FEU and MSC: Two curricular philosophies and their implications for the youth training scheme

Abstract

Abstract Although the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) and the Further Education Unit (FEU) seek to present a united front on the curriculum they would like to see in the Youth Training Scheme, their philosophies in fact differ. MSC is concerned to limit further education to a support role in YTS and is critical of much of FE's provision under the Youth Opportunities Programme. FEU is conducting something of a rearguard action on behalf of the colleges. FEU's allowance for trainees' rights, embodied in such ideas as negotiation, profiling and trainee-centred reviewing is not matched by MSC. In the past MSC's view of Social and Life Skills has similarly differed from that of FEU, and FEU is struggling to have its ideas included in the body of curricular theory emerging from the Institute of Manpower Studies that is currently central to MSC thinking on the curriculum. It seems likely that the conflict between the two organizations will be resolved partly by their having separate spheres of influence in YT...