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Strategic Overview of the FE & Skills Sector

Overview

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Exploring the latest opportunities, challenges & changes facing FE & Skills Providers

Keeping up-to-date with the important changes in the Further Education and Skills Sector is a major challenge for the middle and senior managers involved. For a short spell after the last election there was a period of quiet but the pace of change is now increasing exponentially and it is again becoming difficult to stay aware of all the new initiatives and developments – yet doing so is vital if providers are to maximise the opportunities and the success of their organisations.

This one-day workshop explores the latest developments and their implications, enabling both managers and senior management to consider how the changes might impact on both their strategic and operational activities. Recent and pending developments include, for example:

Infrastructure and Policy

Funding

Inspection and Quality Accreditation    

Working with Employers , Sector Skills Councils and the Community

Qualifications

For Whom

This intense and highly interactive workshop has been designed for middle and senior managers who are responsible for ensuring that their provision is planned and ready to meet the constantly changing face of the Further Education & Skills Sector.  It should also be useful for those new to management and/or the sector and managers from those organisations working with the sector, for example, School Heads and Deputy Heads.

Aims and Objectives

The aim of the workshop is to help managers ensure that they are aware of the external pressures and influences on their organisation.  The workshop supports new ways of thinking to plan and progress their provision to meet the new challenges ahead.  

As a result of attending this workshop participants will

Content

The rôles and responsibilities of key sector bodies in the FE and Skills Sector
How the key bodies interact with each other and how their impact, structure and influence may change in the future. We will particularly look at their role in funding organisations and the opportunities and limitations this brings, now and in the future. The changing face and requirements of inspection, and quality measurement in general, will be discussed, as well as the different demand for quality in the future e.g. greater focus on teaching, learning and assessment.

The Government Departments and Agencies that drive Government Policy
Review of the Government Departments that impact on the sector. Focus will be on Education, Business Innovation & Skills and Work & Pensions. Those with reduced influence will be reviewed in less detail e.g. Transport, Environment & Health. The session draws on the knowledge and experience of delegates and uses this as a basis for analysing interaction and the role they play in the future. This will include looking at changes in legislation and its influence on the strategy of an organisation.

The Impact of Policy Change
The responsibilities of management in terms of understanding policy change and influencing the strategic direction of their organisation.  Latest policy from the Government through its agencies will be examined and its impact on various roles within the organisation, as well as organisational change; projections made on their future impact. This will include an examination of the low 16-18 enrolments in September 2011 and the raised participation age to 17; how Government policy may have influenced this and strategies for growth.

PEST analysis – Political, Economic, Social and Technological
A Practical and Pragmatic, “PEST”, analysis. An initial review of the Wider FE Sector as a whole, coupled with discussion on how the approach can then be applied to the individual participants’ organisations.

Accreditation and quality ‘badges’
There a wide range of accreditations or quality ‘badges’ available in this sector. The range will be identified and analysed. Focus will include the New Matrix and its impact. Others such as customer service, IIP and Beacon will be examined and discussed. Consideration will be given to the balance between the work required to achieve them and the value they might bring; we will draw on the experience of the group in this comparison of existing and emerging quality marks and standards and the implications for the learning provider.

Overview of the qualifications and credit arena
Focus will be on the QCF, its strengths, weaknesses, flexibility and the opportunities that it can offer. Within this we will look at the changing landscape of qualifications and priorities for now and the future. This will include the management of the growth of high quality apprenticeships and the opportunities and challenges of the growth in Level 4 apprenticeships. The changing agenda and the future of Functional Skills will also be examined. The importance and possible growth of HIM in FE will be discussed.

Tools and techniques to support strategic management in the sector
Different tools will be compared and used, such as SWOT and PEST. The role that mission, targets and objectives have in successful strategic planning will be discussed, and how, with proper formulation of these influences, the culture of the organisation is shaped. The decision-making process within strategic management will be reviewed and how this can be effective. Risk analysis will be examined and how it can help shape a strategy.

Learning will be facilitated mainly through the following

Internal Staff Training and Development

This workshop, as with most of our good practice workshops, can be delivered on your premises. This approach is favoured by many of our clients as it provides a quality, value-for-money and highly effective route for staff development.

Running workshops internally, allows participants explore how key issues will impact on them and their organization and as a team begin to agree development action and priorities.

Typical costs for a one day good practice workshop, excluding VAT, are just £1290 + £30/person. Even with groups as small as 6 costs per person costs for internal workshops are lower than attending our open events and savings increase further when delegate travel-time costs and convenience are factored in.

More information at:

http://www.excellence-in-learning.co.uk/index.php?page=internal

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Certificates of Professional Development.

Formal Certificates of Development will be issued, by post, to participants who complete this workshop. These certificates will detail the key learning aims and the face-to-face learning hours undertaken, enabling participants to update their CPD records and logs accordingly. The workshop also allows time, during the day, for participants to reflect on and record their personal learning development and consider how best to apply the knowledge gained on return to work. This element of the programme is designed to maximise the benefits from attending and enable participants to make better review judgments when recording their CPD activities.