§ Martin LintonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the names of the members of the working party on provision of post-16 education and training; how many times it has met; and what its remit is. [166718]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe Working Group on 14–19 Reform was established in spring 2003, to develop proposals for the long-term reform of 14–19 learning. Its members are: Mike Tomlinson CBE (Chair); John Berkeley OBE, Senior Fellow and Director National Apprenticeship Monitoring Unit, SEMTA (Sector Skills Council for science engineering and manufacturing technologies); Simon Culmer, Operations Director, Cisco Systems UK and Ireland; David Eastwood, Vice Chancellor, University of East Anglia; Carmel Flatley (up to June 2003), Director of HR and Training, McDonald's Restaurants Ltd; Ian Ferguson (from July 2003), Chairman Data Connection Ltd.; Dr. Helen Gilchrist CBE, Principal, Bury College; Edward Gould, Master, Marlborough College; John Guy, Principal, Farnborough 6th Form College; Carolyn Hayman OBE, Chief Executive, the Foyer Federation; Colin Hilton, Executive Director, Liverpool City council: Professor David Melville CBE, Vice Chancellor, University of Kent; David Raffe, Professor of Sociology of Education, University of Edinburgh; Jennifer Slater, Principal, Northallerton College; Ken Spours, University of London Institute of Education; Kathleen Tattersall OBE, former Director General, Assessment and Qualifications Alliance.
The Working Group has met 13 times to date. It was set up in spring 2003, following publication of "14–19: Opportunity and Excellence", the Government's strategy for reform of 14–19 learning, and asked to make proposals for reforms to achieve:
strengthened structure and content of full-time vocational programmes, and to offer greater coherence in learning programmes for all young people throughout their 14–19 education;assessment arrangements for 14 to 19-year-olds that are appropriate to different types of courses and styles of teaching and learning, with the overall amount of assessment manageable for learners and teachers alike; anda unified framework of qualifications that stretches the performance of learners, motivates progression, and recognises different levels of achievement.