Education overview
There are few sectors of the public services that genuinely offer so much variation in terms of scope of organisation. You could be working in a small school that serves the local population or a university with a truly international profile.
The education sector is undertaking an efficiency exercise to increase its focus on adding value to the business as opposed to purely making ends meet.
Examples include building new colleges on Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts with the commercial sector and undertaking specific sector training on behalf of commercial business to meet their recruitment standards.
Other examples include the maximisation of income through marketing of facilities to the conferencing market and proactively marketing themselves as education centres of student choice.
Outlined below is a brief snapshot of each individual area and the issues faced.
Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)
This department supports the government in striving to improve both the educational standards and services throughout the UK.
Learning & Skills Council (LSC)
The LSC provides funding to colleges and training providers across the UK. They have recently moved to a more regional finance structure covering a wider geographical area.
Universities
Universities specialise in providing higher education courses including degrees, HND’s and foundation courses. Students tend to be attracted locally, nationally and in some cases internationally. The introduction of ‘top-up’ course fees will in the coming years change the focus of universities.
Colleges
Colleges concentrate on providing further education courses to 16-18 year olds, although they also undertake additional courses in supplementary GCSE’s with a focus on adult education. Beacon Status is awarded to the top performing colleges across the UK.
City academies
City academies are a recent introduction to the sector and their aim is to improve standards of education in low-income locations. They receive some additional funding from the European Union (EU) and part of their remit involves the re-education of parents so that they can understand their responsibilities in supporting their children’s education.
Training providers
Training providers include a wide range of activities from ‘learndirect’ courses to National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and sector-specific training schemes to support commercial employers’ recruitment needs.
Schools
Schools receive funding from their local authority and purely provide an education service to the local geographical population. By their very nature, they are much smaller organisations and tend to employ a stand-alone “bursar” in most cases.
