A New Shape for Post-16 Education and Training. Submission to the Department for Education and Employment Review of Local and National Arrangements for Lifelong Learning, Skills and Workforce Development: Outcome of the TEC Review.

The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), which represents 65,000 academic staff working in further and higher education (FHE) institutions across the United Kingdom, reviewed the current state of post-16 education and training in the United Kingdom and submitted its views on how the system should be improved. NATFHE's submission focused on a new framework encompassing structures at every level of government. Key recommendations for action that were included in the submission are as follows: (1) give coherence to post-16 education and training by developing a whole new framework built on accountability and entitlement to lifelong learning; (2) underpin the framework by the principle of subsiduarity that planning, regulation, accountability, funding, and delivery should occur at the point nearest the learner and nearest delivery; (3) make local communities the cornerstones of the new framework, with local lifelong learning panels and plans; (4) move speedily to pass legislation to embed a statutory framework for entitlement to learning, including individual rights to paid educational leave; (5) conduct an independent review of pay and conditions for FE staff to reverse the current chaos in employment matters; and (6) ensure that the new framework provides mechanisms at every level for the views of staff and their representatives. (MN)