What are your views on this???
ROW OVER IPOD 'BRIBE'
A college in Dorset is using the offer of a free iPod and £100 in cash to tempt teenagers to sign up for a summer course.
Bournemouth and Poole College thinks the initiative will help students who have dropped out to return to education.
But some education experts have condemned the move and the bill.
The cost of the £170 iPods will be met by the taxpayer and could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The students aged between 16 to 18 are being promised the MP3 player if they complete a course in life and job skills.
In addition, those who embark on the 14-week course are paid £50 a week for one day a week of work experience, £100 cash when they finish the course, a further £100 payment if they enrol on a further full-time course at the college, free lunch vouchers and free travel if they live more than three miles away.
Called Step up 4 summer, the course will show them how to apply for jobs, give them interview tips and show them how to write a CV.
The college's director of marketing, Julie-Ann Houldey, said: "We don't see this offer as bribery. This is about incentivisation of a life and job skills course for a group of students who are not traditional learners."
But the Campaign for Real Education, an independent pressure group, says the offer sends out the wrong message.
Chairman Nick Seaton said: "It looks like bribery.
"It tells young people that they don't have to do anything unless they're getting a sweetner for it, which is wrong."
ROW OVER IPOD 'BRIBE'
A college in Dorset is using the offer of a free iPod and £100 in cash to tempt teenagers to sign up for a summer course.
Bournemouth and Poole College thinks the initiative will help students who have dropped out to return to education.
But some education experts have condemned the move and the bill.
The cost of the £170 iPods will be met by the taxpayer and could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The students aged between 16 to 18 are being promised the MP3 player if they complete a course in life and job skills.
In addition, those who embark on the 14-week course are paid £50 a week for one day a week of work experience, £100 cash when they finish the course, a further £100 payment if they enrol on a further full-time course at the college, free lunch vouchers and free travel if they live more than three miles away.
Called Step up 4 summer, the course will show them how to apply for jobs, give them interview tips and show them how to write a CV.
The college's director of marketing, Julie-Ann Houldey, said: "We don't see this offer as bribery. This is about incentivisation of a life and job skills course for a group of students who are not traditional learners."
But the Campaign for Real Education, an independent pressure group, says the offer sends out the wrong message.
Chairman Nick Seaton said: "It looks like bribery.
"It tells young people that they don't have to do anything unless they're getting a sweetner for it, which is wrong."
