ABSTRACT
Combined with the CNAA CATS provision and the increasing number of universities, polytechnics and colleges which are developing their own CATS schemes, and NCVQ, APEL is contributing to significant institutional developments designed to improve access services for potential students. Employers are faced with something of the same need for the three-part programme of restructuring, reorganising and redeploying, if they are to take the next step forward towards the kind of learning workforce which many say they must have to survive in the brave new world of international competition, not to speak of 1992 and the European Community. Grant regulations for the further education system need reformulating to ensure that academic progression is standard practice; that would go a long way to clearing the academic obstacles. However, there is another requirement for removing academic obstacles. The country needs an overarching national validating body to service further education in the way that CNAA has served degree and postgraduate work in higher education.
