GTAs future could be in business investments

Wednesday 20 June 2018

The future of the Guernsey Training Agency could be in investment from the business world, Deputy Matt Fallaize, President of Education, Sport & Culture, has said.

He made this point while answering questions at the Institute of Directors June breakfast last week, and with a vested interest in having qualified future employees, attendees were asking him about how the GTA would come out of the new Education model.

Deputy Fallaize said there were two models for the future of the GTA.

"There is certainly a possibility for it to go back to the original funding model and have businesses' funds directed into it, as it is a business school," he said.

"If the GTA stays in the Education family, we will reasonably have to integrate it with the three separate training colleges - the GTA, the College of FE, and the Institute for Health & Social Care studies. Saying that, we are not going to bluntly smash them together, we recognise that they are different, but they will have to be integrated in some way."

One of the plans for the GTA's future is for Education to secure a UK University partnership for it, or the future amalgamated College. This idea is still a work in progress, but would see more students use the service.

Richard Conder is an officer in Education, Sport & Culture who was originally hired to set the GTA up and get it running. He still works as a non elected member of the committee and Deputy Fallaize said he has remained involved with its future.

The GTA has previously been jointly funded by the States and the business community, but that ended in 2008.

"We are absolutely determined to defend the governance down to the level of the schools and colleges. We are trying to free Education up from the huge level of beaurcracy it faces, and this is all part of that process."

Deputy Fallaize also discussed the future of the two school model at the presentation, and further to his discussion on changes in Education, he spoke one on one with Express about how the civil servant shake up has been happening.