Colleges may be well placed to compete with industry training providers if retention continues to be a key factor in attracting and retaining funding under the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), but college managers will need to be proactive in their approach. Issues concerned with the retention and early leaving, or drop out of students have assumed renewed significance and emphasis in the further education (FE) sector since incorporation. Under the new LSC, where value for money is a key measure of success, increasing recruitment, improving retention and seeking to understand and address early leaving, from a wide range of education and training programmes, are set to remain high on the agenda, for managers working in FE and industry training organisation. This article summarises research carried out with training provider managers to explore strategies to improve retention on training programmes previously funded by the Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs). The article concludes that, staff employed by training providers to support trainees and provide training, are a key factor in reducing the rate of early leaving. Provision of monitoring, support and guidance is a key factor for improving retention, although not all factors affecting retention can be controlled by training provider managers, especially when trainees’ decisions are influenced by financial considerations. © 2002, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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