Setting Them Up To Fail
This paper looks at post-16 progression opportunities for a group of previously disaffected 14–16-year-old students who undertook vocational learning in their final two years at school in the north-west of England. The paper argues that advanced forms of vocational learning at key stage 4 are leadi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Liverpool John Moores University
2017-07-01
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| Series: | PRISM |
| Online Access: | https://openjournals.ljmu.ac.uk/prism/article/view/298 |
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| author | David Allan |
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This paper looks at post-16 progression opportunities for a group of previously disaffected 14–16-year-old students who undertook vocational learning in their final two years at school in the north-west of England. The paper argues that advanced forms of vocational learning at key stage 4 are leading to over-skilling and educational limbo for many young people. Questionnaire data was obtained from 109 participants in total. These included 16-21-year-olds looking to enter further education or employment with training (n=84), 14 vocational learning tutors, and 11 further education teachers. Although the vocational route can lead to a nationally recognised qualification, literacy and numeracy achievements are often below the expected standard, thus creating a mismatch in identified abilities. Due to the current government-enforced pressure to succeed in English and maths, a perceived ‘deficiency’ in any of these areas presents a significant barrier to progression. The students in this study are seen to be vocationally over-skilled yet underachieving in academic areas. As such, progression routes are severely limited, resulting in a high number of individuals dropping out of learning altogether.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9dce9ff432d442d58b765ff262719d6d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2514-5347 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2017-07-01 |
| publisher | Liverpool John Moores University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PRISM |
| spelling | doaj-art-9dce9ff432d442d58b765ff262719d6d2025-02-03T03:18:19ZengLiverpool John Moores UniversityPRISM2514-53472017-07-0111Setting Them Up To FailDavid Allan0Edge Hill University This paper looks at post-16 progression opportunities for a group of previously disaffected 14–16-year-old students who undertook vocational learning in their final two years at school in the north-west of England. The paper argues that advanced forms of vocational learning at key stage 4 are leading to over-skilling and educational limbo for many young people. Questionnaire data was obtained from 109 participants in total. These included 16-21-year-olds looking to enter further education or employment with training (n=84), 14 vocational learning tutors, and 11 further education teachers. Although the vocational route can lead to a nationally recognised qualification, literacy and numeracy achievements are often below the expected standard, thus creating a mismatch in identified abilities. Due to the current government-enforced pressure to succeed in English and maths, a perceived ‘deficiency’ in any of these areas presents a significant barrier to progression. The students in this study are seen to be vocationally over-skilled yet underachieving in academic areas. As such, progression routes are severely limited, resulting in a high number of individuals dropping out of learning altogether. https://openjournals.ljmu.ac.uk/prism/article/view/298 |
| spellingShingle | David Allan Setting Them Up To Fail PRISM |
| title | Setting Them Up To Fail |
| title_full | Setting Them Up To Fail |
| title_fullStr | Setting Them Up To Fail |
| title_full_unstemmed | Setting Them Up To Fail |
| title_short | Setting Them Up To Fail |
| title_sort | setting them up to fail |
| url | https://openjournals.ljmu.ac.uk/prism/article/view/298 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT davidallan settingthemuptofail |