This checklist has been developed by the Mixed Economy Group (MEG) and its member colleges, with support from LSIS for governors, trustees and leaders of FE Colleges who are considering extending or establishing their delivery of higher education (HE) provision.  It offers advice to support your strategic considerations as the implications of the government’s reform of higher education take effect over the next few years. 

This is the first of a suite of resources that LSIS will be developing with partner organisations over the next few months to support providers improve the quality and consistency of their HE offer and develop collaborative approaches to delivering HE.

LSIS is both a company limited by guarantee registered in England and a charity registered with the Charity Commission. It is managed by a Board comprising its charitable Trustees, who are also the directors of the company, and also has a Council of up to 30 members elected from the further education sector.

The priorities for 2010-11 were to support organisations performing below standards, to build the capacity of the sector to self-improve and to offer continuing professional development for staff at all levels. The emphasis was on more self-improvement solutions and strategies led and delivered by the sector itself.

Our new guide setting out the range of improvement services we are offering for 2011-2012.

It has been established within LSIS’s Strategic Intentions framework setting out five key platforms for improvement services delivery that are focused on serving the priority interests of the sector.

In spring 2010, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and LSIS came together to explore – through a series of sector-led action research projects – the implications for colleges and providers of the UK Commission’s proposal for ‘community scorecards’ to be part of an emerging suite of public information to inform choice. This report outlines the experiences of the eleven providers involved in the action research and identifies some overall research conclusions from the project. It also considers the emerging implications of these conclusions for future policy development and implementation and makes six proposals.

In this issue:

• find details of upcoming LSIS training events for chairs, governors and clerks;
• access the new LSIS higher education in further education brief guide - exploring the emerging implications in the higher education White Paper, Students at the heart of the system;
• read a case study examining the impact of the LSIS Learning Board Programme at John Ruskin College; and
• meet the new NUS Vice President for Further Education with an update on the Student Governor Support Programme.

This newsletter is distributed electronically. If you would like to be included on the mailing list, please contact fegovernance@lsis.org.uk.

As the improvement body for the further education and skills sector, LSIS exists to support colleges and providers to continuously improve the performance and quality of their provision, maintaining at the heart of their mission and strategy a relentless focus on learning and on the achievement of successful outcomes for every individual learner.

This document is a high-level statement of our determination and intent and sets out our key areas of strategic importance for the next three years.

 

Learning and skills hold the key to the coalition government’s plans for creating sustainable growth and the Big Society. The sector is strongly rooted in the traditions of practical and technical learning for trades and professions that sustain and develop local, regional, national and international economies.

Overall, the strategic framework's goal is to enable the sector to take the lead and shape its future – to realise the emerging vision for its role and purpose. In order to do that, the first step is to understand the contexts in which the learning and skills sector is operating, and the challenges and opportunities ahead. This analysis has informed a set of strategic ambitions for the sector overall – a focus for continuing to aim high despite the present uncertainties.

Only through shared endeavour will those ambitions be realised – improvement is the responsibility of everyone connected with learning and skills, and together there is a need to establish a new set of metrics to review progress, performance and account for the sector’s wider contribution.

Since the launch of the Leading and Learning for a Sustainable Future strategy in 2010, LSIS has been proud to work with and support individuals and providers to build and promote learning and resources to respond to the challenges of sustainability and carbon reduction. This document summarises the progress made and outlines the opportunities for providers to continue or start to work with us over the coming academic year.

Skills Minister John Hayes announced measures to simplify and streamline the apprenticeships programme, for firms and other large employers that take on large numbers of apprentices. These reforms are in response to a report produced by the Learning and Skills Improvement Service which sets out recommendations for tackling the bureaucracy faced by large direct contract employers delivering Apprenticeships.