If there’s one thing FE institutions are good at, it’s adapting. To be fair, they’ve had to be due to cuts that would make Jason Voorhees blush. This continual lessening in different areas for extended periods of time means that FE has had to transform in many different ways simply in order to survive.

In response to dwindling revenue streams, many colleges have branched out and expanded away from their more traditional vocational roles and have dipped their toe in the waters of other sectors.

Most common is HE, but colleges can now be found as partners in academy chains or even heading up pupil referral unit-like alternative provision (which is where I currently ply my trade.) It’s a natural riposte to the seemingly ever-present call to do more with less regarding what has previously been their core business. In tumultuous times, if there is not enough to go round, it’s a viable way of attempting to gain extra stability and FE, being fairly expert at making the best of a non-optimal situation, has seen and taken the opportunity.

But an opportunity for what? Herein lies the problem. Moving into different educational spheres is an understandable reaction, but if a reaction is all it is then that really isn’t good enough. Sustainable quality provision in any sector takes thought, planning, care, time, vision and a whole host of other things to get it right. Without those things in place, there’s a danger of one of these moves being nothing more than a cheap money grab. And students deserve better than that (especially if the area that you’re looking to expand into involves those with complicated needs).  

‘It has to be about more than just survival’

Decent provision does not arrive off the back of a desperate scrabbling to stay afloat. If a college chooses to branch out in this way then it must be through a desire for the betterment of the students in these new areas rather than a thoughtless pursuit of new markets (or, at the very least, making the students the priority during this pursuit). I worry that the attempted movement into different sectors might be seen as nothing more than “low hanging fruit” - one educational establishment making an easy sideways move into another.

As someone who has worked in secondary, alternative provision, adult learning and FE, I know that different sectors all come with their unique systems and challenges. Although the main aim of all is to educate, each sector goes about in very different ways and it’s naive to think that one can overlay easily on to another.

FE has every right to expand into other areas; in fact,  it is probably better positioned to do so than anyone else. But if this expansion is to be successful (in the best meaning of the word), the motivation to do so has to come from a place of worth to any prospective students rather than the financial worth of the institution.

FE has had to adapt to survive, and has done so countless times. But in moving into different sectors, this time the adapting has to be about more than just survival. It has to be about excellence.

Tom Starkey is a teacher, writer and consultant on education technology. He tweets @tstarkey1212

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