Speaking at a conference on joining up pre- and post-16 education for young people with additional needs, Alison O’Brien, project director of the National Association for Specialist Colleges (Natspec), told delegates that funding for post-16 education is too focused on getting learners to pass accredited courses.
Instead, she claimed, there should be more emphasis on equipping young people with life skills and work experience, regardless of accreditation.
"We need to make some very substantial changes to funding in order to be a bit more flexible," she said.
"We need to address some of the anomalies in the system that make it hard for providers to fund the things they want to provide. It’s frustrating that the system doesn’t support providers to fund job coaches, for example."
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