Presents the findings from a study of 48 Colleges of Further Education (FE) who have participated in a diagnostic benchmarking exercise using the learning probe methodology. Learning probe has been developed from the established service probe tool (developed originally by London Business School and IBM Consulting) to support colleges of FE in…

This booklet introduces the principles and practices of benchmarking as a way of raising quality and achievement at further education colleges in Britain. Section 1 defines the concept of benchmarking. Section 2 explains what benchmarking is not and the steps that should be taken before benchmarking is initiated. The following aspects and…

This document is designed to introduce practitioners in the United Kingdom's learning and skills sector to the principles and practice of benchmarking. The first section defines benchmarking and differentiates metric, diagnostic, and process benchmarking. The remainder of the booklet details the following steps of the benchmarking process: (1) get…

The use of target setting in conjunction with good information systems in colleges and work-based learning (WBL) providers can lead to improved service provisions across the sector in the United Kingdom. Target setting must be carried out in a systematic way in which providers must develop target- setting processes with a focus on learner success;…

In order for learning providers to become learning organizations, their services must be delivered effectively. The Learning PROBE (Promoting Business Excellence) was created for the learning and skills sector and was in use by nearly 100 colleges and work-based learning (WBL) providers by April 2003. PROBE has assisted 3000 organizations across…

This document is intended to guide further education colleges and work-based learning providers through some of the commonly used tools, techniques, and theories of quality management. The following are among the topics discussed: (1) various ways of defining quality; methods used by organizations to achieve quality (quality control, quality…

This document is a questionnaire designed for work-based learning providers. It is a diagnostic benchmarking tool developed to give organizations a snapshot of their current state. Following a brief introduction, there are instructions for filling in the questionnaire, which includes both open-ended response and scoring according to a…

Common factors among high-performing distance learning (DL) programs were examined through case studies at 9 further education colleges and 2 nonsector organizations in the United Kingdom and a backup survey of a sample of 50 distance learners at 5 of the colleges. The study methodology incorporated numerous principles of process benchmarking. The…