Planning and designing

Planning and designing a course should be primarily set around the syllabus content as this is what the students are required to know in order to pass a certain level in a particular subject. However in a real setting the planning and design of a course is much more complicated than this as a range of students, teachers, internal and external pressures are involved.

What influences course planning
Until quite recently Government legislation focused primarily on structure and provision of education but until the 1970’s there was very little attention paid to course planning. This was mainly left to the educationalists themselves to decide upon. However possibly due to the massive technological advances and concern from employers about the future workforce the Government has recently put curriculum development on its agenda and as a consequence the 1988 Education Act and the ‘14-19 White Paper Routes To Success For All’ report now addresses many of these issues. Some of the key issues addressed were the low numbers of post 16 participating in FE, re-engagement of the disaffected and strategies to stretch all young people. Another important issue the Act looked at addressing was to equip students with a combination of technical skills, academic knowledge, and transferable skills that employers are increasingly demanding. In particular the embedding of key skills into curriculum development is proving fundamental if we are going to meet the needs of employers by equipping people with good communication and numeracy skills alongside their IT expertise. This legislation alongside other direct influences such as the Skills for Life initiative plays an increasingly important role in curriculum planning. Furthermore the continual need to work with businesses was emphasised as a key issue in the Foster report (2005).

Recession
There is virtually no field of business that hasn't been rocked by the recession and Colleges and Universities all over the country are no exception. Across the College campus, this has triggered in many courses suspended, including basic numeracy and literacy course, as well as A-level, GCSE and vocational classes for adults.

References:
Centre for Excellence in Leadership (n.d.) Foster review 2005 [online] http://www.ggpg.org.uk/governance-and-fe-system/foster-review.html [Accessed: 14 July 2010]

HMSO (2005) 14-19 Education and Skills [online]www.dcsf.gov.uk/14-19/documents/14-19whitepaper.pdf [Assessed: 14 July 2010]