Addressing the Challenges of Technical Education: The Potential of Further Education College Partnerships

This chapter builds on Chap. 2 by exploring opportunities for collaboration across the technical education landscape, and what the collaborative approach to the provision of technical education can offer. In particular, the focus of this chapter is on partnerships between groups of further education colleges (FECs) in their capacity as key provides of technical education. A case study based on a large regional collaborative project that brought together nine FECs, as well as an employers’ organisation and a number of local authorities, with the aim of developing a series of short technical courses, is used to explore the potential of cross-college collaboration. Whilst recognising the achievements of this venture, and the factors that were pivotal to success, consideration is also given to the challenges of adopting a collaborative approach, before drawing out some lessons for the wider sector on advancing the technical education agenda.