ABSTRACT
The research on which this chapter is based arises out of an on-going NCVQ-funded project which focuses on six case study FE colleges. Five of the colleges were chosen because of their involvement with a joint TA/NCVQ initiative on the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL). The sixth college was included at a later stage because, although it is not part of the APL project, it is involved in a thorough going reorganization into a single coherent institution. The common thread which unites all the case study colleges was their perception as ‘pro-active’ institutions which were making determined strides to implement curriculum change. It was not the intention to evaluate the APL project but involvement with that initiative provided an initial focus and a point of entry. The time scale for completing this work has had to be revised because of involvement with other complementary research; this report represents a provisional interim analysis. A broader perspective has been adopted in presenting this chapter to include the perspective of some other staff in FE colleges in order to establish the context in which change is taking place.
