Further Education and Training Act 2007
The
Further Education and Training Act received royal assent in autumn 2007. It implements the proposals set out in the Government White Paper (Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances), and places new duties and responsibilities on both the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and colleges.
In relation to the LSC it:
- restructures the executive authority from 47 local LSC offices to nine regional councils
- gives the LSC new duties to encourage diversity and increase choice in training, and
- extends LSC powers for intervention in colleges.
The LSC, under the Act, has greater powers to intervene in colleges where:
- the affairs of the college have been or are being mismanaged
- the college has failed to discharge a legal duty
- the governing body is acting unreasonably, and/or
- the college is performing significantly less well than might be expected of it, or is failing to give an acceptable standard of education.
In relation to colleges, the Act:
- grants powers to colleges to award foundation degrees
- enables the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring all college principals to achieve a stipulated leadership qualification before taking up a new post
- places a duty on colleges to have regard to guidance about consulting employers and learners
- clarifies the power of corporations to form or invest in companies, and enables them to form or become members of charitable incorporated organisations (they may also use either power for the purpose of conducting an educational institution with the consent of the LSC; this was not previously possible under either the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 or the Learning and Skills Act 2000).
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