Focal Point 1: Focus Groups

Welcome, readers, to a new feature for ENN. In each edition, focal point will focus on an issue of national, educational or college interest. This week, we focus on focus groups, and explore their uses.

So what is a ‘focus group'? Clearly, it's a group that focuses on something. The college focus group is focussing on the future of the college, and the colleges identity. What does it mean to be Preston's Catholic sixth form at the end of the 20th century? Focussing on such a difficult question cannot be easy - how do you focus on something so abstract? It will be interesting to see what the focus group focusses on specifically, and decides, if and when it reports back to the wider college.

The college focus group aside, this is a good opportunity to focus on focus groups generally, and suggest some institutions or organisations which could benefit from a focus group, and what the focus group should focus on.

So, here are some institutions which could benefit from a focus group:

Focus DIY Superstores could use a focus group to focus on their name.

The Tories could use a focus group to focus on where they want to take their party. Unfortunately it can be hard to focus on things which are very small - like the number of Conservative MPs.

Finally - perhaps this article hasn't been very clear, or very focussed. That's largely because I'm not too clear what a focus group is. I suggest setting up a focus group to focus on focus groups. Next time in focal point, we'll focus on another important issue.