The Department for Education’s new single departmental plan, which outlines its key objectives and how it will deliver them, has been published. Its priorities for 2018/19 are as follows.
1. Deliver T-Levels as a gold standard for technical and professional excellence, benchmarked against the systems of world leading countries (contributes to SDG 16)
2. Continue our ground-breaking reforms to apprenticeships, with quality at the core (contributes to SDG 4)
3. Review post-18 education and funding to make sure that our system is joined up and promotes access and success in all forms of post-18 education – providing real choice, quality and value for money for everyone, as well as delivering the skills our country needs
4. Develop a national retraining scheme to drive up adult learning and retraining
5. Scrutinise the quality of technical education at higher levels through a qualifications review, focused on levels 4 and 5 (contributes to SDG 4)
6. Improve capacity, quality and resilience of the further education sector, working with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to support the government’s ambitious industrial strategy
7. Raise the status of our further education teaching profession
8. Improve the quality of careers advice and guidance for children, young people and adults so that they are aware of the breadth of opportunities available to them
9. Boost exports by making the most of our international reputation in the provision of higher education and other areas
10. Put in place the right conditions for a flourishing education technology sector, supporting innovative ideas in online and offline delivery
The full report can be accessed here.