ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses commercial and educational aspects of franchising and presents case histories to illustrate some of the advantages and disadvantages of franchising. There is a commercial aspect to franchising, in that the franchising centre normally charges a fee to the franchise. The types of franchise will also depend upon the characteristics of the institutions in the partnership. Initial negotiations between the school and the college in the academic year before the course commenced were handled extremely professionally. Through franchising, many secondary schools are now offering vocational courses as part of sixth-form provision and many further education colleges have extended higher education provision to their local communities. The formal agreement between the two institutions is usually encapsulated in a written statement or a memorandum of cooperation. Analogous forms of association have developed between colleges and local schools in such areas as the provision of Business and Technology Education Council programmes.
