Geoff Hayward

The Transition from Vocational Education and Training to Higher Education: A Successful Pathway?.

This paper questions whether participation in vocational education and training (VET) provides a successful progression route into UK higher education (HE). Following an overview of the UK policy agenda two inter‐connected aspects of HE access are investigated: students’ choice of institution and choice of subject. Analysis of administrative data shows that A‐levels provide the major access route into more prestigious HE institutions. Students with VET backgrounds are more likely to start their HE studies at post‐92 universities with lower RAE results. Different educational pathways also lead to different HE subject areas which, in turn, are connected to diverse labour market outcomes. Case study data identify highly individualised decision‐making patterns for institutional and subject choice. Rational choice models can explain these choices only to a limited extent. Restrictive information strategies and other factors affecting individual choices require consideration and there are significant differences in motivational patterns between students regarding their choice of subject.

From core skills to key skills: fast forward or back to the future?

Developing learning programmes to enhance the formation of generic skills is an international concern in education and training policy. This paper provides a broad survey of the development of generic skills policy in England from 1975 to 2002, drawing on both the economic and educational literature. It demonstrates that, despite an evident demand for generic skills in the English economy, successive waves of education and training policy intended to stimulate the supply of such skills have failed to deliver the desired results. Such failure is accounted for using a policy instruments and institutions framework. This suggests that the failure of generic skills policy can be attributed to a combination of weak policy design, the interaction of generic skills policy with other market‐led reforms of education and training in England, and broader exogenous socio‐economic trends. The paper concludes that current initiatives to develop key skills for all 16–19 learners in England are unlikely to succeed without substantial changes in the current education policy environment.

Foreword: a century of vocationalism

This special edition of the Oxford Review of Education arose out of the work of Theme 3 of the ESRC-sponsored research centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE). This theme was concerned with analysing the demand for skills in the British economy, and the role of the education and training system in meeting such demands. What struck those of us working on the various projects within the research centre was how, at the turn of the twenty-first century, education and training continued to be a major focus of public policy across all the countries we investigated. Such policy emphasised the importance of more years of formal education, followed by an individual commitment to lifelong learning, as the means to achieve the twin aims of economic growth and social inclusion. In some countries, such as the UK and the USA, the policy concern was underpinned by a sense of long-term crisis. In others, such as the Nordic countries, a rather more sober approach nonetheless involved a serious questioning of the purposes and arrangements being made for young people. In yet others, such as Germany, a long-cherished set of traditions, such as the dual system, which have apparently served the long-term economic interests of the country well, is being questioned (see Ertl, 2004), whilst a sense that all was not well with the German general education system had been fostered by the PISA study (OECD, 2001). Yet the twentieth century was the century of educational expansion. The ‘educational gospel’ (Grubb & Lazerson, 2004) has been one of mass schooling and more education for all. Such expansion has been financed primarily through general taxation, with the justification for this expenditure from the public purse being that the skills and knowledge learnt in schools, colleges and universities would transfer to productive activities outside of educational institutions, especially the workplace. Increasingly, policy makers seem to be questioning whether this is happening, or happening to a sufficient extent to warrant the continued expenditure on general education for all. The upshot, so the argument goes, has been a turn to vocationalism, the over-promotion of the work–related learning aims of secondary and tertiary education at the expense of the civic, aesthetic and moral purposes of education. In the UK such developments are typically traced to the Ruskin College speech

Modular mayhem? A case study of the development of the A‐level science curriculum in England

This article investigates the costs and benefits of the increased use of modular or unitized qualification designs through a case study of the GCE A‐level science curriculum in England. Following a brief review of the development of modular A‐levels, the various proposed advantages of modularity—short‐term goals and regular feedback, flexibility in curriculum design, and improved progression possibilities—are counterpoised by arguments about the disadvantages—such as fragmentation of knowledge and more instrumental approaches to assessment and learning. The article argues that on balance the costs of the move to modularization in terms of the impact on teachers’ capacities to help young people understand science outweigh the perceived benefits of improved examination success rates. Given this balance we account for the growing popularity of modular approaches using a path dependency model and increasing returns process which combine features of the English educational landscape, in particular narrow accountability systems, to the increasing desirability of modular approaches to curriculum design for learners, teachers and educational organizations.

The Use of Large-Scale Administrative Data Sets to Monitor Progression from Vocational Education and Training into Higher Education in the UK: Possibilities and Methodological Challenges

This article describes two administrative data sources - UCAS applicant data and Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) data - and demonstrates how they can be utilised to monitor the progression of students from vocational and educational training (VET) programmes in to higher education (HE) in the UK. First the article provides a general discussion of the administrative data sets, their coverage and resulting limitations. Second, it illustrates how a combined HESA-UCAS data set can be utilised to provide a descriptive statistical analysis that demonstrates that including VET students within HE programmes widens participation for under-represented groups in the UK but shows that VET students are at a disadvantage compared with those progressing through academic pathways in terms of their probability of gaining access, which types of higher education institution (HEI) they gain access to, and an increased risk of dropping out during their first year of study. Third, multilevel modelling indicates that drop-out risks differ across HEIs and suggests that HEIs can take actions that will reduce the risk of VET students dropping out. Finally some conclusions about the utility of administrative data to answer substantive research questions are presented, with suggestions for improving the quality and access to such data for researchers.

Caught in the ‘Triple Lock’? An Evaluation of Governance Structures in the Development of 14–19 Diplomas in England

This article reports on an evaluation of the development of a new type of qualification that is being introduced in England between 2008 and 2011. These diplomas are aimed at 14–19-year-olds, and are expected to present young people with an alternative to established academic qualifications, and also an alternative to established vocational qualifications. The article sets out and discusses the methods used to evaluate the development process of these diplomas. On this basis, it identifies two issues in the development process that raise questions regarding governance structures in education and training in England. The first issue concerns the way in which a multitude of actors and stakeholders have collaborated in the development process of these diplomas. The second issue focuses on the way in which employers have been brought into the development of a qualification that aims at preparing young people better for employment. For both of these issues, the article concludes that new governance structures have been set up that are only partly successful in reaching the goals set by the government. The weaknesses identified are then discussed within the wider contexts of the English qualification system and the relevant regulatory framework in education and training.

Modularization in Vocational Education and Training

Modularization as a practice and a concept of structuring curricular materials and/or qualifications in vocational education and training (VET) in self-contained, relatively short blocks has been used and discussed in a number of national systems for many years. This article discusses different definitions of modules in VET in a comparative perspective, sets out characteristics of modules, compares two different sets of conceptualizations of modularization, and outlines some recent trends in modularity in VET. It argues that different conceptualizations of modules can only be understood and assessed meaningfully if the traditions of different VET systems and the rationales for developing modules in a given regulatory framework are taken into account.

Project Business (UK): lessons from the pilot programme evaluation

Reviews the lessons learned from the evaluation of the pilot of Project Business (UK), a new programme from Young Enterprise. Suggests that major successes of the programme included involvement on the part of all course participants, approval for course materials, student learning about economic issues and personal benefits for teacher and business partners. Highlights three main challenges for Young Enterprise: programme content, differentiation and management. Discusses the problems of managing these sorts of innovatory programmes at a distance to ensure that aims, ways of working and outcomes achieved are those designed for the project rather than those more locally designed. Overall the pilot was a success and more programmes of this sort are needed to enable young people to engage in a critical discourse about the world of business.

Vocational Education and Training and the School-to-Work Transition

Some young people experience difficulty making the transition from schooling to work. The magnitude of this effect varies between countries and is linked to the labor-market regulation and the design of national transition systems. Providing more vocational education and training (VET) opportunities remains a popular policy choice to ease school-to-work transition. However, the effectiveness of such initiatives is highly variable, often zero and sometimes negative. Given the expense of implementing good-quality VET programs, the research calls into question the effectiveness and efficiency of VET in supporting young people experiencing difficulties with school-to-work transition to enter the labor market.