Colleges and Employers dealt further blow as Bursary faces withdrawal
The achievement of the award of the bursary, consisting of a one off payment of £2,000 per student per year to laboratories, was hailed as a great success for the DLA, DTA and colleges, who have a long history of lobbying the Department of Health for some support for dental technology education.
The bursary was awarded to assist employers with the additional costs that were to be incurred as the recognised qualification in dental technology moved from a BTEC National Diploma to a Foundation Degree. This was seen to require a substantial amount of the skills based learning to be undertaken in the laboratory under the supervision of a laboratory based mentor, who was required to carry out the on the job training and assessment.
Even with this assistance the trend in enrolments amongst the colleges has remained at a low level, with only 243 applications received in year 3, averaging 75 per year. Now after only 4 years the DLA have received notification that funding is to be withdrawn. The last academic year for the bursary will be 2007/2008 and in this final year all applications must be received by 30th November 2007.
When it was first offered the DLA anticipated that it would lead to more enrolments on the registrable qualification and provide a boost for colleges in England and were hopeful that this would help to save the number of dental technology training places by keeping colleges open. Unfortunately this has not happened and Southampton has since closed and insufficient demand has been identified by the DLA to enable a business case to be put together for a distance learning course. Meanwhile there are employers who are in desperate need of a route for the employees to qualify, especially in the South West of England and in Northern Ireland. With no access to funding the DLA is doing its best to match up employers with individual educational establishments who may be able to provide some form of provision.
With statutory registration and the status and kudos that this brings with dental technology becoming a profession, it is difficult to understand why there is not a surge in demand to colleges for training places in order to qualify for access to the GDC register. This is especially worrying due to the fact that a recent GDC and DoH survey showed that around 2,000 dental technicians would require a qualification in order to gain access.
At the Face2Face meetings at the end of 2006 the Open Forum sessions highlighted growing concerns, which may provide an indication of why the bursary has not achieved its projected outcomes. Points raised included:
- Uncertainty over the GDC’s policy on statutory registration and whether or not it would be necessary to register all employees
- CPD would become compulsory for those that did register, so it is in the interests of budgetary restraints to register as few dental technicians as possible
- The new contract and the resulting decline in the volume of work
- The threat of losing work to overseas laboratories who are not restrained by these additional costs
...and now, as if that wasn’t enough the bursary faces withdrawal. Be assured that the DLA will be doing all they can to encourage the Department of health to retain the bursary for a further 4 year term, if not indefinitely. Scotland is now leading the way as they introduce their bursary and now a paid Vocational Training scheme for dental technicians as well.
REMEMBER, ALL APPLICATIONS FOR THE AWARD OF BURSARY PAYMENTS FOR STUDENTS ENROLLED ON PART-TIME COURSES MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH BY 30TH NOVEMBER 2007.
