What's the best way to keep the students on?

Computers, language labs and childcare are some of the incentives being offered to 16-year-olds to stay in education after their GCSEs. But, asks Neil Merrick, will this be enough to push the staying-on rate up to 80 per cent?

Youngsters from schools in Weymouth will see some familiar faces around if they sign up for A-levels at their local further education college next term. Within a new sixth-form centre, which is being opened at Weymouth College in September, students will be taught half a day a week by a teacher from the school that they left this summer.

The centre has been fitted out with impressive new facilities, such as computer suites, language laboratories and childcare areas. But the college acknowledges that it may take more than that to encourage all students to complete a full two-year programme. Staff believe they can do more to attract students from the Isle of Portland, where it recruits only 58 per cent of school-leavers, compared with 70 per cent from Weymouth itself.

"Some students find moving to a college quite traumatic in the first few weeks," explains curriculum manager Anne Willis-Fisher. "The teachers will be a point of contact for students and their parents. It will be less impersonal."

More than 200 miles north, in the centre of Manchester, 16- to 19-year-olds are also being offered better facilities. City College is opening a new sixth-form campus, on the site of an old sixth-form college, in a similar bid to increase staying-on rates.

City College is one of an increasing number of institutions hoping to boost staying-on rates by offering discrete facilities to students who have just left school and are expected to study for two more years. Judith Wainwright, the sixth-form college manager, emphasises that the young people will still be offered a wide range of courses, and may combine subjects such as hairdressing or horticulture with key skills.

The aim is to get away from the idea that FE colleges operate a "one-size fits all" policy, she says. "We are hoping to revive the ethos of a city centre sixth form campus. We have always had 16- to 19-year-olds but nobody has ever thought about them as a cohort in the same way as students in a sixth-form college or a school sixth form."

When the Learning and Skills Council was set up last year, it set itself a target of raising participation among 16- to 19-year-olds from 75 to 80 per cent by 2004. This figure includes school sixth-formers and young people in work who are trained by their employer.

Post-16 participation has remained at about 75 per cent for five years and is unlikely to lurch upwards in the next two. Furthermore, it is questionable whether FE is doing enough to boost the numbers.

According to the LSC, the number of under-19s in further education fell by 1.3 per cent in 2000/1 to 640,000. This followed a drop of 1.8 per cent the previous year.

Rob Wye, director of learning programmes at the LSC, admits this is a matter for concern but says the council is still aiming for the 80 per cent target through initiatives such as encouraging more young people to take-up modern apprenticeships. "It's too early to say that we are not going to get there," he says.

To raise participation, colleges and other providers must recruit young people who are in work but do not receive training, as well as focusing on some of the 173,000 youngsters (9 per cent of 16- to 19-year-olds) who are out of work and not receiving education or training. Many in further education and elsewhere are pinning their hopes on education maintenance allowances (EMAs), introduced three years ago to encourage more teenagers from low-income families to remain in learning beyond 16. Under the scheme, youngsters in 56 local authority areas receive an allowance of up to £40 per week, depending on their parents' income, but must attend college regularly for two years. They are also eligible for bonuses based on achieving learning goals.

Last week, the House of Commons education and skills select committee recommended the extension of EMAs as part of a seamless system of student support that would stretch into higher education. Chancellor Gordon Brown announced on Monday that EMAs will become available nationwide from September 2004. John Brennan, director of FE development at the Association of Colleges, sees EMAs as one of the few initiatives that might help the LSC to move closer to its 80 per cent participation target, although he still does not think that it will be achievable by 2004. "I can't see anything [else] on the horizon that is going to significantly shift the willingness of young people to stay on," says Brennan.

Up to 150,000 youngsters are thought to have received EMAs since 1999, although the government does not have exact figures. LEAs have typically reported participation to be up by about 5 per cent. Mick Fletcher, author of two studies on EMAs for the Learning and Skills Development Agency, is in no doubt that they work and that colleges have responded by making efforts to keep students on courses. "It's got them to sharpen up their act in terms of student support," he says.

Nottingham College expects to offer about 1,500 EMAs to students next year. Annie Strong, the assistant principal, says they attract new students who enrol with the support of their parents. "Without money for books and travel, they wouldn't be able to come to college," she says.

One problem is that EMAs are available for only two years, and students who enter FE without many GCSEs often need longer to complete an A-level or alternative level 3 qualification. Colleges that try to support students from other funds cannot provide the same level of support. Teesside Tertiary College typically pays students who no longer receive EMAs £100 or £200 a term. "There is some drop-out but generally students stay on," says Malcolm Watters, head of student support services.

At Dearne Valley College, Rotherham, principal Chris Morecroft has seen a 93 per cent staying-on rate among students from Barnsley and Doncaster who receive EMAs, but only a 75 per cent figure for low-income students who live in Rotherham, which was not part of the EMA pilot. There are signs of higher achievement, he adds. "If you get an EMA you are expected to attend classes and hand in your assignments," he says.

"It's tough love. If you want £40 per week you have to demonstrate that you're a serious student."

education@independent.co.uk