According to a report by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills published today, simply providing learners with “food labeling” style information about courses could free up more money for front-line learning and fund thousands more college places.

By giving learners key information on things like drop-out rates and job prospects which is easy to understand and compare, the UK Commission believes that courses and institutions which meet the needs of both employers and learners will thrive, whilst others will be forced to improve or face closure.

The report, and the recommendations it contains, comes at a key time for the government, which is preparing to publish its own white paper on post-16 education and training later in the year.

Anyone who shops online has used sites like eBay or insurance comparison websites to make sure they get the best deal. Yet at the moment, vital statistics about education and training are either not given to the learner or are not easy to compare across courses and institutions. Instead, there’s a complicated raft of organizations and quangos involved in planning what they think should be delivered. UKCES believe that this job could be done better and more cheaply simply by making the system we already have more transparent.

Source: DNA

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