Foster Report – IoD has mixed views

15 November 2005

The Institute of Directors (IoD) said today that it had mixed views on the publication of Sir Andrew Foster’s report into the state of Further Education (FE) colleges.

The IoD welcomed the approach that FE colleges should have more flexibility in meeting local learner demands and needs and that the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) should lighten their grip over the FE sector as a whole. 

However, the IoD was opposed to the proposal that the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) should be rolled into a single inspectorate.  The IoD felt that the ALI had helped to drive-up standards, together with Ofsted, in the FE sector and elsewhere.

The IoD’s Director General, Miles Templeman, said:

“Despite some criticism of the FE sector, the experience of IoD members of FE colleges is pretty positive. FE colleges play an important part in providing employers and their staff with key skills; we also want to see FE colleges properly funded.

“We now need colleges to have greater freedom from the LSC and DfES but we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water, colleges still need to be thoroughly inspected.”