To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning to detail how the productive output of further and higher education courses are evaluated each year; and to what extent courses are evaluated in respect of the changing needs of employment sectors.

My Department’s further and higher education sectors play a key role in supporting the Northern Ireland economy. It is therefore vital that all provision delivered is regularly reviewed and evaluated to ensure that it is of the highest quality and is responsive in meeting the needs of employers and learners.

While my Department sets the strategic direction for the higher and further education sectors, each university and college, as an independent body, is responsible for its own course provision and any changes made to the curriculum offer.

Reviewing and evaluating course provision in universities and colleges is part of the normal annual cycle and is good business practice.

Each year further education colleges present and agree their planned provision for the next academic year with my Department. This process ensures that courses are delivered in line with Departmental priorities and in turn deliver on the Northern Ireland Economic Strategy. When making decisions regarding course provision, the colleges take a number of factors into account including, for example; the growing need for higher level skills, with a particular focus on subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), student demand and indeed value for money. The process also helps in determining the overall amount of funding required. However, as you are well aware funding for colleges and universities this year was significantly reduced and required a number of very difficult decisions to be made regarding provision.

The Education Training Inspectorate (ETI), which is part of the Department of Education, provides inspection services in the colleges to ensure that all learners receive a high quality learning experience and to highlight best practise as well as identify and address poor provision.

A cycle of whole college inspections has just been completed across the six FE colleges in Northern Ireland for provision up to level 3 including full and part time courses and work based learning. These inspections were carried out by ETI’s teams of inspectors with expertise in the relevant professional and technical areas. Each college received ratings and detailed feedback against the quality indicators described in ‘Improving Quality: Raising Standards’ (IQ:RS). The IQ:RS is also used by providers in an annual cycle of self evaluation that is validated by a short scrutiny inspection, again led by the ETI.

The IQ:RS focuses on a range of quality indicators covering leadership and management, quality of provision for learning and quality of achievements and standards. A number of the indicators require colleges to demonstrate employer links and partnerships; use of labour market information and regular review of provision to ensure the relevance of programmes and services to local and regional economies, employers and communities.

Where poor provision is identified this is addressed by monitoring and follow up visits.

The productive output of courses in your question I am considering to be performance and this is measured across three indicators which are retention, achievement and success. The definitions of these measurements in further education are as follow:

Retention rate is defined as the proportion of the number of enrolments who complete their final year of study to the number of final year enrolments. Since 2012/13, those who complete their course early (and recorded in the data as a withdrawal) and who have subsequently achieved their programme of study qualification have been regarded as a ‘completer’.

Achievement rate relates to the percentage of the number of enrolments who complete their final year of study and achieve their qualification to the number of enrolments who complete their final year of study.

Success rate is the overall measure of performance, which is the proportion of the number of enrolments who complete their final year of study and achieve their qualification to the number of final year enrolments.

In 2013/14, the retention rate in FE Colleges ranged from 86.1% in Northern Regional College to 93.0% in Southern Regional College. The success rate ranged from 72.7% in Belfast Metropolitan College to 82.6% in Southern Regional College.

My Department’s Assured Skills programme is designed to help attract new foreign direct investment companies and the expansion of indigenous businesses by assuring them that the skills they need to be successful are available in Northern Ireland. Assured Skills support is also available to encourage existing companies who are considering expansion.

Regarding the evaluation of courses for the changing needs of employers through the Assured Skills programme, interim evaluations are conducted upon completion of an Academy. The Academy model is part of the Assured Skills programme providing tailored training to help employers find staff with the skills they need or support to develop the necessary expertise within their existing team. In discussions with the relevant further/higher education provider and employers, the lessons learned from the evaluation are used to shape and improve future academies. The flexibility of the Assured Skills programme enables the changing business needs of employers to be addressed, by developing bespoke training through the Academy model, in partnership with DEL and further/higher education.

In addition to the above, statisticians within my Department have recently developed Northern Ireland’s first survey of FE college leavers. The fieldwork, which surveyed individuals who completed and achieved a regulated qualification course at a further education college in the 2013/14 year, has recently completed and a report of the findings is expected to be released in November 2015.

The survey examines the economic and non-economic benefits of completing a course within the further education sector and also examines the destinations of students completing and achieving courses.

The published analysis of Performance Indicators in higher education 2013/14, which monitors and reports on performance, reports that for all full-time first degree entrants to Higher Education Institutions (HEI), 6.5% of students were no longer in higher education in 2013/14 following entry in 2012/13, compared to the UK average of 7.0%.

Full-time leavers from Ulster University (UU), Stranmillis, and St Mary’s were more likely to be in employment six months after leaving than those from Queen’s University (QUB). Additionally QUB and St Mary’s full-time leavers were more likely to undertake full-time study than those from Stranmillis and UU.

The unemployment rate of full-time leavers was highest at UU (6.6%). St Mary’s (2.5%) and Stranmillis (1.9%) experienced low rates while QUB was slightly higher at 4.3%.

I trust this provides the assurance that colleges and universities alike are evaluating provision to ensure that it meets the needs of learners for employment of today and in the future.