In an age of social media anxiety and digital overload, enrichment shouldn’t be a luxury – it’s how we prepare young people for real life. The FE sector gets this. Now it needs the backing to do it properly.
As people from all education settings scrambled through the pages of the newly published curriculum and assessment review this week, I was delighted to find words like “mandatory Enrichment”, “strengthen guidance” and “promote effective practice” in the 16-19 section .
Across our settings there are amazing examples of enrichment and personal development opportunities available and a wealth of evidence supporting the positive impact these activities have. However, the CAR report rightly highlights the “inconsistent” approach to enrichment in the post 16 sector and that non qualification development is variable between colleges.
As a sector we have always valued the additional activity and opportunities we can provide our students. In more recent years the study programme requirements and the 2019 education inspection framework both put emphasis on the importance of personal development which were welcomed by advocates of enrichment, like myself, who fundamentally believe these skills and knowledge development opportunities are essential to student success, retention and positive progression. In fact, I would personally go further and say that enrichment (in its broadest sense) is now essential to address the changing dynamics of the world, the impact of social media and our students’ confidence and wellbeing. It plays a vital moving forward in community cohesion and addressing division.
The CAR report states that the DfE’s expectations in this area have been “deliberately broad” in the past to allow flexibility. But that leads to significant variations in student experience, something we have seen in our NAMSS work supporting the student engagement practitioner network (SEPN). This network was formed to connect college enrichment staff, who are often unique in their roles, with other likeminded individuals and share ideas for engagement.
We have found varying approaches across the sector. Some colleges strategically approach enrichment by providing budget and resources, quality assurance and tracking and recognising that enrichment happens in many forms. Others are still operating a minimal offer, with limited funding and without the ability to acknowledge the skill development contribution that enrichment makes.
As a sector, we are constantly juggling funding demands and ensuring that we have the right resources to deliver on our programmes. Many college leaders would love to focus more on enrichment but simply have too prioritise other things.
But when you take a strategic and holistic view to the development of students in any college, you will reap countless rewards from improvements in attendance and engagement to more students progressing positively. More than that, when you develop these skills in students and encourage staff to support this as well, you enhance your whole college community. You improve student outcomes, and make your organisation’s culture more vibrant.
The big question now is what this will look like moving forward, and whether we can meet expectations set out for us. The DfE’s response to the CAR discusses extending their current work on a schools’ enrichment framework to FE settings, which is where I get a little nervous. How many times has a framework originally developed for schools really been fit for purpose in FE?
Schools and colleges operate in very different ways. Enrichment and personal development in colleges is vastly different to schools and any framework for colleges needs to recognise us as a sector and the significant impact we can have on our student’s growth and development to become active global citizens.
The fight for our young people is on in the UK, we need to reskill them to harness the benefits technology brings, whilst also giving them real life skills outside the online world for work, life and wellbeing. Enrichment has the power to make a huge difference to our college and local communities. But let’s watch this space to see if the framework and support (financial or otherwise) allows us to ensure a consistent and impactful approach to enrichment across FE.
Lisa Humphries, Chair of NAMSS
