A revolution in post-16 education and training Wednesday, September 22, 2010 - 13:25

As well as calling for ‘a revolution in post-16 education' in his speech to the Liberal Democrat Party Conference, Vince Cable - Secretary of State at BIS - also called for ‘everyone to have the chance to continue education' and added that ‘Government will sweep away artificial barriers between FE and HE, between academic and vocational and part-time and full-time.'

Responding to the speech, Alan Tuckett, Chief Executive of NIACE, said:

"While NIACE warmly welcomes Vince Cable's call for a post-school learning revolution there's a significant risk that the ‘strongest sting of the antiseptic', from the short-term cuts in spending, will be borne by adults. They will be denied the chance to learn and improve their lives, unless there's a better balance of investment between adult and young people's learning."

"It has long been our policy to argue for a comprehensive post-school system in which further education and higher education are a seamless whole, where learning can progress at a pace and in a manner best suited to learners. Vince Cable is right too to call for an end to the clumsy distinction between academic and vocational education that has bedevilled British education for a century."

"But there can be no fairness unless part-time students enjoy the same level of service support for the same volume of study as full-time students. In all that Vince Cable's right. However we will never have an effective post-school revolution until we have the better balance we're calling for, between investment in young people's education, important though that is, and opportunities for learning throughout our whole lives - inside and outside the world of work."

"We look forward to supporting the Government to help make this revolution a reality."