The Benefits of pre-Sessional English Course in UK as a part of Foundation

The Foundation degree was introduced in the year 2000, by David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education and Employment as a new higher education qualification. The first Foundation degree programmes were launched in 2001-02. Foundation courses in UK are marked by the extent of their innovation in teaching, learning and assessment and design as well as for their innovation in the marketplace towards which the Foundation programme has been designed.

Foundation courses aids in the accomplishment of prerequisites to an undergraduate course with regards to meeting the eligibility requirements. Ideally, such programmes last one year. The courses are taken so that one can build their undergraduate degrees upon them. Upon successful completion of the course students can progress to a degree at a UK university appropriate to the discipline of the foundation course taken.

There are many aspirants who due to various circumstantial constraints couldn’t pursue their dreams earlier. Foundation courses help them to knock on the doors of opportunity. Furthermore, , for those whose mother tongue is not English but wishes to improve their IELTS score or their communication skill for business management courses, a range of general to specialist English language programme is also offered as Pre-Sessional English Course in UK.

In general 3 categories of foundation, degrees meet various have been observed. The foundation courses that meet an essential employee need, a niche employee need and the on delivering sustainable regional collaboration. However, there have been certain skepticism regarding such type of courses. There have been discussions that the participation was incompatible with addressing the skills gap. There was a concern that employers may have a tendency to prefer employees who have opted or are opting for a specialized qualifications Viz. a professional accreditation rather than more general qualifications.

There are concerns that due to the shorter nature of foundation degrees, these courses may be perceived by the government as a cheaper way to close the skill- gaps. Similar to past experiences of intermediate vocational higher education, Foundation degrees may fail to establish their mark and individuality. i.e, of course, there is the strong signal from the labor market. There has been another concern that employers who otherwise would have been invested in workforce development, now would consider themselves sort of exempted and directed the workforce towards attending a foundation course.

On the other hand optimism about the foundation degrees were also noted like the following:

1. create demand for a different kind of higher education,

2. increasing the value of vocational higher education,

3. remedy the historical skill shortage,

4. address the broadening participation targets and

5. include a lot many vocational qualifications at the intermediate level

The elitist too have inquired about the difference between academic and vocational foundation courses. The question is whether the foundation courses are being touted as a university education when the content is different from the traditional course was felt by many to be revisited. School-leavers who have studied in a non-British curriculum but would like to improve their English, opt to Study in London to pursue a degree at a UK university.