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Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel Post-16 Education
Witness: Victoria College
Friday, 15th March 2016
Panel:
Deputy R.J. Ward of St. Helier (Chairman) Deputy R.E. Huelin of St. Peter
Deputy T. Pointon of St. John
Witnesses:
Mr. A. Watkins, Headmaster, Victoria College
[10:03]
Deputy R.J. Ward of St. Helier (Chairman):
Okay. So first of all, I would formally welcome you and thank you for your time. It is part of the Post-16 Education Review. There is a sheet in front of you. It just gives you information on the actual public hearing itself. There is not anyone here so I will not say much ... switching off mobile phones but it would be a good idea if we did just because it can get in the way of the hearing. There will be a transcript of the hearing as well but this is designed to talk about partly the submission you made and we thank you for that as well ... we have had a really good response from schools which helps us do our job ... and just to go through some of the questions in that and draw out from those and give you an opportunity to expand in any way that you want on your submission as well. So we will start off by asking just for a brief overview of the Post-16 provision that Victoria College offers from your perspective.
Well, the main part of our Post-16 curriculum is focussed on A-Levels and most of our students understand that from the school's perspective historically A-Level has always been the gold standard for us, but we offer an awful lot more than just A-Level. We have a very comprehensive enrichment programme that is an important adjunct to A-Level. It provides our boys with various opportunities, for example they will do L.A.M.D.A (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) public speaking. They will do various extracurricular activities focussed on sport, music, drama. We have a very enriching C.C.F. (Combined Cadet Force) at Victoria College. We also ask them to take a keen interest in what they do beyond Victoria College, so we also have a vibrant careers programme, but we expect our boys also to be keen to develop their leadership skills. To develop those really key values that are an important part of the process of going through a school like Victoria College. Also we provide them with those very important transferrable skills that they will need beyond 18, beyond our education, to keep them in good stead when they go out into the very competitive world that we now live in.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
I was going to ask about the successes of the school. What do you see as your main successes? Would you suggest they are academic?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
I think our school to most of our parents will always have a key focus on strong academic standards. We are always keen to show that we are developing our academia at the school, our recent results have been strong. We are seen as one of the highest achieving schools in Jersey in terms of public examination results and that really has not changed. I think that is an important part of the expectation from our parents and from our students. They are highly motivated to achieve those high results at A-Level and most of them go on to university, usually Russell Group Universities in the U.K. (United Kingdom) and so on but we offer a great deal more than that. Our education provides our boys with the life skills to be able to compete in the world around us and includes things like leadership, and teamwork. Sport, Drama and Music are hugely significant at Victoria College. As I say, we have a very strong C.C.F. and so all of those aspects I think are an important part of the ethos of the school.
Deputy R.E. Huelin of St. Peter :
What do you see as your main challenges in the Post-16 area?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
I think one of the challenges for us is always funding. That is always a big challenge. Equally in the last few years the challenge for us is asking ourselves whether the curriculum that we provide
for all boys coming to us at 16 is suitable for their needs. We have many boys who will do A- Level, but A-Levels are getting tougher year on year. We have to be conscious of the fact that in some cases we might look to other qualifications because I think we have a real duty to try to support students that have been with us, in some cases since Victoria College Prep from the age of 7. So we want to be able to give them a curriculum that suits their needs and sometimes finding an alternative to A-Level can be difficult. Some schools offer the I.B. (International Baccalaureate). We have tried to introduce BTEC, but we also have a very good collaboration with the other fee paying schools around us. So we have a very close link with J.C.G. (Jersey College for Girls) that allows us to have a broader curriculum in many ways, but we also work closely with De La Salle and Beaulieu.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
Can I just pop in a question there which we were going to raise because this seems to be the time for it?
The Deputy of St. Peter : Go for it.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
We went to the U.K. to look at ... in a conference at the vocational provision and one of the things that it came up with was T-Levels in the U.K. which seemed to be the more technical based level, so there is a real drive for it to be equivalent of A-Level academically while at the same time having that vocational element. Have you considered those? Have you had any consideration of T-Levels?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
We have not considered T-Levels, but I do know what you mean. I am familiar with T-Levels and they seem to be a new qualification that is gathering momentum. I definitely think that because we are an all-boys school there are some boys who want to consider the practical route. An alternative to the mainstay A-Levels is an interesting idea. So if we do think about T-Levels it will be in the context of what they offer and whether they are an alternative to A levels or they can run alongside A-Levels.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
No. It is not certain at the moment. There is a lot of work ... when you work with the other schools you say to increase your provision is that to increase the number of subjects that were available so they would tend to be A-Level, but they are just other subjects in terms of being able to provide other learning?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Yes, absolutely and sometimes it affords us that opportunity to say to our students that rather than design a timetable where they have to select the A-Levels that they want to do, we put it the other way round. So we ask the students what they would like to do Post-16 and then we construct the timetable around that. Now, that is incredibly challenging but because we are able to work with other schools where perhaps some of those schools might have sole responsibility for one subject, for example, we teach economics and so other schools come to us for economics which means that we can have a much broader curriculum. This could appeal to our students who might not want to go down, for example, the traditional route of 3 sciences at A-Level but they can really mix their sciences with their languages and their creative subjects.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
This is a really practical question. Are the times of your day and the times of your lessons the same therefore as the other schools? Do they fit together?
Headmaster, Victoria College: They do.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
They do. Is that by design?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Yes. In all cases there might be a slight difference in the timetable by 5 minutes but essentially if we do not have similar timetables it becomes very difficult to offer a collaborative course.
Deputy R.J. Ward : Of course.
Deputy T. Pointon of St. John :
Just a general question really and not necessarily specific to the college. What do you perceive are the barriers students for accessing Post-16 education apart from the intellectual ability and so on? I am thinking about, if you like, the physical barriers that are in front of people wanting to access Post-16 education?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Do you mean at my school or generally?
The Deputy of St. John :
In general terms in the Island.
Headmaster, Victoria College:
On the Island. I think funding does come into it. I think that is quite significant. I am just in the process of interviewing all of our current Year 11 students and we spend some time interviewing them with their parents looking at what they are going to do Post-16 and some of them mention that finances may be difficult. We are very keen to offer financial support through our bursary system and quite often students and parents will take that up but it is also about finding the right course and making sure that they have sufficient information so they can choose the right course. Sometimes as well we get to the stage in the school year where they are probably so preoccupied with the imminent G.C.S.E. (General Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations that they have not given enough thought to careers and what they want to do Post-18. I think Post-16 education should focus on your choice of subjects which should be based on what you might want to do in terms of your career.
The Deputy of St. John :
Talking about financing would the Jersey Premium be something that would assist the college at all?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Yes, there are very strict criteria for the use of Jersey Premium and it will not surprise you to hear that we really do not have too many students that qualify for the Jersey Premium but absolutely, it makes a big difference to those who are receiving it and I suspect those schools that do have large numbers of students benefit from it. I think it can have a huge impact.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
Because it stops Post-16 education.
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Yes, but it is still new to us because we have very few students and we are trying to work within that system at the moment but I can certainly understand that the student who has benefitted up to 16 would almost certainly benefit Post-16 too.
Can I pick up on the choices of A-Levels and then all other qualifications and then link to the section on careers?
[10:15]
Now, maybe I am misreading this, but a lot of your careers section focusses towards the businesses that are traditional over here. So it is legal, it is finance, it is accountancy. Is that by design or do you have another way of looking at careers, because I personally believe kids should be given every opportunity to follow their vocations and follow their dreams regardless of whether they can do it in Jersey or not. They should be nurtured to be fulfilled in their careers. Can you sort of comment on that?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
I think career development is a really interesting aspect of education and I think we put an awful lot of time and effort into supporting our students in the key decisions that they have got to make but there is a huge variety of responses that you get from students. Some students very early on, possibly guided by parents, know exactly what they want to do, and these are usually those that want to go into certain vocations like maybe medicine and veterinary science. They know exactly what they have to do. That is key for them because they understand that you have got to get a certain amount of work experience under your belt. It is not just about acquiring high grades. It is about also getting experience. Then there are those who are just narrowly focussed on passing examinations and they think about their career when they get into the Lower 6th. I think if you look at the types of courses that our boys have done over the last few years it is quite varied.
The Deputy of St. Peter : This is courses at university?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Yes. It is not narrowly focussed on finance let us say. There are many courses that they do, and some will go off and do things in the performing arts, the creative arts and so on and so forth. I think they develop an interest at G.C.S.E., Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, and one of the primary things that they focus on when they choose their A-Levels is what do they enjoy, which, I think we all agree, is important. So their enjoyment then leads to them choosing their A-Levels and I suspect from that for some of them this informs their career thinking. So it is quite varied but what is interesting is that a lot of our students will come back to the Island, and it probably does not matter what course they have done. Many of them might go into the finance world in Jersey or they find their way back to Jersey having done some time in the U.K. in a particular career or job. My experience as a parent, more than anything else, is that very few kids aged 16 will say: "I want to do this." Very few are blessed to have a vocational desire: "I want to be a vet. I want to be a doctor. I want to build a nuclear submarine." Very few. So their careers can be moulded by influences; it is obviously parents, schools, universities and peer groups. So the question is, how do we overcome that to give them the breadth of independent experience to ensure that they are making their own informed decision instead of saying: "Well, you know, the easiest way to earn money in Jersey is go into finance", which I think is ... and that could be a soul destroying career.
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Yes. I do think it comes back to the point you were making about providing them with the education and the necessary information they need to make informed decisions and choices. Most schools will have really well run, well organised careers departments. We are blessed in Jersey because we do not have to go too far before we can bring a specialist with particular expertise into our schools. I have always been a great believer in sharing information and sharing knowledge and sharing expertise and perhaps what schools could be doing more successfully is working in partnership with the local business world. I can think of things like mentoring of students, coaching, even coaching between senior people in a business profession and our teachers. I think there are lots of important skills and attributes that you can share that would be beneficial to the teaching profession but from a student's perspective the value that they gain from the experiences of going out, for example, on Trident work experience is invaluable. We have a very good Lower 6th programme after examinations where they can experience in a work-related activity. I think all of these experiences are important if we are really going to give them all the tools they need to make those key decisions about careers.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
Can I just go back a little bit regards ... and it is interesting talking about working with others as well. In terms of working with the other schools I think there is an increased pressure for vocational because I think the nature of vocational qualifications is changing and the way it is viewed is changing; quite rightly to be fair. What about links with places like Highlands who really are 90 per cent vocational? Do you see a greater link being produced with the college, that college, Highlands College, from your students? It is that flexibility notion, is it not, of...
Headmaster, Victoria College:
I think the simple answer is that there is always a need to be flexible and to engage in conversation. It comes down to the needs of the students and if we recognise that our students would benefit from a particular type of 6th form curriculum that included those technological aspects I think that is something that we would consider very carefully. You look at where we are
at the moment with Victoria College students Post-16 and, as I said, many of them will know that they want to go to a university. In their research they will decide what course they want to do and what sort of university they want to go to and, therefore, that really drives their ambition to do a particular type or suite of subjects at A-Level. Given that we are increasingly in a technological world I believe that what might be important in future years is what other compulsory aspects of the curriculum we put into Post-16 like for example digital technology and so on. I hear from so many people in the local business world that we ought to be giving them the experiences and the knowledge and understanding to be able to understand and use technology because it is becoming such an important part of all that we do.
The Deputy of St. Peter :
I had just written down to bringing up that digital area. I mean depending on how ambitious you want to be with this thinking. There are 13,500 people in the finance sector at the moment. In 10 to 15 years that could be ... 7,000 or 8,000 of those could be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence so to be prepared for it. That is an opportunity not a threat. It is an opportunity if you take it correctly. How could you respond to that, preparing the new generation in that world?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
I think it goes further than that too because we cannot ignore the use of technology in Post-16 education. Areas of education need to embrace technology so there is a seamless transition between home and school in the way that technology is being used because we do not want the learning process to end at the end of the school day. We want our students to be able to access all this fantastic knowledge online and therefore technology has got to become a part of what we offer but it poses challenges for us as we all know. The use of Social media in particular is a big challenge for all schools; how we monitor it and what we do to ensure that it is being used in the right way. Digital technology is now such an important part of education compared to when I think back to only 10 years ago. When I look at the fabulous resources that are now available to teachers and to students it is really enriching the learning and teaching that you find now in our classrooms.
The Deputy of St. Peter :
Is there any initiative to try and show how they are improving their educational experience through the delivery of technology and to how that does map off into the business and other areas because it is realising that it is across everything and not just what you are familiar with? How can we progress that? It is really important.
Well, I think this use of digital technology needs to be a compulsory part of the curriculum to include all year groups so that we ensure continuity. We certainly do this in what we call Key Stage 3 where they have a compulsory technology, I.C.T. (Information and Communications Technology) as we call it, but I think increasingly we will have to find time in our very busy curriculum Post-16 to ensure that students are given opportunities to develop those key skills that we have just described.
The Deputy of St. John :
I wonder if you can move to another subject and I am interested to know what the number of students who have special needs are in the school and how you deal with those people. I am not referring to people who are necessarily intellectually challenged but people who have challenges such as dyslexia and so on that will find their way into the school. I wonder at what level...
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Well, special educational needs now is very complex. I think you are suggesting that. There are maybe the academic issues of dyslexia, dysphasia and dyscalculia and so on but then of course there are areas of behavioural, social, emotional issues also that all schools deal with. We have a very excellent learning support department and study centre that our students can access. Again, like most schools, we have a counsellor. We have a special educational needs co-ordinator. We have an inclusion co-ordinator. We also have a well-being co-ordinator. Increasingly part of our S.E.N. (Special Educational Needs) provision will also include people who can deal with students who might be having mental health difficulties, challenges with stress, anxiety and so on. So it is becoming ever complex and we are therefore drawing on the expertise and experience of people who might be behavioural psychologists, psychoanalysts and psychologists and so on. So these external agencies are becoming increasingly significant and we are essentially here talking about Post-16. I think this is an important aspect because students will require more specialist support. We have always understood that perhaps when a student gets to 16 they become more independent. We expect them to be a little bit more mature. But they still have the same challenges and therefore I think increasingly we are going to find more of our students and especially Post-16 school students in our schools needing the nurturing and the support and the care from a learning support department to deal with some of those emotional and social and behavioural issues that we know can be prevalent in our schools alongside some of the academic matters that you referred to.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
Do you think the A-Levels have changed and there has been a constant sea of change and which not only those teaching, but those students have had to face, and I really felt for students in that
sea of change. Do you think that has made the pressures worse for them in terms of ... we always talk about mental health but that is a huge issue for young people as well. Do you think that has become sort of a factor, an increasing factor in there?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
No doubt. Absolutely no doubt. I think students put themselves under pressure. I think that they aspire to certain targets. Certainly in my school most want to achieve high academic standards. They have goals that they want to achieve and there are internal pressures that they put on themselves and of course they are around other people who are successful, ambitious, motivated and I think that too is part of the challenge that they face when it comes to pressure. Then inevitably you have got the external pressures, perhaps from parents who want the very best for their children, and the pressures of reaching the lofty heights of a course at a university of their choice. So to me I think that those pressures have increased, and I think it does mean that it is incumbent upon us to put more time, money and resources into supporting those students.
The Deputy of St. Peter :
What do you think has been the reasons that these pressures have increased? I mean we have had A-Levels and we have had universities and we have had expectations to go and earn a living for a long time now. Why has that changed, or have we got to a situation where ... and quite rightly so ... people are happy to talk about their mental health challenges where people probably were bottling it up before and it was unknown? Do you think...
Headmaster, Victoria College:
I think those challenges have always been there but there is no doubt that there has been an explosion in mental health issues that we now face in schools. There is no doubt that we now have people who are talking about how they are dealing with stress.
The Deputy of St. Peter : That is the difference.
[10:30]
Headmaster, Victoria College:
I think that is very important but equally I think there is a drive to achieve and to be successful and in order to achieve and to be successful in the eyes of many you have got to achieve high academic results. There is a well-trodden path, achieve good public examination results and then you can be successful Post-18 and they see that as good A-Levels, going to university and then getting a really good job. I think that is an important part of it. I will come back to social media. I
think there are other factors that play a significant part in this too and social media has been instrumental in shaping the way people think about themselves and how they respond to challenges and that too has added, I think, to the pressures that we find in our youngsters.
The Deputy of St. Peter :
Are you experiencing any of the bullying that is associated with social media? Is that coming to the fore in the school? So I am off-piste there but really interested? You can move me on if you want.
Headmaster, Victoria College:
No. I think so-called cyber-bullying is a challenge to all schools. As well, the context of bullying has changed dramatically. We have an incident and people will call it bullying and we deal with it, but all schools now have very clear policies, anti-bullying policies. We work very hard with the victim. We work as hard with the bully because we recognise that they need support too and we work very closely with families. We have set up peer mentoring. We have got fabulous anti- bullying ambassadors who are the result of careful training. They are driving today's Comic Relief charity event and it is a reminder that our school takes these issues very seriously. So all schools now, I think, are very well versed in how they deal with bullying but cyberbullying that can be sometimes quite complex.
The Deputy of St. Peter :
I was not going to go down the route of bullying as in a 10:32:14 (inaudible). I was only interested in this need for social media and the digital side of it. That is also ... I am sorry for going into your answer.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
One of the things I wanted to ask was, are there any demographics on the Island that you believe the school does not reach that may enrich your school because it has a quite distinct identity with some? I would say I have heard quite a lot about it. Do you think you would want to reach others? We would ask this of all the schools Post-16. It is an important issue with Post-16 because you do get the entire Island, so to speak, who are looking at Post-16 as to what qualifications are available to them. Do you think there are any you do not reach that you would like to and what will enable that to happen?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
That is a very interesting question and one that we have been really focussing on quite recently. One of our key aims is to bring students to Victoria College from all walks of life and we feel that although we are a selective school, if a boy has a desire to come to a school like Victoria College,
we hope that there will be no financial boundaries and that as a school we can do all we can to support that boy, to bring him to our school and to support the family and that often necessitates support on the financial front. Working very hard with the 11-16 schools in particular, we attend open evenings and we bring students into our school. We are hoping that we can show that Victoria College is a school that is open to all boys and that we can offer financial support but also the support going forward that will enable them to feel that they can settle in quickly and they can benefit from the fabulous opportunities that we offer. So that is a very important aspect of what we do. The way in which we advertise and market that is something that we have been looking at quite recently. Getting into the schools and having afternoons or open evenings where we can bring students into our school is a very important part of saying: "Look, come and sample a Victoria College education" and it is not insurmountable that you might be able to come to this college.
The Deputy of St. John :
So do you have concerns about your image as a school within the Island, within the general population, given that you are actively marketing the school it seems?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Well, I think we all understand that people have different views of a school like Victoria College. It is a fee paying school. You see interestingly I, myself, went to a comprehensive school in south Wales and when I left university I never dreamed that I would perhaps go into the fee paying sector but I was very lucky. An opportunity came up and I do now firmly believe in choice and I think that is one of the really positive aspects of an education here in Jersey. It is horses for courses and if a particular school is right for an individual why should they not have an opportunity, and with choice comes opportunity. What we want to do is to try to remove the barriers. To some extent there may well be the philosophical argument that we could be seen as a particularly elitist school perhaps, up on the hill, but what we are trying to do is create an education that gives our students that opportunity and that freedom and choice. So to make our school accessible to all students on the Island is a high priority for us.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
I am conscious that you are on your own here today and previously we had 5 or 6 people who could answer questions for an hour so we will not go on much longer. I would like to ask you what I asked the last people and just give you an opportunity ... if you had 3 wishes that you could fulfil for education on Jersey and particularly Post-16 what would they be? If you were going to say: "Right, okay, there are your 3 things" what you take?
Well, the first one is really what I have just described. I firmly believe in choice. I think we do need an education system that has different schools, that has different qualifications and allows parents and students that opportunity to choose what is best for them. So that is important. I think the second thing...
The Deputy of St. Peter :
Sorry, can I just get ... and that means not just the choice of whether you send your child to Victoria College or Haulier for the sake of argument; it is the choices of getting what is the strengths of all the schools being brought together so the individual can benefit from all the opportunities in the Island. Is that what you are going for?
Headmaster, Victoria College: Absolutely right and...
The Deputy of St. Peter : Good. I like that.
Headmaster, Victoria College:
... a lot of that is down to the sort of qualifications and curriculum we provide, particularly at Post- 16, because it is great to think that we can provide A-Levels. We have got the I.B. at Hautlieu. We have got B-techs that are being done and T-Levels ... I am not sure any schools are doing T- Levels but...
Deputy R.J. Ward :
No. At the moment they cannot but we know they are on the map.
Headmaster, Victoria College:
And so having that choice and that diversity of qualification, I think, is always important. Secondly, funding I think is important because I do believe, as I have already alluded to, that there will be a need for more resources and more support for students, particularly students who might be needing support with learning difficulties or perhaps emotional, social and behavioural issues. I think that is going to become quite an important area for us going forward. I think the third thing for me is embracing technology. I think that is becoming an important part of our programme of study. I am really interested in the work that Digital Jersey is doing, and I think if schools can work in partnership with such initiatives we can embrace more of the technological world in education. I think that would be a really important way forward for us.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
Okay. Is there anything else that you want to ask?
The Deputy of St. Peter :
Yes. One thing that is quite current at the moment is that accepting in the modern world a job is not for life. I will ask everybody.
Deputy R.J. Ward
I suppose it is linked to Post-16 whatever ...
The Deputy of St. Peter :
It is, how are you preparing your young to accept that they can choose a career, but they have to be prepared that they could have 2, 3 or 4 careers in their particular lives and they all could be totally different? I am on my fourth.
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Again, it is a really interesting question because we hear that in 10 years' time there are likely to be careers that are not even around at the moment. I think it comes back to the point I was making about perhaps really embracing technology in a compulsory way through education and through school because I think most of these careers are going to be in the digital world. How you prepare though is really difficult. It is about adaptability and flexibility and an understanding that perhaps you have got to be more creative in the way that you select your subjects. I do suspect that going forward it may need a rethink of how we are managing to provide careers education and those key issues about the skills that you might need to be more adaptable and to be more flexible and more creative.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
Okay. Is there anything to add? Is there anything else like you would like to add to that?
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Well, thank you because whenever I interview, and I am always at your end of the table when I interview, I always ask the candidate if they would like to ask a question. I have a question.
Deputy R.J. Ward : Yes, please do.
Headmaster, Victoria College:
It is a very simple question. What are you hoping to achieve?
Deputy R.J. Ward :
Well, I think the main thing is that we need to see where Post-16 education is because it is very varied on the Island. I think if we can first of all map what provision there is ... we have also included students in this that we have had a survey that has been completed by 2,000 students Post-16, so we are getting their views. What we hope is that we can match the need to the provision and give some recommendations and ways forward on that. That is one of the key things to do. Plus take on-board from the providers, yourself and all the other providers of Post- 16, as to what issues they face. It is difficult for me to say at the moment because I do not want to give anything away about the report because I do not think that is a fair thing to do because we have not consulted each other on it yet but there are some things that will come through in terms of this, the things that we have seen and what we have heard which we will report on. We hope that therefore we can give a good picture of the future need of Post-16 and future provision that needs to be provided. We hope it will be challenging as well because otherwise there is no point I do not think unless we set some challenges...
The Deputy of St. Peter :
Well, can I make a comment? I mean the old awful cliché, and I hate it, the only constant in life is change and I think we are going through a pressure point of change at the moment. I mean it has come up in every single conversation, the digital world, the mental health, everything else and I think again we need to make sure that we are bridging the gap between the students and the educational service to ensure that we have recommendations for.
The Deputy of St. John :
We have one eye all the time on what our economy offers and how that is going to develop for the future. Tech being one area. We are talking about reinvigorating the older businesses, for example, agriculture which is really down in the doldrums. A question I asked of Highlands was, what do you provide by way of training for agriculturalists? They are looking at it. We are focussing on the wider society and how does the current Post-16 education fit with the way it is developing and needs to develop.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
I think the focusses and the importance of education up to ... and we have chosen that 16 to 18 ... it was a legacy issue that was not ever completed so we want to do that but I think this is a key time given the changes to qualifications, given the changes to funding of higher education, given the changing need of the Island in terms of its skilled workforce which will come to us and of course it is 46 minutes in before we have mentioned it, the challenge of Brexit, if anyone knows what that is. So we have to fit in our education system and this provision into that wider concept and I think scrutiny is the vehicle for bringing that together. So that is what we hope to do. When you read the report perhaps you can let us know whether you think we have done it. That would be interesting...
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Yes, and I apologise. It sounds to me as though I have given you some of the answers you have had before so I hope I have not bored you silly.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
No, absolutely not but exactly the things that are coming through are more powerful if they are repeated and they come from ... and we spoke, as I say ... and I will just finish with this ... spoken to providers ... really importantly we have spoken to students and that is the really key thing and we want those views.
[10:45]
We have also spoken to stakeholders, but we use it across the business community and Digital Jersey and in fact we are talking to them this afternoon. So we try to be as inclusive, if I can use that phrase, as possible and thank you again for your time and your submission. It has been really useful.
Headmaster, Victoria College:
Okay. Gentlemen, thank you very much and good luck. I look forward to reading the report.
Deputy R.J. Ward : We can switch off.
[10:46]