Your editorial (FE Focus, October 22), advocating Tomlinson’s call for unitised course design and assessment will find echoes across the world of lifelong learning. As you say, Open College Networks have been doing the job successfully for almost two decades.
It is a little incomplete, though, to describe OCNs as “those outposts for accrediting fragments of work left out of mainstream studies”. A lot of mainstream provision in FE, adult and community learning and in workforce development has chosen to use flexible OCN accreditation over the past few years. This is why the OCNs are now one of the largest awarding bodies and membership networks in adult learning, and why OCN examples are quoted so frequently in relation to Tomlinson and QCA qualifications reform.
Nigel Todd
Chief executive
North East Open College Network
1 Heaton Road
Newcastle upon Tyne
