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activity are now much more permeable, with their provision
constantly adapting to or proactively shaping the economic and
civic priorities of their respective regions. Thus, college leaders are
increasingly being required to be become catalysts and leaders of
regional thinking.
College incorporation sparked complex interactions; it promised
unhindered freedom, yet only in very limited circumstances did it
ultimately come to mean self-determination. Over the years, FE
actually has become a more co-ordinated environment - waves
of regulation, scrutiny and sectoral restructuring across the four
nations,5 combined with Regionalisation and Reclassification
in Scotland and, in England, the Area Based Reviews, coupled
with interventions from an FE Commissioner, have removed
any remaining institutional autonomy.6 However, despite such
relentless transformational reform, colleges, and in particular their
leaders, have shown remarkable resilience, exemplary agility and
an abiding commitment to the communities they serve.
On the whole, FE colleges have changed their profile and grown
massively. This significant increase in scale has been driven
through mergers, some voluntary, some imposed. Each merger
has aligned its structures to prevailing political and regional
conditions, with some of the new institutions retaining local
brands while others emerged as new corporate identities.
The resulting organisations have evolved differently across all
four nations of the UK, with distinct organisational patterns.
Some became corporate groupings, some regional hubs with
training providers or school academies, and others metropolitan
benchmarks. The LTE Group (Manchester College) emerged in
2016, with a reported turnover of £187 million, and staff of
3,450. Figures in excess of £60 million (around 1,500 staff) are
5 See Hodgson, A., Spours, K., Waring, M., Gallacher, J, Irwin, T. and James, D. 2018.
FE and skills across the four countries of the UK: New opportunities for policy
learning. Journal of Education and Work.
6 See Spours, K., Hodgson, A., Grainger, P. and Smith, D. 2018. Post-16 Area-Based
Reviews in London: A small step towards a more universal and coherent skills
system in the Capital? London: Association of Colleges. Journal of Vocational
Education and Training.