Unionlearn briefing
April 2011
Last year the Secretary of State for Education commissioned Professor Alison Wolf to undertake a review of vocational education for young people aged under 19. Her final report was published last month and the Secretary of State responded saying that the government would immediately take forward four of her specific recommendations and publish a full response to the report shortly. This briefing paper highlights the main thrust of the recommendations in her report and the likely implications for policy development in the future.
The report includes a policy analysis which begins by arguing that various research studies show that '30 or 40 years ago vocational routes offered young people better and more secure prospects than is the case today'. However, Professor Wolf argues that this is not to say that we should try to hark back to a 'golden age', as the economy and labour market has changed to such a huge extent. According to the report, today's vocational education system should respond to the following five key developments in recent decades:
One of the major themes of the report is that too many young people are engaged in vocational courses that do not offer them a 'successful pathway into employment or higher education'. In particular, the following key challenges are highlighted:
The report highlights a number of principles that should drive forward reform. First, it says that the system has 'no business tracking and steering' young people 'into programmes which are effectively dead-end'. Professor Wolf is especially critical of a number of lower-level vocational qualifications which have grown in popularity in schools in recent years, allegedly in part because they boost the league table scores of individual schools. She argues that there should be a focus on providing a programme of study for all young people which 'should provide for labour market and educational progress on a wide front, whether immediately or later in life'.
Secondly, she says that there must be much greater transparency about the outcomes from following certain pathways, particularly the research showing very poor earnings potential of certain qualifications (e.g. lower-level NVQs) and the higher earnings potential of others (e.g. higher level apprenticeships).
Not surprisingly, she recommends that simplification of the system must be a key principle on the basis that 'English vocational education is extraordinarily complex and opaque by European and international standards' largely due to the extent of overlapping government structures and initiatives. According to the analysis we could do much better by learning best practice from countries such as Denmark, France and Germany.
The report includes 27 recommendations and the Secretary of State has said that the government will immediately accept four of them, as follows:
Some of the other recommendations relating to schools and FE, which the government has yet to respond to, are as follows:
In the conclusion and recommendations section of the report, Professor Wolf emphasises that 'increasing young people's access to apprenticeship is a government priority and of the utmost importance to the future of 16-18 vocational education'. She is also concerned that while 16-18 apprentices are legally full-time employees rather than students, 'they should, nonetheless, be primarily engaged in learning - including, primarily, generalisable and transferable skills [which] is standard practice in other countries with large apprenticeship programmes'. She makes reference to the fact that there are instances of apprentices simply following standard company training schemes and that it is 'difficult to see why some employees should have their company-specific training paid for [by government], simply because they are designated as apprentices.'
In line with this there are a number of specific recommendations relating to apprenticeships as follows:
Commenting on the report, the Secretary of State for Education said that 'it is essential, therefore, that we ensure the vocational routes offered to young people are high quality and are recognised by employers and further and higher education [and] Professor Wolf's recommendations will help us to do just that. They have set clear direction of travel that will lead to a real and sustained improvement in the vocational education on offer to young people in this country'.
A number of the recommendations in the report have the support of many trade unions, including the emphasis on not shifting young people into a wholly vocational pathway at too young an age and also retaining a focus on a broad education, including minimum achievement in English and Maths. In addition, some unions have welcomed the recommendation allowing further education lecturers to teach in school classrooms on the same basis as qualified teachers.
But there are also valid concerns that the criticism in the report of the recent expansion of vocational pathways in schools does not recognise their effectiveness in re-engaging many young people who would be put off by a return to a largely academic curriculum. And whilst it is beneficial that more young people will be able to re-sit English and Maths GCSEs, it is hardly credible that this approach will help all of the 50% who currently do not achieve this by the age of 18.
Some of Professor Wolf's recommendations are also in conflict with ongoing government policy. For example, the thrust of the new University Technical Colleges (UTCs) catering for 14-19 year-olds is based on young people specialising in a vocational approach at the age of 14. And in the Budget the Chancellor announced funding to double the number of UTCs so it appears that there is little likelihood of Professor Wolf's report barring the further expansion of this new form of institution.
As regards apprentices, unionlearn made the following comment following publication of the report: 'We agree with Professor Wolf's support for the expansion of high quality apprenticeships that will offer genuine career progression for young people. It is interesting that she makes the point that in general apprenticeships in the UK compare less favourably with those in many other European countries which tend to offer a broader level of training'.
Many of the recommendations in the report regarding apprenticeships throw out a huge challenge to employers, in particular the focus on quality and the need for employers to ensure that young apprentices are engaged in training that supports acquisition of a wider skill set and not just occupation-specific training. Recent criticisms by employers of the minimum standards relating to time off for training in the existing apprenticeship specification standard suggest that the government will have to take a very robust approach if they are going to require all employers with young apprentices to adopt the approach recommended by Professor Wolf.
Available at: http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/The%20Wolf%20Report.pdf
Hansard, 3rd March 2011
You Are Needed at your Workstation, Guardian, 29th March 2011
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