Call for evidence: further education and skills

The Government Education Committee has launched an open call for evidence to inform its response to the challenges within the further education sector.  

The call for evidence is wide ranging and is seeking evidence from young people, parents, teachers, lecturers, employers and experts on the post-16 curriculum and assessment approach. 

The Society will be responding to the call for evidence, and we would like to hear the views of our members and the geographical community to help us formulate our response. 

Our response will foreground the need for a much richer post-16 offer to meet employers’ needs for geographical (including geospatial) skills. We are particularly keen to receive evidence or specific suggestions of any actions or activities that could be put in place. We are particularly interested in your comments on the following areas.

Curriculum and qualifications in further education, including:

• The post-16 curriculum and assessment system.
• The quality and consistency of provision and outcomes.
• The strengths and weaknesses of T Levels as the main qualification option for students wishing to pursue a technical route into further education.
• The reform of level 3 qualifications.

Skills and apprenticeships, including:

• How to resolve the skills shortage and narrow the gap between the skills that employers want and the skills that employees have.
• Current challenges for apprenticeships, including employer engagement, funding issues, and apprentice pay.

Supporting young people, widening access, and narrowing the attainment gap, including:

• The specific barriers to accessing and pursuing further education for those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), and children and young people in care across specialist and mainstream settings.
• Access to higher education, other qualification levels, and employment; career and course guidance.
• Disparity in attainment, including by gender, area of the country in which a student lives, ethnicity, and between disadvantaged students and their peers.

Whatever your point of view, please let us know by emailing responses@rgs.org by 11.00am on Friday 28 February.

The call for evidence is open until Friday 7 March, so please do also submit your own response.