The significant progress that has been made so far in relation to the Assembly Government’s Transformation agenda – which aims to modernise post-16 education – has been outlined by the Deputy Minister for Skills, John Griffiths. Addressing a national conference on Transformation the Deputy Minister said: “Our long-term skills challenge will only be met if we offer young people better opportunities than previous generations.
Andrew Davies, Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery, has tabled the Welsh Assembly Government’s Final Budget, which he said would help people, communities and businesses across Wales through the global recession and continue to drive forward the One Wales agenda. And he called for a ‘Team Wales’ approach to the challenge faced by public services. Press release.
In 2008/09, 333 15-year-olds left full time education without a recognised qualification. This is lower than the 2007/08 total of 608. 0.9 per cent of pupils left full time education without a recognised qualification in 2008/09, lower than in 2007/08. A greater percentage of boys than girls left without a qualification: 1.0 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively.
Public consultation on the Welsh-medium Education Strategy took place between 13 May and 14 August 2009. The number of responses received totalled 152. The responses received are now being considered, and the Strategy and Implementation Programme will be refined in the light of the main issues raised in the consultation. It is anticipated that the Strategy in its final form will be published in Spring 2010. Summary of responses
Education Minister Jane Hutt has announced the names of the independent group to review future residential provision at Coleg Harlech. Coleg Harlech, which merged with the Workers Education Association in North Wales, provides a wide range of education programmes.
This newsletter outlines the main findings from the School Learner Voice Survey, Work-Based Learner Voice Survey, and Further Education Learner Voice Survey in terms of choices made, satisfaction, motivation, and problems experienced. Newsletter
On 26 November the Wales Audit Office launched a new online good practice portal – in partnership with seven other public sector organisations. The goodpracticewales.com web portal aims to be a single point of access to a wide range of examples of good practice and notable practice across the Welsh public services, to help organisations find out who’s doing something that might help them.
Deputy Minister for Skills John Griffiths has congratulated schools and colleges from across Wales on taking part in the ‘Make your Mark Challenge 2009’ enterprise competition. The Make your Mark Challenge 2009 is the UK’s largest one day enterprise competition for secondary schools and colleges.
Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones has welcomed the publication of the annual report on Iaith Pawb and the Assembly Government’s Welsh language scheme. The report sets out the work done by the Government and its partners to reach the aim of creating a truly bilingual Wales where people can live their lives through Welsh, English or both languages. The highlights of the past year include: Establishing a panel to develop a Welsh medium Education Strategy. The final strategy is expected to be published in 2010.
New Welsh language strategy – have your say (events around Wales)
This flow-chart outlines the process Careers Wales will follow when a learner is referred to Skill Build in the absence of apprenticeship provision.
This paper summarises recent quantitative evidence on the economic returns to having or improving literacy and numeracy skills. The summary includes evidence on earnings and employment, and distinguishes between returns to having basic skills whenever these are acquired, and returns to acquiring basic skills in adulthood. The review is confined to economic returns to individuals; macro effects - on productivity for example - are not considered.
Writing is an important issue in the UK today. While children’s and young people’s writing standards steadily improved until 2006, levels have not increased in recent years. Writing is much more than just an educational issue – it is an essential skill that allows people to participate fully in today’s society and to contribute to the economy.
This document was initiated by the Secretary of State to promote the debate with the school system about how efficiencies in the use of resources can be achieved. It sets out a number of broad areas that offer the greatest scope for savings that could be discussed further and where schools can learn from the experiences of other schools and share best practice.
Ofqual, together with its regulatory partners in Wales (DCELLS) and Northern Ireland (CCEA), has published new subject criteria for GCSE science subjects: science, additional science, additional applied science, biology, chemistry and physics. All awarding organisations wishing to offer GCSE science subject qualifications from September 2011 and thereafter will need to demonstrate to the regulators how their proposed specifications comply with these criteria. Any specifications that do not fully meet the criteria will not be accredited. Proposals need to be submitted to Ofqual by 21 April 2010 for accreditation on 11 August 2010.
**Os dymunwch dderbyn y cylchlythyr wythnosol yn y Gymraeg, anfonwch e-bost at rhys.davies4@wales.gsi.gov.uk.
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