Working group to plan CoFE, institute and GTA merger

Education, Sport & Culture has announced that a working group has been formed to make the plans.

The group will progress one of the resolutions agreed by the States Assembly in January as part of the debate on the future of secondary and post-16 education.

Professor Richard Conder, a non-voting member of the Education, Sport & Culture, will chair the group, with the Principal of the College of FE, the Head of the Institute and Chief Executive of the GTA as its other members.

Professor Conder said the group hopes to report back during the summer.

‘The committee sees first hand the extraordinary work that each of the three organisations deliver.

‘However, new governance and funding arrangements and the potential that exist for overlaps of educational provision and opportunities for further development mean that this review is timely,’ he said.

‘Working alongside the leaders of the three organisations offers a fantastic opportunity to fully explore potentially wide-ranging benefits while retaining the best of each organisation and their unique relationship with their client groups.’

The aims of the working group, which will report back to the committee as soon as possible, include:

n Proposing how the three organisations will integrate in the short, medium and long term

n Proposing the structural changes that will be necessary

n Developing a timeline of evolution to integration

n Identifying opportunities and risks regarding integration

n Identifying any additional resources to realise integration

n Planning a staff engagement schedule to ensure appropriate involvement of staff and their representatives pre-and-post integration

‘While much of the focus since the States debate in January has understandably been on secondary education reforms, a major part of the proposals agreed by the Assembly was the safeguarding of the College of FE as a provider of vocational, professional and technical education for full-time and part-time students, including apprentices,’ added Prof. Conder who was the first chief executive of the GTA.

‘The States’ resolutions set a clear objective for integration.

‘The opportunity to exploit the clear synergies between the college, the Institute of Health and Social Care Studies and the GTA University Centre, was a crucial element of the agreed future direction of travel.

‘In due course integration will require consultation with a diverse range of stakeholders, not least in relation to the governance of the organisation and the need for demand-led curricula.

‘I am excited about the possibilities and will seek to report our findings to the committee within a relatively short timeframe.’