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Analysis of HMIE Reviews of Quality and Standards in Further Education Academic Year 2004/05

7. Some key messages from the 2004/05 reviews: summary

In recent years colleges have demonstrated increased maturity in developing and implementing quality systems and procedures to improve the learning experiences of their learners. Building upon existing strengths, colleges have shown themselves to be agile and flexible in delivering strategies which offer improved services to their learners and support them as they engatge with lifelong learning.

During the reviews in 2004/05 particular strengths identified in A5: Learning and teaching process and A7: Learner progress and outcomes were as follows.

• Learners displayed a high level of motivation and engagement in their programmes.
• Staff deployed a range of effective and appropriate learning and teaching approaches which fostered and maintained the interest of learners.
• Learners took advantage of a good range of effective transition arrangements to employment or further study.
• Many learners were achieving their learning goals and demonstrated strong levels of wider achievement including improved employability skills.

These strengths were underpinned by other significant factors that had a positive impact on the learning experience. In particular, these were:

• recent improvements in accommodation and facilities, which provided learners with a stimulating and professional learning environment;
• the range of programmes delivered at times and in locations convenient to learners, which encouraged a wide range of participants to enrol on and complete courses of study; and
• effective use of personal learning plans, which helped learners make good progress.

However, the review process also identified weaknesses in A5 and A7 that were relevant to attrition from specific programmes or learners’ low success rates in award-bearing programmes. They included the following.

• There was insufficient use of resources, including ICT, to support learning.
• The range of teaching approaches deployed by teaching staff was at times too narrow, which could limit learners’ horizons and reduce their capacity to develop their full potential.
• In more than a few subject areas, staff did not fully develop and enhance learners’ core skills.

Colleges have been active in developing strategies, policies, systems and processes to assure, improve and enhance quality. In more than a few reviews, HMIE identified major strengths where senior managers of colleges had:

• designed and implemented ICT strategies that helped meet learner needs and expectations; and
• developed effective collaboration arrangements with a range of external partners to help extend participation rates and enhance the learning experience.

In other cases, colleges had developed processes and systems for quality improvement and enhancement but the impact on the learner had been less. Issues included:

• insufficient targeting of college and subject team action plans on specific issues to help address weaknesses in key areas; and
• insufficient systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of CPD opportunities for teaching staff in terms of its resulting in improvements to the learner experience.

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