The Learning and Skills Council is to have a new research centre. The Learning and Skills Centre will generate innovative, independent and longterm research, providing a broad base of evidence to inform future policy on post-16 education and training.
Funded jointly by the Department for Education and Skills and the Learning and Skills Council, the centre is intended to disseminate research findings widely and to help individual practitioners to raise the quality of their training provision. Margaret Hodge, Minister for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning, emphasised the need for studies that are prepared to reassess fundamentals, stating: "We want hard-nosed research into areas like work-based learning and what makes teaching effective. Above all, we need adventurous research that tackles the most difficult issues and challenges the most deeply held assumptions."
