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With the education watchdog Ofsted recently stating that schools’ career services are not up to standard, I thought I’d start this issue by focusing on their recent comments. According to Sir Michael Wilshaw, three quarters of schools visited by Ofsted were reportedly not delivering effective careers advice. He commented last month that, "It’s worrying that the new arrangements are failing to provide good guidance." Of course while this situation may be true, it’s also true that these comments come at a time when money and resource to support careers guidance have come under increasing pressure.

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In direct contrast to last year, Apprenticeships and the ‘Skills Gap’ are very much at the forefront of political thinking at the moment, as a solution to the 1 million + unemployed young people. They’ve been discussed more this conference season than ever before! Terms like ‘parity of esteem’ between vocational and academic qualifications, and ‘employer input and ownership’ are on the lips of politicians across the traditional political divide.

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As we enter into the new academic year there is a noticeable theme coming from the industry surrounding “quality” and “employability”. The government promote that every learner should receive a quality education, but what does the term quality in this sense mean? A good learning experience? An excellent and friendly tutor? Or providing the right qualifications to the right learner, which are at the right standard to help that learner progress in their career and life.

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Welcome back and we hope you enjoyed a relaxing break. It’s the start of a new session – a time to look to the future and plan for a successful year ahead. There’s been a lot in the news this summer about the class of 2013; the young people who’ve received their GCSE and A-Level results and are looking to the next stage in their education and career. It can be a stressful time as teens face a daunting unemployment rate of 40%. There’s been a drop in the proportion of GCSE exam entries awarded top grades for the second year in a row and the overall pass rate also fell slightly, for the first time in the exam’s 25-year history. There’s also been a fall in the proportion of A-levels awarded top grades for the second time, after years of steady increases.

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Exam results day – it’s a stressful time in the lives of teens across the country as they find out the grades they’ve been awarded in return for their hard work. In the current economic climate, it’s arguably even more nerve-racking as school leavers face a daunting unemployment rate of 40%. So what’s been the outcome for the class of 2013? Well, there’s been a drop in the proportion of GCSE exam entries awarded top grades for the second year in a row and the overall pass rate also fell slightly, for the first time in the exam’s 25-year history.

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It’s been a good month to be British! Not only did Andy Murray become the first British man to win Wimbledon in 77 years but the UK also gave a fantastic performance at the 2013 World Skills competition in Leipzig, achieving a whole host of medals. Particular congratulations must go to Ashley Terron, a bricklayer from Warrington and George Callow, a cabinet maker from Chichester who took the top spots and were honoured as the best young tradesmen in the world. World Skills is about celebrating vocational skills and talents in all their forms; from plumbing to floristry, from hairdressing to IT. At NCFE, we think it’s important to recognise the value of these skills and nurture people’s natural aptitudes in these areas. That’s why in addition to our wide portfolio of vocational courses, we now offer a suite of qualifications in Achieving Excellence in a Vocational Skill. The qualifications range from Level 1 to Level 4 and aim to extend a learner’s range of skills, attributes and behaviours within a wider context of work-related learning.

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Looking back it seems that not a single month has gone by without education being in the national news headlines in some shape or form. Rightly so, given the importance of education in our society, but sadly the stories haven’t always been upbeat. And while the team here at NCFE has been busy working on new qualifications to meet the latest DfE changes, we’ve been acutely aware of the wider challenges and changes facing all of you in your schools. For those of you already working with us, I hope that our continued commitment to customer service goes someway to helping alleviate the challenges you’re facing. Against this background of change and challenge, all our focus remains on the pupils. So with this in mind, perhaps one of the most thought provoking discussions that’s received recent media coverage is the report from the Children’s Commissioner for England. The report paints a very bleak picture of the impact that budget cuts are having on children from poorer families.

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Creativity and imagination are integral to the development and enrichment of young minds – shaping the way they look at the world and helping them to express themselves. Something that we are very passionate about here at NCFE. For the past few months I’ve continued to keep you posted on our V Cert qualification development and in February we gave you an update on where we were at with the first stage of the pilot project with schools. Throughout March, April and May participating schools have continued to work with us to review the content of the new qualifications and where possible deliver a selection of sample units to their pupils. We really wanted to give schools the opportunity to explore what we’d developed to help ensure that the qualifications really do help to maintain creativity within the core curriculum and continue to engage pupils.

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A recent report, commissioned by independent education charity, the Edge Foundation, has established a link between low take-up of vocational courses in Britain and high levels of youth unemployment. In the UK, one in five (21%) young people were out of work in 2012 in contrast to just 9.5% in the Netherlands. Interestingly, in the UK only 32% chose vocational options in upper secondary education compared with 67% in the Netherlands. Is this link significant?

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A recent report, commissioned by independent education charity, the Edge Foundation, has established a link between a low take-up of vocational courses in Britain and high levels of youth unemployment. In the UK, one in five (21%) young people were out of work in 2012 in contrast to just 9.5% in the Netherlands. Interestingly, in the UK only 32% chose vocational options in upper secondary education compared with 67% in the Netherlands.

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Blog posts for tag:vocational

Careers advice: helping pupils get on the right course

Headlines from the Party Conference Season

Providing learners with quality and employability

Giving learners 'added value'

GCSE Results 2013 - what's your opinion?

Nurturing world class skills in the UK

A Year of Change and Challenge for us all

Creating creative futures with vocational qualifications

Link between low take-up of vocational qualifications and high levels of unemployment

Report establishes link between low take-up of vocational courses and high levels of youth unemployment

Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

David Grailey

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Esme Winch

Michael Lemin

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Blog posts for tag:vocational

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Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

David Grailey

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Esme Winch

Michael Lemin

Categories

Archive