COMMITTEE FOR EMPLOYMENT AND LEARNING

Report on the Inquiry into Education and Training for Industry (Continued)

Report 01/01R

These new courses have been available since September 2000. In a limited number of cases in schools, and more frequently in further education colleges, students are mixing courses from the General and Vocationally-related categories (see framework diagram below). Nevertheless, CCEA recognises that the achievement of the intention behind these innovations will only be realised when both higher education and employers take account of the changes in their selection criteria.

New Qualifications Framework

Many employers felt that the range of vocational qualifications was confusing and needed rationalisation. Dearing wrote that among those involved in education and training, whether as providers or learners, there is a strong wish for greater coherence in the framework of qualifications. Those outside want a framework which they can understand. [9] Building on the work of Lord Dearing, the Regulatory Authorities developed a new qualifications framework (see diagram above). In addition, however, the framework also represents an attempt to raise the status of vocational qualifications by showing the different qualifications in terms of Levels - thus reinforcing the idea, for example, that a Vocational A Level, while being different in nature and purpose, is similar in demand to an Advanced GCE or an NVQ Level 3.

It can be seen from the framework that young people, right from the age of fourteen may choose to study a mixture of qualifications. CCEA recognises that the ambitions for the implementation of the framework will be difficult to realise and will involve a significant shift in attitudes towards vocational qualifications by schools and among parents. Employers, especially, can make a difference if they show a greater willingness to accept different qualifications as part of their selection criteria.

Modern Apprenticeships and Technical Certificates

CCEA does not have direct responsibility for NVQs in Northern Ireland - QCA fulfills that remit. However, the Regulatory Authorities are working together to strengthen aspects of training particularly in relation to underpinning knowledge within training programmes. This is especially relevant to Modern Apprenticeships (NVQ Level 3). These were introduced following demands by employers themselves as well as representative bodies such as the Sector Training Councils (STCs). There are 55 Modern Apprenticeship frameworks available in Northern Ireland and currently these are under review by DHEFETE.

Plans are also being put in place to introduce Technical Certificates which are taught qualifications focussing on underpinning knowledge and understanding to be taken alongside NVQs in Modern Apprenticeships. Any qualification meeting the Technical Certificate design principles, being drawn up by the Regulatory Authorities, must also include an element of 'citizenship' in an employment context.

CCEA believes that this development has the potential to strengthen the Modern Apprenticeships. However, the delivery of such programmes must be attractive to trainees who are clearly keen to follow a very practical type of training.

With regard to apprenticeship training generally, CCEA has not undertaken any detailed international research. However, some investigation into the often heralded German Dual System confirms that this model, up to now, has been very successful. However, CCEA believes that rapid changes in the composition of labour markets and industries also require the ability of a training system to adjust quickly. Presently the dual system is perceived as too slow in adjusting to changes. [10] CCEA believes that Northern Ireland should learn from what is happening in areas such as Germany and make sure that our training systems are responsive to volatile labour market demands.

Comprehensive careers education and guidance

CCEA, along with others involved in education, training and employment, believes that the current careers provision in schools and colleges needs to be strengthened if the desired goals for both the qualifications framework and Strategy 2010 are to be realised. For example, informed guidance should ensure that young people are acutely aware of the labour market trends. It is clear from publications such as Lifelong Learning: A New Learning Culture for All [11] that significant recruitment is likely in computing, construction, electronics, manufacturing, engineering, software engineering, and tourism and hospitality. However, careers guidance practitioners need to make sure that young people make informed decisions on the basis of up-to-date information. CCEA is not convinced that this is indeed the case and looks forward to implementation of the recommendations of the Careers Guidance Review Group.

SECTION B

Colleges of Further and Higher Education

CCEA's role in colleges of further and higher education (hereafter referred to as 'college(s)' relates to those qualifications General and Vocationally-related qualifications for which it has regulatory responsibilities. In addition, as an Awarding Body, it provides a service for students and staff in relation to those qualifications within its current portfolio. The comments within this submission on colleges are covered by the following headings:

-       background to further education;

-       the need for FE to establish for itself a clear role within the education and training sectors;

-       potential to meet the needs of the potential customers;

-       questions which need to be addressed.

Background to further education

CCEA fully appreciates that colleges have been at the forefront of vocational training in a variety of forms - full-time, part-time, evening classes, day release and in the workplace. Helena Kennedy emphasised that further education has been an alternative route to success for many young people who have foundered in the school system, frequently providing another avenue to university education. It is further education which has invariable given second chances to those who were forced, by necessity, to make unfulfilling choices. It said 'try again' to those who were labelled as failures and who had decided that education was not for the likes of them [12] The possibility of giving individuals that 'second chance' is most important and one that colleges have the potential to offer. Perhaps colleges have not always been as successful as they might have been in attracting 'returners' to further education as might have been anticipated.

Clearer focus for colleges

Following on from the previous point there is the issue of the customer base for colleges. It used to be said that FE is everything that does not happen in schools and universities. However, in recent years there is evidence that some colleges, but not all, have been offering, for example, repeat GCSEs, Advanced GCEs and now a range of vocational A levels. However, it is interesting to quote from the report of The Review Group on Further Education (1992) which states on page 13 that at the same time, however, for some purposes there needs to be a differentiation between vocational education which includes training of a work-related type and that of a general or academic nature which is not in itself directly related to employment. The Review Group considers that the core role of a further education college should be the provision of vocational education of the work-related type. The core role provides the central rationale for a college's existence and, in particular, contributes to improving the level of skills of the workforce - which in turn, leads to the improvement of the economy of Northern Ireland. CCEA continues to believe that the focus of the work of colleges should be as the 1992 Report advocated.

Through funding and market forces, particularly through competition from schools, colleges are concentrating more on courses of the work-related type. With regard to the school/college competition, CCEA believes that co-ordination is required at government level to ensure that there is sensible and efficient allocation of resources. Taking account of economic priorities it is most unlikely that schools will be in a position to offer vocational A levels in, say, Engineering. Thought ought to be given to rationalising, from the centre, the provision of different courses in schools and colleges - or at least greater imperatives toward collaboration in the interests of both students and the economy.

There is a large group of people in Northern Ireland, as many as 200,000 with no or few formal qualifications and this group is powerfully represented among the unemployed and socially excluded. Recent evidence from the International Adult Literacy Survey shows that 24% of adults in Northern Ireland are at the very lowest level of document, prose and quantitative literacy and that the unemployed are twice as likely as those in employment to perform at this lowest level. Information provided by the Labour Force Survey, Spring 1998 shows that only 42% of the employed workforce are qualified to NVQ level 3 or equivalent - the minimum required by most firms according to the Institute or Directors and other organisations.

CCEA suggests that rather than duplicating some of what is provided in schools, colleges ought to focus on the target groups mentioned above. This would bring about a shift in the age profile of those attending college. That profile shows that a major proportion of their cohort of students is within the 16 - 19 age range rather than over that age.

The government's intention to introduce Foundation Degrees is, in the opinion of CCEA, a welcome development. While complete information is not available at this stage it would appear to the Council that this 'fast tracking' to employment is more in line with what employers are demanding. CCEA believes that much of this work could be undertaken by colleges which are local and accessible to our young people.

Widening participation and lifelong learning

Learning is the key to prosperity - for each of us as individuals, as well as for the nation as a whole [13] To survive and compete in today's world, Northern Ireland businesses and individuals need to learn more and to develop and update their skills. The modern knowledge economy will force people in work to renew their skills and even change jobs every few years. In knowledge economies, training will continue throughout our working lives, and will be a blend of vocational and liberal education that supplies tranferable intellectual and social skills, especially the capacity to locate and evaluate knowledge in an information saturated world. It seems to CCEA that colleges can play a crucial part in promoting and providing lifelong learning opportunities, particularly for women, the unqualified and, of course, people currently in work.

November 2000.

WRITTEN SUBMISSION BY:
NORTHERN IRELAND CREDIT ACCUMULATION
AND TRANSFER SYSTEM (NICATS)

background

The Northern Ireland Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (NICATS) has been promoted by Government to enable the creation of a single credit framework across Further Education (FE), Higher Education (HE) and other providers of post-16 education and training in Northern Ireland.

The aim of the single credit framework is to enable learners to accumulate credit through a variety of modes of learning and to progress through a series of levels of learning, transferring where necessary, without encountering the barriers caused by the current lack of coherence and interconnection between existing systems of accreditation and parts of our education system.

The NICATS Project which ran from April 1996 to March 1999, and was funded by the then Department of Education for Northern Ireland (DENI), agreed the structural components of a credit framework including a single continuous set of level descriptors from basic entry level to postgraduate level. These specifications outline how learning achievement can be measured, described and compared through learning outcomes, credit values and levels.

NICATS moved into its implementation phase in late 1999 after an Implementation Committee, under the Chairmanship of Professor Peter Roebuck, was appointed by the then Minister of State. In August 1999 a Ministerial Letter set out the remit and priorities of the NICATS Implementation Committee and Central Unit over a three year implementation phase. It should be noted that NICATS is the first UK network established by government to develop a single credit framework embracing both the further and higher education sectors.

the implementation phase

Recommendations for the way forward

The following recommendations were made in the final NICATS Project Report, published in September 1999:

n     that a NICATS Central Unit be established to take forward the preparation and planning for a single framework for credit and qualifications in Northern Ireland.

n     that major stakeholders work collaboratively with the NICATS Central Unit to agree and endorse:

-       the NICATS specifications and guidelines for a single credit framework;

-       quality assurance procedures for the award of credit at each level which meet NICATS specifications; and

-       an action plan for implementation;

n     that NICATS work collaboratively with the Northern Ireland regulatory and award bodies to produce:

-       the integration of the credit and qualifications frameworks;

-       agreed specifications for the operation of the credit framework; and

-       agreed systems for meeting the specifications of the credit framework;

n     that the NICATS Central Unit continue to work in collaboration with national credit and qualifications framework developments in the UK, adapting the NICATS specifications in the light of national developments and pro-actively contributing to credit framework developments at a national and international level;

n     that the NICATS Central Unit actively promote the relevance of CAT developments to delivering the Government's lifelong learning agenda;

n     that primary responsibility for quality assurance remain with the recognised validating and awarding bodies. The NICATS central unit should work with the recognised validating and awarding bodies to ensure the successful operation of the agreed framework;

n     that inter-institutional curriculum groups be established to proceed with pilot curriculum development activities which facilitate testing of the NICATS specifications and guidelines;

n     that stakeholders work closely with the NICATS central unit to raise the profile of the Northern Ireland Credit Framework through appropriate staff development activities;

n     that staff development activities be designed which:

-       make explicit the agreed credit framework for curriculum planners;

-       identify ways in which learners can understand and use credit; and

-       raise awareness for learners of the opportunities provided by a credit framework; and

n     that the NICATS central unit work closely with relevant guidance agencies to ensure that learners can make effective use of credit accumulation and transfer opportunities.

NICATS Management

During its project phase NICATS was based within the Educational Development Unit in the University of Ulster and was managed as a discrete project within that Unit. In July 1999 a NICATS Director took up post and staff were appointed to designated posts between August 1999 and June 2000. Over the period from August 1999 to April 2000 adaptations were made to vacant accommodation at the UU Belfast Campus to provide a set of offices for the NICATS Unit which could be independently accessed from York Street. NICATS was thus established as an independent unit, within the University for operational purposes, but responsible, through the NICATS Implementation Committee, to the Minister for Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment (DHFETE).

Under the terms of the Ministerial Letter the NICATS Director reports to Professor Peter Roebuck within the University of Ulster, who also holds the position of Chair of the NICATS Implementation Committee.

objectives of NICATS implementation phase 1

The Ministerial Letter sets out a number of key objectives for the NICATS initiative, which must be achieved by September 2002.

The first NICATS Implementation Phase will:

n     establish the NICATS Central Unit;

n     develop the credit framework for Northern Ireland in collaboration with the Northern Ireland further and higher education institutions and local regulatory and awarding bodies, maintaining close contacts with national credit and qualification framework developments;

n     provide advice, guidance and associated staff development to stakeholders on the development and operation of the Northern Ireland credit framework;

n     develop and maintain links with employer organisations, the University for Industry, national and international credit consortia, with a view to promoting the recognition and use of credit; and

n     develop a unit database and establish an electronic credit transcript to underpin the Northern Ireland credit framework.

products

Since NICATS moved into its implementation phase on 1 August 1999 it has:

n     established the NICATS office including appointing a full staffing complement and produced a draft business plan containing development and operational sub-plans;

n     established sub-committees of its Implementation Committee, concerned respectively with collaboration with: CCEA; the major awarding bodies based in Northern Ireland; and further and higher education representatives;

n     met with all heads of FHE colleges, on an individual basis, to explain the NICATS framework;

n     met, on a regular basis, with staff in HE to discuss NICATS role in relation to that sector and to agree areas for co-operation and development;

n     established links with key awarding bodies at local and national level in order to establish a collaborative working relationship;

n     worked closely with the FE Curriculum Development Officer for Northern Ireland (funded by DHFETE) to provide a NICATS input to project and staff development activities; developed links with the University for Industry and established key links in credit framework development at national and international level;

n     established links with various bodies in the Republic of Ireland concerned with the issue of credit framework development, namely the CHIU Committee of Registrars and groups associated with adult and youth community education and access to higher education;

n     made detailed responses to relevant consultation documents and provided inputs at a wide range of conferences, seminars and workshops, both as a professional development activity and as a means of promoting NICATS; and

n     initiated two major pilot projects: The UK Credit Equivalence Project and the FE Sector/ NICATS Access to Higher Education Project.

work in progress 2000-2002

n     Working with other UK bodies to ascribe credit to qualifications within the National Qualifications Framework (the first priority area identified by DHFETE).

n     Working with FHE to bring Access courses within the NICATS framework.

n     Promoting the use of the NICATS model in the design of Foundation Degrees.

n     Establishing a NICATS website (to be formally launched in May 2001).

n     Establishing a NICATS unit database.

n     Agreeing a Northern Ireland Credit Transcript for learners.

n     Involvement in FHE funding and MIS development to ensure compatibility with the emergent credit framework.

n     Promotional and staff development work with employers, educational providers and learners re role, function and advantages of the NI Credit Framework.

key anticipated outcomes

n     The use of NICATS as a reference point for comparing and contrasting different types of award.

n     Reassurance for gatekeepers/employers of the currency of qualifications.

n     A clearer picture of learner achievement and the progression routes available to students in FE, HE and the workplace - this will apply to education providers, students, parents, employers and guidance personnel.

n     A credit system which underpins the unit-based nature of Curriculum 2000 and, in due course, the National Qualifications Framework.

n     A credit system which crosses the academic/vocational and FE/HE divides.

n     The recognition and acceptance of credit as a way of describing and measuring learning.

n     Increased motivation for students as learning is available in smaller chunks for which credit is immediately available.

n     The promotion of flexibility and choice in learning.

n     A curriculum design model which can help to deliver the Government's lifelong learning agenda.

n     The use of the NICATS specifications and model as a valuable tool to assist in curriculum assessment and design.

n     The establishment of a NICATS database of units, grouped by nature and demand of content, which will allow comparisons to be made and progression rates (both to employment and further study) to be claimed by a wider range of learners.

WRITTEN SUBMISSION BY:
NORTHERN IRELAND ECONOMIC COUNCIL

Introduction

1.         This short response presents the views of the Northern Ireland Economic Council (hereafter referred to as the Council) to the inquiry by the Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment Committee, into "Education and Training for Industry". A brief summary of the role and remit of the Council is contained in Annex A.

2.         Many important issues come under the scope of this inquiry. The Council will however confine its comments to directly relevant issues which have arisen from our recent body of work. Other issues from our research, while perhaps not directly relevant, but which we feel are pertinent to the inquiry are contained in Annex B.

Skill Formation and Economic Growth

3.         The attainment of a virtuous circle in which a growing economy helps to generate the resources and opportunities to tackle social exclusion should be an important strategic objective of the Government. Education and Training policy has a fundamental role to play in achieving this objective. Forthcoming research from the Council on economic strategy reinforces this view (Best, 2000, Forthcoming). It focuses attention on three key issues: the Business Model; Production Capabilities; and Skill Formation.

4.            Transformational growth of the type required to increase GDP per head of the population in Northern Ireland to UK levels, requires integrated action across all three domains. The report is particularly insightful with regards to the third domain - skill formation. It makes the important point that a region that can institute skill formation processes in anticipation of technology transitions has a competitive advantage over regions that lack such a capability.

5.         The report commissioned from Professor Michael Best, Director of the Centre for Industrial Competitiveness, University of Massachusetts, Lowell and Visiting Professor at the Judge Management Institute, Cambridge University, England, entitled "The Capabilities and Innovation Perspective: The Way Ahead in Northern Ireland" will underline the fact that Northern Ireland universities have world-class research facilities in several areas but active industry/university partnerships are too few. Furthermore, his research shows that Northern Ireland Further Education Colleges currently enjoy little guidance particularly in the crucial area of manpower planning.

6.            Investment in skill formation is costly. To get a high return on the investment, it is important to match the demand for skills from technology advancing firms with the supply from education institutions. This is best achieved through co-ordination of activities involving employers, teachers at all levels, and education authorities.

7.         The report points out that in the Massachusetts area, the tripling in electrical engineering graduates during the 1976 to 1986 period was the result of co-ordinated action by three institutions: technology-driven firms, education and government. Although it is the government that has both the funds and legitimacy to make educational restructuring and investments on the necessary scale, nevertheless, the state government was not the leader but a third partner in the implementation of an informal manpower development plan. The rapidly growing, technology-driven firms were the active partners. Developing this active partnership approach should be a key priority of the Committee's investigation. Best's work highlights the challenges for all three institutions should this active partnership be undertaken in Northern Ireland as follows:

Challenges for Educational Institutions:

n     The challenge for educational institutions is not simply to increase the number of graduates but to increase graduates educated in a curriculum that includes emerging technological methodologies.

n     To collaborate with industry and government in skill formation appropriate to the region. The supply of graduates must be "in sync" both in skill and quantity with the demand from technology-driven firms.

n     To assess the teacher pool in terms of size and orientation in terms of mathematics and science.

n     To actively encourage an interest in science amongst young people in the early years of education.

Challenges for Business:

n     To collaborate with educational institutions and government in skill formation appropriate to the region. Northern Ireland's problem is not so much the supply of skilled labour, particularly graduates, but the capability of industry to absorb them.

n     To make better use of the 25 research and development centers that currently exist in Northern Ireland.

Challenges for Policy-makers

n     To tackle the insufficient number of entrepreneurial firms.

n     To develop governance capabilities for fostering applied technological development to reinforce and foster the continuity of unique, regionally based technological capabilities.

n     Industrial policy must take account of all sources of knowledge and skill formation. Best offers new insights into the importance of what he calls the "invisible colleges". By this Best means skill formation also applies to tacit, or non-codifiable, knowledge that is built up by enterprises conducting experiments, formal and informal over long periods of time. Tacit knowledge is often a critical ingredient in unique capability development and a source of unique competitive advantage. Mission-driven organizations can affect growth by fostering a region's invisible colleges. Industrial transitions, in particular, can be fostered by mission-driven intermediary institutions (neither business enterprises nor government agencies), which form integral parts of regional and national business systems. Ignored by much of the industrial organizational literature, these intermediary organizations can be established by industrial policy-makers, by groups of enterprises, or by professional associations. Best cites an example from Japan - the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE).

n     To commit funding for research and technology infrastructures.

n     To address bottlenecks in the overall process in terms of declining enrolments in science and engineering courses at the tertiary levels which can be traced back to preparing mathematics and science teachers to stimulate interest in these subjects at an early age.

n     To drive the institutional changes required to synchronize industrial development and skill formation for knowledge-intensive industries.

Regional Innovation Systems

8.         In a statement preceding Best's report the Council highlights the importance of a systematic approach to regional innovation. The Committee may be interested to know that the Council has commissioned a report, which seeks to characterize the nature of the regional innovation system in Northern Ireland and to make recommendations regarding the development and effectiveness of a regional innovation strategy. The purpose of the report is not to design or initiate a new innovation strategy for Northern Ireland, but to offer recommendations, given the nature of the existing regional innovation system in Northern Ireland, as to how it might be improved, and to recommend the direction of future policy in this area. The report will establish where Northern Ireland currently stands in terms of regional innovation and its regional innovation system relative to other regions. It will suggest ways forward for regional innovation strategy and policy, based on best practice elsewhere and on the nature of the local economy. This research is being supported by the IRTU.

Research and Development

9.         Since its inception the Council has been a consistent advocate of the vital importance of R&D in the economic development of a region [14] In September 1998 the then Minister for the Economy, Adam Ingram, asked the Council, in the context of economic development, to review publicly funded R&D relative to private R&D, make national and international comparisons and advise on whether better co-ordination would be desirable.

10.        The Council report was published in January 1999 (NIEC,1999). It found that despite some excellent public and private capabilities, R&D in Northern Ireland was too low, both in absolute terms and relative to major economic competitors. A significant finding for the purpose of this enquiry was the lack of co-ordinated and complementary attention by government to both public and private R&D in government departments, industry and the universities.

11.        The report concluded that R&D must be effectively co-coordinated and "joined up" by government in order to have a significant impact upon economic development in Northern Ireland. To carry out their own R&D and to be innovative, companies need access to publicly funded R&D through networking, co-operative research skills, training and knowledge transfers from public institutions, particularly universities. The report contains comprehensive analysis of how publicly funded R&D can be taken forward in the context of an economic development strategy. Findings from the report led the Council to make a number of detailed recommendations, which are summarised as follows:

n     R&D should be reported inclusive of all public and private activity, including that in the universities.

n     An increased commitment to public R&D.

n     The establishment of policy mechanisms that are found in other UK and European regions for co-ordinating publicly funded R&D and embedding it into innovation and economic development strategy.

n     A more holistic approach to R&D strategy.

12.        The Council has given a number of presentations on this report to various committees and Ministers. These presentations were made to: the Northern Ireland Higher Education Council and its Regional Initiatives Sub-committee; the Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment Committee; the Minister for Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment, Dr Sean Farren; the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Sir Reg Empey; the Board of the IRTU and the Government Task Force.

13.        The Council also responded to a consultation paper by the Northern Ireland Higher Education Council on Research Funding Allocation Method to be Applied to the Northern Ireland Universities (NIHEC, 1999). The Council used this response as an opportunity to highlight the importance of universities and Further Education Colleges (FECs) as engines and drivers of the local economy.

14.            University research is at the core of the knowledge-based economic and social development agenda, and both the quantum of core funding and its method of allocation are vitally important. The Council recognised in its response that, in any knowledge-driven economy, university research is a critical foundation for new wealth-creating activity throughout the economic, social and cultural spheres.

15.            Furthermore, the Council argued that a simple and transparent method of allocating core research funding, based on rewarding excellence, is the appropriate way forward for Northern Ireland. The Council recommended that 90 per cent of core research funding in Northern Ireland should be allocated on the basis of quality assessment. Overall, the Council argued in its response that increased funding for research and innovation from all public and private sources is required as a long-term policy objective in Northern Ireland.

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