Non-advanced further education

Abstract

The aims of this article are to trace the history of further education in the UK, and to consider both its present position in relation to other branches of the educational system and some of the recent initiatives which have produced its present shape and content. transparencies on an overhead projector (OHP). History and development of further educationThe origins of further education in its present form are to be found in the Mechanics Institutes of the early 19th century. The first of these was founded by Dr George Birkbeck in Glasgow and this initiative was quickly followed by the development of other centres in Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Huddersfield and Leeds (Jarman 1963).Towards the end of the 19th century it had become clear that our system of education was allowing us to fall behind our continental neighbours in terms of industrial efficiency. The standards of achievement demonstrated by the French and German industrial entries to the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Paris Exhibition of 1867 indicated an urgent need to reappraise the national system of provision, and questions were raised in the House of Commons concerning these problems.The 1870 Education Act introduced the concept of general elementary education for all. This was seen by the supporters of the Act as having a direct relationship with the industrial training needs of the country as a whole.In 1880 The City and Guilds of London Institute was founded as an organisation for conducting examinations in technical subjects. Then, in 1889, the