1945 Percy Report (funded by the Ministry of Education rather than via LEAs) to deliver advanced vocational education in areas of strategic national importance, although most were amalgamated into higher education institutions during the 1950s and 1960s (Simmons, 2014). The colleges of advanced technology (CATs) were another important development. Eight CATs were established in industrial conurbations following the 1956 White Paper Technical Education to deliver degree-level qualifications in science and technology (ten from 1962 when Brunel and Bristol also became CATs). Initially formed from among leading municipal colleges, it was soon deemed necessary to remove the CATs from local authority control to allow them to thrive and prosper; the colleges of advanced technology were then recast as universities following the 1963 Robbins Report. There were, in addition, various institutions run by charitable and voluntary bodies, though funded by the state. These included music colleges, and agricultural and horticultural colleges, as well as over fifty teacher-training institutions controlled by voluntary and religious organisations (Simmons, 2017).

There were also twenty or so ‘works schools’ recognised by the state as efficient providers of FE. Typically run by leading companies in high-profile industries including pharmaceuticals, motor vehicle and aeronautical engineering, works schools provided formal ‘off-the-job’ training to young employees often for a day each week. By 1952, there were almost 10,000 young people attending works schools with over 1,500 students at the largest ones, Boots College, Nottingham, and Vickers Metropolitan Works School in Stretford. Like ‘mainstream’ FE, works schools largely catered for young men in skilled manual and white-collar occupations, although there were exceptions: Rowntree of York, for example, ran a Day-Continuation School and Evening Institute specifically for girls (Venables, 1955, pp. 603–604). The existence of companies whose sole purpose was to run programmes of vocational education and training is, however, generally overlooked. These included sole traders and small enterprises providing training in fields such as hairdressing, beauty therapy or business administration; language colleges catering mainly for overseas students; and correspondence colleges offering a range of courses from O-levels and A-levels to professional qualifications in banking, accountancy, and other areas of business and commerce. There were, in the early-1970s, around ninety companies offering correspondence courses in Britain, the largest of which were sizeable businesses serving thousands of students (Hunt, 2020).

Most mainstream analyses present the 1944 Education Act as part of the ‘settlement’ between labour and capital, and the construction of the welfare state following World War Two (Batteson, 1999). This is perhaps understandable: the 1994 Act raised the school-leaving age to 15; replaced elementary schools with primary and secondary schools; and expanded nursery education, special education, youth work, and post-compulsory education and training. It also afforded LEAs a considerable degree of discretion in interpreting regulations set by central government. Consequently, the 1944 Education Act is often regarded as an example of ‘pluralism in action’. There are, however, alternative ways of interpreting it. On one hand, it has been argued that an Oxbridge civil service elite was able to manipulate the policy process and maintain the existing social order by ensuring the continued existence of selective and private schooling (Simon, 1986). Technical and vocational education was, however, never a priority for policymakers, especially in class-conscious England where vocational learning has always been seen as more suited to ‘other people’s children’ (Richardson, 2007, p. 415). Consequently, the state adopted a somewhat laissez faire approach to FE, basically devolving responsibility for such matters to the local level. This, in turn, provided the space in which independent providers were able to operate (Bailey and Unwin, 2014). Generally, however, ITPs competed for business among themselves rather than with publicly funded providers. As I explain in the next part of the paper, the ‘market’ they served was, in many ways, rather different to mainstream FE – at least until the 1980s (Hunt, 2020).

3. Independent Vocational Education in Post-war England

This section of the paper focuses on the raft of private providers whose central purpose was to offer vocational education and training to fee-paying customers before the ‘neoliberal turn’ and the widespread practice of subcontracting publicly funded learning out to the private sector which began in the 1980s (Ainley and Corney, 1990). Whilst it is difficult to be accurate, Wiseman (1977) estimates there were 720,000 learners enrolled with ITPs in 1970–71, approximately 23-percent of the number in public-sector colleges at that time. Williams and Woodhall (1979) suggest the figure for 1973/74 was 814,000 or 20-percent of the figure in mainstream FE (p.14). It is, however, necessary to note that ITPs often ran short courses, so the number of individuals studying with private providers was probably less than headline figures. Given this, Woodhall (1977) estimated that the number of students studying with private providers represented around 15-percent of all those on post-compulsory vocational education and training programmes in England (possibly 20-percent including correspondence courses). Such forms of learning were particularly popular among those seeking professional qualifications and there were, in the early-1960s, some 150,000 students enrolled with correspondence colleges – a figure roughly equivalent to the number of students on degree-level courses at universities and CATs at that time (Hansard, 1961).

Various observations can be made about all this. First, it seems that the number of students enrolled with independent training providers in the 1970s was not greatly dissimilar to today. Hupkau and Ventura (2017) suggest there were some 840,000 learners pursuing vocational qualifications with independent training providers in 2014, which then represented 21-percent of all FE enrolments. More recently, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) claimed there were around 640,000 learners enrolled on such programmes with ITPs – although AELP does not cover all independent training organisations operating in England (AELP Association of Employment and Learning Providers, 2021). Table 1 below provides some indication of the number of students enrolled with FE colleges and ITPs at different periods in time.

Table 1. Students Enrolled with FE colleges and ITPs, 1973–74 and 2013–14.

Year	Enrolments: FE colleges	Enrolments: ITPs	Percentage of all enrolments in ITPs
1973–1974	3, 256,000	814,000	20
2013–2014	3,160, 000	840,000	21

Note: Data adapted from Hupkau and Ventura (2017); Williams and Woodhall (1979)

Enrolment data, however, only provides part of the picture as it is also fair to say that private providers were significantly more independent in the past than today. Nowadays ITPs receive almost £1 billion of public funding (over £735 million to deliver Apprenticeships and related provision; nearly £77 million from the Adult Education Budget; and over £106 million via Advanced-Learner Loans) (AELP Association of Employment and Learning Providers, 2021, pp. 8–10), whereas they were, before the 1980s, far more reliant on individual fee-paying customers. Apprentices normally attended FE colleges on a day-release basis or undertook training provided by Group Training Associations, especially in sectors such as manufacturing and engineering (Cooney and Gospel, 2008). Local authorities could make discretionary grants to subsidise individuals undertaking courses with independent providers, but support varied between different LEAs (like much else under municipal control). Such grants were, however, more likely to be made when similar provision was not offered locally by FE colleges or where individuals could not access mainstream provision – military personnel posted abroad or those living in isolated communities, for example (Hansard, 1961). Most ITP students nevertheless paid fees unsubsidised by the taxpayer (Williams and Woodhall, 1979, pp. 59–60). In many ways, public and private providers served different student demographics – although not in the same fashion as fee-paying and state schools.

Independent providers were, unlike FE colleges, also largely unregulated by the state (Hunt, 2020). A voluntary system existed whereby ITPs could be recognised as ‘efficient’ by the Department of Education and Science (DES) and, by the mid-1970s, around 100 were registered as such, approximately half being language schools using efficient status as a marketing tool. Most ITPs did not use the system though, largely because DES recognition would draw them to the attention of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Schools. Otherwise, certain legalities applied to specialist provision – for example, aviation training – but few other regulations existed other than public liability and health and safety law (Williams and Woodhall, 1979, p. 47). Nowadays, in contrast, many independent providers are subject to external control and inspection as they are in receipt of significant amounts of public funding, basically to deliver initiatives driven by the state. Group Training Associations – formed by employers in engineering, manufacturing and other industries after World War Two to share training costs and enhance quality – were subsidised via a government-led levy introduced following the 1964 Industrial Training Act (Cooney and Gospel, 2008). But the widespread use of ITPs to deliver publicly funded vocational training can be traced back to the 1980s when the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) began outsourcing programmes such as the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) to private training companies, driven by the belief that public-sector providers were not flexible or fleet-footed enough to deliver such initiatives – although expedience undoubtedly played a role too as the MSC was forced to greatly expand operations due to soaring unemployment, especially among young people (Ainley and Corney, 1990). This marked a significant turning point for vocational learning in Britain and effectively the MSC became a conduit through which substantial amounts of public money was systematically passed to independent providers – a pattern which has accelerated over time driven by the assumption that private enterprise is inherently more efficient and effective in delivering vocational education and training than public-sector providers (Chankseliani and James Relly, 2015; Fuller and Unwin, 2009). Meanwhile, the rise of competency-based awards such as NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications), also beginning in the 1980s, enabled a greater range of work-related training to be farmed out to private providers by removing much of the knowledge base underpinning vocational qualifications in Britain (Winch and Hyland, 2007).

4. Williams and Woodhall’s Independent Further Education

Williams and Woodhall’s (1979) Independent Further Education is based on one of the few significant studies of privately-run vocational learning. Their research examined five key themes. The first was to establish whether ITPs made more effort than public providers in meeting their clients’ needs; the second was to ascertain if greater prestige was associated with fee-paying institutions viz-a-viz public providers; the third examined whether ITPs were more responsive to labour-market needs than mainstream colleges; the fourth attempted to establish if those who undertook their studies with ITPs were more successful in securing satisfactory employment; the fifth theme aimed to establish whether private providers were more flexible in their operations than public-sector institutions.

We should, however, note that Williams and Woodhall focused only on courses leading to formal qualifications rather than all forms of independent vocational learning. They excluded employers’ on-the-job training; non-certificated courses provided by training consultants; and learning for leisure and pleasure. Training for the priesthood and other forms of learning where no comparable public-sector provision existed were also omitted. Private schools of music, drama, and art were excluded as they had been the subject of studies by the Gulbenkian Foundation (see Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1965; Gulbenkian Foundation, 1975). Essentially, Williams and Woodhall focused on ITPs providing an alternative to mainstream further education – although it is quite possible to regard art and design, the performing arts and similar provision as vocational learning. Their study dealt largely with subjects such as accountancy, business, and law; beauty and hairdressing; computing; engineering; nursery nursing; secretarial studies; and travel and tourism. It also included private language colleges and specialist provision such as aviation and heavy-goods vehicle training, although neither was conducted in FE colleges. Williams and Woodhall’s work is nevertheless of significant value. On one hand, it exposes a large, diverse sector of independent providers offering a wide range of learning to hundreds of thousands of students at a time when it is commonly assumed that public-sector colleges monopolised the provision of vocational education and training. Their research also provides valuable insights into the way ITPs operated, their reputation, quality, and effectiveness in meeting student expectations and labour-market demand.

It is, however, worth considering the motivation for Williams and Woodhall’s research before going any further. Both started out as educational economists at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and later Williams, as Professor of Educational Administration at the Institute of Education in London, advocated student fees, loans and ‘individual learning accounts’ for higher education. This, he argued, would give students greater control over their own learning (Williams, 2000). The 1970s was moreover when neoliberal ideas about competition, choice and public-sector reform began gaining traction in mainstream political circles (Harvey, 2007). Williams and Woodhall’s Independent Further Education is nevertheless fairly neutral in tone, and the Policy Studies Institute which funded their research was no free market think tank. Williams, moreover, recognised that ‘excessive competition [in education] can lead to reductions in quality as institutions indulge in price competition and hard-selling tactics’ (Williams, 1984, p. 97). It is therefore difficult to see Williams and Woodhall’s book as a partisan tract promoting the role of ITPs.

Williams and Woodhall’s research began during 1975–76 based on a survey and interviews with staff and students from ITPs and public-sector colleges. This was supplemented by interviews with careers officers, teachers, and trade journalists, alongside staff from industrial training boards, professional bodies, trade associations, and examining boards. Directors of more than 180 ITPs and 22 college principals also participated in the study, along with more than 500 learners from private providers and over 400 students in mainstream FE (Williams and Woodhall, 1979, pp. 11–12). One of the reasons that its findings are important is that the rationale for incorporation was that FE colleges needed to be free from municipal control become more entrepreneurial, forward thinking, and efficient (Keep, Unwin and Randhawa, 2022, p.34). We should therefore examine the five themes arising from Williams and Woodhall’s study.

4.1. Meeting Clients’ Needs

One criticism of FE colleges under LEA control was that they were dominated by cosy networks of college managers, county-hall officials, and staff reluctant to adapt to the changing nature of education and the economy (DES, 1991). Another was that much of their provision was not relevant to the needs or interests of students and employers (Gravatt and Silver, 2000). Notions of education for democracy, and ‘educating the whole person’ meant that many vocational students in FE colleges were required to undertake various forms of learning outside their immediate occupational sphere – much of which they had previously rejected at school (see, for example, Cantor and Roberts, 1969; Venables, 1967). In contrast, staff running ITPs championed a ’no frills’ curriculum emphasising work-related skills and practice. A significantly smaller proportion of ITP students (30-percent) felt they were exposed to ‘unnecessary forms of learning’ than those in mainstream FE (60-percent). Many students who took part in Williams and Woodhall’s study believed that ITPs offered significant advantages. In some cases, students believed that paying (higher) fees was justified as it would allow them to gain qualifications and enter the labour market sooner than would otherwise have been possible (Williams and Woodhall, 1979, p. 16). Hunt (2020) argues that time constraints encouraged some employed students to turn to ITPs, especially correspondence colleges.

4.2. Prestige

In England, exclusive fee-paying schools and ancient universities have long been associated with the production and reproduction of social, economic, and occupational elites. In contrast, Williams and Woodhall found little to suggest that private training providers were generally regarded as more prestigious than local authority colleges. There are several possible reasons for this. On one hand, practical and applied vocational learning has never been popular among the ruling classes who have, in the main, always favoured the abstract and the academic over the applied and the vocational (Richardson, 2007). But FE colleges could, as I have already noted, also be inhospitable places for those who fell outside the ‘aristocracy’ of the working class – apprentices, technicians and artisans from industry and commerce – which traditionally dominated colleges (FEU Further Education Unit, 1979; Venables, 1967). Consequently, at least some of those who lacked the confidence or durability to access or cope in mainstream further education turned to ITPs as alternative providers of vocational learning (Williams and Woodhall, 1979, p. 65). In some cases, private providers attracted low achievers unable to access other provision and sometimes courses run by ITPs were regarded as second rate by employers (Hunt, 2020). Arguably, this was exacerbated when the MSC began subcontracting YTS and similar programmes to private training companies. Not all such provision was poor quality, but some of the worst ‘sink schemes’ which offered little in the way of career prospects to unemployed young people were run by ITPs, often in areas of high unemployment and social deprivation (Roberts and Parsell, 1992).

On the other hand, some careers officers who participated in Williams and Woodhall’s study saw certain secretarial colleges as possessing ‘snob value’. Some ITPs offering catering and beauty therapy were also found to have a more middle-class intake than equivalent courses in FE. Generally though, Williams and Woodhall found little to suggest that private provision was seen as inherently more prestigious. This, they argue, was due partly to the fact that, whilst some ITPs provided their own diplomas, most offered the same qualifications as public providers – CGLI awards, for example, or qualifications leading to membership of professional institutes. Williams and Woodhall’s study also demonstrated a fairly weak relationship between attending an ITP and having previously gone to a private school. Their research found that over 75-percent of students enrolled with independent providers had previously attended a state school. Whilst this is higher than the proportion of pupils in fee-paying schools, most were concentrated in the secretarial and catering courses described above. Effectively, a small number of ITPs functioned as finishing schools for a certain section of young middle-class women (Williams and Woodhall, 1979, p. 67).

4.3. Responsiveness

Many ITP directors believed they were significantly more responsive to the demands of business and industry than FE colleges, claiming that freedom from municipal bureaucracy allowed them to be more agile and alert to changing labour market needs. Short courses such as language for business, English for overseas students, and ‘fast-track’ hairdressing and beauty courses were cited as examples of responsiveness. Yet Williams and Woodhall found under half the ITPs participating in their research had made significant changes to the content, structure, or delivery of courses in the previous five years. There was, they concluded, little evidence to suggest that independent providers were generally more innovative or responsive than public-sector colleges, although it is necessary to note that the responsiveness of FE colleges to employers’ needs was itself varied and uneven. The extent to which mainstream providers sought new business depended not only on the local labour market but the attitudes and dispositions of individual college principals, heads of department, and other staff, as well as the tone set at county hall (Ainley and Bailey, 1997, p. 16).

4.4. Employment Outcomes

Another claim made by private providers was that students were more likely to get jobs than those attending FE colleges. This, they argued, was mainly due to the help finding work they received during their studies. Williams and Woodhall, however, found little difference between public and private providers in helping students secure employment. They also found little variation in the rate of obtaining work, although there was some evidence to suggest that ITP students were slightly more satisfied with the jobs they got. Again, this related particularly to private secretarial colleges but generally there were few differences in employment outcomes, including earnings. Some professional bodies, however, preferred private providers to deliver training for those seeking entry to or progression within certain vocations. For much of its existence, the Institute of Chartered Accountants insisted on qualifications gained via the private correspondence college Foulks-Lynch, although other companies offering face-to-face tuition emerged during the 1960s and 1970s. Eventually, one of these, Brierley, Price, Prior & Co, became BPP University, one of Britain’s few private universities (Hunt, 2020, p. 350)., Meanwhile, the Law Society established its own training institution, The College of Law (now The University of Law) by merging its training operation with the private tutorial firm, Gibson and Weldon (Williams and Woodhall, 1979, p. 51).

4.5. Flexibility

There is some evidence to suggest that ITPs were more flexible in their operations than most further education colleges. This was especially so with correspondence colleges where students were more likely to work at their own pace rather than being part of a unified cohort of students aiming for a common outcome over a fixed timeframe, as is usual in FE (Hunt, 2020). Private providers also claimed they were flexible on enrolment and examination dates, class times, and contact hours, although Williams and Woodhall found no consistent pattern. ITPs moreover claimed they were better at tailoring teaching and learning to individual students, including those with special educational needs or no formal qualifications (p.52). ITPs’ willingness to offer flexible enrolment was significant when the MSC began subcontracting YTS and similar programmes to private providers (Ainley and Corney, 1990). Williams and Woodhall also found that ITPs generally provided courses more cheaply than their public-sector counterparts. The aforementioned ‘no frills’ curriculum helped in this respect, but many independent providers operated from converted shops, offices and other premises without sports facilities, libraries, or social spaces – as is the case today. ITPs also employed more part-time and less well-qualified teachers on lower salaries than FE colleges (Williams and Woodhall, 1979, pp. 58–60). When Williams and Woodhall’s study began the average annual salary for FE college lecturers was £4,383 (DES Department of Education and Science, 1975, p. 62). No directly equivalent figure is available for all ITPs at that time, but the average salary in private language colleges was £2,340, and £2,486 respectively for independent providers of beauty and domestic courses. Those working in FE also had shorter working hours, more annual leave, and greater job security as well as occupational pensions, better sick pay, and other benefits (Williams and Woodhall, 1979, p. 58). Much of this was attenuated following incorporation when FE lecturers were forced onto inferior terms and conditions (Burchill, 1998).

5. Conclusion

Successive governments have, since the 1980s, restructured the organisation and delivery of vocational education and training according to the strictures of the market. Whilst FE colleges remain the largest providers of vocational learning, there are now 257 colleges (including sixth-form colleges, specialist colleges, and 157 general FE colleges) compared to 427 at incorporation (Ainley and Bailey, 1997). A handful of colleges went bankrupt after incorporation, and a few (mainly art & design or agricultural colleges) managed to recreate themselves as universities. The reduced number of colleges is, however, mainly due to mergers. Some of this happened voluntarily, although certain institutions have been overtly expansionist, effectively annexing rival colleges. A reduction in numbers was also driven by the area reviews of 2015–17 – a programme of forced mergers driven by ‘austerity’ cuts imposed by successive Conservative-led governments after 2010. A discourse of improving quality and efficiency was used to justify area reviews but vocational learning, whether in FE or elsewhere, remains chronically underfunded and undervalued viz-a-viz schools and universities, despite repeated claims that it offers the solution to various social and economic problems including increasing social inclusion, driving social mobility, and upskilling the nation (Orr, 2020).

The number of FE students has also fallen over time. There were, in the 1990s, over 4-million enrolments in further education in England, whereas now there are under 3 million (Gov.uk, 2022). ITPs offering Apprenticeships and similar provision have had some impact but there are other reasons too. Qualification reforms following the 2006 Leitch Review significantly reduced the number of short courses and a concomitant drop in the number of multiple enrolments which falsely inflated enrolments, but there has also been some real terms fall in student numbers, especially among adult learners where funding cuts have been most severe (Hupkau and Ventura, 2017). Schools now also offer a range of vocational courses to 16–18-year-olds, and ‘new universities’ recruit many students who would previously have undertaken higher-level study in FE. There has also been a great increase in the number of students attending ITPs to undertake Apprenticeships and similar programmes of workplace learning since the 1980s (Chankseliani and James Relly, 2015). On the other hand, the private sector has lost out to mainstream providers, particularly in relation to accountancy, business and law which are now among the most popular courses in further and higher education. Meanwhile, the rise of information technology has caused the demise of the traditional correspondence course. The Open University have led developments in this field, but other universities and many FE colleges also offer distance learning via IT (Hunt, 2020). Notably, the biggest single provider of independent further education in Williams and Woodhall’s study was a multi-national company with some 80,000 students enrolled on correspondence courses.

In some ways then, the changing nature of FE has squeezed the ‘space’ for private enterprise out of the marketplace. Whilst there are fewer FE colleges serving less students, colleges have undoubtedly become more efficient over time, at least in terms of cost. FE teachers’ pay has fallen considerably; class contact hours have been reduced; and many staff are employed on part-time casual contracts (Hupkau and Ventura, 2017). In many ways, ‘the slack’ has been cut out of the system, at least in terms of the delivery of teaching and learning, and consequently there is less room for ITPs to inhabit unless they too are funded by the exchequer. LEAs may not have been the most dynamic or proficient bodies, but a degree of inefficiency presented an environment in which private providers were able to thrive and prosper. This, in turn, allowed at least some learners to pursue their goals and ambitions outside the educational mainstream – assuming they had both the means and inclination to do so. Somewhat perversely, it appears that neoliberalism has attenuated private initiative in offering forms of vocational learning which caters directly to the needs and wishes of the individual rather than those assumed by the state. Consequently, a separate, identifiable ITP sector offering a broad range of vocational learning does not exist in the same way as in post-war Britain.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).