Outcomes: Nvqs And The Emerging Model Of Education And Training

Gilbert Jessup

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135385859
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Jessup's widely acclaimed book provides explanations of the many facets of National Vocational Qualifications: who they are for, why they have been developed, how they work, and the benefits they confer. The author explains how NVQs relate to a wide range of issues in education and training.

Part One

New Approaches, Methods and Instruments

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1 Learning and Individuals

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The measure of success for any education and training system should be what people actually learn from it, and how effectively. Just common sense you might think, yet this is a comparatively new idea.

Most writing and thinking about education and training is concerned with institutional arrangements, curriculum theory, the practice of teaching, staff development and so on.¹ A recent influential report from the CBI Task Force on Vocational Education and Training made a similar point:

The debate on education and training in Britain has too often been concerned with structures and delivery and too little with contents and outcomes’.²

A German, writing on education in the UK, recently observed:

Another peculiarity of the English tradition, is how little attention has been paid in pedagogical discussions to the contents of education. Most publications — above all most of the Royal Commission Reports on education — deal with school organization: whether or not, and for how long, education should be compulsory; and how the school system itself, once established should be organised and structured.³

We have what has been described as a provider-led system. What is frequently neglected is the learner, that is the client or customer of the education and training service.

If we start from the viewpoint of the individual on the receiving end, that is the student, the trainee or just the learner, we begin to recognise that learning is not confined to what education and training provides. Learning is a personal experience which can take many forms and can occur in many places. In fact we all learn all the time with varying degrees of efficiency. What we learn varies in its value to us as individuals and its general utility. No one would dispute that we learn a great many things through experience in life rather than as part of our formal education and training. Nor would anyone question that what they acquire from an education or training programme is a personal and selective interpretation of the course which is offered.⁴

Nevertheless when one sits in conferences and seminars, or reads books on this subject, there seems to be an assumption that educators and trainers exert proprietary control over the process of learning.⁵ Learning seans to be equated with what is provided in courses and programmes. One nears much about the need to provide a ‘coherent learning experience’, but the concept of coherence is usually limited to the particular package that the teacher is offering. Learning inputs always come in packages, whether these are subjects taught in schools, short management courses provided for employees or books or open learning programmes. Most packages assume that either the learner knows nothing before he or she starts, or that all have a common base of knowledge and skill.

Yet if anyone can exercise control over the process of learning, it is the individual, who might exercise a degree of control over their own learning. Similarly, coherence is ultimately a matter for the individual learner. It is only the learner who can make sense of the diverse inputs he or she receives and relate them to his or her perception of the world.

If learning is perceived from the viewpoint of the learner rather than that of the teacher or trainer, and more particularly those who manage the education and training industry, one has to change the conventional model and the concepts used. If one accepts that the central process with which we are concerned is learning, and that learning can take many forms, education and training may be seen as helping to make that possible. The focus on learning would also help to eradicate the distinction between education and training, and the establishments and agencies which divide learning into two camps. As a learner I do not make this distinction. My head does not have separate compartments to receive education and training.

The model developed in this book views education and training as the provision of learning opportunities. It is concerned about how we might create a national provision which is ‘learner centred’. It does not presume that some modes of learning are superior to others, but suggests maximising the choice of opportunities. Individuals differ in the way they prefer to learn and in the time and opportunity they have available. In a customer oriented system, in which the learner is the customer, this should determine what is provided.

The model recognizes that learning can pursue general objectives of self-development, cultural development and intellectual development, or can pursue more specific objectives and be clearly instrumental in achieving defined goals. The former is more associated with education and the latter training. They are, of course, not mutually exclusive; much of education has instrumental value and training certainly contributes to self development. They are closely linked and at best enhance each other.⁶ Either can be reduced to mindless rote learning (eg multiplication tables, history dates, sales procedures, machine maintenance checks) or benefit from a more reflective approach. The traditional distinction is unhelpful. No assumption is made here about the status of one form of learning compared with another.

Whether pursuing general or specific objectives individuals will learn more effectively if they are clear about the targets or outcomes they are trying to achieve. Learning is a purposeful activity and should be targeted on explicit outcomes.⁶ This should not discourage unplanned, additional learning taking place en route, nor should it stop people following tangential lines of enquiry out of curiosity. In fact, such additional learning is more likely to be stimulated within the context of a learning plan.

The view, which often seems to prevail in education circles, that learning is simply ‘good’ for people and it does not matter much what they learn, is not accepted. Not only are some achievements much more important than others to an individual at any point in their lives, learning, like other forms of behaviour, is normally more efficient when goal directed, and when the learner is motivated to achieve the goal.

Current and past education and training practices have been pretty inefficient. Children squander an enormous amount of time in schools, often learning little and slowly. It is not even fun. As we all know, a significant minority of school leavers do not even acquire the basic skills for employment in relatively ‘unskilled’ work. The ‘higher’ objectives sought by teachers and others, such as the development of cultural and artistic interests, are not effectively realized for the majority of the young people.

Some aspects of education may even be counter-productive. For example, the way Shakespeare or poetry are taught in schools may actually put more people off these pursuits as adults than the number it stimulates to continue. This is not to question the aim of such education, only the outcome.

The majority of people are operating in employment, and in life generally, at far below their potential. This must be true if one compares what is being achieved in other countries, both in respect of the average educational levels reached by the population and their patterns of employment. There is no reason to believe that the distribution of intelligence or the inherent potential of the population in such countries is any higher than that of Britain. Nor is there any reason to think that the potential of the population has yet been maximised in these more advanced societies. Another comparison is to look back in our own society just a few generations ago. If I had been born a century or so earlier, I should probably have received little or no education and spent most of my life as an agricultural labourer, yet I would have had the same inherent potential for development as I had when born in the middle of the twentieth century.

We do not know the limits of human potential, or if there are any such limits, but we do know that most people in Britain are capable of a great deal more than is expected of them today.

The model presented in this book is learner centred and stems from a concern that individuals should be given the opportunity to realise their potential. Following directly from this is a second concern, that the country needs to make much more effective use of its human resource to remain economically competitive. The arguments for raising the levels of competence of the workforce, which have been rehearsed in many recent publications and speeches, are considered in the next chapter.

Happily, the needs of individuals to realise their potential, to develop their skills and knowledge, to take on more responsible and fulfilling work and to earn more money, seem to be largely compatible with the current needs of the country and the economy, for a workforce of more competent, responsible, flexible and autonomous employees. This is why the government, CBI, TUC and many other agencies, are all promoting very similar objectives on education and training. With the objectives largely agreed, the issue now is how to achieve them.

This book considers the form or structure of the education and training system to meet both the needs of individuals and those of the country. It looks at the framework which is required to make education and training more relevant and accessible to the whole population. It is not just concerned with young people but also adults, in employment and outside, many of whom never expect to participate in further education or training in their lives again. It is also concerned with the content of education and training needed to prepare people for a more dynamic industrial society in the twenty-first century.

Finally, there is growing recognition that a better educated society is more likely to be able to cope with environmental problems which threaten to overwhelm us in the next century.

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2 National Needs and Problems

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This chapter will not start by setting out the statistics on how we lag behind other industrial countries, and even emerging third world countries, in our participation rates in education and training and the levels we achieve. The picture has been effectively presented in numerous recent publications by the government,¹ the Labour Party,² the CBI,³ the TUC⁴ and many others.⁵ Let us take this as given.

A flavour of the growing concern with the situation may be gained from some quotations from recent reports and speeches:

Education and training are at the top of nearly everyone’s agenda for action. The skills of the United Kingdom workforce compare poorly with those of our principal competitors (CBI, 1989b).

There is a need for a quantum leap in the education and training of young people to meet both their aspirations and the needs of the economy in an increasingly competitive world (CBI, 1989a).

Britain is facing a skills challenge greater than any since the Industrial Revolution. Major changes in work, in the workforce, and in the global economy are creating the need to tap the potential of all our workers. By the year 2000, we will either be a superskills economy, or a low-skill, low pay society (TUC, 1989).

Education and training were now the ‘commanding heights’ of every modern economy . . . Now and for all time in the future, human skills and human talents will be the major determinants of success or failure — not just for individuals but for a whole society in all its social, cultural and commercial life . . . That was why investment in training would be the most important priority of all. (Neil Kinnock, October, 1989).

To summarize, in order to maintain its competitiveness in the international market place, British business must raise the skills profile of its workforce. Insofar as other countries are already ahead, Britain will need to improve its education and training performance even faster than its competitors (Training in Britain, 1989).

There are many who think we do not spend enough on education and training, which is no doubt true, but even within current levels of expenditure, we are not getting the most from what is spent. There are a variety of reasons for this. It is now widely recognized that our statutory education provision from age five to 16 years, fails to equip a significant minority of young people with the basic skills for employment, even in rudimentary jobs, for progression to vocational training and for a fulfilling life. Until recently the form of education for 14-16 year-olds, and the examination system at age 16, were designed for the minority who were to continue in full-time education through A levels and university. The system was actually designed to fail the majority of young people!⁶ This issue is now being addressed by the introduction of the National Curriculum which is considered in chapter 10.

The provision of education and traini...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Part One: New Approaches, Methods and Instruments
• Part Two: The Model and its Implications
• Part Three: Outstanding Issues
• Glossary of Terms
• Notes
• References
• Appendices
• Index