Minister praises education provision at FE colleges

Northern Ireland’s Further Education colleges deliver high-quality learning that meets the needs of learners and the economy, Minister Diane Dodds has said.

The Minister was speaking after a visit to South Eastern Regional College’s Lisburn campus on Monday (24 August). The Minister congratulated Further Education college staff and lecturers on the very positive findings recently published in the Education and Training Inspectorate’s Level 3 Curriculum Evaluation reports.

She said: “My Department commissioned this independent evaluation to evaluate the extent to which the Further Education colleges’ provision at Level 3 is meeting effectively the current and emerging educational and training needs of the economy, of the young people entering the labour market and of those already in the workforce.

“I was delighted, but not surprised, to see in the ETI report that the quality of almost all of the learning and teaching observed was good or better, with a majority of the lessons observed being very good or outstanding.

“I commend the ETI evaluation report to all learners and prospective learners, and their parents and guardians, and hope they will use it to inform the next step of their education at their regional Further Education college.”

SERC Principal and Chief Executive Ken Webb, who chairs the College Principals’ Group in Northern Ireland responded on behalf of the six FE colleges:

“We welcome the really positive findings from the independent report which was commissioned by the Department for the Economy, and we are very glad that the Minister took the opportunity whilst visiting SERC to highlight the importance of skills training in helping to rebuild the NI economy.  The ETI reports have underlined the quality of skills training and education in the colleges and we would encourage new learners to consider a learning experience in one of our 30 local campuses throughout Northern Ireland. All our colleges are now open for enrolments and our teams are on hand to provide the necessary advice and guidance.

“Over the past number of months, we have been working intensively to develop new delivery models which will ensure learners can return to campus in a phased, safe, agile and flexible way. These delivery models will be reflective of the different courses on offer, the diverse cohort, and individual needs of learners across Northern Ireland.

“We recognise that some may be apprehensive about returning to college but, as principals, our absolute priority is the health and well being of all our learners and staff, and we are committed to following all guidance in this regard.”

The ETI reports are available at http://www.etini.gov.uk/publications/type/surveys

The DfE statement in full is available at https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/news/further-education-colleges-deliver-ni-learners-and-economy-dodds