Our Values
We have been banging on for over 20 years about an education system in this country that continually fails a high number of our young people. These young people are now part of an adult work force many of whom are following a route of 'self fulfilling prophecy' having left school with a 'failed' label simply because the vocational option( if there was one) was not given the same parity of esteem as the more traditional academic route. Our marketing brochure displays this statement from Sir Ken Robinson an Education specialist and Edge hero which was made on 18/06/2008 at an RSA/Edge lecture. "Our best hope to meet the world's growing human resources crisis is to finally and firmly abandon the age-old dichotomy of academic vs. non-academic and create a new system of learning which values the talents and skills of every young person."
Andy Powell, Chief Executive of Edge, said: "I can think of few people who better embody the spirit of Edge than Sir Ken Robinson. Like Sir Ken, we are committed to advocating for greater diversity and customisation in the classroom whereby every student's talents are cultivated and age-old assumptions about intelligence are abandoned."
About Edge: Edge is dedicated to raising the profile of practical and vocational learning. It wants educational standards raised through applying practical experience to learning and providing opportunities to excel through vocational, as well as academic, studies. Edge believes that this is essential for the future competitiveness of the nation.
About the RSA: The RSA combines thought leadership with social innovation to further human progress. Building on its 250 year history as a beacon for enlightenment values, it undertakes influential and varied research projects and hosts the UK's most ambitious free lecture series. Its work is supported by 27,000 Fellows, an international network of influencers
Customer Impact
Many industries through their sector skills councils are raising the bar and have produced National Occupational Standards (NOS) to help improve the vocational skills that we need in this country. Awarding bodies like City&Guilds take the NOS and develop them into vocational qualifications. It is becoming more and more obvious that the achievement of a vocational qualification is a route into employment and now often mandatory in a range of industries e. g Health and Social Care, Construction. We make it part of our business to make sure that we continue to provide the right vocational qualifications that our customers need for their industry.
On another note!
We are following with interest the work being carried out by the Institute for Learning with the Training and Development Agency for Schools looking at how FE teachers and trainers with QTLS can be recognised as meeting the requirements of QTS so that they can teach in schools
