A Teacher's Guide to 14-19 Policy and Practice

Lynn Senior

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317205838
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This concise and up-to-date guide to 14-19 education aims to demystify recent policy initiatives in the sector to help teachers and practitioners understand the rationale for the qualifications on offer and support them in their daily practice. Offering lots of additional guidance, it will help teachers to access the ongoing support that is available and develop their own professionalism.

A Teacher's Guide to 14–19 Policy and Practice considers the types of knowledge needed to teach vocational education and offers a wealth of strategies for effective learning, teaching and assessment to ensure that all students achieve and progress. It also explores the ways that teachers can follow the Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) standards to develop employability in the classroom and help students gain the skills they will need to manage their personal lives and careers in the future. The four sections cover:

• The Political Environment in 14-19 Education

• Teaching and Learning in the 14-19 Sector

• Making 14-19 Work

• Going Further in 14-19 Education

Featuring case studies, practical tasks and reflective questions, this timely new text will be essential reading for all trainee and practising teachers and practitioners in the 14-19 sector.

APPENDIX1Work-related activities

• Student visits to work environments – schools and colleges link with businesses to plan visits and agree learning outcomes. The information and experience gained from the visit is then incorporated into the students’ studies.
• A key element of the work-related learning framework, which aims to encourage young people to be more enterprising.
• One or more employers delivering sector-specific information to groups of learners on school, college or employer premises.
• People with industrial or commercial experience providing one-to-one encouragement and support to students and trainees.
• Simulated interviews by people who interview candidates as part of their job – injects reality into job/placement searches.
• Short, job-specific tasks and other hands-on experiences which provide opportunities for students to practice what they have learned in the classroom (e.g. drafting a guide or interpreting a set of financial accounts and preparing a report).
• Increasing numbers of young people take part-time employment at age 16+ – this provides opportunities to learn about taking responsibility, customer and cash handling and health and safety procedures, as well as to gather evidence for building a portfolio, whether for A-levels in vocational subjects, key skills or general records of achievement.
• Students, individually or in teams, working on analysing and or solving business related problems.
• Taster sessions providing insights into the world of work – usually in sector- or industry-based workshops.
• Teams of students taking part in business games and work simulations to resolve complex business-related problems and using role playing, teamwork, decision-making and problem-solving skills.
• A placement with an employer in which a young person carries out a task – or a range of tasks – and duties in much the same way as an employee, with the emphasis on learning from the experience. Work experience provides opportunities for learning about the skills and personal qualities, careers, roles and structures that exist within a workplace or organisation.
• Learners observing others in real working environments, undertaking tasks and talking to staff to find out more about organisations.
• Employers lecturing and/or leading discussions with students on school, college or employer premises about the realities of the employment and training environment.

APPENDIX2An historical overview of collaboration in the 14–19 arena

The concept of collaboration for 14–19 education was first introduced following the publication of ‘The Education and Skills Implementation Plan’ (DfES 2005). This document was concerned with the then National Entitlement Curriculum, which the Labour government at the time believed could only be offered through collaborative delivery because no single school would be able to provide the full entitlement. Therefore 14–19 partnerships were seen to be critical in ensuring there was a coherent, locally-owned strategy that could provide the 14–19 entitlement for all young people, meeting local needs and with the buy-in of key partners, for example, employers.

In addition, the document discussed the requirement for schools to work in local partnerships with a range of external providers and stakeholders to meet the needs of their students. As a concept, this method of working collaboratively had been in existence in the British educational system for several years with initiatives such as the 14–19 pathfinders and the Increased Flexibility Programme (IFP).

The 14–19 pathfinder initiative

Pathfinder projects were implemented following the 2002 Green paper ‘14–19: Extending Opportunities, Raising Standards’ and the Government's response ‘14–19: Opportunity and Excellence’. The pathfinders were designed to examine how schools, colleges and work-based learning providers would implement the Government agenda of flexibility within the 14–19 curriculum. Twenty-five local authorities were included in the first round of pathfinder projects, and a further 14 were successful in the 2003 round. Various initiatives were implemented across the country, for example projects relating to local skills shortages (Derby City Council), and the development of the 14–19 curriculum (Kingswood 14–19 pathfinder project).

Evaluation of the 14–19 pathfinder projects, of which there were 39 across the country, identified, ‘the positive impact of the continued development of extensive collaborations’ (Higham and Yeomans, 2005) as one of the key findings.

The increased flexibility programme

This programme, introduced in 2002, aimed to ‘create enhanced vocational and work-related learning opportunities for 14–16 year olds of all abilities’, (DfES 2004) and enabled 14 to 16yearolds to study vocational courses within a post-compulsory setting for part of their school week. The programme was one of the first to embrace widening participation strategies and partnership working.

The DfES evaluation of the project highlighted that students choosing to study in further education colleges as part of their education did so because the course reflected a career interest, and that often the institutions were able to offer more specialised resources and expertise. The conclusion of the project was that partnership working also provided an opportunity for certain students, who may not be suited to school and the learning styles in school, to learn in an alternative environment.

The list below presents an historical overview of collaborative practices in 14-19 education post-2005.

• a home institution/off-site provider agreement or contract;
• robust disciplinary procedures which are shared understood and approved by all partners;
• a progress report which monitors the progress of individual learners against agreed targets;
• an induction procedure with evidence of completion by the individual learner;
• strategies for supporting individual learner need;
• a record of current health and safety policy in line with HSE standards covering 14–16 and 16–19 programmes;
• insurance documentation to cover all learners;
• risk assessments to cover all elements of the programme;
• a risk assessment of individual learners when appropriate;
• a record that all staff involved in learning programmes have been cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) for work with children;
• verification that qualifications on offer are listed on Section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act (2000), and can thus be delivered in Key Stage 4 to learners in the 14–16 age group;
• all staff involved in delivery to 14–19 year olds have received training and/or are working towards a qualification in meeting the needs of this age group;
• all staff involved in delivery have received at least basic safeguarding board training appropriate to work with young people aged 14–19;
• there is a designated Child Protection Co-ordinator and policies and procedures in place that fulfil local safeguarding board requirements;
• regular surveys of learner experiences are undertaken;
• there are suitable documentation and procedures for communication between the home institution and provider to demonstrate an ongoing dialogue regarding the progress of the learner.

The focus of these quality assurance arrangements was to check that programmes:

• meet individual learner needs;
• ensure young people are receiving high standards of education and training;
• inform curriculum planning and staff development strategies;
• offer the learner opportunities for progression;
• provide learners with a suitable and safe learning environment.

(Adapted from www.education.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/Promoting Achievement, valuing success - a strategy for 14-19 qualifications.pdf)

It could be argued that these principles should still apply today.

Case study: Hull and East Riding partnership – an example of partnership working

The Hull and East Riding partnership has been set up to ensure that the schools work in partnership with a range of external providers from the public, private and voluntary sectors to provide an inclusive curriculum which meets the needs of all learners.

The partnership itself abides by local agreements that all home institutions and providers comply with current Local Authority policies, codes of practices, procedures and guidelines for educational visits and off-site activities, although it is the home institution that has the overall responsibility to ensure that they provide a high-quality learning experience both on-and off-site.

Other aspects of the partnership are that all home institutions and providers have a duty to comply with the Disability Equality Duty and the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000; and all programmes contribute to the delivery of the Every Child Matters outcomes. Each institution or provider is responsible for the quality assurance of its own courses, using its own systems and frameworks for lesson observations, surveys and data analysis, and learner surveys. Also, all data on retention, attendance, achievement and destinations is collated and shared between all partners.

In relation to quality and inspection, information regarding the quality of provision (e.g. OfSTED inspection reports, external verification reports, Student Perception of Course analyses) should be made available by all partners on request and there is a shared responsibility to ensure that areas of weakness are identified and addressed by all partners.

Explore the partnership that is in place within your area. Are the elements similar to those described above or do you have other elements in place. What could be improved?

(Adapted from Senior, 2010)

Funding and commissioning of 14–19 provision: a brief history

In 2010 one of the key changes that took place in 14–19 education was the funding and commissioning, as opposed to allocation, of education for the 14–19 year old age group. A National Commissioning Framework (NCF) was developed to provide support and guidance to all local authorities responsible for commissioning provision, and all provision had to be offered by secure and established partnerships. A new funding bodies was set up, the Young Persons Learning Agency (YPLA), who held the overall budget for provision. The YPLA was established by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. On 1 April 2010 it replaced the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), which was the UK's largest non-departmental public. Other statutory powers and duties previously within the remit of the LSC were transferred to the Skills Funding Agency and local authorities in England.

Under the Education Act 2011 the YPLA ceased to exist on 31 March 2012. Some statutory responsibilities reverted to the Secretary of State for Education, while many of the YPLA's functions were transferred to the newly created Education Funding Agency.

For details of current funding for 14–19 education visit:

• www.gov.uk/16-to-19-education-funding-allocations

References

• DfES (2004) 14–19 Curriculum reforms: Final Report of the Working Group on 14–19 Reforms. London: DfES.
• DfES (2005) The Education and Skil...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of tables
• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• Section One: The political environment in 14–19 education
• Section Two: Teaching and learning in the 14–19 sector
• Section Three: Making 14–19 work
• Section Four: Wider skills for the 14–19 practitioner
• Appendix 1: Work-related activities
• Appendix 2: An historical overview of collaboration in the 14–19 arena
• Appendix 3: Guiding principles for the IAG standards
• Index