Session Information
02 SES 11 C, 02 SES 11 C Pathways and Transitions III: Supporting Apprentices & Students
Paper Session
Contribution
Whilst the number of young people engaging with higher level vocational education is rising across Europe (CEDEFOP 2018), there remains an imperative across all nations to cater for lower-attaining young people, who might previously have accessed low-pay, low-skill, routinised occupations which are now in decline across Europe as a whole, limiting the opportunities available to this group of young people (CEDEFOP 2018; Keep and James, 2012). Typically, lower-attaining youth often exhibit many characteristics associated with social exclusion and have negative previous educational experience (Author, 2009). Despite this, there is evidence to suggest that these young people have aspirations broadly similar to those of higher-achieving peers, but lack the support, knowledge and cultural capital to pursue those aspirations, so they are, effectively, unrealistic (see Bathmaker, 2001; Atkins, 2009; 2010; 2017).
This paper reports on an ongoing project evaluating the medium term impact of a new curriculum model designed to address some of these issues, which offers important insights for researchers internationally who are concerend with these issues. The project is being conducted in a further education college in Guernsey, an independent Crown Dependency, which does not form part of the United Kingdom. However, its education system, particularly post-16, is modelled on the English system, although it is subject to different and more flexible funding arrangements and there is no inspection body. This gives the college autonomy to develop the curriculum according to local need.
The project has involved the development and implementation of a research informed curriculum at level 1 designed to confer cultural capital and meaningful knowledge, offer effective Careers Education and Guidance (CEG), clearly articulating with the needs of the local labour market and/or further education, and promote more secure, less precarious transitions from school to work. The revised curriculum has adopted five key pillars: a project-based approach to core, competency-based, applied vocational qualifications, continuous and embedded CEG, English and maths at levels consistent with each individual’s level of attainment, work experience, and a broad range of enrichment activities, which are designed to provide the young people with opportunities, knowledge, and experiences they have not previously been exposed to. It builds on concepts of the curriculum described by, for example, Dewey (1916) and Stenhouse (1975).
Project-based learning has been adopted in response to teachers’ perceptions that students became disengaged and bored with a competency based approach, and is a pedagogical approach which is consistent with the effective development of work-related skills (Gessler and Howe, 2015). English and maths have been included as these are widely regarded by employers as essential skills in the workplace. Work experience has been identified as critical in supporting effective school to work transitions for lower attaining youth (Wolf, 2011) and has been found to be effective in a study recently conducted in England (Defeyter et al, 2017) which informed the approach taken to work experience in this project. Young people undertook short placements in a voluntary capacity contributing to initiatives in their local community. A wide range of Enrichment activities were offered, and these are explored in the paper. CEG also forms a central plank of the new curriculum, responding to earlier research (Bathmaker, 2001; Atkins, 2009; Atkins and Flint, 2015) suggesting that lower-attaining young people have aspirations similar to their higher-achieving peers, but lack the support, cultural and social capital to realise those aspirations. Theoretically, the paper draws on, amongst others, the work of Bourdieu and Passeron (1990) , Hodkinson and Sparkes (1997) and Hodkinson (e.g. 1996; 1998; 2008).
Method
The paper positions the study as research for social justice, rather than socially just research (Author and Other, in press, 2019), but draws on theoretical concepts of social justice to inform the conduct of the study (e.g. Lincoln and Denzin, 2013). Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Derby, and the research design was consistent both with BERA Ethical Guidelines (2018) and the notions of respect inherent in concepts of social justice. The research design is participatory, involving the young people in the evaluation of the programme and drawing on those views to inform change and development. Other participants include college staff, and local employers who informed the curriculum developments. Evaluation of the curriculum developments was conducted via elaborated internal evaluation and improvement planning processes which includes surveys and semi-structured interviews with students. All students (39 in total) participated in the new curriculum during 2017/2018, and engaged in a variety of data gathering activities during year 1 of the project. These included initial assessments which encompassed career aspirations and understanding, level of attainment in English and maths, and personal difficulties; work-products in relation to CEG, and outcome and progression data. A sub-sample of 12 of the total cohort consented to longitudinal follow-up over the academic years 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 to establish the extent to which their transitions into the work-place were sustainable and supported their career aims. This sample reflected an equal gender balance and represented each of the four vocational areas offered at level 1 (vocational studies, incorporating health and social caere and childcare; IT; construction; and art and design). Individual case studies of each young person were developed using a multiple case-study design (Yin, 2003) which allowed comparisons to be made between, and identify commonalities amongst, the individual cases, whilst also generating over-arching themes which may be relatable to other contexts. This has also faciliated analysis at the level of occupational area. Data generation involves two interviews during each academic year with the young participant and with their employer/tutor. Interviews with employers are being conducted as a form of triangulation and to gain an employers, as well as a personal, perspective on each individuals progress. Interview data were subject to thematic analysis utilising the constant comparative method (Wellington, 2015; Glaser and Strauss, 1967). College-level data generated during 2017/2018 have been summarised at individual level to gain a ‘picture’ of each young person, their particular challenges and strengths.
Expected Outcomes
Tentatively, the outcomes thus far show improvements – teaching staff believe some students with high degree of challenges who have remained on programme would have withdrawn in previous years. It is apparent from these outcomes that as well as positive educational outcomes, the young people have accrued significant personal and social benefits from engaging with the programme in its revised form, and this is illustrated in the form of vignettes of three of the young participants. In addition, there have been some very positive employment outcomes, including progression to apprenticeships. Consistent with earlier research (Bathmaker, 2001; Author, 2009) most students lacked knowledge about their intended career path at the beginning of their programme. Many were unclear about their intended career, with none indicating confidence in areas such as knowing what qualifications or skills they needed. Interviews with students at the end of their programme indicated a much higher level of awareness of the entry requirements for their chosen career paths, suggesting that the Careers interventions have been successful. For the final year of this ongoing project, building on emerging findings, the project will • Follow up core sample of those who have left to monitor outcomes, liaising with employers, youth workers, education providers and social services. • Pay particular attention to 2018/19 outcomes of those students progressing to L2 which is more traditionally structured • Continue to evaluate and revise the curriculum. Revisions in 2018/19 included introducing a recognised volunteering course to promote employability skills, and weekly work experience • Begin development of a theorised curricular model for wider dissemination Final outcomes of this study will be reported in 2020.
References
Author, (2010), ‘Opportunity and Aspiration, or the Great Deception? The Case of 14-19 Vocational’, Power and Education, 2 (3): 253-265 Author, (2009), Invisible Students, Impossible Dreams: experiencing vocational education 14-19, Stoke-on Trent: Trentham Books. Author, (2017), ‘The Odyssey: School to Work Transitions, Serendipity and Position in the Field’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38 (5) 641-655. Author, L. and Other, A. (2015) Nothing Changes: Perceptions of Vocational Education in a Coalition Era. International Journal of Training Research. 13, 1, 35-48 Author and Other, B (2019) Research Methods for Social Justice and Equity London: Bloomsbury Bathmaker, A-M (2001) ‘It’s a Perfect Education’: Lifelong Learning and the Experience of Foundation-level GNVQ Students’ in Journal of Vocational Education and Training 53, 1 pp 81-100 Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J-C. (1990), Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, 2nd ed, London: SAGE. Cedefop (2018). The changing nature and role of vocational education and training in Europe. Volume 3: the responsiveness of European VET systems to external change (1995-2015). Luxembourg: Publications Office. Cedefop research paper; No 67. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/621137 Author and colleagues, Research Report Dewey, J. (1916), Democracy and Education, New York: Free Press Gessler, M. and Howe, F. (2015) From the Reality of Work to Grounded Work-Based Learning in German Vocational Education and Training: Background, Concept and Tools International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET) 2, 3 (Special Issue): 214-238 Hodkinson, P. And Sparkes, A. (1997) Careership: a sociological theory of career decision making, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 18:1, 29-44 Hodkinson, P. (1996) ‘Careership: The Individual, Choices and Markets in the Transition to Work’ in Avis, J. et al Knowledge and Nationhood Education, Politics and Work London: Cassell Hodkinson, P. (1998) ‘Career Decision Making and the Transition from School to Work’ in M. Grenfell and D. James (eds) Bourdieu and Education Acts of Practical Theory London: Falmer Press Hodkinson, P. (2008) “Understanding Career Decision-Making and Progression: Careership Revisited.” John Killeen Memorial Lecture Woburn House, London, 16th October 2008 Keep, E. and James, S. (2012) A Bermuda Triangle of Policy? ‘Bad jobs’, skills policy and incentives to learn at the bottom end of the labour market Journal of Education Policy 27, 2 Stenhouse, L. (1975), An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development, London: Heinemann. Wolf, A. (2011), Review of Vocational Education – The Wolf Report. www.gov.uk/government/ publications/review-of-vocational-education-the-wolf-report
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.