Selecting a Key Skills delivery mode: thinking about efficiency and effectiveness

This research-based paper attempts to describe a continuum of delivery choi ces available to school and college managers by which Key Skills can be int roduced as part of Curriculum 2000. It describes the pressure to integrate, the illusion of contextualisation and the consequent pre-eminence of staff competence as a determining influence on the effectiveness of the delivery structure. It describes some problems associated with integration and the relative efficiency and effectiveness of discrete and integrated delivery. The paper goes on to define a continuous array of mixed modes of delivery, the levels of support required to underpin them, the external influences th at impinge on the process of their selection and the effectiveness of monit oring and tracking systems.