Addressing in/equalities: a re-imagined curriculum for low-attaining youth

This paper reports on a project re-imagining of a level 1 English-model broad vocational curriculum for low-attaining youth. The project, funded by Rothschild, has sought to develop a knowledge rich and engaging curriculum, which is more consistent with notions of social justice than contemporary low-level vocational curricula. The project utilised a participatory, action-research model of curriculum development informed by a theoretical framework drawing on concepts of social justice. The findings suggest that a broad, project-based curriculum, supported with a wide range of extra-curricular activities (enrichment) is effective in supporting secure and sustainable transitions into further education and/or meaningful employment for low attaining young people. This paper extends understandings about curricula approaches in low-level vocational education. There is a paucity of research into the curriculum at the lowest mainstream levels. Students engaging with education at that level are similarly under-researched. This paper seeks to fill that gap

Chapter 2 Lessons of European VET? National systems and international prescriptions

This chapter examines conflicting claims about the potential of European VET to provide a model for technical and vocational systems across the world. Technocratic accounts by international policy bodies, especially the OECD and EU, have focused on the possibilities for VET to facilitate transitions to employment by providing early experiences of learning at work, drawing on the integration of VET into production systems, as in the German system, seen as a barrier to neoliberal convergence because maintaining key progressive features into service sectors. Conversely, universalist welfare states held to underpin VET in Scandinavia have meanwhile given way to dualised social policies which, echoing the welfare state literature, can be seen either as ‘layered’ parallel provision or the direct erosion of comprehensive policies. During the early post-war period VET systems incorporated progressive educational elements which have come under attack, as signs of emerging dualisation have undermined the more progressive features of VET in Europe. Challenges from higher levels of VET, particularly in its most employer-responsive forms, can be seen as signs of this emerging dualisation

Chapter 6 Welfare vocationalism

In contrast to the technical elites, specific groups of young people – women, those from the lowest social classes, and those with the poorest educational experiences – are already likely to engage with poorer quality further education programmes, those associated primarily with low-paid and precarious employment. They undergo workplace learning as a much more limited experience, studying in vocational areas many of which already include substantial work placements as part of many learning programmes. Childcare, which already requires longer periods in the workplace than are stipulated by T Level requirements, is a prime example. Their time in the workplace is conceptualised as learning to interact with service users and to acquire the personal attributes of workers in these occupations. Placements can sometimes be seen as the routine work of ‘caring’ and service occupations, and young people interviewed often expressed impatience and frustration, linked to preparation for routine employment. The socialisation of these groups appears a key premise of the expectations and rationale offered by policymakers for recent reforms

Chapter 1 Technical and further education after COVID

Technical and vocational education have assumed a significant role in the plans of developed nations to overcome economic crisis, relocating learning into the workplace and extending it to higher levels. Policy discourses are based on the premise that education polarised between universities and low attainment has poorly served the needs of modern economies and young people. This chapter sets out the principal claims of these approaches to improve youth transitions and contribute to social justice. These claims are traced back to their origins in the shift to service-based economies and collapse of youth labour markets, leading to a crisis in vocational education and fuelling demand for higher education credentials; and to the emergence of international policies aiming to reconstitute youth transitions on neoliberal lines. Addressing these questions from a social justice perspective, we ask whether such disruption of the educational divide between general and vocational routes has eroded its role in reproducing and validating the social structures of the post-war period, with the creation of new routes and the postulation of new elites validating the emergence of existing and new forms of educational and social inequity

Chapter 1 Technical and further education after COVID

Technical and vocational education have assumed a significant role in the plans of developed nations to overcome economic crisis, relocating learning into the workplace and extending it to higher levels. Policy discourses are based on the premise that education polarised between universities and low attainment has poorly served the needs of modern economies and young people. This chapter sets out the principal claims of these approaches to improve youth transitions and contribute to social justice. These claims are traced back to their origins in the shift to service-based economies and collapse of youth labour markets, leading to a crisis in vocational education and fuelling demand for higher education credentials; and to the emergence of international policies aiming to reconstitute youth transitions on neoliberal lines. Addressing these questions from a social justice perspective, we ask whether such disruption of the educational divide between general and vocational routes has eroded its role in reproducing and validating the social structures of the post-war period, with the creation of new routes and the postulation of new elites validating the emergence of existing and new forms of educational and social inequity

Chapter 6 Welfare vocationalism

In contrast to the technical elites, specific groups of young people – women, those from the lowest social classes, and those with the poorest educational experiences – are already likely to engage with poorer quality further education programmes, those associated primarily with low-paid and precarious employment. They undergo workplace learning as a much more limited experience, studying in vocational areas many of which already include substantial work placements as part of many learning programmes. Childcare, which already requires longer periods in the workplace than are stipulated by T Level requirements, is a prime example. Their time in the workplace is conceptualised as learning to interact with service users and to acquire the personal attributes of workers in these occupations. Placements can sometimes be seen as the routine work of ‘caring’ and service occupations, and young people interviewed often expressed impatience and frustration, linked to preparation for routine employment. The socialisation of these groups appears a key premise of the expectations and rationale offered by policymakers for recent reforms

Chapter 2 Lessons of European VET? National systems and international prescriptions

This chapter examines conflicting claims about the potential of European VET to provide a model for technical and vocational systems across the world. Technocratic accounts by international policy bodies, especially the OECD and EU, have focused on the possibilities for VET to facilitate transitions to employment by providing early experiences of learning at work, drawing on the integration of VET into production systems, as in the German system, seen as a barrier to neoliberal convergence because maintaining key progressive features into service sectors. Conversely, universalist welfare states held to underpin VET in Scandinavia have meanwhile given way to dualised social policies which, echoing the welfare state literature, can be seen either as ‘layered’ parallel provision or the direct erosion of comprehensive policies. During the early post-war period VET systems incorporated progressive educational elements which have come under attack, as signs of emerging dualisation have undermined the more progressive features of VET in Europe. Challenges from higher levels of VET, particularly in its most employer-responsive forms, can be seen as signs of this emerging dualisation

The role of education and training in the development of technical elites: work experience and vulnerability

Whilst education and training systems in Europe have provided qualifications preparing candidates for highly skilled, responsible occupational roles, early research indicated that firms preferred to promote to such positions internally. Following changes to labour markets, several countries now place greater emphasis on early workplace learning, in the hope that transitions to work will be eased by experience of workplace environments. The outcomes of these shifts were explored through case studies in England of provision where work-based learning provides a high level of course content. Whilst students and educators ascribed value to these early experiences, evidence emerged of a narrowing of skills taught in work settings and em-phasis on behaviours and attributes. This emphasis is reflected among disadvantaged groups such as young women preparing for service roles: this paper argues for attention to the vulnerabilities of these groups, whose exclusion contributes to the reproduction of ‘elite’ occupations

Pride and Prospects: Developing a socially just level 1 curriculum to enable more positive school to work transitions

This paper reports on an ongoing project, being conducted in Guernsey, which is evaluating the medium term impact of a new curriculum model designed to enable more successful, and less precrious transitions to work for young people undertaking broad vocational education at level 1. Careers Education and Guidance (CEG) forms a central plank of the curriculum, in response to earlier research (Bathmaker, 2001; Atkins, 2009; Atkins et al, 2015) suggesting that young people undertaking programmes at this level have aspirations similar to their higher achieving peers, but lack the support, and cultural and social capital to realise those aspirations. The paper highlights the particular challenges faced by these young people, of whom 33% became NEET in 2015/16 (Guernsey College data), with particular reference to their career aspirations and the ways in which these are supported by the college. The paper positions the study as research for social justice, rather than socially just research (Atkins and Duckworth, 2019), but draws on theoretical concepts of social justice to inform the conduct of the study (e.g. Lincoln and Denzin, 2013). Theoretically, it draws on, amongst others, the work of Bourdieu (e.g.1990) Bourdieu and Passeron (1990) , Hodkinson et al (1996) and Hodkinson (e.g. 1996; 1998; 2008).Rothschild and Co