A Study of the Changing Face of Further Education Structures through the use of College Documents

This paper presents an outline of the changes within further education (FE) colleges in Northern Ireland during the 1990s. A process of documentary analysis was used to observe changes enabling a description of the trends that have developed in the FE sector as a result of the introduction of NVQs. The findings show that whilst there were no major increases in the numbers of full-time students enrolled during this period, significant changes were noted in the type of courses offered, with a corresponding change in entry requirements and assessment criteria. The evidence of this paper suggests there has been a clear shift within FE colleges for the provision of vocational education and training to the NVQ framework. This includes the development of both NVQ and GNVQ programmes, with the introduction and development of GNVQs perhaps reducing the numbers of NVQ programmes offered.