Diplomas were a recent set of education qualifications introduced to the 14-19 age group that were to be delivered jointly between school and FE college consortia. City College Norwich established several consortia with various schools in the region and several Diploma programmes were developed and delivered by these consortia. This project seeks to review all aspects of these Diplomas, from a review of scale of delivery and uptake to reviewing retention and achievement and making comparison benchmarks with more traditional programmes, whilst also collecting the experiences and perceptions from staff working within these consortia.

It has been highlighted by several agencies / organisations that there is a need for improving the skills of individuals’ capabilities and activities regarding scholarly activity within the HE in FE sector. Therefore, a need exists within the FE sector for the organisation, development and delivery of a training workshop that addresses these issues by providing relevant staff within institutions with the appropriate training after which they will have the capabilities to develop and promote their own practices.