Welsh Government | Deputy Minister gives the green light to publish performance information

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Deputy Minister gives the green light to publish performance information

Learners, parents and employers will soon be able to find out exactly how well further education colleges and work based learning providers in Wales are performing.

Thursday 02 June 2011

The Deputy Minster for Skills, Jeff Cuthbert has announced that learner outcomes for FE institutions will be made available to the public for the first time from today.

The Deputy Minister has also announced his intention to publish learning outcomes for work based learning providers later in the summer.

Speaking about the move, the Deputy Minister for Skills said:

“Learners, parents and prospective employers are all set to benefit from our decision to publish the learning outcomes of FE institutions and work based learning providers.

“This move will help learners and their families to make informed decisions about their learning options and will also assist employers in making crucial decisions about training opportunities for their staff.

“Happily we have a good story to tell in this area. Quality has improved steadily over the last few years, with four out of five qualifications aims in FE and work based learning successfully achieved in the 2009/10 academic year. However we know we must keep improving.

“Our decision to publish this information reflects our commitment to transparency. Importantly it also demonstrates our determination to drive up standards and to deliver high quality provision for learners across Wales. We have worked with learning providers to develop the new reports, and have had a positive response to our plans to publish them.”

Chief Executive of ColegauCymru Dr John Graystone said:

“Over recent years, Estyn, the Welsh Government and two independent reports have complimented further education colleges’ successes in raising standards, but colleges are not complacent. All are committed to continuing to raise their levels of performance and have been benchmarking within the sector for a number of years.

“Colleges share the Welsh Government’s view that league tables are not an appropriate way forward. But we welcome any information that will help learners, parents and employers have a realistic appraisal of their local college.”

The move will see the performance of learning providers being graded using a ‘traffic light’ system to give a clear indication of how individual providers are performing against Welsh Government targets.

The traffic system, which been devised through joint working with learning providers, will help to ensure that performance information is presented in a simple and easy to understand format.

Information on the performance of FE Colleges is now available via the Welsh Government’s Learning and Skills Observatory website. Information on the performance of work based learning providers will be made available later in the summer.