ABSTRACT
APL is becoming a feature of education as a result of four main developments. First, there is greater pressure on colleges of FE and colleges of HE to widen access and increase progression rates, particularly for bilingual learners on account of funding guidelines outlined by the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC). Second, organisational and structural changes have taken place in colleges of FE coupled with the development of Further Education Funding Councils, who have set a national target of 8 per cent increase over the next three years in student participation in colleges of FE, thus aligning funding with the need to incur expenditure. This has necessitated a change in ethos, with colleges unwilling to exclude potentially lower achieving students from vocational/academic courses along with a reinforced focus on learning and achievement.
