Provision for students with learning difficulties in general colleges of further education - have we been going round in circles?

This is a PDF version of an article published in British journal of special education© 2006. The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com.This article discusses the current situation for students with severe learning difficulties in general colleges of further education. Findings are presented from a critical review of the literature and a small-scale preliminary investigation which set out to explore the idea that, despite radical changes to the special school sector and to the structure and organisation of further education, provision in colleges of further education for these students is poorly focused. Students with severe learning difficulties experience provision that is, at best, circuitous and repetitive and that, at worst, leads individuals back into dependence, unemployment and social segregation. Using the outcomes of interviews and the scrutiny of inspection reports, a searching critique of current practice and an interesting set of recommendations for ways in which the situation could be radically reviewed and improved is provided

English higher education and its vocational zones

Distinctions between academic, vocational and professional education inform but do not define the divisions of English higher education. Nevertheless, there are zones where courses, qualifications and institutions are specifically oriented to the world of work. These include most short-cycle higher education, large parts of undergraduate and postgraduate education and the higher level education and training undertaken in the workplace. Since the 1990s, government policies for higher education in England have sought to increase demand for work-focused qualifications while expecting universities and colleges to enhance the skills and employability of all their students. Measures targeted at sub-bachelor vocational education have been among the most radical, but with limited success in changing the balance of provision and participation. On the one side, these efforts confront ever-popular demand – domestic and international – for the bachelor degree and a legacy of ambivalence about the place of the vocational, technical and practical in higher education. On the other, these policies seek to establish ‘higher vocational education’ as a mission for institutions on both sides of the two-sector structure of higher and further education, despite a system architecture designed to reserve one sector for higher education and a further education sector for lower level programmes and qualifications

Managing further education : is it still men's work too?

Further Education Colleges in the UK are involved in a continuing period of radical organisational, curricular and financial restructuring. In the midst of this the gendered character of management across the sector appears to be changing. This article explores the extent of demographic, social and cultural feminization of management following the post-1993 establishment of colleges as independent corporations. It addresses issues surrounding organizational cultures, women in professions, women as managers and theories about the spread of so-called new managerial ideologies, inspired by the private sector, to the public sector. For support the article draws on two studies of women managers in FE colleges, one focusing on women with a commitment to feminisms or equal opportunities, the other utilizing organizational data as well as data from male and female interviewees. It is suggested that whilst some social and cultural as well as demographic feminization of FE management is taking place, this is much more marked at the middle management level whilst senior management remains more men's work than women's, albeit tinged with changing notions of masculinities